Lunching in Triple Digits

Still Standing @ 100 degrees!

Here we are in Texas for the month of August, an unexpected opportunity to live through triple digit temperatures, because our trip to Maryland was postponed.  Of course, the humidity here is quite low, so it is a dry heat.   I actually felt cooler until a friend reminded that an oven puts out dry heat too, and it can get plenty hot!

This afternoon I met a friend for lunch; she is a native of west Texas – Amarillo. Texas women are tough – no  wilting under any magnolia branches for them!  And she was waiting for me on the patio of a favorite spot, Celebration, where we ate lunch in all that wonderful dry heat. But two or three icy glasses of tea, consumed in the deep shade of the patio, and under a fan, made it a remarkable adventure.

I was just proud of myself for not passing out!

I have forgotten what it felt like to eat in hot weather, sans air-conditioning. For the heat, albeit dry, reminded me how summer felt in Baltimore in the 1950’s.  And what I discovered was I ate more slowly, and listened more closely to my friend – and chose my own words carefully – who wants to waste breath on unnecessary words?   

The change in travel plans has meant I have time to consider how our garden is growing – We’ re reaching the scraggily stage. The long hot days and dry nights can wilt even the hardy Pentas  I put in the front of the house. But in the back of the house, the black-eyed Susans seem determined to keep growing. I see them out my kitchen window, waving bravely in the sun and heat.  At lunch today, I believe I channeled my inner state flower, and put up a good show.

Maybe one day, I can treat my friend to a crab feast on an August afternoon in Maryland?

Cantler's Riverside Inn*

The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot. It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color. Often at night there is lightning, but it quivers all alone.

~Natalie Babbitt, Tuck Everlasting

 *PHOTO Source

Limitations on Choice

So, in preparation for the motor trip that wasn’t, I collected eleven audio books from the local library: mysteries, histories and biographies – and J. K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy. Three days driving each way: well, we would have a variety from which to choose, even if we didn’t go through all of them.

Choice is a valuable exercise – enjoying what we would prefer exercises our minds, and refreshes us. And it is often as rare as it is delightful.  Therefore, on last Friday afternoon at the doctor’s office, we were startled how suddenly we lost the choice to travel by car – airplane, or any other conveyance. We were not simply delaying our departure, when we learned that the antibiotics we hoped would clear up Doug’s cough would be administered by trained medical personnel, as into the hospital he was quickly admitted.

Now I know a more precise connotation of blindsided.

But, the blessing of having lost our choice about how and where we would be spending our weekend, is we were given the gift of doctors, nurses, aides – in clean and comfortable surroundings, and care that has been good. Most of the world does not enjoy this limitation.  (See Sodo Hospital. )   

The window in Doug’s room has been similarly a sharp reminder not to whine about what we “lost” this weekend, for it looks out on the helicopter pad at Baylor hospital’s expanding campus. He and I can see the folks who may have been as surprised as we were to be in a hospital, and some with more complicated problems than ours.   

One good thing is that we have many good books to engage our imaginations during Doug’s recovery.

Look at everything as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time.  ~Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

A Delayed Departure

By this time, we should have arrived in Memphis TN and settled in for a rest before heading for Virginia. Indeed, we could have been there. For by 8:00 AM this morning we were packed, organized and ready to depart.  This is not our S.O.P.! Our kids may have memories (aka nightmares) of planning an early departure, only to finally get off to Maine by four in the afternoon, and driving well into the night.

However, this time, it wasn’t our poor planning that stopped us; an ever so tiny virus – a cold one to be precise – has delayed our plans. Doug is down with the sniffles, aches coughs, and pains – just as the temperature in Dallas is breaking the 100-degree mark daily.

So, facing the reality of an empty refridge, I gathered myself together for a run to the grocery store to secure chicken soup and saltines.  How is it I can see the sunlight shimmering when no breeze moves in the leaves?And this question prompted more:

How did anyone cross Texas one hundred years ago – in a long dress, corset, etc, and in a Conestoga wagon? With no sunscreen for their windshield, no Whole Foods, iced and filtered water, or smart phones, how was the west won?  And what happened if their hubbies got sick?

We are praying for a speedy recovery, and patience in the interim.   

• Those that say you can't take it with you never saw [our] car packed for a vacation trip.  ~Author Unknown

Remembering

Blog has moved to https://autumns-garden.com/kindness-stays-perch-even-time-flies/ -- please come by!

The Sabbath

 

How Christians keep the Sabbath holy is a continuing debate in some circles, albeit fewer and fewer.  We are many and varied in our obedience to it – the keeping of the Sabbath. .  When our states no longer enforced the outward rules protecting the Sabbath – giving citizens one day in seven to recover from life -- many of us relaxed a few of our habits too.  Keeping the Sabbath holy is a commandment I keep imperfectly. Sadly, it is an indicator of how well I obey the other nine.  

Christ said the Sabbath is a gift – Mark 2:27. How I use these 24 hours shows me how trusting I am of God to be sufficient. So, an article on the Huffington Post by Alison Cayne drew me [again] into a reflection on how I spend this one day of the week – although the point of the piece was not worship. The author was describing the value of there are in acknowledging and promoting limits in life and childrearing:  

Rabbi Sacks said Sabbaths, "are to time what parks are to space: something precious that we share on equal terms and that none of us could create or possess on our own."

Resting in an ancient agrarian society was a limitation with consequences; it was an act of faith that’s hard to appreciate for one accustomed to leisure and convenience. Setting one day aside so that I may enjoy God, and do nothing that will distract others from thinking about God, and all the great things HE did – and does, is hard work – especially for when others with whom we live look forward to eating.

Growing up when the Blue Laws limited activities, I thought Sundays were a drag – more evidence that a divine despot who despised pleasure ruled the universe.  Isaiah and other prophets helped me see the divinely appointed day of rest differently: Keeping the Sabbath is a heart matter – not a rule matter.

^13-14 “If you watch your step on the Sabbath
    and don’t use my holy day for personal advantage,
If you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy,
    God’s holy day as a celebration,
If you honor it by refusing ‘business as usual,’
    making money, running here and there—
Then you’ll be free to enjoy God! . . . (Isaiah 58:13-14 The Message)

Six days of the week, I can do all my work; one day of the week, God invites me to spend in His company. It’s a limitation for sure – but it is the theme verse of my life; it is a reminder that all I enjoy – LIFE - is a gift, something precious that we share on equal terms and that none of us could create or possess on our own."

 

Returning to a Favorite Campsite

The recent trial that just ended in Florida show how tragic an ending can be for two men, one older, and one younger who did not guard their steps – and for a nation whose media permitted uninhibited words to color our consciences.  George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin made choices – that cost each dearly. Trayvon literally lost his life – and George lost one reputation, and gained another -- one no one would want.   Those who love them will bear the consequences for the rest of their lives.  

One quote seems apt: If things go wrong, don't go with them.  ~ Roger Babson 

I’ve heard some commentaries that hurt to hear, some that goad me to examine my conscience – Juan Williams expressed some thoughts I had – it goes for whites too: Cry for Help. So did Cal Thomas : “You have white trash, we have black trash.”

All remind me that Solomon’s counsel and commentaries remain a good campsite this summer too. His words make more sense than any self-help book I’ve ever read:

Guard your steps, guard your words – for neither you nor I are in control of much. (Ecclesiastes 5:2)

See The Message’s rendering of Proverbs 1 which captures what I hope God’s people can offer our confused and hurting hearts, (emphases added):  

^1-6 These are the wise sayings of Solomon,
    David’s son, Israel’s king—
Written down so we’ll know how to live well and right,
    to understand what life means and where it’s going;
A manual for living,
    for learning what’s right and just and fair;
To teach the inexperienced the ropes
    and give our young people a grasp on reality.
There’s something here also for seasoned men and women,
    still a thing or two for the experienced to learn—
Fresh wisdom to probe and penetrate,
    the rhymes and reasons of wise men and women.

Start with God

⁷ Start with God—the first step in learning is bowing down to God;
    only fools thumb their noses at such wisdom and learning.

^8-19 Pay close attention, friend, to what your father tells you;
    never forget what you learned at your mother’s knee.
Wear their counsel like flowers in your hair,
    like rings on your fingers.
Dear friend, if bad companions tempt you,
    don’t go along with them.
If they say—“Let’s go out and raise some hell.
    Let’s beat up some old man, mug some old woman.
Let’s pick them clean
    and get them ready for their funerals.
We’ll load up on top-quality loot.
    We’ll haul it home by the truckload.
Join us for the time of your life!
    With us, it’s share and share alike!”—
Oh, friend, don’t give them a second look;
    don’t listen to them for a minute.
They’re racing to a very bad end,
    hurrying to ruin everything they lay hands on.
Nobody robs a bank
    with everyone watching,
Yet that’s what these people are doing—
    they’re doing themselves in.
When you grab all you can get, that’s what happens:
    the more you get, the less you are.

Lady Wisdom

^20-21 Lady Wisdom goes out in the street and shouts.
    At the town center she makes her speech.
In the middle of the traffic she takes her stand.
    At the busiest corner she calls out:

^22-24 “Simpletons! How long will you wallow in ignorance?
    Cynics! How long will you feed your cynicism?
Idiots! How long will you refuse to learn?
    About face! I can revise your life.
Look, I’m ready to pour out my spirit on you;
    I’m ready to tell you all I know.
As it is, I’ve called, but you’ve turned a deaf ear;
    I’ve reached out to you, but you’ve ignored me.

^25-28 “Since you laugh at my counsel
    and make a joke of my advice,
How can I take you seriously?
    I’ll turn the tables and joke about your troubles!
What if the roof falls in,
    and your whole life goes to pieces?
What if catastrophe strikes and there’s nothing
    to show for your life but rubble and ashes?
You’ll need me then. You’ll call for me, but don’t expect
        an answer.
    No matter how hard you look, you won’t find me.

^29-33 “Because you hated Knowledge
    and had nothing to do with the Fear-of-God,
Because you wouldn’t take my advice
    and brushed aside all my offers to train you,
Well, you’ve made your bed—now lie in it;
    you wanted your own way—now, how do you like it?
Don’t you see what happens, you simpletons, you idiots?
    Carelessness kills; complacency is murder.
First pay attention to me, and then relax.
    Now you can take it easy—you’re in good hands.”

Seeing Myself in Another’s Suffering

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Doug showed me an image of 115,000 Syrians who are living refugee camps.

Seven thousand children, under the age of 15, are estimated to have lost their lives in the Syrian conflict – many thousands more have been injured and orphaned. (UN Report-AP story) Enjoying my coffee and calm, listening to John Rutter’s splendid music, especially, “Look at the World,” what stirs in me?

Can I see myself living in a box – in the summer – in Jordan, without water or facilities, or loved ones? Can I see the images and say, “That could have been me?”

No.

But, only because of where I mercifully am in time and space: America.

I am not enjoying this wide place because I was smart enough to arrange it. I live in peace because God permits it.  

Alas, I see the images of Detroit. Can I imagine myself living in a city without many of the services I take for granted?

And, I see the images and hear the cacophony of voices following the Martin/Zimmerman trial.   Can I imagine myself as the mother of George or Trayvon? Or, can I imagine how the mothers in Chicago feel when they hear gunfire outside their homes?

The President of the United States saw himself as one who could have been Trayvon Martin decades ago. He and Mrs. Obama sent their prayers and thoughts to the Martins – Listening to his thoughts on this I hoped to hear him mention the Zimmermans – for they too need prayers. But for God’s providence, any one of us could have been the Zimmermans’ shoes, or the Martin’s.

I took risks – take risks – that could have ended badly. And I live in times where strangers can and do have the power to harm Americans in ways we can’t imagine.

Empathy is really the opposite of spiritual meanness. It's the capacity to understand that every war is both won and lost. And that someone else's pain is as meaningful as your own. Barbara Kingsolver

The late George McGovern said, “Empathy is born out of the old biblical injunction 'Love thy neighbor as thyself.”

Before we can though, we might want to consider the whole of the biblical command, and its context:

And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27 – the Parable of the Good Samaritan)    

I don’t understand how so much pain and so much suffering – worldwide and personal can continue even with the hope of an infinite and personal God who is love. But I believe and trust in the Lord Jesus who warned of trouble and promised His help. Seeing and recognizing another’s suffering– let’s also DO something – if only offering a cup of cold water. 

World Vision- Jordan 

Stumbling in Faith

Disappointment, sadness and fear gnaw at my faith in God. Therefore, focusing – obsessing on –what isn’t working, hurting, or scaring me is not a wise use of time or emotion. But it is an impulse that seems as powerful as what drives lemmings to the sea.  That impulse can also be aptly described as “emotional flu,” according to Heather Koop:

Nothing’s wrong. Really. But nothing’s right, either. You think of numerous things you could do to lift your spirits. But some small, hard ball of rebellion in your chest resists the idea of trying to feel better . . . [It’s] having a pity party without a real problem. (When it Feels Good to Feel Bad)

Or, as is often the case, throwing myself a pity party because I can’t fix all the problems I see,  many of which I started.  

Mary Englebreit

Instead of owning my part in creating a mess, I can perseverate on what the mess is, to the point I couldn’t recognize a solution if I saw one.  Instead of cleaning up what I can and trusting God and others to do what He will enable them to do, I waste time worrying.

Then I wonder why nothing ever changes.

I get very clever about how I worry . . . repackaging it so it looks different. But the worry is always that little rebellious ball that resists turning things over to God today, including people. Worry won’t do just the next thing, and worry will not let go of what I cannot cure or control. Worry is a stupid habit – but there it is.

Habits are at first cobwebs, then cables.  ~Spanish Proverb

Letting worry go into God’s hands is how things change. (Zechariah 4:6) It’s the only remedy for the kind emotional flu that debilitates and defeats my faith in a power greater than myself, who is infinite and personal. It may seem like a small start – again – but so is taking the first step away from a pity party. (Zechariah 4, esp. verse 10)

Waiting on a Summer's Day

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Yesterday was that summer day that artists see and composers hear. It would have inspired Monet or Van Goh or Vivaldi!

We are on a waiting mission with our daughter as she and her family prepare to welcome a new baby who is not ready to join her siblings.  Whenever she arrives, she will be a welcomed new dynamic in her family – whether as daughter, sister, grandchild, cousin or niece.

We go about the daily duties – but there is in my heart a hushed anticipation – similar to how the prospect of Christmas morning still thrills me – a gift is being given to me, wholly one of grace. (Psalm 113)

·      It's such a grand thing to be a mother of a mother - that's why the world calls her grandmother.  ~Author Unknown

·      One of the most powerful handclasps is that of a new grandbaby around the finger of a grandfather.  ~Joy Hargrove

Risky Walks

AP PHOTO RICK BOWMER

Nik Wallenda walked across the Grand Canyon – well, not really. He walked across the Colorado River. But that in itself was an amazing feat.  As was his explanation for taking such a risk:  

“No, I don’t believe that God’s invisible hand is holding me up on the wire,” he wrote. “But yes, I do believe that I am strengthened by the steadiness of my faith. I do believe in a God whose steady love is unshakeable and eternal. That belief allows me to get beyond my apprehensions and ignore what otherwise might feel like my limitations.” (Article)

This got me thinking about better and worse ways to magnify God. I did not watch this event -- I am having enough trouble trying to live out my faith with both feet planted firmly on the ground – in a world cold to Christ Jesus and His word. I wanted him to stop this stunt because human life is a terrible thing to waste, especially when he is a father with children. To see a Christian deliberately risk his life in such an endeavor boggles my mind, when so many people lose theirs just going about their daily lives. Christians in hotspots around the world are getting beyond their apprehensions and ignoring what otherwise might feel like limitations just by walking out their front door!  

I am glad Mr. Wallenda did not harm himself. However, walking in Christ’s footsteps is not like walking across a two-inch wire with no tether – although living in this world may feel like it.   

I am currently reading about the effects of another man’s walk that will never get the coverage that Mr. Wallenda did. Pastor Ken Smith, from the Syracuse Reformed Church, wrote a kind and inquiring letter to an English professor, whose criticism of Promise Keepers in a local newspaper garnered all kinds of feedback.  He took a risk, gently and quietly, and he engaged a woman’s mind and heart with courageous diplomacy.

Pastor Smith and his wife offered friendship to a self-proclaimed radical feminist lesbian and so opened a window so that she might see God’s steady and unshakable love.  They took quite a risk! But, Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, in The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert describes the reward. She showed me a better way to walk in uncertain times – and I commend this book to those who wonder how relevant the Gospel is in today’s world, and how personal and persistent God is.   Her book reminds me that kindness, respect, and offering a cup of cold water are not beyond my capability.  Practicing them is a good way to stay steady in uncertain times. (Isaiah 33:6)

Losing and Winning

Psalm 37:24-34

A Christian friend lost his battle with cancer recently – it was a terrible battle. His hope, and mine, is that his soul is at rest, secure in the great communion of saints, awaiting the Lord’s return.  He fought bravely – and vigorously; so did a faithful cadre of friends, who shouldered financial burdens, physical burdens and prayer burdens. 

This Christian had lost some other battles – battles with sin and temptation that may seem unthinkable to lose. And the costs of these battles were as devastating to him and others as the disease of cancer was to his body.

If a person is truly walking with God, some may begin to wonder, how could they  . . .

I don’t know. How could I have done the stuff I did – do?

Doubt, despair and all kinds of depravity do not disappear from even the most sanctified walk with God!  This trio is like cancer – and just as bewildering and deadly.  We, who know better, can do truly awful things – no matter how or when God rescued us. The Holy Spirit, Christian fellowship, preaching and the sacraments can be like – Interleukins – which sometimes stimulate the body to fight types of cancer.  However, just like fighting cancer means availing ourselves of the treatments, fighting the fallout from sins means taking concrete steps.

Screwing up – sinning – is disappointing, horrible, harmful and wrong  – Hindsight gives me a high definition picture of so much I would like to forget I did.  But, it doesn’t have to be disabling.  Confess, repent, make amends, and try again.  And when a Christian close to us stumbles, blows it, and sins – it might be God graciously holding up a mirror showing you and me where we are headed if we keep on with our own little peccadilloes.  (John 8:1-12)  So, maybe we could offer a hand? (Galatians 6:1-2)

Days before this Christian man slipped his earthly chains, he commended Psalm 16  as his help and comfort in all the battles he fought – and what is noteworthy, praiseworthy and a goad – he kept fighting; he kept living so that he might declare the praise of God. (Psalm 18:50)

My chief praise is the sword of God’s judgment has been sheathed against those whose hope is the shed blood of Jesus Christ.  And that the means of His grace still abounds is praiseworthy indeed. 

Yet, His enemy still prowls, looking for some to devour --     

Memorial Day 2013

During the past twelve years, in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, American soldiers have fought a different kind of war than they did in previous wars – but our debt to them is as great for what they did, so that you and I might spend our time as do right now. It bears repeating:

For love of country they accepted death...  ~James A. Garfield

They are still sacrificing, even as we pause to remember the cost to millions of American soldiers. (Wounded Warrior)

Renewed awareness of our soldiers’ courage and suffering – and my debt – emerged from an unlikely source – a book, Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey - the Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle. In the middle of a guided tour of the gilded excesses of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, the author and current “caretaker” of the castle also describes the carnage of World War I as she reports how Lady Almina established hospitals for the wounded warriors of her times. She served hundreds (of the millions) of the soldiers who were injured, many of whom returned to combat and die on the battlefields. This legacy is far grander than any castle’s preservation – or the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb, and its subsequent tensions and rivalries.  

 Less than three decades later, the world was at war, again – the fruit of international politics and a peace treaty.  (The Treaty of Versailles) How both the World Wars changed us might well explain why  we are still embroiled in war. One general who fought in both wars, describes a legacy Americans – and the world – resist, considering: 

We have too many men of science; too few men of God.

We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. Man is stumbling blindly through a spiritual darkness while toying with the precarious secrets of life and death.

The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.

We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. – General of the Army,  Omar Bradley   (1893-1981) Armistice Day speech to the Boston Chamber of Commerce,1948.

May God deliver those in harm’s way today – and may God build in us a holy reverence for those whose courage cost them their lives, and their loved ones. And please God give us a holy fear of war and deliver us from its evil – and especially that of own making! But may we not shrink from defending our country.

War is evil, but sometimes it is the lesser evil. George Orwell.

Religion and foxholes





 

Summer Reading Thus Far

I fell off the pink weather cloud. It was bound to happen.  As the weather warmed, tornados arrived. The gut-wrenching images from Granbury, TX were a foretaste of worse ones sweeping across Moore, Oklahoma – where the tornado was among the strongest. (Deadliest Tornados in USA) When the pictures of the storms’ paths revealed their power to lift houses from their slabs, crush school buildings and toss pick-ups, I wondered at our hope of huddling in an interior powder room, that such a shelter could keep us.

Providentially, I recently had finished reading a biography of Anne Bradstreet. She enjoyed, and lost various shelters that I recognized – an education, prosperity, adventure, marriage and children. And she suffered terrible losses through “storms” – fomented by religious and political upheaval, long separations from loved ones, physical afflictions, disasters, fire, and death.  And she committed her thoughts and prayers to paper, wrestling with God  – in verse – as forcefully as Jacob wrestled with that angel, laying bare her faith, frustration and fears.  (Genesis 32:22-32)

Finally, she left her children a biographical account of how she came to be who she was. She was candid about her character defects; dispassionate, describing her afflictions, and crisp in connecting all the points in biography so that even a child understands and can apply her words – rejoicing in faith, and walking through doubts and disappointments. Reading her poetry is time well spent, set in the context of her biography.

Another book that offered some shelter was one I finished almost in one reading: Sober Mercies – A Memoir – How Love Caught Up With a Christian Drunk. The author, Heather Kopp, is also a writer, and like Anne Bradstreet, a Christian – and is as candid about her troubles as Anne Bradstreet – but in prose. It is a quick read -- Well-written and no-whining – Her autobiography is composed with enough hindsight to be winsome, and enough courage to be oh so helpful to one who is also recovering, or thinking about putting the bottle down.

And she tackles prayer – pointing out that maybe coming to believe in God, as we understand Him – might be more honestly confessed as trusting a God we don’t really understand. Her growing understanding of prayer, God, and trust shone a light into cobwebs that are plugging up my own prayers.

Finally, I just finished The Whole Five Feet: What the Great Books Taught Me About Life, Death, and Pretty Much Everything Else.  I came to this lovely book serendipitously; I bought Whatever Happened to Sophie Wilder? (Recommended by Marvin Olasky in WORLD magazine) And I was looking at other books by Christopher Beha.

The author celebrates learning, living and love – in the midst of tears, and simple pleasures. Describing what he thought about some of the writers in this collection is artfully woven into vignettes he describes of his family, health, and writing.  His recollections of a year devoted to reading through the Harvard Classics reminded me how much I missed in university! He left me with an impression of being on a “grand tour” of all that has been wonderful in western civilization with a gentle soul and friend. He made me reconsider why I keep writing, and that learning is never over as long as we are willing to read and think about what politicians, philosophers, poets, explorers and dreamers have written.

Granted:

from Wiki Article

I watch too much TV . . . but sometimes the fare on cable is mesmerizing!  And it beats the news by a long shot!

The other night, watching "America’s Worst Tattoo" I realized that of all the things I never did, not getting a tattoo was a good thing.   In the two episodes I watched – transfixed – the tattoos people showed were unattractive, inappropriate or incompetently rendered. They wanted their tattoos covered up – the “new” designs were startling solutions.  

Tattoos are as taboo for me, as piercing ears were for my mother – She about took gas when I had my ears pierced, by her sister-in-law.  But now, the nicest people have chosen to commemorate events, dreams, or opinions by tattooing them discretely or blatantly.  (Link to more than you might want to know – but read anyway)

 My mother couldn’t convince me not to pierce my ears – any more than I could convince someone to avoid decorating their flesh with color and designs. But I can share two warnings --

·      Think before you ink!  ~Author Unknown

·      Women, don't get a tattoo.  That butterfly looks great on your breast when you're twenty or thirty, but when you get to seventy, it stretches into a condor.  ~Billy Elmer – comedian

And finally – just thinking about the reality of skin that is losing a wee bit of elasticity:

·       When you make a mistake, admit it; learn from it and don’t repeat it. (Bear Bryant)

Beauty and Mental Health

Neighbor's Magnolia

"Well, take it all in, and see what you find."” Good advice from a favorite blog, Living with Flair, that has been whirling around my little gray cells.

It’s so gorgeous again today it almost hurts!  The wonder of yet another glorious May morning is that I did not will its arrival, nor can I prevail upon it to remain. It’s lovelier because I know it can’t stay – I have to hold it tight with open hands.  Taking it all in, though, means understanding this good day’s beauty isn’t all there is and I am simply choosing not to listen to news of the day for now.    By this morning’s  urging, I know that being present, even in troubled times, is a privilege, a privilege with the responsibility of learning and applying what today’s slice of life shows me, and remaining sane. 

So, from an older blog written by John Piper, 10 Resolutions for Mental Health I see the blessings of seeing what I can find when I take it all in, this glorious morning! 

1. At least once every day I shall look steadily up at the sky and remember that I, a consciousness with a conscience, am on a planet traveling in space with wonderfully mysterious things above and about me.

2. Instead of the accustomed idea of a mindless and endless evolutionary change to which we can neither add nor subtract, I shall suppose the universe guided by an Intelligence which, as Aristotle said of Greek drama, requires a beginning, a middle, and an end . . .

3. I shall not fall into the falsehood that this day, or any day, is merely another ambiguous and plodding twenty-four hours, but rather a unique event, filled, if I so wish, with worthy potentialities . . .

4. I shall not turn my life into a thin, straight line which prefers abstractions to reality . . .

5.  I shall not demean my own uniqueness by envy of others. I shall stop boring into myself to discover what psychological or social categories I might belong to. Mostly I shall simply forget about myself and do my work.

6.  I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are. I shall joyfully allow them the mystery of what Lewis calls their "divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic" existence.

7. I shall sometimes look back at the freshness of vision I had in childhood and try, at least for a little while, to be, in the words of Lewis Carroll, the "child of the pure unclouded brow, and dreaming eyes of wonder."

8. I shall follow Darwin's advice and turn frequently to imaginative things such as good literature and good music, preferably, as Lewis suggests, an old book and timeless music.

9.  I shall not allow the devilish onrush of this century to usurp all my energies but will instead, as Charles Williams suggested, "fulfill the moment as the moment." I shall try to live well just now because the only time that exists is now.

10.  Even if I turn out to be wrong, I shall bet my life on the assumption that this world is not idiotic, neither run by an absentee landlord, but that today, this very day, some stroke is being added to the cosmic canvas that in due course I shall understand with joy as a stroke made by the architect who calls himself Alpha and Omega.

This morning I lift my eyes from the keyboard and see beauty – the wordless evangelist, that oak tree,  against a May morning’s sky. I hear the melody of St. Francis’ prayer – make me an instrument of thy peace . . . a work by John Rutter. (Link)

My eyes and ears urge: put on the garments of praise and gratitude – even as the morning news confirms the depths to which many are plunged. 

Take it all in and see what you find –

This morning I find time and opportunity to be useful – a time to be up and doing good, in the words of my mother-in-law.  May we both take it all in today – and see what we find; may we be useful – dear reader, Seeking not to be consoled – but to console . . .

·      I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read and all the friends I want to see.  ~John Burroughs

 

edited for brevity -- well a bit.

Another Marvelous May Morning in Texas

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Wow . . . Lush and green are like synonyms.  The roses still are arresting my breath; we have enjoyed an abundance of them this season; even the winter pansies have continued blooming. This morning -- the weeds look good!

Gardening chores are a welcome relief given today’s headlines, or too much information on BBC world news: a newsreader dispassionately reports slaughter, chaos and more violence. 

Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection not in words alone, but in every leaf in springtime. --Martin Luther

But . . . shortly the plants and I will be HOT and dry! And as summer stomps out the bright freshness of this season’s garden, this morning will be a happy recollection.

The wordless evangelist across the street is enjoying this morning also – as if the sunshine and breezes are making her laugh, even though two pockets of dead branches blemish her.  I can’t get too far from the certainty; disability and death are always the context of what is delightful. 

This twosome is the ruin ever-circling my autumn’s garden. 

It is important to speak of suffering and death in a way that dispels fear. Indeed, dying is a part of life. - Pope John Paul II in Austria: Message to the sick and suffering June 1998

When the cancer that later took his life was first diagnosed, Senator Richard L. Neuberger remarked upon his "new appreciation of things I once took for granted--eating lunch with a friend, scratching my cat Muffet's ears and listening for his purrs, the company of my wife, reading a book or magazine in the quiet of my bed lamp at night, raiding the refrigerator for a glass of orange juice or a slice of toast. For the first time, I think I actually am savoring life. _Better Homes and Gardens_

Providentially, I read separate blog pieces that are grand weed-killers,  powerful antidotes for fear and grief. May I commend them?    

 . . . My problem with euthanasia is not that it is a immoral way to die, but that it has its roots in a fearful way to live. (Dying and Euthanasia)

. . . For those who may, this day, be fearing the dark and feeling lost... there is a light shining in the darkness... trust it... follow it... there is safe harbor there for your souls. (A Light for the Darkness)

The Difference between God’s Artistry and Mine:

 

My handiwork

 and HIS so wondrously captured by Heather Holleman.

(The Most Beautiful Color in Nature )

The world embarrasses me, and I cannot dream that this watch exists and has no watchmaker. --Voltaire

How About the Weather?

Last night, temperatures plunged in Dallas – the coldest night for May 2 in decades.

Up until recently, the weather has been a safe conversational subject – Henry Higgins thought so anyway.  (Act 3, Pygmalion, a.k.a. My Fair Lady) But now, it   seems a hotter subject than religion or politics; we may have a new triumvirate of topics that divide us.  Discussing the weather can quickly generate more heat than a summer’s afternoon in Texas. But, it’s chilly now, that’s sure – thanks to something that blew through.

Yes – the fake fireplace is crackling!

 Since science was never my strong suit, my opinion on weather is only that – my opinion. I don’t believe while we can destroy the planet – but we sure can make messes in our corner of creation that are without excuse – making life harder for other people, critters and plants.  We were supposed to care for creation – but trying to be like God hasn’t been working out so well for the creation or us.

An obliging voice  - perhaps because of his accent – offers a way that makes sense to me. Jeremy Irons shows us the consequence of all our carelessness, and is determined we can and must do better with trash disposal.   In an interview on the CBS Morning Show he said: 

"I don't believe we're doomed because I believe that human nature is extraordinary," Irons said. " I think we will be brought to our senses eventually. I think things may have to get worse. I think, I hope we will be brought to our senses. We're on a highway to a very expensive and unhealthy future if we do nothing."

"And gloomy future," Smith [the reporter] added.

"Well, the sun will still shine," Irons replied.

Looking forward – well, not really – but am confident that Mr. Irons’ new film,

TRASHED: No Place for Waste will be a worthwhile contributor to a critical conversation, no matter the weather.

Jeremy Irons' environmental documentary "Trashed" addresses the pressing problem of garbage. (Belnheim FIlms)