tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7409220102485905072024-02-07T07:16:16.696-06:00Meditations in the Night WatchMaritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06070669371061331391noreply@blogger.comBlogger222125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740922010248590507.post-71719926557866185632016-01-25T09:03:00.000-06:002016-01-26T08:24:27.401-06:00When the Stunning Becomes Routine<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">Someone posted a photo of a colorburst sunset that filled the screen with vivid oranges and pinks and red splashed over both sky and the lake below. He followed it with, "I know sunsets are overdone, but I am so thankful I live here."</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Overdone? Sunsets? I had to pause. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">A sunset if it happened but once in a lifetime would be a miraculous appearing, a spectacular sight inspiring music and poetry. It would be the stuff of legends and lore. But we get to see it every day.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">So sunsets are overdone because they are plentiful and routine? That's like saying hugs are overdone or friendships or laughter. They are all richly abundant in our lives--until they are not. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Instead perhaps it is posting that is overdone.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Posting a snapshot as a way of paying lip service to appreciation or pressing the like button as shorthand for expressing support for one undergoing great struggle lets us engage from the edges without taking the time to pray or to write a note the old fashioned way. It's easier that way.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">It lets us get on with our day. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">We can feel informed but unencumbered. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Now I've gone and done it here. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">In a culture awash with a preoccupation with each one's opinion, it's no surprise that the news stations and entertainment programs alike beckon, "Tweet us your thoughts, ""Vote for your favorite," "Tell us what you think." They are all trying to engage us, and the measure of engagement can be quantified immediately. It means big dollars.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">And in the process it raised the ante on our opinion.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Many hold their opinion as highest authority; It matters little what shaped that opinion or whether critical thinking ever came into play. Whether one likes a thing or not is all that matters. But I digress.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">On another note, I have been slow in posting and writing lately, not for lack of inspiration, but for lack of pensive time to actually get it down in writing. My mind and heart have been richly filled with challenges and jobs to do, with people to serve and blessings to enjoy. But the heart of a writer, even a late-born one who only writes to capture a thought and preserve it for herself, wants to write. The words will come again. There is so much to share.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">So the apology over a sunset was the prompt today. And now a thought expressed in October 2011: </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 130%;">Let us never lose the sense of wonder at
God's handiwork. When such a magnificent sight no longer gets our
attention, we've gotten too preoccupied with ourselves. How many have I
missed? More than I can say. But I am thankful for the time to turn
aside and savor this one.</span><br />
<blockquote style="font-style: italic;">
<span style="font-size: 130%;">So Moses said, "I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up." Exodus 3:3</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: 130%;"><br />Take the time to turn aside and see what great sights we might be missing.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 130%;">Expressing appreciation anyway we do it is not overdone. And be generous with warm hugs while we're at it. We don't know what we have until it is gone. </span><br />
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<br />Maritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06070669371061331391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740922010248590507.post-60039723286470598682015-11-15T07:37:00.002-06:002015-11-15T07:39:06.230-06:00Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOukG2HtfZ_qXNlDx7PIijZC9d0G1CMkVB9hKnrkWSAW6-04JbCFvjh4dJ5Wtl1CrBnzPYWVyzhAX27mYHCK4qVbHD24RJzQjdjJVzWd3lenfFmsEi4slbTThOE4HwnUbMVR52RdMudp6H/s1600/059.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOukG2HtfZ_qXNlDx7PIijZC9d0G1CMkVB9hKnrkWSAW6-04JbCFvjh4dJ5Wtl1CrBnzPYWVyzhAX27mYHCK4qVbHD24RJzQjdjJVzWd3lenfFmsEi4slbTThOE4HwnUbMVR52RdMudp6H/s320/059.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">“I’m very flexible; I just don’t like change,” my father in law says
frequently through smiling eyes. </span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;">David Bowie sang about it in 1971 with “Changes”:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoQuote">
<span style="font-size: small;">“Lookout you rock n rollers, </span></div>
<div class="MsoQuote">
<span style="font-size: small;">Pretty soon you’re gonna get a little older. </span></div>
<div class="MsoQuote">
<span style="font-size: small;">Time may change me, but I can’t trace time.”</span></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Embracing change is a tall task for many of us. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;">The artistry of God paints October blue skies arching over a world both
abounding in autumn beauty and moving headlong into winter. Shadows lengthen.
The sun moves into the southern sky. Harvest festivals morph into winter landscapes. Signs of change are all around.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;">Seasons of life move through predictable patterns as well, try as we may to
hold them at bay.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;">Living in the shadow of loss is a change that comes to us all.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;">For some, the sadness over <i>what is</i> overshadows the gratitude of <i>what was</i>. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Reclaiming
gratitude offers a solace all its own, one worth cultivating if we are out of
practice. </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;">How to build in time for gratitude, some ask, when their days are frantic and fleeting? </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Busyness can keep us in turbulence tricking us into being victims in an
out-of-control life, while others long for something to keep them busy and engaged with life. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"> It may depend as much as one’s attitude as one’s season of life.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"> I remember the obviously pregnant young woman who shopped in our store
late one November afternoon.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;">Betty greeted her warmly, "I know we're not supposed to do this, but --
when?"</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;">"Tomorrow!" The cute mom-to-be in the purple sweater practically
exhaled the word.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;">Her Christmas shopping days were over. She had finished her list. Now the
hard work begins. Her anxiety was palpable.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;">When young moms ask, “Will my life ever get back to normal?" I answer
encouragingly, "Yes. But normal is different now."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Nothing stays the same. </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Life is dynamic, always changing. </b>We learn to adapt, if we are wise, rather
than to cling to what was.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;">Sometimes we think we are overloaded and stressed during a season of life,
only to discover later that we had not yet begun to know overload. That stress, however, was all we could handle at the time.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Then we learn that we can do hard things. </b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b>
</b></span><span style="font-size: small;"><b>We grow the way most living things do: by stretching</b>. We must stretch for each
season of life brings its own challenges. How do we prepare for them?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;">1. Seek wise counsel. Read. This includes learning from those who have gone
before. We need not reinvent the wheel. Yet some part of us still utters that
toddler’s cry, “I can do it all by myself.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;">2. Pray. This reminds me of the instruction on every shampoo bottle I have
held since the ‘60s: shampoo, lather, rinse, repeat. One would think that we'd
get it by now. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;">The call to prayer is always present. You might think that we'd get it by
now, too. Yet, rather than as a first line of defense and a forward strike
against a threat, prayer often becomes our last resort.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;">So in any season of life when we think we cannot tackle another challenge,<b>
we need to know we are capable of greater things.</b> We just cannot do it all
alone. And we never have to. The promise of God's word is that God will never
leave us nor forsake us. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Each of us faces certain change in an uncertain future but we do not do it
alone.</b></span><br />
<br />
<b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Isaiah 41:10</span></b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><br />
<i><span style="font-size: small;">So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I
will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right
hand.<br />
</span><br />
</i><b>Hebrews 13:5-6</b><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><i>For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."
So we may boldly say: "The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can
man do to me?</i></span></span>Maritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06070669371061331391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740922010248590507.post-78354120483234556842015-08-28T06:36:00.003-05:002015-08-28T06:36:58.501-05:00Changeless Love<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjldpDiHxBZ6UirOR_MJOA_UzgwowYPcdZNak5RKFiZ4Hkkp-sSJJjH5QTJW3OVZphhEXX84vIWykx8MZY8lBEwHm3TdQOdiXrpaHHmM3J7UU8HRC4y_iayPD_exCoI5TBzL97pIoLb2hta/s1600/IMG_2232.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjldpDiHxBZ6UirOR_MJOA_UzgwowYPcdZNak5RKFiZ4Hkkp-sSJJjH5QTJW3OVZphhEXX84vIWykx8MZY8lBEwHm3TdQOdiXrpaHHmM3J7UU8HRC4y_iayPD_exCoI5TBzL97pIoLb2hta/s320/IMG_2232.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br />
<br />
God is changeless.<br />
<br />
Not boring and monotonous sameness, but changeless, I believe.<br />
<br />
Changing seasons, even changing vistas hourly scroll as the backdrop of our days so that constancy can be a difficult concept. <br />
<br />
We make distinctions about 'the God of the old testament' and 'the God of the new testament' as though God is changing costumes during intermission and playing the role of another in Act II. In fact, some like to distance themselves from that old testament God; a kinder and gentler God sells better.<br />
<br />
Marketing experts know people love puppies and babies, so Jesus in a manger scene can bring folks on board. Then just when we think we can handle reconciling those two like an out of kilter bank balance, the Holy Spirit shows up and we have another person to define. Some just want God to get in the right box and stay put.<br />
<br />
But God will not be leashed. The creator of the universe will not sit and stay in order to appeal to one's notions of theological propriety. Try as we humans do, we cannot diagram the actions of God, Jesus, and the Spirit so that they fit neatly into a compact travel size paragraph of Christianity.<br />
<br />
God is bigger than that.<br />
<br />
Far bigger.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-weight: bold;">God is still in the business of calling and redeeming humankind. </span>That mission has taken many turns through the centuries, and it continues still. In God's economy nothing is ever wasted. God can redeem and restore what we would throw away - and whom we would throw away.<br />
<br />
Yes, it may take a long time, but God operates outside of our time and space constraints.<br />
<br />
Learn from the blessings and promises of the scriptures of the old covenant just as we receive those of the new: God is the god of them all. And I ask daily for a larger understanding of this unsearchable Greatness:<br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: 130%;"></span><br />
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: 130%;">"Study to show yourself approved unto God, a [worker] who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth." </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 130%;">2 Timothy 2:15</span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
Maritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06070669371061331391noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740922010248590507.post-67566314669731050312015-07-08T08:05:00.000-05:002015-07-08T08:22:16.607-05:00They Say Everything Old is New Again<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<div style="border-bottom: solid #4F81BD 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: accent1; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 4.0pt 0in;">
<h2 class="MsoTitleCxSpFirst" style="text-align: center;">
“What has been will be again, </h2>
<h2 class="MsoTitleCxSpFirst" style="text-align: center;">
what has been done
will be done again; </h2>
<h2 class="MsoTitleCxSpFirst" style="text-align: center;">
There is nothing new under the sun.” </h2>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">
</h2>
<h2 class="MsoTitleCxSpLast" style="text-align: center;">
Ecclesiastes 1:9</h2>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>he longer I live the more I believe it to be true. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Without
addressing for now the broader implications this prompt generates, its truth is
easily applied to contemporary culture. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Old fashioned names have made a comeback as babies are given
names that have not been on a school roster in decades. Though the list of most
popular boy names includes the biblical Eli, Noah, Elijah and Isaac, it does
not yield Ezekiel in 2015.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In name association,
Ezekiel takes me to my grandfather’s knee where I first heard that old spiritual
“Dry Bones” and discovered musical skeletal anatomy. Pappy loved to sing to us
about connecting those dry bones, modulating upward in successive keys to get
to “Now hear the word of the Lord.” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Dem Dry Bones” was sung by Rosemary Clooney, The Lennon
Sisters and Tennessee Ernie Ford, who also sang “Sixteen Tons” in a bass voice
like Pap’s. You don’t have to have watched the Lawrence Welk Show to remember
these, but it helps.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So I learned about Ezekiel at a young age with rapt
attention and vivid imagery. I read recently something that took me back there.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Before Ezekiel's calling God appeared to him in a vision and
Ezekiel saw the glory of God, detailing when and where he saw this vision in
Ezekiel 1:1. Ezekiel remembered where he was—precisely.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The writer etched in his mind so that he could draw upon
that distinct memory. That intentional practice is important for us. Likewise,
raising an Ebenezer is a way of marking a spot to acknowledge something
important we must not forget.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’ve never had a vision of God. I do not doubt that I can
happen, it just has never happened to me. One occasion when I distinctly
remember seeing an extraordinary sight –a vision, if you will--was while
visiting with a dear woman in her home.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had known this
family friend all my life, and she always had been old. Beautiful, clever, talented,
full of grace and dogged determination— and old.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now she was dying. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As I talked with her by her bedside I became aware of seeing
what I can only call a transformation in her face, a subtle change in her
countenance. For more than a few moments I beheld her with youthful vigor, a radiant
glow. I was struck by an awareness that I was in a sacred space. Perhaps this
is what she had looked like decades ago before her face was creased with lines
and her upswept white hair framed her dark eyes. She was serene and still her
beautiful self. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I tried to take it in not knowing what to make of it. The
impression was distinct and ephemeral. We said goodbye for what I expected
would be the last time. My mother and I went home. Within the hour the phone
rang and I already knew: She was gone. I was at the time writing the words that
would be spoken at her service later. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I was also struck with the awareness that there is so much
more to this life than we can take in through our senses. I can never forget
that time and place of experiencing an unusual sight though I did not speak of it for over ten years. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When we limit our understanding of reality to that which we
can quantify and observe, to those things we can put in boxes and stack neatly,
we leave so much untapped. This experience I relate which occurred this very
week years ago humbles me and reminds of the tremendous mystery in life.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am content to live
with a respect for all that I cannot know and with gratitude for all that I do.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ezekiel, we are told, fed upon God’s word and was sustained
by the Spirit of God. That is not merely ancient literature: What sustained
Ezekiel will sustain us today.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I want a vision of God's glory. I want to take in the Word
of God until it seeps from the pores of our lives, and want to appropriate the
Spirit's presence in our lives until God becomes our greatest reality. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Presence of God becomes the power of God to sustain
us—just as He promised.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Writing and remembering....photo from the porch at Upper Rawls at Lake Junaluska, NC. Blue Ridge morning mist cradles the valley train whistle over hot coffee: a trifecta for gifts of peace.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the
earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.<span class="p"> Psalm 90:2</span> </blockquote>
</div>
Maritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06070669371061331391noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740922010248590507.post-63405456714885410882015-06-30T11:50:00.001-05:002015-06-30T11:50:18.069-05:00"Submit Radically to God" Spoken by Someone Who Did<section class="article-body clearfix">
<div class="blockquote-wrap poem">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS5F6Lhx86HK5zs8sN5AQPzXw9ZMQFP8PRuektsAqbYQiMhrLyW4lONESUo6JuDNKyuPR8rdZi0uXO2HmnwD8VdLT3XH3CEmko4SRLukEd6Ncs6EZ-Ky_DqCxm_bveVILN5kwfKsTPzJDQ/s1600/elisabeth.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS5F6Lhx86HK5zs8sN5AQPzXw9ZMQFP8PRuektsAqbYQiMhrLyW4lONESUo6JuDNKyuPR8rdZi0uXO2HmnwD8VdLT3XH3CEmko4SRLukEd6Ncs6EZ-Ky_DqCxm_bveVILN5kwfKsTPzJDQ/s1600/elisabeth.jpeg" /></a></div>
<br />
<blockquote class="standard drop-shadow lifted">
<div class="quote-wrap">
<h1>
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">You are loved with an everlasting love and underneath are the everlasting arms. That's what the Bible says.</span>
</h1>
<cite>
<span class="cite-author">
Author: Elizabeth Elliott </span>
</cite>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
</section><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204,204,204); margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<h3>
<i>Don’t get in touch with your feelings, <span class="il">submit</span> radically to God, and do
what is right no matter what. Put your love life on the altar and keep
it there until God takes it off. Suffering is normal. Have you no scars,
no wounds, with Jesus on the Calvary road?</i></h3>
</blockquote>
<div>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">I read this quote of Elisabeth Elliott and dwelt with it for a while. She is gone now, but her words resonate with conviction. Her boldness still speaks. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">Her life in the 1950's was radically different than anyone else I have known, not that I have known her personally, but we who have read her books claim kinship in some small way. She has been an influencer, an encourager. So should it surprise me that she speaks of living radically? </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">She has always seen the compass heading and seems to move steadfastly in one direction, no matter what.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">And I find myself repeating her words: </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">Do what is right no matter what.....<br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">Put your love life on the altar and keep it there...... <br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">Very interesting to me on many levels. How counter-cultural to us today. We don't like to speak of sacrifice in American any more. We like to talk about rights and make demands. Voices clamoring for attention today would never make the 'what's trending' segment of what they still call 'news' although it all sounds like opinion to me if they spoke of sacrifice and living for others. <br /></span></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Frequently I heard her voice via her radio program, <i>Gateway to Joy.</i> She always opened with,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"> "You are loved with an everlasting love...and underneath are the everlasting arms. That's what the Bible says. This is your friend, Elisabeth Elliott." </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;">I remember fondly her voice and the words which flowed from my car speakers offering a daily dose of her experiencing that truth and have taken it to heart. That scripture reference is not simply one, but can be found in Jeremiah 31:3, Deuteronomy 33:27 among others.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;">I remember hearing Elisabeth speak in Jackson many years ago. She was
asked her favorite hymn. She didn't hedge with, 'Oh, there are so
many...' as I might have done. She said unflinchingly, "Blessed
Assurance, Jesus is Mine." </span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;">And so it has become a favorite of mine just because she said so.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"> Elisabeth Elliott Gren died June 15, 2015. Her <a href="http://www.elisabethelliot.org/" target="_blank">website linked here </a>is a gift offering her collections from the memory which faded far too soon. Dementia came as a thief in the night. A slow thief. Selections are available to read and listen from this courageous strong woman. I hope to read some soon. Perhaps you will discover her anew or for the first time. The world needs a few more heroes and heroines.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
*Elisabeth Elliott's words recalled by John Piper here <a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/peaches-in-paradise" target="_blank">http://www.desiringgod.org/<wbr></wbr>articles/peaches-in-paradise</a> from his journal notes about Elisabeth Elliott's speaking in Kansas City in July 1987Maritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06070669371061331391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740922010248590507.post-83436294732965359442015-05-08T10:55:00.000-05:002015-07-01T06:48:25.972-05:00Witch or Mom? It's Hard to Know the Difference Sometimes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqcMieqn_g-ECPYovRWYT6qK3K1lIVonH52Va2cjwy-F-VaP4HKQCj5JkF6_u1WiMIbCJY8B5v4rXmoZVy6346PI_GhSex1LlLxB5KVPvGaMPG8VoXa0RZ9bHiBDI6V570xLZThOxb1kaP/s1600/golden+crowned+kinglets.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqcMieqn_g-ECPYovRWYT6qK3K1lIVonH52Va2cjwy-F-VaP4HKQCj5JkF6_u1WiMIbCJY8B5v4rXmoZVy6346PI_GhSex1LlLxB5KVPvGaMPG8VoXa0RZ9bHiBDI6V570xLZThOxb1kaP/s400/golden+crowned+kinglets.jpg" width="301" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Mother’s Day </span>offers the yearly chance to express in words and actions all the ways we wish we had <br />
<br />
shown appreciation daily. If only it were that simple.<br />
<br />
<br />
But has that May holiday conceived over a hundred years ago to honor the sacrifices of mothers for <br />
<br />
their children been a victim of commercialism gone awry? Hijacked in part by a greeting card industry <br />
<br />
which does the talking for us so we don’t have to, Mother’s Day has become big business.<br />
<br />
<br />
The founder of this holiday came to lament her efforts to recognize it officially. Anna Jarvis resented the <br />
<br />
very attachment to this holiday we have come to see as customary pairing with it: The joint venture of <br />
<br />
confectioners, florists, gift boutiques all promote ways to honor mom. She envisioned a more personal, <br />
<br />
even religious tribute to mothers and resented the transformation of her noble gesture into a churning <br />
<br />
industry.<br />
<br />
<h4>
Sometimes we still make the simplest expressions more difficult than they need to be.</h4>
<br />
Was the world so different then? I checked my history facts with a few clicks and saw in 1907 the news <br />
<br />
was peppered with disputes over immigration policies, baseball games in full swing and international <br />
<br />
disputes over borders and takeovers. So what’s new?<br />
<br />
<br />
Yet notable firsts occurred then too, reminding me that the five-year campaign to have a national <br />
<br />
holiday honoring a woman was ground-breaking. Radio was in its infancy and seemed magical. <br />
<br />
Marconi’s first wireless transmission across the sea would change the world. Music was broadcast for <br />
<br />
the first time in America. Now we have it at our fingertips or in our ear buds.<br />
<br />
<br />
And for women the picture was quite different. In the U.S. and Great Britain women were marching for <br />
<br />
the right to vote while Finland was the first European country to grant suffrage to women. In a related <br />
<br />
development that ultimately would help get women off the washboard and some into the boardroom, <br />
<br />
the first automatic clothes washer and dryer were introduced.<br />
<br />
<br />
But I digress. <br />
<br />
How and why we chose to honor those we love is a personal choice. It’s not just a holiday, but any day <br />
<br />
we choose to make expressions of thanks a priority. <br />
<br />
<h4>
We make it more difficult than it needs to be when we delay our expressions of appreciation.</h4>
<h4>
</h4>
It’s the thank you note principle at work: The length of the note is in direct proportion to the promptness in writing a thank you note in proximity to the event being referenced. A short, heartfelt timely note need not<br />
be long. <br />
<br />
Southern women smile about those women – and we know them – who are famous for prewriting thank <br />
<br />
yous and placing them in the mailbox when they leave an event. They know what we know: Timeliness <br />
<br />
matters. They just act on it.<br />
<br />
<br />
For those recovering procrastinators among us who intend to follow through on our expressions of <br />
<br />
appreciation, the timeliness principle works against us. If we don’t do it promptly, it may cost us.<br />
<br />
Enter Hallmark cards with their prewritten sentiments that purport to tell us better than we can say <br />
<br />
ourselves, “Thank you” and “I love you.”<br />
<br />
<br />
Any way you say it is surely better than delaying. And if you didn’t adequately express your thoughts <br />
<br />
when you wished to, say something today. Whether your mom is living or not, just try writing even if for <br />
<br />
your eyes only. A tribute offered posthumously or in person need not be flowery. Child-like simplicity <br />
<br />
will do it. <br />
<br />
<br />
<h4>
Sometimes the words in our hearts just want to be coaxed out. We just need a safe space to do it. </h4>
<br />
My longtime friend and frequent source of joy and inspiration, Betty Parry, related a story that lingers <br />
<br />
with me months after it happened. The honest question of a child gets to the heart of who we are.<br />
<br />
A few holidays ago, Betty had dressed up her front porch for trick-or-treaters. She was in her pointed <br />
<br />
black hat adjusting the wires of a recalcitrant fog machine for the full effect. Betty doesn’t do anything <br />
<br />
halfway. <br />
<br />
An eager little boy about four approached. Seeing Betty in her black regalia, he stopped in his tracks in <br />
<br />
the yard and hesitated: “Are you a witch…..or a mom?” <br />
<br />
Sometimes it’s hard to know the difference in life. Many things are not as they appear. We learn early to <br />
<br />
be discerning. <br />
<br />
<br />
But he already knew: It’s safe to approach a mom even when surrounded by fog on a dark night. <br />
<br />
Mother’s Day may be over, but the call to live with gratitude for all of those who give of themselves to <br />
<br />
us comes to us fresh each day.Maritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06070669371061331391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740922010248590507.post-73154903190167331522015-03-26T07:13:00.000-05:002015-04-02T07:16:45.631-05:00Tricks They Play with Numbers<br />
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<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">They say five times as many people read a headline as read the article, so baiting the hook is key to increasing screen clicks and readership. Have you, too, tired of cheap tricks embedded in headlines beckoning for our attention? <br /><br />They do it because it works. A quick search reveals a simple headline-writing formula to hook us: </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Number or Trigger word + Adjective + Keyword + Promise.</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">10 Nutrients that Shrink Your Belly</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">3 Foods You Should Never Eat</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">4 Things Never to Buy at Trader Joe's.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">10 Things Your Doctor won't tell you about an MRI.</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />So Five Easy Steps to Deliver Readers is the game. Sound familiar?<br /><br />Stephen Covey gave us 7 Habits of Highly Successful People 15 years ago. In the past two decades, countless titles have followed in his highly successful footsteps.<br /><br />I refuse to take the bait and pass up most such headlines. No one really has that kind of time. But this morning, having seen many variations on a theme of "14 most powerful literary quotes," I succumbed.<br /><br />Because I find inspiration in words, not numbers, I trolled into this potential deep well. Uplifting words that encourage the disquieted soul, or words that speak of beauty and strength and resilience in the face of struggle--these are words that draw us in and have the power to sustain for the long haul. I’m not looking for an easy answer, for a bumper sticker for the heart.<br /><br />I'm taking about words that linger long after those quick-tricks-for-clicks fail and search engine optimization mutates into the next new thing. <br /><br />Quotations serve a purpose as shorthand directing us to a source for further reading. Quick quotes can be reduced to trite sayings when listed as top ten favorites and out of context. But I took the bait and jotted a couple:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">"They slipped briskly into an intimacy from which they never recovered.” </span></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">― F. Scott Fitzgerald, </span><i><span style="font-size: large;">This Side of Paradise </span></i></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />Jump start a book with that line and I’m hooked. We—male and female if we could be honest—long for such a connection, such intimacy. Not flowery romanticism or superficial trappings that masquerade as love, but the rock-solid knowing and being accepted for who we are.<br /><br />The rarity of that intimacy and Fitzgerald’s expression of it held me for a moment.<br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In true southern fashion, we claim kin to several in this literary slice of Americana. F. Scott’s Zelda was an Alabama girl and longtime friend of H.L. Mencken’s wife, Sara, who was the Montgomery sister of our family’s uncle Johnny. So we’re practically related.</span><br />
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<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">While the capital of the Confederacy was marching from Montgomery to Richmond in 1861, Charles Dickens wrote his own words that made the list:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">“I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, </span><span style="font-size: large;">against all discouragement that could be.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">― Charles Dickens, <i>Great Expectations</i></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> (Estella and Pip. Illustration by F. A. Fraser, Household Edition of Great Expectations, 1877. Public domain.)</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">There is the theme again. <br /><br />We may remember a few timeless words a bit older.</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"> “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loves us.” </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">The list of calamities against which love endures is long and winding and appears variously in Romans 8:35-39 and elsewhere.<br /><br />Everything gets recycled with a twist; everyone gets credited with originality when there is nothing new under the sun. So say both William Shakespeare and the writer of Ecclesiastes.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">Paulo Coelho, for example, wrote in<i> The Alchemist</i>, "Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure."</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">“Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" was credited from the Harry Potter series. </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">More ancient is the writing in Matthew 6:21, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”</span></blockquote>
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<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Matthew's citation did not make the internet list, but there’s hope. It meets the two-prong test: theme of love and posted with numbers. <b>The allure of love is deeper still than the lure of numbers in a headline.</b></span>Maritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06070669371061331391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740922010248590507.post-76172128548967889832014-12-31T22:39:00.000-06:002014-12-31T22:43:00.663-06:00Emerging to a New Life<br />
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<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">B</span><span style="font-size: large;">eginnings and endings surround us on December 31. It's what we do, this year in review scrolling past anywhere we look.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Some send the old year out with glitter, bubbles and flashing lights. It's all about the flash, even if for a day. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">For others, it's more about the flashback, the reminder that things are not as we had expected. Forget the fireworks or watching the ball drop in Times Square. For some, each day is a painful reminder of how we've dropped the ball in our responsibilities, our relationships. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">We yearn for new beginnings.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">We want to believe change is possible. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Remember the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life?" We know how the story ends, yet millions tune in each year to see George Bailey's transformation. George's character debuted in 1946, nearly 70 years ago. How refreshing that popular culture still allows space to air the movie and call it relevant. But I suspect that clock is ticking on old George. What film is waiting in the wings to take its place and pick up the story for new generations?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i> Strange, isn't it? Each man's life touches so many other lives. When he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he? </i></span></blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><i> ~ Clarence to George Bailey in "It's a Wonderful Life"</i></span></blockquote>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">My mother says it slightly differently when asked about her life: </span><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">"I wouldn't change a thing. Because if you change one thing, you change everything." </span></blockquote>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">So true.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Bidding farewell to a year sinking into history reminds me that I did not pen or type much upon these pages in Meditations in the Night Watch lately. I may make time to do more next year. I surely hope so, because doing so gives me the chance to explore and think and write from a place that needs exercising in my life. My soul needs exercising more than triceps or abs or anything else that fills the pages I am seeing in media touting the importance of self-improvement in the new year.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Lists abound telling us the Best of 2014. More lists offer resolutions and solutions for 2015. One year is not done before the new one is already skewered and readied for improvement. Beginnings and endings keep turning around on the spit.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Beginnings and endings.....Birth and death. Whether we are ready or not, they keep coming.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="yj6qo ajU">
<div class="ajR" data-tooltip="Show trimmed content" id=":5j" role="button" tabindex="0">
<span style="font-size: large;"><img class="ajT" src="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif" />I continue to be wonderstruck by the similarities shared by these seemingly-opposite life events. Perhaps human birth and death do not occupy opposing ends of a linear continuum as we often think. Perhaps that line arcs, bending gently into a circle of life. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I think so. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">2014 has brought the birth of precious ones in my life and has delivered many loved ones into 'the land of no more tears', as I read one brave dying woman call the end of life. It has been a great year, and I am grateful to have lived another one surrounded by family and friends. Most of all I am grateful for the Presence of God who loves with an everlasting love and holds fast the faithfulness we offer imperfectly. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for saving grace and abundant mercy you extend. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In a world of changing times and rolling calendars, how good it is to count on the steadfastness of the love of God. Such an assurance gives confidence as we face a new day of life and death and life beyond death.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">If your body is no longer serving you well, step out of it and go on with life. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">~ Barbara Brown Taylor</span></blockquote>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Go on with life--Abundant Life. </span><br />
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Maritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06070669371061331391noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740922010248590507.post-29680687606806114392014-10-30T08:47:00.000-05:002014-10-30T08:47:27.187-05:00Working the Night Shift<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: large;">"ғaiтнleѕѕ iѕ нe тнaт ѕayѕ ғarewell wнen тнe road darĸenѕ."
J. R. R. Tolkien</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
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<br /></div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Tolkien and his contemporary, C. S.
Lewis, brilliantly used the ancient means of story to transport truth to
children and adults alike. They infused their works with images and narratives
that blend reason and the vivid imagination for which each is known, conferring
on their characters the power to communicate ideas of faith. In looking at the
world around them they sought flashes of insight into what they saw as the
fundamental nature of things. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Fundamental. What is fundamental
anymore?</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness are among the unalienable rights mentioned in the Declaration of
Independence. <span> </span>We seem to have elevated achieving
perpetual happiness to the gold medal position on the podium. Many strive to
maintain the illusion of happiness and success, as though any alternative is
tantamount to failure. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">We may coast through some days in
life, but sooner or later we are put on the night shift. <span> </span>The night shift--that season when life
presents what we never dreamed would happen or that which we feared to face.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br />
Our days and nights are not our own anymore on the night shift. They’ve been
usurped, taken captive by that new thing, that no longer mythical monster that
holds us in its grip. Cancer does it for some. Any sudden interruption of our
lives will do this. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Crises have a way of reordering our
priorities. They reveal our character. They give us the chance to step up to
the podium and present ourselves authentically as wounded but walking, as
pierced but persevering. We may choose to be honest and press on, accepting
this new life experience as an opportunity to grow—to grow in ways we would
rather not but find we must. But we need help, companions on the journey.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">"O Lord, do not be far from me,"
the psalmist says.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br />
There is so much about sickness and pain we do not understand. C. S. Lewis
wrote from his deep loss about suffering and its value. Some would dismiss the
refining fire of suffering as pure myth, but not Lewis. The witness of many is
that we experience redeeming grace during what I call the night shift. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">We may never understand suffering; I
can accept that as a limitation of our human condition. But there are some
things we can know as bedrock: <br />
<span>That God is always good.<br />
That God is always loving</span>.<br />
<br />
May I dare say that suffering is one of those things that is transformative
when we encounter it: We are changed in it. Fundamentally. I have come to
believe it, but do I have the guts to write it here, in this place where I am
sitting up writing in the night watch feeling healthy while some of our friends
or family members are in the fight of their lives? How dare I say such without
sounding glib and utterly insensitive?</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Because I have seen it done. Writers
give us examples to point to a truth until we may accept it for ourselves; Real
life examples shine brightly for me.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br />
I have seen the example up close when a friend <span>chose to allow God to move in her life in the presence of intense
suffering and pain. </span>She gave us glimpses of grace, pictures of what
suffering looks like over a period of years. <span> </span>She remained full of grace and faithfulness
because she refused to give into bitterness. She denied a place for the bitter
seed to take root every time it raised its persistent tendril. I want to face
adversity like that!</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">For the faithful, that's what we do: </span></span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">We carry the Light when the road gets dark. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">We hold the lantern for one another. </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span>We
learn to walk faithfully the path we have even when we would rather take
another road of our own choosing</span>.</span></span></div>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></blockquote>
</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">
</span></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">
In prayer we can freely offer the desires of our heart and then trust in God's
provision. The trusting part can be hardest. It is the task of a lifetime. And
it is not the American way of self-sufficiency and prideful independence. But
when we understand another bedrock truth—that God<b> </b><span>is always trustworthy—we can</span> rest in
the care of the One who created us and loves us and will never let us go. <span> </span><br />
<br />
Offer God our pain and broken dreams when the road is dark. Pain only festers
when buried and denied. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Offer suffering so that it is shared,
and then we can learn how to bear it. “Pain that is not transformed is pain
transferred,” writes Fr. Richard Rohr. We pass it on.<br />
<br />
Pursuing happiness for itself is ephemeral, not fundamental. The love of God is
deep and wide, reaching to times and places we do not see and holding us fast
in the embrace.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Maritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06070669371061331391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740922010248590507.post-81149579147680309652014-09-30T21:55:00.001-05:002014-10-01T07:33:32.874-05:00Lessons from Tumbled Stones<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx-qqhbCOq0Dng4LP0fTXck6X1u1R6CzXzqCDIlYEerjQVXMGS8m9HgIHf_9uzSe_Nl4Zo_kwhDsVd54lNFMmIh0MkycycPV-E3HoXVsWbHMho2FKn3k9DFD8veBiEINBqTkDUbsxrHxRq/s1600/Ancient_Olympia,_Greece2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx-qqhbCOq0Dng4LP0fTXck6X1u1R6CzXzqCDIlYEerjQVXMGS8m9HgIHf_9uzSe_Nl4Zo_kwhDsVd54lNFMmIh0MkycycPV-E3HoXVsWbHMho2FKn3k9DFD8veBiEINBqTkDUbsxrHxRq/s1600/Ancient_Olympia,_Greece2.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></span></div>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The stones are still there, sloped-shouldered
chunks of their former grandeur lying in Olympia. Smoothed by time, water and
wind, the rough edges are made plain. The elements have a way of doing a number
on us as well, with repeated exposure to sun, wind and rain. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Do we grow smooth in
response -- adapt and overcome? -- or toughen and tighten our way through life?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I had the chance to visit this landscape in the
70s and again a few years ago. In 35 years, the rocks were not perceptibly
changed; the country of Greece, however, was transformed from its provincial
self into a cousin of its former self: it bore the marks of family resemblance
but no longer showed its distinctive local identity. Cable television, I am told,
was the thief in the night. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Cable and satellite TV fed the desire to have what
others are having, eating and wearing. There was no turning back. The
temptation to live the good life American TV shows portrayed was everywhere. Suddenly,
it seemed the old ways were not enough. The old way of life had lost its value
to a new generation. </span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXkdaQiI9eDnvxb3L4Fbee2EgWw8pCmkhqumo62qA54zh_gU8N4uV0thfFDwP506W683xJYAUOljKLVQKjqLejU2YcfMFvplCRPqlMTdE1WXIJZouGYkY6DTmN57UlwDJD3Og_ubjvebPG/s1600/310.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXkdaQiI9eDnvxb3L4Fbee2EgWw8pCmkhqumo62qA54zh_gU8N4uV0thfFDwP506W683xJYAUOljKLVQKjqLejU2YcfMFvplCRPqlMTdE1WXIJZouGYkY6DTmN57UlwDJD3Og_ubjvebPG/s1600/310.JPG" height="400" width="300" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLiiLVBtBHWkHf-ekMWT_L5bq94XITIIa5IhnL4_66f6dHjSZcL3pH26pb3YxGu_MelwxDZnlot3yi1ZySb8Na38cGxhDisnktlVo6qQ5w9JXYyNK79EmHuXaDT61T2kv35XRkjuocVulC/s1600/336.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLiiLVBtBHWkHf-ekMWT_L5bq94XITIIa5IhnL4_66f6dHjSZcL3pH26pb3YxGu_MelwxDZnlot3yi1ZySb8Na38cGxhDisnktlVo6qQ5w9JXYyNK79EmHuXaDT61T2kv35XRkjuocVulC/s1600/336.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Taking in scenes above from tumbled stones in
Olympia and visiting the elegant carved marble sculptures of Achilles remind me
that thousands of years ago, men and women sought wisdom, pleasure, heroes and
significance from a myriad of places, as we do today. The ancients did not need
TV to generate their entertainment; they lived among heroes and gods. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Just as in the story of Achilles, each of us has a
place of vulnerability. We may stand strong only to fall unexpectedly when
pierced in that place. Vigilance is essential. The attack may come to us dressed
as temptation or as an assault by fear, reducing us to rubble.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">How to protect oneself from attack in the
vulnerable places requires a heightened NORAD-like awareness of us and our
surroundings. I’m speaking personally, not militarily, though the NORAD emblem
of wings encircling the globe with a well-placed sword centered over North America
is an interesting visual that could be a graphic designer’s take on an old
hymn. The point is one that scouting still teaches: Be prepared.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Be prepared.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Gird yourself. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Anticipate needs and work to meet them. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Don’t live life on autopilot.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Be fully present. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Live with gratitude for what we have, not with an
eye on our deficits.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Life is not “set it and forget it.” The gift of
life still calls us to respond daily, I believe, with focus on the needs of
each day. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Temptations come to us in that heel of vulnerability.
That which never was a temptation in one season of life can become a strong
desire when we least expect it. One whose radar is down, if you will, becomes
easy prey. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When we say smugly, “I don’t have a problem with
that,” we just got a problem with that. Anything. Credit card debt? Infidelity?
Deceit of any kind? Dishonesty? I believe that when we set ourselves up as
master over anything, when we say pridefully what we would never do, take cover:
We just put ourselves in a place to be tested, perhaps to experience an
encounter that helps reveal our character.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It may not be apparent for a long time, but stay
alert. Temptation comes to us looking alluring, appealing, not as broken and
twisted, for that would be too easy to recognize. It only becomes tempting when
offering something we want. Temptation has a long fuse and a long memory. It may
wait until a more opportune time to return. It is an old story made new every
day, but one to be faced, not feared. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fear is
that Achilles heel for many. Fear shows up as a debilitating dread that holds
some in its clutches. Fear of failing, fear of not measuring up to others'
expectations, fear of intimacy--the list continues--with a paralyzing result in
not fully living this life we have been given. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We were not made for a half-hearted attempt at
life. There is freedom from the bondage of fear and from the destructive arrows
piercing our vulnerable selves, and it comes to us through love. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I have read that the opposite of fear is not
courage; it is faith. I find that faith generates courage as well.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> “There is no
fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” I John 4:18</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span id="lblContent">"No temptation has overtaken you but such
as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be
tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide
the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it." I Corinthians 10:13</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span id="lblContent"><span id="lblContent">The Christian has the heavenly Father’s help in resisting temptation. <strong>God is faithful</strong></span>.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span id="lblContent"><span id="lblContent">"...But with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it."</span> If temptation is common to all, it is wise to consider the way out. But the way<i> out</i> may be like that Bear Hunt: sometimes we have to go through it. The way through it--the various trials in our lifetimes--is the way of endurance. </span></span><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span id="lblContent">Endurance is not merely the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory. William Barclay </span> </span></blockquote>
</div>
Maritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06070669371061331391noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740922010248590507.post-82450923394645958742014-09-01T08:21:00.002-05:002016-03-01T21:28:35.698-06:00First Aid by Ear<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Q_KXwTGH1zlNlpGdo68QlYqV4EbInA93_BNRtBYflx1VFTZhiYX-kpJsXaGHNDWtevwcwCf-e2WQkbZNorrjBFUePxGJ5lu4N_Bge-gOjjMff7pxzJ4aTfNCJZXVwXwTvz5F8wUU3Tly/s1600/god-philippians-2-13-you-are-not-alone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Q_KXwTGH1zlNlpGdo68QlYqV4EbInA93_BNRtBYflx1VFTZhiYX-kpJsXaGHNDWtevwcwCf-e2WQkbZNorrjBFUePxGJ5lu4N_Bge-gOjjMff7pxzJ4aTfNCJZXVwXwTvz5F8wUU3Tly/s1600/god-philippians-2-13-you-are-not-alone.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">“What first aid treatment in shock is administered by ear?” </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: large;">I read these words in <i>Cutting
for Stone</i>, expressing Abraham Verghese's lingering question that echoes
long after I read it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: large;">The answer is one every first responder needs to know: <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">w</span>ords
of comfort.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Words of comfort speak directly into
the heart and soul as first aid for the weary. Words of comfort--like friends
who show up with good food-- are welcome anywhere. While reassuring words may
not change our circumstances, they remain an audible reminder that we are not
alone.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">New parents are advised to soothe their newborns with a
shushing sound directly into the ear. Whispering with gentle cooing has a role,
but not for this practice. No, “Hush, Chile” from the old days will suffice
here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The modern shushing technique must
be loud enough to transmit the rushing wind sound over the baby's distress to
induce calm and security. It works.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It all goes back to what we know first: That primal,
pulsing, whooshing that surrounded the baby before birth continues to bring
comfort when applied to soothe. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Hmmm, rushing wind. <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">Pulsing breaths. </span>Something sounds
familiar.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The ancient <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">Hebrew word for both <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">spirit and breath is Ruah. "Breathe on me breath of God"..... </span></span>Y-H-W-H. The sound of many waters. Images flood my
mind as I give it line and let it run free.<br />
<br />
We encounter God in <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">various ways. </span>I have experienced God's greatest revelation in Jesus Christ, and <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">also </span>I
remember God is said to speak in the sound of thunder (Psalm 18 and Psalm 29)
and in the sound of rushing waters (Ezekiel 43:2 and Revelation 1:9-19). Some
may dismiss the value of these references as simple poetic devices in ancient
literature, but I am on the side of the psalmist and prophets<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">: t</span>hey offer a
picture of God's speaking words of comfort administered by ear into the heart
of a distressed child.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">T<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">he holy h</span></span>ush<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">.</span></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">God whispers above the cacophony of the
world, above the tumult within, to calm and soothe and to remind us that we are
always—always – God’s beloved.</span></b><br />
<br />
Sometimes we may experience a gentle but firm shushing in a new way that gets
our attention. We may have occasion to sense a whisper of sorts loudly enough
to be felt and heard over the tumult where we live. <br />
<br />
When we, like the fretful, inconsolable infant, most need reassurance and
redirection, we may experience a fresh resonant Presence that surrounds us even
in the midst of our ordinary lives. This caress of the Spirit that never leaves
us nor forsakes us reminds me that I never doubted Jesus for a moment, only
myself. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We will all have fretful days and fitful nights. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Life casts us into seas of turmoil that challenge our
notions about safe harbors and security. Our brushes with crises, whether
health, family or financial; marital breakdown; heartache and loss of many
kinds all threaten to overtake us and drag us in the undertow. Even when we
know to expect such difficulties as a part of life, they can take us by storm
and by surprise when they make landfall at our doorstep.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it came to me clearly
upon waking in the wee hours one morning, this holy hush.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">And it came among the promises of the Lord to attend to us
even in the night. <br />
</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">
</span><b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on
You in the night watch because You have been my help; therefore in the shadow
of Your wings, I will rejoice.” (Psalm 63:6, 7)</span></b></blockquote>
</div>
<blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“The Lord God has given me the tongue of one
who has been taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word the one who is
weary. Morning by morning He awakens my ear to hear as the student, as one who
is taught.” (Isaiah 50:4)</span></b></div>
</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“…How to sustain with a word the one who is weary.” There
it is again: <span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif";">w</span>ords of comfort. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First aid
by ear. </span><br />
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Each of us is a first responder in someone’s life. We
need to know where to turn in times of crisis ourselves and how to initiate
first aid for others. To give a warm embrace accompanied by caring words requires
no special training or certification. The effect, much like swaddling a newborn
to keep arms from flailing in distress, will begin to soothe a frantic soul. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7fhlQeZtMOTN5cpzXyuWU7-9fNkPHQy_ZlOuzqO8ihwTdz-3WqVaPJc6F3oqBtPfo_hHj1M-IfgpUdgQvqUNrrtpO46DD7NScpq1UXhiPoKR9XYFa7Qct9CxaruZF1MwgFcMb1mCjiHx7/s1600/comfort.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7fhlQeZtMOTN5cpzXyuWU7-9fNkPHQy_ZlOuzqO8ihwTdz-3WqVaPJc6F3oqBtPfo_hHj1M-IfgpUdgQvqUNrrtpO46DD7NScpq1UXhiPoKR9XYFa7Qct9CxaruZF1MwgFcMb1mCjiHx7/s1600/comfort.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.8pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">"The grass withers, the
flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever" (Isaiah 40:8).</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“He strengthens the weary and
increases the power of the weak. He renews the strength of those who hope in
Him” (Isaiah 40:29-31).</span></b></div>
</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.8pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.8pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.8pt;">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif";">Darrell Creswell's image used with permission. </span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Maritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06070669371061331391noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740922010248590507.post-3729437701667347182014-08-26T22:29:00.000-05:002014-08-27T21:07:52.760-05:00Salute In Memoriam<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO_BDwctzq9qtBgJTYV74Y8cNJpf7NvCgkuQhNbNK4dlGNXxdDzjVBAq_ee-urbGIc2YbmAhDuE0qIPJuMGpWMlVYdUuz_BK5H31_n_5hXwYoAsJpRqOhAfZAL3rEMi90u6iuA8L0uOGuB/s1600/Eagle-Shield-Patriotic-GraphicsFairy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjO_BDwctzq9qtBgJTYV74Y8cNJpf7NvCgkuQhNbNK4dlGNXxdDzjVBAq_ee-urbGIc2YbmAhDuE0qIPJuMGpWMlVYdUuz_BK5H31_n_5hXwYoAsJpRqOhAfZAL3rEMi90u6iuA8L0uOGuB/s1600/Eagle-Shield-Patriotic-GraphicsFairy.jpg" height="320" width="236" /></a></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">A</span> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">common fear among those who have lost loved ones is that others will forget them. Upon request I offer a tribute that aired on public radio ten years ago this week of one who deserves
to be remembered.</span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Aaron Holleyman was born in Rankin County, grew up
in Clinton and had family ties to Monticello and Carthage. I knew him as Glenda
Carpenter’s son. Good people, his family: the best among our Mississippi towns. </span></span></span><br />
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Holleyman
was 26, assigned to the 1st Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group, Fort Campbell,
Kentucky, when on August 30, 2004 his last-in-line military vehicle hit an
improvised explosive device in Khutayiah, Iraq. He had been injured on a
previous tour and did not have to return, but chose to do so despite his
hearing loss, at the time of his death. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">There is always a back story—everybody’s
somebody’s baby—for each of our casualties of war. And our task, as I see it, is to remember. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;">A</span>merican flags like sentries line the iron fence
leading into the Monticello cemetery. Crisp standards whip in the faint breeze
beating back the Mississippi afternoon heat, unaware that they set more than
the stage, they set the tempo. They define the moment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Cars crawl into line along the gravel shoulder as
friends from long ago emerge and cluster a respectable distance from the tent,
giving warm hugs and fleshy handshakes, waiting for over an hour in the sun to
pay respects. The family arrives in the company of Special Forces officers. The
human wave undulates to allow them passage to the green turf-covered chairs in
the shade.</span></div>
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<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Once the playing field in this small town was
striped with white, and crowds cheered, and sweaty teams fought to the finish
to see who would win. Now we know that was child’s play. Another playing field
has claimed a friend’s child, and today we honor them.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Not a number anymore. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Not a statistic on the nightly news.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Staff Sgt. Aaron Holleyman has a name. Now he has a
resting place.</span></div>
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<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Special Forces: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The 82<sup>nd</sup> Airborne. Fifth Special
Forces Training group. Even the uninitiated among us knows they have something
we don’t: They’ve been tested and proven worthy. They serve their country. And
they bury their dead.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Soldiers snap to attention. </span></div>
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<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The triangle of blue and white is pressed into the
hands of his mother, our friend and high school classmate. Collective tears fall
onto the dust at the sight of them – proud, aching, faithful—all at the same
time. The young fatherless child leaves her daises atop the casket. The
bagpiper compresses humid air into strains of “Amazing Grace,” then seamlessly
moves into “The Green Beret.” </span></div>
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<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>“Silver
wings upon their chest.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>These
are men, America’s best…”</span></div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">More tears and silence.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A sharp command, the only human sound before the
crack of seven rifles firing as one, fails to dislodge the lump in my throat.
And they fire again…and again. It’s too much, and a community cries the tears
of a grateful nation, for this is our hometown hero now.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">His family will not mind our tears, for they
celebrate his life and his faith. They hold no grudges, harbor no malice, and
offer only words of gratitude and pride for his service. </span></div>
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<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And right beside them strides his brother, Daniel,
wearing the same uniform, marching in the same brave footsteps as soldiers
before.</span></div>
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<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">America’s best indeed. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">_____________________________________________________________________________</span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It’s been ten years since I tapped out these words
because I couldn’t<i> not </i>do so. My feeble effort at verbal tribute was the only
way I could process the emotionally draining military burial and compassionate
response of the local folks who showed up to say goodbye to a shared son and
grandson.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We’re all extended family in Mississippi. </span><br />
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Aaron is
one of many we lost too young. Each man and woman deserves to be remembered so
that their sacrifice will not be in vain. A preoccupied, forgetful nation may
pay a steep price for neglecting history and memory.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Maritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06070669371061331391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740922010248590507.post-38004712191119669322014-07-06T23:32:00.000-05:002015-08-28T06:11:07.796-05:00A Long Way from Tupelo<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">W</span>e celebrate July 4
with fireworks every year, but July 5 marks an anniversary offering the world
its own serving of sizzle. The act of remembering helps us open our minds to forgotten or little known facts that just might bring a smile during these dog days of summer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: large;">60 years ago</span> on July 5,
1954, Sam Phillips made music history when Elvis Presley laid down the track to
“That’s All Right (Mama)”. Unrehearsed, the grainy recording captured the distinct
sound that caught Phillips’s ear during a break when Elvis picked up a guitar
and sang an up-tempo version of a blues song. Sam Phillips knew he had a rare
item on his hands: a white singer who could sing black rhythm and blues. The
Voice would call it a slam dunk four-chair turn today.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Phillips even commissioned
a new logo for his Sun studio: the crowing rooster and rising sun on his record
label would be a visual wake-up call signaling this seismic shift on the music
landscape. There would be a whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">In our day of
auto-tuned voices and computer generated recording artist clones, it is hard to
imagine the simplicity of those early days. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">While driving through
Memphis, I tuned in an Elvis channel and lengthy interview with Rock and Roll
Hall of Famer James Burton, Elvis’s guitarist from 1969-1977. Burton said Elvis
had impeccable rhythm and “near-perfect pitch.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“He set the tempo
himself, and it was always perfect. You could set a computer by him; he was
never off.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He said that Elvis always
launched into a song in a live performance in the original key in which he
recorded it; he always knew.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“We never did the same
show twice,” Burton recalled. He played twice-nightly shows in Las Vegas from
1969-1976—that was 837 sold out shows--and never repeated a performance. With a
repertoire of 500-600 songs, Elvis knew the words to everything he sang. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Elvis played piano and
guitar by ear but did not read music. He never told his musicians what to play or
how, Burton said, but they knew to “watch him like a hawk” and stay with him for
he was likely to change something as he felt the music. He was known to move into another song as the spirit moved him, repeat a portion or build to the big finish which he favored in the 70s. Elvis surrounded himself with musicians who were good enough to handle anything the job required. He could sing any genre, but he never left his gospel roots, his longtime friend said. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Singer Cissy Houston, one of the Sweet Inspirations backup singers, said Elvis frequently turned to gospel standards she knew while relaxing between shows in Vegas in 1969. She was choirmaster of New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, NJ. (I learned she has been directing their youth choir for 50 years now and still sings with them. Impressive commitment!) Cissy's own musical pedigree spanned a few decades as mother of the late Whitney Houston, aunt of Dionne Warwick and cousin of Mississippi-born opera singer Leontyne Price. Cissy and the Sweet Inspirations backed up an impressive line up in her day. They also can be heard on Van Morrison's "Brown-Eyed Girl" and Pontotoc's own Jim Weatherly's original "Midnight Train to Georgia."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">When recording in the
studio, Elvis had an aversion to laying down multiple tracks as they do today.
He wanted everyone in the studio standing very close together, singing and
playing at the same time. He wanted the recording finished when they left the studio. They frequently recorded all night long but were finished by dawn.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">His was a rare ability
to sing gospel, rockabilly, rhythm and blues, ballads, rock and roll and pop, in
spite of the warning issued years before when he wanted to be a gospel singer that there was no future for him as a
vocalist. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: large;">What a reminder not to believe everyone who would tell us to abandon
a dream. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: large;">20 years ago</span> a woman
brought a file of photos to Graceland and cornered a local radio disk jockey,
George Klein, to promote her son.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“He’s
the youngest Elvis impersonator and he sings just like Elvis,” she urged. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“He does bear a
resemblance to Elvis, Mrs. Hernandez, but there’s just not a market for
children Elvis impersonators,” Klein replied then.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><b>Last month that little
guy circled back around to Graceland while performing in Memphis as part of his
own international tour. He is now known as Bruno Mars</b>, a multiplatinum Grammy
winner who was profoundly shaped by Elvis.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The power of influence never stops. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: large;">37 years ago</span> while living with some students in
the Aphrodite Hotel—I know, unfortunate name choice—for school in Athens,
Greece, I stepped out of the elevator into the small lobby one August day. The
desk clerk announced is his clearest English, “Your king is dead.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Did he mean our president
has been shot? I wondered.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">“Your king is dead,” he
said again gravely handing me a newspaper with the headline of Elvis’s death, a
shot heard ‘round the world, so to speak.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">The pilgrimages to
Graceland would swell generating worldwide interest in the man and his music. Graceland
recently hosted a private tour for The Duke of Cambridge, Prince Harry and
their entourage causing mild tremors in Memphis: The future king treading the
same soil as the king of rock and roll. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 200%;">Yes, the rising sun
still shines on Union Avenue. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 200%;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 200%;">As George Klein says, </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 200%;">“The
sun never sets on a legend.” </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; line-height: 200%;">Interestingly, the only category in which Elvis won a Grammy was in Gospel music which he won in 1968, 1973 and 1975. "How Great Thou Art" was certified 3x Platinum in 2010. If Gladys Presley had any idea that her son was remembered for some level of success linked with the gospel music he first sang in that little row house in Tupelo, I'll bet she would have been pleased. </span></span></div>
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<br />Maritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06070669371061331391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740922010248590507.post-82584724082527083582014-06-22T08:28:00.001-05:002014-06-23T09:23:50.540-05:00Flashbacks and Tail Fins<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnBMybqT5-w1SbiwSZlyVDVl8TuRAk2aJK4EOXD9w77mCAeqyLBU4vdoSQvZoIQwylfUCMr2v7jEtSqMDuwN-7AhLZTM8z0r7P7Nvo8TKOqa2prj-bAIeJ8h16_5P4gljhUgkSRE4ZkssU/s1600/015_15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnBMybqT5-w1SbiwSZlyVDVl8TuRAk2aJK4EOXD9w77mCAeqyLBU4vdoSQvZoIQwylfUCMr2v7jEtSqMDuwN-7AhLZTM8z0r7P7Nvo8TKOqa2prj-bAIeJ8h16_5P4gljhUgkSRE4ZkssU/s1600/015_15.jpg" height="318" width="320" /></a></div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">A</span>hhhh, the 1960s....a
decade in contrasts. Lines of sleek modernity marked the period as much as
animated accessories worn by both people and automobiles. Easter Sunday
frocks with layers of crinoline and what we called 'net' swish under
hats and gloves in front of Plymouth's finest fins.<br />
<br />
<br />
On this first day of summer 2014 I'm thinking back a few years to the school days of our youth as I share the following thoughts:</blockquote>
<blockquote>
</blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: large;">See.....look.....go.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: large;">Such
simple verbs, but they set the stage offering fundamentals to tackle a world of
problems. Commencement speakers annually take the stand this time of year and fill the air with
advice to graduates about looking forward and looking back: We distil life's
essence and dispense it in measured doses at graduation. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: large;"> Looking
back, what early impressions linger from our school days? </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: large;">As
first graders in 1961, our generation perched at the apex of the language peak
shaped by Dick, Jane and Sally. <i>We Look and See </i>and<i> We Come and Go</i>: these basic readers paved the way for
us.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoOFXQfYPv9Bf2VNa46Nif-p847TNhBt25I1TvyySTQw64wuG_fFDzpRCycpEUOIHS8E3nsvBcT4A_uxAfIgEuWeMl28Ta-h_qcrN7sv-R3A7i5my_545NniqW8cyb1HzP5MqhIrHKooAT/s1600/Dick_and_Jane.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoOFXQfYPv9Bf2VNa46Nif-p847TNhBt25I1TvyySTQw64wuG_fFDzpRCycpEUOIHS8E3nsvBcT4A_uxAfIgEuWeMl28Ta-h_qcrN7sv-R3A7i5my_545NniqW8cyb1HzP5MqhIrHKooAT/s1600/Dick_and_Jane.jpg" /></a></div>
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<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";"> <span style="font-size: large;">80%
of first graders who were learning to read were reading <i>Fun with Dick and
Jane. </i>We knew Spot, Puff, Tim, Mother, Father, even Zeke the gardener. But
all things must change, and the series suffered a precipitous decline in sales
in the late 1960s. Having insufficient defense to charges of representing
middle class, white America, Dick, Jane and Sally were g-o-n-e. </span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: large;">We
come and go alright; Dick and Jane were casualties of a cultural war.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: large;">After
falling out of favor for content and caught in the cross-fire of cultural
hostility through the 60s and 70s, there was a surge in popularity of the
little books that taught Americans to read since the 1930s. Dick and Jane were
hot again in the late 1990s, but only as memorabilia. They were mere artifacts
of a bygone era, devalued to souvenir status.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: large;"> Leaving
the debate of language instruction methods to reading specialists, most of us
can still remember two things after all these years: the name of our first
grade teacher and Dick, Jane and Sally. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: large;">Some
relationships matter. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: large;">No
one likely remembers who won the chemistry award or class favorite. But that teacher—dare
I say a woman—who greeted the class each day of first grade in sensible shoes
and who walked with purpose in every step, we remember her. She held sway over
our class of 30 six year olds with not one assistant in sight. And she did it
handily.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: large;">Elementary
school pictures back then showed girls in dresses, boys in pants, and blackboards
or green chalk boards on the wall topped by illustrated alphabet handwriting
posters. Dusting erasers was a necessary task for the chosen few who got to
beat the chalk dust out of those felt pads against a brick wall.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: large;">Back
then kids played on the now-banned merry go ’round and lived to tell about it.
Recess meant playing jump rope, dodge ball and hopscotch not texting and
sending photos via iphone. The Princess phone had not even been invented yet,
so forgive me for not understanding why first graders need a cell phone today. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: large;">Pantsuits—but
neither pants nor jeans—became an option about 1971 for many across the state. Yes, polyester was rising to its zenith, but
fashion was only the tip of the iceberg. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: large;">Students
in the late 60s in Mississippi saw changes in school desegregation and social
structures leading to sweeping curriculum revision—every action creating an
equal and opposite reaction. This pressure on all sides combined to cause the ultimate
demise of the little books that taught us how to read. The verdict: Too white,
too suburban, too post-war America, “See Spot run,” had run its course. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif";">Life
is a lot like maps: it all depends upon where you draw the lines. And somebody
is always drawing the lines. For this reason, we need to apply our hearts unto
wisdom. My first grade teacher was among those who taught us that—back when you still could, that
is.</span></b></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: large;">She also taught us to recite each morning the 23rd Psalm and the 100th Psalm along with the Pledge. Repetition is not the highest form of learning, but there is something about impressing words upon a heart that offers a wellspring of consolation when drawing from it later. Mrs. Howard was not merely teaching us to read, she saw her job as teaching young people how to live in a world that would change more rapidly than the one she had already experienced.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: large;">The
day will surely come when others will declare our methods faulty and our
materials flawed.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: large;">Some future generation may dismiss us as irrelevant on account
of age alone. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: large;">Our lives, if they are to
matter, must represent more than a relic of by-gone days, more than shiny chrome bumpers and tail fins. As we pass along
insights to those who come behind us packed into the little verbs that first taught us go, look and see, may we
leave in our wake a legacy of loving relationships and faithful commitment in
our pursuits. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 200%;">
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Palace Script MT"; font-size: 36.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"Be careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as
wise—making the most of every opportunity..."</span><span style="font-family: "Freestyle Script"; font-size: 36.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Palace Script MT"; font-size: 36.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ephesians 5:15,16</span></div>
</blockquote>
</div>
Maritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06070669371061331391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740922010248590507.post-35216801411540729512014-05-11T08:39:00.000-05:002014-05-11T08:44:44.140-05:00Happy Mother's Day and Happy 81st Birthday, Daddy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">O</span>ne generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts.<span class="p"> Psalm 145:4</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="p"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="p">I am thankful today for two parents who began a long road together in December 1952. Armed with all the energy and innocence of youth, fueled by love and unflagging determination to a shared purpose, fortified by their families who stood behind and beside them cheering on these two barely-20 year olds, they charted a course together. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="p"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="p">And then there were three....then four....five, six, seven and so on, each one coming in due time until there were nine of us piled in that Ford van or that Mercury wagon. Now we do not fit in any vehicle. Numbering 37 strong, we await the arrival of three more this month to swaddle the same way she taught us how many years ago. </span></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="p"><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="p">One generation teaches the ways of wisdom to the next, and if we are wise, we take it to heart. </span></span> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="p">They say it started over mom's homemade white cake with white icing and a first date to First Baptist Church of Hattiesburg's revival. It only takes a spark to ignite a fire, but much more is needed to sustain and manage the blaze over the long haul. The time will come when each of us is road-tested and battle weary. When we run out of steam. When it's not fun anymore. What do we do then? </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="p">There's got to be more than cake and preachin' to see us through.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="p"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="p">I look upon the example of dear friends and family God has allowed in my path whose faithfulness is marked by forgiveness in good measure, grace to give space when needed, courage to face an uncertain future, perseverance when we see more road blocks than road ahead, and love whose limit has yet to be found.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="p"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="p">Someone asked me 30 years ago, "How can your parents divide their love by all those children? I know how much I love my children, and I could never divide it up that way." </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="p"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="p">I found the question odd, but answered it the only way I could. "They don't divide."</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="p">"They don't divide. It's not a pie where there is a fixed amount of love and each one gets a smaller share. Love multiplies."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="p"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="p"><i>Love grows when shared. </i>Love--with all it attendant joys and heartaches--expands. That's the nature of love; We simply cannot contain it or limit it if we tried. Knowledge will fail us. Understanding will fall short. We need something beyond our math operations and management skills to help us navigate this life. I find that being rooted and grounded in love is essential.</span></span><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="p"><span class="text Eph-3-14"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>For this reason I kneel before the Father,</span> <span class="text Eph-3-15" id="en-NIV-29267">from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name.</span><span class="text Eph-3-16" id="en-NIV-29268"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,</span> <span class="text Eph-3-17" id="en-NIV-29269">so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,</span><sup> </sup><span class="text Eph-3-18" id="en-NIV-29270"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>may have power, together with all the Lord’s people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,</span> <span class="text Eph-3-19" id="en-NIV-29271"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.</span><span class="text Eph-3-19" id="en-NIV-29271"> Ephesians 3:14-19</span></span></span></blockquote>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Thank you for hanging in there with all of this crazy bunch all these years. We love you dearly!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The living, the living--they praise you, as I am doing today; parents tell their children about your faithfulness. Isaiah 38:19</span>Maritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06070669371061331391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740922010248590507.post-50489326345281182252014-04-24T10:11:00.000-05:002014-04-26T08:31:22.918-05:00Lest We Forget<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">"H<span style="font-size: large;">ow do you predict the future?"</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">This question from my teacher in the 11th grade was our only homework on the first day of class: "Tell me how to predict the future."</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">"He's crazy," we said. "You can't predict the future. What a ridiculous assignment," we muttered with all the smugness of 16 year-olds. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">"You <i>can </i>predict the future, and I want you to tell me how tomorrow."</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Turns out, Pete Aycock was right.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">He was teaching a unit required for juniors in high school in Mississippi: Respect for the Flag. My hunch is that they don't teach it anymore. When we arrived empty-handed in class the next morning, he revealed the answer to our conundrum: By studying the past. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">That's it? Was he kidding, I remember thinking.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">But now it comes back from time to time. Like today with the Russian saber-rattling in the Ukraine and troops moving into Poland. Like Easter Sunday when reports leaked out about Jews who had leaflets thrust into their hands while leaving Passover services, leaflets telling them they had to register their whereabouts and their property with the government. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">And the beat goes on.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">"If we don't learn from the past, we are doomed to repeat it." Haven't we heard that somewhere before? </span></span></span><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Memory allows us to create from the past a sense of meaning which we bring into the present. </span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">A visit to the World War II Museum last week was timely for me. I got a lump in my throat upon entering and standing upon the train platform surrounded by 1940s memorabilia. The lump never went away. There were visitors in uniform, others touring in VFW hats and wheelchairs, volunteers warmly greeting all who entered. The only thing that surprised me there was the large number of really young people who came to see what all of the fuss was about. I am thankful for them--and for us--for those not yet born in 1944 who continue to hear the story and want to understand the seminal event of the last century that changed the world as we know it. Bold statement, yes, but it is not original with me. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Failure to study this part of our past may lead the young to believe that drive-through burgers, cell phones, Snapchat, and facebook are really important things. Grand themes of liberty, service and sacrifice don't have skin on them...yet. </span></span></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>We don't know what we have until we've lost it</i> comes to mind. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">For generations never deprived of religious liberty, for example, it's easy to turn up our noses at religion in general. And they have--we have--as a nation. Our protection of religious freedom among essential individual liberties is changing downgrading it into a tepid side dish on the American buffet. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">But on the heels of that WWII Museum visit, I witnessed a flagpole on the beach. Written beneath it in the sand was VFW 4139. "What's VFW?" the 24 year- old beside me asked. Mental note: they don't teach that anymore.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">It took me back. I had limited personal contact with the VFW. As a young teen in the late 60s and early 70s I answered the call from Mattie Lou Jolly to sell poppies for the VFW. My friends including Mattie Lou's niece and I collected money for veterans and pinned a red crepe paper poppy onto the lapel of the always-generous donors in Monticello. But a younger generation may have no contact with the VFW and would not know what a veteran of foreign wars is if they don't study the past. A younger generation also did not have Mrs. Isaac Newton for English who had her students learn "In Flanders Field where the poppies grow beneath the crosses, row on row...". Who knows: maybe the Gettysburg Address and the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution have all gone the way of the Pledge to the Flag--mere relics of history no one says anymore? </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">I understand the need to equip a populace for a changing world in 2014. Some things must fall by the wayside to make room for each new generation's desire for change and freedom from the old ways. But calling it change and freedom does not make it so; someone must pay a price. Always. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">Memory gives</span></span></span> a perspective </span></span></span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">which informs our decision-making </span></span></span>that comes only from history and experience. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">With each passing day our nation's leaders are distancing themselves from WWII and its hard-fought lessons. Presently our commander-in-chief and the vice president have no military experience, and fewer than 20% of congressional members are veterans. Military experience was once practically a requirement for election. When fewer than 7% of Americans are veterans now, it changes the shape of things to be sure. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">The drumbeats of war and the sights of planes invading airspace continue this week in 2014. Had we only bought a little time with all that bloodshed in WWII? Or must we learn our own lessons--one generation at a time--and repeat the same mistakes to our detriment?</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">It's an old story, this human condition and the rise and fall of civilizations. But we must keep telling it. </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;">The way to predict the future is by studying the past. And some things, I suppose, never change. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></span>
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<br />Maritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06070669371061331391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740922010248590507.post-85478618782522060472014-03-14T08:53:00.001-05:002014-03-14T08:53:21.439-05:00Lessons from Summer Camp<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">T</span>he last
time I had lived out of a foot locker was at Camp DeSoto in the 1960s; I was
not sure I was up to the task in my fifties. But camp teaches us much about
simplicity and unplugging from daily life, and given the chance later in life,
I took it.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">In times of
stress we turn to what we know first: cover the basics. In this culture the
lines blur too often. How do we learn to simplify in a world of excess? What
sustains us, and what siphons our energy drawing us into an outward spiral? Two
experiences remind me of the basics.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Five summers
ago I lived about five weeks in an unpainted cabin on the edge of the woods. Home
was a 10x12 foot space with one twin bed, two 60 watt bare bulbs and an
unlocked door. To say woods is stretching it a bit. I was serving a camp of
hundreds of girls in North Carolina, yet I lived alone and experienced a joy of
simplicity I had forgotten in my adulthood. The windows held a box fan and stayed
open offering night noises at dusk and mountain mist in the morning. Perhaps
they might have closed; I just never tried. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">No TV. No
A.C. No laptop. No kitchen. Spotty phone coverage. Taps at 9:30 p.m. Some have said,
“That sounds dreadful. I could never give up all the comforts of home.” </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">But how
often do adults get to hear a bugle close the day in the pitch dark and drift off
to sleep with a distant train whistle riding the air? When do grownups
experience having all meals prepared and served—with a side order of girls
singing time-honored songs? When can we actually be excused from work and home responsibilities
for a job that can only be called camp? I knew the season was a gift and would
never come again.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">It helped
that this job allowed me to spend that summer near three family members who
were also on staff. My job was to support the camp directors through daily
small tasks as they took seriously the trust of receiving daughters for the
summer. In return, I had the chance to recalibrate and gleaned life lessons on
simplicity:</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> I
experienced bounty rather than deprivation. Less really is more.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> I gave priority
to prayer and reading. Our priorities always will be a choice, no matter the
distractions. Choose wisely.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> I did not
miss the harsh nightly TV battles with words masquerading as news, and I determined
not to let it encroach upon my life when I returned home. Jettison the media
debris that crowds our calendar and clouds our focus.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> There is
great value in being a part of a community or a family where we are known and
loved. Cherish it.</span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">I must add that one thing that makes embracing simplicity joyful -- palatable even, for the novice that I am -- is having the choice to do so. I recognize that. Many in this world's population live in conditions that should not be romantically labeled 'simplicity': abject poverty would be appropriate. That was surely not my experience.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">A second
experience occurred recently while giving care for a friend at a cancer center.
I learned that when we nurture, serve and offer a peaceful setting for renewing
a body under physical stress some of that comes back to us as caregivers and
convicts that we need to take our own advice. These lessons are embarrassingly
elementary to write, but are more challenging to implement.<span> </span><br />
</span></span></div>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">
Simplify.</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Get plenty
of rest.</span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Exercise
daily.</span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Drink lots
of water.</span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"> <span style="line-height: 115%;"> Eat well.</span></span></div>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Stay
actively engaged in things worthwhile.</span> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Spend time
in thoughtful prayer and meditation.</span> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Go to sleep
early enough to greet the day well-rested.</span></span></div>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Haven't we
heard all of that that somewhere before? </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">In meeting
the needs of others, I found that my own were met abundantly. “For it is in
giving that we receive,” comes to mind from the Prayer of St. Francis.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Yet there
are those times when the demands placed upon us exceed our personal supply. Our
finite resources are inadequate to do the job. We need to know where to turn
where there is grace enough and strength enough to keep going when we are out
of steam. We need to ask for help. Getting help is one of the basics as well.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">We hear the
word to the wise resounding through the years: Choose wisely.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: large;">"The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never
leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." Deut. 31:8</span><span class="p"><br /></span> </span></div>
</blockquote>
Maritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06070669371061331391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740922010248590507.post-10323011037140386902014-01-20T15:39:00.000-06:002014-01-20T16:01:08.305-06:002014 and Counting....<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<br /></div>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Bookman Old Style","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Benjamin Franklin</span></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
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<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Rage Italic"; font-size: 22.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Time’s a-wastin,’ Loweezy!”</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"> I</span><span style="font-size: large;">nspiration abounds from countless sources to nudge us toward accountability for our time. I have as much and as little as anyone else, but have not found time to write and reflect in recent months. I am hoping to pick back up the pen, as it were, and enjoy more time at this journal, unless discernment calls for a different use of time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">2014...New beginnings...and I am keenly treasuring the memories of old friends through the years. That is where I've been lately in remembering and reconnecting. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Whether you know it or not, you've enriched my life, all of you who have passed through. Some have left an indelible mark, an imprint no one else can make. Faces crowd in even now as though someone turned upside down a box of worn Kodak photos, scattering memories across the table. With a little time, I'll pick them up and remember and smile. My desire is to let you know. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">So I find myself with a bit of solitude where the water meets the sky and am inspired to balance a windy January day with the warmth of a grateful heart. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ9Q-bJC2Bys_Hrc8_QeADdu4vBzzJkGjqa7oHvlw5O-yJ0UYrEuzMfO0ejgEpSYDBXWM64E7D931TIrbNsK5u2nZx1c_zh_Zixw1uQN0Bwr-3G1_gR-Lqo7OfaXd8IWNKkblp-5gRauJw/s1600/perdidosteps.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ9Q-bJC2Bys_Hrc8_QeADdu4vBzzJkGjqa7oHvlw5O-yJ0UYrEuzMfO0ejgEpSYDBXWM64E7D931TIrbNsK5u2nZx1c_zh_Zixw1uQN0Bwr-3G1_gR-Lqo7OfaXd8IWNKkblp-5gRauJw/s1600/perdidosteps.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> The morning began with sand untouched except for the wind: sculpted in soft mounds like snowy seven-minute icing peaks on a birthday cake. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">By day's end, footprints show who's been there. My life is like that, it occurs to me, and yours. Some day I'll have the time to dig deeper here. I hope. But for now, I am content to remember and give thanks.</span><br />
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(Clock from Ann Voskamp's kitchen; originally posted on www.aholyexperience.com, to which I eagerly direct friends for her wisdom and insights that far exceed my own.)Maritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06070669371061331391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740922010248590507.post-84177864243740333292013-12-14T23:04:00.001-06:002013-12-17T08:10:55.939-06:00Soul Stirrings<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiznVn3YyqZV4bP0VpNhk-1xHvsBz8NtkK5lOBg0MNptRKIpye37icV5T1ZV3gnS7biriZJizLnzYdss9DXNp8CZcMD6mD0fcS5bo5wfmMJRHcj_fRG2kOx2sz3XjSIXFGrRDauHsav1jWq/s1600/Galloway.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiznVn3YyqZV4bP0VpNhk-1xHvsBz8NtkK5lOBg0MNptRKIpye37icV5T1ZV3gnS7biriZJizLnzYdss9DXNp8CZcMD6mD0fcS5bo5wfmMJRHcj_fRG2kOx2sz3XjSIXFGrRDauHsav1jWq/s400/Galloway.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><span style="font-size: x-large;">W</span>e
often see only what we expect to see: familiar routines can restrict the
flow of creative juices and obstruct our vision of even the most
ordinary sights. Sometimes a step back and a pause can help us see better.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Leaving a doorway I have exited countless time in the last 32 years, I stood squarely and raised my phone to record the picture in the aperture of my camera. I had never realized the Victorian house that has stood on this corner since 1889 fit cozily within the frame of open doors. I stopped long enough to pause and take a closer look. It only cost a few moments. How often I need to do that in the course of an ordinary day: pause, refocus and see things from a fresh perspective.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Taking time to see rightly may take just that: time.</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">I take a lesson in seeing rightly from one the world said is blind. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">They took away what should have been
my eyes </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">(But I remembered Milton's Paradise). </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">They took away what should have been
my ears, </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">(Beethoven came and wiped away my tears). </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">They took away what should have been
my tongue, </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">(But I had talked with God when I was young). </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">He would not let them take away my
soul - </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Possessing that, I still possess the whole. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">-Helen Keller</span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Helen Keller writes of losing her
sight and hearing using the phrase "they took away." Such an immense
loss at only 19 months of age must have been utterly confusing for little Helen
and her parents. She spent the next four years blind, deaf, and unable to speak
and was said to be half-wild. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Can we imagine the trauma this family
experienced? There were no social supports or schools in the late 1880's to
offer help for them.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">But a miracle worker emerged who
relentlessly and passionately gave herself to the child, defying all odds, to
teach language and communication to Helen through her fingertips. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The
breakthrough moment arrived with the pumping of w-a-t-e-r splashing onto Helen
Keller's outstretched hand. Anne Sullivan stayed with her through childhood,
adolescence, even through college at Radcliffe where Helen graduated cum laude
in 1904 with Anne interpreting all lectures and class discussions.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Helen later traveled the world
lecturing in 25 countries and bringing hope to millions of blind and deaf
people.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Though we may marvel that one person could do so much, we quickly
remember that it was not one, but at least two--two passionate, dedicated
people who would not let <i>no</i> be an
obstacle.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Upon re-reading her lines above days
later, I am struck by something new that was not apparent initially. She refers
to her lost senses not as "my sight" or "my speech", but as
"<i>what should have been </i>my sight." Do we catch the difference? </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">For all appearances, she had lost each one, but her declaration is that in
entrusting her soul to God, she still possessed the whole. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The essence of Helen
Keller was intact.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">How beautiful.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">We may have the sense of sight and
be able to hear ambient sound, yet many of us are still living in darkness.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">We
see, but have no vision. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">We hear, but do not listen. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">We tune out a call for
self-denial and resist the whisper of a still, small voice.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">May we consider the weight of this
strong Southern woman's words over 100 years later as a point for thought when
we are tempted to complain of all that we do not have. May we remember that
there is unbridled beauty in even the most bleak circumstance if we look beyond
our limitations. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">And how do we define our limitations? How do we set the
boundary of what we cannot do? What would we do if we were not afraid of
failing?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Let us not have our limitations
define us. What a reminder her words present in a human example: think back to
what we know first! If Helen Keller can find joy and power and inspiration and
vision summed up in her brief words above, surely we can take courage and face
our day with renewed grace and power from God's Presence.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Sometimes those who do not have a
crisis looming or a huge, identifiable loss are the very ones living in the
darkness.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">We can become so acclimated to
low-light conditions and low-level living that we are unaware that we move
through our days with self-imposed limitations and unexamined minds. May light
and truth penetrate our hearts as God 'draws in our palms' the message of
unconditional love....of living w-a-t-e-r...and awakens our souls to live with
the mighty power God provides.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">At this season of Advent and in the midst of retail flurry where I am engaged daily in the course of business, I need that pause that refreshes. I need a counterweight to offset the press of the marketplace tipping the scale out of balance in my life. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">So I offer words of a call to worship this week:</span></span><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Come once more, with eager longing, to receive the promises of God.</span></span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">Out of the desert places of our lives, we gather with joy and gladness. </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">Our God has promised that lonely places and deserts will be glad and blossom as the rose.</span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">The Lord has promised that the blind with be able to see, the deaf will hear, the lame will leap and dance, and those who cannot speak will shout for joy.</span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">Our God, who made heaven and earth and all that is in them, keeps faith forever God sets the prisoners free and brings healing to all who seek him.</span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down and watches over strangers. The Lord upholds the orphan and the widow. Our God executes justice for the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. </span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: large;">Come once more with eager longing and bless the holy name of our God.</span> </blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">(Some portions reprinted from previous post on the subject.)</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Photo of Galloway House. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> <span class="attr-more" id="attr0-more">Dating to 1889, this
beautiful home was built for Bishop Charles Betts Galloway, an
internationally known preacher of the Methodist faith and longtime head
of the Galloway Memorial United Methodist Church, which is located
across the street. Author of many books on religion, history and
temperance, Galloway was a secular celebrity for many years and his
sermons were said to be legendary. This two-story frame Victorian was
constructed in the Second Empire style. The building was renovated in
1983 and now houses the offices of several lawyers.</span> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><br /></span></span></div>
Maritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06070669371061331391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740922010248590507.post-50506467095868761682013-11-10T09:00:00.001-06:002013-11-10T23:18:23.799-06:00Aslan is on the Move<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-zfZQUz6_Bi8eI39DcQxTYNQBMAW6FBkLOtQ78ytY4EO8mIYwXND7GWvQA61eu1tgNQaw37QEo99gsUvMTDTikVBo_C7Blg6B0mK1C5ev8XBbiBf6Ls2nHXb8DmrNo-trp85yERXsTPRn/s1600/aslan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-zfZQUz6_Bi8eI39DcQxTYNQBMAW6FBkLOtQ78ytY4EO8mIYwXND7GWvQA61eu1tgNQaw37QEo99gsUvMTDTikVBo_C7Blg6B0mK1C5ev8XBbiBf6Ls2nHXb8DmrNo-trp85yERXsTPRn/s400/aslan.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="quoteText">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<h1 class="quoteText">
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: large;">“Aslan is a lion--the Lion, the great Lion." </span></span></span></h1>
<h1 class="quoteText">
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">"Ooh" said Susan.
"I'd thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous
about meeting a lion"...</span></span></span></h1>
<h1 class="quoteText">
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver ..."Who said anything
about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell
you.”
</span></span></span></h1>
<span style="color: #0c343d;">―
C.S. Lewis,
<i>
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe</i></span> </blockquote>
</div>
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0c343d;"> <span style="font-size: large;">C.S. Lewis is both poet and apologist: He is profoundly shaped by imagination and grounded in faith and rational argument. And he, like Aslan, is on the move in a sense into the South Transept of Westminster Abbey later this month.</span></span><br />
<br />
<h2 class="body_head">
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Oxford novelist, literary critic, and apologist C.S. Lewis died 50 years ago, and his writings resound through the decades to teach and to encourage. Lewis believed that knowledge itself was fundamentally poetic— meaning shaped by the imagination. His was a creative genius using illustrations painted with words to communicate philosophy and truth. His approach to commending
and defending the Christian faith still lights the way for us today. </span></span></h2>
<h2 class="body_head">
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></h2>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<h2 class="body_head">
<span style="color: #0c343d;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">"Every year you grow you will find me bigger.</span>" Aslan</span></h2>
</blockquote>
<br />
<span style="color: #0c343d;"> <span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Aslan, the lion of Narnia, is often said to be 'on the move' as he communicates powerfully a story of divine seeking and provision. Lewis's series<i> The Chronicles of Narnia </i>has entertained and educated people of all ages. If one would understand a great truth, distil it to its essence and tell it to a child.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<h2 class="body_head">
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">His g</span><span style="font-weight: normal;">reat strength, many say, was his ability to present Christianity both rationally and imaginatively.
His rational approach is seen in <i>The Abolition of Man, Miracles, </i>and <i>Mere Christianity</i>. Those who are say they open-minded, if they truly are, will make room for considering the case for faith Lewis makes by reading carefully these works. <i> </i></span></span></h2>
<h2 class="body_head">
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><i>Surprised by Joy </i>contains more about the atheistic and agnostic viewpoint which he had proudly held as truth before he became a believer in Jesus as the son of God--quite a leap, but not at all an emotional experience as many characterize it today.</span></span></h2>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<h2 class="body_head">
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">“Emotional” is perhaps the last word we can apply to some of
the most important events. It was more like when a man, after a long
sleep, still lying motionless in bed, becomes aware that he is now
awake.”
</span><br /> ―
<span style="font-weight: normal;">C.S. Lewis,
<i>
Surprised by Joy</i></span></span></h2>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-size: large;"> “In reading Chesterton, as in reading MacDonald, I did not know what I
was letting myself in for. A young man who wishes to remain a sound
Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. There are traps
everywhere — "Bibles laid open, millions of surprises," as Herbert says,
"fine nets and stratagems." God is, if I may say it, very
unscrupulous.”
<br /> ―
C.S. Lewis,
</span><i><span style="font-size: large;">
Surprised by Joy</span></i></span></blockquote>
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-size: large;">Some of his works are non-theological and are devoted to his scholarly probing of the meaning of words and instructions on careful crafting of literature, as in <i>The Allegory of Love</i>.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-size: large;">Two powerful works that plumb the depth of despair that is an essential part of the human experience are <i>The Problem of Pain</i> and <i>A Grief Observed</i>, written twenty years later.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>A Grief Observed</i> is his reflection on the process of grieving for his wife who died
of cancer after three years of marriage. His journal entries throughout
the months following her death honestly describe his anger and bewilderment at God, his observations of his
impressions of life without his beloved Joy, or H (for Helen) as he refers to her, and his process of moving
in and out of stages of grieving and remembering her. His growth through pain, his redefinition of his own characterization of
God, and his ability to live gratefully for the gift of a rare true
love, ring clearly in this work. </span></span><span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-size: large;">This work was troubling for some
because the intensity of his grief and profound loss caused him to
question what he understood about God.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>He is not alone. I believe that such a place of questioning comes to most of us: that time when we reckon with the veracity of that which we always <i>thought</i> to be true. </b></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>There comes a time when we need to know what is bedrock and what is a merely a lovely platitude, but will no longer support the weight of a grief-stricken soul.</b></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>What is real, and what is shifting sand or a pacifying illusion? </b></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The death of illusion is not without value. That which is real can clearly be seen when that which was only illusion falls away, crumbled. If we are seeking the revealing of truth, much that is false must fall away. </b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The faith we hold and that Lewis recounts will withstand the strictest scrutiny, the closest inspection. What we believe matters. Our 'picture of God' underpinning our beliefs is flawed when we apply to it a saccharine coating--sweet but of no nutritive value--or when our cultural understanding shapes God in our own image.</b></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Those who struggle with the claims of Christ but remain open-minded have pursued Lewis's writings, as well as those of G.K. Chesterton from the former days, and contemporary authors Maxie Dunnam, Ravi Zacharias and Tim Keller among others who embrace varying points of view in their professing Christ. Each of these has helped shape my understanding.</b> </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #0c343d;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0JRouEMiiRHwOq-FYCAC6n0m5x4miQvnCg4bSG_XGNhkUDUE6-j3ao6zv21wgjzjD9iWoRvrEQWwSEa2CH0suZUNBFDA2YlaZUt_NrOK5utwl4kZqykIBo6EZLI0Yy3qjkiaIdxbINXo4/s1600/Poets-Corner-AH.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0JRouEMiiRHwOq-FYCAC6n0m5x4miQvnCg4bSG_XGNhkUDUE6-j3ao6zv21wgjzjD9iWoRvrEQWwSEa2CH0suZUNBFDA2YlaZUt_NrOK5utwl4kZqykIBo6EZLI0Yy3qjkiaIdxbINXo4/s320/Poets-Corner-AH.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h2 class="body_head">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #0c343d;">
A memorial to Lewis will be unveiled in Poets Corner in the South Transept of Westminster Abbey on November 22, 2013, honoring his place in history and memorializing his scholarly contributions. It is fitting that the public announcement of this event says, "all are welcome to attend."</span></span></h2>
<h2 class="body_head">
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><b><i>All are welcome </i>indeed: that is what this search for life and faith and meaning is all about. All are invited to have a seat at the table, a place at the feast. The invitation from the Lord God to each of us is not based upon erudition, nobility, education, perfection, goodness, generosity or any measure or condition other than the contrite heart that can answer 'yes</b>'.</span></span></h2>
<h2 class="body_head">
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></h2>
<h2 class="body_head">
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> Happy Birthday, C.S. Lewis. And thank you.</span></span></h2>
<h2 class="body_head">
<span style="color: #0c343d;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></h2>
<h2 class="body_head">
<span style="color: #0c343d;">
</span></h2>
<h2 class="body_head">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"> </span></h2>
<h2 class="body_head">
<span style="font-weight: normal;">Official announcement follows:</span></h2>
<h2 class="body_head">
C S Lewis Symposium and Commemoration</h2>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm4JloNch7GIJBsGnbYzlV04gfGaQwF8x2vmzWBkMr_QKKBWdWxMHfA8i0tckd6tfRjkDqWwiNohQg1ZZUdvRZ18UFF8st8VN3f98IkPhzKQPhPFoHixOGjlYAVtVX0MWFFgI5KI1JcI5m/s1600/Abbey-flag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm4JloNch7GIJBsGnbYzlV04gfGaQwF8x2vmzWBkMr_QKKBWdWxMHfA8i0tckd6tfRjkDqWwiNohQg1ZZUdvRZ18UFF8st8VN3f98IkPhzKQPhPFoHixOGjlYAVtVX0MWFFgI5KI1JcI5m/s1600/Abbey-flag.jpg" /></a><b>Thursday 21st and Friday 22nd November 2013<br />
St Margaret’s Church and Westminster Abbey</b><br />
<br />
On the fiftieth anniversary of the death of C S Lewis, Westminster
Abbey Institute hosts a series of events marking his career as one of
the 20th century's most notable Christian writers and thinkers. As well
as celebrating Lewis's remarkable achievements as a writer of fiction,
apologetics and scholarship, the series will look at the question of
how, in the 21st century, his example may be emulated and his legacy
continued.<br />
On Thursday 21st November, Alister McGrath and Malcolm Guite will
deliver lectures examining Lewis's philosophical and fictional
approaches to communicating the Christian faith. Michael Ward will
chair a panel discussing the strengths and weaknesses of Lewis's various
endeavours and taking questions from the conferees. On the panel with
be novelist Jeanette Sears, theologian Judith Wolfe, and apologists
William Lane Craig, Peter S. Williams, and Michael Ramsden.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<br />
<i><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/877675"></a>
</i></blockquote>
<br />Maritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06070669371061331391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740922010248590507.post-32100343101894600752013-11-03T23:02:00.000-06:002014-09-01T09:18:33.185-05:00What We Need When Life is a Blurr<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh4yo-zsq0MKke3N25rSOi196Q9ccEqYDjEfm37RhTt2AXaz-kOGYahtYVSMe8eUX1DgSQY3zpMMWLCpvq5tVTRn4RV03lCeZ8jj9ITMqyuazTjVmTreLDtxLxhQnnQWihnpefs92nnmqo/s1600/lifeisablur.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh4yo-zsq0MKke3N25rSOi196Q9ccEqYDjEfm37RhTt2AXaz-kOGYahtYVSMe8eUX1DgSQY3zpMMWLCpvq5tVTRn4RV03lCeZ8jj9ITMqyuazTjVmTreLDtxLxhQnnQWihnpefs92nnmqo/s320/lifeisablur.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">S</span><span style="font-size: large;">ometimes we move through life on autopilot seeing only what we expect to see. Then something holds our gaze long enough for our brains to tune in to the moment. Part of living fully in the present is to be more aware of our surroundings and grateful for unacknowledged gifts. I find that such an attentiveness helps me daily.</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;">But I do not always do it well...</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdBoBkz6uljtADWvzZIy44XHlLNbPcY9AcfSnk6i6c1Qm29xZeloNBxvUi__yRhfazO9iyv-TVX8Kiv6zJL2lzSBhpKJf90uw0_PQLeMteW_nNK0pE0GHIZvXFqPP9lkAXwjGPo1gxFNsP/s1600/face-of-grace-getting-to-know-god.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdBoBkz6uljtADWvzZIy44XHlLNbPcY9AcfSnk6i6c1Qm29xZeloNBxvUi__yRhfazO9iyv-TVX8Kiv6zJL2lzSBhpKJf90uw0_PQLeMteW_nNK0pE0GHIZvXFqPP9lkAXwjGPo1gxFNsP/s1600/face-of-grace-getting-to-know-god.jpg" height="337" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></span>
<br />
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Was that you, Lord, in the lady with
the purple coat?</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br />
She wore purple with a red cap shielding her from the rain. Robed in purple,
topped with crimson: a royal image, I recalled. <br />
<br />
She hobbled clutching her cane in her right hand, pushing a three-wheeled cart
with her left, wobbling upright with each step, with her bag swinging as a
pendulum from the elbow. She looked right at home leaving the bus station or
making her way through an airport terminal but not here—not in my part of town.
I waited at the light as she crossed.<br />
<br />
We say we are mindful of your Presence among us, Lord, but are we really? We
usually see what we expect to see while on our way to work on a busy
morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Predictable routines leave
little time for unexpected sightings of glory.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Then again, you show up at
unexpected places. I heard myself ask aloud to no one present, “Was that you,
Lord?”<br />
<br />
She caught my eye, but did I stop to see if I could help? No. She was a
stranger, and I was on my way to somewhere else. <br />
<br />
Aren't we always on the way to somewhere else when you break through our day
and beckon for our attention? We need you to make it clear, Lord, if we are to
step aside and see a great sight. I have this rule, you see, a rule that I do
not pick up strangers. I'm afraid of taking them into my car for some perfectly
good reasons you would understand. But sometimes we need to set aside our
closely-held rules, else we just go on about our business, living by our own
rules--kind of like I just did today when I saw her brown skin glistening wet from
the morning rain on her purple coat.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This mental conversation filled the
space of a glimpse, just the time it takes for the light to glow red then
green. But a glimpse is all we have sometimes, is it not?<br />
<br />
Just a brush with glory. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A brief visitation. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A few seconds should be enough when
we walk closely enough with you to recognize when you have a task for us to
relieve suffering, to lighten another's load. But we can be so encumbered with
our own cares as I was this morning that we cannot see another's. <br />
<br />
We may miss the message.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We may not see you when you show up
at times and places we are not expecting.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And I was strongly impressed with
the reminder to look for you in the faces of the hurting, the aged, the lonely,
the foreigner among us. The glimpse turned me inside out. My little morning
sadness about other concerns vanished in a breath--the breath that I took in as
I asked aloud, “Was that you, Lord?"<br />
<br />
You give us our next breath, and you take it away. You take it away with
beauty, nature and music, and you take it away with pain. And in that split
second when we inhale silently and take in the sight before us, you remind us
you are present. God with us.<br />
<br />
So, yes, perhaps that was you, Lord, not transfigured at all but mysteriously
present in the realigning of my thoughts and the shuffling of my priorities so
that I might see more fully those around me.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Later my friend told me of an auto
accident near the highway. An ambulance’s blue lights held waiting cars at bay
while an upturned cart sat spinning silently at the edge of the road. I
wondered if I had seen her earlier, but I was on my way to somewhere else.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On the way to somewhere else: that’s
where much of life happens.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lord, speak to our hearts. Interrupt our days
of ordinary sights and sounds so that we do not miss an opportunity to serve.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoQuote" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">To you O Lord, I lift my soul. Show
me your paths and teach me to follow; </span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoQuote" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">guide me by your truth and instruct
me. </span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoQuote" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Psalm 25: 1, 4</span></div>
Maritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06070669371061331391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740922010248590507.post-88956607788648765532013-10-23T23:44:00.001-05:002013-10-23T23:44:41.276-05:00A Surprising Stop on the A Train<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_PMlJbvYmsogT_EBOd36J8EBeNzGsNtlcjOFIajTQ4TLRyK96AskI0SysUlKytod29TKWWmfpv6yXqWT9o0cUlg3BzIjV3rDQiQDsMFiPfQsG3Q6520zQFrrWdqK4T5A7j2ZFjmKXhyphenhyphen3x/s1600/oct2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_PMlJbvYmsogT_EBOd36J8EBeNzGsNtlcjOFIajTQ4TLRyK96AskI0SysUlKytod29TKWWmfpv6yXqWT9o0cUlg3BzIjV3rDQiQDsMFiPfQsG3Q6520zQFrrWdqK4T5A7j2ZFjmKXhyphenhyphen3x/s320/oct2.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">~L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables</span></div>
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This beautiful October Saturday's harvest festival featured pie contests, cake walks, live music, scarecrow decorating, children's activities and fun for all. Ahhhh, I do love a good fall festival, and this was one of the best.</div>
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Two things were surprising here: These photos were taken at the last stop of the A Train north of NYC just outside The Cloisters--hardly the location of a Deep South State Fair or a church carnival. </div>
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Secondly, the food was all complimentary. Abundant, beautiful, carefully prepared and presented food--free for all. Homemade cinnamon sugar donuts. Cookies of every kind. Brownies. Apple cider. The welcome sign meant just that. We knew no one there, and we were still welcome.</div>
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Just a delightful scene to come upon when I least expected it. We were on the way to somewhere else when we encountered the merriment. It beckoned us in.</div>
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I left wondering if our churches could be a little more inviting to those who venture near. </div>
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Do we send the clear message that all are welcome, no matter who they are? </div>
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Do we share with others as abundantly as we have received from our Heavenly Father's bounty--extending forgiveness without price, offering our best we can prepare in our relationships, not waiting to see what we can exchange in return? </div>
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That's the simple beauty of a fall festival: it's all about a community's celebrating the yield of the kitchen or the crops and enjoying October blue skies at their best. A wonderful precursor to Thanksgiving, October festivals serve as our warm up act for a season of giving thanks. Just to get the juices flowing, if you will. </div>
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Thanksgiving is not merely a holiday; it is a way of life. Let us live as those who are willing to welcome others as we share what we have, especially in the life of faith.</div>
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Maritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06070669371061331391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740922010248590507.post-47649464621973182442013-10-16T08:28:00.000-05:002013-10-16T08:29:25.077-05:00Imagining the Future<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ0hVW_Sdiau8vssRjFGnBtG-deiDAVkXTEhbcHkAn3Wi2HlkwVQ2Sukm4I4N_4MObLgNxBUeFqQGDjDRQwxbfiwDTuuEN3kXX1US-0VKuhhmk7TBzdCIFS-GbIx2hNcHQgJKgkpEZd0Qi/s1600/monsanto.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ0hVW_Sdiau8vssRjFGnBtG-deiDAVkXTEhbcHkAn3Wi2HlkwVQ2Sukm4I4N_4MObLgNxBUeFqQGDjDRQwxbfiwDTuuEN3kXX1US-0VKuhhmk7TBzdCIFS-GbIx2hNcHQgJKgkpEZd0Qi/s400/monsanto.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">H</span>ow did we
imagine life would unfold 100 years in the future? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Those who
remember The Wonderful World of Disney saw teasing glimpses of Disneyland’s
House of the Future, a plastic Monsanto marvel made in 1957 with no natural
materials--and they boasted about that. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was short-lived, surviving only a decade
before destruction and obsolescence. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Disneyworld’s Dream Home came later with silhouettes
of the previous model tucked inside like drawings from Hidden Pictures of
Highlights magazine. It featured automatic lights, cameras watching inside and
outdoors, and wall-mounted TV screens in every room. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Preposterous,
many said: That will never happen.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Now flash
back to 1962. Feeding the national fascination with space, ABC chose for its
first color broadcast an animated series for adults. What was this seminal work
set in 2062? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hardly a heavyweight
documentary, The Jetsons with George and Jane atop their Skypad apartment celebrated
its 51<sup>st</sup> birthday this week. Teaming with his boy Elroy, Judy, Rosey
the robot and Astro, ABC gave us episodes from a future we are blitzing toward
with the speed of a flung Spacely sprocket. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">2062 is not
so far away; in fact, we are halfway there. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Jetsons might be merely a footnote on the
1960s cultural landscape, but I discovered a cult following. What can this show
teach us?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Jetsons’
anniversary this week is a simple—very simple--visual reminder of the human
tendency to create a new thing in our own image.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The producers imagined a distant century but
reflected the norms of its time. Do we not do
the same?<b> Myopic or distorted or blemished, our lenses inform the way we view
life.</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Seeing and
interpreting the future through 1960s lenses, for example, they gave us
turn-knob technology rather than touch screen digital operation.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Transistor radios were all the rage in the 60s.
If we could reach all the way to WTIX in New Orleans on our AM dial or KAAY or
WNOE FM at night, maybe a Dick Tracy video watch would not be far behind. After
all, we could rotate the TV antenna outside to pick up new stations, offering a
vast improvement over aluminum foil crimped around rabbit ears. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">They created
Jane Jetson, homemaker, reflecting the domestic scenery of the time because that’s
what most women did. The family’s robot housekeeper merged images of a steel tank
and a French maid in black skirt, apron and dainty white cap with a feather
duster. Now we know feathers move the dust around; microfiber or wool captures
it. A real robot or real homemaker would know this. But the duster is an
image—cliché perhaps—for their depiction of Rosey. We, too, communicate in
visual shorthand using images that pack an unspoken punch. Lapel pins and
bumper stickers have given way to social media icons, donkeys and elephants.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What we and
the Jetsons’ creators could not accurately foresee, however, was the concept of
the internet and instantaneous worldwide communication. <b>Some things are just
too big to imagine; They exceed our capacity for taking in so expansive and new a concept</b> .</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Flying with
a jet-propelled back pack, hovering in personal spacecrafts, living among the planets
have been the stuff of Disney and science fiction for years. People are curious
about what lies beyond our horizon.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Developing
vivid imaginations and pursuing knowledge are worthwhile, stretching our
capacity for human understanding. We yearn to understand how things fit together and to reconcile discord. And how often do people cry out in times of
heartache or distress, “I just don’t understand…” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It serves to
remind me that there are some things in life we’re just not meant to
understand.</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Understanding may offer wisdom or discernment.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Understanding may bring a measure of
satisfaction.</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<b>
</b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But understanding alone will never bring us
Peace. </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The human
drive to figure things out—even to control our circumstances and master our
lives—can propel us in a circuitous maze whether in 1962 or 2062. Rather than
live frenzied lives in futility, we can make a mid-course correction halfway to
an unseen future. We can trust our present and future to the only One who is
not bound by our human limitations of time and space, who offers Peace in God’s
very Presence. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We can never
understand our way into that kind of love. It’s out of this world.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(Reality, not imagined, as photographed by the Hubble telescope.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<br />
<i><span class="text Eph-3-16" id="en-NIV-29268"><sup class="versenum"> </sup><span style="font-size: small;">I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through the Spirit in your inner being,</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><sup> </sup><span class="text Eph-3-17" id="en-NIV-29269"><sup class="versenum"> </sup>so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,</span> <span class="text Eph-3-18" id="en-NIV-29270">may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,</span> </span></i><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="text Eph-3-19" id="en-NIV-29271"><i><sup class="versenum"> </sup>and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. </i> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="text Eph-3-19" id="en-NIV-29271">Ephesians 3:16-19</span></div>
Maritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06070669371061331391noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740922010248590507.post-42800858219403816312013-09-17T09:11:00.002-05:002013-09-17T20:39:50.630-05:00Matters of the Heart<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="text Prov-4-23" id="en-NIV-16514">Above all else, guard your heart,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text Prov-4-23">for everything you do flows from it.</span></span></span></i></h3>
<h3 class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="indent-1"><span class="text Prov-4-23">Proverbs 4:23</span></span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="indent-1"><span class="text Prov-4-23"> </span></span></span></h3>
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</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="indent-1"><span class="text Prov-4-23"></span></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">I</span>ts
unassuming blue canvas cover with gold stamped lettering on the spine sits
humbly on the bookshelf. Few would guess that its content began a revolution
overturning conventional wisdom and launching its record-setting trajectory
that continues today. But peering behind the curtain of time is a back story close
to my heart.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">It is early
spring in Oxford in 1955 in the building that still bears his family name.
Dr. Arthur C. Guyton stands in the locking knee brace he invented before his
first year physiology students. W. B. Saunders had approached him about writing
a book, and he needed someone to draw figures, as he called them, to illustrate
his concepts. A classmate raised the arm of another student and urged, “Sonny,
you can draw.” </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“See me
after class,” Dr. Guyton said.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">These four
words changed my father’s life. They began a journey with pen and ink and daily
brushes with genius. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Dr. Guyton’s
offer provided an artist’s dream: a LeRoy lettering set, a Sears catalog for
ordering supplies, an actual office down
the hall from his for working and studying, and—as though that were not gift
enough—a paying job for four years. Such proximity to a man of Dr. Guyton’s
intellect and generosity of spirit yielded incalculable life lessons.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzTR8KdxUdIX32PlAy5mytFCw22_qsOPAFYoHEg2raWkBMoidNdzK6iCcW0bYyHj6pLLlZQ4pEcT2Esb2EEunhmheNpzxCvPjc5RhFZgHJY31bMfpE9Q8GisJ24AH9GKNlNmzjLISx11-A/s1600/docsart2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzTR8KdxUdIX32PlAy5mytFCw22_qsOPAFYoHEg2raWkBMoidNdzK6iCcW0bYyHj6pLLlZQ4pEcT2Esb2EEunhmheNpzxCvPjc5RhFZgHJY31bMfpE9Q8GisJ24AH9GKNlNmzjLISx11-A/s400/docsart2.jpg" width="300" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">That new
blue book published in 1956 would be the <i>Textbook
of Medical Physiology</i>, still the definitive text for medical education in
the world. </span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">The first
and second editions contain young Brantley Pace’s original hand-drawn figures
and illustrations in pen and ink and employ the then-high tech zip-a-tone for
others. Graphic design in the 1950s was a skilled hand and an elbow.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;">Dr. Guyton
said in his original preface, “Many will look upon this one-man attempt to
write a physiology text as extremely presumptuous.” Except that he was the one
man who could do it. Who said, it’s not bragging if it’s true? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;">Many have
documented his storied tenure at the University of Mississippi Medical School
and his unquestioned genius. UMC writers including Maurine Twiss, Barbara Austin and
Janis Quinn have written of his legacy. Janis Quinn and Carroll Brinson, whose
mother taught me piano in Monticello while I am walking memory lane, authored a
favorite book <i>Arthur C. Guyton</i> which
offers fascinating reading.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;">Guyton’s
devotion to his wife and family is central to the person he was, and no mention
of his gifted life can omit this aspect. We have family Christmas cards from
the 1960s with black and white photos of the enlarging brood of Guytons still
tucked into the old books with personal notes from Dr. Guyton to my dad. His beloved
Ruthie, as he wrote her name in the dedication of <i>Function of the Human Body</i>, <i>Modern
Asia Edition</i>, another book my father was blessed to illustrate, was an
amazing woman in her own right. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;">The
University of Mississippi through Guyton began educating medical professionals
around the world in the 1950s and 1960s. My brother was doing orthopedic
surgery in Croatia two decades ago and fetched a copy of Guyton’s text from the
bookshelf there. Few would expect such ripples from this small state.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;">Fifty-seven
years after its first printing, this masterwork is in its 13<sup>th</sup>
edition with Dr. John Hall as co-author. Such a publishing feat is
unprecedented. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;">My daughter had it on her textbook list this fall in a nurse
practitioner program in Nashville and overheard someone question, “University
of Mississippi?...” She could only smile.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><b>When
considering what we are to do in this life, I believe our calling is rooted in
our giftedness. We often find our calling at the intersection of ability and
opportunity. </b>When our talents meet a profound need we have the chance to test
drive that calling and see if it is affirmed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;">Dr. Brantley
Pace is still practicing medicine 58 years after that fortuitous raised hand initiated a journey with Dr. Guyton he cherishes more each year. And he still pulls out his pen to draw a
figure to illustrate a point or to offer a cartoon bunny rabbit for the
children.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="line-height: 115%;">I am
grateful for life’s unexpected blessings that flowed from one man's careful examination of the heart.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="indent-1"><span class="text Prov-4-23"></span></span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span class="indent-1"><span class="text Prov-4-23"> </span></span> </span></div>
<br />Maritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06070669371061331391noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-740922010248590507.post-60482481439598758072013-07-13T01:39:00.003-05:002013-07-13T22:52:11.688-05:0031 Things Barbie Never Knew<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgSzgr3bTVDgakM2T3__fHUG9NK9Y2AXE1mYz-lyfAY6ZTkoaOuL1DaBOU5b3A0vaUCru8P8TKTFbt8S_mK-6XC5SkbYg8bbrH4ZhiONwSh29v41a8W1hgkRkYVTGnuL07KVoCIghikarM/s1600/barbiecake.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgSzgr3bTVDgakM2T3__fHUG9NK9Y2AXE1mYz-lyfAY6ZTkoaOuL1DaBOU5b3A0vaUCru8P8TKTFbt8S_mK-6XC5SkbYg8bbrH4ZhiONwSh29v41a8W1hgkRkYVTGnuL07KVoCIghikarM/s400/barbiecake.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">B</span>arbie's debut in 1959 is a distant galaxy away from 2013. I'm told little girls--straddling two centuries--still want Barbie cakes and pink boas and princess dresses along with their smart phones. And when they grow up, our culture tells us they want a killer wardrobe and a red convertible with or without Ken or a suitable substitute. With all due respect to Mattel and its marketing genius, our girls will learn that life is no fairy tale to be lived in the confines of a pink vinyl Dream House. Life is too big for that. Real Life out of the Barbie box calls for a breadth skills that Barbie never needed and a depth of spiritual maturity to sustain us through the collapse of dreams and rebuilding of new ones.<br />
<br />
This world's goods aren't enough.<br />
<br />
Fashion falls short.<br />
<br />
The blister pack of outfits with matching plastic pumps pales in comparison to the resources needed to face life outside the Dream House. It would take Skipper and Midge and Scooter and the whole crew to create a community of women and men to address life skills 101. We can help equip our daughters today with knowledge far better than a wish for Happily Ever After. <br />
<br />
"<span style="font-size: small;">31</span> things to teach your daughter" has been circulating with unnamed authors. I saw a compilation and made some changes tonight as I considered it. This is not comprehensive, but rather a starting place for a conversation for our girls...our nieces...our daughters. It is in stream-of-consciousness format: alternatively addressed to and about the girls of a coming generation.<br />
<br />
[I've already lived through the 60's and '70s once, so please give a little grace for addressing boys and girls separately. I have learned that's it's actually ok....political correctness aside. Anyone reading this is likely inclined to be generous and not critical anyway. Thanks.]<br />
<br />
1. Learn how to give a<b> firm handshake</b>. Teach girls to initiate a handshake confidently. Teach boys too.<br />
<br />
2. <span class="text_exposed_show">Look people in the eye when you talk with them. Learn to <b>express yourself </b>well. </span><span class="text_exposed_show"></span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><br /></span>
<span class="text_exposed_show">3. </span><span class="text_exposed_show">Show<b> respect</b> for yourself and act in a way that is worthy of respect. This includes the way you dress and speak. Yes, it sounds old fashioned, like something out of the '50s. I make no apologies. Some things are just timeless.</span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><br /> 4. </span><span class="text_exposed_show"><span class="text_exposed_show">Make new <b>friends</b> and keep the old. Plastic shoes are disposable; people are not. We need one another.</span></span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><span class="text_exposed_show"> </span><br /> 5. </span><span class="text_exposed_show"><span class="text_exposed_show">Pay attention to <b>how guys treat
their moms</b>, and stay clear of the ones who are not respectful. Don't kid yourself: You are not likely to be the exception.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span class="text_exposed_show">6. </span><span class="text_exposed_show"></span><span class="text_exposed_show"><span class="text_exposed_show">Don't turn<b> red flags</b> pink. When you see a
red flag in a relationship, don't tell yourself that it's really no big
deal; it is. You can't make it fade or disappear. It is there as a warning.</span></span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"></span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><br /> 7.<b> Know how</b> to change a tire, throw a football, drive a stick shift, and use a drill. </span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><br /> 8. Have your own <b>tool kit </b>and know how to use it.</span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><br /></span>
<span class="text_exposed_show">9. Don’t be afraid to <b>use your voice</b> – sometimes it’s the most powerful tool you have.</span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><br /> 10. Know basic <b>self defense</b> – be able to get out of a situation, and run fast. And use that powerful voice.</span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><br /> 11. Teach them how to <b>apologize</b> well; it will be necessary often. Model it for best results. The word "Sorry" is not an apology. And practice accepting an apology. Forgiveness is not easy, and it is not optional. </span><br />
<br />
<span class="text_exposed_show">12. Images published in magazines and online are photoshopped. They are altered reality. Anyone can manipulate brush strokes to have flawless skin or look skinny. <b>Confidence and optimism</b> are more attractive than a size on a label. And joy that comes from within beats a fake smile any day.</span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><br /> 13. Laugh often, but not at others' expense. <b>Laughter</b> can diffuse a challenging situation, especially when you can laugh at yourself. </span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><br />
14. Block out the toxic voices that tell you you are not worth loving. <b>You are beloved</b> of the Father and a precious child of God. Not every opinion is worth listening to; Listen to the ones that matter, and learn whose opinion you will allow to
shape your thoughts.</span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><br /> 15. <b>Advertisers</b> spend millions to get into your head and wallet, and they are exceedingly good at it. Don't buy everything they are selling. And don't buy what you do not need.</span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><br /></span>
<span class="text_exposed_show">16. Life is full of <b>mountains and valleys</b>. Not all mountains can be moved no matter how much we try. We learn--like that childhood Bear Hunt--sometimes we have to go through it. Or around it. To get to the other side. Practice courage and perseverance. Both are needed.</span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><br /></span>
<span class="text_exposed_show">17. Write a proper handwritten thank you letter. Texting is no substitute. Add to this basic table manners. <b><i>Manners</i></b> is shorthand for many behaviors taught in Barbie's day and encompasses a way of living in community with courtesy for others. Showing concern for the other person is in short supply today. Please. Thank you. Excuse me. Do not interrupt grownups. Boys and girls who have good manners are welcome most anywhere, I remember learning. Manners have gotten caught in the crossfire of our culture, and our lack of civility and boorish rudeness bears witness to their demise. </span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><br /> 18. How to manage her <b>money. </b></span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><br /> 19. </span><span class="text_exposed_show">Nobody <b>has it all</b>. Don't fall for that one either.</span><span class="text_exposed_show"></span><br />
<br />
<span class="text_exposed_show">20. </span><span class="text_exposed_show">How to handle herself <b>online</b> – using effective privacy settings, remembering that
anything shared is already out of her hands, and
knowing that people online aren’t always who they say they are. This is a minefield in her future. </span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"></span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><br /> 21. </span><span class="text_exposed_show">Be s<b>low to anger</b>. </span><span class="text_exposed_show"></span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><br /> 22.<b> Love fiercely.</b> </span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><br /> 23. <b>Dream</b> big, and set realistic goals. You can accomplish far more than you think you can.</span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><br />
24.<b> Develop</b> your strengths and talents. Know
your personal limits and weaknesses as well. Once
you identify them you can use them as a platform for action in your life and a landing place to rebuild.</span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><br /> 25. Most things worth having or worth doing require sacrifice. <b>Count the cost.</b> Everything has a price. </span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><br /> 26. Try to live with <b>few regrets</b>. </span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><br /> 27. Just because it’s never been done doesn’t mean it can’t be done. Push the limits. Try. Try again. That's not trite; its called<b> perseverance</b>, and it's hard. You can do hard things.</span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><br /> 28. Learn basic <b>sewing</b> skills. Everyone needs to know how to sew on a button and mend a hem. Just another form of a toolbox--with a string.</span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><br /> 29. </span><span class="text_exposed_show"><span class="text_exposed_show">Trust your <b>instincts</b>. If it feels wrong, it probably is. Listen to that prompting, and don’t silence it.</span> </span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><br /> 30. </span><span class="text_exposed_show"><span class="text_exposed_show">Life comes unraveled when we least
expect it. Sometimes we mend and help another; sometimes <b>we need
mending</b>. Know where to go and how to ask for help. In my faith experience, there is a Healer who mends
our broken places; God sometimes cures in the mending, but always
provides a way through life's unraveling times, moving toward ultimate
healing</span>.</span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show"><br /> 31. There is more to this world than meets the eye. Pursue things that last. <b>Develop an eternal perspective.</b></span><br />
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<span class="text_exposed_show"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Thanks to Sally for beautiful Barbie cake. ;-)</span><b> </b></span>Maritahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06070669371061331391noreply@blogger.com1