Head-dibs

Song featured in Crossings Community Church Christmas Concert

Song featured in the Crossings Community Church Christmas Concert.

Song featured in the Crossings Community Church Christmas Concert.

Weeping is cast for the night but Joy! Joy! Song featured in the Crossings Community Church Christmas Concert.

Song featured in the Crossings Community Church Christmas Concert.

Today's is my wife's birthday and in this post I'd like to acknowledge the woman who put her life "on hold" to see that others were fed, clean, dressed, not bleeding--just taken care of overall. She's a wife, Mom, Nanna, Aunt . . . and a salesperson. She can sell you just about anything off the shelf. Guess you'd have to be there. And if you are, bring cash. Anyway . . . Now it's her turn. Now that everyone's (mostly) self-sustaining, she's gone back to school and working on her Bachelor's in Communications. And she's doing it, too! Full load of classes, late nights, writing papers, reading books--the works. And still making sure there's food in the fridge, that the lights are on and band-aids are in the box. So here's to another year, uh, wiser! "Happy Birthday" Leslie! 

"Where Is Love Now, Out Here In The Dark?" (below, start at 9:05)  Songs featured in the 2016 and 2017 Crossings Community Church Christmas Concert.

There's a wall inside my heart Can't get 'round it Keeps the two of us apart Can't get over it But under my​ skin Is where You begin And Your kindness leads me now . . .

"Don't Open. Ever."

Now that mowing season is over, my Saturday's are a bit more "open" for accomplishing other tasks in the yard. A few weeks ago all the tomato plants finally got uprooted (leaving us with the 175,000 green and ripening tomatoes that refused to grow in the warmer months--strange plant). The trellis used to grow cucumbers got rolled up and stored. The compost got spread. All that remained was the leaves. The Leaves. This is not meant to criticize anyone, but why burn leaves? Why fill the air with smoke (especially when it blows toward my house, thank you very much) and create a fire hazard (we've not had rain for months until recently)? Why not compost your leaves? Over time you can feed your flower and vegetable gardens with them . . . So I got this neat little gadget. It's a leaf blower that, when you open the trap door, put the tube on the OTHER end and add a collecting bag, makes a nifty yard vacuum that (wait for it . . . ) chops your leaves into compost ...

" Finding Everett Ruess by David Roberts, with a foreword by Jon Krakauer, is the definitive biography of the artist, writer, and eloquent celebrator of the wilderness whose bold solo explorations of the American West and mysterious disappearance in the Utah desert at age 20 have earned him a large and devoted cult following. More than 75 years after his vanishing, Ruess stirs the kinds of passion and speculation accorded such legendary doomed American adventurers as Into the Wild’s Chris McCandless and Amelia Earhart."

6:00 p.m. on Saturday, December 16 and Sunday December 17 at Crossings Community Church.

50 - 135 AD Making discoveries is a joy that comes from being a lifelong learner. One of my favorite quotes is by Shakespeare, who gave this beautiful picture of the stages of life in Act 2, Scene 5 of "As You Like It." He wrote,  "All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages. . . . " The rest of the short quote is a moment of consideration .  My joyful discovery was to learn that Shakespeare may have very well been influenced by the Greek slave-turned-philosopher, Epictetus, who wrote in The Enchiridon (The Little Handbook, 17): “Remember that you are an actor in a play, and the Playwright chooses the manner of it: if he wants it short, it is short; if long, it is long. If he wants you to act a poor man you must act the part with all your powers; and so if your part be a cripple or a magistrate or a plain ma...

"YESTERDAY, December 7, 1941 a date which will live in infamy the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan." (President Franklin D. Roosevelt's entire speech here )  USS Arizona under attack Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day is your opportunity to show your support for veterans who are still alive from the Pearl Harbor bombing.  Take advantage of the day to respect and honor to those who give and gave themselves in service to our country and its security every day. 

Not so much an American holiday, but our present day (no pun intended) Christmas traditions are connected to this historical figure. Ἅγιος Νικόλαος (Saint Nicholas) was born in Greek territory in southern Turkey around 270 AD and died on this day in 343 AD. He is buried in Italy (a church is dedicated to his memory there) . . . or in Ireland (as indicated by a tombstone that supposedly marks his grave). "Obeying Jesus' words to 'sell what you own and give the money to the poor,' Nicholas used his whole inheritance to assist the needy, the sick, and the suffering. He dedicated his life to serving God and was made Bishop of Myra while still a young man. Bishop Nicholas became known throughout the land for his generosity to those in need, his love for children, and his concern for sailors and ships." ( St. Nicholas Center ) One fact to remember: in his days, Christians were killed or imprisoned for their faith. Bishop Nicholas did not escape this persecutio...

Yes, there really is such and thing, and today's the day for it (not to be confused with International Bath Day on June 14). Let me put your mind at ease, as someone may be wondering I could support a thing such as a Bathtub Party. Depends what you're thinking, I guess. I'm confident the day does not advocate a gathering of friends in tub, though without doubt few revelers may try. If this were a political party (in this day and age, you just never know) I might consider joining but I'm sure a Bathtub Party is not political.  If we were in England, we would call this "Bathtub Day" (no party). Legend has it that the bathtub was introduced to England on this day in 1828--or was it December 7? Of course one finds this difficult to believe considering the existence of Greek and Roman tubs and the fact that Romans did make their way across England in the early Hundreds A.D. . . . Greek bath in Nestor's Palace Regardless, based on what I've read ...

The Emperor Marcus Aurelius opens his second book with this thought: "Begin the morning by saying to yourself, 'I shall meet with the busy-body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial.' All these things happen to them by reason of their ignorance of what is good and evil. But I who have seen the nature of the good that it is beautiful, and of the bad that it is ugly, and the nature of him who does wrong, that it is akin to me, not only of the same blood or seed, but that it participates in the same intelligence and the same portion of the divinity, I can neither be injured by any of them, for no one can fix on me what is ugly, nor can I be angry with my kinsman, nor hate him, For we are made for co-operation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth. To act against one another then is contrary to nature; and it is acting against one another to be vexed and to turn away." Prepare yourself. There are people ...

No words. Just listen. Photocredit: JWilson. From my music stand