Sunday, June 29, 2008

Once in Love with Abby!

We were out at Baisley Park. The "big ones" were on the courts and the "little ones" were exploring, their constant chore. The Little ones, including Abby were always exploring in some odd place. The freedom that they enjoyed.
This was not a test of the emergency notifying unit. Squeals and screams were coming from the plains. I heard the story from the other little ones and not from Abby, because he was too little to talk.
We heard screams and the escapees came to us stating that an enormous dog was attacking. All Bodden hearts stopped, all were accounted for but one. The baby of the babies was still out there with that enormous dog.
My eyes scanned the landscape for this enormous dog and it didn't take long to see that about 110 yards down the hill, past the little trees, between the 2 baseball diamonds was a full grown St. Bernard dog. We were too young and too naive to know what St. Bernard dogs do. We didn't even look at eachother, we just ran down hill to find where's Abby.
Jacq, was talking as we ran, the rest of us were out of breath. She said that they were climbing in the little trees and Jo and Ab were still in the little tree. Dad saw us running and started whistling, which meant "if this is not a death-threatening emergency, you'd better stop exactly where you are. 1/2 of us stopped, they hadn't read the fine print in the whistle. I kept going and stopped about 10 yards from the St. Bernard dog. I was not nor am I that brave when it comes to dogs, even now that I know St. Bernard dogs...
Jo-Jo was slowly and methodically helping Abb out of the tree and she turned around and saw the enormous beast and ran toward where we were which left Abby 2 yrs old alone with the dog. He also started to run and it did not take long for the dog to do what it does. Knock Abby to the ground and commence licking his entire body from bottom to top. Ab was about the size of the tongue and could have been inhaled by that dog, if it weren't a St. Bernard.
He was being loved on, by a St. Bernard. I like you Ab, tell me what is wrong and I can help you. You are what is wrong, we said. We didn't know that St. Bernard dogs were helper dogs. Abby did now. I don't think he was ever afraid of any animal after that.
Every creature loved Abby!

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Shall We Dance?

My favorite memory of Uncle Pat is how he and Grandma Monica looked into eachother's eyes. They loved and respected eachother and it was obvious in the way that they looked at eachother. He was the baby brother and She was the oldest sister and there is some mystical bond in such a relationship which to me was signified in the beautiful look in their eyes when they danced.
Uncle Pat was tall and stately and handsome and Grandma, always beautiful and ornate,still their love was not built upon the way that they looked, but on mutual admiration.
At that point there was a bit of pity mixed, because Grandma had been diagnosed with cancer and wouldn't be here long. Love was able to carry Grandma over the reaches of pain and dissappointment with her circumstance and give her a vision into hope. It seemed to lie in the eyes of Uncle at that moment.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Heart attitude!

He means well... Sometimes the reality of life attempts to snuff out our love and the life that we have planted in the earth. We nurture ourselves and eachother through love and life. Meals and time and converation and interaction feed into the lives that we have invested into. How do we maintain? We just do! Not by ourselves, but with much help and with the help of God.
Stress tearing us and at us. Wake up and smell the roses. Wake up and hang together. Hold on, and love one another. The tempests are raging and our love is bouncing against the waves of providence. We feel a splash that God allows upon us. We are held in the hand of the Lord and our love will hold together, because God's hand sustains and envelops it. Cords woven by God!

Monday, June 23, 2008

Uncle Pat's Mother's Day Remembrance!

He was gone! Softly and sadly, left and heaven came down in the praise at church and at home. When I got home, I had my first ice bucket full of hail left on my doorstep. A wondrous sight to us cityslickers! Evelyn said, It looks like the angels dropped the punchbowl, during their party! We got a kick out of imagining the kind of party, Uncle was enjoying on his first Sunday in heaven.
Now everytime I think of the hymn "Hail Him, highest archangels in glory" Uncle Pat pops into my mind.
"The gift of HAIL"

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Lords Day Remembrances!


Ever since Dad passed, when I go to church, there are words that remind me of my dearly departed in the worship. "Glorify Him" Praise Him, Hail Him, Bless His name, Excellent Saviour....
He alone is worthy of the honor and the worship and the praise

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Honestly!


"To be perfectly honest with you... Speaking candidly... Honestly speaking..." Cliche's engendering trust have been passed down. Code words which mean, I might lie to you if I have to but right now I am telling you the truth. Parentally speaking, I don't dig cliche's at all. In the study of our language and how we communicate and speak, they do have a purpose.
The generation gaps widen when we find out what the old people were keeping from us and have to pass things down and pick and choose what we are going to value and not value. We have the ability to crush the culture and take apart all that has been built before us, by not seeing the vision and working toward it. If freedom was the goal or the emphasis, then emancipation is or is not accomplished...
Add to your faith... Brotherlylovingness...
Add to your culture...faith or like that ash that we pass, it is disintegrated.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Juneteenth!

"Freedom, is a notion, sweeping the nation..."? Faith of our fathers, we celebrate today. Freedom for us and for our children! Freedom for slaves and for kings! Freedom for people groups near and far! This is what Juneteenth stands for, as well as for the getting on board with the move of the nation for Texas, where it was first celebrated. We are already free in Christ, in our souls. We were already free in Christ, in Texas. Juneteenth signifies getting on board with Emancipation!
"You cannot get to freedom by riding on a train..."

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Rudyard Kipling

My beloved waxes prolific in terms of instruction and help to us. He teaches and earnestly seeks our good in all of his instructions.
My beloved means us well and intends that we thrive and our souls thrive in the instruction of the Lord.
He speaks to us as"If..." and we respond as "Jungle Book"

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

My Beloved!

My beloved is pure and purifying to me and my children. My beloved is husband and father and self-controlled in his anger, toward me and the children. One really can't ask more of love than to be self-controlled in anger!
Be angry and do not sin. Don't let the sun go down upon your wrath. Although I am often the cause of much anger, I am grateful that my beloved uses self-control as a fruit of the spirit with regards to me and the children, a fruit of the spirit that is often lacking in my own interactions with my children and myself...

Monday, June 16, 2008

Out to the park!

Art by Ezra
We woke up at 5 something and got to the park at 6 or so.
It is the early bird that catches the bunnies. An entire bunny family was out there watching, Enoch, Evelyn and me play tennis. We had alot of stray balls. and we joked that the bunnies stole one of them. We said that when we get back tomorrow they will be waiting for us with the ball to get our autographs. This is our post-Father's Day tribute to my father. My wonderful husband is not yet on board with this new summer schedule. I am hoping that soon he will see the benefits of my changing my work schedule for the health of the "Walkerlings".
We do church in honor of Grandpa Walker...right?

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Dad's recorder!

There is something to be said for consistency, this Father's Day. Uncle Pat is gone and he was the preserver of the stuff of Grandma and Auntie. I am remembering the very touching tears my father cried when Auntie died. Not because he missed her so much. Not because she was gone, she had lived a long long life and we did miss her, but he broke into sobs when Uncle Pat uncovered a recorder with a taped piece of paper that said Tony on it. It came out of her drawer. We couldn't console him. We couldn't understand why.
When he got himself together, he told us the story of Auntie. He was 4 years old, or so he said. He was given a recorder and used it to squeal. Auntie promised him, "Boy, if you squeal in my ear one more time, the next time you see that recorder will be after I am gone." She lived into her 90's, late 90's. He sobbed, and I think he learned the lesson.
Tough love is love learned over seasons of life, at sunrises and at sunsets. Auntie was not his mother, but she was an example of real consistency.
What was that lesson?
God is compassionate. We are capricious.

Title- The Studious One!

Title-  The Studious One!
artwork by Elyse

Of biscuits and syrup

Of biscuits and syrup
tasty treats

Happy Saturday!

Happy Saturday!
a day at the Raptor Center.

Widdle Emmie in outer space school

Emmie jumped on the bus and off it flew out into the atmosphere. There was a set of clouds with turbulence right above the house and it took a few minutes for my Emmie to buckle her seatbelt. They hit the bump hard and it knocked my Emmie out of her seat and she bumped her head. The video camera came on and the monitor looked through and stated, Ms. Emmie, where are you? You are not in your seat. Where are you? I am alright I fell because I hadn’t buckled correctly. Well jump up Emmie we have a long way to go and you have to be buckled there is entirely too much turbulence in the stratosphere for you to unbuckle now. As soon as we are through this weather system there will be straight sailing but right now you must buckle. Emmie scrambled into the seat with intensity and purpose now. She watched every cloud pass her window and her nose was pressed to the window trying to see the top of the house as it drifted slowly out of sight. Soon they were not only out of sight of the house, the sun came out brightly and just as quickly they were putting on the atmospherical breathing apparatus and the outerspherical lights. The ABA and the OL. These precautions were to make them appear to be satellites to the radar as they were out in the ionosphere. Emmie knew all about this now. She had gone to the orientation and had a good breakfast and it took them 20 minutes for her to get out past the atmospherical pull and to feel the zero gravity. It would be 15 minutes before the gravity simulators would take effect, a glitch in the system which was being worked on. Until then, they enjoyed the couple of minutes of floatation, while being connected to the seats by belt. The first thing they saw everyday was the strataflotsam. The items which had been dumped into the atmosphere by earlier generations. What would their generation do about this ecological waste area that remained floating above their heads? This was a question for the generations. For now it was the area that they had to guide through on the way to school.

Midnight at the OASIS

Midnight at the OASIS
Sunset in Huntersville

My little Emmie

ran to the bus on the first day of the last year of school. 2 buns on the side of her head. She kissed me and ran at dawn to the bus. She was starting the adventure of a lifetime. I would never see that little girl again, she was going to woman school!

My Father and I 1989

My Father and I 1989

to the tune of Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme

A VISIT TO PAPA











Are you going to Mary Immaculate?

Apricots, Chocolate Cherries and Pie,



Remember me to the one who lived there,



He once was a true love of mine,



Tell him to buy me an acre of land,



Apricots, Chocolate Cherries and Pie,



Between the muddy Hudson in Jamaica Bay,



Then, He’ll be a true love of mine,

Tell him to sow in it seeds of pure cream,



Apricots, Chocolate Cherries and Pie,



And build Ice cream mountains and buildings of whipped cream,

Then, He’ll be a true love of mine,



Tell him to reap them with sickles of M&M’s,



Apricots, Chocolate Cherries and Pie,



And chew bubble gum and eat till we’re done,



Then, He’ll be a true love of mine.



Tell him to run it off down the motor parkway,



Apricots, Chocolate Cherries and Pie,



After your done 50 pushups



and jog down the West Side Highway,



Then he’ll be a true love of mine…

(Don’t wait for me today dad, The kids are sick again, My tummy’s bulging again, My heart is aching again, And now there’s no love there…)





He once was, a true love of mine….So, Girls, I do beg you don't miss your Daddy,Apricots, Chocolate cherries and Pie,You have one short chance to see him on this side, Go visit him and let your light shine.