Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Bands of Gold {attempting godliness and family in the present tense} Dreams to hold

Bands of Gold {attempting godliness in present tense}

Three adorable sparrows darted to the birdfeeder at the very moment that I opened the curtain to the backyard. They looked like they were arguing who would be the first to bid me good morning. The broke into the sunflower seeds and tried to talk and eat millet and fight about who was first, all at the same time. They were so scared by the lightning, as was my Emma. She wet the bathroom floor, she was so scared. I saw her shaking and lying down next to the shower door. Looking into it, as if there were some comfort in the reflection of herself in the chrome of the bottom of the door. Poor dear Border Collie, we love her and her aging ways. Storms have always gotten her all out of sorts, but now she seems to have lost all control when the storms are loud as they were last night.

My memory runs to the early storms that we had here. The very first Sunday that we moved here there was a bolt of lightning that we were looking directly at when it hit our neighbor’s roof and took it completely off, looked like. Wow! The lightning comes very close, here. I had seen lightning before, but never damage to a house, right in front of us. It seemed that God was marking time for us. You will need to put on your alertness of the Lord’s Day. It was a time of transition for us. The Lord’s Day was always important to us, but job difficulties would challenge our considerations of the day.

Is 58;13 “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord, and shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, nor finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, then you shall delight yourself in the Lord. And I will cause you to ride on the high places of the the earth and feed you with the heritage of Jacob, your father. The mouth of the Lord has spoken it.”

We had read that in the car to church for years and it had become a part of what we lived by. It was challenged time and time again and we had very often wondered what the promise part was of the verse, having attempted to hallow the Sabbath, for our own personal good and help. The lightning marked time for us. Like a reaping signal. I will meet you here, God seemed to say. I will not leave you, even this far from the familiar sights and sounds of home. We rejoiced in the reality of that even in the grief of the “ark”of our lives, as it were, having run aground this far inland for us. “Where’s the beach?” Where is that expression of God’s authority that has often been our source of reminder of God’s massive and overwhelming authority. It’s not the beach, here. It’s the lightning, among other things.

I had read in a book somewhere, I think it was Wisdom and the Millers, where the mother used the lightning to remind her children that the God of the lightning is our friend and our kind shepherd. I had longed for the opportunity to share this with my children, first hand after having read this. So, the early storms, I would take the little fellows onto my lap, as I had seen Nancy Worthing do with her girls (big children and myself in a rocking chair, they like to pile on), and we watched the storm and I taught them whatever truth that God had placed on my heart to teach them at the moment. It was so easy when they were 3 and 8, Ezra and Ethan. (little did I know the sands of time and the moments of teachability were flying through my fingers) Isn’t God good? Amen! Was our homemade song through the storms of those days. Enoch was usually in earshot of the interaction, although he was not at all afraid of the lightning, then. It wasn’t catechism, as such. We had gone through certain books of questions, in earlier days, but it was in question and answer format.

God has overwhelmingly showed us Himself in the storms and transitions of this season of life, here in NC. This morning's lightning was a real reminder of that and I am praising God for His being more present than even the tumultuous cacophony. So, I cleaned up the mess from the dog in the bathroom this morning and thanked God that HE watches us in our fears rational and irrational and loves us anyhow, as we love Emma inspite of her rare storm induced incontinence. We can laugh about it.

Saturday, April 26, 2014

Who remembers the whistle?

It was silent in your mind.
Engaged in some or other activity of folly, whether swell or sordid, you were just about to hit a killer on the handball court. Possibly you were looking both ways on Rochdale Blvd. wondering if it was worth it to cross over to the other side. Maybe you were somewhere in the mountains among the catacombs, surveying some old fossil of cigarette butts or beer cap collections. When the sound hit your ears. A shrill of a thousand decibles that sent your hair to straightened with out a perm. Silence followed for an entire second. Then, a second whistle assured you that you must attend, immediately!

If no one else knows that there will be a trumpet of God, like we know! You will one day hear that sound that is about your soul.

That sound was about our rear-ends and we were on it.

It unites us in love and fear and family. Tony's kids. Where are we now? Following the whistle? More like recovering from whistle removal! LOL eh? Weren't we the "Band on the Run"? Here is a constant prayer for all of the men attempting to be "Daddies". We are ever grateful, no matter what!

Friday, April 18, 2014

Good, Good Friday!

Halleluia! We are living on this side of redemption! It is accomplished. My soul is securely saved by the blood of Jesus. Thank God. We, very often in our family discuss dead language. Why is our language alive and Latin is dead? This year, I think that we will give an account of our language and of our souls to God. I was so impressed with this song about redemption that it seemed to speak of the justification of why our language still lives.
"THY sanguine sweat, thou trembled yet, embraced His will, at last!"
There is truly no better use of language than to exalt God and His great price paid for our souls. I am lamenting my oft wrong use of this language that we inherited. I pray for cleansing of my tongue and wrestle my tongue into submission until that day when it will be cleansed eternally. I am thankful for the many smacks in the mouth received from considerate parents and grands to teach me that one day you will give an account for that injudicious speech. They were aware when I wasn't. I think our extended family concentrated on words more than any that I have seen. Not better speech but thoughtful of speech was the challenge. Families like these keep our language alive into the future. Latin was used when Jesus was crucified and that might be why it is dead. Words that were used in the crucifixion should never be used in public again. Lord, keep us aware of exalting You in our words. Justifying the use of words at all, by showing that God's glory is the best and most exalted theme is my prayer. Thank God for all of the English teachers who taught me to search out for words and better grammar. Bless us to be redeemed in our speech, Lord, Amen.

My sins, my sins, my Savior! They take such hold on me, I am not able to look up, Save only, Christ, on Thee; In Thee is all forgiveness, In Thee abundant grace, My shadow and my sunshine The brightness of Thy face.

My sins, my sins, my Savior! How sad on Thee they fall; Seen through Thy gentle patience, I tenfold feel them all; I know they are forgiven, But still, their pain to me Is all the grief and anguish They laid, my Lord, on Thee.

My sins, my sins, my Savior! Their guilt I never knew Till with Thee in the desert I near Thy passion drew; Till with Thee in the garden I heard Thy pleading prayer, And saw the sweat-drops bloody That told Thy sorrow there.

Therefore my songs, my Savior, E’en in this time of woe, Shall tell of all Thy goodness To suff’ring man below; Thy goodness and Thy favor, Whose presence from above Rejoice those hearts, my Savior, That live in Thee and love.

Words and Music: John Monsell, 1863. Source: My Sins, My Sins, My Savior.

Monday, April 14, 2014

Joshy and Jazz, Grateful for a happy Saturday.

Those children have a natural reflex for the courts. They were delightful to watch. Picking off half volleys left and right. I don’t know how old I was before I could really do a half volley like that. Their reflexes, like my sister Jackie, who could half volley before she could walk, it seemed. That girl was at the net when her head could hardly reach above the net and the two girls her and “Dina”? playing doubles as little people what a super team they were. The twins reminded me of them. Two real naturals at tennis.

Big curious eyes looking at me and asking, Aunt Jayne, who taught you to play tennis? Gramps took mommy on the courts every day and we learned by watching. Every single day till the sun went down and the lights were on, we cried and cried. OH how I hate the tennis courts. And now they are home, wherever you go they have them and though we don’t have the elders that showed us the way to play by example. We have the courts and our racquets and our memories.

I could never think that I would be Gramps’ age on the courts, hobbling around as though I were old, like I thought he was. But, here I am in my fifties and children grown and no grands yet, but little people my baby boys and the twins who are the age that I was nearly getting on the courts. HUSTLE! I hear Gramps calling from the upstairs. Redeem the time! Okay, Gramps. And I will run for the drop shot and feel his hands as it were lifting me the last step to catch the ball, just before the second bounce and lift it over the net to keep the rally going.

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.