Love looks good on you!

I have seen you in a lot of beautiful clothes and seasons. I remember the first grade graduation dress from Aunt Dottie. But, I declare that I haven't seen you look more beautiful, than when you are in love. I had to put it as my screen saver on my tablet. You have that wonderful glow of real and true love. Whether or not this pans out to become the calling on your life, this season will be remembered in my life as the most beautiful that I've seen on you. I had to play Olivia Newton John's song, after I got off the phone with you."I, Honestly Love You" You know that it doesn't matter if this is a lifelong love or just a season that God is using to season you for the real thing. Enjoy the process of making a life long lover out of a pragmatic and principled Theologian and woman of God! I love you for letting me into your growth in principles and conviction. I title this chapter "The Conviction to Love!"

All Men Are Created Equal: George HW Bush helped that truth along in his life and in his term as President-God Bless America as we mourn.

Defense of the Gospel

Defense of the family

Defense of the Church

Defense of the Peace

Letters from a Kinder, Gentler Republic:

In Honor of the Legacy of George HW Bush:

We hold these truths to be self evident…

I honor the respect that George HW Bush paid to that extreme truth, He seemed to really embrace the reality that his personal bias that he had embraced from his youth was his to restore. I hold this to be self evident in his short and single term. He, at first seemed a political patsy and a figurehead. I, personally couldn’t get my head around the term “kinder, gentler”. we are at war, man! was my continual argument. Where is the bite? Where is the outrage that these dear little ones are destroyed every day?

That was my perspective and I was reared in a militant household and had embraced the violent tactics of that upbringing. He had as well and I love him for teaching me that coming to center isn’t enough, even in violent times. He was a child and an adult in the days of Martin Luther King and had been touched by that faith system intensely, but he seemed to know that his embracing of these tactics had to be expressed in the language of the “GOBC”. He did just that! He didn’t talk about it much, but Kinder and Gentler were a war cry for the group who couldn’t articulate their newfound repentance and faith in peace and peaceful unification of the country.

I don’t agree with taking the issue of abortion captive to that ideal, but I understand his sentiments, in retrospect. I love him all the more for the embrace of the peaceful tactics of the civil rights movement. Still, I think his sentiments were true, yet misguided when it comes to the issue of abortion. God doesn’t call us to draw unity at the death of the unborn. We can’t be gentle about the violent ripping of the children from the wombs. And moreover, we cannot use the Church to barter for the unity of the nation. That is wrong! whatever your political persuasion.

Kinder and Gentler Nation refers to race relations in America. I see that now. At the time, I said, "what are you talking about, man! Where is the kindness in what you are doing to the church? where is the gentleness in what you are doing to the people of God in America?" That was a deception of the enemy. We are called to defend the faith. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, not breeding death and not something that we can see. I am learning in my old age that they are not even in debate and discussion. Those techniques are just as carnal and physical as guns and knives, sometimes.

This is about the Legacy of George HW Bush,

who I voted for, inspite of his ambiguity of speech concerning the things that I regard as important in our current political climate, “the life of the unborn”. If we are Christians we are not fighting the civil rights movement for any other group but the unborn, until they aren’t hunted anymore.

I sometimes forget that the earlier generation had an axe to grind about Black and White issues and that is what George HW made clear he was dealing with. He planted another African American on the Bench instead of Thurgood Marshall. He used his term to make a statement about the fact that there are conservative African Americans in this country who have a right to be represented on the bench as well as the liberal ones. Why? that was quite a battle for the 1960’s and 70’s hippified Americans. Liberality in those days meant Blacks opened the door for the other "everybody’s", except the unborn, ie. Homosexuals, etc. If we don’t take it that way, we are missing what the “Revolution” was supposed to be about. NO! Other people groups need representation, But that wasn't what George HW Bush was sent to the Presidency to rectify. He took his task in hand and did that one thing and got accomplished what he was sent to do. We will always have disagreements on policy about things of policy and cooperation, but we can't get tangled in the muck of putting everything in one pot and pulling out whatever comes as the most important topic. We have to address what is before us. I think He showed me that.

Sin is not being a Liberal. Liberal doesn’t mean accepting sinful behaviors and creating a "kinder, gentler" world doesn’t include a blanket statement on who we will reconcile with next. Killing babies and the elderly is still a violence that we must stand against.

The whites who called in the cavalry at every insurrection of the Black man in the 50’s and 60’s had to give some on those issues and Bush was the tool in the shed to make that issue clear to the world. It is a new day for conservatism. Perhaps he went too far and opened the door to compromise on the issues of life and faith. If so, it is our job to close that door, here and now. Read my lips, the Church is not for sale at any price! The Unity of God's church is more important than what people think I am. {my reputation} He really showed us that.

George HW Bush was faithful to the task that was given to him. He didn't compromise his racial bias and embraced a man who was not the same color as he was for Supreme Court. People ridiculed his choice and his Texan style, but he represented the silent and true faith in a God who is growing us all from Faith to faith.

100 years since the clouds of war started clearing?

We lost so very much in WWI and we know that our preservation of life was worth it. It was certain that the protection of peace and safety was worth the cost of war 100 years ago. Now the sense of safety and peace are not so simply expressed or determined. Can the world around us tell us not to be nationalistic? Can another country tell us when we feel invaded and unsafe?

I'm afraid they cannot. The polls and the people tell us that we need to regroup and find equilibrium. We need a sense of internal balance that comes from our country being and knowing nationalism. Why don't we defend our president's right to express our independence from globalism to the rest of the world. Is it against the creeds of universalism that they have forged and were going to make us drink as they did Roe v. Wade? I think it was.

Dear Lord, help us find peace and safety in the love of our country learning and being what it is and was supposed to represent: One Nation, Under God...

May those who oppose our nationalism also deny their own nationalisms, as well.

We must care for the weak and frail country that is left this few 100 years after the armistice! God give us grace to do so. Amen.

The God We serve will make His presence known!

While everlasting love displays The choicest of her stores.

How Sweet and Awful Is the Place ST. COLUMBA Author: Isaac Watts, 1674-1748 Musician: Ancient Irish Melody

How sweet and awful is the place With Christ within the doors, While everlasting love displays The choicest of her stores.

While all our hearts and all our songs Join to admire the feast, Each of us cries, with thankful tongues, "Lord, why was I a guest?"

"Why was I made to hear Thy voice, And enter while there's room, When thousands make a wretched choice, And rather starve than come?"

'Twas the same love that spread the feast That sweetly forced us in; Else we had still refused to taste, And perished in our sin.

Pity the nations, O our God, Constrain the earth to come; Send Thy victorious word abroad, And bring the strangers home.

We long to see Thy churches full, That all the chosen race May, with one voice and heart and soul, Sing Thy redeeming grace.

Indeed it is sweet and Awesome, when Christ displays "Heaven's Choicest Stores" to us.

Working among children gives you a perspective of both the beauty of Heaven's Stores and Hell's Fury. The beauty of their little faces and their little ambitions, unfettered by the stumbling blocks that we have accumulated to ourselves. The surety that they can do things that are clearly above them. The wonder of their unsquashed dreams is amazing. Soon into caring for them we see the ambitions of selfishness and hellish habits beginning to form. But, while they are asleep and while they are young, they show some of the most beautiful of the "Choicest of Heaven's Stores".

When thousands make a wretched choice, And rather starve than come?"

I do love the choice of the word choice that ancient Mr. Watts used to describe, both the beauty of heaven and the reality of Hell in our souls.

Are we in the Heavens Choicest Stores or the "Wretchedness of the Starving Choice"?

We know if we are!

Heal Our Land!

This Trip Back into the City, God restored parts of myself...

I never expect a trip to NY to give me anything. I anticipate the horrible sense of withdrawal that I get when I have to let go. I never expect to get any spiritual gifts from the visit. I really don't want to hang on to a lamp post and embarrass myself in my children's eyes as I cry for them not to take me from the city. I keep my mind away from what a visit to NY will do to me.

How can somebody love a city? How can you love such a city? I can't help it. I miss the Cross Island to the Cross Bronx and the LIE to the deepest subway station. I start my rant in my heart, from the moment we say let's go. I imagine myself moving into the subway station at Parsons and living inside the columns that hold up the ceiling. "Listen, lady", the cop would say. "You cannot move in here!"

God knows my heart. He absolutely shows me that he understands my pain. He took on cloud duty on this trip and was making funny faces all the way from the beginning to the end of the trip. That made me more scared. Why would God enter into this little trip to visit family and escape from the storm? God moves in a mysterious way lyrics came to mind:

Behind a frowning providence, He hides a smiling face...

I saw the smiling and jokey faces in the clouds and couldn't help but laugh that He is that humorous and interactive. Now I was really scared. Is there a special sin for thinking about God as a humorist? That is not a sober thought, perhaps not a sane thought. Anyway, that was my thought.

As we crossed the GWB 3 chilling cool senses touched the right side of my head. They were truly cool and sensed. Just as strong as a person touching me on my head, these feelings were on my head for just a moment and then they were gone. Immediately the knowledge of directions flooded in and the memories of prayerful motivations flooded in. The many days of sitting in traffic facing the opposite way and hoping to carry some of the burdens of prayer to a meeting of the saints, seemed like a solid thing, not an impulse.

I don't believe that my city is the city of destruction anymore. I love this city and I want to see it in heaven with me. How imbecilic of a thought to think that God can save this inanimate object that you love?

That is me. I love this inanimate object that represents millions and millions of people's hearts and minds and ambitions and commitments. Shame on me. Concern yourself about your own ambitions and family and stop making the city your own. God let me know that He loves them more than I do. God let me know that my heart is not big enough to hold a city, but His is. I am certainly glad of that! I can leave the city in His magnificent hands and know that He's got this!

I didn't cry one tear on the way home and I didn't move into the subway. I was able to let go again and know He can hold me through this detachment again.

Temper Tantrums and Post Partum?

I do dearly hope that your every dream comes true. My imagination that the US Open would have Black Women in the finals came true yesterday. I felt like my soul was hanging in the balance as these amazing swashbuckling women hit harder and harder than I ever dreamed that the ball could go. I could see the confidence and the determination that makes winners and the strength of mind and heart that can be overcome to become a loser. She didn't imagine that a ball could come at her as hard as she has hit at other people. She didn't imagine that a person could challenge her every resolve to get up from the floor.

Serena was bettered! I thought I would never see that day. I thought those girls would just retire and leave the game bereft of any following in their footsteps of hard and fast and powerful matches. I like the feminine game. I like to see long rallies and finesse, but I love what the Williams' have done to the game as well. I thought that perhaps there were a way to create two different games out of what they had done.

I drooled this past year to see the longer matches and dramatic athletacism that the younger players were enjoying while the most recent Queen of the Courts took her sabbatical. I loved reminiscing about what women's tennis used to be. It all came together, when those women bashed the mess out of those cans of balls, yesterday.

I remembered the day that Martina, said "why can't we go to the net, like the men?" I remembered how my father was trying to drill that kind of venomous determination into my game. What is woman's tennis and what is neutral? How could followers of "Chrissy style" of game ever become aggressive hard-hitting bashers of the ball? My dad thought you could just put a new piece into my game, like a vacuum cleaner and create "more power".

Like going to the store for a personality and a play style was yesterday's game. That is what I wanted you to do and be. Keep your feminine demeanor and smash that ball, like I know you can. That is going to take 2 more generations of play, Dad. I wanna be Chrissy! I wanna be a ball move and spinner. I wanna run around the court and hit my two handed backhand from the baseline until the cows come home. I loved feminine Tennis. He saw the future and the masculine side of the game. Don't even think, just bash it! He indeed did beat that reflex into my game, but a part of me died, trying to get to that game.

I saw the mantle passed. I saw whaat Dad was saying and we all genuflect to an amazing new generation who loved gramps enough to see that there is no dichotomy between femininity and power! I love you Serena!

I am amazed by Naomi!

It is YOUR TURN! don't you ever stop crying!

Glad you are feeling better!

I would try a little fried okra for any residual congestion, there might be. I know you might not like it, but it never fails to do the trick for my persistent coughs and colds. I am going to be taking some today, just for the symptoms that I am having from hearing about your house's creeping cruds.

NY is full of germs, as you are quite aware. That many people sharing seats and handles of things can't help but breed the worst of sicknesses. Don't be deceived, like Pocahontas. Delicate bodies, like ours, reared in the seclusion of the burbs, are always hotbeds for the worst of sicknesses. What makes city bodies stronger, can truly take us under. Don't you forget it and if you dare try to catch small pox, there in the city, I will come there even into your grave! Don't think you are getting away from me that easy!

the Queens Aviary

While in New York, please don't forget to take my baby to the zoo!