Monday, May 26, 2008

Doggie surgery

Our old blonde cocker spaniel Baillie had surgery on Thursday for stones in her bladder that were causing her to be incontinent and listless. There were four, about the size of Hershey Kisses, or maybe a penny.
http://www.cricketsworld.com/stones.jpg
She is recovering well and, at times, is even peppy again. Baillie is taking her medicine willingly with it hidden in a glob of peanut butter! (and Cisco gets a taste of peanut butter at the same time)

I'm glad she'll be feeling better for the coming graduation weekend when the two grand-puppies will be arriving with her older brothers.

~~~~~~~~~
And this reminds me of Shel Silverstein's poem about the peanut butter sandwich:

Peanut-Butter Sandwich

    by Shel Silverstein (1932-1999)

I’ll sing you a story of a silly young king
Who played with the world at the end of a string,
But he only loved one single thing --
And that was just a peanut-butter sandwich.

His scepter and his royal gowns,
His regal throne and golden crowns
Were brown and sticky from the mounds
And drippings from each peanut-butter sandwich.

His subjects all were silly fools
For he had passed a royal rule
That all that they could learn in school
Was how to make a peanut-butter sandwich.

He would not eat his sovereign steak,
He scorned his soup and kingly cake,
And told his courtly cook to bake
An extra-sticky peanut-butter sandwich.

And then one day he took a bite
And started chewing with delight,
But found his mouth was stuck quite tight
From that last bite of peanut-butter sandwich.

His brother pulled, his sister pried,
The wizard pushed, his mother cried,
“My boy’s committed suicide
From eating his last peanut-butter sandwich!”

The dentist came, and the royal doc.
The royal plumber banged and knocked,
But still those jaws stayed tightly locked.
Oh darn that sticky peanut-butter sandwich!

The carpenter, he tried with pliers,
The telephone man tried with wires,
The firemen, they tried with fire,
But couldn’t melt that peanut-butter sandwich.

With ropes and pulleys, drills and coil,
With steam and lubricating oil --
For twenty years of tears and toil --
They fought that awful peanut-butter sandwich.

Then all his royal subjects came.
They hooked his jaws with grapplin’ chains
And pulled both ways with might and main
Against that stubborn peanut-butter sandwich.

Each man and woman, girl and boy
Put down their ploughs and pots and toys
And pulled until kerack! Oh, joy --
They broke right through that peanut-butter sandwich.

A puff of dust, a screech, a squeak --
The king’s jaw opened with a creak.
And then in voice so faint and weak --
The first words that they heard him speak
Were, “How about a peanut-butter sandwich?”

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Thoughts


"Listen less to your own thoughts
and more to God's thoughts."


-- François Fénelon

Friday, May 23, 2008

No key

http://brittarnhildshouseinthewoods.typepad.com/brittarnhilds_house_in_th/images/2007/04/27/marta_venezia_094.jpg

Looking everywhere
The key or keys are not here
A bird cries outside

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Thursday in South Texas

It was 90 degrees F. today and is supposed to be even warmer tomorrow. This means our HOT weather is here until October or so.

I had posted a silly picture of a child pinned on a clothesline from an email someone sent me, but it only showed up for me on my blog, so I've deleted it. I don't know why it would appear for me and no one else, but my daughter pointed out to me that some photographs have security built into their codes. Oh, well.

Things are very busy with MJ graduating in ten days. Assemblies and parties galore. Tomorrow the school superintendent is treating the valedictorians and salutatorians from the five Corpus Christi high schools to lunch at a local restaurant. I think this is a lovely thing to do.

We learned today that husband CB's sister will not be coming to MJ's graduation. For the graduation ceremonies of her two brothers and sisters, her aunt, uncle, cousin AND grandparents all came. DC, AE, and BJ just walked across the stage along with hundreds of other. Now for their one grandchild (and niece) who will be one of the two speakers, these relatives will not travel here. With CB's dad's frail health and the price of airline tickets, they are not coming. Valid reasons, but a little disappointing.

HOWEVER, daughter AE and partner KA are coming all the way from Seattle to Austin, where they'll meet son DC and wife AA and drive to Corpus Christi for about a 36 hour visit next weekend. Son BJ will be coming from Houston. I am a happy mother to have all my children here to celebrate their sister's graduation from high school! (On June 1, 2008)

It's too bad that the heat will be so high next week, as it is now. And June 1 is the official beginning of Hurricane Season, as well as the day of MJ's graduation.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

My clothesline

This is my clothesline with sheets hanging on it.

One good thing about the heat in south Texas is that it is ideal to hang clothes out on the clothesline to dry. I've always liked to do that, ever since moving here. I used to hang out cloth diapers to dry!

My clothesline is behind our garage in the space between the garage and the fence.


Shine!

Matthew 5:13-16 (the Message)

Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be the salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.

Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.

Monday, May 19, 2008

STUPID!!

http://hourchallenge.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/istock_000003845983xsmall.jpg
Today both CB and I received separate notices that our rebate checks will arrive in three weeks or so. I don't get paid for what I do as a volunteer, so why did I get a letter, too?? What a pointless waste of money. AND these mailings with printing and postage amounted to $42 MILLION!

The news of this occurred about two weeks ago, but I wasn't expecting them to be sent to everyone, like both spouses in joint filing! So this is late news, though I am newly horrified!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just as an example about how that money could have been spent, though the figures were proposed eight months ago and was published in September 26, 2007 by Keith Alcorn:

"Up to $42 billion will need to be found by 2010 if universal access to HIV treatment, prevention and care is to be achieved in line with the 2005 commitment by G8 governments, UNAIDS said today."

I would have much preferred the money being spent on aid than mailed notices.


Books read meme

From Yogamum:

It’s a list of the 106 most unread books on shelves (how this was determined, I don’t know!). The rules are to bold the ones you’ve read, underline the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn’t finish. I probably read more for school, but can't remember them. Being a former English major, I sometimes think I need to re-read all these "classics" after having so many life experiences. . . .

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The [A] Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel
War and Peace
Vanity The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway

Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the West
The Canterbury Tales

The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible
1984
Angels & Demons
Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Beloved
Slaughterhouse-Five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita

Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye

On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield



Sunday, May 18, 2008

Top Ten Banquet and Senior Activities

Last Tuesday night was the Top Ten Banquet for this school district, which meant that the top ten juniors and top ten seniors from each of the five high schools came together to be honored, accompanied by their parents and favorite teacher. This picture shows daughter MJ (who is #2 in her class) with CB and me after the three-hour affair was over.

This week has many events to go to for MJ and sometimes for her parents:
  • Monday: Presentation at School Board Meeting and then the Soccer Banquet for both boys and girls teams
  • Wednesday: Seniors Honor Assembly and party that night
  • Friday: Valedictorians and Salutatorians from the five high schools meet the Superintendent of schools for lunch
Also, the graduation speeches are due tomorrow, and neither of the speakers for Ray have finished the writing, which means that MJ and her boy friend are supposed to be writing right now!

Too much going on, just for seniors and their parents. And two weeks from today is the graduation, and all this will be over! Really over, because everyone will go home and MJ will go off to the summer camp where she is going to be a counselor.

I'm sure I'll fondly look back on this time as busy and happy.

Senior Sunday


Today was Senior Sunday at my former church, First United Methodist Church. There's a breakfast for the seniors and their families followed by the late church service where the seniors are recognized in their caps and gowns. There were mostly red gowns (for Ray HS, my daughter's school), but a few others were represented, too.

MJ grew up with these kids in this church since she was three years old, since we moved back to Corpus Christi from NJ. MJ is in the front row, fourth from the right.

Today's Surprise

You wait for a better world.
What's wrong with the one you have?
You wait for a liberator
To reproach your inner slave.
You wait to see the face of God,
It's staring you in the eyes.
You wait for a better future,
And you miss today's surprise.

The waiting is a problem,
To which you love to cling.
It's all about the power games,
And the delusions that they bring.
The messianic figure--
Long before you ever knew
Irrupted in creation
In the Spirit's vivid hue.

And the Spirit moves in freedom
Beyond the waiting and the now.
And the Spirit loves relating
When we don't control the "how."
Don't waste your time in waiting
For some God to intervene.
For God was never absent
From creation's epic scene.

~~Diarmuid O'Murchu

O'Murchu, Diarmuid. Catching Up with Jesus: A Gospel Story for Our Time. New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 2005. 94.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

"Jesus of the People"

Due to my former priest's recommendation of the book Quantum Theology, I ordered another book by author Diarmuid O'Murchu entitled Catching Up With Jesus: A Gospel Story for Our Time, which arrived in the mail today. I am really liking what I've read in the first 1 1/2 chapters, and this may motivate me to start the book with the intimidating title, Quantum Theology.

Of course, I was intrigued with O'Murchu's words about a painting of Jesus:

"In her desire to reclaim a more foundational understanding of Jesus, the contemporary American artist Janet McKenzie portrays her Jesus of the People as a black androgynous person (see National Catholic Reporter, Dec. 24, 1999). Not only is this portrayal more congruent with the archetypal identity of Jesus, but it also honors the historical alliance of God in Jesus with our ancient ancestors as we evolved in eastern Africa over several million years." (18)

© "Jesus of the People"" Late in 1999 Janet McKenzie’s painting “Jesus of the People” was selected winner of the National Catholic Reporter’s competition for a new image of Jesus by judge, Sister Wendy Beckett, host of the PBS show “Sister Wendy’s Story of Painting”. In the words of Sister Wendy, “This is a haunting image of a peasant Jesus – dark, thick-lipped, looking out on us with ineffable dignity, with sadness but with confidence. Over His white robe He draws the darkness of our lack of love, holding it to Himself, prepared to transform all sorrows if we will let Him.” "

The rest of this article is here.



Friday, May 16, 2008

Friday Five: Grand Tour

JetFrom Songbird: Many other RevGals are headed for the Festival of Homiletics in the coming week (click here for information on a RevGals meetup!!). In honor of these upcoming trips, herewith your Grand Tour Friday Five.

Name five places that fall into the following categories:

1) Favorite Destination -- someplace you've visited once or often and would gladly go again
Gold Beach, Oregon. I loved it when I was newly married and then again last year with CB!

2) Unfavorite Destination -- someplace you wish you had never been (and why)
I wish I had not gone to NJ house hunting when my mother was dying of cancer, because she had so little time left, and I didn't know it. But we were moving, and our first house deal fell through and so I had to go by myself and choose one of the houses my husband had pre-selected.

3) Fantasy Destination -- someplace to visit if cost and/or time did not matter
I wish I could be on Mount Athos in Greece, but women are not allowed. I'd like to go to Alaska, to Machu Pichu, to Iona, to Isle of Skye, and so many places!

4) Fictional Destination -- someplace from a book or movie or other art or media form you would love to visit, although it exists only in imagination
Hogwarts!

5) Funny Destination -- the funniest place name you've ever visited or want to visit
Lukulu--in the outer regions of Zambia, where I spent almost two weeks in 2006.

"Shake the gates of hell!"

Jim Winkler, General Secretary of the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society gave a commencement speech at Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX on May 10 where he urged the graduates to "shake the gates of hell. Because if you don't, things will only go from bad to worse."

He ended his speech with:

"President Bush was right when he said there is an axis of evil, but he was wrong when he said it is Iran, Iraq and North Korea. It has been said the true axis of evil is pandemic poverty, environmental degradation and a world awash in weapons. This triplet has caused enormous suffering and pain.

"The nations of the world have united behind eight Millennium Development Goals intended to make poverty history. They are:

  1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
  2. Achieve universal primary education
  3. Promote gender equality and empower women
  4. Reduce child mortality
  5. Improve maternal health
  6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
  7. Ensure environmental sustainability, and
  8. Develop a global partnership for development.

"These goals comprise the best anti-terrorism campaign around. We can’t build enough guns, tanks and war planes to stop the anger and frustration that leads to terrorism. I do know, though that we now have the capacity to re-shape the world so that a good and decent life is enjoyed by all of God’s children.

"Can we imagine a new future? We must."

Go here to read the rest of the speech, which was published in this week's "Faith In Action" e-newsletter.

If you would like to subscribe to the weekly UM Church and Society "Faith in Action" newsletter, you may sign up here.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

"Bless them, change me" prayer

Every Friday morning at 8 am, our Renovare group meets at my house. We've been meeting for the past 13 years, with members moving away and others joining. We have 10 members.

There are six "questions of examen," which our group uses in a weekly fashion, one each week.

This week is the second point on the examen: "What temptations have you faced since our last meeting? How did you respond? Which spiritual disciplines has God used to lead you further into holiness of heart and life?"

Something happened at our weekly Lectio Divina group on Wednesday that fits that question for tomorrow's meeting. At least, I can say that the Lectio meditation is a spiritual discipline to answer the last part of the question.

After our meditation, one of the church staff members told me how someone had told her to pray, "Bless them, change me." And I immediately felt resentful, because that's MY prayer! I had to explain to her that I was the one who brought it to the church way back in 1995 when I returned from the treatment center for depression. An alcoholic doctor shared that prayer there in an AA meeting as a prayer to say for your enemies. (Though I always found it more useful for family members!) And then I would say, "But it's not MY prayer."

Sure, I wanted the recognition. And, yes, it is NOT MY prayer. I've realized since then that I've relished the recognition when people say it's "Jan's prayer," even though I'd always say it wasn't. False modesty.

I was certainly faced with the reality of my need for admiration, especially about my piety. God showed me how greedily I took on the praise that is rightly for God. This is another surrender of ego, of self-will, of me.

But it is pretty cool that that prayer is still being passed around! "Bless ______, change me!" (And I need changing.)


Self Will


Thou must be emptied of that wherewith thou art full, that thou mayest be filled with that whereof thou art empty.

Saint Augustine

"In India we have a flaming-hot chili pepper called “little thing” in my mother tongue. It is smaller than your little finger, so small that you don’t take it seriously; but even a tiny bite will burn your mouth. Self-will is like that; a little dose of it can cause harm for a long time.

"The remedy, in the Buddha’s language, is nirvana, from nir, “out,” plus vana, “to blow.” You don’t snuff self-will out in one day; you have to keep blowing away, in meditation and then during the day, especially in your relationships. This world is a place where we learn to return good will for ill will and love for hatred, to work harmoniously with others, and to put other people’s welfare before our own. You keep blowing for years and years and one day the fire goes out."

~~Eknath Easwaran

The Thought for the Day is today's entry from Eknath Easwaran's Words to Live By. (Copyright 1999 and 2005 by The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation.)

Select the Thought for the Day for any day of the year.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

New Header!

Like Barbara, Julie R. Neidlinger at www.loneprairie.net designed a blog header for me! I loved Barbara's so much, I asked Julie what she could do for me, and I love the combination of the Northwest's waterfront cliffs, trees, and even daffodils. The daffodils remind me of the cemetery where my parents' ashes are interned, especially for the time of year when I was cleaning out their house. This is a very nostalgic image for me.

Contact Julie if you're interested in doing your own thing on your blog or elsewhere!

Oddly Familiar Meme

Suzy at Luminferous Ether tagged me a few days ago, and as I'm procrastinating tonight, I'll do it!

Rules:
  • The rules of the game get posted at the beginning.
  • Each player answers the questions about himself or herself.
  • At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.
  • Yadayadayada
Ten years ago:
This was about the time my devastating depression was waning. Oldest son DC was in his first year of college and the Corps at Texas A&M University. First child to leave home, and now the fourth and last one will be going away to college this fall.

Five things on today's "to do" list:
(But for me, this is for tomorrow)
  • Clean bedroom
  • Fill out Shalem situation sheet
  • Iron
  • Write two long letters that I've been putting off
  • Maybe lunch with husband
Things I'd do if I was a billionaire:
  • Buy my children and myself hybrid vehicles.
  • Fix up and live in my parents' house in Bellingham, WA half of the year and live here in TX the cooler part of the year.
  • Build and finance a (free) boarding school for orphans in Zambia.
  • Investigate where the best way to use money to help others in perpetuity and do it.
Three bad habits:
  • Procrastination
  • Being a pack rat
  • Not regularly exercising
Five places I've lived:
  • Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base, CA (3 different times--total of 5 years)
  • Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan (3 years)
  • Bellingham, WA (7 years)
  • Corvallis, OR (4 years)
  • Corpus Christi, TX (off and on for a total of 24 years)
Five jobs I've had:
  • Typist
  • Coffee shop cashier
  • Coffee shop cook
  • Weekend coffee shop manager
  • Elem. school teacher
  • Preschool teacher
Five people I'm tagging:

Prayer Reminder

I need this reminder every day of my life to remind me about my goal in prayer, even underneath my desire for God--not for GOOD FEELINGS, but to love and yearn for the Holy One.

“… do not give up the form of prayer that comes naturally to you; and do not be disheartened if it seems at first a barren and profitless performance. It is quite possible to obtain spiritual nourishment without being consciously aware of it.”

— Evelyn Underhill, The Letters of Evelyn Underhill
(also in An Anthology of the Love of God)


Thank you to Anamchara for posting this wonderful quotation of Evelyn Underhill.

New take on the Wizard of Oz