Our House

I thought I would post some pictures of our house since Ann put them on her blog and not all of you read Ann's blog....many of you do, but not all of you.
This is our fun cottage. We are loving it.

Suppertime

I had a new commenter today and she brought up the song Suppertime by Johnny Cash. These are great words. Thought you might like to read them for yourself.

Many years ago in days of childhood I used to play till evening time would come
Still winding down that old familiar pathway I hear my mother call at setting sun
Come home come home it's suppertime the shadows lengthen fast
Come home come home it's suppertime we're going home at last
Some of the fondest mem'ries of my childhood are woven around suppertime
When mother used to call from the backsteps of the old homeplace
Come on home now son it's suppertime my how I'd love to hear that once again
But you know time has woven for me a realization of truth that's even more thrilling
That someday we'll be called up to gather around the suppertable up there
For the greatest suppertime of them all with our Lord
I can almost hear the call now comin' from the portals of heaven
Come home son it's suppertime come on home
Come home come home...

Ann, Thanks.

I got to vacation for three days at my own house. My friend, Ann, came Thursday night and stayed through Sunday afternoon.
We walked and talked and ate and walked and talked and took in Jacob's Dream and talked and walked and ate and rocked in my backyard and talked and watched Little Shop of Horrors and talked and worshipped and talked and ate again and talked and said goodbye. Lucy said it was like us being at the beach without the beach.
My favorite moments happened as we worshipped together. I have always loved singing with Ann....her alto and my soprano...there have been moments when we had to do that alone and others that our voices blended with those that we love and with our children or with our church family or as we lead our church family in worship or as we sang for a wedding or as we sang a silly song about Ladies Against Fanny Floss.
I loved looking Ann in the eye and saying the words....the body of Christ and the blood of Jesus...or as the movie clip used in worship....the peace of God. I loved that it means that we are family and that we will always be related and that we know each other's stories. I love that we have gathered around the table in many places and with many people that are like us and very unlike us.
I love that we have learned about freedom together and that our lives have evolved and moved to deeper places. That we have learned to never incubate fluff.
I love that when we are together there is no pressure...just comfort and companionship.
Can't wait til we get to do it again.

Evol

Just some lines from "Summer of My German Soldier". This little girl lives without the love of her family. They are right there but don't know how to love her. The woman who cleans their house and cooks and takes care of the children is one of the only people who show her love. She is smart and tries often to think all this through.

"I didn't want to grow up to spend my days like that, but I didn't want to spend my growing-up days like this either. Sitting alone on a curb trying to think of something to do.
If I had a horse as black as the night I'd go galloping off in search of her. Go, Evol, Go! North toward the Ozarks and never come back.
People would ask, "What a peculiar name, and what does it mean?" And I'd lie to them, saying it was short for "evolution." Evolution like in Darwin's theory.
But someday it would happen. I'd find her and she'd understand right away that Evol has more power spelled in reverse. And that would be the sign between us. She would be my real mother and now at last I could go home."

Love...the bottom line.

Just Some Thoughts on a Saturday Morning

I feel bad that I haven't blogged for awhile. This has been a busy week and I have been sick. I really don't like to take medicine and tried to avoid the antibiotic part of it but only got worse, so I am now taking an antibiotic. I even felt so bad yesterday that I had the nurse that I work with give me a steroid injection before I went home. I had the best night's sleep that I have had all week and this morning I feel better than I have for awhile. Okay, it is good to take medicine when you need to. I just don't like the overuse of meds that our society has gotten into. I think we doing harm by overusing antibiotics and steroids and many other things. But there are times that you have to use them and I think that I waited a little too long before I succumbed to the cure.

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I just finished reading "The Summer of My German Soldier". I read it a long time ago and gave it to Lucy for her birthday and wanted to read it again after she read it. This book takes place during WWII in the deep south. Powerful story about making family for yourself and survival. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it. It is by Bette Greene. I want to go to the library and check her other novels.

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Ann is coming this week and I can't wait. I can't wait to sit and talk and walk and talk and eat and talk and introduce to my friends and talk. You think that we have some catching up to do?

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Tim's Uncle Claud passed away this week. We just saw him this summer at a family reunion. It was good to get to know him better. We tramped through cemeteries together and he was a trooper....fun to be with and lively with conversation. I know that his family will miss his presence. I love how he spent the day on Sunday. He went to church and then out to lunch and then had a bad headache and went to the hospital. He had a major stroke and then was in a coma. They took him off life support on Tuesday and he quietly passed away. I love that up to the last minute he was living his life. He had been a Church of Christ minister. That had been his life and that is how he spent his last coherent hours. God is good.

So Sweet

Here is my little Easter girl. Just wish that I could get my hands on her.

Reign Over Me

Last Saturday I went to see the movie Reign Over Me. It is rated R and their are some language moments and some sexual talk. But this movie has so many messages. I knew that the movie was about a man that loses his family through the tragedy of September 11th but it is about so much more than that. Some themes from the movie are redemption, reconciliation, forgiveness, boundaries in relationships, and that when you hang on in a relationship you will both be transformed...in friendship and in marriage. I laughed and I cried and sometimes during the same moment. Adam Sandler and Don Cheadle do a great job portraying these two men and their relationship. Please go to see it...you will love it.

A Terrible Haunting

I have told you a little about this haunting....haunted by loss. My own losses and others' losses...what kind of meaning is there in loss? What am I supposed to learn from those losses? What I am supposed to do about those losses?
I know from experience that in order to have any kind of answer to those questions I have to live in the grief of those losses and let the Spirit guide me through. Sometimes that is a slow process and sometimes I am impatient.
I have been haunted by the losses that come from war lately. Last week I dreamed twice about the war in Iraq. Both nights awakened at exactly the same time...4am. The first dream I am flying over Iraq and at first it is beautiful and pleasant. Children are playing. Flowers are blooming. Neighbors are chatting. I am flying high over the countryside. But then the dream slowly changes. There is more and more fighting and there are children dying and now I can't fly high over the countryside anymore. I am flying closer and closer to the destruction. The second dream happens in Abilene. I am in a parking lot full of cars and suddenly in the background there is gunfire and people shouting. Everyone is trying to drive out of the parking lot away from the gunfire but then we realize that missiles are coming straight for us at ground level. I yell to everyone to get down and we all lay flat on the ground. I don't witness any death this time but it is terrifying. The end of the dream is a huge piece of artwork....a city drawn hugely in orange and missiles pointing at the city and some kind of writing that says that we were targeted because George Bush is from Texas. Very terrifying.
These dreams haunted me for a couple of days. I hate war.

This week I have been reading a book that I gave to Lucy for her birthday. It is a Newberry Honor Book written in 1964. A historical novel about the Civil War titled Across Five Aprils and written by Irene Hunt. I don't think that it is coincidence that I am reading this book right now. I am going to type out some significant passages from the book....you tell me if you think that it is relevant.

Ed's Turner's boy, just eighteen and in the army only a few months, was in South Carolina. Ed brought the boy's letter down for Matt to read. In it the told of the burning of Columbia, of how the soldiers laughed as a great wind fanned the flames, of the loot carried off, of mirrors and pianos smashed, and of intimate family treasures scattered to the winds by men who seemed to have gone mad.
Ed's Turner's hands trembled as he returned the letter to its envelope.
"What is this goin' to do to an eighteen-year-old boy, Matt? Kin a lad come through weeks fo this kind of actions without becomin' a hardened man? Is human life goin' to be forever cheap to him and decency somethin' to mock at?"
"You and Mary hev larned him right from wrong, Ed."
"But they're bein' cheered on, Matt. Congress-the whole country-is happy with 'em; these boys air goin' to believe that they be heroes fer lootin' and burnin', fer laughin' at distress, fer smashin' the helpless without pity. In some ways Sammy is more of a child than yore Jeth here; he goes with the crowd without thinkin'. Mary and me has had to guard aginst that way of his."
Matt looked at his friend with troubled eyes; any words that he could think of seemed useless, worse than silence.