It used to be by the pulpit. I wish it were still there. But it remains in the room that's used for Bible class.
Happy memories.
Happy saints.
Happy angels.
Lovely doctrine.
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Happy Things
It used to be by the pulpit. I wish it were still there. But it remains in the room that's used for Bible class.
Happy memories.
Happy saints.
Happy angels.
Lovely doctrine.
Touch
I've had one massage in my life, and I left more stressed and tense from it than I went in. (I won't ever go back to that place -- that's for sure!) The chatty masseuse, however, did expound upon something I agreed with: the need for people to be touched. Physical contact is necessary to both physical and mental health. The masseuse desired for people to believe in the importance of touch -- of course, she wants them to pay for her services.
I thought it was sad sad sad that people have to pay a stranger to be touched.
Some friends linked to an article today about how everything is so over-sexed in our society that there can be no comfortable (and normal and healthy) platonic touch. Innocent touching is assumed to have sexual overtones. For example, occasionally at work my boss would like my dress and couldn't quite tell from looks alone what the fabric was made of. So she asked permission to touch the sleeve, and apologized for even wanting to do that. But of course it was okay for her to touch the fabric -- oftentimes that's the only way you can know what a fabric is. It says something about society that she must ask, instead of just giving me a pat on the arm.
Not long ago, Gary and I watched The Major and the Minor. Excellent movie from 1942! Funny. Sweet. A young woman is short of cash and needs a train ticket. She passes herself off as a 12-yr-old so that she can buy a half-price ticket. A man on the train ends up watching out for this "child" and taking care of her. She spends the night in his compartment. When his fiancee finds out there is a girl with him, she's livid. But then (and here's where the expectations and moral changes of the last 70 years are exposed) the fiancee learns that the "girl" is a 12-yr-old. And of course everybody knows there would no hanky-panky with a child, nothing whatsoever indecent, and that the fiance was being gentlemanly to take care of a child and protect her.
Oh, and it's not just touch. Words are over-sexualized too. It surprises me how a simple comment can be twisted into some sort of sleazy innuendo. I hear it on tv shows and in real life. Sometimes I say something and am met with eyebrow waggles & giggles in response. I know that they've mixed in some innuendo. Sometimes I can figure it out. But sometimes I am clueless as to what they're insinuating. In the name of "freedom" (sexual freedom, that is), we have actually become isolated, in what we say, in physical contact, and in the people we can hang out with.
I thought it was sad sad sad that people have to pay a stranger to be touched.
Some friends linked to an article today about how everything is so over-sexed in our society that there can be no comfortable (and normal and healthy) platonic touch. Innocent touching is assumed to have sexual overtones. For example, occasionally at work my boss would like my dress and couldn't quite tell from looks alone what the fabric was made of. So she asked permission to touch the sleeve, and apologized for even wanting to do that. But of course it was okay for her to touch the fabric -- oftentimes that's the only way you can know what a fabric is. It says something about society that she must ask, instead of just giving me a pat on the arm.
Not long ago, Gary and I watched The Major and the Minor. Excellent movie from 1942! Funny. Sweet. A young woman is short of cash and needs a train ticket. She passes herself off as a 12-yr-old so that she can buy a half-price ticket. A man on the train ends up watching out for this "child" and taking care of her. She spends the night in his compartment. When his fiancee finds out there is a girl with him, she's livid. But then (and here's where the expectations and moral changes of the last 70 years are exposed) the fiancee learns that the "girl" is a 12-yr-old. And of course everybody knows there would no hanky-panky with a child, nothing whatsoever indecent, and that the fiance was being gentlemanly to take care of a child and protect her.
Oh, and it's not just touch. Words are over-sexualized too. It surprises me how a simple comment can be twisted into some sort of sleazy innuendo. I hear it on tv shows and in real life. Sometimes I say something and am met with eyebrow waggles & giggles in response. I know that they've mixed in some innuendo. Sometimes I can figure it out. But sometimes I am clueless as to what they're insinuating. In the name of "freedom" (sexual freedom, that is), we have actually become isolated, in what we say, in physical contact, and in the people we can hang out with.
Friday, October 18, 2013
Happy Things
GARDEN tomatoes, not store ones.
A specialty usually confined to August and September.
Only three small tomatoes remain on my window sill. And they were picked green and have ripened indoors. Still, they are GARDEN tomatoes.
Happy sandwiches!
Happy Things
As I've been thinking about "things that make me happy," I'm pondering the distinction between happy/contentment, or happy/thankful, or happy/joyful. Maybe it's just a silly little hang-up in my own mind, but "happy" seems more, uh...., giddy than other kinds of joy. And I can see where some of the things that are most important to me, the things that bring the most contentment, the things are the most valuable, might not necessarily be the things that make me "happy" ... because I take them for granted.
That doesn't mean I don't appreciate them! It just means that I am accustomed to having them in my life, and they don't necessarily excite because I am comfortable with them.
I don't know if that is good or bad.
That doesn't mean I don't appreciate them! It just means that I am accustomed to having them in my life, and they don't necessarily excite because I am comfortable with them.
I don't know if that is good or bad.
Harry Potter
Is it really that hard to understand that reading a story where the setting includes magic and witches is not the same thing as practicing witchcraft?
Is it really that hard to understand that dressing up as a robot, a crayon, or a dragon, and distributing (or receiving) candy, is not the same thing as Satan worship?
Is it really that hard to understand that dressing up as a robot, a crayon, or a dragon, and distributing (or receiving) candy, is not the same thing as Satan worship?
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Happy Things
I wish there were more! But hooray for the ones God's allowed me to have.
Happy curls.
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Happy Things
My friend Jane started a blog-plan this week:
Right now I feel a little bit of a need to focus, specifically, on all of the large and small things in my life that add to my happiness. So, each day for at least a month, I am going to post a picture and blog about one of these things. Some will be totally frivolous and some will be big and obvious. I'm doing this for me, but I hope that you will enjoy it too.
I don't have a cell phone that takes pictures, so I'm not likely to come up with photos to accompany my posts. I'll try, but I ain't promisin' nothin'. For instance, yesterday I could've posted the most lovely sunset... if I'd had a camera. It sure did put a joy in my heart to see all those lovely colors swirled in the evening sky!
Today is likewise photoless. (Even if I'd had a camera, it's a security problem to take pictures of a bank.)
Today at work I was in drive-ups. Alone. Introvert heaven!! Sure, I had customers. And now and then I had to interact with coworkers. But overall, I had a day of working in my own little drive-up room, by myself (an unusual occurrence). And between customers there was no radio. And there was an awesome book to read. And nobody to make small-talk with. I could even sing hymns when I wanted to. And (of course) no floors to sweep, no socks to fold, no onions to chop, no lawn begging "mow me!" Even with a humongous number of transactions (almost double my normal load), today was a rest, a vacation, a rejuvenation-day.
Drive-ups by myself. Happy.
Right now I feel a little bit of a need to focus, specifically, on all of the large and small things in my life that add to my happiness. So, each day for at least a month, I am going to post a picture and blog about one of these things. Some will be totally frivolous and some will be big and obvious. I'm doing this for me, but I hope that you will enjoy it too.
I don't have a cell phone that takes pictures, so I'm not likely to come up with photos to accompany my posts. I'll try, but I ain't promisin' nothin'. For instance, yesterday I could've posted the most lovely sunset... if I'd had a camera. It sure did put a joy in my heart to see all those lovely colors swirled in the evening sky!
Today is likewise photoless. (Even if I'd had a camera, it's a security problem to take pictures of a bank.)
Today at work I was in drive-ups. Alone. Introvert heaven!! Sure, I had customers. And now and then I had to interact with coworkers. But overall, I had a day of working in my own little drive-up room, by myself (an unusual occurrence). And between customers there was no radio. And there was an awesome book to read. And nobody to make small-talk with. I could even sing hymns when I wanted to. And (of course) no floors to sweep, no socks to fold, no onions to chop, no lawn begging "mow me!" Even with a humongous number of transactions (almost double my normal load), today was a rest, a vacation, a rejuvenation-day.
Drive-ups by myself. Happy.
Redemption
Some of us are too young to remember redeeming Green Stamps.
Pastors try to find ways to explain what it is to redeem something. You buy it back. It was yours. But now you have to pay to get it back. Kind of like a pawn shop, eh?
So it was just a mite mind-blowing what Pastor explained the other day.
The Lord gave to Adam and Eve dominion over creation. And with that authority, they sold all of creation into bondage. If everything everything everything was given over to death and sin and Satan, what did God have left with which to pay? With what could He buy back the creation that had been His? Everything He made had been corrupted. It's not like He could trade mountains to buy back the roses. It's not as if He could relinquish fish to redeem ducks.
But His life and His love were not corrupted.
His life was the only thing that could buy back everything everything everything.
Pastors try to find ways to explain what it is to redeem something. You buy it back. It was yours. But now you have to pay to get it back. Kind of like a pawn shop, eh?
So it was just a mite mind-blowing what Pastor explained the other day.
The Lord gave to Adam and Eve dominion over creation. And with that authority, they sold all of creation into bondage. If everything everything everything was given over to death and sin and Satan, what did God have left with which to pay? With what could He buy back the creation that had been His? Everything He made had been corrupted. It's not like He could trade mountains to buy back the roses. It's not as if He could relinquish fish to redeem ducks.
But His life and His love were not corrupted.
His life was the only thing that could buy back everything everything everything.
Monday, October 14, 2013
Getting a Driver's License
Oh, the logic of a 4-yr-old!
As my daughter and granddaughters are out walking, they see Auntie Maggie and Olivia (Andrew's girlfriend) drive past. Olivia is driving.
Alia (age 4) is shocked. "Olivia is driving?!"
Her mommy says, "Yes, she's a grown-up."
The wheels turn in Alia's head. "But Maggie is the same age as Olivia, and she doesn't drive."
"Well, Alia, people are different. Some grown-ups don't drive."
Alia thinks.
And thinks.
And thinks some more.
Then she concludes, "So, Olivia can drive because she's in love."
Now, stop laughing.
Virtually every driver that Alia knows is part of a couple. So her logic is fabulous.
Even if it is wrong.
As my daughter and granddaughters are out walking, they see Auntie Maggie and Olivia (Andrew's girlfriend) drive past. Olivia is driving.
Alia (age 4) is shocked. "Olivia is driving?!"
Her mommy says, "Yes, she's a grown-up."
The wheels turn in Alia's head. "But Maggie is the same age as Olivia, and she doesn't drive."
"Well, Alia, people are different. Some grown-ups don't drive."
Alia thinks.
And thinks.
And thinks some more.
Then she concludes, "So, Olivia can drive because she's in love."
Now, stop laughing.
Virtually every driver that Alia knows is part of a couple. So her logic is fabulous.
Even if it is wrong.
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Two Sunsets
SO cool the other night --
Leaving work, I saw a big, bright fireball of a sun slipping below the horizon. A gorgeous sunset! I turned my back to that sliver of light as I stepped into my car and pulled out of the parking lot.
I climbed the sideroad and turned onto the main thoroughfare, headed east. When I glanced into the rearview mirror, that huge sun was up again and just barely touching the horizon.
Really? That little of a height difference meant a second view of the dipping down below the horizon? The timing was perfect. The sun was beautiful. And this is what can mean to live in kettle-moraine area. Wow!
Leaving work, I saw a big, bright fireball of a sun slipping below the horizon. A gorgeous sunset! I turned my back to that sliver of light as I stepped into my car and pulled out of the parking lot.
I climbed the sideroad and turned onto the main thoroughfare, headed east. When I glanced into the rearview mirror, that huge sun was up again and just barely touching the horizon.
Really? That little of a height difference meant a second view of the dipping down below the horizon? The timing was perfect. The sun was beautiful. And this is what can mean to live in kettle-moraine area. Wow!
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