Appreciate Life and Living

 Some mornings when I have nothing else on my agenda and the weather is pleasant, I like to step out onto the back patio and just sit for awhile.  Such was the case last Saturday before it got so hot.  There was a very gentle breeze...just a mile or two an hour...the temperature was just right, and there wasn't much in the way of loud sounds except for an occasional private airplane somewhere or the noise of the neighbor's outside air conditioner unit which cycled from time to time.

I went out shortly after getting up for the day, so was still in a kind of wake up mode.  It takes awhile, as one gets older, to get the blood flowing and the brain engaged.  That was me that morning as I went out on the back patio.  For awhile, I just sat in a lawn chair on the brick patio, looking around.  Occasionally, someone would walk, jog, or bicycle on the path in the park which is right behind us.  And at times I could hear the conversations of those in the park as they walked together.  But otherwise, the morning seemed dull and lifeless...just an ordinary day.  However, I was mistaken, as you will shortly hear.

A man went by on an electric bicycle.  Another man was walking, carrying what seemed to me to be a huge backpack...the kind one might see being carried on a hike into the wilderness.  A few women jogged by.  And there were a couple of young girls about age 5 or 6 who would find something of interest to look at, stop, and chatter about their find.  It was a kind of normal mix of folks using the park path that morning before it got hot later on.

Other than the park people, I didn't notice much of anything happening around me until I happened to see a seed from a cottonwood tree gently move in the breeze over the fish pond, then slowly drift into the water.  For some reason, that prompted me to engage my senses a little better.  When I did, I noticed several things going on that I otherwise would have missed.  What follows are just some of those things.

The neighbor's air conditioner unit was not running at the time, so I was able to hear a dove calling in the distance.  A house sparrow soon followed, along with a tufted titmouse.  A little later a blue jay began a raucous call that alerted other jays in the neighborhood to also begin to chatter.  And, of course, there are always cardinals, it seems, either where we can see them or hear them.  That didn't happen this morning, though, which was quite unusual.  There was, however, a squirrel somewhere in the woods who was chattering about something or other...possibly a missus scolding her mate for something he either was or wasn't doing.

I noticed a dragonfly sweeping back and forth over the fish pond.  They do that regularly, and I enjoy watching them dart about as they do so.  I have wondered why they had such a fascination for the fish pond until I read an article about them.  They are, it seems, voracious predators and love to fly over ponds and areas of lush growth to capture mosquitos on the fly.  That would explain their occasional deviation from a normal flight pattern as they maneuver themselves to capture a mosquito in flight.

Dragonflies are a fascinating creature.  Many have a double set of wings that can flap independently of each other in order to give them maximum maneuverability.  They can fly in any direction and almost instantly change course.  They have been recorded as generating as much as 9 G forces in sharp turns and can fly upwards of 30 miles an hour.  Their eyes are better than ours, being able to process about 200 images per second.  They can see 360 degrees around themselves.  About 80 percent of their brain is devoted to sight.

And then there were the butterflies that seem to be constantly fluttering around.  We are, for some reason it seems, a sort of haven for a medium size white, or rather almost white, butterfly that likes to flit around and land on an assortment of plants we have in the yard.  Not just one or two butterflies, and not just for a day or two.  These things have been around for a couple of months now.  I'll see half a dozen or more at any given time.  We occasionally have other assorted butterflies, but these white ones are the most prominent.

I planted some parsley in a front yard flowerbed this year hoping to attract swallowtail butterflies.  It seems to have worked because there are at least three caterpillars on the plants, munching away.  I also have milkweed for monarchs, but have seen a precipitous drop off in the number of monarchs coming through, and as far as I know I have not hosted any monarch eggs or caterpillars as of yet.  There's still time, but it is growing short.

Then there are the assorted bees that like some of the plants we have in our yard.  I'm guessing that they mostly come from the park behind us because the rest of our neighborhood is, for the most part, well-tended yards and lawns.  Smallish bees, honeybees, and even bumblebees like the pretty much constant flowering of the catmint and other flowering plants.  They're gentle, and don't seem to mind my looking at them rather close-up.  Some have obvious pollen pouches on their legs.  It's a good reminder of the variety of animal and plant life in this creation.

It was beginning to get warm, so I got up to go back inside.  As I did so, I saw a small garden snail about one half inch in diameter trudging toward me on his one foot on the brick patio.  What he was doing half-way to the house on the brick, I haven't a clue.  He was going away from anything resembling his normal habitat, and probably to certain death.  I carefully picked him up and took him to some foliage around the fish pond.  Dropping him into the dense growth, I hoped he found a good place to munch away on whatever may be in that undergrowth.

Although I didn't see any today, once in awhile I see a bull snake or garter snake either sunning himself or sauntering casually into or out of the undergrowth.  We'll see deer by our back fence, as well as raccoons, possums, and once in a while a wild turkey.  We'll smell the unmistakable odor of a skunk sometimes, and hear owls and coyotes in the late evening.  Frogs will begin their choruses around nightfall...some at our fish pond and others at the water retention pond not far from us in the park. 

So, in retrospect, the morning that at first began with nothing special going on, quickly turned into a morning of discovery, pleasantness, and appreciation for even what wildlife and nature that can be found in a well-kept yard.  So, open your eyes and ears to what's around you.  Notice the small things.  Care for those...such as the snail...who cannot care for themselves.  I think you'll appreciate life and living much more.

 

Blessings.

Some mornings when I have nothing else on my agenda and the weather is pleasant, I like to step out onto the back patio and just sit for awhile.  Such was the case last Saturday before it got so hot.  There was a very gentle breeze...just a mile or two an hour...the temperature was just right, and there wasn't much in the way of loud sounds except for an occasional private airplane somewhere or the noise of the neighbor's outside air conditioner unit which cycled from time to time.

I went out shortly after getting up for the day, so was still in a kind of wake up mode.  It takes awhile, as one gets older, to get the blood flowing and the brain engaged.  That was me that morning as I went out on the back patio.  For awhile, I just sat in a lawn chair on the brick patio, looking around.  Occasionally, someone would walk, jog, or bicycle on the path in the park which is right behind us.  And at times I could hear the conversations of those in the park as they walked together.  But otherwise, the morning seemed dull and lifeless...just an ordinary day.  However, I was mistaken, as you will shortly hear.

A man went by on an electric bicycle.  Another man was walking, carrying what seemed to me to be a huge backpack...the kind one might see being carried on a hike into the wilderness.  A few women jogged by.  And there were a couple of young girls about age 5 or 6 who would find something of interest to look at, stop, and chatter about their find.  It was a kind of normal mix of folks using the park path that morning before it got hot later on.

Other than the park people, I didn't notice much of anything happening around me until I happened to see a seed from a cottonwood tree gently move in the breeze over the fish pond, then slowly drift into the water.  For some reason, that prompted me to engage my senses a little better.  When I did, I noticed several things going on that I otherwise would have missed.  What follows are just some of those things.

The neighbor's air conditioner unit was not running at the time, so I was able to hear a dove calling in the distance.  A house sparrow soon followed, along with a tufted titmouse.  A little later a blue jay began a raucous call that alerted other jays in the neighborhood to also begin to chatter.  And, of course, there are always cardinals, it seems, either where we can see them or hear them.  That didn't happen this morning, though, which was quite unusual.  There was, however, a squirrel somewhere in the woods who was chattering about something or other...possibly a missus scolding her mate for something he either was or wasn't doing.

I noticed a dragonfly sweeping back and forth over the fish pond.  They do that regularly, and I enjoy watching them dart about as they do so.  I have wondered why they had such a fascination for the fish pond until I read an article about them.  They are, it seems, voracious predators and love to fly over ponds and areas of lush growth to capture mosquitos on the fly.  That would explain their occasional deviation from a normal flight pattern as they maneuver themselves to capture a mosquito in flight.

Dragonflies are a fascinating creature.  Many have a double set of wings that can flap independently of each other in order to give them maximum maneuverability.  They can fly in any direction and almost instantly change course.  They have been recorded as generating as much as 9 G forces in sharp turns and can fly upwards of 30 miles an hour.  Their eyes are better than ours, being able to process about 200 images per second.  They can see 360 degrees around themselves.  About 80 percent of their brain is devoted to sight.

And then there were the butterflies that seem to be constantly fluttering around.  We are, for some reason it seems, a sort of haven for a medium size white, or rather almost white, butterfly that likes to flit around and land on an assortment of plants we have in the yard.  Not just one or two butterflies, and not just for a day or two.  These things have been around for a couple of months now.  I'll see half a dozen or more at any given time.  We occasionally have other assorted butterflies, but these white ones are the most prominent.

I planted some parsley in a front yard flowerbed this year hoping to attract swallowtail butterflies.  It seems to have worked because there are at least three caterpillars on the plants, munching away.  I also have milkweed for monarchs, but have seen a precipitous drop off in the number of monarchs coming through, and as far as I know I have not hosted any monarch eggs or caterpillars as of yet.  There's still time, but it is growing short.

Then there are the assorted bees that like some of the plants we have in our yard.  I'm guessing that they mostly come from the park behind us because the rest of our neighborhood is, for the most part, well-tended yards and lawns.  Smallish bees, honeybees, and even bumblebees like the pretty much constant flowering of the catmint and other flowering plants.  They're gentle, and don't seem to mind my looking at them rather close-up.  Some have obvious pollen pouches on their legs.  It's a good reminder of the variety of animal and plant life in this creation.

It was beginning to get warm, so I got up to go back inside.  As I did so, I saw a small garden snail about one half inch in diameter trudging toward me on his one foot on the brick patio.  What he was doing half-way to the house on the brick, I haven't a clue.  He was going away from anything resembling his normal habitat, and probably to certain death.  I carefully picked him up and took him to some foliage around the fish pond.  Dropping him into the dense growth, I hoped he found a good place to munch away on whatever may be in that undergrowth.

Although I didn't see any today, once in awhile I see a bull snake or garter snake either sunning himself or sauntering casually into or out of the undergrowth.  We'll see deer by our back fence, as well as raccoons, possums, and once in a while a wild turkey.  We'll smell the unmistakable odor of a skunk sometimes, and hear owls and coyotes in the late evening.  Frogs will begin their choruses around nightfall...some at our fish pond and others at the water retention pond not far from us in the park. 

So, in retrospect, the morning that at first began with nothing special going on, quickly turned into a morning of discovery, pleasantness, and appreciation for even what wildlife and nature that can be found in a well-kept yard.  So, open your eyes and ears to what's around you.  Notice the small things.  Care for those...such as the snail...who cannot care for themselves.  I think you'll appreciate life and living much more.

 

Blessings.

General Conversation

 Good afternoon.  Today, the topic of conversation for this Thursday Thought could easily be the weather…hot, sticky, and sometimes borderline oppressive weather has hit this part of the state.  But we’re not as hot as farther south and west where the thermometer easily tops 110 degrees most days.  I’m guessing it’s more of a dry heat, however, in Arizona and southern California, so I don’t have a lot of sympathy for those folks who live and work there.

And besides, we ourselves have gone through that kind of weather in recent memory…2011, I believe.  That year, Wichita had 53 days of 100 degree plus temperatures, lasting well into September.  The average high temperature for the month of July that year was 102 degrees, a full 10 degrees more than the normal.  And the average low temperature for that month was 77 degrees…7 degrees warmer than the normal for the month.

I well remember the evening when a cool front finally came through, breaking the hold that the heat had on us.  I stood outside in our driveway waiting for it…and felt the first few tentative breezes of cooler air from the north, then a more substantial breeze that followed.  I knew that the days of 100 degrees, at least for that year, were thankfully over.

Or, continuing in a weather-related subject, the topic could be the ongoing drought in this part of the country.  We’ve been in drought conditions before…some much worse than this one.  But we are indeed feeling the pinch.  Certainly, we’ve had some good rains over the past several weeks, but we’ve been so far behind in moisture that it will take a good amount in the future to just break even.

Or maybe instead of the weather, we could talk about how short the summer seems to be and that school will be starting in about three weeks.  There’s lots to do in this short time that’s left, for those of us who have kids in school or work for a school.  We’re not sure we have the time to do it all and wonder where the endlessly long summers of our childhood days have gone.

Of course, back then…before the earth got cool…school started after Labor Day and was dismissed in mid-May.  We didn’t have all of the breaks kids have now.  No teacher work days.  No inservice days.  Sometimes the stretch between holidays and days off seemed to be rather long, but we enjoyed well over three months of summer vacation as opposed to about 2 ½ months now.

And school started at 9am and got out at 4pm.  None of this 7am school-starting business back then.  We had time to get up, get a good breakfast, and get to school unhurried.  When 4 o-clock came, we had time to get home and do a few things outside if the weather was relatively nice.  I don’t miss all of the “old days,” but there are some parts of them I’d gladly bring back if I could.

Or perhaps we could discuss the current political situation, both locally and nationally.  Or maybe the international situation…North Korea, Iran, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Africa, Russia, or one of any number of other hot button points on the globe.  Things seem to be spinning out of control faster than we can put things back together.  We seem to have several places in the world that are run by crazy, deranged people.  We seem to have some of those same folks in the halls of Congress and hanging out in Topeka as well as the local courthouse and city hall.

Of course, those who we believe are deranged may well be the heroes for many others.  It all depends, I suppose, on one’s perspective…one’s world view if you will.  And when it comes down to it, no one has quite the same world view as we do.  Everyone sees the world through a slightly different lens…a lens that colors and biases one’s opinions and thoughts.

Or, we could address hot button issues of the day…the “WOKE” agenda, the “Critical Race Theory” agenda, the abortion issue, the book banning controversy, the LGBTQ agenda, or one of any number of other issues whose supporters try to keep in the news and in front of the general populace as much and as often as possible, so as to garner as much support and money to “fight the enemy,” so to speak, as possible.

The problem with this is that I steer away from these kinds of issues in this venue, preferring instead to deal with things that would NOT tend to further divide us, but rather would bring us more together as a society.

These issues aren’t going to go away any time soon.  They and others will remain as issues, in large part because there are many who gain their wealth and livelihood by keeping these issues as issues instead of solving them and going on.  Think for a moment.  If the WOKE agenda issue would be suddenly solved today, how many people would be out of work with nothing to do?  How many grass-roots groups, community organizers, executive directors, national organizations, politicians, and others would suddenly have nothing to complain about and no cause to raise money for…which, by the way…goes to pay the salaries of those who are employed by those groups and organizations.

Well, I was going to talk about something other than all of these, but my time is about up…so I’ll have to close out this week’s post with a couple of quotes I borrowed from my Facebook Friend Beth’s timeline.  The quotes aren’t related, but are well worth the consideration.

“Sometimes, all it takes is one prayer to change everything.”  And the second quote?  “Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is watching.”

Blessings.

This Jesus

 Good morning!

 

I read an article on social media that talked of Jesus, the one Christians believe is God incarnate, as he lived his life on earth some 2,000 years ago.  The article emphasized the life of Jesus being one of love, inclusion, and forgiveness.

I see this a lot now in various posts, articles, and memes.  The statement is indeed true.  Jesus did model love, inclusion, and forgiveness.  We must, if we are to be followers of Jesus, emulate that as best we can.

However, I am concerned that when we begin to see Jesus ONLY in this light, we miss some things very important in our understanding of who God Incarnate really is.  We have to understand that we are not dealing with a god who is indifferent to sin or ignores our shortcomings.  We are not dealing with a god who let’s us go our merry way doing and engaging in whatever thing or activity we want, and then says, “Awww, it’s OK.”  We’re not dealing with a god who pretends that our shortcomings and sins don’t really exist or don’t matter, and we can all be one happy family.

We are dealing with a God who has been working ever since Adam and Eve to redeem the creation and create a way for his fallen, sinful humans to be accounted as righteous in His sight so that we can be in His presence, and He in ours…consistent with His immutable attributes of love, justice, mercy, judgment, grace, and yes, wrath.

This Jesus, who we often place in an exclusively love and inclusion box…by the way, that’s often the most comfortable for us…for Jesus to be in that box…this Jesus is that God.  This Jesus, who we see as the kindly man going about loving and forgiving, is the God who paid the ultimate price, the only price that was sufficient, for our shortcomings and sin.  This Jesus is the one who

   Is the creator of all that was, is, or ever will be.

·         Is the "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

·         Told the woman who was about to be stoned because of he sin to, "Go, and sin no more."

·         Is the Angry Son who drove out the money-changers from His Father’s temple and who lit into the Pharisees and Scribes for their hypocrisy.

·         Wept over Jerusalem because of its collective unbelief just before His crucifixion.

·         Emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and was obedient to the Father by dying on a Roman cross.

·         Is the Angry Son who drove out the money-changers and who lit into the Pharisees and Scribes for their hypocrisy.

·         Is the One described by John in Revelation 1...this is the vision John saw of Jesus…the hair on his head white like wool, as white as snow, his eyes like blazing fire; his feet like bronze glowing in a furnace and his voice like the sound of rushing waters:  his face shining like the sun in all its brilliance…and coming from his mouth was a two-edged sword.

·         Said that the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur.

 He…this Jesus…is the one who said, according to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 13…The Son of man will send out His angels and they will gather out of His kingdom all those people who cause others to fall away [from God] and those who [continue to] sin.  He will throw these people into the fiery furnace where there will be crying and excruciating pain.  Then the people who did what was right will shine out like the sun in their Father's kingdom.  The person who has ears [to hear with] ought to listen [to this] carefully.

 And he, this Jesus, is the one who said, "Come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest."

 So, why am I telling you all of this?  In order to say this:  Jesus is way more than the itinerant preacher...way more than the One who includes, forgives, and loves, although He is indeed the perfect example of those things.

The questions are, should we emulate the earthly life of Jesus as best we can?  Certainly.  Do we refrain from casting the first stone because we ourselves are not without sin?  Yes.  Do we do our best to value all people, cultures, races, etc. as children of God and our neighbor?  Of course.

We are in no position to be the arbiters and enforcers of what we perceive as the good and the right.  God is perfectly capable of running the world without our help, of with our help, if He so chooses.  Besides, when we insert ourselves into judgment-making without authority from God, we only mess up things with our biases and warped world views.  Every.  Single.  Person.  Has a biased and warped world view.  Every one.

Maybe we need to experience God in a new way.  I’m wondering if that "new way" may very well be having a much more complete picture and concept of Jesus as presented in all of Scripture.  Friend of sinners?  Yes.  One who forgives?  Certainly.  Compassionate on the outcast and lower classes of society?  For sure.  Almighty God who judges rightly and promises that we will reap what we sow?  We’d better believe it.

Thanks, and may God continue to bless you.

Find Joy

 Good morning and welcome.

 This past week, as it usually always is for us all, was a mixed bag at least insofar as the various events and happenings which came into our sphere of life and living.  On the one side, we’ve endured yet more mass shootings, including one here in Wichita.  We also continue to receive various communications from politicians and others either praising their ideology or condemning the ideas and actions of the other side.  And we are seeing, still, an economy that isn’t what it should be…inflation that is too high…families not able to pay bills and the squeeze in the family budget…painful discrimination…and the shunting aside of the poor, the infirm, and the minority into the societal dustbin.

On the other hand, we’ve celebrated yet another Independence Day with the requisite cookouts, featuring burgers, brats, potato salad, baked beans and dessert…and of course the fireworks displays, both commercial as well as the neighborhood displays.  We’ve heard many people talking about, and desiring to come together as a society in thoughtful dialog and discourse, working to resolve some of the issues facing us today.  We see kind words being spoken, and compassion being manifested in good deeds toward others.

I don’t know about you, but I often allow the negative things of life to sort of take over…putting me in a sort of constant state of sadness…a funk…and even despair at times.  And it doesn’t take much of the negative to outweigh a lot of the positive, either, at least for me.  I’m not sure why that is so, but I’m guessing it’s true for you, too.  It seems we humans like, for some unearthly reason, to wallow in the negative and fixate on those things which cause us angst and turmoil.  As is sometimes said in the workplace, “One negative can cancel out a whole bunch of atta-boys (or atta-girls if you prefer).

I thought about this today as I was doing some reading.  My mind wandered a bit as it sometimes does during these times of reading and I thought of my friend Kendra up in Wisconsin.  She’s a writer, mom, and wife.  She’s in the middle of raising a family, keeping house, writing a book, and being a wife to husband Collin.  She’s a natural introvert who, along with her husband, made a conscious decision to live in the heart of a neighborhood of great need.  We became friends through a chain of events that I’ll not repeat here, but suffice it to say that it began with my reading one of her books.

I hadn’t heard from her in awhile, and it has been awhile since I wrote her, so I messaged her briefly this morning, letting her know we were fine here, and ending the brief post with this:  “Find joy in life today, Kendra.  Whatever happens, find joy.  Blessings.”

OK, here’s the thought for today.  The Christian can experience joy in life even in the face of sad and despairing life events, and when being insulted or demeaned because of one’s faith.  In fact, in Christian scriptures we are told to find joy even in the face of trials.  James, in his short letter, puts it this way:  “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.”

Jesus himself said during his sermon we call the Sermon on the Mount,  “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.  Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.”

I know that I struggle with the idea that joy and happiness don’t necessarily equate.  That I can be a person of joy even when faced with the most unpleasant and unhappy life events and experiences.  But I think the idea of joy in the face of trial has something to do with our inner make-up…what happens inside of us when we experience something negative.  Yes, our unhappiness may show.  We may display one or more emotions having to do with that unhappiness.  But on the inside…deep within our souls…there should be, shall we say, a fountain of joy that continues to flow, bathing our inner being with a peace and contentment that weathers the storms coming at us on the outside.  We WILL get through this.  We WILL come out on the other side.  We WILL again see happiness.

I think that may be a good way for me, at least, to think of the ideas of joy, contentment, happiness, and the trials in life that will always come my way.  And it may be a good way for  you to think of such things as well.

So, as I told my friend Kendra, “Find joy in life today.  Whatever happens, find joy.  Blessings.”