A Project for a beautiful February Day

The front gardens on the north side of the house are still under an ice and snow cover. The back garden by the patio is clear of snow but was still covered with the debris from last season’s flowers. The sun is shining and the wind is gentle so I spent a little while today clearing the debris and loosening the moist soil.

Writing that "a little while" just now brought back a memory of one of our kids asking “how many whiles” before a certain event was going to happen. Measuring time in whiles, kind of vague but cute.

Winter starts to get really old in Wyoming by mid February so it is so wonderful to get to be outdoors for a bit with the warmth of the sun on my back. Signs of Spring are so invigorating. The grass around the patio pavers is greening up a little even though a full thick lawn is still many whiles away. Under the debris the Spring bulbs are poking up through the soil. Yay!!!

The dog got a bath outside today too. I’ve got it down to a science with S.’s car washing bucket full of warm rinsing water and a large pitcher full of moisturizing shampoo water and a small pitcher for dipping into the rinse water. Oh and the treats to get her to stay with me, I do all of it holding onto her collar. I finish it off by drying her using a big beach towel. she loves that part.

Happy day, warm sun. Arctic weather returns tomorrow.

Lou

P.S. Hi Mom.

Cherish One Another

When I was a teenager there was a popular sappy love song by the group The Association. The girls all loved it because it was about a boy who cherished a girl but she apparently didn’t even know that he cherished her. Here are a few of the lyrics from the hit song of 1966, I would have been fourteen back then. Maybe you have heard it on a golden oldies station.

Cherish
The Association

Cherish is the word I use to describe
All the feeling that I have hiding here for you inside
You don't know how many times I've wished that I had told you
You don't know how many times I've wished that I could hold you
You don't know how many times I've wished that I could
Mold you into someone who could
Cherish me as much as I cherish you . . .

Now looking back not only do I think the song is nauseatingly sappy but such a terrible use of a lovely word that means so much more than romantic unrequited love. According to Webster’s Dictionary it is a verb meaning;

1. To treat with tenderness and affection; to take care of; to foster; to nurture.

2. To hold dear; to value highly.

3. To indulge and encourage in the mind; to harbor; to cling to; as to cherish the principles of virtue.

So cherishing someone involves one’s actions towards them, the ways you show that you value them and want the best for them. It involves taking care of them and remembering them in your thoughts. I get the impression that to cherish someone takes a period of time and doesn’t happen overnight, it is not a crush or a love at first sight kind of a thing. It appeals to the best in us to really consider someone else before ourselves and care for them deeply. It doesn’t necessarily ask for anything in return. If we could only develop the skill of cherishing one another we would have better marriages, better relationships and a better world. To cherish someone is to assign great worth to them.

I know it seems trite but do cherish one another. I believe that what goes around comes around.

Life is fragile, don’t delay.

Lou

Cold nights and amazing survivability and a sunset for the heck of it

I pulled open the kitchen blinds this morning to see a thick crescent of frost outlining the panes of glass. The skies were clear and the wind was relatively light at 8mph. The temperature was well below zero at minus 21 degrees F, about as low as our thermometer can go. The Accuweather site says the “real feel” was minus 36 degrees F. S. let our dog Penelope right back in after feeding her on the back porch but normally she stays outside to patrol the yard for a bit. She wanted to go out again when I came downstairs. As I opened the back door to let her out I heard a bird chirping away.

A bird chirping (happily or not I do not know) just because that is what it does every morning. I don’t know what kind it was as I wasn’t going to stay out there in my pajamas and robe to spot it, but what a marvel!

How does a creature with only a covering of feathers and fluff over a tiny warm blooded body survive in weather such as this!!! We complain in our heated cars with seat warmers, while we wear layer upon layer of warm clothing and hurry from one warmed place to another. How do the birds make it through these days and nights? How long would we survive if we were left outdoors in these conditions?

Here is an article/site that will answer questions you may have about the winter birds.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/celebration/challenge/survival-1/how-do-birds-survive-winter

Here is a sample from the site.

“Most birds respond to the cold in similar ways, but the temperatures that trigger their behavioral and physiological responses vary widely. In general the bigger the bird the easier it is to cope with cold temperatures.

Some behaviors and physiological responses that help them conserve heat include:

1. Tucking feet and legs into their breast feathers.
2. Fluffing their plumage. This traps air, creating an insulating layer.
3. Finding shelter. Birds use dense shrubs and tree cavities to conserve heat.
4. Increasing their metabolic rate, producing more body heat
5. Shivering (produces more metabolic heat)
6. Roosting closely together with other birds. (Up to ten bluebirds have been found to roost in the same tree cavity on cold nights)
7. Some birds like Black-capped Chickadees can 'lower their body temperature at night and enter regulated hypothermia, saving significant amounts of energy.
8. In addition, 'many birds store food and have exceptional spatial memory to relocate it, even a month later.' (from the on-line resource, Birds of North America”)

I still remember being touched by the documentary movie “March of the Penguins” in 2005 about the Emperor penguins in Antarctica and the way they have to huddle all through the long winter months rotating in and out of the middle so that all or most can survive. Amazing. Stay warm.

Lou

Final Excerpts from Prayer

I found out recently that Philip Yancey has a blog now at http://www.philipyancey.com/

He doesn’t post very often but some may want to check it out. I was pleased to see him write a post in support of Dr. Francis Collins, an evangelical who helped found the BioLogos forum at http://www.biologos.org/ before stepping down to become Obama’s appointee to head the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Standing beside a TE (theistic evolutionist) makes one a target for angry rhetoric in the evangelical world.

There is much substance in Yancey’s book on prayer that needs to be reflected on by the reader, I would recommend it to all. There is a chapter on unanswered prayer that points out that even the Bible includes examples of unanswered prayer. Moses did not get to cross over into the promised land despite his prayers and David lost the infant son he prayed over.

Some excerpts from the last chapters:

“In a nutshell, the main difficulty with unanswered prayers is that Jesus seemed to promise there need not be any.” Page 234

“The assurance of answered prayers, still sweeping in its scope, comes with conditions. Am I abiding in Christ? Am I making requests according to his will? Am I obeying his commands? Each of these underscores the relationship, the companionship with God.” Page 235

“The trail of God at work rarely follows a straight line, which means our prayers may well produce different answers than we expect.” Page 241

“In answering prayers, God normally relies on human agents.” Page 242

“Historically most of the major advances in leprosy treatment have come from Christian missionaries – mainly because they were the only ones willing to treat the dreaded disease.” Page 244

“More than half the spontaneous prayers I hear in church pertain to the sick.” Page 248

“I would never want to dampen someone’s faith, because bold faith surely impressed Jesus. Yet the stack of letters in my file cabinet convinces me that we can do equal harm by holding out false hope of physical healing.” Page 249

“It puzzles me that some Christians who accept the regularity of natural laws in other areas resist them when it comes to health.” Page 255

“Each of us learns to adapt our prayers to natural laws.” Page 255

In terms of physical health, you could say that the power of prayer has limits: no prayer will reverse the aging process, banish death, or eliminate the need for nourishment.” Page 256

“God neither protects Christians with a shield of health nor provides a quick, dependable solution to all suffering.” Page 260

“Faith works. It aligns body, mind, and spirit, and galvanizes the healing processes built into our bodies.” Page 268

“With prayer much of the benefit takes place behind the scenes, beneath the level of conscious awareness, in ways difficult to measure.” Page 287

“For a recovering fundamentalist, it takes courage to trust that the gospel truly is good news from a God who is love.” Page 291

“God, who is timeless, requires of us a mature faith that may, as it did for many of these, involve delays that seem like trials. Patience is one sign of that maturity, a quality that can develop only through the passage of time.” Page 297

At its best, my prayer does not seek to manipulate God into doing my will – quite the opposite. Prayer enters the pool of God’s own love and widens outward.” Page 308

“I pray in astonished belief that God desires an ongoing relationship. I pray in trust that the act of prayer is God’s designated way of closing the vast gulf between infinity and me. I pray in order to put myself in the stream of God’s healing work on earth. I pray as I breathe – because I can’t help it.” Page 326

I would urge my family and friends to avail themselves of prayer and stay connected to the Vine.

Lou

John 15:5 (New American Standard Bible)

⁵"I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he ^(A)bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

PS Not sure what I did but those links above don't work, try copying and pasting.