Summing up weeks of activity in a haiku...

seventh floor window

Mama's waving sillouette

Kentucky send-off

Run between storms...

Perfect timing. Out-of-control on black ice at 8:45 a.m. Sunday, the 9th....Drive south then east to avoid the Superior Lake-effect snowstorm, seeing new country much of the way. Clear the whole storm system. Arrive to create and endure flurries of dust and emotions helping someone leave a home of 65 years to see the new terrain of an apartment with balcony....blessings....

On this election eve...

the excitement is palpable as so many Americans vote for the first time, and so many are motivated to campaign enthusiastically for candidates they favor. I have even laid out the clothes I plan to wear and packed food for tomorrow's all-day pot-luck at the County Courthouse. There I expect to be verifying and counting ballots from 8 a.m. to who-knows-what-hour.

What a privilege to be an American citizen! And what will tomorrow bring?

My freely-chosen, Judeo-Christian worldview informs me that "The king's (read: authority's or even electorate's) heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He wishes." (Proverbs 21:1) I am informed (with Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar) "that the most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever he will..."

God knows how this electiion will go -- local, state, and federal. There will be elation and disappointment. My prayers have been daily that the candidates -- all of them -- be well and safeguarded from harm. My prayer tonight for this nation is that we see a peaceful transfer of government offices to those newly elected...that no angry outbursts or celebratory mahem mar the outcomes.

We choose. It is part of being created in God's own image with abilities to feel the range of emotions, to communicate, think, design and invent. He generally allows us to choose freely. May we also choose wisely.

Lord, may You accomplish purposes of Your own in those elected tomorrow. In any contest where the winner is not immediately clear, give us patience. Your will, whether permissive or direct, be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

Season's greetings...

Liesurely strolling the aisles in a store today, I realized I was hearing Christmas music...beautiful music...played slowly to relax me and keep me there longer, I suspect. Well, I'm not going to complain. I celebrate You, Lord Jesus, every day year 'round.

Turn back the clock...

Daylight savings time ends this weekend, and I am reminded to turn our clocks back one hour before I go to bed Saturday night....the only way I can turn back time....

Recently I heard a fleeting radio reference to "reparative economics" (a tape of an interview with Barach Obama in Chicago in 1991). I thought about that concept along with the obvious "how to" questions. Make reparations for injustices past...slavery...child labor...women...racial and other prejudice? Injustice today -- in my time -- is another matter, about which I may do something practical now, and the wisdom I choose to live by is ancient:

"He has told you, O man, what is good;

And what does the LORD require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God?"
Micah 6:8

Lord Jesus, I would do justly, love mercy, and live in humility with you today. Amen

A memory for hard times...

Our Daddy, who was a very generous and steady provider for our family, once said -- when money was tight -- "You can only wear one at a time." When something was needed or money was not a big issue, he was patient and approving while we tried on shoes or clothes in those magical mirror mazes.

Haiku, while raking...

abandoned garden

soon seamlessly overgrown

by grass and seedlings

.....

long-lived peony

leaf-covered through this winter

thriving since Eden

.....

(and in response to this morning's interview)

cartoonists' fairies --

when science is not enough,

and God asks belief

Letter to the Editor...

As an election judge serving outside my precinct, I must vote absentee, and I have already marked and mailed my ballot. I voted for the candidates less likely to change our form of government into a full-blown socialism where life is lived OF the governing elite, BY the government bureaucracy, and FOR the government ideology.

The "introductory offer" 5% taxes increased/95% taxes cut "come-on" may well lead to a landslide victory this time. Only a slim majority is needed however, and the next go-around could be closer to a top 40% pays increased taxes/ 60% cut -- unless every tax bracket is increased by then to pay for all the "promises, promises."

I am somewhat above the "official" government poverty line, a Main Street citizen, yet I believe I know a few people in that top 5%. They are inventive, energetic people always trying to improve on an idea -- entrepreneurs, producers, employers of others, financially successful. I know them and of them because they have "spread the wealth" generously to non-profits and endowments for scholarships and charities - not to mention meeting payroll for many others.

Watching my own small 401K shrink, I do lament fraud and unchecked greed, but for me, this election is not all about the economy. We our placing our inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness into the keeping of mortal men and women of varied character. May they not exchange these rights for collectivist experiments placing our children and our children's children into bondage!

It will always be my prayer that God protect, preserve, and bless America.

Natural resources...

This perfect autumn afternoon, while raking leaves for insulation (over the drainage field) against the bitter if beautiful winter to come, I observed a diligent chipmunk. She was gathering in her stores of acorns, stashing them (probably) somewhere in our garage...or maybe in the air filter of the van along her route. I must suggest to the driver that he check the air intake.

Thinking over current events while raking, I lament that Senator Obama does not use his eloquence to defend and protect the right to life of the unborn.

Enough of this "Presidential Idol" campaign...

Way back in January, I started calling this 2008 election "Presidential Idol" as the news staffs of various media sought to influence caucus and primary outcomes more-so than to report on them. Now as we near November 4, we are constantly told what our expectations are or ought to be, and results of push-polling are reported as breaking news. Our antiquated-antenna-tv reception left me at times with nothing more than ABC, so I cite this one obvious bias. The morning after the Biden-Palin debate, GMA chose to play repetitively a clip of a Sarah Palin speech peculiarity...something I believe they would never have dared do ridiculing Donna Brazille's speech peculiarity as she criticized Palin's performance in the very same segment. Well, for now...enough.

Bernina's proverb...

Echoing in my memory is my Grandma's advice for dealing with hard times or economic downturns, "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without." Born in 1889, she endured the 1st World War, worked at available odd-jobs through the Great Depression as a widowed mother of five, saw her children and in-laws serve freedom's cause throughout the 2nd World War, and (I am told) lived with an inoperable cancer about 30 years longer than the surgeon's prognosis. She must have quoted this proverb while she lived with our family enough times for me to remember it well. I thank You, Lord, for allowing me to know Grandma Bernina my first 20 years.

Begin again....

Today is the first day of my re-retirement! Now, with many options for the 24 hours....I am thankful for the few weeks working full time training a very capable replacement. There truly is a time for everything.

Seven years lead time?

In the news...assertions that it will be seven years before oil production could be expected from any new drilling. Drive-time thinking as I return from a necessary and very important long journey. On the right of the highway, orderly rows of Christmas trees climb a hillside; perhaps they were planted seven years ago. I think of the first seven years of our children's lives when we invested all we could into their nurture and readiness for life-long learning and for "school". Seven years post-secondary study may earn a doctorate in medicine or law or ministry or....In seven years our next United States President could be winding-down a second term. Hopefully the new paint on our house will still look good in seven years. Seven years(?) figures importantly in the Bible's books Daniel and Revelation. Perhaps it was seven years ago that the well was begun which produced the fuel that takes me home today. Let us not neglect conservation and stewardship of earth, neither let us put off drilling for oil and developing other technologies toward energy independence for ourselves and future generations.

Social networking...

Face-to-face interactions with people, family, and friends is my very favorite style of social networking! That's what I've been enjoying these last few weeks of road trips, reunions, and home-again welcome....more to follow now that I'm back at a computer....

Definition, please...

"Back talk" in my growing years had a negative connotation, but I have not usually, since then thought of it that way. I generally respond to people who address me, and over the years I have written responses to God -- prayers as back-talk -- in response to scripture. This is today's response to John 1:14-18 ...."Jesus, You have explained 'God' to my satisfaction. What fulness I could not understand through Moses' Law, I have received through You -- grace upon grace. Grace and truth realized through You, Jesus; through Your life and speech and actions and sacrifice and triumph....Truth and grace for living for eternity. This faith transcends every fallen-short "religion" and is beyond any flawed "churchianity" ...and it is well with my soul."

LONG past prime...

While sorting and cleaning through a fridge-top freezer, reading package dates, checking for freezer burn...I began to reflect on my own "expiration date"...and I'm glad I don't know it.

Journaling is my daily habit, though I will not share all the content here....I first wanted a blog some months ago when a prominent athlete excused his cruelty to animals as "immaturity." I wanted to tell the whole world that no young grandchild, student or neighbor I have would be so cruel to a dog in their immaturity. Now, I have shouted this to the universe and whoever you are, dear reader.