Polka-dotted Sky

The Deeper Magic

2011-08-03T17:42:00.001-05:00

Sometimes it's really interesting/odd/funny/weird/thrilling how threads of themes interweave themselves in a person's life in the same week... or the same day. So... speaking of that thrill... If you are a writer, maybe you know about what one of my favorite authors, Lucy Maud (or L. M.) Montgomery, calls 'the flash.' What is it? Well, in her book Emily of New Moon, Montgomery describes 'the flash' thusly, by depicting her young heroine's experience:

Emily called it that, although she felt that the name didn't exactly describe it. It couldn't be described—not even to Father, who always seemed a little puzzled by it. Emily never spoke of it to anyone else.

It had always seemed to Emily, ever since she could remember, that she was very, very near to a world of wonderful beauty. Between it and herself hung only a thin curtain; she could never draw the curtain aside—but sometimes, just for a moment, a wind fluttered it and then it was as if she caught a glimpse of the enchanting realm beyond—only a glimpse—and heard a note of unearthly music.

This moment came rarely—went swiftly, leaving her breathless with the inexpressible delight of it. She could never recall it—never summon it—never pretend it; but the wonder of it stayed with her for days. It never came twice with the same thing. Tonight the dark boughs against that far-off sky had given it. It had come with a high, wild note of wind in the night; with a shadow wave over a ripe field; with a greybird lighting on her windowsill in a storm; with the singing of "Holy, holy, holy" in church; with a glimpse of the kitchen fire when she had come home on a dark autumn night; with the spirit-like blue of ice palms on a twilit pane; with a felicitous new word when she was writing down a description of something. And always when the flash came to her, Emily felt that life was a wonderful, mysterious thing of persistent beauty.

… She knew just how she would begin it—the sentence seemed to shape itself in her mind: "The hill called to me, and something in me called back to it."*

Emily Byrd Starr and I and any writer who has experienced this truth know that 'flash-filled' reality of living something and then reliving a bit of it as we write about it and then read what we've written. And even better is to share that bit of writing with a kindred spirit whose soul quivers at the same resonating tones of the beauty we're attempting to express and the beauty of the expression itself (even if that expression is a splintery rough draft!).

I'll risk sounding 'pagan' and call this reality 'magic.' And here's why. Two more of my favorite writers use a similar metaphor to speak into being their understanding of what feels to me to be part of the great mystery and wonder of how God made His creation (especially us, humankind) and life itself.

In a blog post titled "Fahrenheit Zero", responding to last year's on-again-off-again plan, by one pastor, to burn copies of the Koran to commemorate 9/11, Kat Coble writes:

My first reaction is my usual reaction when people talk of burning books. To me there is no greater flaunting of ignorance than the desecration of any sort of written word. Do people not realise the true magic of writing? I know it seems commonplace in this world where most people can read and write at least a basic amount. But the very idea that ideas themselves can live, charging like lightning down an undersea wire from person to person, because of marks on a contrasting surface—that, my friends, is the penultimate magic. The penultimate victory of life over death. In my mind, it is second only to the redemption of Jesus’ sacrifice.

See? It's 'the flash' again. Kat knows it. No, she doesn't merely know about it. She knows it. She lives it. She breathes it. Like Emily Starr, budding writer, Kat, growing (flowering?) writer, cannot not write. She must write. Even on the days when the physical act of writing is too painful and exacerbates the pain already there. She's still composing in her mind.

Life, writing, being, truth, beauty—I sense that for both Kat and Emily, these are all one. And how that is, is a great mystery. Not in the sense that it hides... but that it is complex. Just as trying to explain this truth (that truth?) is complex (yet as simple as tapping on letter keys on a laptop!).

Kat's comment about penultimate magic reminded me of one of my favorite scenes from C. S. Lewis's book The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, from his series The Chronicles of Narnia.

After the White Witch reminds Aslan of her right to kill any traitor in Narnia—this particular traitor being Edmund—Aslan takes Edmund's place, allows his mane to be cut and shaved and himself to be killed upon the stone table, and then lies there all night. The morning brings a surprise for Susan and Lucy: a deafening cracking sound. They rush to the stone stable, expecting they do not know what, and find that it has split down the middle. And Aslan is not there. Susan wonders aloud, "Is it more magic?"

"Yes," said a great voice behind them, "it is more magic."

They looked 'round. There, shining in the sunrise, larger than they had seen him before, shaking his mane (for it had apparently grown again) stood Aslan himself.**

Susan and Lucy are delighted, overjoyed. And they shower him with hugs and kisses. But they wonder why he is now alive.

Aslan explains:

It means that though the witch knew the deep magic, there is a magic deeper still that she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked a little further back, into the stillness and darkness before time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have know that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the table would crack, and death itself would start working backward.**

So... going back to Mr. IWannaBurnaKoran...
How can a man who is supposed to understand the real thing, the sacrifice that Aslan's is only a shadow of, not understand its true nature, its true power? And then not understand the potency (albeit, less than Jesus' sacrifice) of writing?

Or is it that he does know that writing is powerful and he fears the writings of others? Here, namely the Koran. But then... he has forgotten the power of the gospel... and the power of the One he claims to serve. And that power is greater. It is the greatest. It is still mighty to save, so we need not fear the power that writing has. But we use it. For the good.

But Kat understands. And she states:

What I will do? Buy more books. Write more books. Teach people to read. Teach people to write. Pass the word along that writing is magic for ordinary lives. …

Up to this point [in this blog post,] there were 398 words, composed of 26 letters. That’s 32 lines, 9 circles, 6 half circles, black against a white background. That’s all it is, in its most basic form. But in it are the thoughts of my brain, reacting to the thoughts of others and causing more reactions in yet more people.

Those things burn with an altogether different fire.

And my friends, when 'the flash' comes, we writers know that we've felt the heat and seen the light of that fire.

It seems no coincidence that tonight I am revisiting a draft of a blog post I began almost a year ago, dear book-friends so beloved in my girlhood, and a song that too has resonated with me as many a good writing has done. As I want to really know the reality of the 'deeper magic' and live it and know the One who created it all, He brings together these elements to serve as reassurance markers along my way of discovery, my way up that Alpine path that Emily and L. M. Montgomery climbed, the same one that Kat and I are climbing.

* Montgomery, L. M., Emily of New Moon, New York: Bantam Books, 1983. pp. 7–8. [Some punctuation changes, mine.]

** Lewis, C. S., The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Michael York (performer), Audible.com, 2005.

40-day Bible-reading Challenge: Day 2

2011-03-10T18:22:00.000-06:00

"Zion, herald of good news,
go up on a high mountain.
Jerusalem, herald of good news,
raise your voice loudly.
Raise it, do not be afraid!
Say to the cities of Judah,
'Here is your God!'
The LORD God comes with strength,
and His power establishes His rule.
His reward is with Him,
and His gifts accompany Him.
He protects His flock like a shepherd;
He gathers the lambs in His arms
and carries them in the fold of His garment.
He gently leads those that are nursing."
~~ Isaiah 40:9-11, HCSB ~~

Yesterday, I didn't take as much time to let the words soak in. Today I want to do more of that before blogging my thoughts. But I did want to share today's passage. I'm going to read it again before bed tonight and do some journaling. Will add some of those resulting thoughts tomorrow. =)

For now... let me leave you with lyrics from a hymn that this passage reminded me of:

"Savior, like a Shepherd Lead Us"

Savior, like a shepherd lead us, much we need Thy tender care; in Thy pleasant pastures feed us, for our use Thy folds prepare: blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, Thou has bought us, Thine we are; blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, Thou has bought us, Thine we are.

We are Thine; do Thou befriend us, be the guardian of our way; keep Thy flock, from sin defend us, seek us when we go astray: Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, hear, O hear us when we ptray; blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, hear, O hear us when we pray.

Thou hast promised to receive us, poor and sinful though we be; Thou hast mercy to relieve us, grace to cleanse, and pow'r to free: blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, early let us turn to Thee; blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, early let us turn to Thee.

Early let us seek Thy favor, early let us do Thy will; blessed Lord and only Savior, with Thy love our beings fill: blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, Thou hast loved us, love us still; blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus, Thou hast loved us, love us still.

Words by Dorothy A. Thrupp (1779–1847). Published in Hymns for the Young, 1836.

40-Day Bible-reading Challenge: Day 1

2011-03-10T00:07:00.003-06:00

"A voice of one crying out:
Prepare the way of the LORD in the wilderness;
make a straight highway for our God in the desert.
Every valley will be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill will be leveled;
the uneven ground will become smooth
and the rough places, a plain.
And the glory of the LORD will appear,
and all humanity together will see it,
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."

~ Isaiah 40:3-5, HCSB ~

When I've read this passage before, I've read it through the lens of what Jesus did and what He will do when He returns: that He would be the one filling in the valleys and bringing down all the heights. But what if there's another way to read those sentences?

Prepare and make -- those are commands. To whom? Who is the voice who cries out? Isn't this a foreshadowing of John the Baptist?

Perhaps the passage speaks of His coming again, when He will set His feet upon Jerusalem, trembling the earth.

So... what sort of way are we to be preparing? Is it in our own hearts?

I have to ponder on this some more.

The Bog People, or What I Did on My Christmas Break 2005

2010-08-24T18:02:00.003-05:00

{I have all these hilarious blog posts just sitting in the Drafts folder. I think they deserve to be published!! Here's one from almost five years ago. Wow!}

Between the Christmas and New Year's holidays, Ashpenaz and I traveled with our parents up to the Pittsburgh, PA area, where Grandpa G, Aunt and Uncle SteelersFan, and the Cuz live.

Two years ago around the same time, we toured a lovely Victorian mansion and grounds, ate at Primanti's, and shopped at Station Square. This year was even more educational.

Who needs shopping when museums are available? (Oh, but museums usually have gift shops! How can Elena resist?)

Ashpenaz tried to drag me to the Andy Warhol museum. "But if you were just exposed more to his work, Elena, you would appreciate him," she enthused.

"Ash, I've had all the Andy Warhol exposure I could ever want. I heard and saw an interesting CBS Sunday Morning segment on the guy. I don't need to see rows of neon Campbell's soup cans up close to appreciate Mr. Warhol. He was odd. His art was odd. Nuff said."

Little Sister just harumphed her college-know-it-all-art-history-major harumph...and finally gave up.

In place of the Warhol whatchamathingie, we chose the Nationality Rooms in the Cathedral of Learning on the campus of University of Pittsburgh and the Carnegie Museum of Art and Natural History.

First, we passed the Heinz Chapel. Yes, Heinz....the ketchup people. It was a mixture of Gothic and Romanesque architecture. Too bad it was closed till after January 1. It would have been a neat tour. The quote from one of the Heinz folk, upon the dedication of the building, is actually quite moving: "If those who come under the influence of this place go out to face life with new courage and restored faith because of the peace and calm and loveliness they found here … this commemorative sanctuary will not have been built in vain."---Howard Heinz, from the Dedication Address, November 20, 1938

First stop was the Cathedral of Learning. The what of what? Yes, a cathedral. Yes, it really looks like a cathedral. Yes, "of Learning." Classrooms and administrative offices can be found on almost every floor.

Why this building? Well, supposedly, in the 1920s, the new chancellor of the school was hailing a taxi. The cabbie didn't know how to get to U of Pitt, so the chancellor decided he needed to figure out a way to put the university "on the map."

Now, not only are classes held there...and office tasks...tasked...but also you can tour the Nationality Classrooms. Various nationalities of people who live in Pennsylvania form committees and raise money to decorate and furnish a room to reflect that nationality's culture. We saw these rooms: Armenian, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Swedish, Norwegian, Russian, Greek, English, French, Irish, Scottish, German, Early American, Indian, Austrian, Swiss, Chinese, and Japanese.

Next stop was the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and Art. Unk SteelersFan and I were the only ones of our group to decide we'd view the "Mysterious Bog People" exhibit. Think Shrinky-dinks....made of people....with....a lot less color. Makes desert-dried denizens or your proverbial sea-salted sailor look quite healthy. Of course, the Bog People are dead. Very dead. Hundreds of years dead. The entrails of one guy are even hung out for all of creation to see. And there were little kids going through this exhibit!

Experts have some theories as to why the people were killed and why they were buried in the bog. You can read all about it for yourself.

Heh-heh... ever had Bog People Coffee? Chock full of caffeine it is. Kept me up till 3:00 a.m. Eastern one night while we stayed in Canonsburg. Yikes! I think I could have deconstructed Derrida with all that java in me.

I think this was the first time I've ever been to a true natural history museum. When they say "museum of natural history," what they really mean is "lots of dead animals...stuffed." Not the same thing as all those cool exhibits of birds, fish, and reptiles you see at any one of the aquariums around our country. The aquariums are usually working with organizations to preserve animals and their habitats. The natural history museum will take 'em when they're dead.

Highlights:
* Casts of famous pieces of architecture, making our beloved Parthenon's collection look puny—Mr. Carnegie had this thing with collecting casts of architecture
* The four Christmas trees decorated in themes based on four poems (The Owl and the Pussycat, The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, Sing a Song of Sixpence, and some other poem I can't remember)
* The Precepio—an Italian version of the Nativity scene, set in the Middle Ages and including many more pieces than what you'd find in your tabletop Nativity scene set
* The paleontology lab—you can watch workers carefully tending to dinosaur bones
* The Gems and Precious Metals exhibit—ooh, shiny stuff!

Wisdom Wednesday: Wise Words from Jon Acuff

2010-06-30T13:40:00.010-05:00

Who is Jon Acuff? He's the blogger who runs Stuff Christians Like and author of the book of the same name. In a post today, Jon describes what I call wanting the download of wisdom without the dreaded slog through experience. He even includes one of my favorite Bible verses, Job 23:10.

But Jon doesn't stop there. He backs up to verse 9.

Jon writes that

being shaped is never easy. Becoming gold is never as easy or as quick as I would like it to be. Have you ever felt that way? Whether it’s a job that is slowly wearing you down, a relationship that feels tangled, or a dream that is dying on the vine as you work somewhere to pay the bills, life is not always easy. And to be honest, there are days when I want to yell, “Where are You, God? I catch no glimpse of You!”

But the truth for me and … you is that He is at work.

Even if we do not see Him. Even if we catch no glimpse of Him. Even if the testing weighs heavy, He is in motion. He is unchanging. He is relentless with His grace and mercy and love.

He knows the way we take.

And He will bring us forth as gold.

These truths remind me of the way Aslan is depicted in The Chronicles of Narnia books, particularly in The Last Battle, which is as the title suggests, the last story of Narnia. {*SPOILER WARNING!!*} For a good deal of the book, Aslan, who is allegorically parallel to our Lord, Jesus Christ, spends his time away from the Narnians (sound anything like Job 23:9 to you? does to me), but they mention him a great deal. They keep saying, "But he is not a tame lion," to explain all sorts of suppositions, claims, and ponderings about various actions carried out by one side or the other. Much is done in his name, but not all of it is as he would have done. And because of his long absence, some question his existence or decide that he doesn't exist.

Ultimately, Aslan does prove to the Narnians and others that he is as good, kind, and just as the "old stories" described him. But not all believe. Those who do are richly rewarded. They come through the trials of their last days and moments in Narnia "as gold," as Job 23:10 describes.

The believers, as I call them, are brought through the door into Aslan's Country, before all of the world of Narnia is destroyed. The rest of the book describes the journey "further up and further in" that the Narnians and other-worlders take in Aslan's Country. Lewis's words create such a vivid image of their final destination; for me, a sliver-size foretaste of what heaven will be like.

So often we need to remember, as Jon Acuff and Job point out, that our journey will result in what is the highest good: being with God, in a perfected state, in a perfect place... forever. And through that lens, the things of today can be less daunting.

Wisdom Wednesday: Lessons from Plants

2010-05-05T11:08:00.006-05:00

Just a quick post today, folks. Mostly links.

Second only to autumn, spring is one of my favorite times of the year. And I'm not sure why this year, but for whatever reason, I keep coming across others' blog posts that reveal how God teaches us through His creation. (Wowee, did He include a huge reminder that we are not in control, when the thunderstorms hit middle Tennessee this past weekend, storms which led to massive amounts of flooding -- of historic proportions!) And probably not coincidentally, He's also used children -- our own growing ones (well, others' kids, not mine) to point out these nuggets of truth to adults.

Here are some of my favorite posts:

* This Is How We Grow - Pastor Pete Wilson describes what Gage and tomato plants taught him about the role of prayer in our growth.

* Ellie and the Weeds - Angie Smith and her daughter Ellie tackle the weeds and learn about God's work in our lives.

* Tree of Mystery - This one is another from Angie Smith about God's using her daughter Ellie to reveal deep truth. Ellie shows us something about true beauty. (Warning: You might need a hanky for this one.)

(Belated 6th birthday, dear blog!)

Wisdom Wednesday: Walking Is Enough

2009-05-27T15:06:00.001-05:00

A dear friend posted this on her blog back in January. Her pastor preached a sermon whose message really speaks to me.

Isaiah 40:31 [states]: "But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."

He asked us to recall times when we felt as though we could fly on the wings of eagles, which for many of us would be our wedding day, the day we brought our child home from the hospital, and other major events.

He asked us to recall times when we felt as though we could run a marathon and not grow tired. These times could be running your child around the block as he learned to ride a bike or dancing for hours with your daughter in the living room or enjoying … those milestones in our children's lives.

Then he stated that everyday life is what is the greatest challenge to us. Many of us feel as though we cannot take one more step, that we cannot go any further.

Psalm 46 [states:] "God is our refuge and our strength." How true this statement is when we are reminded that sometimes walking is enough. It is all we can do to put one foot in front of the other and keep breathing in and out. This is where most of us spend most of our time. Getting through the day. Surviving those times when our world changes over night. Yes, I can remember those times when my world changed overnight. God never let me go.

God walks with me every step in the same way He runs along with me and soars with me over the mountains.

My friend's explanation of Pastor Cliff's words reminds me of lyrics from a Sandi Patty song: "Tomorrow is such a 'daily' day."

Sometimes the "dailyness" feels overwhelming. Those are the days when walking has to be enough. It IS enough. Because He is all sufficient.

And one step forward with Him is all the better than running or jumping or dancing -- or any other "exciting" movement/activity -- without Him.

Lord, make me walk with You, remembering that You always walk with me.

F Is for Friday: Fingernail Polish

2009-05-08T16:10:00.003-05:00

I am a sucker for a good nail polish color. OPI is my favorite brand. If you click on the link, you can "try on" the color on a fake hand! w00t! (Warning: Not the most modest photos are used on the site. Proceed at your own risk.)

I often wonder how the companies choose their nail color names. One of my most recent purchases of OPI included one that's called "Aphrodite's Pink Nightie." Hmm... Well, yes, it is a lovely light shade of pink...with a bit of shimmer. (Not too much for a woman getting awfully close to her mid 30s.)

Wonder if OPI got together with Jelly Belly jelly beans and mixed up some fruity-candy-inspired colors. (Or worse -- the nasty flavors included in Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans... eek! Boogers!!) Can you imagine Juicy Pear? A light version of that bright lime green that is so popular right now, with spots of darker green.....maybe.

Thankful Thursday: A Tribute to GPH, My Grandfather

2009-05-07T17:24:00.001-05:00

In 1920 my grandfather was born on a farm in Michigan to Scandinavian parents, their only child. He grew up to be a strong Christian, a hard worker, a lover of nature (and golf!), and a caring person.

Grandpa G was the one who taught me how to pluck a blade of grass, place it between the thumbs of my two-fisted-hand "sandwich," and blow... nature's interesting kazoo!

He pointed out various types of trees and birds. I think it was partly because of him that we always had bird- and tree-identifying books when I was growing up.

He was a quiet man, especially when he was hunting lightning bugs. He taught me and my sister to watch the bugs in the gloaming, to be able to see where they were flying when they weren't winking their soft yellow tail-lights. And then to sneak up on the bug, cup your hands, and lift them underneath the bug slowly and gently. The bug would alight on your hand or finger and pulsate the glow that bespoke of summertime. It was the closest I could get to actually touching the fairyland I read about in children's storybooks.

Every year Ashpenaz and I visited our H grandparents in Michigan, where they lived mere yards away from a small lake (which seemed large to us kids), we would help Gpa G with his morning rounds of filling the bird feeders and the suet feeder.

Somewhere we have this adorable photo of Ashes sitting at the foot of a tall, tall tree, pointing her face and cute nose upward as she looks into the sunshine. She's singing to herself. I believe Gpa G helped inspire in her an appreciation for the natural world God created.

When Gpa G told stories, he took his time, sifting through memories and choosing the right words to capture what he wanted to say. He passed on this passion for precision to my father. And I think in me the garrulousness of my mother combines with the love and care for details that Dad and Grandpa G always emulated. (Sometimes to my frustration!!)

Gpa G's delight in things didn't communicate so much via words but in his smile, the twinkle in his eye, the chuckle he'd give. My dad has some of that twinkle, I think, when he smiles.

I remember Gpa's hands... strong, slightly gnarled, a bit rough, long fingers... reaching out to turn a leaf over and show you its veins; separating a part of a pine cone to reveal the little seed concealed there; pulling gently on a hemlock branch to point out the new springtime growth of bright lime-green, soft needles.

I don't remember him ever responding with an angry word. He was a patient guy. He took his time. He was an observer and liked to take in things around him. Perhaps he didn't say all that he ever wanted to say in life. Perhaps he missed some things because he did take his time. But he loved us. He loved his wife. He loved his sons. He loved his daughters-in-law. He loved his grandchildren. He loved his friends, church family, co-laborers in volunteer efforts. And he loved his Lord... still does! Now he gets to be with Him face to face, always!!

Grandpa G died on February 28, 2008, around 10:30 p.m. Eastern, two days after turning 88 years old.

We miss him very much but know that someday we'll be reunited with him, to praise and worship our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, forever and ever! Amen! Maranatha!!

Another belated birthday greeting... to my blog!

2009-05-01T14:00:00.002-05:00

Happy 5th Birthday, Polka-dotted Sky!!

Obviously, this poor little blog is so sorely neglected that I have missed its birthdays for a few years in a row now. Sadness!

But, hey, my Facebook isn't quite so neglected, so there's some improvement. ???

Thankful Thursday: Friends and Food

2009-02-26T09:50:00.003-06:00

Today I'm thankful for good friends and for healthy food choices offered when my department at work gathers for celebrations. =) Whoever supplied the fruit at today's reception did a great job choosing red grapes. They were fabulously sweet and had the perfect crunch. Yay!

Weekly Words (Don't you love alliteration??!!)

2009-02-10T09:35:00.005-06:00

Good morning, readers! (All four of you... *chuckle*)

I've decided to jump on the blogospheric bandwagon and create some weekly (or occasional) series:

Movie Mondays -- theater or TV movies and my thoughts
Terrific Tuesdays -- delightful people, happenings, objects, thoughts
Wisdom Wednesdays -- words of wisdom I stumble upon, be they from another blogger, the Bible, a famous author, whomever!
Thankful Thursdays -- stuff I'm thankful for, writings on gratitude and thankfulness, and more
F Is for Friday -- Friday is for fun, photos, freebies, and anything beginning with the letter F

If I so happen to get online on a Saturday or Sunday, then we might have...
* Sandwich Saturdays
* Souper Sundays
which mean posts in which I share recipes or wacky sandwich/soup related stories... whatever! =)

Etymology of a new term: Mandex

2009-02-03T14:02:00.004-06:00

After coining (or merely using) the term wintastic (as in "It's so fantastically full of 'win' that it's wintastic!"), I was inspired to search my e-mail archive to find a story I sent to some friends last summer. Here's the scoop:

Yesterday (7/27/08) after I get home from lunch, I check the snail mail. Out of the corner of my left eye, I see some lump nestled on the porch near the door to the building.

I look again. The lump is grey. The lump is grey fur.

Then I really look. The lump of grey fur has ... an eye. Two eyes? Wait, no. Wait, actually... yes, that is an eye, slightly obscured by a swollen eyelid... and oozing with... yep, that's green stuff.

Eeew.

The cat, stretched out near the door like a drunken Sphynx, tilts up its smushed face and looks at me as if to say, "No, I'm not going to eat you. I'm just hot and tired and thirsty. And look at how someone has tried to shave me."

Indeed, the cat appears to have been to some craziness of a groomer... who was inspired by Olivia Newton-John's "Let's Get Physical" and decided that the cat would be his/her homage to the wonder of leg warmers. Hence the lighter grey body fur, which seems shorter than the rest, and the darker and longer grey fur around the forelegs, head, and tail.

Although its pleading face wrenches my heart, I am also grossed out by the green goo, so I hurry into the building and resolve to find some water for the poor creature.

I prepare to leave again (sans water for kitteh; oh well), and upon exiting the building, I discover the cat missing.

In its place is one of my neighbors wielding a spray bottle filled with blue liquid. A large triangular puddle to my left spreads outward. To my right is another puddle, smaller.

The air's aroma evokes images of a really cute guy: clean and manly cologned. (Hmm... Windex that smells like a man??)

"Deed joo see dah caht?" the neighbor inquires, wincing.

"Yes, I did. I think it was sick or something."

"Well, it smelled really bad. So I sprayed."

"Yeah, I think maybe it pottied on the porch."

Hours later the porch still smells of Mandex.

Navelgazing in November: The life that I am meant to lead

2008-11-13T12:00:00.001-06:00

The title of this blog post comes from a song in the musical Little Women, titled "Astonishing." Jo March, the lead female character (and the fictionalized version of the author herself, Louisa May Alcott---the book being based on her own life), sings this anthem after refusing the proposal of her childhood friend, Laurie (Theodore Laurence). She has such dreams for herself, but they are only partially formed. She knows she wants to be a writer and to become famous. But she doesn't know where to begin, how to start, or really what to do. She does sense that the life that was placed in her to live is more than the life she is living now. Jo sings

I thought home was all I'd ever want, my attic all I'd ever need. Now nothing feels the way it was before, and I don't know how to proceed. I only know I'm meant for something more. I've got to know if I can be ... astonishing.

There's a life that I am meant to lead, a life like nothing I have known. I can feel it, and it's far from here. I've got to find it on my own. Even now I feel its heat upon my skin: a life of passion that pulls me from within, a life that I am aching to begin. There must be somewhere I can be ... astonishing, astonishing.

I'll find my way; I'll find it far away; I'll find it in unexpected and unknown. I'll find my life in my own way today!

Here I go, and there's no turning back. My great adventure has begun. I may be small, but I've got giant plans to shine as brightly as the sun.

I will blaze until I find my time and place. I will be fearless, surrendering modesty and grace. I will not disapear without a trace. I'll shout and start a riot, be anything but quiet. Christopher Columbus, I'll be astonishing! Astonishing! Astonishing! At last!

Jo isn't your usual heroine of the 1860s. While older sister, Meg, longs to be a wife and mother and worries greatly about propriety and appearances, Jo is brasher, more daring, and independent. She doesn't know how to stay quiet all the time, and she wishes that she could do some of the things that Victorian society thinks are unfit for women to do. Thus, she wishes to surrender the stereotypical modesty and grace. She sees these ideals as oppressive. She doesn't want to sit in a corner and embroider cushions. She wants to blaze!

Such is the Jo portrayed in the musical. And the Jo March of the book doesn't differ greatly from the musical's version of her. Perhaps a bit less strident. (And Sutton Foster's original Jo of the musical certainly has a bit more brashness and stridency than the Jo I "get" from the book. [Foster originated the role in the Broadway cast.])

Now, why would I, an evangelical Christian who readily discerns the spiritual problem of one's wanting to "shine as brightly as the sun," find Jo's words as resonating with my own yearnings? I don't wish to shine as if I were the sun, to compete with it...or with God Himself. I'm not attempting to build a tower of Babel! (Or am I?)

Well, though I would not phrase it as the musical's writers have done, I do understand a bit of what Jo is trying to express. She knows that there is something in her that has yet to be birthed fully into the world -- something far more than her circumscribed life in Concord, Massachusetts. And I feel the same about myself. And have felt that way for more years than I can count. All my life, really.

Why did God make me the person I am, with the natural talents and gifts (such as they are, and in what amounts they exist) He's given me? Why did He direct me the way He has, upon dwelling as the Holy Spirit in my life? And for what purpose?

Of course, the general, overall purpose is to glorify Him -- to make Him known.

But... what about those nitpicky details of how that reality actually is lived out...by me...on this earth?

The post "Your Path to Purpose", by Pete Wilson, pastor of Cross Point Community Church (where my best friend attends church), helped flesh out some of those practical questions:

1. Who Am I to Serve? Your deepest purposes must bring good to someone who is without justice, reconciliation, or hope. It might be abused women, orphans in Africa, or business men who don’t know Christ.

2. Where Am I to Be? What is the primary context where I will serve the people I’ve been called to love?

3. What Burden Am I to Bear? This is so important!! Everyone of you reading this right now is called to battle some unique effects of the Fall. Don’t just blow by this. Stop for a moment and think about this… there’s a problem in this world that brings you to tears or makes you downright angry. What is it?

4. How Am I to Engage? Your engagement to the problem might be to pray, administrate, teach, serve, lead, paint, sing, confront, repair or nurture. EACH of us will do what we do with a style which reveals something about God in a way that no one else can.

So... meshing the song "Astonishing" with Pete's questions, I come up with some of my own, for reflection:

Why do I want to "blaze"? Who (or what) would I be blazing about? To what end? Where does the power and fuel for blazing come from? And why merely blaze? Doesn't blazing "peter" out eventually? Wouldn't I rather radiate and illuminate? Like a banked fire... or a candle or a lantern...

Dear readers... these questions are likely some that all of us should ponder.

Part 2 will continue our investigation into this. May the questioning now be far less about navelgazing. And more about that actual change we want to see in the world. It's me and you and the other guy and the other gal.

See you next time!
~ Elena ~

Another belated birthday wish

2008-04-20T01:04:00.002-05:00

This time it's four years. Happy birthday, poor neglected blog.

Easy cookin', good livin'

2008-01-29T21:44:00.000-06:00

The former drama queen is back!

Ah, yes. Elena is back, y'all! Elena is BACK! =D

(And can I just say, "I love me some new computer hardware and software!!"? Of course I can! New monitor, new Mac G5 CPU, new mouse, new keyboard, and Firefox for the browsing. Sweet, sweet, sweet!!)

Friends, I am embracing a new motto: "No more unnecessary drama!!" If you know me well, you know what I mean!!

You make all things new

I don't know why 2008 holds a particularly special place on the Kingdom calendar, but it seems to me that God is doing a new thing in my life... and that the same thread is running through the lives of others I know and love.

So...

On this blog in 2008 I'll be focusing on good things. Less ranting. More gratitude. No whining. More joy!

Without going into great detail, I will tell you that I am doing several things to make positive changes in my life: to work outward what God works in and into me.

One area for me is better domestic management, including the honing of domestic skills I already have and the acquiring of those I lack and will need to have in future.

Someone's in the kitchen with Elena!

And I think it must be Him!! =) Where else does inspiration come from?

Let me share with you my return to actual cooking (rather than grabbing whatever snack item is handy).

Sunday night's dinner was concocted much more easily than I thought it was going to be. Most excellent! *tents fingers*

First up were the splendid Cinnamon Spice Pancakes. I made them for one, so the mix consisted of 1 cup of Bisquick, 1/2 cup of skim milk, 1 egg, about 3/4 to 1 tsp ground cinnamon, about 1/8 tsp ground allspice, and about 1/8 tsp ground ginger. Blend till wet and thoroughly mixed, but don't overmix. Cooking spray in a non-stick skillet worked fine. I got about 9 pancakes out of the deal. Yay! (And some leftovers are eagerly awaiting consumption soon!)

The protein portion was Savory 'n' Cheesy Scrambled Eggs. I used 3 eggs, about 1/2 cup skim milk, around 1/4 tsp of Pampered Chef's Southwestern Spice Mix, and a handful of Four-Cheese Mexican Style mix (pregrated). I whisked that up, poured the mixture into the skillet, and cooked till slightly golden brown and somewhat firm (but still "fluffy.")

I was tempted to add a couple of turkey sausage slices to my meal, but I figured that the eggs and cheese constituted plenty of protein!

Food, glorious food!

"Pink Lady" apples. They are (or should that be "it is"? I should know these things) a variety new to my grocery store. Not only was the name appealing to me but also the lovely hues of red and green and the shape of the apple caught my eye. I wondered, Are these eating apples or baking apples? The gentleman working in produce was kind enough to take the apple I chose, go to the back of the store, slice up the fruit, and offer me a piece to sample. I pronounced it delicious: very crisp, both sweet and tart, and good for both baking and for snacking. And lo, thus said-eth the handy 3-ring binder produce guide, upon our perusing its pages.

I've left behind the traces of who I've been

Is easy cooking best? Well, for me, since I am making baby-steps right now toward better habits and a better life overall, anything that adds delight to the journey is welcome. Finding out that what I dreaded was far less hassle-full reinforces the truths that I'm learning: there are many things---especially things I had dreaded--- that are worth doing in life, rather than avoiding. (And I am past mistress in the art of avoiding.)

Thus, yes, in this case, "easy" does help make for good livin'. =D
Of course, not everything is so easy. I know that. But also many things are not as hard as I thought they'd be.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

So many lessons to learn. So much truth to celebrate together, brothers and sisters!

I look forward to the 2008 portion of my journey with Jesus Christ and with you. Wonder what we will uncover, discover, and learn!?

May your journey be one filled with joy, whether in times of sorrow or laughter.

Until next time!!
~~~ Elena ~~~

Happy belated birthday, Polka-dotted Sky!

2007-04-25T23:03:00.000-05:00

Three years ago, this blog was birthed.

/tear

I'm so proud.

/end tear

;o)

Learning: Lead and follow

2007-04-10T00:50:00.000-05:00

Well, if ballroom dance lessons don't do it, something else will teach it to you!

Back in October 2006, on the weekend right before my birthday, Pink Kitty, SalsaGuy, Cokes4Me, and I hiked the trails of Caney River Falls and Fall Creek Falls in Bledsoe Co. of the Tennessee Plateau region.

After a few hours of strenuous hiking and much seeing of gorgeous autumnal sights, the four of us trekked back toward the car. At one fork, SalsaGuy led the way to the left, on the Gorge Trail. We hiked further and came to another crossroads. The sign read Caney River Falls Overlook and displayed an arrow pointing left and an arrow pointing right. Again SalsaGuy led us to take the left side of the fork.

As on other trails, the steps down were formed by tree roots and rocks, some steep enough for us to need SalsaGuy to act as stairway railing.

SalsaGuy got to the wire fence before we did. And when I stopped to catch my breath for a moment, I sensed something odd: the trail didn't seem to be going anywhere further. I was about to question him, but a check in my spirit occurred. I heeded the Holy Spirit and listened. Trust him. Don't question his leadership. He knows what he's doing. Just keep going. I did.

When I got to the bottom of the trail, it did stop. Technically it was a dead-end, but truly... it was a special spot. It was the overlook the sign had promised.

The sun was out in full, and the afternoon had warmed. A slight breeze blew just enough to cool us off from hiking. The falls glittered in the distance.

I was overwhelmed. Truly it was a lesson I needed to learn. One I need to remember over and over. To read again and again.

You never know what delights you will see, literally and metaphorically, when you trust God and let Him help you trust people. Self-restraint really is worth it. Thank you, SalsaGuy, for consistently demonstrating that to me. :o)

'Cause I'm crafty like that

2007-03-02T14:10:00.001-06:00

No, not cunning but creative--->I make stuff!

Lovely Lady Jen, aka Mrs. Zach Baker, has tagged me from her too-cute-for-words blog Pretty/Modest. Go there to see her handmade bag that is so much more than an homage to the window treatment transformation magic of either Scarlett O'Hara or Sister Maria... it's the essence of cute, sweet, sassy, and classy distilled into a faboo accessory.

OK, on to my creation. I cannot claim the original design as my own. I took the idea from a magazine or a book (I can't remember which and can't find the project online right now) and followed the general idea of the design, interpreting it with my own flair. Most of the beads are glass. The feature bead, the pink quartz donut, was the inspiration. Everything else developed from there. Those clunky-looking silvery things are clip-on earrings (I do not have pierced ears) that have something of a small jump ring attached so that you can add danglies and then use pliers to bend the ring closed.

Not sure if you can tell but the pink beads on the earrings are shallop-shell-shaped. Makes me think of my grandmother, the shell collector, when I wear these. I think she'd like them. :o)

Eyes to see

2007-01-17T11:58:00.000-06:00

Oh that I may have eyes to see not only the beauty in nature, which You put there, but also to see You in that moment, to trace Your fingerprint, to know You more.

You who are beautiful, may I see You more. May others see You through me.

Smile, Elena, Smile

2007-01-12T12:00:00.000-06:00

Ya know, once you have been reconciled to God in Jesus Christ, happiness and joy are really all about your choosing to surrender and just let them happen---God changes your attitude, your perspective, your thoughts about things.

This photo was taken on a day when I stressed myself out for a bunch of ridiculous reasons. Once I chose to embrace joy that day... joy flooded everything.

My best friend, Pink Kitty, has experienced this truth too.

And together, as sisters in Christ, we are meeting God at all sorts of times and places. And I believe that people are seeing Him too. May they truly recognize Him. May we continue to see Him clearly and love Him more and more.

Fuzzy socks

2006-12-15T09:01:00.000-06:00

are Muppets for your feet!

Note to self

2006-11-02T13:16:00.000-06:00

Small metal teaspoons and sink-dwelling garbage disposals do not play well together.

I heart proper punctuation

2006-09-26T11:11:00.000-05:00

Punctuation properly used allows one to aptly and correctly navigate a piece of writing. Remove the punctuation, and the reader's mind goes careening into any number of possible directions. Proper punctuation serves as the road signage---slow down here, stop here, keep going, here's the KFC. Add the proper capitalization and spacing---and you have some beautiful writing. Or...at least, writing with more potential for beauty.

Let me show you:

i hate it when sentences just get mashed together and you dont know where they start or stop or anything ya know and you as the reader have to figure out what the heck the writer was trying to say and the person obviously forgot anything he or she ever learned in school or something doesnt it drive you crazy

I find a lot of this type of thing on the Internet. And goshdarnit, it makes my head hurt.

Here's the same paragraph corrected (and edited a bit):

I hate it when sentences just get mashed together. You don't know where they start or stop. Ya know? You have to figure out what the heck the writer was trying to say. And the person obviously forgot anything he or she ever learned in school...or something. Doesn't it drive you crazy?

Meh

2006-09-13T21:12:00.000-05:00

That's the feeling today. Meh.

*shrugs shoulders* Let's say it again.

Meh.

Wesson agrees.

My Life Word

2006-09-12T20:30:00.000-05:00

This is my life word:

Thank you to Pink Kitty for the plaque: last year's birthday gift, from a lovely gift shop in Charleston, SC.

We press on

2006-09-11T18:13:00.000-05:00

Five years after 9/11, the United States is still pressing on. The world has certainly changed, but how significant was 9/11 as a part of that change? Weren't we already on this trajectory? Could such a horrific event have tilted us in slightly a different direction? What did that day really mean for us?

Assessing 9/11's true import is a task that will fall on the shoulders of our grandchildren...or perhaps those of even later generations.

We press on.* But do we press on for the better? What is "the better"?

* Please read the lyrics to "Press On" from the Selah album of the same name. Link found in the blog post title. When you get to the page, scroll down till you find the song.

Wow... 2+ months silent...

2006-09-07T15:35:00.000-05:00

Dearie me... I have sorely neglected this blog. How unfortunate.... er...stupid...er....*insert appropriate adjective here.*

Ya know...lately, I've drafted so many bulletin board posts elsewhere...and then deleted them, realizing, I just don't have a dog in this hunt. It's not up to me to correct everyone's erroneous thinking. Especially not, when so much erroneous thinking needs to be corrected in me.

Other than that, I have very little of cogency or urgency to share. While the rest of the world seems to finally be catching on to the blogging craze, the bug to blog seems to have run its course in me. And the world says, Do we care? And I say, Do I care if you care? Meh.

To blog or not to blog.... to be pondered. Will post results of such musings...when results occur.

Till then... may your chai be rich and hot, your hot chocolate be nice and creamy, your coffee be robust, and your hot tea be perfectly perky!

Out of 5 paws... Wesson gives this post a 2.

Red door...open it!

2006-06-24T11:53:00.000-05:00

Door to the Heinz Chapel on the University of Pittsburgh campus

I really like the red color of the door. But more than that, today as I browsed my pictures folder, this door reminded me of Christ's saying that He is the door. And now I realize, How appropriate that the door is red, because it is through Christ's blood that we are able to enter the holy of holies, to go behind the veil in the temple, and really get to be with God and get to know Him. What an awesome privilege!

Hmm... I see a theme beginning here. Photography challenge, anyone? Theme: interesting doors or gates.

Post your blog entry URLs in the comments below. Have fun capturing those faboo images!

~E~

the solid Rock

2006-06-18T15:14:00.000-05:00

"On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
all other ground is sinking sand,
all other ground is sinking sand."

This photo is of the altar in the church where Jen and Zach got married. A Bible rests on a stand on top of this large rock. When I saw this rock, immediately I thought of the hymn.

On nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness are we to build our hope. On that beautiful Saturday in April in Detroit, the rock at the altar symbolized the hope that Jen and Zach have for their individual lives and for their life as a married couple. They truly have embraced what it means to covenant with God and with each other (and also with the body of Christ) in order that their marriage give glory to Him--to reveal who He is, that He exists, that He is God, and that He rewards those who obey Him as a love-response to His love.

I love the second stanza of "The Solid Rock," which states:
"When darkness seems to hide His face, I rest on His unchanging grace; in every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil" (No. 283, The Baptist Hymnal, Nashville: Convention Press, 1956). "Within the veil" is the holy of holies in the tabernacle/temple, where the mercy seat is, where God's presence was met by the high priest. The true holy of holies is Christ Himself, who is our High Priest. Thus, my anchor is with Him and in Him. I am anchored in His grace, which never changes. It doesn't shift with the wind and rain and lightning and waves of storms. And darkness only seems to hide His face. That darkness can be many things...doubt, fear, confusion, circumstances, God's silence. But ever He is with me, even if I cannot trace His face. I can still trust His heart. He is rock-solid trustworthy.

"I dare not trust the sweetest frame"--->no human---no matter how dear to me, not even myself---can hold me up. No human is perfectly reliable. Only on Jesus can I always lean.

Marriage is tough. I've witnessed this in marriages all around me. But I have hope for my future marriage (I'm believin' that one day it will happen!) and I have hope for the marriages of my family and friends---because God IS hope! He is able to change human hearts, which are more stubborn than the mountain that Jesus said we could order to throw itself into the sea.

He who began a good work in me---and in you, brother or sister in Christ---will carry it on to completion till the day Jesus returns (see Phil. 1:6). If we hunger and thirst for righteousness, we will be filled (Matt. 5:6). And since our Father in heaven is perfect, He knows how to give and will give us good gifts (Matt. 7:11). We continue to seek Him and His righteousness (Matt. 6:33) because HE works in us to will and to do what pleases Him (Phil. 2:13).

This is the solid Rock upon which Jen and Zach are building their lives. They can be successful in their marriage because of the One who makes it possible...and who DOES it. As they lean on Jesus, they can fulfill 1 Corinthians 13; Galatians 5:22-23; and Micah 6:8.

And not only can Jen and Zach...but we all can too. Not because of ourselves...but because of Him (Ephesians 2:8-10).

May you be encouraged today!
~Elena~

Punxy Phils

2006-06-18T15:08:00.000-05:00

As promised... my Aunt SteelersFan's collection

shoe

2006-06-06T12:05:00.000-05:00

shoe
Originally uploaded by ElenaSings.

Needed a photo for my profile. Here it is.

Happy birthday, Tennessee!

2006-06-01T17:53:00.000-05:00

Today the state turns 210. We were ushered into the union in 1796 as an official state.

National Spelling Bee Begins...

2006-05-31T18:25:00.000-05:00

Today! :o) Read all about it over at Merriam-Webster's site. (Click the blog entry title above.)

New grandma's happiness

2006-05-31T18:20:00.000-05:00

bundled up
Originally uploaded by allisonandmatt.

Sweet photo of Aunt Tricia and Baby Tobin! Now...where's Uncle "New Grandpa" Larry?

New cousin!

2006-05-23T15:21:00.000-05:00

who is that?
Originally uploaded by allisonandmatt.

My cousin and his wife just had their first baby on Friday. Welcome little Tobin Lee to the world! The four-legged friend in the photo is "big sister" Hannah.

Grandmother is now a great-grandmother. How odd that seems. Everyone's growing up and growing old. Ah, one cannot stem the tide of time. But we can sure enjoy the good stuff along the way, no?

More cutie-patootie photos of Tobin (and a set of Hannah too!) and of his family are available at Flickr (click To's pic). There's even a "Toblog."

Happy happy!!! :o)

Wedding Hair

2006-05-18T16:37:00.000-05:00

Wedding Hair
Originally uploaded by ElenaSings.

This is the most gorgeous hairdo I've had in my life yet. The customer gal sitting at the salon station next to me thought that I was the bride.

This photo was taken after the wedding reception....'round 11:00 p.m. Eastern or so. Yes, it lasted ALL day long. Yes, there was a lot of hairspray in that 'do. And yes, even my makeup survived a full day's wear.

Check my Flickr page for a back view of all the ribbon curls.

Calling all Mac geeks: Advice needed

2006-05-16T11:25:00.000-05:00

So I'm contemplating the virtues of the iBook and of the PowerBook. Which one should I purchase? I want to surf the Web, blog, check e-mail, shop, and write the maybe-great American novel. Yep, all the girly stuff. I figure I need AppleWorks, Safari (or something), and what else? And I really really want Myst IV: Revelation. (But I think I've got to get Uru first...wasn't that the name of the thing? I forget.)

Guys, if you give me great advice, I might just make you a batch of cookies and send them to ya. *bats eyelashes*

Boogie Break!

2006-05-16T11:20:00.000-05:00

Everybody boogie in your office chair! "And swivel! And swivel!" *boogie-oogie-oogie* Now do The Swim...

"You my brown-eyed girl..."

Yep, this Tuesday's goin' kinda slow...

"Do you remember when we usta sing... shalalalalalalalalalalaGEEdah ... lateedah!"

Good times. Good times.

Elena and Ashpenaz Revealed

2006-05-06T16:05:00.000-05:00

I just think my younger sister is too cute!

When we were little, we would often play beauty shop, and I would do her makeup and hair. Her hair always made the cutest pigtails and ponytails.

Ashpenaz (or Ashley the Blue Raider) is one of my best friends and confidantes. She's one of my most ardent and enthusiastic cheerleaders, and she also keeps me from making many fashion faux pas.

Right now, she's off on a working vacation, ie. an internship. She's loving the city she's in, enjoying the art galleries and all the historical sites. Have fun, Ashes!

Belated Benedictions on the Blog-versary

2006-05-01T18:07:00.000-05:00

Leave it to me to be 18 days late congratulating my very own blog for being in existence for two years...

the birth

Happy day, little blog! ;o)

Continuing the Conversation

2006-04-28T17:27:00.000-05:00

I recently was congratulated for taking up a dare to read a book. (It doesn't take much daring to get me to read a book. Besides, I was already planning to read it. Candice just thinks I'm doing it b/c of her dare. Love ya, sistah in Christ!)

Mike, another reader of Candice's blog, commented on the book; and I just had to respond. After one comment, I couldn't stop (er, I didn't wanna, that is); but my second one got rather long...so I decided to move it here. Here ya go!

I'm so glad that guys want to hear that we gals do want to get married and have children...even to hear that we want those things far more than we want to climb the career ladder! We gals oft have been taught that expressing our strong desires to get married and bear offspring will frighten away potential suitors. Do you think we should all start wearing tags? Maybe instead of "Diva" emblazoned on the female tooshie, we should start wearing "Wife in Training" on cute baseball caps or something... ;o) (Speaking of "tagging" people—I think engaged men should have to wear some kind of symbol indicating they are off the market!)

Hmm... When a guy suggests, "So...uh....wanna hang out sometime?" and leaves the invitation open-ended, I get frustrated. Hang out? To do what? When? As what—just friends, or would it be a date? Why not just ask me on a date: "Hey, I really like you. I would love the privilege of spending time with you. I had in mind some putt-putt on Saturday night. May I take you out?" Might startle me at first, but I'd be pretty impressed with a guy with that much chutzpah (esp. in these days and times). Plus, it's asking for a specific time to do a specific activity with a specific person AND I know that he likes me as a person and as a woman. This whole "Hey, maybe we could meet for coffee sometime and continue these laughs we've had" thing... I say, "Yeah, that sounds good." And then....nothing. Hello! McFly!

(1) Daytime activity suggests friendship; nighttime suggests dating.
(2) "Wanna ____ sometime?" is merely asking if I want to do something with you sometime. OK, yeah, maybe. I don't know. It's like a half-hearted attempt to ask, "Do you like me?" Well, I might, but I might not know you well enough to judge how much I like you, if I like you at all.
(3) The "I really like you, and I'd like the privilege of spending time with you" comment combined with something like "It would be fun to do _____ with you" communicates the guy's focus on the gal, on who she is, and on the fact that he appreciates the person she is as he's gotten to know her so far. Of course, if he creeps her out anyway, it probably doesn't matter what is the content or tone of his conversation with her. But we can't control what others think of us: we are only responsible for what we think, say, and do. So...really, it shows a lot of confidence on the guy's part to "put himself out there" and risk being rejected. (And next time a guy does the risky thing and actually asks me out, instead of giving some half-hearted plea to like him or validate him or fill up his social calendar, I will praise him for doing the difficult thing...whether or not I accept his invitation.)

As far as a "conversation with/an open-ended invitation from/outright date invitation from a guy who's interested in the gal but she's not that interested in him" situation goes... We women don't like hurting people's feelings, and we'll twist ourselves into pretzels trying to avoid that sort of confrontation. For example, if I am not all that interested in a guy and he keeps directing advances at me (scooting closer on the pew every time we're near each other; following me around; etc.), I get rather skittish. How do I continue to be genuinely friendly to this brother without leading him on? If he does ask me out on a date, do I really want to go? Do I want to get to know him better, or is he someone I would prefer seeing and talking with only at church? I'm sure men go through similar quandaries—some women y'all would LOVE to get to know better; others, meh... you can take 'em or leave 'em; and still others, make you want to run and hide. Some guys have responded well to the attention I've given them when trying to show my interest and openness to being asked out; other guys flee as if I'm asking them to go to Nineveh, and they'd rather camp out in the belly of the fish. You just never know...

It's all a risk. So is job interviewing... So is driving a car or flying in a plane... So is eating a hamburger... Life is one big ball o' risks. And maybe we should all be encouraging one another more, when we do take intelligent risks (I don't mean foolhardy stuff like skydiving w/out a parachute and helmet)...praise one another for not allowing overanalysis to become paralysis, not allowing ourselves to become so encrusted with scars from past hurts that we cannot be alive to life anymore, or not avoiding all situations that might bring embarrassment (hello, wedding receptions—bouquet/garter tossing!). Maybe we all would risk rejection more if we knew that not only our loving Father supports us but also our dear friends do too. Maybe we should also be paying attention more to seeing if folks around us are missing that support system in their lives...and consider joining up to be on the "cheerleading squad" that encourages them. (And I'd recommend guys cheerin' on the guys and girls cheerin' on the girls.)

Guys, if you are reading this and you have recently stuck your neck out there to show attention to a woman or, heck, to ask her out, bravo! Whether you were shot down by her rejection or triumphantly feted by her acceptance... you have done the difficult thing—to lend your strength (ie. who you are) to a situation in which your success was not guaranteed. That is one example of true courage.

Press on, my brothers in Christ! Press on, my sisters in Christ! The enemy wants us to stop courting/dating and getting married and raising Christ-following children—to stop multiplying and filling the earth. The enemy wishes to keep us from experiencing the delight of understanding more fully the love the Father has for His children, through marriage and raising children. But we do not have to cede to the enemy—he is defeated! Let us live knowing that Christ has the victory already! Press on! Press on!

Why editors are needed

2006-04-13T14:00:00.000-05:00

Recently read this in a manuscript:
"Remember to keep Jesus at the center of your activities."

Makes Jesus sound like a gooey chocolate middle.

Word choice and syntax, folks, word choice and syntax.

It's Poetry Month!

2006-04-13T11:55:00.001-05:00

Read a poem:

by Anne Bradstreet

or by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Insta-credential: Just add water

2006-03-22T10:42:00.000-06:00

YellaJacket got an offer yesterday from some yahoo organization offering Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctoral degrees that one can earn in 2 weeks! What?!? Do you get class credit for your time spent brewing your morning java or browning yourself at the tanning salon? Hey, can I get credit for shoe shopping? And then the final exam is to find the best bargain possible at DSW… Yeesh…

Heh-heh, a degree that probably takes longer to apply for; to pay for; and to have the degree certificate printed, sent, and received than it does to actually earn it… Yeah, like that doesn’t happen in the real world. Remember—Pink Kitty’s degree certificate also doubles as a lovely place mat. ;o)

Vote Mandisa tonight!

2006-03-21T12:31:00.000-06:00

I don't normally follow "American Idol," but this year is a bit different. Former co-worker of mine Mandisa Hundley is in the top 11!

She used to sing solos in our chapel services regularly, and God has brought her from a customer-service-type job to touring with Travis Cottrell and Beth Moore to now being on American Idol. I think this is God's way of breaking through this idol mess and saying, "I am God, and there is no other. And I'm gonna show you just what I can do." And He's using Mandisa to do it.

Vote Mandisa—she's talented; she's gracious; she's beautiful, vivacious, and radiant; and most of all, she's on mission for Jesus Christ. Let's lift Him up by choosing one of His ardent, loyal servants from this pool of talent!!! Let's keep her in the top 10!

He Doth Protest Too Much

2006-03-02T12:27:00.000-06:00

Last night Duke Diva and I ate at a cute little neighborhood Cuban restaurant. Good stuff!

As we walked to our cars, Random Oddball Guy (ROG), who was standing on the sidewalk not far from the restaurant door, hailed us.

ROG: Hey, ladies, I'm a nice guy, and I just need a ride just down the road a little ways.

We Gals: Sorry...

Duke Diva to ROG: I'm a nice girl. But I don't let men who are strangers to me, ride in my car when I'm alone.

(Duke Diva and Elena get in their cars. ROG walks down the sidewalk...away from the restaurant.)

Elena: (on the cell phone) OK...there's a restaurant open....with people inside! And two tables over from us were three guys! So dude could have gone in and (1) made a phone call or (2) gotten some help. AND a nice guy (1) doesn't approach women in a way that would necessitate his having to say, "I'm a nice guy" and (2) shouldn't need to TELL people that he is...it should just be evident. Kinda like saying, "I'm smart," isn't "smart."

Duke Diva: Yeah, it's like the time that I was in the church parking lot at night when a homeless guy came out from BEHIND another car and said, "I'm not trying to scare you, and I'm a good guy." My reply was "Well, if you're not trying to scare anyone, then why are you doing EXACTLY that!?!?"

(Exeunt.)

*Lesson*
A man who wants to protect a woman isn't going to do something that he knows is likely to genuinely scare her, especially if they are strangers to each other. (This doesn't preclude the courteous behavior amongst all folks in public, like a friendly but boundary-maintaining smile or tip of the hat or nod, or speaking to someone in the elevator. Or the fun "boo!"-and-chase game two sweethearts might play...)

A gentleman's gentlemanliness shows in his attitudes, his speech, and his behavior. How he cares about people should be evident. His chilvary should show itself without his having to point to it. Guys, you who open doors for us, who are polite and courteous, who are considerate of others, and who are protective of women and others who are weaker than you (for whatever reason)---we women thank you!!! Your genuine gallantry has not gone unnoticed. Bravo! And thank you for maintaining boundaries and respecting us as human beings! *smile*

Vivir en miedo es como vivir a medias.

2006-02-22T11:55:00.000-06:00

Translation: A life lived in fear is a life half lived.—Strictly Ballroom

How long do we live in fear? How long do we skitter away from the spotlight that life sometimes shines on us?

A song off of Trisha Yearwood's new album Jasper County—"Standing Out in a Crowd" (click on Track 6)—is my new theme song these days. No longer is the spotlight so harsh...but is a warm place...a place to shine and to smile.

No, this isn't a belated New Year's Resolution post. This is more of a parallel to what PK has been talking about over at the Scratching Post. Last fall, we both tried ballroom dancing. Actually, I dragged her as my guest, and she was the one who got hooked. She started in self-expressive dance (belly dance) and added partner dancing. And now that I've tried partner dancing, I'd really like to take dance lessons to do something solo...like flamenco or traditional Indian dance.

So much to do...like purchase my first home...buy a new car (the baby's 10 or 11 years old now...yikes!)...go somewhere tropical...take cooking classes....learn Italian. Why not start? Why not? Fear, usually. But hey, I'm 30, and what am I waiting for?

Just ponderings, y'all. Nothing overly cohesive or coherent yet... just some things that have been simmering/percolating/marinating. (OK, I'm hungry for lunch now.)

What are you going to try this year that you've always been afraid to do? It may be a new leisure/adventure activity...it may have something to do with people (like ask out that terrific person in your singles group or ask someone for forgiveness). Share your stories if you'd like! Keep your comments SFW (safe for work). Thanks!

A Mad Lib in Honor of Strong Bad

2006-02-21T23:30:00.000-06:00

Courtesy of the tear-off calendar Duke Diva gave me for Christmas. Gotta love word stuff!

Noun: rainbow
Noun: unicorn
Noun: Princess Shellbra
Verb ending in "ing": lady-ing

Story: "My Favorite Presidents"

My favorite presidents include George Washington,
the rainbow of our country; Abraham Lincoln, who
preserved the unicorn; Thomas Jefferson, author
of the Declaration of Princess Shellbra; and Theodore Rooselvelt,
who was famous for lady-ing up San Juan Hill
in the Spanish-American War.

SO Glad That Hoopla's Over

2006-02-21T12:10:00.000-06:00

Yes, I'm late to the party in posting this, but it's my blog...I can do what I wanna.

I was waxing Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil last week during the All Dick Cheney, All the Time mania.
Party Guest: What happened?
Party Host: Oh, that Dick Cheney went and shot somebody. Canapé?

And why is Dick Cheney's accidentally shooting a friend, something to broadcast on the news over and over? I dunno.
Folks in the South accidentally shoot their hunting buddies all the time...

I think the press hasn't got enough to do. What's next? Some government official changes toothpaste brands without consulting the American public?

Hey, reporters, here's 35 cents (or whatever the going rate is)---call someone who cares!

Movie Tie-ins Gone Wild...

2006-02-21T12:00:00.000-06:00

or just plain ol' "too far."

We now have Chronicles of Narnia: The Chapstick. What's next---Chronicles of Narnia: The Toilet Paper?

In the world of java...

2006-02-08T16:06:00.000-06:00

Sometimes even Fourbucks manages to put itself at the bottom of the hierarchy. Take this afternoon's brew, for instance.

Elena sips her just-doctored-up caffeine confection. Vleh, vleh, VLEH! I'm drinking the liquid form of the nasty-butt off-brand "Coppertone" Barbie that Ashpenaz had when we were young. (Yes, the doll smelt of suntan lotion.) In other words....French Roast Fourbucks coffee + skim milk + sugar-free vanilla syrup + 2 pkgs pink [Sweet 'n' Low] + 2 pkgs yellow [Splenda] = one tepid Grande cup of Choke My Tastebuds. Icky-poo...

Super Bowl 40: It's All About the Commercials, Baby!

2006-02-06T12:00:00.000-06:00

We gathered. We snacked. We rooted for both the Steelers and the Seahawks. We viewed. And we critiqued. Here's a summary of what Pink Kitty, Duke Diva, and I thought of the highlight of the evening: the commercials.

Busta Gut: The Ones That Made Us ROFL
Budweiser Superfan

Nationwide Insurance: Fabio {winning the Gal Pal Trio ROFL Award}

The Nostalgia Factor: Commercials for the Gen Xers
Ford Hybrid: Kermit the Frog

MasterCard: MacGyver

Acme's Whackamo (ie. "We depend on physical humor")
Nationwide Insurance: Swing

FedEx: Caveman

Gotta Love That Irony
AmeriQuest Mortgage Co.: “That Killed Him”

Just Plain Weird (But Still Rather Funny...somehow)
Burger King: Whopperettes

Cute…..Kinda
Desperate Housewives (Crying Shaq)

Hummer: Giant Monsters

It was cloudy in Nashville this morning but...

2006-02-02T11:45:00.000-06:00

Punxy Phil says six more weeks of winter.......ugh.

My Aunt SteelersFan, who is originally from Punxsutawny, PA, where the famous groundhog lives, collects beanie Phils. This cute stuffed Phil is sure to be gracing Auntie's Punxy Phil shelf the next time we visit. (When I figure out how to upload my digital photos into Flickr, y'all can see the display.)

Well, I don't care if spring doesn't officially start for another month and a half, I'm gettin' all spring-y up in here...what with an odd surge of energy...and my faboo new flowerdy flats (cutened up even more with pink bows).

The Office Fragrance Line

2006-02-01T14:15:00.000-06:00

Newest Releases:

* Attar of Burnt Popcorn….automatically exudes from both microwave and charred popcorn bag....available in Butter and Kettle Corn (which in its blackened form has the added value of smelling vaguely like a gigolo wearing cheap cologne)

* Java Aromatherapy…………if your morning Starbucks® didn’t wake you up, the office's 6-hours-of-percolating pot of coffee just might.

* Oil of Nondescript Asian Food Entrée….sure to embue any hallway with the aromatic leavings of last week’s trip to P. F. Chang’s

* Parfum de Chien …….. odor of wet dog....readily available on rainy days and Mondays (which, I don't know about you, but they always get me down)

* Eau de Old People….an interesting blend of stale cinnamon and aroma of “funeral home florist shop”

* Le Feet de Pu…..self-explanatory

* Killer-Migraine Room Freshener….Wafts from any office to five or six offices away in a 360-degree swath; extends its fingers up into your nostrils and sinuses; and once grasping your grey matter, twists your brain till all thoughts cease, but this one: Put me out of my misery, PLEASE!

Lessons from StrongBad

2006-01-30T11:12:00.000-06:00

And I quote:

"The word technology means ... magic!"

"Robots are technology shaped like square people. They're primarily used for destroying Japan ... and serving hors d'oeuvres."

Lappy = allegedly portable

Things that make people blush

2006-01-26T20:16:00.000-06:00

NO, this is not THAT kind of blog post! ;o)

Recently at team lunch, I was waxing rhapsodic about a new dining destination that PK and I tried the previous Friday night---Parisa’s.* It’s a delightful Persian restaurant with a lovely atmosphere, terrific décor, fantastic food, and an attentive wait staff. I enjoyed the experience so much that I raved about it to my work team members.

So…the graphic designer from my team, DesignDarlin’, and her husband, DesignDude, tried it out the next night after I had told her about Parisa’s…a Friday night.

Here’s the report from DesignDarlin’:

DesignDarlin’: You know that place you told me about….Parisa’s?

Elena: Yeah…

DD: Well, DesignDude and I tried it out.

E: (giddy response) Oh, goodie! How did you like it?

DD: We loved the food. But… (pauses and laughs a little nervously)

E: (anticipating DD’s next statement) Oh, no! I forgot to tell you about the…

DD: Belly dancing. Yeah. (DD grins and chuckles.) I kinda felt bad for DesignDude. He was so embarrassed---his entire face and neck were beet red. He didn’t know what to do! He asked me, “Do I look at her?” I told him it was OK…she’s just dancing.

E: What about you?

DD: I was fine. To me, it’s just another art form.

We both laughed a bit more…about how surprised they were, about DesignDude’s utter discombobulation, and about which set of DesignDuo's parents would freak out as much as DDude did (or more).

* Go there, y'all! GREAT food, faboo decor, nice atmosphere, friendly staff...it's a little Persian getaway right here in middle TN. Nashville Scene Dining Guide [Search for "Parisa's."]

"I tell ya, PK"

2006-01-24T09:17:00.000-06:00

Reality shows are getting a bit ridiculous. OK...have gotten. OK, OK.....totally riDONKulous.

Yesterday, Pink Kitty and I were commenting over e-mail about the newest twist on "reality" TV. Read below:

Elena: Elecric Youth on Ice......ie. Debbie Gibson on "Skating with Celebrities." O.........my..........goodness.

PK: Yeah. She was on there... and what she did was Delta level skating with some footwork. I'll give them all props, because they've learned in a month what took me six months. Then again, I wasn't skating four hours a day. They should be progressing a lot faster.

Elena: (on another one of her tangents) Sad that our culture these days cannot create epic works....I watched Dickens's "Bleak House" on PBS last night. Now THAT is culture....good, no! EXCELLENT literature.....and good TV.

PK: Epic works take time to create, read, and appreciate. Why bother with that when you have insta-celebreality? ---> Add star to water. Watch show.

Bad Joke Tuesday: The WTC Edition

2006-01-24T09:07:00.000-06:00

What’s the difference between a bad golfer and a bad skydiver?
A bad golfer goes *Whack* "Dang!"
A bad skydiver goes "Dang!" *Whack*

How do crazy people go through the forest?
They take the psycho path.

Extracurriculariffic

2006-01-23T17:08:00.000-06:00

Sing it from the bowels, baby! Sing it!

Bad Joke Tuesday: The Food Edition

2005-12-20T18:30:00.000-06:00

What kind of coffee was served on the Titanic?
Sanka

What do you call cheese that isn’t yours?
Nacho cheese

Chocolate Kissing...

2005-12-20T18:15:00.000-06:00

Some brilliant chemist must have come up with this faboo idea! Lickable or kissable lips...with your morning, afternoon, evening, or late-night burst of chocolate indulgence. Lots o' flavas!

Gotta love Kermit, Miss Piggy, the Swedish Chef, and Beaker

2005-12-14T16:15:00.000-06:00

"Mee MEEmee MEEE-mee" = Beaker singing the "Nine ladies dancing" stanza of "The Twelve Days of Christmas"

Ah yes, the immortal words of Muppets... heh-heh.

One of my favorite Christmas albums from childhood is John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together. Kermit is there in all his sincere, well-meaning green-frogness. Miss Piggy is her bossy diva self (gee, remind you of anyone?). Animal protests his "won't go! won't go!" unless figgy (not "piggy") pudding is produced forthwith. The two grumpy guys are...well, grumpy. Everyone is there; and they chime in happily on "Deck the Halls," "The Twelve Days of Christmas," and "Christmas Is Coming." The Muppets do a sweet-spirited performance of "Stille Nacht," in German, after which John tells the story behind the beloved carol. Then the entire group sings the song in English.

The only thing missing from the album is a good solo by the Swedish Chef warbling some buried treasure of a European Christmas carol that only Swedes would recognize. I'm not sure how he could top his "hurdy-gurdy, get duh squirrelee"* act or his unique rendition of "Blue Danube Waltz" (ie. "Da, da, da, DA, BORK, BORK, bork, bork"), but the Chef would be up to the challenge.

* Yep, everything...somehow relates back to squirrels.

Midnight oil burned? Check.

2005-12-13T23:25:00.000-06:00

Marathon copy editing. Gotta love it. I didn't think I could do it tonight. Nose to the grindstone actually worked this time. Amazing how time expands when one focuses on the task at hand, rather than counting the divets in the ceiling tiles. Hmm, have I uncovered a new aspect of the time-space continuum? Neh... It was a God thing. Truly.

So...though I have a second wind and though Mark Bray beat me to posting about LW&W (and elicited an interesting mental rambling this morning [well, it was interesting to ME!]), I shall refrain from posting any further tonight.

I know.
You don't care.
And you think my nose is buried too far in my navel anyway.
Well...
whatever...
I don't blog for anyone but me...and my eight readers.
;o)

Anyhooz, several movie reviews in the works, stuff about bad fashion or some such fluff, and goodies about Christmas...to be posted this week.

Love to all my loyal fans! Polka-dotted scarf waves to ya. :o)
~@ Elena @~

Palabras de sabiduria, palabras de vida

2005-12-13T23:15:00.000-06:00

Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.---Lou Holtz

"The LORD will fight for you; you must be quiet." Exodus 14:14 (HCSB®)

Courage is not the towering oak that sees storms come and go; it is the fragile blossom that opens in the snow.---Alice Mackenzie Swaim

Bad Joke Tuesday: The "I Heart Grammar" Edition

2005-12-13T23:10:00.000-06:00

{with a Christmas flair}

What do you call Santa’s helpers?
Subordinate Clauses

The Meat Special Series (Vol 1, No. 2)

2005-12-12T11:30:00.000-06:00

Today's special: chukar

Yes, you read it correctly---chukar. Pronounced CHUH-ker (heehee--sounds like a homophone for my chicken chucker!!). Definition here.

Happy noshing!

Bad Joke Tuesday: The Duh! Edition

2005-12-05T14:00:00.000-06:00

Where do you find a dog with no legs?
Right where you left him

What do you call a boomerang that doesn’t work?
A stick

Nerdifacts and Other Geekery

2005-12-05T13:50:00.000-06:00

nerdifacts

geekery

more geekery

Today's Meat Special: The New Blog Post Series

2005-11-30T16:35:00.000-06:00

Today's selection: Squab Kabobs

The story: My friend YellaJacket decided Field & Stream would be the magazine subscription he'd take with his frequent flyer points. He didn't realize nearly every picture would include a gun. So much for taking the mags to Sunday School for the kids to cut out nature photos!

A lovely sheet of stickers was conveniently included in one issue, with this explanation of their use: "Make sure you can track down your wildlife in their deep-freeze wilderness habitat by using these handy labels. They're like radio transmitter collars, except they go on dead things."

As Pink Kitty says, "If steak is murder, murder is tasty!"

"Buy me that squee-rrull, Da-dee"

2005-11-28T17:32:00.000-06:00

I sent my sister a list of possibilities for Christmas gifts, from her to me, upon her request. Her reply was an objection to a particular item on the list:

“Clicking a link and buying a squirrel is not so much fun, and it's just one more thing to dust.”

Ring of Fire

2005-11-28T12:30:00.000-06:00

Saturday night the 19th, Pink Kitty and I saw Walk the Line, the biographical film of the rise of Johnny Cash from sharecropping farmer's son to country/rock-and-roll star. Really, the film is more than that, so much more. And like Pink Kitty wrote, the film ought to have been titled Ring of Fire.

We began our trek to the movie theater appropriately---listening to Cash's hits. I gotta admit...I had hardly ever listened to Johnny Cash's music. I only remember him from my younger days when there'd be some album of his advertized on TV..."Call now; operators are standing by." I remember seeing a music video or something of his---he was wearing black (surprise, surprise) and singing and walking around an empty boxcar sittin' on the railroad tracks. For the longest time, trains and Johnny Cash and that black outfit just seemed to go together in my mind. And Willie Nelson and Boxcar Willie (aren't they two different people? I dunno) were connected with Cash too.

So...when June (played excellently by Nashville's own Reese Witherspoon) asks Johnny how he developed his sound that imitates the trains' rhythms, the image clicked with me. The steady movin' on to somewhere else...that's what drives the prisoner crazy, as told by Cash's song "Folsom Prison Blues." That freedom...

The film depicts Johnny's raging, abusive alcoholic father's treatment of him. And I see that treatment as having created a prison for Johnny. It was a prison of blame, of bitterness, of hopelessness, and of low self-worth. The perspectives and perceptions of Ray Cash were transferred to his son. Johnny was forever trying to prove his father wrong but missing the mark every single time.

Sound familiar? Sound like our attempts to please our Heavenly Father? They fall short every time. But He knows how to give second chances AND to give the grace we so desperately need (and don't deserve, because on our own, we have not enough merit) in order for what we do to be pleasing to Him.

Perhaps we think too much about grace been doled out in each instance...momentary grace...rather than living in a state of grace, in a spacious place called "I Am Loved by the LORD Almighty." We see life in a way that could be likened to a prison...and in some moments, we are let out for a respite---grace periods. Is God that miserly? No!

He is not playing a game with us, changing the rules constantly about what will please Him. He is not a capricious god like those gods feared by various groups through the ages. He tells us what pleases Him. And most of all, our just being, pleases Him, as a child's merely existing pleases her mother.

Johnny Cash's father, as shown in the movie, never was pleased by his son's talk or actions. And Johnny's mere existence was not enough to please his father. Utter rejection emanated from the man. You see it as he sits across the length of the table at Thanksgiving in Johnny's home, and you hear it in his voice when he harangues Johnny, "You have nothing!"

I think the most poignant moments in the movie come when June Carter, her mother, and her father stay with Johnny after the Thanksgiving meal, to walk with him through an at-home detox from drugs and alcohol---they do what those who are supposed to love Johnny the most, refuse or neglect to do. June cares for and comforts Johnny as he tosses and turns and sweats. Maybelle and Mr. Carter run off the drug dealer who tries to make a house call. Mr. Carter even employs a shot gun in the effort! (Merely to threaten the drug dealer...not actually shoot him.) Then June is her most angelic when she exhorts and encourages Johnny upon his waking from rest after wrestling with the effects of withdrawal. She says, "Johnny, this is your second chance," and smiles, her expression mingling with the sunlight streaming in from the bedroom windows. She who could not stand to be around Johnny in his drug-induced stupors and angry careening out of control, has drawn near to him and has embodied the offer God is extending to Cash.......his redemption has drawn nigh. And the prison door is open, and Johnny can see that...and get up out of the cell and live in freedom.

If prison is the image that repeats in Cash's life, fire is the one that repeats in June's. "Ring of Fire" is the song June wrote to illustrate how the passion between her and Johnny affected her. True, the passion burned hot...and it left some destruction in its wake; but also "the ring of fire" became a true, redemptive love between them, a purifier. It burned the front Johnny had put on for years. It burned June's protective shell on herself and allowed her to shine even brighter.

Reminds me of another ring borne of fire: the One Ring of LotR fame. The evil thing was forged by fire, fire illuminates the Ring's identity, and it is fire that purges the evil.

Fire is destructive, yes; but what is worthy to be left after the fire, will remain. It will be redeemed.

Coffee Tawk

2005-11-16T16:40:00.000-06:00

You are a Black Coffee

At your best, you are: low maintenance, friendly, and adaptable

At your worst, you are: cheap and angsty

You drink coffee when: you can get your hands on it

Your caffeine addiction level: high

What Kind of Coffee Are You?

A word on words

2005-11-11T11:10:00.000-06:00

This text came to me via e-mail. Original author is unknown.

ENGLISH IS EASY

So what is this stuff about English being easy?

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meaning than any other two-letter word, and that is "UP."

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we waken in the morning, why do we wake UP?

Sometimes the little word has really special meaning. At other times this UP is just plain confusing.

* At a meeting, why does a topic come UP? Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP A report?
* We call UP our friends.
* We use brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver, warm UP the leftovers, and clean UP the kitchen. We lock UP the house, and some guys fix UP the old car.
* People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.
* To be dressed is one thing but to be dressed UP is special.
* A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.
* We open UP a store in the morning, but we close it UP at night.
* When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP. When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP.
* When it rains, it wets UP the earth. When it doesn't rain for a while, things dry UP.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!

To be knowledgeable of the proper uses of UP, look UP the word in the dictionary. In a desk-size dictionary, the word up, takes UP almost 1/4th the page and definitions add UP to about 30.

If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used. It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with 100 or more.

One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so.............

I'll shut UP .....!

Anybody else got a headache now?

Cussing LITE ?

2005-10-31T11:22:00.000-06:00

The Tennessean has an interesting article about the slang kids today use. Actually, my generation uses a whole host of words that one interviewee deemed "tacky," rather than profane.

This article is what helped the Holy Spirit further convict my friend YellaJacket about his use of the word c**p and others. His decision, and his discussion of the article, sparked a hallway debate about the related issues: the uncouthness of our society and the further degeneration of our culture, what makes a curse word a curse word, and what should a Christian refrain from saying.

I think we can all agree that our society has allowed uncouth behavior to become acceptable, even desirable. What started this trend? Shall we blame it on our parents and aunts and uncles---the Baby Boomers and Flower Children? Makes sense to me. Previous eras didn't buck the system and scream against "the establishment" as much as the 60s did.

The adults of previous eras still held up adulthood as an admirable state to reach. One was expected to grow out of childhood. Certain privileges were reserved for people of certain ages, and certain activities were allowed only within the confines of marriage (sex, having and raising children, owning one's own home).

Today childhood and adolescence are lifted up as the golden years. The years of maturity are only praised among the senior citizens, when one wants to sell something to them, like Centrum Silver ('cause "it's a good time to be silver"). Madison Avenue has exalted youth, rather than maturity, and now even adults are electing to maintain behaviors and attitudes that generations before, adults would have renounced as they grew up and matured.

This attitude and these values, together, cause, or at least facilitate, the degeneration of our speech. We no longer hold children accountable to our expectations of them. We are told, and then accept the message, that we are too hard on them, that we must be more understanding, we must be more tolerant, we must not dampen their spirits.

It is not the spirit of being a child that rears its ugly head in a child---it is the human nature, the flesh nature, the sin nature, that rears its head. That nature is in each and every one of us. Not some. Not a few. ALL!

Are we to encourage rebellion? Are we to encourage unrestrained thinking, speaking, and behaving? No! Adults are supposed to train the children in the ways that they are to go as adults---to teach them to begin NOW to think, speak, and behave in ways that bring the favor of God and of other people.

In the case of their speech, what does it matter what a child says? Isn't a word just a word? Well, no. Curse words demean the things to which they refer...whether to a sexual act or to full sexual intercourse (sexual acts are designed by God to be sacred acts...in the sense that it is set aside for a special purpose: the joining of two human souls and procreation [yes, pleasure is involved, but it is not the sole purpose, nor the highest]) to defecation or any number of human activities. Curse words involve vehement, even violent, emotions. It is really not the word itself that makes it profane. In theory, we could use any combination of letters and make it a curse word. It is the meaning the word carries, the thing to which it refers (and demeans), and the emotion behind the usual usage of the word--the combination of these things that make the word a curse word. You could also say that connotation has much to do with it.

Yet, I don't think that explains all. Why do we use the particular curse words that exist nowadays? Well, my theory is that we use them because their sounds are harsh, and those harsher sounds seem to express the level of vehemence in our feelings. Isn't there a difference between saying, "Oh, shoot!" and "S**t!!!" ? Yes, there is. I feel it in myself. One expresses stronger anger or frustration than the other. And when I say, "Shoot!" with the same vehemence I would usually say with the other word, well, it's the other word I'm really thinking in my head.

I mean, think about the worst curse word of them all---the F bomb. (And if there is a worse curse word, I don't know of it.) Why is it so beloved as a curse word? Perhaps it is the beginning sound, which one must press one's upper front teeth to one's bottom lip to make [notice that the position of teeth and lip is very like a facial expression of frustration], and the ending sound, which one must extend one's lower jaw and pull back one's upper jaw, keeping the mouth open slightly, to make [this position is like a facial expression of anger]. The sounds of the word are explosive and harsh---and it puts a violent "spin" on the action it originally described.

Is it any coincidence, now, that the F word has become an adjective, moving beyond just being a rather profane way to express sexual action? This word, sex, and violence are inextricably linked. Even if we are becoming more and more desensitized to its use in "everyday" speech... {UGH!}

So what does a Christian do? Are we to be concerned only about what is actual profanity, as defined by God, or must we also be concerned about what "polite society" deems uncouth and unrefined? Should a Christian be refined? Certainly not if "refined" means haughty, cold, and unapproachable. But if one's behavior is dignified because it flows from a reverence and regard for God, from a valuing of human beings and a desire to make others comfortable (which is the purpose of courtesy and manners), then a concern for being dignified, couth, and refined is certainly a godly one. But if it is about self, about maintaining one's reputation (and considering others as beneath oneself), about being "better" than others, THAT is not godly.

I don't think that Jesus was so concerned about being so-called "refined." Besides, back then...there was so much dirt and grime everywhere---how could you be THAT refined in the first place? But Jesus would not have been sarcastic to the point of being hurtful to others. He would not have been a cynical person. Maybe He could be described as a realist AND an optimistic person, but since He also is all-knowing God and not just a mere human with extra powers, optimistic or pessimistic isn't even an issue---He knows what's going to happen. He doesn't have to speculate and decide the worst will happen or hope the best will happen. He will be victorious. He already is victorious.

Jesus was and is confident, in the sense that He knew who He was and knows who He is. God needs no one else to prove who He is. He is "I AM that I AM." He is sufficient unto Himself.

So God is not arrogant...because there is no one above Him. And arrogance is thinking more highly of oneself than one ought. God is God.

God alone knows when gentleness or firmness is needed with one of His creations. Jesus was gentle with His words but also firm (dare I say, harsh at times?). He had compassion on people, but He also told them like it was. He sees the heart as it truly is, beneath our heaped-up extra guilt or beneath our self-delusional pride.

Jesus said, "The mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart (Matt. 12:34). ... What comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and this defiles a man. For from the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies. These are the things that defile a man (15:18-20)."

So...we Christians should check our minds, our hearts, our mouths, and our entire lives---is what we are thinking, saying, and doing flowing out of attitudes of love, grace, mercy, forgiveness, forbearance, perseverance, humility, praise, gratitude, compassion, boldness, goodness, patience, peace, kindness, gentleness, soberness, and self-control? Or are we letting the flesh have sway? Are we thinking, speaking, and acting out of bitterness, anger, jealousy, wrath, envy, hatred, self-pity, pride, suspicion, revenge, foolishness, lack of restraint, greed, lust, gluttony, and drunkenness?

Through Jeremiah, God says, "The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and desperately sick---who can understand it? I, the LORD, examine the mind, I test the heart (Jer. 17:9-10)."

Morena Elena's blonde moment(s)

2005-10-17T09:35:00.000-05:00

Though I am dark brown haired, from this weekend, and especially this morning, you'd think I was blonde.

Today's fortune-cookie-worthy lesson (re-learned)...... Moo Shu Chicken left in waste can in office over the weekend makes for "shoooooo weeee!!!!!" on Monday morning.

Friday Flinging Fun

2005-10-14T17:00:00.000-05:00

What other pleasures are there on a Friday afternoon than attempting to get things to go airborne?

I finally succumbed to the seductive lure of................the Chicken Chucker.

This brightly-colored "gun" is actually a miniature trebuchet of sorts and comes packaged with five small chickens. (Refills are available...should chicken be launched and turn up irretrievable.) You place the chicken inside one "tray," snap the top down on it, and pull the trigger. A fowl is flung into the air!

Yes, two chickens will fit in the tray. First attempt of double-cluck chucking resulted in one chicken flung into a co-worker's office across the hall and other chicken landing near my office door.

My editor in chief admitted his jealousy of my new firing arm. He tried it out and got quite an arc with the trajectory.

Why toss paper wads or fire rubber bands......when you can propel poultry?

Sweet!

Candy for the Cannibalistic Set?

2005-10-14T14:05:00.000-05:00

I forwarded to MamaJR an e-mail someone had sent me which contained photos of tiny little babies...supposedly made of marzipan. (Marzipan is almond paste, a sweet paste made of ground almonds and sugar, often with egg whites or yolks, used as a layer in cakes or molded into ornamental shapes [yeah, usually fruits...like oranges and lemons and such...NOT babies!].)

Here's the conversation that ensued:

MamaJR: WOW!

Elena: Now you can really nibble on little baby feet.... {And I had just been nibbling on little Baby E-beth's fingers and toes Saturday...just kisses, though!}

MamaJR: Funny... I wouldn't want to eat them!

Elena: I know...but they're MARZIPAN.....which means you could eat them......which sounds CREEPY to me.

To which MamaJR replies that she just wants to put one in a glass case and put it on her TV cabinet...to the mixed horror and delight of her guests, I'm sure. Can't you just see the quizzical stares and the one-raised-eyebrow looks?

See, I'm remembering a certain Austin Powers character with a penchant for child flesh and his cry of glee when seeing Mini Me: "It's a baby! I wanna eat the baby! Come on, little baby! Git in mah belleh!!"

Update: Yep, it's another "urban legends" type thing...check out the explanation at Snopes.com.

Holy shag carpeting, Batman!

2005-10-13T16:12:00.000-05:00

You gotta love Pier 1, folks. They sell the....oddest....music collections on CD. I'm currently listening to one I bought there---Cocktails: Shaken Not Stirred.

Track 1 is "It's Not Unusual" by Tom Jones (can ya see the chest hair and the bling-blingin' necklaces between the two long-pointed lapels?).

Track 2 is "Soul Bossa Nova" by Quincy Jones. Movie fans know that track as the Austin Powers theme music.

Hey, when ya work in a mauve-walled office, ya gotta add some real color wherever you can find it!

It was one of those days

2005-10-10T13:30:00.000-05:00

Conversation from last Thursday....

Elena: Today’s just one of those days. Not bad........just one of those days when work tasks leave ya shakin' your head and wanting to chuck the computer app out the winder...... Signs of one of "those" days: (1) Liberal amounts of chocolate must be applied to aid in higher brain function [and lower brain function] and (2) rants at the computer are sung with a pretty decent Strong Bad impression.

Pink Kitty: Do you apply chocolate in a solid form, or slather it all over yourself like a mud mask?

Squirrel Saga, Part Deux

2005-10-10T13:15:00.000-05:00

My friend MamaJR reports the latest in the squirrel saga:
"Here's the e-mail our car insurance company sent us."

GEICO General Insurance Company

October 10, 2005

Dear [Mr. Bulldog Fan]:

Thank you for your Internet request.

I apologize for any confusion. Comprehensive coverage would cover damage caused by the collision of your vehicle with an animal. You would actually have to collide with the animal in order for the damages to be covered.

I apologize for any inconvenience we may have caused you. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance.

Thank you for using GEICO's on-line services! We appreciate your business and hope you have a great day!

Sincerely,
[Ms. GEICO Employee]

MamaJR says: Just let me at them, I'll be happy to collide with the squirrels!

Bizarre car

2005-10-06T14:55:00.000-05:00

A story from MamaJR:

"My mechanic just called to explain why my car went berserk and died Tuesday night. BulldogFan and I had stopped by Enterprise to pick up my car at 10:00 p.m. when we returned from Georgia. The car was shaking and acting possessed, so we left it there at Enterprise and had it towed yesterday.

"A squirrel (over the course of a few days or weeks) has chewed through two of my six spark plugs, through AC wires, connection wires, transmission wires; and the breaks have caused them to burn. =(

"Hopefully they haven't burned into the console, but the mechanic said it's going to be a long repair job since he will have to literally rebuild the entire wiring system.

"Those little runts! I can't keep them away from my car because our house doesn't have a garage and we live in a heavily-wooded area next to a river. I will have to think about creating traps to keep the buggers away.

"I am also going to buy a gun."

After consulting a co-worker, Mama JR had this update: "I told Titus2Lady that I need to get a pellet gun to scare them, and she told me that I need to get a real gun to kill them!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Darn tootin,' I'd say...

Related item of pop culture: Carrie Bradshaw, when spending a weekend in the country, wuzznt kiddin' when she proclaimed, "They are NOT cute!!! Squirrels are just rats in better outfits."

Blessings on the concert, LPO!

2005-10-04T18:30:00.000-05:00

Tonight is the first performance of the Lousiana Philharmonic Orchestra's 2005–06 season, which was set to open Sept. 15 but couldn't because of Hurricane Katrina + levee damage to their theater. About 60 musicians have gathered here in Nashville for a concert.....and it's an emotional time: a reunion of family.

NPR broadcasted a report from one of our local radio reporters (see link in the blog entry title), and you can hear the excitement in the musicians' voices as they talk about their reunion. You also hear the bits of sorrow over instruments they have lost (or fear are lost). Several musicians have collections of the musical instruments they play, including rare and antique pieces.

But what they grieve most of all is having a home in which to play. For tonight, they do have a home, albeit a temporary one. The LPO's gratitude to Nashville is palpable and the musicians' joy infectious.

May you play with vigor and joy, gratitude and wonder, and renewed dedication to your art, LPO musicians! May your time in Nashville be a blessing to you, as I am sure you will be a blessing to us!

Fall is here...let the weekend fun begin!

2005-09-30T12:00:00.000-05:00

Elena's social calendar is filling with delightful things to do and see.

Plaid wearing, caber tossing, and a jig or two
What clan are you?
Elena's a Wallace. Generations back, that is. And yes, there's a William among those Wallaces---again, way on back several generations---but the family's not sure if he's that William.

Costume drama, all rumpled and bothered
Can Keira Knightley improve on Jennifer Ehle's Lizzie? Will Matthew MacFadyen be a better Darcy than Mr. Firth? I dunno. But Ashpenaz and I are gonna do a little popcorn-accompanied research to find out.

Serenity rocks the house!

2005-09-30T11:55:00.000-05:00

I agree with Ms. P. K. Nail [spoiler warning] about this flick. Awesome, babies, awesome!!!

Some blog entries should come with safety warnings

2005-09-28T11:46:00.000-05:00

Like "Should be taken with liberal amounts of chocolate" or "Do not ingest while talking on the phone, as might cause choking".............
I'm shakin' my head over a doozie from a very left-brained friend. Evidently, the implications of his left-brainedness had escaped me. More illusions have been shattered...

Please read the entire post I reference (linkie in post title above), in order to understand the text that follows.

"I have always considered the Psalms to have second-tier status in my mind, as compared to the straight historical narrative format of much of the rest of Scripture. However obscure some of Scripture may be, throwing poetry into the mix just seems to be make matters worse."

"Would be fine if it [the Book of Psalms] just stayed as poetry. But this especially gives me fits each time I see later authors of Scripture refer back to the Davidic psalms and use them as prophetic in nature. Where does the warrant come from, to draw such conclusions from this genre?"

"make matters worse" "this genre" *Elena raises eyebrow* Er? ¿Repite, por favor? A little less disdain, if you please. (Braymp, ya know I still love ya, brother.)

So...the form negates the possibility of the text offering truth? Must one tell (prose) rather than show (poetry)? Hmm?

I sense some postmodern thinking cropping up here---ala How can one KNOW the true message of the author, especially if he couches his message in poetic language/form? Well, to that I ask, "How can one KNOW the true message of the author, even if he states it outright? Aren't all authors 'unreliable narrators' to some degree?"

Does the form make the Truth clearer to the reader? More reliable? Do other forms obscure the Truth or make doubtful the veracity of the existence of the particular truth being conveyed?

True, the non-fiction essay form is similar to the steps and process of the scientific method: hypothesis, experiment and observation, thesis, proof and analysis, and conclusion/theory. Is it because poetry seems to deviate from the scientific method that some look askance at it?

Well, now I have good impetus/inspiration/reason for finishing/tweaking a post on "Why Read/Study/Teach Poetry?"

And maybe my friend can add "Why Study/Practice/Teach Pure Science?" to his blog fodder list.

To be continued...

On tap for the evening

2005-09-28T11:00:00.000-05:00

Sweet!

It's lovely to have friends who gots da hook-up! ;o)

Trivia Challenge: The actor who plays Serenity's captain was a regular for a while on a soap opera back in the 90s. Which soap opera was it?

Yes, I watched soaps in high school in college. Snicker all you like... I've beaten the addiction: I'm soap opera free now.

New biography of C. S. Lewis's life

2005-09-27T17:45:00.000-05:00

Read an article about this book and found a great quote from C. S. Lewis's stepson, Douglas Gresham, the author of this particular biography:

I am sometimes asked what it is like living in the shadow of such a great man, and I always point out that Jack did not leave a shadow behind him but a glow. If I am able to reflect even the slightest spark of that glow, I am more than happy to do so.

What a wonderful tribute! What a wonderful legacy to leave!

Reminds me of my life word: illuminate

Don't Get Stuck on Stupid

2005-09-26T22:00:00.000-05:00

Best sound byte from the entire Katrina-Rita episode...

Nashville's Benefit Concert for the Lousiana Philharmonic Orchestra

2005-09-15T16:26:00.000-05:00

Nashville has invited as many members of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestara who can, to come to our city and play together in a concert on October 4. Mark O'Connor will perform with them, and members of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra will play in place of those LPO members who cannot make it.

Click on the blog entry title, for more information and to learn how to purchase a ticket.

I'm back!

2005-09-15T16:15:00.000-05:00

After a LOOOOONG bout of writer's block, I'm back with plenty of blog fodder. It'll take a while to get through my wish list of things on which to opine, but God willing---I'll do it, even if it takes me into 2006.

Hope you are staying dry, cool, fed, and hydrated!

Elena
:o)

Hiatus

2005-08-22T10:15:00.000-05:00

Blogging temporarily ceased.

A conversation about Christians and art

2005-07-13T09:05:00.000-05:00

After sending to some friends this link to a series of articles about Christians and making movies, a writer friend and I had the following conversation via e-mail:

Friend: I don't think we should even be asking the question "How obvious should the message of a movie be?"; rather, we should be asking "How can I tell this story most effectively?" Storytelling is probably the most powerful mode of communication we have, but if we stop worrying about telling the story and start worrying about the "message," then we will artificially warp the tale and rob it of its power. Some stories are best told with faith in the background; others with it as the central issue, just the way it is in life---in either case, if the *story* is told well, the message will come through, and people will be willing to receive it, instead of resenting its presence. No one should make a movie (or write a book or pursue any other artistic endeavor) just to preach a sermon, he should be doing it because he has a story he wants to tell. If the person is honest with his story, if he tells it from the heart instead of playing to an audience, then the convictions of the person's heart will come through---maybe in the narrative, maybe just in the subtext, but it will be there. Produce art because you are an artist, not because you feel you should because more Christians need to be in the arts.

Elena: True...but the artist should be about pleasing God...that should be her recognized end in life. Not creating art merely for art's sake. When that is his or her chief aim, to please God and enjoy Him forever, then that aim will inform the art and the work of creating can reliably be said to reveal, somehow, truth/Truth. Read Sense and Sensuality by Ravi Zacharias; the book is a much better explanation of my point than I can make it.

Friend: Certainly, the artist's main goal should be pleasing God; that should be in place in his life long before he considers creating art. Then when he tells his story or writes his song or whatever, he can concentrate on making the best art he can, and that devotion to God will come through. My point was that the "message" should not be an artificial overlay placed upon the art, but should flow naturally from the heart of the artist as he uses his art to express that heart, fully integrated into his creation as it is already integrated into his life.

Elena: Exactly......you just stated it better than I did. I was also thinking about people who elevate art...almost to the point of idolatry.

So...if one really doesn't have anything to say and doesn't know how to say it, even if he did, he's better to stay silent till he has something to say? Perhaps the artist's responsibility to God and to his gift is to hone his craft, even if he has not much to say to the world (it may be just to God and himself, and that's still important).

I'm not sure "what I have to say," other than to relate how truth and beauty touch me---to try to reflect the light I see, so that others can see the original light and want to seek it for themselves: illuminate truth and beauty.

And I don't think in stories. I like to read them and watch them, but I don't usually think that way. I guess I'm frustrated that I can see others' stories, but I can't see mine...or that I can't make up stories.

Friend: I don't think we have to "have something to say," as in having some specific message to convey to the world, in order to create art. Art is an expression of the human heart, an overflowing of our own identities into some outer form; if there is some story, some song, some poem inside of us, then that is a good enough reason to put it into artistic form. Its existence doesn't need to be justified by some explicit theme or message. True art reflects the values and beliefs of the one that creates it, and that is what gives it purpose and worth, that is what will touch the hearts of others and convey to them the "message" of the artist's own soul. Sometimes that message is nothing more than the sheer joy of creation, transformed by the reader/hearer/viewer into the joy of receiving that creation and being part of the artist's world, of being for a while some place other than he is. We identify with stories and poems and songs and paintings and all kinds of art, and it is in that identification more than anywhere else that the heart of the author is communicated. Any more obvious message can add on to that, but I don't think it can truly replace it.

A good example of this is some of my stories. Unlike my novel, I didn't write them with some explicit message in mind, but out of a desire to explore the characters and their world, as well as to entertain. And more than anything else, I wrote them because they were inside of me and demanded to be let out, and the process of doing so gave me great satisfaction and joy. But even though I didn't write them with any overt message, who I am and what I believe are imprinted onto those stories by the very fact that I wrote them; my Christian values are laced throughout the narrative and the characters, even though those characters aren't actually Christians and the story has no overt references to religion. The same thing is there in your poetry. Sometimes it is overtly Christian and sometimes it is about your thoughts and feelings at the time without blatant reference to God, but God comes through in all of it in some way or another because God is in you, and you cannot write your heart and keep Him out of it. So don't worry that you may feel you have no great revelations to give to the world; write what is on your heart and God will do with it what He wills.

Shout-outs and Prayer Requests

2005-06-30T16:20:00.000-05:00

Miss O'Hara and her sweetheart, Dear Companion, both have new jobs. Congrats, you two! Dear Companion will be moving as a result of his new job, so pray for he and Miss O'Hara to make it through the separation OK.

*****
MauiGirl recently celebrated her 26th birthday! Yo, buttah!!! ;o) ¡Feliz cumpleaños a ti!

*****
BrayMP of De Novo also celebrated his something-somethingeth birthday this month. You rock, Mack Daddio! ;o)

*****
Another friend is looking for a job. Please pray for E.S. Scriptures you can pray on his behalf are printed below. (All Scriptures are HCSB® unless otherwise indicated.) Thanks!

Let the favor of the Lord our God be on us;
establish for us the work of our hands---
establish the work of our hands!
---Psalm 90:17

He led them by the right path
to go to a city where they could live.
---Psalm 107:7

Make my steps steady through Your promise.
---Psalm 119:133a

I will give You thanks with all my heart;
I will sing Your praise
before the heavenly beings.
I will bow down toward Your holy temple
and give thanks to Your name
for Your constant love and faithfulness.
You have exalted Your name
and Your promise above everything else.
On the day I called, You answered me;
You increased strength within me.
The LORD will fulfill His purpose for me.
LORD, Your love is eternal;
do not abandon the work of Your hands.
---Psalm 138:1-3,8

Also the entire chapters of Psalm 142 and 143---the enemies being any fears or anything that paralyzes.

Giving of yourself

2005-06-27T09:30:00.000-05:00

It's a good thing, folks. And you're too blessed to be stressed, so don't stress over this. Just chill 'n' read.

Digital Cowboy has posted about masculinity and about what men want, over at his blog, which was partly inspired by previous blog conversations here at the Polka-dotted Sky.

DC says: Love gives. Until you've given, you have no right to expect.

That's the crux of the issue with most women, I'd say. God's been trying to teach me this lesson for a LONG time. "Give, Elena, and do not expect the return from the human. You cannot depend on the human to return your love. But you can depend on Me. Your expectation of Me does not insult Me, because very few expectations of Me are unrealistic. The limit is don't expect Me to follow your timetable. But you can expect Me to listen, to smile at you, to hug you, to laugh with you, to cry with you, to defend you, to teach you, to sing with you and to you and over you, to inspire you, to correct you, and so much more. I will be there when humans cannot. I will be there when the humans are there too. Let Me truly become your #1, and everyone else will take his or her rightful place in your life. When you seek from humans what ultimately only I can provide, you will be disappointed every time."

The woman who places God first will be enabled, equipped, and emboldened to love a man in such a way that her love creates a safe place for him...a wide open space in which he delights to respond by laying down his life for her...and I think this kind of love points the man back to God. (Nagging is not nurturing!)

Both persons in a marriage should fulfill Christ's command regardless of whether the other is doing what he or she is supposed to do. The wife should submit, unless she would be disobeying God or allowing injury to herself, even if he is not loving her as Christ loved the church. The husband should lay down his life, even if she is not submitting to him. Christ did what was good for us, even before we were doing right by Him. So...fulfilling our roles in a Christlike manner, whether or not the other person first acts in a way that encourages us to do the right thing, is living out Christ's life.

Expressing love without succumbing to fear of reprisal, of rejection, or of meeting with blankness or coldness is the challenge.

I believe that Jesus can teach us when the kind word will be timely and will be well received (that the person will take it in and be blessed by it, even if you see or hear no outward sign of the kindness being appreciated) and when the person is being like hard ground and cannot receive what you are wanting to say or to do bless him or her.

Lord, let me see the other person's need truly, not merely as an opportunity to have my need to help be fulfilled. Let this be about You and this person, not about me.

I think that kind of attitude and prayer is CRUCIAL to relationships, especially marriage.

Do you use your powers for good or for awesome?

2005-06-02T10:15:00.000-05:00

Are they throwing down the gauntlet?

2005-06-01T21:35:00.000-05:00

What is Elena to do when her male blog readers start attacking/insulting one another's brands of masculinity? Intervene? Slap their hands? Lay down the law? Let them duke it out and clean up their own blood spatters and apply their own cold slabs o' steak? Stand back and drool? I dunno...

Guys tease one another all the time, throwing barbs and insults, calling one another names... And among some people, the "yo mama" barrage back-n-forth is an art form! (The females indulge in that activity as well.) According to my friends over at Blogger Blaster's (see "Nate" in the sidebar), learning how to take insults and dish 'em back out is a rite of passage for guys, especially among brothers within a family. I've never experienced this myself, since I only have Ashpenaz (or Ashley the Blue Raider, as some of you know her). We didn't have a brother to pummel or to pummel us or to tell us we were stupid poopheads. We had enough of the teasing and name calling from the boys at school. And we decided we didn't like that behavior when it was directed at us.

Over the years, I've noticed that I and other women find men's fighting (physically or verbally) with one another...kinda...you know...sexy. Maybe it's the displays of strength. But then again...the movie version is different from the real-life one. I mean, even if the guy looks like a hunk, do ya really want him name calling at the family reunion or throwing a large object through a restaurant window?

And what about in the body of Christ? Does the sarcasm, the teasing, the usual "manly" repartee amongst "the guys" have a place?

Are some guys being too agressive? Are others being too sensitive? I still don't know.

I think some individuals, both men and women, are struggling these days to figure out if their brands of masculinity or femininity are valid. Should he feel bad about himself if he's not white collar? Should he feel ashamed that he knows beans about car repair? Should he hang his head in shame because he doesn't own a gun or know how to shoot? Should she tease the guys like they tease one another and tease her? Should she be sweet and innocent, or is it OK for her to know about certain *ahem* things (if only in theory, not in practice)? Should she use her brain and go after a career (not necessarily climb the ladder for its own sake), or should she eschew the contemporary world and seek to build a lifestyle pre-1960s?

Who are we supposed to be? Are there only so many flavors of man or woman to be allowed and praised?

These are confusing times indeed.

The dating lesson, redux

2005-06-01T15:55:00.000-05:00

Note: Edited from previous version

The story:

Helping a friend clean her apartment, I used a bagless vacuum cleaner for the first time the other day. It was discovered by her boyfriend that I had accidentally dumped not only the crud but also the HEPA filter into the trash....which had already been taken to the dumpster. Argh...

Friend's Boyfriend was astounded by my blunder. I didn't like his reaction. His tone of voice, facial expression, and body language communicated to me his opinion that I had NO brain whatsoever, just because I didn't pay attention to what I was doing and threw away an essential component to the piece of machinery.* Yeah, I got my feelings hurt and sillily thought I'd be vindicated if throttled him with the cable TV cord or brained him with the Mickey Mouse blender. But I refrained and made light of the situation. I offered to purchase the replacement filter, and he warned me it would be expensive.

"What?" I inquired, "Is it going to be, like, 50 dollars?"

"No," said he. "About 35."

"Oh, well, [my friend] can just count it as an early birthday present."

I ran to the conveniently located Tarzhay, found and bought the thing (and a cute hobo bag purse to assuage my ire--I admit it, I'm a shopoholic), and returned to the frenzy o' apt cleaning.

Props to the boyfriend--I felt he was nicer to me as the afternoon wore on. Maybe the new filter and the fresh package of toilet paper were good peace offerings.

I really deserved the second laugh I got from him when I sucked a shoelace up into the vacuum cleaner...and parts of the shoelace melted. And I did praise him for his application of muscle power when he vripped the remaining shoelace length right off the roller brush thingy. I get some points for being a nice gal. *grin*

He really was helpful---switched the hose to the right spot on the vacuum cleaner so that the machine was converted into Tim Allen "augh augh" power mode. Doggy hair and random plastic thingies were no match for that Dirt Devil!!

And he came over the next day and helped out his girlfriend some more, patching up a hole in the closet door. I may not like him, but she does. And that's what counts...

However, this experience made me think about men who consistently deride the women they date or are married to.

For the guys: Don't deride your gal every time she does something silly or careless or even downright stupidity. Likely, she already feels like an idiot. Don't be a turdbucket by making things worse.

For me, and maybe other gals:
DON'T date a man who consistently derides you. (If you feel like an idiot around him because you find him intimidating [eg. awed by his excellence in some area], that's different---it's not his fault.) A man who constantly treats you as if you have no brain, and therefore a worthless piece of dookey; who does not recognize and praise your strengths and abilities; who only feels strong if you are perceived by him and others as incredibly weak; and who needs to be in control 24-7 is to be avoided as a potential marriage partner.

Be nice to the guy, but do NOT date him.

Update: On further reflection and b/c of discussion in the comments, I admit that I overreacted in my emotions. And certainly, I exaggerated a bit and hammed it up here (which, for the newbies, is my writing style here)---it was a funny story b/c I did internally act like an idiot in my reaction and I did do at least two rather careless things. As I was driving to the store, after the original "moment" happened, I prayed about it and knew that no matter what I had said to him or did around him, he is a human being of value and worth to God--and not beyond God's ability to reach and to change him. Yes, I had operated out of my impression of who this guy is, having been around him several times before, but really not knowing him. He had acted like a jerk in the past, numerous times, and I assumed he'd be a jerk no matter what I did. I didn't give him the benefit of the doubt. He was nice to me, and the niceness may have just come from the goodness of his heart. I don't know.

I have been reminded (for the humpteenth time, over the course of my life) that I have to take responsibility for my part in situations, especially when it comes to emotions. And that I am just as tempted to say ugly things as any other human being is. Question for me is: Will I say what immediately comes into my head; or will I stop and pray and then say something kind or something to diffuse the tension or just keep quiet?

Asking Elena the 10 Questions

2005-05-30T10:27:00.000-05:00

Pink Kitty had her turn. Now it's mine.

1. What is your favorite word?
Similar to Pink Kitty's: Faboo!

2. What is your least favorite word?
Crusty.

3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
I respond creatively to poetry, beautiful vistas, and terrific music. Spiritually---to God's truth, to hymn lyrics, to what God does in my life. Emotionally---good bear hugs, happy or sad tears, sappy commercials and movies (I'm such a girl!), a good love story, words of affirmation.

4. What turns you off?
Arrogance; refusal to open up; selfishness; surfaceyness (yes, I just made up that word)

5. What is your favorite curse word?
Real ones or fake ones? I'll share the fake ones: Lordamercy! Oh, my word! Crudmuffins! Bad words, bad words!!!

6. What sound or noise do you love?
Brook or river water flowing, rain on rooftops, a baby's laughter, 100-piece orchestra playing gorgeous symphonic music

7. What sound or noise do you hate?
Incessant, sharp screaming or squealing from a child in the store; fingernails on a chalkboard

8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
Stage actress

9. What profession would you not like to do?
Trash collector

10. What would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates?
"I've longed for this day, My daughter. Welcome home! You have done well." And then we'd hug. Then I'd hug my family and friends. And then we'd eat. And drink. And laugh and talk and sing. And praise God... :o)

Utter silliness...

2005-05-28T23:46:00.000-05:00

My mother sent me this forwarded e-mail. Maybe it's the bad influence of the CD I'm listening to (Nickelback)...maybe it's the cute shoes. Anyway...I giggled. Enjoy!

Now that Uday & Qusay have been eliminated, a lot of the lesser-known Hussein family members are coming to the attention of American authorities.

Among the brothers:

Sooflay ..............the restaurateur
Guday.................the half-Australian brother
Huray.................the sports fanatic
Sashay................the gay brother
Kuntay & Kintay.......the twins from the African mother
Sayhay................the baseball player
Ojay..................the stalker/murderer
Gulay.................the singer/entertainer
Ebay..................the Internet czar
Biliray...............the country music star
Ecksray...............the radiologist
Puray.................the blender factory owner
Regay.................the half-Jamaican brother
Tupay.................the one with bad hair

Among the sisters:

Lattay.................the coffee shop owner
Phayray................the zoo worker in the gorilla house
Sapheway...............the grocery store owner
Sashay.................the country line dancer
Cashay.................the owner of a check cashing store

And finally:
There is Oyvay.........but the family doesn't like to talk about him much