changes

This October 19th was promptings' 8th blogaversary! Who would have thought, when I nervously put up my first post, that  I would still be going strong (though perhaps not as strong) eight years later?

Things have changed in the past eight years. For me the big change came in 2006 when I got a digital camera. Blogging possibilities multiplied when I could share my love of nature, gardening, flowers, food, murals ... in living colour!

Seasons come to a blog's life too!

I have also taken advantage of blogging in other places during the last eight years. I have published a children's devotional blog, an adult devotional blog, a writing blog, a personal poetry blog, a mural blog, as well as contributing to several group blogs.

Lately it's begun to feel like a little too much. So I've decided to streamline my online life. One aspect of that is to change promptings from a wordy blog to a photo blog (because I can't bear to shut it down and I still want a place to share my camera finds). This Tuesday I will post my last Seniors-focused post. It's been an interesting topic to explore, but I'm finding it's taking time and energy that I'd like to devote to other things.

So expect mostly photographic fare at promptings from now on. I'm excited about this!

And you are most cordially invited to visit violetnesdoly.com to read my wordy posts (book reviews, things I'm learning about Bible times and customs, developments and trends in book publishing and marketing, links to resources that help me as a writer of prose, poetry and more).

soup and bread (#132-140 of 1000 gifts)

132. Colors, colors everywhere! Even the most nondescript bushes have come alive.

133.  Ballroom dancing. We're still on the foxtrot — but hubby and I are getting it together. Tonight is our third lesson.

134.  iTunes with albums at the click of a mouse, and even a little credit from a gift card. This week I bought "Level Ground," Brian Doerksen's  September 2010 release, and the beautiful single below. They are totally blessing me!

(Fernando Ortega - "Give Me Jesus")

135.  I found a gold tablecloth among the stuff Mom left behind. I didn't think the colour would go with my red walls, but after Thanksgiving, I tried it and I kind of like it. The kitchen how has a warm, autumny feel to it (plus it puts Mom back in my life in a subtle way...).

136.  These came last week. They're a thank-you from Vogue Patterns Magazine for the use of one of my poems in an upcoming issue. I think I'll need to find a seamstress for the trendy outfits. But the Christmas crafts and aprons are giving me the itch to pull out the old Kenmore.

137. A Wednesday lunch with old friends and new.

138. The Texas Rangers got into the World Series. What do I care, really, except that this fall I decided to follow baseball and they grabbed my imagination (how can they not when, with a payroll of just $55 million, they beat out the Yankees, with their payroll of $206 million).

139. Went shopping on Friday for the Christmas shoeboxes. Totally enjoy doing that, even though I dropped some serious coin (memo for next year: shop ahead during the Back-to-School sales).

 140.  The aroma surrounding me as I type this (Saturday),  of baking focaccia bread topped with Parmesan cheese to go with tonight's  main dish of leftover roasted vegetable soup (pureed carrots, turnips, onions, squash - yum!).  I love making soup and bread!

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If you'd like to join me and many others collecting One Thousand Gifts, please do. Some members of this gratefulness community post their gifts on blogs, while others list them in private journals. Instructions on how to join are here. 

what's up

Lately it's been all book reviews, Thursday Challenges and classic poems here at promptings.This is just to let you know, there is a real person behind all the words - and photos, and here's what's up with me lately.

Wild bleeding heart - April 4, 2010 at Elgin Park in Surrey

(Click on any photo to enlarge)

I'm loving spring. It's early this year and so welcome. The trees are already in leaf. Daffodils are finished, tulips still opening here and there, the azaleas and rhodos,
the latter especially usually reserved for May, are popping all over the place.

Shield your eyes! Just had to capture this pink explosion of azalea color.

April 14, 2010 in Langley

I had some fun with my computer just over a week ago when I upgraded from Mac OSX 4 - (Tiger) to OSX 6 (Snow Leopard). I  always find installing software stressful no matter how easy it's supposed to be. Fortunately the install went smoothly, though I lost the ability to print for a few hours, until I got in touch with one of the boys at Simply who told me to 'simply' delete my printer, then add it again. It worked!

I also noticed, after a few days of the new OS, that all my applications were loading very slowly. Mail was positively spastic. Since Snow Leopard is supposed to improve speed, I wondered what I had done to make old Newton the exception. When things got ridiculous, I had visions of $$'s worth of repairs / memory upgrades etc. Before I did anything drastic, though, I tried the trusty old cure-everything fix from PC days: shutdown and restart. Voila! Just like that my computer was back to its zippy old self. What a relief!!

One of the main reasons I upgraded was for the Time Machine backup feature. Now I'm backed up daily - actually hourly as long as I leave it on - a good feeling. (A few days after I upgraded, hubby saw a feature on the evening news on another backup system - an external hard drive called Click Free. It looks interesting too!)

Creamy magnolia blossoms - captured on 

one of my walks around Langley this week.

Volunteer-wise the Alpha season is over. My job as kitchen setup and cleanup coordinator is done. It's nice to have Tuesday nights free again.

Writing-wise I've given my notice for the Poet's Classroom columns at Utmost. Two more and my columnist days there are done. I enjoyed writing those and learned so much. But after almost two years' worth of monthly articles I'm squeezed dry. It's time for someone else to take up the baton.

Tulips just outside our front door

I still write though - a poem a day so far in April using Robert Brewer's prompts at Poetic Asides. And I still blog daily at Other Food: daily devo's. Writing daily devotions is probably the most challenging and significant writing I've ever done - and I love it! What better subject to write about than the Bible, God, His relationship with us and ours with Him!

That's what's up with me. What about you?

daily devotions in 2010

If one of your New Year's Resolutions in 2010 is to have a daily quiet time, Other Food: daily devo's may be just the place for you.

Starting January 1, 2010, Other Food will feature a new meditation every morning.  Based on Bible readings from the Canadian Bible Society, these devotionals will link a Scripture passage, focus on one idea from the text, lead in a brief prayer, and supplement the idea with inspiration in quotes, songs, links to check out, etc.

I'm really excited about writing these daily meditations - and would love for you to join me January 1st!

the last post

Well, not exactly. But I may not be posting much during November. On the other hand, I may be here more than usual. It's really hard to say right now how writing a novel (yep, I've registered for NaNoWriMo and will try to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days) will affect posting here at the blog. I may be silenced by exhaustion or so stoked after logging my daily quota of words, the excitement is too much to hold in.  (I'll be tracking daily progress on my NaNo profile.)

In other news - I went shopping yesterday. Yep - braved the mall to fill up our two Boxes of Love (shoeboxes of gifts for orphans in Zambia and due at church tomorrow). Of course after avoiding shopping for a while, I had a list of other stuff to buy as well. Spent probably two hours at Wal-Mart. (I'm such a dithering shopper - choose A, find B, put back A, rethink, put back B and look for C...).

But I did have some fun too. Like buying these dolls. Aren't they cute?

My great-niece is coming to Vancouver for her annual checkup at Children's Hospital next week. We're meeting the family for the afternoon one day - so decided auntie needed to bring a present for her and little sis.

And bought these sweet boots at my favorite shoe store (20% off too).

They're called 'Biker.' I'm not a biker, not even a hiker. But despite the racy name, I think we'll get on. We had a date this morning; first impressions are good.  How about the cool side zippers. Tie them up once, zip forever after. Love it!

thankful #2

The evidence is in the archives - how this blog changed after May 2006. It's because in that month my hubby gifted me with the next item on my thankful list:

 my digital camera

I have never enjoyed a birthday gift more!

No gadget limited to vacations this! My camera has become an (almost) constant companion. I truck it along on all my walks, slip it into the back pocket of my purse before I go to church, and always have it handy at family do's.

I think I was meant for the photography life. At least that's what a career analysis told me when, well into adulthood and disillusioned by yet another dead-end career choice,  a high school counselor who was also my cousin gave me one of her tests.  My likes and dislikes were most comparable to those of reporters and photographers i.e. a photo-journalist.

These days my journalism is mostly of the flora and fauna. Like these deer, seen one morning in front of the graffiti under the 206th Street bridge.

(click on any photo to enlarge)

Or these traps, exposed by the dew.

Or these lovely waxy juniper berries that have suddenly appeared all over the hedge just outside our front door.

Mine is not one of your name-drop cameras ("Oh, I use a Canon 5D Mark II"). Maybe someday. But so far, my 5 megapixel Panasonic DMC-TZ1 with 10x optical zoom and optical image stabilization has done me very well. The controls are intuitive and easy to use and the rechargeable battery truly does have an extended life.

My only regret is that I haven't learned to do more with it. So far I've let its little computer brain set the f-stops - venturing only as far as figuring out how to do a couple of things, like activate the timer - here's the camera's self-portrait as proof:

... and take night photos - this 8-second-exposure, malt-hued scene of last year's Christmas lights was taken without a tripod.

But I do have thousands of photos and no cumbersome albums (after '06, that is). I could flee my burning house with the record our family's recent life and my passions in a wallet of megapixel-filled disks tucked under my arm. You gotta love that!

What gadgets are you thankful for?

thankful #1

As so often happens these days, an important holiday has sneaked up on me and -- eek! I don't feel ready. This time it's Thanksgiving. In Canada the official day of thanksgiving is Monday, October 12th.

It's not that I'm not physically ready. I did make my Thanksgiving dinner list and hubby, our family's official grocery shopper, has most of the items tucked away in the pantry or freezer. But I don't feel mentally and spiritually ready. Because it seems to me that Thanksgiving should be more than merely a day on the calendar when we give ourselves permission to bulk up on the fat of the land.

And so, in the last few days I have put my mind on the track of thankfulness and made a list of things for which I'm thankful. In the remainder of October and into November (U.S. Thanksgiving is November 26th so thankfulness will still be thick in the air) I will share some of these items on promptings and so tune my heart and hopefully yours, to give thanks. Thank whom? Well, everyone to whom thanks is due, but most especially, thank God who "richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment."

I'll start today with the first item that came to mind.

I am thankful for the country of which I am a citizen - Canada.

Perhaps I feel so consciously thankful for Canada at the moment because I've just finished reading Kabul 24. This book tells the story of the eight hostages captured in Kabul Afghanistan by the Taliban in 2001 and held hostage for 105 days.

I contrast life in my country with conditions in countries like Afghanistan and can only give thanks for democracy, the freedom to get an education, a cultural climate where women are respected, where civility and helping one's neighbor are the norm, and where peace, safety and tranquility are (mostly) the order of the day. Here, in a climate of religious tolerance, I can worship freely and openly according to my convictions.

To my shame I do my share of muttering and complaining about many things Canadian. But when it comes down to it - I'm supremely thankful to have been born a Canadian and to have lived my whole life as a Canadian citizen.

What about you? What is your number one item of thanks?

in shock

I'm in shock.  This morning I heard that my neighbor of 24 years died last night.  We lived next door to each other from 1983 to 2007, saw each others kids grow up, chatted over the 'garden gate' - though we didn't have a gate, just a hedge - or caught up on each others lives beside the hydro kiosk between our two properties. Each year we remembered each others' birthdays and exchanged Christmas goodies (I bought her birthday present a week ago, for crying out loud).

It was sudden - way too sudden. The dreaded C-word was first uttered in April. What was to be a simple course of radiation, then surgery, then getting on with life turned deadly when breathing complications surfaced at the beginning of August. I saw her last on Monday - and she looked better than she had on Friday. There was talk of her going home midweek. 

Today I cooked soup. E. made a batch of buns. Now I'm planning to bake a some cookies. Then it's off for a sad visit to the old neighborhood.

Listen folks, the Bible isn't kidding when it says our life is short and uncertain - like grass, a mist. So don't waste a minute. Don't put off till tomorrow what you can and should do today.

is summer over?

So, how are you liking September so far? It's early days to be asking, I guess. But here, as if to prove that more has changed than just the page on the calendar, today turned cloudy and I definitely felt a tinge of fall in the air as I walked to and from the library just now. We got a few showers so everything smelled fabulous. Along with the smells of damp earth and rain-soaked yellow grass there is always, when one walks in town at least, the perfumy fragrance sometime on one's walk, of dryer sheets. I know it's not a smell of nature, but I love it!

Now, back from the library, I feel rich. For I have returned with three (count them) novels which are not new and waiting with bated breath to be reviewed and have their names splattered all over the internet, but old (in the case of Marilynne Robinson's Housekeeping - 1980, and Ken Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion - 1964) and new but by an established writer (Execution Dock - 2009 by Anne Perry - the Brit. writer who wrote the foreword to Donald Maass's Writing the Breakout Novel). No one of these writers gives a fig whether I review their books or not I'm sure.

One of my summer pleasures -

watching these Hibiscus flowers open up.

Trouble is, they only last a day or so.

So, until my next shipment of review books comes, I shall be reading for sheer pleasure - while I enjoy the tail end of summer and the first cool breaths of fall.

catching up

Well, I've taken a week off from serious work - most of it intentional, the last 24 hours not so much.

We went away on the weekend, first to Kelowna to visit E.'s dad, then to Kamloops to see the kids.


What a great time with these three. Munchkin is getting so big - a bona fide toddler, only he toddles on his knees. He can walk on his feet around furniture just fine, but when it comes to serious traveling, he prefers his knees, which are actually getting callused.

On the first morning there, after breakfast he made a beeline for his books and was quite happy to cuddle for a few minutes (as long as 14-month-old's attention span lasts) for a story. Then, I followed him upstairs, where we spent about an hour, with him showing me his huge collection of birthday toys (though I had to insist we put away the contents of one drawer before emptying another). Kids these days sure don't lack for stimuli.


Back home on Monday, I prepared for my Enhanced Drivers License appointment on Tuesday and generally got caught up from being away. However, I woke yesterday with the mother of all headaches - the kind which confines me to couch or bed with a bucket close at hand...nasty nasty day. I was forced to cancel my license appointment at ICBC.

It's hard to understand the purpose of such a day, though I did get to watch a potentially life-changing 100 Huntley Street. Moira Brown interviewed Carole Lewis who told of God's dealings with her in the past few years. It was inspirational, especially the challenge God gave her one morning: "Give me your life for a year and see what I will do."

(Ironically, the program is dated April 28th, though it aired May 5th, and I've just spent a good half hour trying to find it because I never caught the woman's name. I found it by googling 'Christian diet books').


Part 1


Part 2

new throne

"In the end, what affects your life most deeply are things too simple to talk about." Nell Blaine

I have new office chair today - a Pure Comfort bought at Staples last night ("Soft bonded leather on all seating surfaces" - yeah, limited luxury for sure, but nice nonetheless.)

I'm not convinced my writing is worth it - but then if you'd seen my old one... It was born well back in the last century, and looked it. The fabric upholstery had worn off the seat, over which I had stretched a homemade slipcover secured with elastic to keep the foam flakes from escaping. (I see where E. hauled it down the stairs last night, a Hansel and Gretel trail of crumbs!) Other upholstery gouges were taped with black book tape that kept turning edges and going sticky. As well, the casters had serious rheumatism. But when we priced out new ones some years ago and found that they would coast $75 for the set - well, scratch that! That's half the price of a new chair!

Anyway, if I'm sounding more long-winded, blame my new Pure Comfort.

a white christmas - not only in our dreams

It's been a while since I've written anything personal on here. Of course life has continued apace. A week ago we were in the middle of our Christmas production. It all worked out beautifully with the weather cooperating, big crowds and no major snowstorm till the concerts were done.

Monday and Tuesday found me at the mall in a rush to get the last of the Christmas shopping done. I finished Tuesday noonish (although there are always odds and ends to pick up till Christmas Eve, it seems). Whew - because the forecasters predicted a large snowfall for Wednesday.

The ducks that live on one of Rotary Park's ponds
- looking a little puzzled and cold.

It came - Wednesday and the snow. But I was cozy in my office, working on bits of writing that needed tidying away so I can take a Christmas break. I have since whittled all those down to one last article, which I'm hoping to send to my editor today or Monday.

My list for today includes paper shuffling, as I enter our profligate holiday spending into Quicken, work on my FellowScript article, and maybe I'll make some more homemade treats like the "Cracker Toffee" Elaine Yong whipped together on the TV news last night. The recipe is here.

(Psst - curling is on too!)

And then it's Sunday (another snowstorm in the forecast) and Monday, when the kids arrive (please let the snow stop by then!)!

One thing is sure. We're in for a white Christmas this year - and that's not only in our dreams.

thanksgiving

"October" by Carl Larsson

This weekend we celebrate Thanksgiving in Canada.

If I were to write my list of things to be thankful for, you would see I am indeed blessed. You might even think I am God's favorite (I am -- but so are you!).

However, especially on days officially set apart to think grateful thoughts I can't help but wonder how I would fare if things were different. How thankful will I be on Wednesday morning if one of the "wrong" parties wins the federal election? How thankful will I be if/when this economic downturn comes to roost in my life? How thankful will I be should our idyllic way of life (E's and mine in our sweet empty nest) be rocked by disaster or disease?

It's not hard for me to be thankful when things are going my way. But will I ever be able to say: "I know how to be abased and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need." After living with myself these many years, I know how far I am from that lofty standard.

This Thanksgiving I resolve to weave thankfulness into more of the fabric of my life. May this be my template: "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6,7

book review: Stop Clutter From Stealing Your Life by Mike Nelson

Title: Stop Clutter From Stealing Your Life -- Discover Why You Clutter and How You Can Stop
Author: Mike Nelson
Publisher: New Page Books; Revised edition (March 1, 2008), Paperback, 256 pages
ISBN-10: 1601630085
ISBN-13: 978-1601630087

Stop Clutter from Stealing Your Life -- Discover Why You Clutter and How You Can Stop (2008 edition) is not just another book about ways to pare down and organize your stuff. Author Mike Nelson states in his introduction,

“This book is about more than just decluttering. It’s about balance … It’s about not having to buy more and more stuff to fill a hole in our souls. It’s about learning what’s really important in our lives and not using stuff to hide from life.”

In the twenty chapters that follow, Nelson delivers on the promised insights. In easy-to-understand prose and a voice that is both helpful and encouraging he tackles topics like what is a clutterer, common traits of clutterers, reasons people clutter, medical and mental aspects of cluttering and hoarding, and many more. He supports his persuasive views with numerous examples and stories, including his own.

Appendices explaining the use of a decluttering diary, a list of affirmations, a bibliography of resources (books, websites, organizations and professionals in the field), and an index follow the main body of the book.

Several things make this a valuable resource for clutterers and those who love them. The book’s central message, that cluttering and hoarding are only manifestations of deeper emotional and spiritual issues is a slant that was new to me. Nelson not only shows how that angle makes sense but supports his thesis with a multitude of stories and case studies gained from therapists and organizers as well as his own experiences first as a clutterer and then a clutter-buster.

Through these anecdotes I began to understand cluttering’s complexity and why it is so difficult to overcome. The multi-pronged approach he advises (self-help groups, getting medical help, tapping in to spiritual resources,* etc.) seems realistic. I also like the courtesy and sensitivity Nelson advises and models when dealing with cluttering family members and friends. Needless to say, he is not in favor of the heavy-handed, TV ratings-imposed tactics used by clutter and hoarding reality shows.

Wherever you fit in to Nelson’s clutterer continuum from mildly disorganized to pathological hoarder, you’ll find something of help and interest in this book. The chapter “Forty Ways to Leave Your Clutter” alone makes it worthwhile. If cluttering is not your problem, get Stop Clutter From Stealing Your Life for its advice on how to deal with cluttering parents, teenage children and business partners. This book will help you understand how clutter is a lot like an iceberg. What you see may indicate that under the surface there’s a lot more to deal with than simple laziness and disorganization.

*************
*Some personal reflection about Stop Clutter

The central message of this book supports the fact that we are spiritual beings with deep-seated hungers. It gives many examples of what happens when we feed those hungers with what can never really satisfy (in the book 'things' but people also use drugs, food, sex, work, gambling etc. etc.)

Nelson suggests that using spiritual beliefs is one way to get over the need for things. His chapter on this was interesting, but pretty weak, in that he equated all religions as equal.

I would go much further and say it's the only thing that will finally work-- if our religious beliefs are grounded in truth. It's only as we recognize that hole inside as a hunger for God and give ourselves to Him (by trusting in Jesus to save us and living our lives for Him) that our gnawing hungers will be satisfied.

This book reminded me of two Bible passages. Both are Jesus speaking -- first about thirst:

"Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." - John 4:13,14

and then about hunger:

"I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst." - John 6:35

a God-wink

Sometimes God reminds me that He knows me very well and is "intimately acquainted with all my ways." Such a reminder came last week.

On Monday morning while doing some jobs in the kitchen, I was listening to the radio. Our local talk show host was interviewing a policeman on how successful they are at getting convictions for drunk drivers. Not very – because of the way lawyers who defend them get them off by using technicalities, plea bargain serious convictions down to lesser ones, and use case law to get sentences that are slight.

Our legal system is a burr in my saddle at the best of times. So I fired off an email - to the show’s host with my own homemade solution to the problem, after which I thought – I wonder if he’ll read it. However, I certainly didn’t have the time to hover around the radio to find out.

The next day, Tuesday, a few minutes before noon, I flicked on the radio again as I began preparing lunch. Not two seconds later the producer (of the same show I’d sent the email to the day before), who was apparently winding up the program by reading listener responses, read my email from the day before.

What are the chances that it would get read on-air and, further, that I be listening at that precise moment to hear it? Yet it happened. The God who knew the thing I desired, brought it to pass, though I hadn’t even expressed it in a formal prayer.

This little incident comforted me. Surely if God sees and acknowledges my so insignificant desire with an answer, I can trust that He also knows my more serious ones and will bring them to pass in His good time.

You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.
You comprehend my path and my lying down
And are (intimately – NASB) acquainted with all my ways.
- Psalm 139:2,3 NKJ

"it's God here..."

Does God still speak? Does He speak to you? How? What does He say?

Acts 16 has an interesting story of a time when the Holy Spirit spoke to Paul and his entourage giving them the unusual command NOT to spread the gospel. We're not told how God communicated this -- through inner promptings, prophetic utterance, external circumstance, an audible voice, or...?

Later when they were in the place God told them to go (through a vision) and there were problems, they did no second-guessing, no questioning about whether they had actually heard right. Instead they faced arrest and jail with their trademark reaction: joy, prayer, praise.

God does still speak today. Last night I listened to an archived It's A New Day TV show where Todd Bentley gave his testimony. You'll be amazed at how God got through to this profane, addicted 17-year-old ex-con biker-boy raised by a single (deaf) mother and alcoholic father on B.C.'s Sunshine Coast. (January 22, program 33042 - linked on this page)

I love the verse: "Your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, 'This is the way, walk in it.' whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left" (Isaiah 30:21). That's how closely I'd like to be tuned to God. That's how clearly I'd like to hear Him.

But it doesn't end there. Hearing demands a response. May my response be like that described by Oswald Chambers (I quote the original Chambers edition):

"Be resolute when God speaks, act in faith immediately on what He says, and never revise your decisions. If you hesitate when God tells you to do a thing, you endanger your standing in grace. Take the initiative, take it yourself, take the step with your will now, make it impossible to go back. Burn your bridges behind you -- "I will write that letter, I will pay that debt." Make the thing inevitable."
- Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest (May 10)

"Get into the habit of saying 'Speak Lord,' and life will become a romance."
- Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest (Jan 31)

did you say 'establish'?

Has it ever happened to you that you keep bumping into the same idea?

One of my new year's resolutions this year is to memorize a new Bible verse every week. Here are two I've been working on so far:

"Roll your works upon the Lord -- commit and trust them wholly to Him; [He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed." Proverbs 16:3 (Amplified)

"Let Your work [the signs of Your power] be revealed to Your servants and Your glorious majesty to their children. And let the beauty and delightfulness and favor of the Lord our God be upon us; confirm and establish the work of our hands, yes, the work of our hands, confirm and establish it." Psalm 90: 16, 17 (Amplified)

Now one of the good things about memorizing Scripture is the way it causes me to focus on words. When I focus on words, I want to know exactly what they mean. So I go to the dictionary and look them up -- even the ones I think I know the meaning of.

A word that appears in both of these verses is 'establish.' Of course I looked it up. Here are some meanings:

1] To make secure, stable or permanent; fix firmly in a particular place or condition.
2] To set up, found or institute on a firm or lasting basis: to establish a government, colony or business.
3] To cause to be securely or permanently settled in a particular place, position, occupation, etc. : to establish oneself in a new home.
4] To introduce (a law, custom, practice, etc.)and gain lasting acceptance for; initiate and cause to last: to establish a precedent.
5] To cause to be widely or unquestioningly recognized and accepted: to establish oneself as a writer.
6] To clear from doubt; demonstrate convincingly, prove: to establish one's innocence.

I believe there is something inside all of us that wants to feel our work and life are important, count for something, have significance. These two verses talk about that longing. We're promised that when we roll our work on God (commit and trust it to Him), he will establish it or make it fixed, secure, stable, permanent, lasting, recognized. In the Psalm 90 verses, God's establishment and confirmation of our work is spoken as a prayer and pronounced as a blessing.

On Saturday my daily Bible reading was Psalm 40. Verse 2 says:

"He also brought me up out of a horrible pit,
Out of the miry clay
And set my feet upon a rock
And established my steps."

Do you see that? Another 'establish'! I'm beginning to wonder if there's a message here. Perhaps God is telling me personally to keep alert and watchful for ways that He wants to / will do some establishing in my life in 2008. (Of course I'll need to keep up my end of the bargain and entrust that work to Him in the first place.)

How about you? Have you been stubbing your toe on the same idea over and over. Perhaps God is trying to get your attention about something He has for you in 2008.

Happy New Year!

Today I came across another poem featuring the hourglass. In "Testament" Hayden Carruth says

"Yet not only our lives drift down. The stuff
of ego with which we began, the mass
in the upper chamber, filters away
as love accumulates below..."

Read entire

Happy New Year to all who read here. May the hours, days, weeks and months flow smoothly from your future to your past, accumulating a big beautiful pile of love.

**************
(Psst - today Bible Drive-Thru - my devotional for kids -ages 8-12- goes live.)

'The Golden Compass' - an anti-God flick?

Thought Harry Potter was blasphemous? That was kids' stuff compared to the "His Dark Materials" trilogy, in which God is an imposter, angels are sexually ambiguous and the Church kidnaps, tortures and assassiinates to achieve its goals, one of which is stealing children's souls...

So begins the article on www.mtv.com "'Golden Compass' Film Angering Christian Groups -- Even with its Religious Themes Watered Down."

Apparently there is an email going around, warning unsuspecting parents of this upcoming release. A friend emailed me the Snopes response to that circulating email. This time the claim that the film "The Golden Compass" (starring Nicole Kidman, to be released December 7/07) contains anti-religious themes has a 'true' status.

The film company has apparently watered down the anti-religious tone - at least in this first movie of the planned three-part epic which are based on books by outspoken atheist and secular humanist Phillip Pullman. Despite that, The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights insists that the film is a vehicle for "selling atheism to kids." Focus on the Family's Adam Holz fears the movie will '"plant seeds" to "ultimately encourage some fans to reject God" (mtv article above).

The email expressed the fear that the film would encourage kids to read not only The Golden Compass but sequels The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. The claim is that Pullman becomes more outspoken in his hatred for God with each book.

I guess after the popularity of those anti-God books by Sam Harris et al, we shouldn't be surprised that this movement is gaining momentum and getting ever bolder. Plus they see where their future lies -- in indoctrinating kids.

I haven't read the "His Dark Materials" books. But I have taken a look at the trailer on "The Golden Compass" website. I also checked out some of the tabs on the site. It gets fans interacting with Pullman's imaginative and in-your-face-occultic universe.

Take the Alethiometer (the Alethiometer is the golden compass of the book). The instructions say: "Drag the three red needles to lie over appropriate symbols on the face of the Alethiometer while forming a question in your mind. Click the '?' button and the fourth needle will then respond,swinging over different symbols to form an answer..." Smacks a bit of Oija, doesn't it?

Then there's the Daemons tab (pronounced dē'-mon). The introduction to this section begins: "In Lyra's world, a person's soul lives on the outside of their body, in the form of a daemon -- an animal spirit that accompanies them through life." Clicking on "Discover your own Daemon" leads to twenty questions and the discovery your own daemon (? - I guess so; I didn't do it).

Dark. It sends shivers up my spine!

Other links:

movie synopsis (may contain spoilers)

Wikipedia on His Dark Materials - the Golden Compass

mtv.com article: 'His Dark Materials' Writer Philip Pullman Takes 'Narnia,' 'Lord of the Rings' To Task.

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Added Wednesday - 11/07/07

Mr. Pullman's website

His views on organized religion:

The trouble is that all too often in human history, churches and priesthoods have set themselves up to rule people's lives in the name of some invisible god (and they're all invisible, because they don't exist) – and done terrible damage. In the name of their god, they have burned, hanged, tortured, maimed, robbed, violated, and enslaved millions of their fellow-creatures, and done so with the happy conviction that they were doing the will of God, and they would go to Heaven for it.

That is the religion I hate, and I'm happy to be known as its enemy.

Quoted from his page on religion.

communion thoughts

Yesterday I went through the house with a clipboard, making an inventory of all the things I still need to do before we're ready for our move on Friday. It's a long list. This will be a busy week in the packing department.

So in the interests of getting lots of that done done this week, I've decided to warm up some old posts instead of writing new ones. I'll be reposting my five most popular, according to sitemeter stats. Today it's number 5 - a poem "Communion" which I first posted when my blog was about one month old in November 2004. (It seems 'communion thoughts' is a popular Google search every Saturday night. Thus I get a hit or two or three every weekend.)

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COMMUNION

"Communion Service,
next Sunday morning at 10:00,"
church bulletin said.
I imagined sitting there,
wafer and tiny goblet of juice in hand
trying hard not to think
of what I'll make for lunch.
It wasn't even a prayer, just a thought
I wish it had more meaning for me again.

Early Communion Sunday morning
the book opened to the spot
kept by the crocheted cross
"The Bread that I present to the world
so that it can eat and live
is myself,
this flesh-and-blood self."

(Ew gross!
It offended the Jews then,
'How can this man
serve up his flesh for a meal?'

People still say,'Your religion
is too bloody.')

"But Jesus didn't give an inch.
'Only insofar as you eat and drink
the flesh and blood of the Son of Man
do you have life within you.
By eating my flesh
and drinking my blood,
you enter into me
and I into you.
... bring a hearty appetite.
... make a meal of me."*

Oh God of heaven, Jesus, Lord
On personal invitation
I'll chew the bread, imbibe the wine
Your presence my distraction.

I cannot with my literal mind
Pretend to understand
What happens when I eat and drink
Inscrutable, heavenly plan,

It’s mystery
And intimacy,
Communion
God with man.

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*Peterson, Eugene H. The Message, the New Testament In Contemporary Language. Colorado Springs CO., Navpress, 1993, John 6 – pp. 234,235.