catching up

So, in a shell of nut, the posts that follow are some of the things I've been thinking about recently but haven't had time to write about. These aren't the only things; I have a whole list of items to check off; a plethora of topics, if you will (or even if you won't); but these will do nicely for starting my catching-up. So here ya go. ;o)

Will try to answer comments soon.

joggers are happy people

This is the conclusion I have come to over the last month. Recently, I took up running. Sort of. I do a fast walk from our house to the park, which takes about 8 minutes. Then, I run around the pond and back home the long way around, which takes about 15 minutes. I haven't done this during the last twelve days, simply because our schedule was so full while the campaign was underway. But for about 3 weeks, I was in a really good rhythm of running at least 5 days a week. I plan to get back into it over the next few days (provided I don't get another sinus infection, which currently seems to be coming on) and start working my body up to running longer.

'Cause yeah, I know that 15 minutes of running doesn't sound like a lot. But for a former heart patient who has never EVER been a runner in any shape or form, 15 minutes is a major breakthrough.

Anyway, about the happy joggers. I have noticed, on my morning runs, that the 'other' athletic people (I put 'other' in quotation marks because, while these people are actually what one might call 'athletic,' I am not.) always make eye contact with me as we pass each other. And not only do they make eye contact, they actually smile.

Why is this significant? Well, it's significant because these are Germans. At least, I assume that they're Germans and that it's not only we foreigners who get out early in the morning and go do something exercisey. ;o) But one thing about German culture: In general in Germany, strangers who meet each other on the street rarely make eye contact with each other, and even more rarely do they smile. This is not a right or wrong thing, and it doesn't mean that they're unfriendly. It doesn't even mean that they're unhappy, which the flippant title of this post seems to imply. Eye contact and smiling simply aren't ways that Germans connect with strangers on the street. Which is why I was surprised to find it happening with my 'fellow' intrepid exercisers on my morning runs.

And there are several that I see on a regular basis. And we even say "guten Morgen" to each other. I cannot describe how this just makes my day.

I figure that maybe worldwide, people who exercise are just happy. It's probably adrenaline, endorphins, and sweat. Who'dathunk? I never knew that working out could feel so good. Outside and in. :o)

Jesus doesn't have a blog...

...or a Myspace page. Or a Facebook page. Or anything online of that sort.

Recently, I've been seeing blogs and homepages and whatnot that purport to be written by Jesus. As in, the administrators of the blog or page write their entries in first person singular (that is, from an "I" perspective), as though Jesus were the author of the words that appear in the text.

A lot of people are going to call me an old-fashioned stick-in-the-mud, but I don't care: I have a problem with this.

If it were only a matter of scripture quotations, that would be one thing. Actually, I think that would be a great idea, provided the scriptures were being quoted in the context in which they originally appeared in the Biblical canon. However, the websites to which I'm referring all contain explanations of scripture (read: interpretations) that are penned by an "I"-narrator, as though the interpretations were the direct word of God.

In my opinion, the people who are writing these interpretations are going against what God has always required of us humans: that we not speak as though we know the mind of God; that we not claim to speak for him; that we don't add to the words he has given us in scripture. I think that the authors of these blogs and sites are in direct violation of those commands.

Some will claim that in the paragraph above, I am "speaking for God" in the same way as the website authors I'm talking about. Well, my answer to that is that I say quite openly that these thoughts are *my understanding of scripture*; I am not claiming that these are the words of Christ himself.

The scripture that comes to mind most readily is Proverbs 30:5-6: "Every word of God proves true; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar" (English Standard Version).

The Good News Bible also has an apt translation of verse 6: "If you claim that he said something that he never said, he will reprimand you and call you a liar."

I understand that most of the authors of these blogs and sites have good intentions. I recognize that they are only trying to spread God's word and increase people's understanding of Jesus's teachings. But the ends do not justify the means. In the very least, I think the authors are putting themselves in a spiritually dangerous position. For them to respond to readers' comments with "Yes, I am Jesus" and "I am the Son of God" is akin, I think, to walking a tightrope with no net and no tightrope.

I fully support sites that quote directly from scripture; but the authors who write as though they were Jesus himself...these are another matter entirely. The words 'presumptuous' and 'disrespectful' come to mind. I'm not angry at these people; yes, I am slightly offended on a spiritual level, but mostly I am afraid of what the consequences for them might be.

my parents are leaving europe

So, the Big Move is finally taking place. Last week, the military sent movers to my parents' house in Mörfelden. They arrived on Monday, packed for two days, and took the containers away on Wednesday. Mama and Daddy stayed in the house a few more days; then, the owner told them that he would like them to leave *now* in exchange for not having to clean and paint the entire house over the course of the next week. So, though this initially caused them quite a bit of extra stress, they went earlier than planned to the home of a friend in the Wiesbaden church. They will stay there until this coming Monday, when they plan to travel to Chemnitz and live with us for the next month, minus a 10-day trip to Greece.

I have to say, I don't think the magnitude of it all has hit me yet. Since I didn't see the move take place, my brain is still telling me that the Mörfelden house is still as full of their possessions as it has been for the last ten years. I feel like I usually do at this time of year: My parents will go to Oklahoma for the summer and then come back to Germany to start the new school year / opera season. I feel this, even as I know it's not true. Possibly, my feelings won't catch up to my knowledge until fall rolls around and my parents are *still* in Oklahoma, without return tickets.

Hence, I haven't really started to be sad yet about their move. A little, but the rest of the mourners are still waiting in the wings, I suspect.

Mama and Daddy have lived in Germany for 27 1/2 years. Originally, they only intended to stay for five! Recently, as I hadn't heard this story yet, I asked Mama how they made the decision to stay past the 5-year mark. She told told me the following, to me highly amusing, anecdote:

When we had lived in Germany about 3 years (so this was sometime in 1983), the three of us were at the Woog, a small lake in Darmstadt. Mama and Daddy were watching me play, when Daddy suddenly turned to Mama and asked, "If we were to leave Germany now, what would you miss the most?"

Mama thought for a minute and then answered, "The Autobahn."

Daddy nodded and said, "I'd miss that, too."

And until retirement came around, that's the last time they ever talked about moving. ;oD

On a more serious note, I'm concerned about how they'll adjust once they're back in Oklahoma past the "vacation-period" time span. Twenty-seven years is a long time. Germany is their home. They are not "coming home" to Oklahoma; they are moving to a foreign country. (The same applies to Ed and me regarding our move in November, but that's another post and shall be blogged another time.) Mama used the right word when she described leaving Germany and leaving their jobs as "bittersweet." I imagine that their arrival in and adjustment to Oklahoma will be much the same.

signs of life

Yo. I thought I'd give a quick run-down of the goings-on around here.

Last week, finished up our yearly 6-week Let’s Start Talking campaign.
Had a great team this year: Bekah, Erin, and Greta, who are/were students at Pepperdine.
Lemme tell ya, they rock the LST world.
They really swing the LST verge, if you will.
Or even if you won’t.
;o)
I won’t say too much here about the positive, encouraging effect the three of them had on me while they were here.
They already know. :o)
But they were part of helping me through a rough spot a few weeks ago.
God showed himself to me through them, right at a time when I needed it.

During the last five days, toured Chemnitz schools and marketplace with singing campaign from Oklahoma Christian.
This is the campaign that led Ed and me to Chemnitz.
And April and Clint.
And Karen.
And Stoltes and Carrolls and Martins to Dresden.
And a plethora of other people to other places in Europe.
And a whole kit ‘n’ caboodle of other people on short-term missions worldwide.
All thanks to two amazing people, Clyde and Gwen Antwine, just serving God where and when and as they can.
I can’t describe how much these two people mean to me.

Anyway, Clyde and Gwen (aka Dad and Mom/Queenie) are in Dresden for a few weeks, and they came to hear the campaign group (with us Chemnitzers) sing last night.
155 in the audience.
80 guests.
Clyde and Gwen led a standing ovation and made me cry.
We had two encores.
It was great.
People told us that they could see our love for God in our faces when we sang.
He definitely had the hearts and voices of our whole group in his hand.

Trying to keep up with the campaigners has shown me I am no longer 20.
This is a rather disturbing realization.
But I wasn’t too bright when I was 20.
So I still think 30 is pretty cool.

I’d like to write more, because a lot has been going on in my head/heart, but I don’t have time.
This is a weird blopgost.
But it was fun to write.
Gret’s “staccato” email inspired it.
I’m looking forward to some downtime this coming week.
But I’m also enjoying all the hullabaloo of late.
:o)

ten ways to destroy earth

You will need: a big heavy rock, something with a bit of a swing to it... perhaps Mars.

This is number three on the list of Ten Ways To Destroy Earth, which I found here. Though my personal favorite was actually the giant black hole of method #5, I thought the description of #3 was catchy.

Go check it out. It's kinda fun. ;o)

just for today

Father God, just for today
Help me walk Your narrow way.
Help me stand when I might fall.
Give me strength to hear your call.

Here I am just for today.
Live in me, have Your way,
For my desire when this race is run
Is only to hear You say, "Well done!"

May my steps be worship.
May my thoughts be praise.
May my words bring honor to your name.
May my steps be worship.
May my thoughts be praise.
May my words bring honor to your name

--by Marc Schelske

a moment in the life of a germerican ;o)

I got this list from Allison's blog. I've seen it in various forms through email forwards over the years, but this one seems to be a little more up-to-date. Nearly every single one of these (please forgive the redundancy, but I'm trying to emphasize something here) applies to me. Read this, and you'll get a glimpse into my life. ;o)

You Know You've Lived In Germany Awhile If...

1. You refer to other Americans as "they" or "Amis".

2. You REALLY think AFN (Armed Forces Network Radio) is quality entertainment.

3. You realize that Ausfahrt isn't the biggest city in Germany.

4. You forgot how to use round doorknobs.

5. 100 MPH seems like you're really driving slow.

6. You start converting prices from euros to dollars in your head (Yeah, but that cup of coffee is FIVE U.S. DOLLARS!!)

7. Even at home you don't put ice in your drinks.

8. You never leave home without your keys, ID card, license, and passport.

9. You answer the phone "Hallo" instead of Hello.

10. You need a power drill and sledgehammer to hang a picture on the wall. (Or, if you're in the former East, you can't hang any pictures on the walls because the walls crumble at the slightest touch.)

11. You're used to the fact that there's a crane outside your house.

12. Sunshine actually becomes a topic of conversation.

13. You play "guess what town" the driver in front of you is from (HD, MA, KL, PS), based on their license plate.

14. You are incredibly careful about being loud during the "quiet hours" of 7 p.m. – 10 a.m. and 12 – 3 p.m.

15. You don't drive anywhere that you can take a bus/tram/train to.

16. You get excited about the great deal of paying under $4.50 a gallon for gas.

17. When visiting the States, you think that if you want to buy something that costs $0.99, it'll actually cost that exact amount.

18. For you, pay toilets mean there's another woman standing outside the "public restroom" with a change dish, glaring and demanding her 50 cents.

19. You know David Hasselhoff was a singer, and you think "I've been looking for freedom" is quality music.

20. You can wear black socks and nothing else that's black… and it's okay.

21. The only contact you have with other Americans is through Myspace.

22. Nature becomes its own entity for you (I went out into "the nature").

23. Martin Luther King Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day and Presidents Day fade in favor of Tag der Deutschen Einheit, Nikolaus, Erster Mai Tag and Heiligen Drei Königen.

24. You start writing the number 1,000.25 as 1.000,25 and your ones look like sevens and your sevens are a molestation of a 7 and a T.

25. Finger food ceases to exist. There's a utensil for EVERYTHING.

26. You know the lyrics to American Oldies in German – i.e. the Beatles' "Komm gib mir deine Hand".

27. You start to refer to hip hop, rap and R&B as "black music".

28. You've gone back to calling clubs discos.

29. When you think of fast food, Döner comes to your mind quicker than a burger.

30. The sauna doesn't scare you anymore.

31. You start introducing yourself with a German accent to your name.

32. You refer to your friends with the word "the" in front of their name. As in "the Valerie" and "the Leah".

33. You catch yourself putting verbs at the end of sentences in English.

34. You watch German T.V. and GET the jokes.

35. When people come to visit you, and you start telling them historical facts about the things you drive by.

36. Meeting people from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East is a normal daily occurrence.

37. You crave cake and coffee at 4:00 pm.

38. You start saying things like "I'll meet you at sixteen o'clock".

39. Bread, cheese and cold cuts constitute dinner.

40. You can name more German politicians than German actors/actresses.

41. When purchasing presents, you prioritize them as useful over being enjoyed.

42. You heat each room in your house separately.

43. When you talk about a two room apartment, the living room counts as one of those rooms.

44. Everything you eat needs to have nutritional value and you justify fatty things with "it's healthy".

45. Driving half an hour to go somewhere is a hassle.

46. $1,000 a year tuition seems like a lot of money.

47. You think soccer is the best sport ever invented.

48. Aldi satisfies all of your shopping needs.

49. All of your shoes are sensible.

50. You call your cell/mobile a "handy".

guess i'm not in a peaceful mood today.... lol

Your Score: Klingon

You scored 53% Aggressiveness, 40% Technology, and 46% Social Enlightenment!

Homeworld: Q'onoS

The Klingons are an extremely aggressive, patriarchal species. Klingons have a well-developed sense of honour and value this, as well as bravery and power, very highly. Klingon technological development is exclusively focused on military weapons, which means that although their weapons are powerful, their ships can be a little... well, they would be called 'fixer-uppers'. Klingons view all other species with suspicion and are quick to start a fight. As a Klingon, you are also very aggressive and probably find yourself in a lot of fights. You're a lusty sort of person, the type who values good friends, good wine and a good woman (or man). You would fight to the death if needs be and are a good person to have if the going gets tough. You also thrive on challenges and find it hard to forgive.

Link: The Which Star Trek Species R U Test

Oh well.....I'd rather be a Klingon than a Borg or a Ferengi! ;o)

i'm so glad...

...that anonymous people are here to tell me these things. ;o)

In my Elfwood gallery, I have posted a pic of my painting entitled "Evil in Triplicate". It is my depiction of the three witches from Shakespeare's "Macbeth." Y'know...an illustration of literature and all that.

In the past, I've had a concern over offending fellow Christians by portraying something this "dark." Well, the comment I received on this picture a couple of days ago just goes to show that you truly never can make everybody happy all the time. (Not that I worry about making everybody happy. I learned a long time ago not to attempt something so silly. ;o)

Anyway, here's the comment:

You know...The witches in Macbeth weren't evil. As a pagan i find it a little bit rude how you correlate evil and witches. Your art may be beautiful but your soul still needs a bit of work i think.

Aux

And I posted this reply:

According to what I believe and according to the faith I follow, *all* of our souls still need work. That includes mine. I am a sinner, and there are still places in my heart in which I allow evil to make a home. My soul still needs a lot of work, and I will never try to deny it. But someone gave me a gift: a life in which, over time, a power greater than I is working to transform me into something better than what I am now. All I can do is try to keep my heart open to that power.

As far as the literary analysis of "Macbeth" is concerned...I stand by my opinion that Shakespeare was portraying the witches as evil. They had ample opportunity to guide Macbeth in a non-murderous direction, but they did not do so. And as the bloodshed increased and the bodies piled up, Shakespeare's witches looked on and enjoyed the mayhem. In my opinion, that is evil.

As for the question of whether or not real witchcraft is evil...your religion and mine are at odds on the subject. I'm not going to get into an online debate about it.

Respectfully,
Courtney

There ya go. I just offend all sorts of people all over the place. Guess I just can't help myself. *grin*

another excerpt from courtney's journal

Caveat Emptor:

The following is an excerpt from my private journal. Some, reading what I've written, will interpret me as being arrogant, self-important, self-righteous. Please know that I don't intend these thoughts to come across this way. These thoughts are the result of my ruminations about my own life as I look back at times in which I followed the will of God and at times in which I didn't. Some of *those* thoughts are too private to share. So what you see here is the conclusion of those thoughts: an account of a part of my life in which I can see God's will at work; an account relating to several friends in whose lives I can see God's will at work. None of this means that we are better than anyone else; none of this means that any of us always follow God's will. It just means that this is a brief excerpt from my journal and a brief excerpt from my life. I'll write about my many failures another time. :o)

Excerpt from my journal:

A few years ago, April was looking at her brother Jonathan’s wedding pictures. In those pictures, she saw faces she recognized, and she was amazed at what the intervening years had brought. She told me about this, and I, too, felt amazed at the detail in God’s planning:

* In the pictures, April recognized Ed and me, whom she didn’t know then.
* She recognized Clint, whom she didn’t know then.
* At that wedding, April didn’t know that her future husband was present.
* Ed and I already knew Clint, but we didn't know that he was one of our future missions co-workers.
* We didn't know that the highschooler (April) who sang at the wedding was one of our future co-workers.
* Clint and April didn’t know that they would end up working as missionaries in Chemnitz.
* And yet, we were all there in the same place.

We didn’t know, we didn’t know, we didn’t know. God knew it all, and even then, he was working on our hearts and on the hearts of other people all over the world to bring us all to the place, spiritually and physically, where he knew we needed to be.

We didn’t know, we didn’t know, we didn’t know. What don’t we know now? Someday, we will look back on today and marvel at the things God is doing even now to fulfill his plans for us for the future. The things we will look back on, God already knew before he spoke the first word that brought the world into existence.

And now I move on to a greater scale beyond the four of us: If you, today, are obeying the will of God, if you are following the path that he has laid out for you, if your heart is turned toward him and you are trusting him to lead you…then you are doing things and living a life the details of which God had in mind before Creation. If you are living out the will of God, then you are living exactly what God set into motion when he spoke the world into existence. He set things into motion, and if you are living a life that pleases him, then what you are, who you are, is a direct result of the will that was God’s even before he said, “Let there be light.”

Human language is inadequate for describing the immense significance of what and who you are, the intricate and millennia-spanning connection between You and the very beginnings of Creation, if you are living a life that is pleasing to God. What you are living didn't start with you...it started before Creation, if you are living out God's will.

This is a grand, awe-inspiring, immeasurable concept…and one that is very humbling.

all comments answered

Whew! I finally worked my way through and answered all the comments I've received over the last few months. For those who've expected responses and have wondered at my tardiness, I'm sorry it has taken me so long. I'm slow...but I get there eventually. ;o) Thanks for reading, and a special thank-you to those of you who comment! You make my day every time I find a new comment from you in my inbox. I admit it, I'm a sucker for communication. ;o)

As always, if I've missed answering a comment, and you notice my oversight, please notify me posthaste.

Later dudes,

C.

lotsa update-type-stuff

Did you know that on a 4-year-old laptop, it takes more than three hours to zip-compress 5.1 GB of digital pictures? I didn't know that until I started the process more than three hours ago. I store every current year's digital pics on my external hard drive. At the end of every year, I move the pics from the hard drive to a DVD, thereby freeing up hard drive space. This year, I'm a bit behind. I only just got around to working with year 2006 pics this morning. And now the eternal wait for compression. I can't believe that in one year, I took more digital pictures than can fit onto a 4.7 GB DVD-R. Good grief.

By the way, the laptop's name is Frodo. The external hard drive's name is Andromeda.

I really don't have much of a purpose in writing this current blogpost (or "blopgost" as I like to call them), except for the fact that I know I haven't blogged anything in a few weeks, and I'm waiting waiting waiting for Andromeda to do her thing.

Here's something funny: My mom brought me a box of old letters that I had saved. In it was a card from Susan Morris, who worked with the Chemnitz church with the Sullivans in the mid '90s. This was before I'd ever even heard of Chemnitz, and I certainly had no clue who the Sullivans were. Susan came to visit the church in Frankfurt in late 1994 or early 1995, when I was 17 years old. I met her briefly, and I vaguely remember speaking with her. Now, twelve years later, I re-read a card she sent to my mom. I never even suspected that one day, I would be living and working where she lived and worked. When I first saw the card again, I was amused by it but decided to toss it with the rest of the old letters. But now I've changed my mind. I'm going to stick it in my journal and keep it as a reminder of how God's plans are so much different from and so much more fulfilling than my own. It's funny and fascinating how he works out my life.

Pippin is lying next me, asleep, curled up into a ball, and snoring.

I am currently possessed of a grand sense of accomplishment. For four years, I have been working on a series of Bible lessons on some of the basics of Christian life and faith. (These are lessons that my friend James asked me to write once-upon-a-time. So even though I doubt I'll ever have the opportunity to study them with him, I at least have him to thank for putting the idea into my head.) The lessons themselves, barring revisions, have been finished for a long time. But for over a year now (or two years? can't remember), I've been working on a Teacher's Guide for these lessons. Yesterday, in a thrilling flurry of hunt-and-peck typing, I finally finished the Teacher's Guide! The lessons themselves cover more than 100 pages, and the Teacher's Guide is 178 pages long. I still want to write intros to the Lessons and to the Guide, but other than that and minor revisions, I am done!!! YAY!!!!!! Several people have shown interest in using the lessons as material for their own one-on-one Bible studies, so I'm glad that something I've written can be of service to someone. If even one person can make use of the lessons, then all my time and effort was well worth it. :o)

In other news, I know I'm severely behind in answering comments. I'll get to that as soon as I reasonably can. Dear Commenting Readers, I haven't forgotten you!

And just FYI, in the time it has taken me to write this post, the zip-compression still hasn't finished. The wait continues...

in the news...

As many of you already know (and if you don't, I'm about to tell you), Ed and I own a television that receives no signals. That's right. We receive no TV programs whatsoever. We use our TV for watching DVDs and for catching up on exactly four shows: Lost, 24, American Idol, and Amazing Race (Ed watches this one). Other than that, we watch no TV.

We have lived like this for more than five years.

I love it.

I could go into a long spiel about why I love not having television. My main reasons include not letting brain-rotting, manipulative commercials, veiled (or not-so-veiled) pornography, and other immoral influences into my livingroom. (I mean, really: If these sit-com and drama situations were playing out live in your house, would you *really* just sit there and not throw these people out? I didn't think so.)

Besides, without the TV on all the time, our apartment is often blessedly quiet. Nobody comes in, flops down on the couch, and flips on the TV. I can hear myself think. It's so wonderful.

However, these aspects of our hardly-any-TV life aren't what I want to rant about this evening. ;o) No, the target I'm aiming for is actually the news.

Obviously, since we don't have TV, I don't watch the news. We don't get the newspaper, either. My only source for news are the headlines on the Yahoo! homepage.

Sometimes I click on these headlines, but mostly I don't. Nothing surprises me anymore. Not because I'm jaded, but because this is a fallen, sinful world, and evil, disturbed people are going to do evil, disturbed things. I don't need to know any of the details, because when you boil them down to their essentials, they all come back to the same thing: sin. There's only one way to combat sin, and that's with the Word of God. No branch of government in the world is going to be able to cure the evil of sin. Ever. So no news media can tell me anything about it that God's Word can't already tell me.

Anyway.... A few minutes ago, I glanced at Yahoo!'s news section and just had to shake my head at the things the news media thinks I should care about. Here are a few of my favorites:

How much are the Yankees (baseball team) worth?
Why should I care? I can't conceive of any situation in which this information could possibly make a difference in my life.

Which video game console is winning?
People are dying, and souls are being lost every second. Does the competition between video game consoles matter?

What's life really like after winning the lottery?
I don't think I should even comment on this one.

Then there's this: Woodstock for Capitalists.
I don't know what that means, but the headline was emblazoned across a picture of a man with purple hair. Not that I have anything against purple-haired men per se....but "Woodstock" and "capitalism" don't have particularly positive or interesting connotations for me.

Calif. station sued for Imus reruns
So what? By now, I'm thinking that I should be blogging something about all of these headlines, and I have no desire to click the link and read about yet another case of a celebrity earning somebody else's disapproval.

Alec Baldwin explains himself on the Web
Yeah, the guy's a jerk for calling his 11-year-old daughter a "thoughtless pig." I won't disagree with anyone on that. But where are the articles about all the other billions of children in the world who are physically and mentally abused by their parents? The media spotlight falls on Baldwin because he's famous, while billions of children remain ignored because their parents don't happen to be celebrities. The media's hypocrisy is staggering.

And finally,
Schwarzenegger lets MTV 'pimp' his ride
I don't care how much a part of pop culture it is, to me the word 'pimp' will always be a vulgar word defining someone who makes deals for prostitutes. But that thought aside...why should I care *what* Arnold lets MTV do to his car? Good grief, people, it's a CAR, he's a MAN, and MTV is...well, I won't say it here. ;o)

I guess that for me, what it all boils down to is this: The news media and pop culture present these things as though they are significant. They're not. They are grass that grows for a day and then withers and is blown away. They are chaff that is flung to the wind and scatters. They sparkle in the morning sun but are dull and dead by evening.

"...[W]e look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient [pass away], but the things that are unseen are eternal."
--2. Corinthians 4:18

yay! i'm a pirate! avast, ye swabs and landlubbers!

If You Were Born in 2893...

Your Name Would Be: Umoro Cho And You Would Be: A Space Pirate

If You Were Born in 2893

Yo, ho, ho, and a bottle of-- Wait a minute. ;oD

reviewing the day

If you ever read my blog continuously, Gentle Reader, you already know that it is mainly a repository for whatever random thoughts are coursing through my head at a given blogging moment. I tend not to write anything about what I do on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Tonight, however, just for fun, I thought I'd make an exception and blog about my day. ;o)

This morning, Ed and I took our bikes and rode the train 20 minutes to Steffen's house. Steffen is one of the leaders in the Chemnitz church, and he is teaching Ed and me New Testament Greek. We're getting into the section of lessons in which we start learning the exceptions to all the rules we've covered so far. This is fun, yet extremely hard. It makes me want to decline to decline nouns, you might say. ;o) However, I'm still having a good time with it. I love languages!

After Greek, we rode our bikes downtown and had lunch at Kervansaray. Huge crowd, so Joe was busy and we didn't get to chat with him. (We have invited him and his wife over for dinner, by the way. But he has to work every night except Sunday, and that's family night for them. So we're in a quandary on that one. I'll keep you posted.)

This is getting longer than I wanted it to be, so here's the rest of the day in brief:

After lunch, Ed went to Leipzig with Larry. I ran some errands; rode my bike 35 minutes to get home; had a half hour of downtime; rode the train *back* downtown to meet Vanessa so we could go to the Max Klinger art exhibit (incredible! I am so inspired to sit down and draw and paint and do neat creative stuff!); rode the Straßenbahn (tram) and bus back home; spent five minutes changing clothes; then went across the street to the physical therapy place for one hour of pilates, followed by one hour of yoga. Came home totally wiped out (arriving home at the same time as Ed) and made the very unhealthy move of eating supper at 9:30pm while watching "Lost".

And Wednesdays are supposed to be my day off. Ha! ;o)

Might sound crazy, but I feel good. Now I'm going to go use my Nasendusche ("nose shower"; aka flushing my sinuses with salt water) and go to bed. Gute Nacht!

book comments 2 (plus a few odds 'n' ends)

I just have a few minutes, as I promised myself I would sit down and do my Greek homework this afternoon. Have I mentioned that Ed and I are taking a class in New Testamnt Greek? I am having oodles of fun with it! I enjoy languages so much…

Anyway, I wanted to do my second and third “book review” really fast. This time, I’ve just finished reading:

The Four Loves
and
The Screwtape Letters
by C.S. Lewis

I won’t say much about these two books, mainly because any comments I might make would be woefully inadequate for describing either the works themselves or the reactions of my heart to them. The main thought I want to share is my opinion that anyone who is curious to read something indepth about the human condition or about Christianity should read these two books.

And I also think that specifically every Christian should read them. Lewis is just an extraordinary thinker. Those of you who know me know that I’m not one to go ga-ga over any kind of celebrity, either in mainstream culture or in the “religious world”…but I wish I could’ve had just one conversation with Lewis. He was possessed of a depth of wisdom and spiritual understanding that is very, very rare today. I’m thankful that we have the benefit of his written works.

A “caveat emptor,” however: These two books do not make for light reading. Approach them with respect, with concentration, and with the intention to suck the marrow out of them. I often had to back up and re-read almost an entire page, simply to understand what it was I had actually read. Sometimes, especially while reading The Four Loves, I wished for a handbook like “C.S. Lewis for Dummies” or something like that. Still, I recommend these books to anyone and everyone. They are a wonderful and rewarding challenge.

On The Four Loves: Among many other things, Lewis examines the true meaning of loving friendship. Through his explanations, I understood a bit more about what God means in the principles He gives us through scripture. I had something of an epiphany, recognizing that my heart hasn’t been in the right place regarding several friendships. I felt humbled to see how very much I still need to grow in this area.

On The Screwtape Letters: This is a series of letters written by a “head demon” to one of his underlings, who is also his “nephew.” The nephew has just gotten his first assignment to try tempting an unsuspecting human into sin and damnation. The head demon is writing advice on just how to tempt the human most effectively. It was a fairly uncomfortable experience, reading about us humans’ daily trials from what is basically Satan’s perspective. Actually, since I often saw myself in the unsuspecting human, reading this book was kind of scary. It was also unnerving to see that even 60 years ago, Lewis was identifying trends in society that eventually led to the increase in immorality that we see in Western society today. This, too, was a humbling and sobering reading experience.

In other news, today it is almost 60 degrees Fahrenheit in Chemnitz. However, the brick walls of our apartment have not yet warmed up, which means that the apartment is cold. I’m sitting here with the heaters on and my feet resting on a hot water bottle. Go figure. ;o)

April is National Poetry Month!

...Hence, I am posting a few of my favorite poems:

Jabberwocky

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

--Lewis Carroll



What Is Success?

What is success?
To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics
and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty;
To find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by
a healthy child, a garden patch
or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed
easier because you have lived;
This is to have succeeded.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson



What though the tempest round me roars?
I know the Truth; it liveth;
What though the darkness round me blows?
Songs in the night it giveth.
No storm can shake that inmost calm
While to that Rock I'm clinging.
Since Love is Lord of heaven and earth,
How can I keep from singing?

--Quaker hymn

a hard truth

"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God.

"We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken successes, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!"

--from Abraham Lincoln’s Proclamation of 1863

all i can do is roll my eyes, sigh, and go on

If you will recall, Gentle Readers, back in February I posted this about my frustrations concerning Elfwood. At the time, I was irritated that the moderators rejected my painting of a castle on the grounds that it "wasn't in the fantasy genre." And, if you will recall, I mentioned having found--on Elfwood!--a pic of a sculpture of a rather normal-looking brain, which was accepted as fantasy because the artist claimed it was an orc brain.

Finally, may I note once again my prediction that if I re-submitted my castle pic and described it as a repository for orc brains harvested by Our Hero, then the moderators would accept my "out-of-genre" picture as fantasy....

Well, guess what. Hidey-ho, neighborinos, I did as I promised, and they did exactly as I predicted. The "offending" picture is now available here for your bemused viewing pleasure.

I really don't think I need to comment further on this. ***MUCH EYE-ROLLING*** ;o)

You can also check my bio page for links to my other newest uploads.

If you're inspired to give me feedback, please leave your comments directly below the pics themselves, as I love getting comments on my Elfwood pages! Thanks!

Yours, smirking at the silliness of it all,
C.

book comments 1

So I've decided occasionally to write something relatively brief about whatever book I happen to be reading at the time. For my first one, my thoughts concern not a book I'm currently reading, but one which I have just finished:

The Catcher in the Rye
by J.D. Salinger

Surprisingly enough, this was the first time I've ever read this novel (see: English degree). I'd heard of it many times--mainly through Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start The Fire"--so I'd long been curious about it. Now that I'm finished with it, I'm not sure it was a good thing that I finally satisfied my curiosity.

SPOILERS FOLLOWING

The Catcher in the Rye is, on the surface, about this teenager named Holden Caulfield who has just been expelled from yet another elite private school. Rather than go home and tell his parents before they receive the school's letter, Holden runs away to New York and spends a few days/nights in slummy hotels, bars, and on the streets. And everything he sees, every person he meets, and every conversation he has is, in his viewpoint, completely stupid (his main words are "phony"...and, well..."phony")--with the exception of two nuns and his kid sister. In the end, he goes home and his parents stick him in a clinic for psychoanalysis.

Congratulations. You have now read The Catcher in the Rye.

Oh, I know I should go into how he's just trying to deal with the death of his brother and find out what's really important to him and decide whether or not to throw his life completely away or find a way to swim against the stream of hypocritical society and all that jazz.....but really, I don't have the energy. Holden's attitude that every person around him, everything around him, and pretty much everything within himself is stupid...well, this attitude permeates every sentence of the novel and suffocates any hope of drawing deeper meaning from his experiences. Frankly, I wanted to give the kid a good dunking in ice-cold water and then make him sit in the corner.

Which probably would've fit right in with how he sees the world anyway.

Yes, there were some good points to the novel. Salinger kept me hooked and wanting to read more...but mainly because I was trying to figure out when the story was actually going to start. I was halfway through the book before I realized that this was it. I did mark two pages for copying quotes, and I had several moments of relating to what Holden was thinking--mainly about people who take themselves and their entertainments way too seriously--and I will admit to having laughed out loud three times at Holden's descriptions and ruminations. I appreciated his attitude toward women, which was mostly fairly decent, even though he lied to every single one of them. But he lied habitually to everyone he came into contact with, so that's no biggie.

What interested me the most was seeing the change of word-usage since the 1950s. Take the word "sexy" for instance: Today, it means physically attractive, sexually stimulating in a visual way. But whenever Salinger used it, it was in reference to feeling sexy. If Holden spoke about feeling sexy (i.e. "I was really sexy."), it meant that he was sexually excited. Also, there was the phrase, "That killed me." It didn't mean death, it didn't mean getting tired, etc. It meant, "I thought that was cool" or "That cracked me up." From a linguistic perspective, I thought those were interesting points.

I can understand why this novel was so avant-garde and controversial in the '50s and '60s...but I guess my main reaction to it was a desire to get it over with. When it destroyed my hopes for a cathartic ending on the next-to-last page...well, that was all *he* wrote, I guess. ;o)

happy holidays

From a day in the life of Ed and me...

Today was The First Official Day of Spring. I say "was" because over here, it's almost over. But I'm tempted to say "wasn't"....because over here, it also snowed.

I shall refrain from commenting, other than to say that I'm on antibiotics for another sinus infection. So you can imagine my overwhelming joy when I got up this morning and saw the white stuff all over the outside.

To top it off, Ed got a package in the mail today: the Mac he won on E-bay. (Yes, we're gradually learning to be a Mac family.) The postman brought it early this morning. Ed was so excited he could barely contain himself.

So here's the scenario: A strange man in an unusual outfit brought a package that required opening and in which was concealed a treasure to awaken glee and rejoicing in the heart. And it was snowing.

And what do we deduce from this?

The only possible conclusion, of course: Today was Christmas.

Funny, though, that Santa was dressed in blue and yellow. Those must be his spring colors. Too bad they weren't pastels.

a day in the life of a cat

Excerpt from Pippin’s Journal

3:30 a.m.
Displayed great excitement by leaping from top of wardrobe and landing on the floor with a giant thud when The Girl got up to use the humans’ litterbowl. I was sure it was time for breakfast, so attacked scratching post to show my appreciation. Received pat on head but no food. The Girl went back to bed.

5:00 a.m.
Resorted to good ol’ Plan B by scratching at the linen curtains hanging next to bed. Was sure this would garner well-deserved attention and breakfast. After all, they should be grateful for having a living alarm clock. Once again, I got no thanks other than a sleepily mumbled “Quit it, Pippin” from The Girl. My Boyfriend didn’t even move. Am still in high hopes that they’ll one day learn to thank me for my early morning efforts.

5:30 a.m.
After a short rest, set often-used Plan C into motion. Wedged myself between head of mattress and wall, then set to scratching mattress just below My Boyfriend’s pillow. This garnered immediate results. My Boyfriend got out of bed, went to the bedroom door, and threw a stuffed toy into the hall. As soon as it left his fingers, it magically transformed into a mouse (I must figure out how humans accomplish this!), so I chased it. Returned to bedroom door for more, but somehow the door had closed. My Boyfriend apparently was at a loss as to how to operate the door andle from inside the bedroom, as door did not immediately re-open. And here I thought their opposable thumbs helped them figure out such things.

7:00 a.m.
Hallelujah! Breakfast! Something of fish, but, as usual, not nearly as scrumptious as what My Boyfriend and The Girl get to eat. Tried to squeeze past his feet into living room, as there are still flowers on the living room table. Almost as scrumptious as human food. Got bumped on the head for my efforts. My Boyfriend rubbed the offended spot. Didn’t make up for loss of floral dining.

7:10 a.m. – 9:45 a.m.
Slept until The Girl got up. Could tell she didn’t feel well, so greeted her with vocalization. The Girl scratched my back, but I could tell her heart wasn’t really in it. She stumbled into bathroom, making her own vocalizations, but I have yet to believe that these are really intentional communications.

9:50 a.m. – 13:50 p.m.
Resumed my post at Office Window and observed enemy movements. Crows in trees across the street look more suspicious every day. I suspect they’re plotting a takeover. Soon, they realized I was watching, so flew away to parts as yet unknown. (Which reminds me, I must examine front door for awhile this afternoon, so as to determine method of opening it. Am sure I could observe crows better from an outside vantage point.) Morning activities concluded, I curled up on the humans’ bed and slept.

13:55 p.m.
The Girl put on her outer fur and left the apartment. I missed her exit, and so my chance for front door observation. Sat in front of wardrobe door and stared at it, reading top-secret communications written there. No news on door-opening methods. Went back to sleep.

16:00 p.m.
Greeted The Girl upon her return, received adequate head-stroking and back-scratching. Humans learn slowly, but once they catch on they can be a true joy. Leaped upon trunk at foot of bed when The Girl sat down at her desk. Realized there was a horde of mice conveniently trapped between trunk and bed. Proceeded to begin digging them out. The Girl displayed lack of training by ordering me to “stop digging.” Period of sleeping followed.

17:36 p.m.
My Boyfriend magically transformed himself into a Giant Something. Played the Stalking Game with him for a few minutes till he transformed back into his regular self and I got bored. Ran at top speed through entire house. Have shaved several seconds off my time, but hope to get it down to 15 seconds or less before spring arrives.

18:17 p.m.
Realized there was a horde of mice conveniently trapped between trunk and bed. Proceeded to begin digging them out. The Girl displayed lack of training by ordering me to “stop digging.” Period of sleeping followed.

20:24 p.m.
Emptied food bowl. Remembered mice between trunk and bed. Went into bedroom and proceeded to begin digging them out. The Girl displayed lack of training by ordering me to “stop digging.” Period of sleeping followed.

21:12 p.m.
Went for mice again, but got dirty look from The Girl. Gave up on mice for now. Plan to sleep a few hours, then begin training humans once more. *sigh* Sometimes, I really begin to think my work with them will never be done.

something to make all our lives easier

Dear Gentle Readers,

(First of all, virtual cookies for those who recognize that reference.)

Secondly, I have something to share with you that lately has been smoothing my path through the world of blogging. This is something that Leenda showed me, so I'll give credit where it's due. ;o) Anyway, this grand, life-improving thingy is called "Bloglines".

Bloglines is a site through which you can subscribe to various kinds of blogs. "Subscribing" means that in your Bloglines account, you enter the site addresses (aka URLs) of the various blogs you read. Then, whenever you feel like checking a bunch of blogs at once, you just log on to Bloglines and see which of your friends has updated their blog.

In a nutshell, this means: You don't have to visit blog after blog after blog to see who has updated. You don't find yourself thinking, "Hey! I haven't checked Jimmy-Joe-Bob's blog in months! I wonder if he has updated?" All of the blogs you want to read are on a list in your Bloglines account. When you log in, you see immediately who has updated and who hasn't, and you can read each update right there, without visiting a bazillion blogs unless you actually want to.

And if you subscribe to your own blog, you can even see how many (and sometimes even which) people have subscribed to yours.

So, there you have it. If you want to check it out, click here: Bloglines. I'm finding it very convenient, and I'd be willing to bet that you would find it so, too. :o)

i be sma-a-a-a-a-a-rt

Your Dominant Intelligence is Linguistic Intelligence

You are excellent with words and language. You explain yourself well. An elegant speaker, you can converse well with anyone on the fly. You are also good at remembering information and convicing someone of your point of view. A master of creative phrasing and unique words, you enjoy expanding your vocabulary. You would make a fantastic poet, journalist, writer, teacher, lawyer, politician, or translator. [Courtney's Comment: Ha! Go figure! ;o) ]

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

to talk or not to talk--and i usually forget the "not"

Here's something I found online last year. It's been knocking around in the drafts section of my blog for too long, so I decided to post it today. Sorry if the link doesn't work anymore.

The Talkative Woman
by Sandy Fiedler

Chatter chatter chatter.

Trivial statements lacking significance. Chatter chatter some more. I stare straight ahead at the two-lane Texas highway hemmed in on both sides by sky-scraping pines. Three hours there and three hours back from our day trip. I want to think my private thoughts. I am tired. If I stay politely subdued, maybe she'll take the hint, I thought. But it was not to be. The quieter I grew, the more she talked. Then it hit me like a blow to the head - this is exactly what I do to my husband. How many times have he and I driven along with today's roles reversed? Oh, Lord, he's been sitting there annoyed, wishing I would shut up. I wish I had shut up! The Holy Spirit convicted me. I repent, Lord, of selfishness and insensitivity with my words, and I want You to change me.

"Set a guard over my mouth, O Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips." (Psalm 141: 3 NIV)
Every drive, however, with my husband isn't that miserable; many times we have stimulating, profound discussions sparked by a topic introduced from somewhere, something he has just read, we have heard on the news, or discovered about life.

What are some differences between men and women in the area of talking?

Women like to talk. It is a sociological fact that American women have an emotional, mental, even physical NEED to speak several more thousand words per day than men do. Why God made us that way, I don't know. Toward the end of a perfectly good day of conversationless solitude, I will spontaneously begin talking aloud to myself and I didn't even know I was about to speak until the sound of my own voice startled me. Women, more verbal than men, use both sides of their brain for most activities and can process many subjects at once - dinner plans, the child's poison ivy, the car making a funny noise, the latest scandal in government, those suffering religious persecution in China, the success (or usually failure) of the latest diet, the pressure to perform at work, the need to reapply moisturizer to her lips, and on and on, all at once.

Men are not so. They most often use only their left brain, the logical half, approaching subjects one at a time. How novel! How boring! And have you ever noticed that men speak to each other in numbers? The hard drive has 5 million gigs. The deck posts are 4 by 4s. The airplane he used to fly was a 172 or a 182. My husband is a '49 Ford sedan, slow, steady, reliable, who will get from Point A to Point B, while I am like a hummingbird that darts so fast from flower to flower that you don't know it is there until it hums away.

What men don't like:
Too many words
A know-it-all wife or being overtly taught by a woman
Bad timing; e.g., hit with a list of problems as soon as he comes home after work
Excessive questioning, nagging, belittling, mothering
References to what another man does or thinks

What men do like:
Good timing. Of course, you often must bring up the business of living when it occurs, but sometimes you can make an appointment to discuss an important topic when you both can fully tune in.
Peace and quiet
Stimulating, intelligent discussion; a woman with mystery
Interest in and understanding of him and what concerns him
Respect, admiration, and love

How can a wife use her nature to complement and edify her husband?
First of all, generously spend some of those thousands of necessary words on other women.
If you listen to women in a office setting, what do they talk about?
Diets, recipes, relationships, husbands, kids, health, shopping, feelings. Do you ever hear men talking in the office or on the phone about the minute details of making refrigerator strawberry pie? Women in a group feed on these subjects both because of their need to talk about them and because they instinctively know that their husbands don't really want to listen to them. Because I do not have biological sisters, through the stages of my life, I have sought and been blessed with women friends. When my three children were babies, I NEEDED to talk with women about the unfolding mothering topics I was experiencing from breast-feeding to balancing housework with family's demands.

One friend and I talk about spiritual matters, current events, history, business. In fact, we jot down little notes to ourselves about topics we need to mention when we get together. Once the topics are addressed, with a sense of relief we toss the scribbled notes away like the used grocery list.

Another friend and I talk about a mutual work situation. When my 20-year-old daughter and I get together, we both spew out many happy words like sparks from a fireworks display. We have a blast.

Be willing to keep quiet. It is so hard sometimes, like an alcoholic trying to keep from grabbing that drink. I am a morning chatterer and I have to make myself get busy doing something to prevent my mouth from starting up on a long soliloquy to my husband.

1 Peter 3 1(b) reads, "if any do not obey the Word [of God], they may be won over not by discussions but by the [godly] lives of their wives."
(Amplified) This clearly says that conduct is more effective than words in presenting Christianity to a husband.

...Read your husband like a book - his face, his body language, between the lines of his sentences. He is fascinating subject matter. Pray for an open door to a topic that you want to discuss. Like Esther (Esther 4:16), difficult issues may require that we fast, pray, and prepare a time to meet our husband-king.

These guidelines work well, you might remark, if the husband is a godly man, but what if the husband doesn't give God preeminence in his life? Even so, from past experience (years ago my life shipwrecked in divorce and God has blessed me now with a godly husband), I can counter that question with this challenge: name a place besides Esther's position of prayerful humility that can be safer and yield results more pleasing to God. Where else can God work out a woman's true liberty and fulfillment?

After the eye-opening car ride with my chatty friend, I decided that my next long drive with my husband would be special. I would be pleasant, attentive, and, above all, quiet. After about fifteen minutes of quiet, he had settled in and gathered his thoughts. He said, "You know the book I am reading about the scripture in Matthew?" And thus began a satisfying, deep discussion that melted us together even more in mind and spirit. In the right atmosphere, a man's wisdom, character, personality, and thoughts naturally drift out. The woman must help create that atmosphere. And when she speaks in turn, her words will find a welcome lodging in her husband.

"In like manner you married women, be submissive to your own husbands - subordinate yourselves as being secondary to and dependent on them, and adapt yourselves to them. So that even if any do not obey the Word [of God], they may be won over not by discussion but by the [godly] lives of their wives,
When they observe the pure and modest way in which you conduct yourselves, together with your reverence [for your husband. That is, you are to feel for him all that reverence includes] - to respect, defer to, revere him; [revere means] to honor, esteem (appreciate, prize), and [in the human sense] adore him; [and adore means] to admire, praise, be devoted to, deeply love and enjoy [your husband]." I Peter 3:1-2 The Amplified Bible

click here! i finally updated Have Some Water!

colors quiz

Got it from guess who? ;o)

RED
1. Closest red thing to you: The shirt and jacket I’m wearing.
2. Last thing to make you angry: Nothing *makes* angry. But I last *chose* to be angry during a conflict with a friend.
3. Do you have a temper: Yes…one I constantly strive to control.
4. Are you a fan of romance: In my personal life? Definitely! ;o) In books or movies, only if it’s neither cheesy nor vulgar.

ORANGE
1. Closest orange thing to you: A Post-It note reading “Christian 12:45”.
2. Do you like to burn things: I love burning candles.
3. Dress up for Halloween: Only if I have an American party to go to.
4. Are you usually a warm-hearted person: I think so.
5. Do you have anything against redheaded people: Not at all. Some would say I are one! ;o)
6. Are you usually full of energy: Not lately. Lately, I’ve just been full of snot.

YELLOW
1. Closest yellow thing: The top of the TUMS bottle.
2. The happiest time[s] of your life: In intimate conversation with good friends; traveling; in times of spiritual growth…
3. Favorite holiday: The whole Christmas season here in Saxony.
4. Are you a coward: Only when I need to confront someone close to me about something important.
5. Do you burn or tan: Burn and peel, burn and peel…The sun is rarely allowed to touch my skin without sunscreen.

GREEN
1. Closest green thing to you: The stapler. Ooooooh.
2. Do you care about the environment: Yes. I live in Germany. Caring about the environment is pretty much a law. ;o)
3. Are you jealous of anyone right now: Yes--in a shallow way.
4. Are you a lucky person: I don’t believe in luck. I believe in God’s providence and blessings.
5. Do you always want what you can’t have: Not always.
6. Do you like being outdoors: I love it, if it’s not wet enough to mess with my health.
7. Are you Irish: Yes, through my great-grandmother, Lillie Bell McCall.

BLUE
1. Closest blue thing to you: An old “American Baseball Game” invite that Ed is using as scratch paper.
2. Are you good at calming people down: Yes…unless I’m the one they’re upset with.
3. Do you like the sea: I love the sea. I think my sinuses could use a therapeutic stay by the ocean.
4. What was the last thing that made you cry: Umm…I can’t remember.
5. Are you a logical thinker: When I want to be.
6. Can you sleep easily: Not recently. Except for the last week, I haven’t had a full night’s sleep in months.

PURPLE
1. Last purple thing you saw: A candle next to the computer monitor.
2. Like being treated to expensive things: Yes, though that’s a rare occurrence.
3. Do you like mysterious things: Oh yeah. ;o)
4. Favorite type of chocolate: Dark with 70-75% cocoa.
5. Ever met anyone in royalty: I *am* royalty…together with all my sisters and brothers in Christ.
6. Are you creative: Yup.

PINK
1. Closest pink thing to you: A Post-It with a bunch of numbers on it.
2. Do you like sweet things: Yes. Too much!
3. Like play-fighting: With Ed, yeah.
4. Are you sensitive: Yes…too much so, I think.
5. Do you like music: I love music.

WHITE
1. Closest white thing to you: A pen. I’m at a computer desk…see a trend here?
2. Would you say you’re innocent: No.
3. Good at keeping the peace: Not as good as I used to be. I’ve started losing the energy for it.
4. Do you like to play in the snow: I used to…but nowadays, it seems my health can’t handle it.
5. Are you afraid of going to the doctor or dentist: I don’t have that luxury; my doctors and I see each other way too often.

BLACK
1. Closest black thing to you: The mouse.
2. Ever enjoy hurting people: Shall I be honest? I must admit…yes, sometimes, if I am angry enough. It’s a sin I’m working hard on giving up.
3. Are you sophisticated or silly: Both, depending on the situation and the people present.
4. Would you like to go to space: Yes! But I’m sure not gonna pay two hundred thousand bucks for it!
5. What is your favorite color: Deep red.
6. Does the color you wear affect your mood: No…usually, my mood affects the color I wear.

the last few days

Well, I know I threatened to flood my blog with posts this week, considering that I'm sick at home.....but I got involved in something really cool: ancestry.com. I've long held a strong fascination for genealogy, and I'm blessed that both of my grandmothers collected oodles of information on family lines. I have some of the info in my own files, so I began entering it into an online family tree at ancestry.com. It took several days, which is why I'm just now getting back to my blog.

It's amazing what you can find to do when you can't go anywhere or see anybody, for fear of spreading contamination. ;o)

What's cool about this is that as I enter new names with birth and death dates, the system starts searching the database to see if that individual is already in the system. For instance, I entered my own name and birth date, and the system informed me that someone had already entered me into the database! Now, because I have a free account instead of a paid one, I can't see *who* entered my name....I can only see the name itself. Same with the names of my parents and grandparents. There are a couple of spelling errors in several of our names, so I know that whoever entered our names isn't someone we're close to....but I'm figuring it's a relative, probably someone's cousin on my Grandma Weger's side of the family. But of course I'm only guessing.

Anyway...I entered all the information that I had: all the way back to William Parker (died ca. 1677) and his wife Katherine, whose maiden name my family doesn't know. Now here's the really cool part: Someone already has that entire family line in the database.

And not only that, but they say that Katherine's maiden name was Warham. And *they* can trace her back to an ancestor named John Barber...who was born in 1435!!!

How cool is that?! If this information is correct, that means I can trace my family back to 1435! That's before Shakespeare! That's before Columbus!

I talked to my mom about all this, and she reminded me that she also got involved in ancestry.com a few years ago (but because of the misspelled names, we concluded that she is not the mystery family member who entered all of us into the database). She laughingly said that when she was doing all of that, the scriptural warning against "meaningless genealogies" kept running through her head. ;o)

But she has a point. In reality, all this genealogy stuff *is* meaningless. It's one of my hobbies, but I would never claim that it's of lasting significance. Perhaps it's only interesting to me, personally, because I grew up on the continent where my ancestors came from, and because as a Third Culture Kid, I'm so rootless on this planet. This begs further analysis, but I don't have the mental energy for it now. Draw your own psychological conclusions about me. *grin*

Anyway...ich bin einfach sehr mitgenommen with the whole family tree thing. Sorry for the German, but I can't think of a better way to say it right now. Mama and I intend to continue the research adventure that her mother, Thaylia Boxley, started us on (my Grandma was actually quite the accomplished genealogist), and I intend to delve more deeply into this Warham-Barber-1435 connection on my Weger side. Of course, *when* I will do this, I have no idea. This part will require paying a membership fee to ancestry.com and researching census and parish records and so forth. Mama, at least, knows when she'll be getting into it: after she retires this summer! And when she's back in Oklahoma, she can also start looking through all of Grandma's records, which are in storage now.

As for me...I just hope I don't have to wait till retirement to continue my research. ;o)

t-t-t-too much time on my hands...

What can I say? In yesterday's post I warned you that I wouldn't have much to do this week. ;o)

This is stealing Patricia's ideas again, by the way. See, I can always count on my friends to give me something to do. ;o)

1. Name a movie that you have seen more than 10 times.
What’s Up, Doc?

2. Name a movie that you've seen multiple times in the theater.
Lord of the Rings (all three)

3. Name an actor that would make you more inclined to see a movie.
Kate Hudson, Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage, Harrison Ford, Charlize Theron, Anthony Hopkins

4. Name an actor that would make you less likely to see a movie.
Adam Sandler, anyone with the last name Wayans, Dana Carvey

5. Name a movie that you can and do quote from.
Princess Bride; What’s Up, Doc?; Clue; The Boys Next Door

6. Name a movie musical that you know all of the lyrics to.
The Sound of Music; My Fair Lady; The Last Unicorn (though I know it's not a real musical)

7. Name a movie that you have been known to sing along with.
The Sound of Music; My Fair Lady; Phantom of the Opera

8. Name a movie that you would recommend everyone see.
The Boys Next Door; The Passion; Lord of the Rings

9. Name a movie that you own.
Lady in the Water

10. Name an actor that launched his/her entertainment career in another medium but who has surprised you with his/her acting chops.
Umm……no idea. I generally don’t know who does what in the entertainment business.

11. Have you ever seen a movie in a drive-in? If so, what?
Yes, in Guthrie, Oklahoma. The movie was Space Cowboys. Not particularly memorable.

12. Ever made out in a movie?
Yup. ;o)

13. Name a movie that you keep meaning to see but just haven't yet got around to it.
Marvin’s Room; Dragonfly; White Oleander; To Gillian On Her 37th Birthday

14. Ever walked out of a movie?
No, but I should have.

15. Name a movie that made you cry in the theater.
The Return of the King

16. Popcorn?
Sometimes. Usually, the thought of all the fat (in buttered popcorn) totally puts me off.

17. How often do you go to the movies (as opposed to renting them or watching them at home)?
Average…three times a year.

18. What's the last movie you saw in the theater?
The Guardian

19. What's your favorite/preferred genre of movie?
Fantasy, drama, sci-fi

20. What's the first movie you remember seeing in the theater?
Bambi. I bawled when Bambi’s mother died because it was the first time I remember thinking that my parents could die.

21. What movie do you wish you had never seen?
Little Man; The Devil’s Advocate (see #14)

22. What is the weirdest movie you enjoyed?
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; Alien Resurrection (conceptually, it freaked me out); Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events

23. What is the scariest movie you've seen?
An American Werewolf in London—I was nine, watched the first ten minutes of it, and spent the next ten years being scared of the dark. Other than that……The Ring (the first one).

24. What is the funniest movie you've seen?
What’s Up, Doc?; Clue; Hitch

happy birthday to me.....sort of

So. Today, I am chronologically 30 years old. Contrary to what one might expect, being 30 doesn't bother me in the least. Actually, I think it's kind of cool. I like getting older. It means I'm learning and growing. Besides, I wouldn't want to be 20 again even if you paid me.

However, what does bother me about having a birthday today is being sick. Yes, once again, I'm sick. Or maybe not again, but still. I did start feeling a lot better last week. But over the weekend, things started going down the tube again. I went back to my earnosethroat specialist this morning, and she gave me the lovely news that I have some sort of virus. Woo.

So I've cancelled my birthday coffee that was supposed to take place this afternoon, I can't go to rehearsal tonight, and I'm "written sick" the rest of the week. The doctor said this could take two weeks to run its course. What's really frustrating is that if I'm still having problems on Saturday, I am under orders not to sing in our "concert" on Sunday. (More on that later.)

I'm trying to remain factual here and not complain.....but may I say that I AM MAD ENOUGH TO SPIT?! Not at my doctor, of course.....but at my weak immune system and at the situation.

In other news, I spent the weekend at the Advanced Bible Study Seminar (or is it Series?) (ABSS) in Gemünden (near Frankfurt). The lessons were excellent, and especially the one on Sunday morning really struck me. At some point this week, I'll write something about it and post it here. Or maybe I'll actually update Have Some Water for the first time in over a year.

Stay tuned! I'm gonna have a lot of time on my hands this week. ;o)

briefly venting about Elfwood

Okay. So I've got three new pictures in my Elfwood gallery. Just to give you a brief overview: When an Elfwood artist submits pictures to Elfwood, said artist waits about two weeks for the pictures to get approved by moderators. If the moderators approve the pics, the pics are uploaded to the artist's gallery. If the moderators don't approve the pics, they then send the pics back to the artist, along with a rejection notice.

If you want to know their approval criteria, have a go at this. Good luck.

Anyway, on my last "ticket," I had four pictures. Three were accepted, one was rejected. Before I tell you about the rejected one, let me recount the following:

I just finished looking at a recently accepted picture on Elfwood. This picture was a photograph of a brain which the artist had scultped from clay and then painted.

"But wait!" you might say. "Isn't Elfwood a fantasy/sci-fi art gallery? How does a simple brain qualify as fantasy or sci-fi art?"

Well, dear friend, you'd be right in questioning the inclusion of a simple brain. *However*, because the artist called it an orc brain, it perfectly qualifies--under Elfwood Rules--as fantasy art.

As for my picture that was rejected? Ah well, it was merely a painting of a castle. Nothing fantasy about that, right?

But if, in my personal comments about the picture, I had written, "This castle is a repository for the brains of all the orcs Our Hero has slaughtered over the last couple of years," my castle pic would have been perfectly acceptable.

...Wait a minute. Now there's a thought. Okay, here ya go, I'll make you a bet: At some point in the near future, I'll resubmit that picture with that line as the description, and we'll see if I'm right about it getting accepted! I'll keep you posted.

Sheesh.

it's official

Hi all,

Just thought I'd give a non-complaining health update. ;o) Yesterday, I got the bill for my visit to the ear-nose-throat specialist. She didn't tell me this in person, but still it wasn't a big surprise to read on the bill that she has officially diagnosed me with chronic pansinusitis. Meaning, chronic inflammation of all the sinus cavities.

I have appointments on the 21st to have my sinuses X-rayed and to have allergy tests done. We already did X-rays and allergy tests three years ago, but this is a different ENT, so she wants to see current results. After that, I'm expecting her to tell me that I need surgery.

Three years ago, the other ENT said that as long as I could keep the sinusitis from becoming chronic, I wouldn't need surgery. So I guess three years was my grace period! ;o)

As for my current condition....I'm feeling pretty good now. Almost back to normal...or what's normal for me, anyway. ;o) My head feels almost gunk-free, and I cough less each day. I'm still using the one-a-way "miracle" nosedrops the ENT prescribed (for those in the know, they contain: dexamethasone, diphenhydramine hydrochl., naphazoline hydrochl., hydroxyaethylcell.-sch. [whatever that is], propylene glycol, and sterilized water). (And apparently, one of these compounds is a glucocorticoid, which I assume is a steroid.)

These nosedrops seem to be working really well, as I actually only need them once a day. I feel better at this point than I usually feel at this point after a round of antibiotics. So I'm extremely glad about that! Yesterday, I was even able to sing again, for which I was very grateful.

So, there you have it. I'll let you know the latest on my health after I get the results of the appointments on the 21st.

1. Corinthians 13 made practical

Bri posted something on her blog yesterday that I think is worth posting on mine, too. Here it is, followed by an expansion of the comments I left on Bri's blog:

1 CORINTHIANS 13 (For Missionaries):

If I speak the language like a native,
But have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
And If I have all the answers,
So as to convert millions, but have not love,
I gain nothing.
Love is patient with the home congregation
And kind to demanding converts;
Love is not jealous of fellow missionaries,
Boastful because it is American,
Nor rude to its hosts.
Love does not insist on its own mission methods,
And does not become frustrated nor embittered.
It does not rejoice in the failures of its fellow workers,
But truly rejoices at their successes.
Love will stand all criticism,
Give consideration to all advice,
Help all beggars,
And endure all visitors.
Love never ends;
As for methods, they will pass away;
As for language, it shall cease;
As for cultural understanding, it will pass away.
For our understanding is imperfect;
But where love abounds, such imperfections are overshadowed.
Before I went into the field, I knew all the answers;
When I became mature I pondered my presumptiveness.
For then I saw romantically and confidently,
But now realistically and humbly;
Then I thought I knew the heathen,
But now they have come to know me.
Cultural understanding,
Methods,
And Love abide, these three,
But the greatest of these is love!

(paraphrased by Dan and Joyce Hardin)
(Taken from Christian Woman, January 1974)

My thoughts:

Ouch. I've had a copy of this for several years, and I take it out and read it about once a year.....and I'm thinking it's been too long since the last time I read it.

One of the most difficult things for a missionary--or any leader in the church, for that matter--to do is keep focus, keep the right perspective. Frustrations do build up.....and as for me, sometimes I erroneously feel like I'm not allowed to voice them. After all, I'm supposed to be setting an example of longsuffering and faith, right?

Right. But part of longsuffering is being able to voice frustrations--and release tensions--with the right attitude. And my attitude is wrong so very often. I am critical, I am judgmental, and I am proud. (I don't care how you try to euphemize it.....being proud is a sin. And when I give in to it, I am hurting instead of helping people around me. But I'll write on that subject more extensively another time.)

I think this paraphrase of 1. Corinthians 13 applies not only to "missionaries". After all, what is a missionary? One who goes out to tell others about Jesus. Another word for such a person is evangelist.

Or Christian.

Because every Christian, by definition, is supposed to be an evangelist. Every Christian is supposed to be a missionary. Not necessarily in the context of going to a foreign country (or coming back to their own country) to evangelize. But every single one of us is supposed to be living, thinking, speaking, loving, breathing in such a way as to represent Christ on earth. If you are a Christian, you are an ambassador from God, sent to reach out to those who don't know him.

It's not the preachers' job. It's not the elders' job. It's not the missionaries' job. It's not the Bible class teachers' job.

It's your job.

I'm not writing this to inspire guilt in anyone. This isn't supposed to be a why-aren't-you-out-there-doing-your-job? kind of post. But the paraphrase above got me thinking, since it's subtitled "For Missionaries". We need to expand our definition of the word "missionary." The current definition seems to be "someone who goes to a foreign country and leads and teaches in a local church" or something like that. But I believe we need to re-think that.

Ephesians 6 describes Christians as soldiers in a spiritual war against evil. C.S. Lewis describes us as soldiers sent behind enemy lines to sabotage Satan's plans. If you're a Christian, God has put his armor on you, he has given you the weapons you need, and he considers you ready for battle. He has led you into battle, and you have followed. You are now behind enemy lines, and your job is to help free the captives.

You can do it with your words. You can do it with the decisions you make each day. You can do it with a smile, with encouraging words, with the time that you give to another. You can do it by being a shoulder to cry on. You don't have to leave your country, your city, or even your neighborhood. Maybe all you need to do is step out your front door (remember what Bilbo said!) and start a conversation with the guy next-door. Just brighten your corner of the world with the love that Jesus is giving you every moment of your life.

To be the soldier that God has made you, just open your eyes, look closely at the people you see......take those loving concepts from 1. Corinthians and start living them.

10 random/weird things

Well, here's another idea I've stolen from Patricia's blog. Technically, I'm supposed to tag five other people to do this, but since I doubt anyone would respond to my tagging them, and since the five people I would probably tag are not at all likely to respond to my tagging them, I'm not going to tag anybody, but I will, instead, play the game all by myself for my own entertainment and for the amusement of hapless wanderers who find themselves sucked into reading my blog. *insert maniacal laughter here*

So. The point of the thing is this: List 10 weird things/habits/little known facts about yourself. Here goes:

1. I really like puréed, cooked spinach, boiled eggs, and mashed potatoes. Mixed together.

2. Superheroes (i.e. Superman, Batman, Wolverine, etc.) are one of my secret "guilty pleasures."

Not so secret now, I guess. ;o)

3. I don't eat my pizza crusts until after I've eaten all the pieces of pizza. Then, if I still have room, I eat one or two of the crusts.

4. Invite me over to your house. If your toilet paper is directed under the roll instead of over, I will gladly change it for you.

5. I cry at most movies. And at really random scenes. Like the scence at the beginning of "Fellowship of the Ring," where Gandalf arrives and Frodo is happy to see him. Yes, that makes me cry. The reason? I have no clue.

6. Most of my deepest feelings come out in my art and my poetry; I'm rarely able to speak them aloud.

7. One of my favorite mementos is a paperclip bent into the shape of a heart. I carry it around in my purse. (And no, I'm not going to elaborate on its significance.) ;o)

8. I always dream in color; I usually dream in stories (IMAX theater in my head); and I sometimes dream in German.

9. When I was a kid, I went through a phase of wanting to be an archaeologist. I even wrote a letter to Mary Leakey in Nairobi, but she never wrote back.

10. I have a faint, L-shaped scar on my bottom lip.

Ta-dah. ;o)

parental and personal health update

 
When I talked to my mom Wednesday night, she had an interesting tale to tell about her visit to the doctor that morning. The doctor did remove her appendix, and he did remove a cyst......but, strangely enough, the cyst was nowhere near her appendix. Instead, it was in the left side of her abdomen. This was exploratory surgery, otherwise they wouldn't even have known that the cyst was there. The pain around her appendix had nothing to do wih a cyst or with her appendix (which he removed as a precaution); instead, that pain was being caused by adhesions (stringy tissue that formed as the result of a past infection nobody knew about). So he removed the adhesions, too.

Mama is at home recovering, still in some pain but at least able to get up and move around a little. Barring possibility of infection, it looks like she's going to be fine. I am relieved, to say the least. The cyst and adhesions are going to be biopsied, but the doctor doesn't seem to think that there will be anything malignant to deal with.

I am continually amazed at God: his creativity in designing the human body, and his constant care for us as we navigate these fragile bodies through all the physical dangers this world has to offer. I'm convinced that it's really only by God's providence that any of us survive at all.

And since our bodies are part of this fallen creation, we do have to deal with these frailties on a daily basis. I refer you to the following schematic, the original of which was drawn yesterday by the ear-nose-throat specialist who was illustrating to me one of the particular frailties of my particular body: 

 

Though the fact of my deviated septum was not new to me, I did appreciate the doctor's efforts to show me just what's going on in my nose up there. For further illumnation on the subject (no pun intended), she wants me to get my sinuses X-rayed and take allergy tests again. I don't know what this is supposed to prove, since we already did the X-raying and the allergy testing three years ago, but.....I am meekly submitting, as I frankly no longer have the willpower to think for myself on the matter. I think it's due to lack of oxygen, since I can't breathe properly at all. There must be millions of my brain cells dying as I type/you read. (I can't use the phrase "as we speak," because, technically, we're not speaking.) 

I am frustrated, irritated, mad at the world for no good reason at all, and working really really hard on the inside not to start throwing myself a pity party. I'm well aware that there are those in this world who suffer a great deal more than I am suffering, and that I should be grateful for and content with the blessed state in which I currently exist. 

But it's awfully hard, sometimes, to be grateful and content when you can't even breathe right. *sigh* 

This will be my last post of this nature. I'm tired of complaining and hoping for sympathy from various corners. If I vent anymore, I will vent to myself and have done with it.

i wish i may, i wish i might....

 
I want to go to Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, Egypt, Israel, Asia, Alaska, Africa, Canada, and back to Ireland. 

Just thought I'd mention that.

all comments answered

my mama's health, my health, and other odds 'n' ends

 
I talked to my dad a few minutes ago, and everything with Mama's surgery went fine. Thanks to God! After surgery, they had to give her a bit more pain medication than expected, but that's not outside the realm of normal. She's home now and sleeping. Tomorrow morning, she and Daddy will go back to the doctor, and he'll hopefully be able to tell them more about the cyst. My hearfelt thanks to those of you who prayed for my parents and for the doctors. God has it all in his hands, and that's a great comfort and encouragement to me. We would all be so worried if not for him! Anyway, thanks to those of you who've been supporting my parents in prayer. 

Over the weekend, I'd considered heading over to my parents' place yesterday, in order to be there for the surgery today. Now I'm glad I didn't do it. The last thing my recovering mother needs is a sick person in the house. Yep, that'd be me. 

Gunk in my head, my throat feels like I've been gargling gravel, and my body aches with exhaustion of the kind you get from running a marathon. It always amazes me that there are people who can get a sinus infection and yet still manage to go to work (even though they *should* be in bed). If I weren't in what is basically a self-employment job, I would've gotten fired a long time ago. I was up and around for three hours yesterday, taking the bus to the doctor and pharmacy, then back home again. I barely have the words to describe the misery. Even sitting in the doctor's waiting room, I started getting dizzy. Sit at a desk or stand up and teach all day? Forget it. 

No antibiotics this time, though. The doctor said it's too soon since the last time. I tend to agree.....but I have my doubts about getting rid of this any other way. She's also sending me to an ear-nose-throat specialist tomorrow, for an ultrasound on my sinuses. Yippee. 

This is so annoying. And so uninteresting to read about, I'm sure. Sorry I can't offer anything more fascinating. I *could* write about the news article I read this morning. It described how the Mormons will probably "baptize" the current Roman Catholic pope after his death, because the Mormons "baptize" dead people into Mormonism by proxy. They "baptized" John Paul II by proxy a year after his death. They did the same with Hitler, Stalin, and Genghis Khan. I could write a long article about how silly I think this is. I just don't have the mental energy for it!

something for my Faithful Reader(s?) to do

 
When a girl spends half her week working on a Teacher's Guide to a series of simple English Bible lessons she's written, her brain tends to be filled with language exercises--even during moments when she's not crafting away at the aforementioned Teacher's Guide. 

That said, I give you the following linguistic practice text. Take your time on it; try not to get frustrated; and, above all, remember to have fun! 

Fill in the blanks in the text below, using the following words in the correct order: 

husband......again......fun......friends......aardvark mating rituals 
sinuses......interested......under......fellowship......voodoo doll 
frustrated......was......Superbowl......sigh......looking 

One evening, Courtney _______ sitting at home _________ self-quarantine. Courtney was ______________, because her stupid ___________ seemed to be getting infected _________. She was also sad, since several of her ___________, as well as her ______________ Ed, were getting together to watch the _______________. Although Courtney wasn't any more ____________ in football than she was in the minutiae of ____________ _____________ _____________, she had still been _________ forward to the evening of _______ and ____________. Frankly, she was beginning to wonder if someone, somewhere, was in possession of a little Courtney-shaped __________ _____ and was constantly jabbing the area of the doll's sinus cavities with especially sharp ___________. *________* 

Answers available upon request. ;o)

prayer requests

 
For those of you who pray to God, I have a few requests that you might help me pass on to him: 

My mom, Kay Weger, will have surgery this coming Tuesday to remove a cyst that is on or around her appendix. They will take out her appendix at the same time. If all goes as planned, the surgery will be relatively brief, and she'll go home Tuesday afternoon/evening. 

Also, my grandfather, Bill Weger, is scheduled for an angiogram on Feb. 12th. His carotid artery is partially blocked (I don't know if it's calcium buildup or cholesterol buildup.), and the angiogram will determine whether the doctors should put in a stent, or open up the artery to scrape out the plaque. Either way, after the angiogram, the next procedure will take place on Feb. 20th, I think. 

Please pray that God will bless the minds and hands of the doctors and nurses working with my mom and my grandpa. Please pray that God's will be done. Nothing more complicated than that. :o) 

Thanks, 

Courtney

minor stuff; Dream #93 in online translator mode

Long day of researching, I'm tired, I will try to answer all newest comments as soon as possible, I'm sorry for this run-on sentence; and in the meantime, here's a fun something that I wrote as a draft awhile back but didn't publish; enjoy:

Dream #93

I Rejoice Me Just, That The House Not Burned Down

recorded June 21, 2006

Once at night about several weeks, dream I can recollect is not finished with someone, a cigarette lighting, and I could smell in a smoke. Then the dream came to an end, and I woke up, but I could smell in a smoke. I lay there since the several moments, convinced, that the smell was prolongation of dream and would disappear at any moment. Some moments went, but the smell did not dissipate. I was declined and shook awake Ed. " Ed! Whether you Smell in a smoke? I smell in a smoke!"

I heard it, in a gloom smelling. Then it spoke, "Is not present, I not smell in what. Come back to sleep. " And it again rolled to itself.

I understood, that now I also could not smell on it more. I laid down again, already in a dream receding, hoping, that Ed really had no also our apartment on fire was. But until then I have lowered already too far back to a dream to rise and check things.