by

Our Daily Thread 1-14-15

Good Morning!

 Today’s angry bird header photo is from Cheryl. 🙂

______________________________________________

On this day in 1784 the United States ratified a peace treaty with England ending the Revolutionary War. 

In 1858 French emperor Napoleon III escaped an attempt on his life. 

In 1951 the first National Football League Pro Bowl Game was played in Los Angeles, CA. 

And in 1969 an explosion aboard the U.S. aircraft carrier Enterprise off Hawaii killed 25 crew members. 

______________________________________________

Quotes of the Day

“Life becomes harder for us when we live for others, but it also becomes richer and happier.”

——————

“There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats.”

Albert Schweitzer

______________________________________________

 Today is T-Bone Burnett’s birthday. So here he is with Robert Plant. T-Bone is the guitar player with the shades.

______________________________________________

Anyone have a QoD?

44 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 1-14-15”

  1. Music I understand. But cats?

    We didn’t go to the Y today. My driveway was only wet, but my deck was slippery. I probably could have made it. But I have to cross Echo Mountain to get there, so I decided that it wasn’t worth the risk. If I needed to be there, I would have gone.
    Part of the added caution is due to age.

    Becky said that Brian needed to add something else to his paper.

    Like

    Reply

  5. OK. Along those lines, what makes you happy? Where is your happy place? Let’s have fun with the answers.
    Last week I rediscovered that even though it was the middle of the night sometimes the little noises and cooing of a baby made me happy. I think I posted that it is almost impossible not to smile back when the baby in your arms smiles at you.
    My happy place? On a beach slathered in sunscreen with a big hat listening to the waves come in and go out. There is a great big world out there beyond the waves…. The sound soothes me.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  6. I don’t know that I have a “happy place”
    Contented is more like it.
    I am contented sitting in my room reading a good book.
    I am contented in other situations.
    I am most happy when I see the accomplishments, especially spiritual, of my grandkids.
    etc. 🙂

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  8. Reading a good book has always been my go-to choice for contentment. But I’d have to say cuddling with my husband is a notch above that. Singing a great hymn with my church family is another.

    Like

    Reply

  9. I get most discontented, even agitated, by watching the news at night.
    Pastor Steve says, “Turn off Fox News”. But I watch it anyhow.
    There is a new news network One America News that is almost as good as Fox, better in some ways. It is only one click away.

    Like

    Reply

  10. I woke up way too early this morning, considering I didn’t get to bed until after midnight and I woke up feeling sick. I got up about 5:30 or 6:00 so that I might, if I was lucky, have enough internet connection to finish a photo book that I have to complete today. My intention was to go back to bed after I finished.

    Sometime about 7:00 my husband invited me to look outside. The sun wasn’t up yet, but the trees were covered with hoarfrost. So I had to stay up so that I could get photos at sun-up. Three hundred-some photos later I have to say it was worth it–truly exquisite beauty. I even had some cardinals pose as if prompted. For example, I was taking a photo of a female cardinal and a male showed up just long enough for me to get one decent shot of both of them.

    I’d be happier living in a warmer climate. But I have to admit that I am happy I’ve seen a few mornings like this one in my life.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  11. Kim remarked about the baby cooing at night.
    Reminded me, I think I mentioned it, about Becky’s babies, (now Mary’s) being passed around to the ladies in church. Everyone loves them. I reckoned that Addison, now Colliebell, was in kindergarten before she encountered someone who didn’t love her.

    Like

    Reply

  13. What if the cat is the one causing misery in your life? Please, won’t someone rescue me from this miserable beast?

    The one we “adopted” 19 years ago, probably today?

    Help!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  14. Books and cats — and dogs. 🙂

    News can be agitating.

    I’ve been watching more CNN lately as that station simply does much better at live 24/7 news coverage than Fox, to be honest.

    I haven’t watched the other conservative station (One America) as I like more of diversity — while I applaud much of what Fox news has done (and still does in exposing and following important stories that aren’t well covered in other media), I do see a danger in people watching only what they’ll agree with and assuming all other news outlets are too tainted to even watch.

    The diversity of news outlets we have today is generally a good thing — but it comes also with a price when you realize that Americans are seeing completely different news stories covered every night, depending on what station they tune into.

    I wouldn’t say it’s the cause of our division in this country. But it has inadvertently added to it. We are a nation divided. The explosion of partisan media outlets (made possible by the changing technology and media, of course) is more of a symptom of that division.

    Like

    Reply

  16. Cheryl said, “Singing a great hymn with my church family is another.”

    We don’t sing those old-fashioned songs anymore. I am happy being late. I like walking in as the Pastor prays before his message. If/When I sit through the “Praise” music I usually get sleepy; it makes it hard to get in a proper mood for listening to a Sermon.

    Our Pastor likes our Music Minister, neither my wife nor I do. And his choice of music has little or no harmony, it is always too slow, it is repetitious, shallow and goes on and on and on and …

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  17. Reading has always been my escape and joy. Right now I am reading a book I bought for my mom, which she never read. It is a novel and she no longer does novels, apparently. It is based on diaries and research on the women who disguised themselves as soldiers during the Civil War. I am enjoying it very much.

    I also have a book I bought for my dad, but still have. I will read that one later, too.

    Lots of issues to deal with in settling things for my mom. My dad would have been happy so far. There are some things we are not so happy about with him, but nothing different there from when he was alive.

    My mom is so ready to join him, but she seems to have to wait for some reason. Nevertheless, she is adapting quite well in many ways. Other issues not so easily changes. Prayers for all of us are so appreciated. I know it is sustaining us.

    He truly is the God of all comfort.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  18. Praying for you and yours, Kathaleena.

    Music, for me, is definitely a refuge from the miseries of life, and sitting at the piano (playing it — not just sitting there 😉 ) is one very happy spot.

    I was excited to get an email on Monday from the organizer of most of the piano shows I’ve played in in recent years, asking if I would like to participate in one again in April or May.

    Yes I would! 🙂 So that is something to look forward to and enjoy preparing.

    Another happy spot is our church. When I walked in Sunday morning, early service had just finished, and a lot of people were in the narthex, leaving the service and/or heading to Bible study or Sunday School. The smiles on people’s faces, the cheerful fellowship of many people, the greetings extended to me by name, the hugs of friends in Bible study — wow, it’s hard to beat the joy of being in the physical presence of so many people of God.

    And singing with our church family, as Cheryl pointed out, in the worship service. Such a wonderful delight and blessing.

    Like

    Reply

  19. Next to water. Fishing has been my happy place since I was a boy of about 5. It started to not be after the accident and I suffered if I did, and sometimes just couldn’t physically do it. It felt like the accident took my refuge too. But then I discovered photography.

    Now, even when physical pain prevents me from fishing much, I still go fishing. I even take bait. Seriously, I’ve had a dozen leeches in the fridge, Cheryl hates that, 🙂 for over 6 months. They’ve been fishing with me at least a dozen times, but I never use them. They go for a ride with me and return home to the fridge where they go back into hibernation until we go again. I take my poles, tackle box, and net too. They usually stay in the trunk.

    Now instead of fishing on these trips, I sit and wait, walk a little, take a hundred pics or so, and go home happy. It’s given me back my happy place, and I needed that. 🙂

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

  22. I felt happy at the rally yesterday. It was great to see this issue reconciling Christians who would not typically share worship times. There was even an aged Civil Rights activist that spoke to enliven people. Tony Perkins spoke. Also the chief of staff from BGEA. The fired Fire Chief is a friend of Franklin G. and Franklin has a fireman’s hat in his office received from Kelvin Cachran. God was glorified in that gathering and it made me HAPPY!

    Also, I enjoy photography in nature. I like the joy of noticing details I would not have seen except for taking time to compose a good photograph. I am happy listening to my son play piano. Even though he hardly had any lessons, he plays for his own enjoyment when home and that makes me HAPPY.

    When my husband is talking with tax clients and helps them to a better situation than they anticipated, that makes me HAPPY!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  26. I’m behind on here most of the time now, so this is late, but AJ, just wanted you to know how much I enjoyed the Schumann piano concerto you featured sometime last week. I’ve heard Martha Argerich play before (on recordings), but it was neat to see her play the concerto, and observe the eye contact she made with the clarinet and oboe soloists when they shared some back-and-forth with the piano part. Watching that helped me hear what was going on in the orchestral parts, which I hadn’t paid very close attention to before, though I’ve heard the work several times.

    Magnificent piece. Fun to watch Chailly conduct, too. Definitely looked like he was having a great time! 🙂

    Thanks for featuring the whole work.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  27. Did someone say cats make them happy? Did someone say cats make them miserable? I will ponder that while I stroke Miss Boley ‘ s super slick and shiny fur, thanks to the addition of bacon drippings in her diet recently. Her purrs do make me HAPPY! I can’t quite determine the proper word to express how some of her less than desirable behaviors affect me.

    Like

    Reply

  28. We are currently battling fleas in our house, thanks to aforementioned cat. It’s my fault–I’d noticed her going outside, which she hadn’t done much of since we moved here, and just realized I needed to put the flea stuff on her.

    Too late. 😦

    I have observed her doing the following highly unusual–as in she’s never done this before–activities in the last week.
    * Walk on countertops. NEVER allowed, NEVER done.
    *Walk on dining room table. NEVER, not once, ever, I’m disgusted, allowed, Never done.
    *Sit on bookshelf. Nothing wrong with that, just weird.
    *Sit on dresser. Ditto.
    *Wrap self around all the jewelry on dresser and spit at me when I come near.
    (She would be dead, now, if any of that good jewelry had disappeared)
    Twice.
    Three times. I covered it all with a towel–since she was locked in the room to protect her from the flea stuff downstairs.
    *Use the currently cold fireplace as a litter box. What on earth is that? It’s FAKE sand!

    The yowling has tapered off now that’s she’s only fed $1.50 a can “delicate stomach” food–which she mostly doesn’t eat. She has, however, been eating the slightly less expense “delicate stomach,” kibble. Which is perfectly fine.

    The vet/my niece said she was healthy for a 19 year old cat, though she may have a thyroid problem. “Unless you want to spend tons of money, which I don’t advise, feed her, care for her, and don’t worry about it.”

    Which is what I’m doing.

    When I’m not totally exasperated.

    Like

    Reply

  29. Drove into town this morning in thick as pea soup fog…it will always amaze me that some drivers refuse to turn on headlights in thick fog…ugh!
    My happy place would be in the garden…digging, planting, singing, nurturing…and feeling the warm sun on my back… 🙂 ( Of course holding a newborn baby, singing, praying, drinking in the fragrance of “newness” is a heavenly happy place )

    Like

    Reply

  30. My happy place is outside doing work. Gardening, caring for animals, splitting wood, playing with children. I am also happy listening to children talk. Babies cooing, toddlers jabbering, more interesting as they get older, as you get to hear what is in their hearts.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  32. Just heard a neat story from my sister (the mother of five who lost her husband a year and a half ago). She and her family heat with only wood, which can be a nuisance. Though they’re in the South (Alabama), it can still be hard to keep the house comfortably warm. For example, the other morning it was 45 and they had to work hard to get it up to 60. (Yeah, Mumsee, we know; they’re wimps.)

    Anyway, when winter was beginning she told me she was unable to buy wood through her usual source, and any other sources she tried were also dead ends,. She told her children that they only had six weeks worth of wood and thus could not start using it until January. Today she was talking about burning wood, and she didn’t sound like she was still on that conservation plan (we did pray that she would get more wood somehow), so I asked . . . and this is what she told me.

    One man who was a work acquaintance of her husband (not a co-worker, but one whose company did business with his company) tells my sister that the place still isn’t the same without him. He was known as a very kind, generous, intelligent man, and very well loved.

    Anyway, for some reason this man’s workplace couldn’t do their work one day since it was too cold for the equipment to operate, so they were sitting around chatting. And then this man said, “What are we doing, guys? We should be out there cutting up that big old oak tree for C’s family!” And of course this is a cold day, and they have a comfortable day off with pay. They had a fallen oak, a huge tree, that had laid on the ground about a year (seasoned wood) since no one had had a chance to deal with it. So they went out, cut up the wood (without telling my sister), delivered a trailer full of wood, and then refused to take even gas money. As far as I know these aren’t believers, but God used them to meet a genuine need in my sister’s family.

    So she has wood to heat her home, with some for next year too.

    Liked by 7 people

    Reply

  33. Yay! Has anyone else have this happen? I’ve noticed several times lately (and just remembered, and tried successfully now) that when I can’t post on here with multiple attempts, I can close the window, reopen the site, and then when I try again it posts right away.

    Anyway . . . that cardinal hussy in the header photo, I can’t figure out whether she has a bird cigar or she’s chewing on the feather of one of her enemies. (Actually I think it’s the husk of a sunflower seed or something more innocent like that, but it looks like a feather if you don’t look closely, and her expression matches perfectly.)

    Like

    Reply

  34. I guess the post at 7:36 seemed “out of context” since my “I have tried to post this multiple times and it won’t let me” line didn’t end up being in the text I’d copied to paste in later. But I did try all afternoon, half a dozen times over the course of several hours, to post that.

    Like

    Reply

  35. I must have many happy places. Sitting by the lake on a hot summer day, reading a good book, decorating for an event, eating chocolate, going for a drive with my husband, holding a precious baby (got to do that today), cuddling on the couch with my husband, playing with my animals, gardening, mowing the lawn (on my ride on mower), snowshoeing (did that today), watching large snowflakes drifting down, chatting with young adults, connecting with this group (thanks, AJ), fellowshipping with my friends, watching my children grow into responsible adults, and so many more places. I really have so much to be thankful for.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  36. What a blessing for your sister, Cheryl! As Christians, we know that God will provide for our needs. It is always amazing how, and who he uses to do that.

    Like

    Reply

  40. Southerners can be like that sometimes. 😉

    I would also say there is at Lear an 80% chance they are fine upstanding members of their local church. It being the south and all.

    Like

    Reply

  42. But not a wimp, Donna. You live in Los Angeles, A wimp would not live there. You are a reporter, so you go out in all sorts of weather and situations. Not a wimp. You visit sick the sick, you provide time to the lonely, not a wimp by my standard anyway. I look in the mirror and see a wimp but then I remember that is who God calls and He provides what is needed and it does not matter what I see, it is doing what He wants. You and I are part of a team, serving where we are called. Can’t beat that for contentment.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  43. Nice post, Mumsee.
    I am honored that God uses me in little ways.

    I remembered that I love to be out on a lake in my kayak. Just peacefully exploring and enjoying the wind, sun, and waves. Having a dragonfly land on my hand.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a reply to the real Aj Cancel reply