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Our Daily Thread 5-4-15

Good Morning!

On this day in 1471 the Yorkists defeated the Landcastrians at the battle of Tewkesbury in the War of the Roses.

In 1626 Dutch explorer Peter Minuit landed on Manhattan Island.

In 1776 Rhode Island declared its freedom from England two months before the Declaration of Independence was adopted.

In 1942 the United States began food rationing.

And in 1970 Ohio National Guardsmen opened fire on students during an anti-Vietnam war protest at Kent State University. Four students were killed and nine others were wounded.

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Quote of the Day

“Learn what is true in order to do what is right.”

Thomas Huxley

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 Today is Dick Dale’s birthday. 

And some protest music.

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Anyone have a QoD?

40 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 5-4-15”

  8. Did a little tweak of my piano lesson policy this morning, and thought through some new ways to conduct my prospective student and parent interview I do before registering students. I think the interviews went a bit too long, so I’ve written out a little “cheat sheet” of highlights from my lesson policy I want to hit in the interview, and not try to cover so much ground at the interview itself.

    A free mini-lesson for the students, if they wish to play a piece for me, is part of what I offer at the interview, so keeping the interview succinct helps the children not have to sit so long before their part. This is especially important when the children are little (and if the family has brought along one or more younger siblings of the prospective student, which was the case with one of my current families who started last fall).

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  9. We had one of these birds hit our window this morning. It clung to the edge of the porch for a bit, apparently waiting to be able to see straight again. I scolded her through the window, since they tend to leave behind feathers or worse on the window when they hit. 😉

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  10. I was wondering about Dick Dale being on the Lawrence Welk (!?) show — but the video is actually from the Ed Sullivan (more like it) show. 🙂 I recognize the instrumental part from “oldies” radio, but not the words which I don’t think were part of the actual song (other than his performance there). Music and fashions changed dramatically by the mid 1960s.

    I remember Kent State well, I was a college freshman that year. It was very big news that sparked demonstrations even on our sleepy, laid-back SoCal campus.

    Well, busy Monday ahead for me, I’m meeting up to do another story involving the Zamperini family (son & grandson are flying into our local airport on a vintage replica WWII plane like Louie was in); then I have two late/night meetings I need to choose between covering, one on the homeless, another on possible groundwater leaks under the cliffs … Also competing night meetings on Wednesday, plus a morning meeting that day, too.

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  11. I was never a big Star Wars fan for some reason — I saw all the movies, well all did back then, but it didn’t seem to have the effect on me that it did on others. They were good, but I moved on from them easily …

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  12. Pastor Steve was preaching from Phil. 3 yesterday. He emphasized Phil. 3:12-13 in which Paul said he had not yet attained perfection, but he wasn’t looking back. He was pressing forward. Which, of course Pastor Steve was urging us to do.
    Not to argue his point, it is well taken. But it occurred to me that many of us in the 8:30 congregation were doing our best just to keep up.
    Seriously. There are many things we would like to do but it is past time.
    I thought of Billy Graham sitting in his house in Montreat. He likely watches some of his sermons on channel 16. But it is past. He is only trying to keep up.
    Pressing forward is the best goal. But keeping up may be a good fall back position.

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  14. We found a dead male cardinal lying next to our Suburban in our driveway. Must have hit one of the windows. There were a few tiny, reddish scattered feathers in the vicinity.

    And we’re also trying to figure out why the windshield of a car we have in the yard has a spectacularly huge crack, spreading spiderweb-like across much of the glass. There’s no broken glass in or on the car, but something must have hit it pretty good.

    No one seems to know what happened. If a big bird had hit it, we thought we would probably see it lying dead in the area. We doubt it could have survived the impact. And there are no feathers in the area.

    We had a big storm roll through the area last night, and I wondered if something blew into it, but a couple of the children are saying they saw the damage early yesterday morning.

    Human hands? I’m guessing not — nobody here participates in activities that sometimes end with broken windows.

    It’s a mystery. At least it was a car that is on its way to the junkyard anyway.

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  15. Kathaleena a woodpecker can only cling to something vertically. They cannot “sit” on the ground like a regular bird.
    6Arrows A lot of birds will fight with their reflection. We used to have the Crazy Cardinal that would fight the Cardinal he saw in the glass of the back door. He also fought the one he saw in the neighbors side mirror of his Mercury Marquis

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  16. Kim, we’ve had a cardinal and a nuthatch fight their reflections before, too. Haven’t seen that happen for a number of years now.

    Could a bird attacking its reflection put a huge crack in a windshield? I have to wonder. Maybe it it’s a woodpecker. They can sure hammer away with a lot of force.

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  19. BTW, the “Learning to Listen” program is one hour in length. I don’t know if it can be accessed at a different time (archived) or not.

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  20. My daughter lives in Boulder, which rests against the Rockies. She had a broken back window that looked like someone took a hammer to it. When we called the police and they came, they said they have seen it before that the air pressure can do that to a window. There was glass inside and out. They recommended always leaving a window slightly cracked.

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  21. It would seem I am dominating this thread — 10 of the first 20 comments are mine. I shall hereby sign off for the day. And it’s still morning here!

    Blessings.

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  23. My folks had a car window break out from overheating and this was in Northern Minnesota. However, it was years ago. It had been out in the sun for several days. The glass was all crackled however and beautiful. Not in a spider web style.

    That looks like a Flicker to me and we have them on the ground all the time eating ants or other bugs. It may have been perched on a bush, but just looked like it was clinging to the cement edge of the porch.

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  24. Yep, the header photo is a northern flicker. They are a woodpecker, but eat ants almost exclusively, and are found on the ground more often than on a tree. they will come to suet occasionally, but not as often as other woodpeckers (in my personal experience). That one seems to be after the peanut butter or suet smeared on the tree.

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  25. So I broke down and bought the Konmari Method book. I liked some of what she wrote but I like more of the Flylady daily methods. What I liked about Konmari was getting all of one thing sorted and thrown away rather than doing it 15 minutes at a time. There is more of a feeling of accomplishment. I have been culling for about 10 or so years now and am down to mostly things that I do not want to part with. I still have too much china, crystal, etc but when it is all unpacked and I can use it, it makes me happy. I have boxes of things the are BG’s that I saved. She has a collection of Cherished Teddies and some other things. I may let her go through those boxes and ….nah, probably not.
    I do have about 80 or so Madame Alexander Dolls that I could probably set free….

    Now, Mr P on the other hand has lots he could set free, including a mismatched set of dishes that he is saving in case middle our youngest son want them. Middle is a Marine and can buy what he wants and youngest already has a roommate and a house. They are his things though and as much as I would like to, I won’t do anything with them.

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  26. Lotsa things here.
    Kim that is unfortunate, but wise on your part. He will eventually do nothing with that stuff, but it’s emotionally valuable to him. Just go along with it.. Elvera has a big plant her deceased sister had. She is nursing it along all these years. I wish it would die. She wouldn’t mind. She feels obliged.

    The house we had in Annandale had a sunroom, almost all glass on the western side.
    There were also lots of trees behind our house. Those trees reflected the woods. Birds flying along would fly into the glass because they were flying into trees. Not often, but it did happen.

    Modern car windows are not likely to be broken by a bird flying into it, unless the car is going very fast. Something else probably happened.

    Cheryl, that’s why I used Billy Graham as an illustration. Out of all the work he’s done, he’s doing nothing now. It must be hard on him. Dr. Jones, my former SS teacher was a WW II chaplain, pastored churches in Ky. & Beaufort, SC. He retired and moved to Hendersonville, his birthplace. He scaled down his ministry, but kept teaching SS. Now, about 95, he barely makes it. He’s trying to keep up, but is gradually losing out.
    I used to go out preaching, I went on mission trips, I worked in VBS. I taught SS. I was a deacon. I’m not completely useless now, but I’m barely hanging in there.
    If I went on a mission trip, they would soon offer to pay my way back.
    Billy Graham, Dr. Jones and I spend a lot of time in prayer and reading the Bible.
    Trying to prevent being useless.
    Just trying to keep up.

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  27. Keeping up. I admire older folk who have taken on the work of prayer and Bible reading. I really appreciate it when they chat with me and share a bit of what they have learned. It is often difficult to get them to, but worthwhile when they do. I don’t think it is really keeping up, I think it is shepherding the flock through prayer and Biblical guidance as well as life guidance. It is the next step, the one just short of being there. Spending time with God. Amazing.

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  28. Seems to me that Bible reading & prayer, & continuing to grow in wisdom & maturity, is also a way of pressing forward, perhaps the most important.

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  29. Chas, I suspected that was what you meant, but didn’t want to assume. Thanks.

    The church service my husband and I attended Sunday (not in our own church, but in Michigan) had a man celebrating his 100th birthday. It’s pretty rare for anyone to make it that long, especially a man, and for him to be “out and about” puts him in a really tiny category. It may well be that the only thing he can do is swallow his food and let someone else dress him. Or maybe he still drives and he’s the one who cooks and cleans the house. Not knowing him, I have no idea. (He was behind us, so I couldn’t see whether he stood when the congregation sang, whether he sang, etc.) One of my brothers knows an 83-year-old woman who flies once a month to where her 107-year-old mother lives, so she can catch up on housework and yardwork that her mother is no longer able to do without periodic help! But most 83-year-olds need some help of their own.

    My father-in-law is most likely at the end of his life. He has more and more things going wrong all the time. He has been a busy, involved man all his life, but now he can’t do much. (He can still walk with a walker or a cane, participate in conversations some, etc.) He’s very upset that his doctors (with the prompting of his family) have forbidden him to drive. He may feel useless, I don’t know. Right now he can’t be an active teacher. But he can still demonstrate someone waiting on God, he can still pray, he can still encourage, he can still demonstrate love to his family in little ways. (Now when I hug him goodbye at the end of a visit, he kisses me on the cheek. He hasn’t done that before, not till about the last two months. But I spent 30 years without a father, and now for a time I have one again. It matters.)

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  30. I have to believe that God uniquely uses all stages of our lives.

    When I was telling a Christian friend about how sad I was that my 82-year-old friend Norma’s cat had to be put down — right when Norma was embarking on what likely could be her final months of life — the friend said God may be clearing away all those distractions as it is time for her to go deeper with him right now. Just her and him. Made sense. But I can certainly appreciate that it would be a difficult transition.

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  32. Another truck incident. This time we received five large boxes (bushel size) of gala apples and pears for eight dollars per box. Pretty reasonable. They won’t last long around here.

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  34. I sometimes wonder if too much emphasis is put on the doing things for God rather than the being with Him.

    Today I had to go to the dentist for the 6 month cleaning and checkup. No x-rays or any extras and it was right over $180.00. Is that about the norm in other areas? I did not have any cavities. I have pretty good teeth. Not as good as Miss Bosley’s though!

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  37. I think that more of our focus as Christians should be on being rather than doing. There’s a reason why Jesus said that Mary had chosen the better thing over Martha. Obviously there is a time for doing, but even our doing should be rooted in being. If we do without spending time with the Lord then we are just flailing away in our own strength. So when we reach the place of not being able to physically do much any more, the being remains. And it is what is real.

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  38. This topic is one that I’ve had to face a time or two. For many years my identity in Christ was based more on what I was doing for Him rather that the truth of who I am in Him. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome sent me into a tail spin because in my eyes I lost my identity. I had been more focused on doing things for God than actually being with Him. I’m wrestling with it again as I look at being here in the U.S. another 6 months without a schedule of things to do. I think now it’s more the pressure I feel (whether real or imagined) from others to justify why I’m staying in the U.S. so long.

    For those who don’t get my prayer letter, I will be in the U.S. until at least October. The mission doctor is not willing to give me clearance to return to The Gambia right now. So my “job” for the next 6 months is to rest and try to lose weight and build strength.

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