65 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 3-2-16”

  2. Even if she is a Clemson girl, you have to love Nikki Haley:

    Trump went after Haley, one of Rubio’s supporters, on Tuesday.

    “The people of South Carolina are embarrassed by Nikki Haley!” Trump tweeted.

    “Bless your heart” isn’t quite a nicety in the South. It’s more of a condescending way of dismissing someone.

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  7. I missed my own party! Thank you kindly for all your congratulations. And, no, I didn’t know it was the 100,000th comment, The Real added that to the comment. I needed cheering this morning, so thanks. It makes me feel nostalgic for the old races to 100. I remember my first one, in which I beat a certain Idahoan. 😀

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  9. Debate about what? The occasion stands out in my memory, because The Real in commenting upon my victory, referred to me using the male gender of the third person pronoun. I had been shy about revealing any personal information, being still new to the commenting world, but I felt it would be only honest to correct the error.

    Did you hurt your arm, Mumsee?

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  12. Since the celebration seems to be continuing, I may as well observe that sometime in February (I don’t have exact date) marked the fifth year I’ve spent hanging around you people. It has been a wonderful ride. I’ve learned a lot, had a few hair raising adventures (I’m sure some of my gray hairs are due to this blog) and generally lived life. One of you caused me to be detained and interrogated (though in fairness, it was her hubby who got me out again); while another of you dragged me halfway across the world and endangered my life with venomous snakes, unknown viruses with nasty symptoms, and asthma attacks (though in fairness, her sister made sure I got home all right). I count each of you as friends and still hope to meet you someday – although, considering my record for getting into trouble while meeting you people, maybe you would prefer that I stayed away. I thank you all. I wouldn’t have missed any of it, and I look forward to our continued conversations.

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  15. I don’t know when I started hanging around with this dysfunctional family. 🙂 It’s more than ten years, though. I moved to Nashville in spring 2003, and at some point I found an old post I had written within a couple of years of that date. I’ve only met three bloggers in person (one, EYG, no longer hangs around here), but also met family or pets of those three. And I’ve exchanged mail or phone calls with a few more, made tentative plans to meet several, and dreamed about several too.

    I’ve watched a young dog grow old. I had foster kids, and I watched them go back home. I was courted, married, and became a stepmom. I’ve lost a brother-in-law and a sister-in-law and gained many nieces and nephews (through birth, adoption, and marriage). I moved from a top-25 city into the country between a small town and a large-ish city. I started counting photos taken per year by the thousands, even the tens of thousands, instead of by the rolls. I edited a New York Times #1 best-seller, proofread other best-sellers, but have so far failed to launch my own best-sellers.

    I’ve watched your children grow from teens to young adults, from children to teens, and prayed for them.

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  16. But during that alleged victory, there was some significant arm twisting going on. And tripping. And shoving. Remember when we had to pull Donna in out of the water when she “slipped” off the dock?

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  22. I don’t remember what Mumsee is talking about, but I do remember when Donna almost ran me over trying to get to 100 before I did. All of a sudden, out of the darkness of the night, a Jeep with a dog barking out the window came flying along. I jumped just in time to get out of the way. I wasn’t hurt, just scratched from the bushes along the side of the road.

    And yesterday, I got a notification that I have been on WordPress for 8 years. I think I joined so I could comment on the old blog when WORLD switched to WordPress. Or it was to comment on Pauline’s blog.

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  25. Chas, it’s better that you weren’t there. Trust me. The sight of Tess growling at everyone who came near, and Donna sitting there crying with a huge lump on her head, was enough to bring your pet rock to tears.

    I was touched when Donna offered me $500 as part of what she saved when I sweet-talked the man out of quarantining Tess, and I suppose it was the memory loss that made her forget to pay, all these years.

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  27. Because it is a contest you know…
    Adios, Tammy, Mumsee, Mike (I had a cross country journey with Mike–a very gregarious man with lots of opinions and can out talk me!!!!) Linda, AJ, Ajuuson, Yapamom,AnnMS, KBells.
    I just might have plans to meet a few more of you soon. 😉
    I have also talked to several of you on the phone–Cheryl—I am talking about you!

    What cracks me up about this is that living along the Gulf Coast of Alabama you would think I would be the least likely to meet any of you. I am going to Etna, CA this summer if anyone lives near there. I have been told to fly into Sacramento, CA or Medford, OR.

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  29. If it’s a contest then you can call me a loser. I’ve been around almost since World started its blog, but I don’t travel much. If you’re ever coming near Ann Arbor let me know and we’ll try to meet up. (Is anyone else on here from the same area?)

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  31. I know precisely when I discovered World Magazine and its blog. I followed a link on Yasser Arafat. I searched when he died and that was November 11, 2004, so I found all of you on November 12th.

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  32. I feel left out. Someone forgot about last summer.

    And though it was 8 years ago I joined WordPress, I was a part of the old WMB starting on 2003. I think AJ, Chas, maybe Kevin and Michelle were there prior to my arrival.

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  33. I think I started reading this blog in 2008. I was going to college and working out of town. I went to the World Magazine website to order a subscription for one of my children and found the blog. I followed. I usually don’t have a lot to say, preferring to listen. During that time, I went to work for a different company, worked in several different areas of my state, met and married my husband, moved back home, youngest daughter married, gave birth to a son, had 4 grandchildren live with us for 3 years, welcomed 6 new grandchildren, began school again in a different discipline. I have prayed for each of you as you journey through life. I appreciate your prayers also.

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  34. I don’t remember joining the WorldMagBlog. I do remember running for president in 2008, so it must have been well before that. I think I remember commenting on our 50th anniversary reception in 2007. If so, I was here before June 2007.

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  35. I just got an email from Carson to supporters in which he said he will not be in the debate in his hometown of Detroit. He will be making a statement at CPAC about future plans. Maybe Mumsee got the same email.

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  36. Yes, Michelle, but a family member of the person I’m meeting has always had to bail me out 😉

    I guess technically I’ve met three of you, if we are counting Mike, and what is more, he is the only one who has met my family, my extended family – which is an experience in itself.

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  38. I was president of our local Lions club 2006-2007, and I remember commenting on that. So, that means I have been here over ten years.
    I was a young man back then.

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  40. I started with World Mag back in 98? Maybe? Maybe 97 or 96. We were at West Point and left there in 98. The blog was probably while we were in Greece but maybe not until Italy. Somewhere from 2004 to 2006. My first involvement was when I asked about infant baptism. Jane Doe was there. Who was she?

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  44. Chas- You’re as young as you feel. And you’re younger than my dad who turns 90 next week. He plans on coming out here from Arizona twice in two months. He’s going to fly to my daughter’s wedding in May, then he and my step-mom (76 yrs old) are taking the train to get here in July for a family reunion. They came two years ago and we thought we would not see them out here again.

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  45. To break all of this solemnity I went searching once again for this song. I really wanted the Julie Andrew’s version but had to settle for Bing Crosby

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  50. December 2003. I started working the next month, January 2004, and with those two changes my whole idea of what Christians are like took a real beating.

    Not because of WorldMagBloggers, per se, but from others–and certainly none of you! 🙂

    It was excellent practice for preparing my own blog in 2010, and working on the business blog for our agency in 2009. I’ve posted from four different continents! 🙂

    But, I learned early on to be positive, assume people cannot tell when I’m kidding and pretty much to only joke about myself. I’ve learned a lot about keeping my mouth shut in public–though not enough among family–from blogging. 🙂

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  51. When did the WorldMagBlog begin? I checked it out as soon as it was launched, & began commenting a few months later.

    In that time, I have finished taking care of my Alzheimer’s-afflicted MIL, & my own mom when she had cancer, lost both of my parents & my MIL (FIL died a long time ago), had my daughters grow up, gained a grandson, went through lots of personal/family trials (including Lee’s battle with prostate cancer), got two dogs (not at the same time), had two cats & one of the dogs pass on, got two other cats (again, not at the same time), been in & out of depression a couple times or more, have learned a lot about various Christian doctrines, have tweaked my own beliefs a bit, & have grown in many ways.

    Thank you all for having been a part of my life all these years.

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  52. The subject of adult coloring books has come up on here before. A Facebook-&-real-life friend shared an article that said that many adult coloring books have these intricate circular patterns called mandalas, & that simply by coloring them one can supposedly open the door to demons. Now, this sweet lady sometimes shares things that are off-the-wall, like the Christian site that claims that the sun really does orbit the Earth, & not the other way around.

    Has anyone heard anything about mandalas, & if so, do you think there is any actual danger in coloring these pretty designs, or is this idea just some crazy “Christian” hooey?

    A mandala is used in tantric Buddhism as an aid to meditation. They meditate on the image until they are saturated by it. They believe that you can merge with the deity by meditating on the mandala. “A mandala is also visualized (dhyana) by the yogin whose aim it is to merge with the deity.”

    Focusing on mandalas is a spiritual practice where you merge with “deities”–this practice opens the door to demons.

    The thing is, how is the devil going to get Christians to meditate on mandalas?

    No Christian would put one in their house and sit and stare at it for an hour, chanting the sacred word!

    But if the enemy can get a Christian to stare at a mandala because they are coloring it, he can have them absentmindedly focus their attention on the image and they will unknowingly open up their subconscious to this image in almost the same way. . .

    “You can think of the mandala as being energetically alive, a means of creating a pathway to a desired state of being. What state of being do you desire to create? Maybe you want to experience inner peace or maybe you simply want to use the circular pattern to express your artistry. For whatever purpose you choose to work with the mandala, know that you can achieve it through mandala coloring.

    Imagine yourself with your mandala coloring pages in front of you. All you have to do is set your intention and awaken your mandalas by infusing them with color. It’s that simple and that powerful.”

    https://thelasthiker.wordpress.com/2016/02/16/adult-coloring-books-and-mandalas/

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  53. Long day for me and it’s not over yet — I’m heading out to a 6 p.m. meeting next (following an afternoon news conference and writing a very long story before that.

    All about an LA waterfront development that was being unveiled at the news conference and tonight’s meeting, but thankfully I was able to interview the mayor, councilman & developer yesterday by phone so I got a head start on the story in exchange for promising to embargo it until 2:30 today.

    May have to tweak the story some out of tonight’s meeting, though.

    Tired. But the worst is over. I think.

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  55. Karen, it might work that way for some people, but if you are meditating on the Word, how can it do that to you? It is just an inanimate object. If you think it does that, shouldn’t use the book. I don’t have one. I have lots of other color books though….Thomas the Tank for one.

    My years since entering the blog world? Went from empty nesting to not and headed back again with only six left. Though there is always a need for foster care in today’s drug saturated society……

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  58. Mumsee – Supposedly, the focus one gives to the design as one is coloring it will somehow open one’s spirit to the possibility because one can get into a trance-like state (kind of like hypnosis). Although I don’t have one of those books myself, I think the designs are very pretty. I am apt to just dismiss this as more of my friend’s crazy ideas.

    But I am asking for other views, too. There are those who say hypnosis opens our minds/spirits to the possibility of letting something dangerous in, & there are those who disagree. There are those who think yoga is merely a great form of relaxing stretches, & others who think it is too closely connected to the Hindu religion. I like to read the differing views.

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  59. Karen, no, I don’t think one can let in demons in such a way. Nevertheless, for a bunch of reasons I will not but or use items that are based on a false religion (yoga, totem poles, etc.), even “Christianized” versions of them. There are plenty of patterned coloring books that don’t make those religious claims, and plenty of nature ones as well, and I’d be inclined to put my money toward those.

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  61. I first discovered World around 1998 or 99 by reading a copy of the mag at my physical therapist’s office. Lynn Vincent had an article in about Cali’s recent vote defending traditional marriage. So yeah, a long time ago. 🙂

    Anyway I subscribed, and discovered they had a website, so I checked it out, enjoyed it, so I decided to stick around for a decade or so. The comment section was the wild west back then. 🙂

    I’ve known some of you for a decade, or close to it. Others, not as long. Some I’ve had the pleasure to meet face to face, some not. But I consider you all a friend and have been greatly blessed to have made your acquaintances. You’re quite a bunch. That’s why I do this. You folks are worth it. 🙂

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  62. Karen, symbols like the mandala are nothing more than an drawn assortment of lines and circles, unless one chooses to assign it a deeper meaning and seek a spiritual power through it. That isn’t something you can do unconsciously or involuntarily. One doesn’t accidentally conjure up spirits. If it was the circle of intricate designs itself which carried so much power, than the lace doily must be occult: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pa%C5%A1ka_%C4%8Dipka.JPG?uselang=en-ca. Designs can carry a lot of similarity across cultures, because certain shapes lend themselves to the imagination. One culture may assign an occult meaning, while another simply views it as a good symbol or design. Take the ankh, which looks like a cross with a loop at the top. It is associated mostly with the Ancient Egyptians, as a symbol of the Nile and of life. Used in their art, it appears in the hands of their deities, and it was and is used as an amulet (I saw someone in the village wearing one in their ear). Yet, on the ancient seal which has recently been confirmed as a seal of King Hezekiah of Judah, there are two symbols of the Ankh: http://www.worldmag.com/2016/01/sealed_evidence. Now if there was something Hezekiah did not put up with, it was occult practices, even going so far as to destroy Moses’ bronze serpent because it was being worshipped. Yet, he used the Ankh on his seal. Obviously, it had no occult significance to him, despite its pagan Egyptian associations. It is just a symbol, and has no power in itself. Power comes from charms because the people wearing them have willingly subjected themselves to spiritual influence, not from any power the substance that the charm is made from has in itself. In West Africa, sometimes a bead necklace could be a charm; on the other hand, sometimes it was just for decoration. It all depended on the reason the necklace was made and purchased.

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  63. There’s a new dog coloring book that helps raise funds for shelters. 🙂

    But I have no time for coloring these days. … Just tweaked my story after sitting in that meeting for 90 minutes; could have added 20 more inches to an already super-long piece. But I held it to just a couple graphs, which made my editor happy.

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