44 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 6-13-16”

  2. The weather is suppose to be hitting near the record today, close to 100 °. I will probably turn on the AC, finally, and hope it works.

    Our son did an exchange type study for a week at a college in Victoria, BC. He thinks that is one of the most beautiful places he has ever seen. He sent me a few photos which were lovely and of course made me wishful of being there, too.

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  6. I have something that is supposedly called trypophobia (fear of of irregular patterns or clusters of small holes or bumps), which isn’t exactly accurate because I don’t fear them, they just creep me out. Today’s picture falls into that category.

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  9. Good Morning…my first thought was “ewww someone spit on a leaf!” The upside down lady bug photo is quite charming though 🙂
    Overcast and foggy this morning…the smells outside are heavenly…wish I didn’t have to go into town to work!
    We tried turning on the AC on Saturday…two days prior the furnace was still running! Nothing worked….steady green and red lights indicate there is a control failure…need to call the heating company who put in our new expensive furnace this past December and get them out here…ugh!

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  10. Bubble wrap doesn’t bother me; mostly it’s holes. But this stuff does. Also (sort of funny) the tail lights on some of the new cars are creepy. Check them out – they look like holes.

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  13. Ding-ding-ding, Mumsee got it. I actually didn’t even see the insect hiding in there. It’s called a spittle bug, and it covers itself with that stuff to hide from predators. I never saw the “spit” until this summer, but I knew immediately what it was, having read about them. If it didn’t look so much like spit, it would actually be pretty. And the leaves it’s on are a very pretty green.

    I like the ladybug picture better, myself, but I thought the spittlebug “spit” was fascinating stuff. One more example of the endless variety in this world God created!

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  16. Just read the first few paragraphs and learn why I named my 12 Brides town after Kim’s home town!

    Home

    Congrats to you, Jo! 🙂 I like an inbox reading 0.

    I’m laughing because after a very busy weekend with all sorts of loved ones flying hither and yon, I told the Lord this morning, “thank you everyone is back into place and not flying until tomorrow”– which, I suppose for me is true, if not Jo!

    Safe travels.

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  17. Happy Monday everyone.

    I have a busy week ahead — only one of my coyote stories (the shorter one) ran today, in part due to the Orlando attacks (which also carried an LA connection) that shook up our front page lineups.

    But that gives me a chance to call back the researcher I interviewed for just a couple followup questions I really think need to be answered (if I can figure out a way to include more information without expanding the story length — again — too much).

    I also need to relaunch my efforts to connect with house workers — I’m just going to start with the roof — and get some of these repairs going.

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  18. Well, well, well, don’t I feel special?

    This guy, Ronnie Freeman, was on staff at JH Ranch last week. I think he and his family will be there all summer. This is a song he wrote while they were living in Germany.

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  19. Some people sure know how to twist scripture. Last week, YF shared a blog post from the Progressive Christian section of Patheos that claimed that Jesus was not a pacifist. I read it, thinking it might be about “just war” or defending oneself or something like that.

    Instead, after citing the Old Testament wars, & the part in Revelation about Jesus coming back on with a sword in His mouth (& I forget what else he cited), he wrote about how oppression is a form of violence by the privileged against the oppressed. Because that oppression is a form of violence, the oppressed have Jesus’ approval to fight against it by rioting.

    Rioting?! Really?

    What this young man forgets is that the battles in the OT were for a specific purpose that had to do with the nation of Israel.

    In the NT, the privileged people were the Romans, & the oppressed were the Jews & Christians (as well as others). Roman soldiers had the authority to force a person to carry their equipment for a mile. And yet, Jesus said that when they were forced to go a mile, they should go two miles. If forced to give up their cloak, they should give up their tunic also. (And of course, there are many other scriptures about loving our enemies & doing good to them.)

    That reminded me of something I read a while back about the issue of whether or not Christian bakers should bake cakes for gay weddings or not. The author used the verses I referred to, & others, to make a case for baking the cake, or taking the wedding photos, or providing the flowers, that Jesus would approve, not disapprove of one doing so. I have to say I agree, but I also do not agree with using the law to force business owners to do so.

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  20. Karen, I usually agree with you on many things, but as far as Jesus participating in a gay marriage ceremony by providing service for it I think not, especially when he threw the money changers out of the temple and said it should be a house of prayer. I think both Christian and gay business owners have a right to refuse to serve anyone who requires a level of service that is diametrically opposed to their long held religious or lack of religious beliefs. I think a wedding style cake could be baked and frosted and received in its basic form and then decorated by someone who holds the same views as the couple getting married, IMHO😇

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  21. Nice words and music, Kim. And yesterday the sub pastor did a sermon about going through the storms of life. About thirty of our church members are gone on a missions trip so our regular pastor was not there.

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  22. http://www.russellmoore.com/2016/06/12/orlando-can-still-weep-together/

    We woke up Sunday morning to news of the worst mass shooting in American history, as a terrorist murdered and injured over a hundred people in a gay nightclub in Orlando. In the aftermath, we’ve seen some of the best aspects of America: people lining up, for example, to give blood for the victims. We’ve also seen some of the worst—as the aftermath turned into an excuse for social media wars over everything from gun control to presidential politics. What I wonder is whether the country still has the capacity to grieve, together, in moments of national crisis.

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  23. I am really over all of it. If you don’t want to provide a service for someone, simply tell them that you are not available on that date or you are already booked. Typically you reserve a wedding photographer or cake maker months in advance.
    I have never refused to sell a property to anyone based on my religious views and I sign an ethics and Fair Housing form that says I will not discriminate against anyone based on race, religion, sex, familial status, whether or not they are handicapped in any way and now they have added sexual orientation to it. My view is that everyone’s money is green. I need to make a living and am in no position to turn anyone down.
    Does that mean that I have never refused to work with someone? No. I have told several potential buyers or sellers that I do not think I am the agent for them. One happened to be a single mother. She was determined to buy a foreclosure and wanted to lowball every offer she made. After showing her several properties I explained I didn’t think I was the right agent for her and I referred her to another agent.
    One of our Qualifying Broker’s refuses to work with attorneys. They try to micromanage and re-write every contract. He tells them that it is his policy not to work with lawyers. He has yet to be sued for it.
    I now prefer not to work foreclosures or short sales. I will be happy to refer you to an agent that specializes in those transactions.

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  25. While I did not get the full reaction I wanted to get from BG in taking her to JH Ranch, a door has been opened and that is all I can do. We spent the week together and did a lot of talking. One of the hardest things was asking her
    Have I ever hurt you?
    What is the one thing you would change about me?

    We also did a trust walk where she was blindfolded. I was to tell her

    I will never lie to you
    You can trust me
    You can ask me anything
    Listen only to my voice

    She did great until the end when the facilitator came over and offered to help her down a hill. She was to listen only to my voice. We had to go through more of it. The next time she only listened to me.
    We did something called the Odysey where we were hooked to a wire overhead and we walked out on wires about 15-20 (ok, for real it was like 50 or 100 ft off the ground—or at least it looked that high from up there). I am not good with heights and have trust issues. Those ropes could have been frayed, the “lobster” claw could fail, any number of scenarios could have happened that wouldn’t have a chance of happening if I stayed on the ground.
    BG got about 2 feet off the platform and panicked. She started crying. She was terrified. I was behind her with my hands on her shoulders. There was no choice. I had to go into Mommy Mode. I couldn’t be afraid. I had to tell her she was OK, She could do this. Don’t look down. Look straight ahead. Put one foot in front of the other. I’ve got you. You aren’t going to fall. As we crossed the three sections of this wire walking, platform hopping, the mothers were told they could not speak, The daughters had to tell us where to step and what to do to get through the criss-crossed wires and ropes. She even sat on one of the ropes to weigh it down so I could crawl over it.
    On another course, I did not do it. Another mother asked if I was going to do that course and I told her no, my calling was to stay on the ground and encourage BG so that she would not have my fears. A few minutes later that mother came back to me and told me that I helped her realize her daughter did not need to compete with her and she (the mother) needed to stay on the ground and encourage her daughter. (Glad to be of service),
    We also hiked up the side of a mountain and went river rafting.
    Northern California is breath-takingly beautiful.

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  26. Kim, I agree with your selling to anyone. No problem. But if they required you to put a banner up in the front yard saying that you choose to disregard your faith and beliefs in God and celebrate with them everything they will do in the house, that to me is what they are equivalently doing to people in the wedding business. It is not the same as selling real estate. Also, it is not the same as filing a tax return which is a legal requirement rather than considered a celebration. In fact some of the newly marrieds may be dismayed to find out they owe more under their new status. That is not cause to celebrate! (except maybe for the government and Uncle Sam having a new source for revenue).

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  27. I suspect the debate in this country (about businesses vs. religious conscientious objection on such matters, etc.) has already been won (or lost, depending on your viewpoint).

    I’m over it for the most part. It’s all been simply so exhausting.

    That said, our pastor was reiterating yesterday (in SS) that Christians need to exhibit wisdom & love while not shirking from stating biblical truths — yes, even when it comes to homosexuality, and yes, even in secular circles.

    I confess I now entirely avoid the subject matter.

    And Moore’s suggestion is correct, we, as a nation, no longer have the capacity to find any kind of unity about anything.

    Feeling disgruntled today …

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  28. I do suspect there will be more general (and even official) pressure on churches in the near future to keep their viewpoints out of the public square and strictly to themselves.

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  31. Praying, Jo. I received your newsletter but could not open it at the time. I am on slow download until the 19th so many things take too long right now. I use up all my fast Internet time pretty quickly and for at least half the month I am doing a slow drag with online content. Funny to think back that I believe a ‘slow drag’ use to be what we called a very slow dance. Am I remembering correctly?

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  33. Well, the black cat is doing his part to protect us from those attack weasels mentioned by somebody earlier. He killed a young one in the front yard. Interesting because I was sure I saw a large one in the back yard this morning. About time to let the dogs out, I suppose. Gather up the chickens, shoot the guineas, shoot or catch the rabbits, and release the dogs. Sounds like a lot of work for something the cat can handle. Though he does kill the rabbits also. And the birds. Haven’t seen him take out any chickens or turkeys or guineas. Yet. He does take care of snakes, though. I had to rescue a gray racer from him the other day, though.

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  34. I am DONE with my bedroom organizing project, and now I can call it a bedroom again instead of a bedroom-slash-storeroom! 🙂 (Attention Mumsee: No need to come over here now!) 😀

    Ample amounts of floor space again, without worry of tripping on anything. Papers to file gone from the room. No off-season or outgrown kids clothes in there anymore. No toys. No homeschool stuff. Just a bed, dresser, two tables, a lovely old chest, and a closet with two shelves that contain items organized in clear plastic tubs, etc. instead of a bunch of stuff that used to regularly lean and fall off the shelves into open boxes of miscellany below.

    We do still have boxes of photos and some albums stored along one wall, but that is where my husband wants them, so that is where we’ll keep them.

    Bach, Beethoven, Dvorak, Mozart and Vivaldi CDs got me through the marathon, days-length project. A final dusting and sweeping around 4:30 this afternoon, and then I sat down on my bed and surveyed the room as the final strains of Beethoven’s final piano sonata faded into the distance.

    Ah, it feels so good. 🙂

    And now I’m ready to go on a lovely mini-vacation tomorrow with that dear hubby of mine for our 30th anniversary.

    God is good. So very good.

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  35. Wait! Before you go, since you are so good at it now, how about you come over here and finish my started but not yet finished bedroom cleaning project? Sounds great to me! See you soon.

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  36. I have respect for Christian business owners who feel led to decline to service a same-sex wedding. But I also respect those who would feel that by offering their services they are “going the extra mile”.

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  37. Everybody has to find how God calls them personally to serve, Karen.

    I just saw on Facebook that a friend from grammar and high school has lost 67 pounds without exercising! Wow, what an awesome thing to hear. I saw her a few years back and she still looked good even with the extra weight. I am thinking how good she must feel to not be toting around almost seventy pounds each and every moment of every day.

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  38. Well, Mumsee, we’re headed southward a bit, but maybe if we veer a little westward, oh, say, several hundred or a thousand miles or some tiny bit, we might see you in about…

    What did you need me to do again? . . . 😉

    Janice, I enjoyed reading your guest post. My writing music for the piano has been a similar process to what you describe.

    I’ve mainly only composed short works over the years, but I’m working on a longer composition now, incorporating some of the tools I’ve used in my shorter pieces, but am expanding them in a broader framework, if that makes sense. I work on it in sections as time allows and when I’m hearing in my head more of the tune, rhythms, harmonies and textures I want to use for this particular piece.

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  40. Mumsee, one of the things I found while cleaning out my room was a printout I’d done of your posts about Mike when he was so ill last year. I’d copied and pasted onto WordPad, then printed them and tucked them into my nightstand drawer so I’d have a reminder of what all you’d mentioned, and could pray specifically in a quiet area of the house.

    What a wonderful answer to prayer, to see how God has worked in his life since that grim time. Seeing that prayer reminder was an excellent opportunity to pause and praise the Lord for His unfailing mercies.

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  41. Roscuro, have you read the book Words Without Music: A Memoir, by Philip Glass? I thought of you when I saw it on the shelves at a local bookstore, because you’d mentioned his name before and introduced me to music from the film The Hours when you posted a link to a performance of one of the pieces from it.

    The book is also in our library system, so I requested it, and it just came in for me today. I’m looking forward to reading it. Glass sounds like an interesting person to me, and I’m finding it rather fascinating of late to try to get into the heads of different composers and read about their thought processes, especially as it relates to composing.

    And on another note, I did something very unusual in that I bought a book without first checking it out from the library to read. It is by contemporary composer Bruce Adolphe, whose original piano puzzlers (heard on Performance Today) I love. The book is called The Mind’s Ear, and I ordered it from Barnes & Noble. Should be coming in this week.

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  43. Exciting news for a former piano student, the daughter of a good friend of mine. She came back home for her youngest brother’s high school graduation, and I got to talk at some length with her this weekend at the grad party.

    She is finishing up her second master’s degree (the first was in clarinet performance, the second in ethnomusicology or something related) in Albuquerque, and has taken a great interest in researching and performing klezmer music the last couple years.

    Kind of for fun, not thinking it would really go anywhere, as there are klezmer experts who have been researching/performing the music for decades, compared to her relatively brief studies and performing in that genre, she decided to submit an abstract on klezmer music for consideration for a conference next month in Germany on Yiddish Music — Historically Informed Performance. http://yiddishsummer.eu/special/conference-yhip.html

    Much to her surprise and delight, her paper was accepted, and she was invited to present her research at the Conference! Her hotel and catering was fully paid for for the conference week, as well as half her travel costs.

    She knows several people around the world who are big names in klezmer circles, and is so excited to be a part of this Conference. We all back here in small-town/rural USA who know and love this young woman are very thrilled for her!

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