Please Read "Silver"

Last evening I spent quite a while visiting many of the SkyWatch Friday posts from around the globe. Because traveling is not a part of my life, I appreciate being able to visit other locales vicariously through beautiful photos on the internet. But, it also means I don't get other tasks done, such as.......creating the next day's blog post. Not that that's the end of the world or anything; skipping days is certainly no big deal.

Yesterday, because of hog-calling, I ended up linking to a story on the Prairie Home Companion website.......that story being entitled, Florabelle Oxley, written by the author of the blog, rhymeswithplague. I'm honored that he frequents my blog! He has another story on the PHC site.......it is entitled, Silver..........and I wish you would read it. He's a gifted writer, in my opinion, his stories well-crafted with superb descriptions, and his wit makes my head spin!

Click here to go to the story, Silver, on the Prairie Home Companion website!

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Have a great day!

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Florabelle Oxley

My previous post inadvertantly evolved to include the subject of hog-calling and ended with a request for readers to comment on their own hog-calling skills. The witty author of the blog, "rhymeswithplague", obliged and mentioned in his comment that he had discussed hog-calling in a story he submitted to the Prairie Home Companion website awhile back. The name of his entertaining tale there is Florabelle Oxley, and definitely is worth reading!!

Milkweed & Pears Book

Why, why, why........I've uploaded this photo three times and it keeps loading sideways. Thus, here's a cockeyed view of Swamp Milkweed, Asclepias incarnata, growing in our road ditch. The scientific name is intriguing........Asclepias comes from the name of the Greek god of healing and medicine, and incarnata from the Latin word for "flesh". I think this particular milkweed has gorgeous color......rivaling the rosy-est rose!! (The color in the photo is unaltered.)

Milkweeds of various sorts were used medicinally by native peoples, and also served as food. The flower blossoms were stewed and eaten like preserves. Here's a informative paragraph from Wildflowers of the Tallgrass Prairie by Runkel and Roosa: "Milkweeds are characteristic of the prairie ecosystem. Some are exceedingly rare----the presence of these and other prairie plants gives ecologists the information needed to determine the quality of the prairie."

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"Summer breeze.....makes me feel fine"------at the bottom of this blog is a music playlist, including that Seals & Crofts song, popular in my high school days, which is playing as I type this! You can click on the songs to hear them. Cool, cool, cool! (Especially if your internet connection is fast!) By listening to certain songs on the list-----my favorites of long ago-----I can feel instantly young again!!! Its totally delusional, of course.......but, SUCH FUN, so why not indulge!!

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An afternoon spent reading a book.......on Sunday it seemed like the most pleasant activity in the world! I sat comfortably on my version of the beach-----our shady, screened porch beneath the whispering pine trees, a gentle summer breeze surrounding all.

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In the mood I was (as always) for a historical mystery set in a foreign locale, and found Iain Pears' modern-day art history tale, Death and Restoration, waiting patiently on my bookshelf. One of my many bad habits is buying books and then allowing them to age on the shelf for a couple years before reading them! Perhaps a well-aged book is better, just like fine, aged wine!

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At any rate, I enjoyed this book very much and may try to find more of Pears' books. His writing is witty and wry........and uncontroversial........I literally found myself smiling on nearly every page! A Googling of Death and Restoration turned up a good review of the book on this blog. The mystery in the book involves a Hodigitria.

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HAVE A MARVELOUS DAY!!

Angels & Magazines

This pair of angels somehow clamored for attention in the murky light this morning as I groped towards the coffeemaker:

Speaking of murky......its basically been that way all day today. Gloomy, rainy, and very windy. Husband and I watched an old Hitchcock movie this afternoon, "The Lady Vanishes". It has a unique plot, unlike anything I've seen before, so for that reason it easily kept my attention from falling victim to an attack of snoozing.

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Over the years, I've tried to cut down on the number of magazine subscriptions coming to this farm's address. Usually, glossy stacks of them languish, unread, their main purpose being to fill a recycling tote. Over time, there have been subscriptions to Good Housekeeping, Oprah, Country Woman, Country, Farm & Ranch, Midwest Living, The Iowan, Readers' Digest, and others. Loads of farm magazines and publications come seemingly of their own free will......we certainly never pay for them, but they keep showing up in the mailbox........Farm Journal, Dairyman's Digest, Wallace's Farmer, Midwest Dairy Business, Dairy Today, DairyStar, and believe it or not, many others. The only farm magazine we actually pay for is Hoard's Dairyman.

Needless to say, the stacks of magazines really pile up around here, along with bull catalogs, and catalogs for every little thing under the sun. Its practically a full-time job trying to keep up with shifting them from mailbox to kitchen table to kitchen counter to Husband's "office" to end tables, and finally, to the recycling tote.

There is one little magazine I've subscribed to for years and years, because my mom always did, and that is "Guideposts". I remember even as a kid reading the amazing and inspirational stories in it. There was one Guideposts story I remember reading over and over back then......it was about a woman whose car had gone over a cliff, throwing her out onto a narrow ledge high above a gorge. There, for several days, I think, she clung to a small tree and kept shouting for help, and praying. Finally, miraculously, she was rescued. Anyway, the story seemed simply amazing to me.......and Guideposts is famous for featuring true stories such as that. I also subscribe to "Angels", which is another small magazine published by the Guideposts group. There's wonderfully fascinating stories in there, too.

Everyone around here enjoys Discover magazine, so that's one subscription that repeatedly gets renewed. Last year, in a fit of strange madness, I somehow managed to subscribe to two rather high-minded Christian magazines, "First Things" and "Touchstone". "First Things" is way above my head most of the time. "Touchstone" is a tad bit easier to comprehend, most of the time.

Last week, the newest copy of "First Things" arrived. Last evening, I waded into one of the articles, entitled "Uncomfortable Unbelief" by Wilfred M. McClay. He was reviewing the book, A Secular Age, by Charles Taylor, which the article's author describes as a "sprawling, ambitious, exasperating, confusing, and profoundly important new book".

Most of the article, as per most "First Things" offerings, is way beyond what I know or care about. One paragraph, though, I found interesting. McClay is stating that the book states:

"At the outset of the human story, religion was 'naive' and the world was permeated with spirits. Individual self-consciousness was nonexistent, for the 'porous' self remained open to the currents of external influence, unable to discern clear boundaries between self and nonself, or make clear distinctions between personal agency and impersonal force. Unbelief under such circumstances was literally unthinkable."

This caught my attention because I've read this type of thing before.......that at one time humans did not have a concept of an individual self. They identified totally with their tribe or community. Try to imagine that.......not being aware that you are a separate individual. Like part of a flock of birds flying around.....you move as one in a group.

I've also read that in some cases of "mental illness", the affected person seems to come to a similar "porous" condition, thinking the world is speaking to them, and they are too open and aware of the world around them. The ego sinks away and too much information comes pouring in. Sorry to blog about something so bizarre, but I find it fascinating.

Near the end of the article, McClay says, "......consciously shared and historically grounded belief and practice is the absolutely necessary basis of healthy community----in a church or anyplace else." He says we suffer today from "rootless radical individualism". He also states that the book's author "observes that 'we are just at the beginning of a new age of religious searching, whose outcome no one can foresee.' "

I'm in favor of Christians being united......I firmly believe all believers in Christ should be able to share Communion together.......but, that doesn't happen.....how to correctly view the bread and wine seems to be the stickler. They can rant and rant all they want about Christians needing to be like-minded, blah, blah, blah......but they never make efforts to remove the fences surrounding Communion beliefs. And far as all of us being too individualistic, especially us Americans.......how in the heck else are we supposed to live?? We don't exist all clumped together in little villages like back in Bible times.......everything is, for better or for worse, entirely different now.

There now, I've ranted on this rainy day about something I'm not qualified to rant about. I doubt I'll renew the "First Things" subscription, though......its just too much work to read the articles.

A Rare Book Mystery

Sunday afternoon, I snuggled under a quilt in the slatted shadows of our new blinds and read several chapters of The Bookwoman's Last Fling by John Dunning. The story is told from the first person perspective of Cliff Janeway, a homicide cop turned book collector who investigates cases involving rare books. In this book, he's been hired by members of a wealthy family who are also race horse owners. Quite a combination......horse racing and book collecting.

Anyway, the author set up what I thought was a cleverly amusing scene......Cliff Janeway was doing surveillance on a suspect who was sitting in a restaurant. Janeway had to watch him from across the street and ducked into a shop from which to do so. It turned out to be a thrift shop and Janeway found himself right next to a shelf of used books, which proved to be quite a distraction for him. He was torn between watching the suspect and examining the shelf of old books! Just a really clever scene, I thought. That would be my luck......to have to keep an eye on someone in a Goodwill Store or at a rummage sale.......the suspect would get away for sure!

Speaking of rare books.......I have been on the trail of one from my childhood. It is Pitidoe the Colormaker, by Glenn Dines. I put a request for it on eBay and with an online book dealer, but have had no success. Its not a terribly important matter, and I'll just keep on looking, but if anyone reading this knows of a copy in existence, please let me know.

White Snow to Snow White

This shot should probably be filed under "Weird Farm Art":

Yesterday, along with Beatrix Potter books, "Snow White" was one of the stories we read. It was just a little square board book version of the fairy tale. As I read, I used lots of expression and inflexion in my voice. The four-year-old girl sitting next to me listened with absolute rapt attention. She watched me with wide eyes.


When we were done reading, she took the Snow White book and climbed into a rocking chair and sat there poring over the book for probably the next hour. I think maybe she had never heard this fairy tale before. Maybe her parents don't do fairy tales.......oops......hopefully I didn't corrupt her. My mom read lots of fairy tales to me (maybe that's one of my problems). When you really think about it, many fairy tales contain anxiety-producing elements.......ugly trolls, child-eating old people, fire-breathing dragons, poisonous fruit, etc. Maybe those stories helped birth anxiety and its offspring, depression, in me, later in life. I'M KIDDING!


However, like I said, the little girl I was babysitting yesterday really took to this Snow White story. Maybe the concept of a lovely, innocent girl being stalked by a hateful queen with magical powers is a story that immediately resonates with a child? The child sympathizes and empathizes with Snow White's plight. I don't know, but for some reason tales of this ilk certainly have hung around for centuries as a classic story-line.


As the little girl sat there absorbed in the book, I saw myself doing the same at that age. Before I could read, I would pore intently over picture books, studying the details of every scene. I hope kids still do that.......I hope noisy, distracting television and video games haven't spoiled that forever. Quiet time alone with books is important for children, I think. It helps usher them onto that road of learning to look at life in their own unique way and think for themselves.

The Subject of Coincidence

I wasn't intending to blog on the subject of coincidence today, but it seems to be willing itself into being. Maybe because I read a chapter from The Three "Only" Things last evening.

This morning upon awakening, I could recall two brief dream scenes from during the night. In one, I was talking to an acquaintance. I had no awareness of what we were talking about, but I kept wishing I could think of his wife's first name, but just could not. In the second scene, I was saying repeatedly to someone, "Where is Beaver Lake?" I'm not familiar with any place by that name.

Anyway, while I was out doing calf chores this morning, I had to walk out to the burn pile. This took me by a pen of older calves, which I rarely pay any attention to. I happened to glance at their pen and just one calf was looking right at me with her nametag visible. The name on her tag was "Ellen"........and I realized right away that was the name of the man's wife in my dream last night. The name I couldn't think of while in the dream!

We'll see if anything comes of "Beaver Lake"! I'm not holding my breath.

When I opened my email this morning, there was one from an old friend who lives in Kentucky. She emails me very rarely. The title of her email was "You Can't Make This Stuff Up". It included a link to a news story about the recent tragic death of a policeman and his police dog in Kentucky. The dog had his own casket, and was buried in the cemetery next to his owner. My friend found this interesting not only because of the unusual story, but also because when she was here in Iowa over Christmas, we had discussed a recent funeral in our community, also involving a dog in a casket! A tragic accident had taken the lives of a young married couple. Shortly before that their dog had been diagnosed with leukemia, so the couple's family had the dog euthanized, and he lay at the feet of his mistress, in her casket! We had quite a discussion about this at our Christmas get-together, and in her email, my friend wrote that it seemed "bizarre" that a similar incident so quickly came to her attention.

Actually, I've never brought up the subject of coincidence with any of my friends, or with anyone at all, for that matter. Its so difficult to explain that one feels nutty trying to do so, which is why I'm appreciating the book The Three "Only" Things. The author does a good job of clearly describing coincidence, synchronicity, serendipity, and their connection to dreams and seemingly trivial occurrences in our daily lives. And he cites many examples from history, important discoveries, and famous people like Mark Twain. To me, the book takes coincidence and synchronicity out of the category of odd and weird, and gives it status as simply something that exists in normal, everyday life.

The first time I ever saw the word "synchronicity" was in Sue Monk Kidd's book, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter. I didn't agree with many things in her book, but the author's description of synchronicity was right on and hit me like a bullet. In my own past are many experiences that made me wonder, "How could that have possibly happened the way it did........just like it was set up, or planned." Hopefully, I can get these experiences out of my head and onto my blog. I have a drawer-full of journals filled with dreams and experiences, and need to take a look at those again, too.

Anyway, I'm just not able to ignore the unusual occurrences in life. Maybe my Christian faith is lacking in some way. I do all the stuff a Lutheran is supposed to do, but am not able to be numb to experiences. If there is one thing I fear most in life, it is not being able to FEEL.

Now, I need to quit this post and go do laundry and load the dishwasher. Then there are checkbooks to balance and tax info to prepare and the never-ending clutter of life to attend to. I have a sick calf to check on, too. The vet looked at her this morning and diagnosed pneumonia. I don't often care too much about any certain calf, but this one was born on Father-in-Law's birthday, which was also the day he passed away, and we named her after him. So I really want her to live and grow up and be around as a milk cow for many years!

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P.S. - Another small coincidence from a couple days ago. In some of my recent posts I have vented frustrations about my mom. Two days ago I received a forward from a pastor out in AZ.......(met him on a Lutheran discussion board, and he doesn't know about my blog.) The forwarded email was a lovely one about MOTHERS! Something you might expect to see around Mother's Day. I immediately realized I needed to absorb it and renew my appreciation for my mother. I don't often send forwards on, but this one I sent on to two friends, one whose mother just past away, and one whose mother is very ill with cancer.

Lois Lenski Book & TV Nonsense

Today I'm trying to rearrange and organize my Christmas decoration closet. Its one of those cubbyholes under a stairway, and awkward to get things into and out of. One of the boxes is full of children's Christmas books, from when my kids were small. I was adding a book I got at Goodwill last week, Lois Lenski's Christmas Stories. In the beginning of the book, the author explains how Christmas celebrations were banned by the Puritans in New England in the 1600's. They considered the holiday revelry sinful. Lenski then contrasts this with the German Lutherans' view of Christmas......on page 35 begins a story called "The Pink China Bonbon Dish". Here is the first paragraph (it reminds me that I shouldn't be so hard on Lutheranism and evidently Lois Lenski grew up Lutheran):

"Christmas has always been a period of deep joy and gladness to all Lutherans. It was Martin Luther who first used the evergreen tree as its symbol, and O Tannenbaum has always been a favorite German Christmas song. Many other German customs, including the baking of sprengerli and pfeffernuesse, were common.......in the early 1900's. This was before the days of the automobile, when life was simpler, centered around a smaller area governed largely by the family horse-and-buggy. Perhaps one reason why Christmas assumed such vast importance in family life at that time, was the lack of other competition in the way of celebration or diversion. Children moved in small circles, met fewer people, traveled little, and made most of their own amusements out of their own creativity and ingenuity. Premanufactured entertainment was never handed out to them."

The last sentence is an eye-opener. Can we even imagine a world devoid of "premanufactured entertainment"? A couple posts ago, I was lamenting some of the changes that have occurred concerning church activities over the last few decades, and it seems that maybe TV-watching has something to do with it.......certainly TV is "premanufactured entertainment". Lazy minds are probably the result, but who would even be cognizant of that anymore? Our world is so media-saturated.......we're drowning in it.

Last evening, I watched a TV show while Husband went to our son's basketball game. I don't often simply sit there and stare at the TV. The show was OK, but it was the commercials that were so very intrusive. Close-up pictures in your face, quickly changing from scene to scene. It almost made my eyes hurt, so I shut them during the commercials. Why should anyone watch them anyway? Unless you are truly interested in buying that car, or that cell phone, or whatever. What a pile of garbage we allow to be funneled into our eyes, ears, and absorbed into our minds.

And another thing that was ridiculous........flitting by on the TV screen during the entire show were little reminders, telling us viewers what network we were watching and reminding us to watch other shows. Plus, a message about another show stayed in the corner of the screen THE WHOLE TIME. What is up with this nonsense?

Flew the Coop

These frosty tree branches were from a couple weeks ago.......they were striking against the deep blue sky that morning. So here they are randomly adorning this post. (I just got DSL hooked up this afternoon, and wanted to see how much faster photos will upload. It took about 1/3 the time as with dial-up.)

Yesterday, I flew the coop-----ran away from my problems-----for the afternoon, at least. My home-from-college daughter had cleaned her closet, so we headed to a town that has a Goodwill Store. Its a town of about 7000 residents. When I was growing up, it was a shopping mecca, with a business district sporting a Penneys, Sears, Montgomery Wards, Spurgeons, Woolworth's, Ben Franklin, and several smaller clothing and shoe stores. When I was a senior in high school, Mom splurged and spent $50 for my prom dress at one of those shops. That was expensive back then!

The main street now is barely a shadow of what it was back then. All those stores are gone, victims of shopping malls in bigger towns, and economic hard times in the area. There is a large Goodwill Store there, where we deposited the bags full of my daughter's closet gleanings, and several consignment stores. We decided to check out a couple of them. First we went to a large antique/thrift shop which had a sign on the door saying the store had gone out of business back in December. Disappointed, we peered in the windows and could see that the store was still full of stuff. I wonder what they will do with all of it. Hopefully, it will reopen someday.

Next, we went into a consignment shop, which if I remember correctly, is where a children's clothing store used to be years ago. Now the store is dim and little smelly, but we took a look around anyway. I like to snoop for old books and antique canning jars. Right away I spotted a stack of old books, and hopefully scanned their titles. The top one was, of all things, a book of magical spells and incantations, so we moved on to other items. There was the usual collection of knicknacks, jewelry, framed pictures, etc. Upstairs were some more old books, and I ended up buying two.

One, a little book of poetry from 1899, Songs of the Treetop and Meadow, had its owner's name written insided the front cover, Olive M. Burrows, 8/20/1906. The other book is Shepherd Psalm, by F.B. Meyer. It seems quite old, too, although there's no copyright date in it. The store had Christian music playing, but besides the spell book, I also saw a big witchcraft book, rather odd companions to the music. I decided I probably won't go back there.

Next we shopped at Goodwill, always intriguing and fun! I found a couple items to give my sister for her birthday, and a pretty Marjolein Bastin teapot. In the book section, I bought two by Robert James Waller, an Iowa author, one the famous Bridges of Madison County. The movie by that name, with Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood, was rather fruity, although the scene near the end where she's deciding whether to jump out of the pickup or not, just about rips my heart out, for some reason. The scene that cracked me up the most was when Francesca (Meryl Streep) was out driving a tractor and was able to hear the telephone ringing in the house. Believe me, that could never happen.

After Goodwill, we grabbed a bite at Subway, and shopped some more at a Pamida store on the edge of town. We like Pamida.......its like a miniature Walmart.......but minus the exhaustion from pushing your cart through that huge expanse of retail space, and then way out to your parking spot, too. The gigantic size of stores nowadays is getting a bit ridiculous.

Later in the evening, when I was at home reading the newspaper, one of the headlines concerned a bizarre story out of Sioux City------two young girls killed by their stepfather during a ritual. He told authorities he had been "casting a spell that had gone bad". And to think we saw that spell casting book today in that shop. Yikes.

Quantum Epiphany

Epiphany Sunday manifested itself today, and privileged I was to be a substitute Sunday School teacher, for I enjoy the biblical story of The Three Kings. They probably were not kings, the Bible identifies them as wise men, and the number three comes from the fact that there are three gifts mentioned. There may have two Wise Men......or six, or ten.

The regular teacher had forgotten to include the lesson papers for the students, so we ad libbed. There were three students in attendance......perfect to be the three wise men. I brought along some shiny gold bows and a bottle of perfume to be the gifts. We read the story from the Bible, then set off to find the Christ Child. We tip-toed through the hallway and down into the empty church basement, looking for stars along the way. In the church sanctuary, we spied many stars on the Christmas trees and on banners hung between the stained-glass windows. I had brought along a snow-globe with the Holy Family inside, so that was the Epiphany for us. The children knelt and presented their gifts. Then they pretended to be asleep and have the dream warning them not to go back and report to King Herod. They returned home to their Sunday School classroom by another route, as per the Bible story. Our alternate path took us by the deacons who were getting things ready for the church service, putting hymn numbers up on the board, etc. They smiled when we told them what we were doing.

Later, during his sermon, the pastor burst our bubble of awe concerning the Three Wise Men. He described them as clueless occultists! Thank goodness they did pay attention to their dreams, though! He then chided anyone who might be tempted to view coincidences as something special, or as a message from God. Maybe this pastor who I hardly know has read my mind, and was preaching to me personally........so go my paranoid thoughts. But, nonetheless, I'm intrigued by scientific studies of meaningful coincidence. Could it be a coincidence that he preached about coincidence?!

After his sermon, the pastor rushed so fast through the Lord's Prayer that we could not get all the words in. How ridiculous is that? These pastors are so hung up on following all the proper "rubrics" of the service, chanting just so, etc., etc., but then think nothing of rushing through the Lord's Prayer and ruining it for the congregation. On the way out of church, as I shook his hand, I told him, "Good sermon, but the Lord's Prayer was done way too fast."

Back to coincidence.......this afternoon after a Sunday dinner of turkey, dressing, mashed potatos and gravy, I retired to the sofa and read from Robert Moss' book The Three "Only" Things. In chapter 5, "Where Mind and Matter Meet", he writes: "The great psychologist Carl Jung lived by coincidence. He achieved a profound understanding that through the study of coincidence we will come to grasp that there is no real separation between mind and matter at any level of reality------a finding confirmed by the best of our physicists.........the incidents of our lives and patterns of our world are connected by meaning , and that meaningful coincidence may guide us to the hidden order of events..........I want to reclaim the word coincidence because I like the notion of things 'falling together' with the implied action of a hidden hand."

And here's an interesting tidbit: "........the idea that coincidences are important is troubling to some in the psychiatric community.........a Swiss psychiatrist named Klaus Conrad made up the word apophenia to describe a psychotic condition he defined as the 'unmotivated seeing of connections' accompanied by a 'specific experience of an abnormal meaningfulness'." (Maybe he was a Lutheran........they're not supposed to "experience" the meaningful in their religious life.)

In conclusion, this sentence from page 109 hit home with me: "When we navigate by coincidence, we move effortlessly into creative flow. When we project our delusions onto the world around us, we put ourselves in a place of blockage and pain." I did that once, and, yes, it resulted in pain. Not physical pain, but mental pain from making a complete idiot of myself.

Somehow, the thought comes that the Lutheran doctrine of the Real Presence is an attempt at intentionally setting up a meaningful coincidence. The bread and wine are coincidentally the Body and Blood of Christ due to the Words spoken over them by the Pastor. Maybe quantum physics is involved........Moss writes: "Quantum physics shows us the universe as a dynamic web of connection.........Particles that have once been in contact with each other remain connected through all space and time........Subatomic particles exist in all possible states until they are observed------at which point something definite emerges from the soup of possibilities." When the pastor speaks the Words of Institution, is that akin to "observing" or recognizing the Body and Blood of Christ......bringing it into reality in the bread and wine??

Home Alone & Pondering

I'm enjoying a rare evening alone; Husband went to watch our son's high school basketball game. I washed milkers so he could get there on time. He better not complain about going alone......over the years I've attended countless school events alone while he milked cows. Turn-about is fair play.....so they say.

So how best to enjoy my little bit of quiet time alone here at home? Well, obviously, first of all, I'm blogging. Then I plan to make some popcorn and watch an episode from the Medium DVD (the first season) I bought for Christmas. I wish "Medium" was not the name given to this show. Allison is not a medium, as in one who tries to contact the dead. She receives information in dreams, an ability she did not seek out. Also, Allison's husband and three daughters, and their family interactions, add much to the show, and their house looks like a normal lived-in home, sort of cluttered and messy.

Actually, also, I'm reading a book about dreams and coincidence right now-----The Three "Only" Things-----by Robert Moss. Because of my own experiences with dreams, I believe there is a method to the madness of dreaming, but it is conveyed in a complicated language. A language forgotten in our modern age. Awhile back I read Moss' book Dreamways of the Iroquois, in which he writes of how ancient peoples viewed dreaming. It was tremendously important to them and in the Bible we get hints of this, although Christianity has turned away from putting stock in dreams. They are "only" dreams......something to be ignored. That's the gist of Moss' book, The Three "Only" Things. The other two are coincidence and imagination.

In the barn this morning, Husband had the radio tuned to the Glenn Beck Show. Beck's fill-in was taking calls concerning last evening's Iowa Caucus victors, Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee. Sounds like Huckabee has the backing of home-schoolers, who are a significant sub-culture. My brother and his wife homeschool their four children. I admire people who can commit to such an undertaking, but I always hope they are also providing for their children's social development. My brother and I have argued on that point.

My sister-----whose children attend school----- and I, believe that my brother and his wife are telling their kids that school is a bad place where they would be made fun of. Things their son has said leads us to this conclusion. He acts like he wishes he could go to school, and its too bad that he'll grow up with no school buddies to remember. But, my brother and his wife are doing what they think is best, so more power to them.

I could feel like a failure, probably, because I didn't attempt homeschooling. Some of Husband's relatives homeschool, too, and one of them asked me once why I never homeschooled! Sheesh. How could I ever explain it to them. It would never have worked here on this very busy livestock farm. My husband is around all the time, expecting meals and help whenever he needs it. Most days I was overwhelmed by trying to get laundry done, cook meals, do yardwork, help Husband, etc., etc. These women that homeschool have husbands who are gone all day at a job. They have no farm responsibilities-----their total focus is on their kids, all day long. Thus, homeschooling works for them, but it doesn't work for everyone. Period.

So, bless them all if they want to support Mike Huckabee. Maybe he is the right person to be our next president-----I certainly don't know at this point, though.

Why is it that sometimes the spaces between my paragraphs are omitted? That's why this last half of my post looks like one gigantic paragraph, and I don't like it.

Green Knowe Book Series

Ok, I did some searching concerning those "Greenhow" books I mentioned in the last post. The actual name is "Green Knowe", and the author of the series of books is Lucy M. Boston. She wrote of an actual estate in England which she purchased and restored in the 1930's. She was 62 when she started writing the stories.


There are six books in the series: The Children of Green Knowe, The River of Green Knowe, The Stranger at Green Knowe, An Enemy at Green Knowe, The Treasure of Green Knowe, and The Stones of Green Knowe. I think I may have read three or four of them years ago in grade school. Funny thing, I could not remember the author's name, or the correct titles of the books, but I can clearly recall where these books were on the shelves there in our school library.......along the west wall, near the door. I can date the time I read them to third grade or after, because that was when our school did a building project and moved the library. In the previous library location, I remember where the Billy & Blaze books were, and the Little House series of books, so that would have been during second grade or before.

Anyway, the Green Knowe series, originally published in the 1960's, has been reissued, so I ordered a set from Amazon. I'll loan them to my niece and nephew first, then keep them to read to grandchildren, if any ever come along.

Why didn't I ever look for these books when my own children were small? I don't know. Sometimes I think I was in some sort of stupor for many years, trying to keep up with taking care of things around the house and farm, and being responsible for little kids and school-agers. It was an exhausting time, and with me not being the most energetic person in the world, lots of things didn't get attended to.

Frosty the Mailbox......& Books

This morning I found myself humming, "Frosty the Mailbox......was a jolly, happy soul......". Yes, we awoke to a fairyland scene, with frosty artwork gracing tree branches, pine needles, fences, vines.......everything in the out-of-doors. It was beautiful, until the breeze kicked in and scattered nature's fragile lacework. After morning chores, I spent about an hour wandering around outdoors taking photos.

Yesterday, on New Year's Eve Eve, we had one more holiday gathering; my side of the family came over. It was a potluck, and our 4'X5' kitchen island counter-top became covered with yummy food dishes. We had to dodge several little people, as my brother (11 years my junior) and his wife have four young children. What fun to see them! Their 18-month old son, a very solid little fellow, squealed with delight when one of our cats appeared after a sneaky escape from the basement. We had fun watching him chase the cat.

I had wrapped up white elephant gifts to give to my mom, sister, and sister-in-law. I had such fun the other day, browsing in a second-hand shop, looking for the items. And for the kids, I had a pile of books for them to look through and choose from. Some were from the second-hand store, and others from our bookshelf here at home. My sister's kids love to read. Her son needed mysteries to read for school, so he chose some Hardy Boys and Encyclopedia Brown. His sister picked out some Nancy Drew books. Oh, how I remember reading so many of those back in 5th and 6th grades.......my friends and I would trade them back and forth, along with Trixie Belden mysteries. Ah, yes, the good old days!

While looking through my old books here at home, I had run across two that my parents had given me years ago.........Tom Sawyer and Little Women, unabridged editions. I remember receiving them one Christmas, but I had no idea what year that might be. Inside the front covers of the books my mother had written the date......Christmas 1965. I was seven-and-a-half, and in second grade. I recall that I started reading the books right away......Tom Sawyer was first. I don't know......do many second graders today read Tom Sawyer and Little Women......do you suppose? I really failed to challenge my own kids in that way. Possibly, reading is taught in a different, less challenging way, now, too. Unfortunate, if that is so.

But, as a kid, I always was very interested in reading. In first grade, our teacher read from Little House on the Prairie every day after noon recess. I sat there listening, completely engrossed, and couldn't wait until I was able to read the other Little House books on my own, which happened in the next couple years. By third grade, I had read all of them.

Katie John and Homer Price were two other characters I loved reading about back then, and I still have those dog-eared books on my bookshelf. I can't part with them. Another series from way back in early grade school was about a horse named Blaze and his owner, and their adventures. Other animal books I enjoyed were Bambi (the novel) and Brighty of the Grand Canyon. Vaguely, I remember another set of books that I enjoyed very much, but recalling the name is difficult. They had a Mrs. Oldknowe in them, and her grandchildren, and an estate called Greenhowe, I think. They were sort of magical fantasy stories, with a ghost-girl named Linnet, and a alchemist that lived in the woods nearby, and shrubbery in the shapes of animals. I should look it up on the internet to get more information.

A few years ago, my mom gave me my old baby-book. In it she had written that at age 18 months, one of my favorite books was Pitidoe the Colormaker, by Glenn Dines. I don't remember the book at all, and have been trying to locate a copy, but have had no success. I've also left a request for it on eBay.

Yes, reading has been a favorite pastime for as long as I can remember. My younger sisters used to yell at me because all I wanted to do was read. They would say, "You never play with us.......all you do is read!" That probably wasn't very nice of me. And in all my years of motherhood, my constant wish was to have more time to read. But, somehow, it seems I didn't pass the reading passion on to my kids very well. I read books to them, but probably not enough. Sometimes, I'd be so tired, I'd get dozy while reading aloud, and the kids would poke me and yell, "Mom.....wake up!"

I remember we learned phonics in the early grades, but I don't think phonics is taught much anymore. Maybe we learned to read earlier and quicker because of phonics, I don't know. And I do read fast, which is probably just a natural ability. When I was a kid, sometimes my mom would give me an article to read, and I would read it and hand it back to her, and she would act like she didn't believe I had really read it. She'd say, "You couldn't be done that quick." I did have a classmate who read way faster than I did, though. In high school, she read every book in our school library. I would watch her read books.......it took her just a few seconds to scan a page. She was our class valedictorian and went on to become a lawyer. The salutatorian went on to become a physician. I was third in the class........and became a farmer's wife!

The Edmund Fitzgerald

"The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down.......". Do those words ring a bell? They're from the opening line of Gordon Lightfoot's 1976 song, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", detailing the true story of the sinking of an iron ore ship on Lake Superior, occurring on today's date in 1975. Twenty-nine men were lost. "Superior, its said, never gives up her dead, when the gales of November come early", are the closing words of the song. "Canadian Railroad Trilogy" is another historical story-song by Gordon Lightfoot, who is from Canada.

I enjoy historical songs, whether folk, country, rock, or whatever style it takes to tell the story. Al Stewart had some good ones in the 70's......"Roads to Moscow", "Lord Grenville", "Merlin's Time", "On the Border". A couple more that come to mind quickly are "Vincent" and "American Pie" by Don McLean, and "Trail of Tears" by Southern Pacific. Surely, there are many more historical popular songs that I'm not aware of.

The gales of November are coldly blowing today here in Iowa. No rain or snow, fortunately, but plenty of gray clouds. My son caught a ride to Cedar Rapids for the state volleyball finals this evening in which our local team has earned a berth. Yes, our football AND volleyball teams are in the state finals, as they were last year. Too much fun and commotion! I will be totally satisfied to watch the volleyball game on TV tonight from the comfort of my recliner.

I chaufferred my son and three of his friends to Cedar Rapids on Thursday afternoon for the volleyball quarterfinals. After dropping them off in front of the arena downtown, I went and browsed at TJMaxx and Barnes & Noble. Fun! Fun! Found some Christmas gifts for relatives and a great book for me......The Science of God by Gerald Schroeder.

Truth is, I've never even attended a high school volleyball game or match, whatever its called, since my daughters didn't go out for volleyball in high school. They played in 5th through 8th grades on our Lutheran school team, so I watched my share of volleyball in those days. (My toddler son, at the time, called it "bolleybally".) Some of the rules have changed since then------rally scoring is used all the time now, and also there is a new player called the "le barrow" (sp?), and net serves are allowed.

Thursday evening, after getting home from Cedar Rapids, and doing chores and supper, I could hardly wait to start reading my new book. One of Gerald Schroeder's other books, The Hidden Face of God, is a favorite of mine. He's able to bring the Bible and science together in fairly peaceful union, without upsetting beliefs too much on either side. He goes back to the original Hebrew words of Genesis, and shows where biblical literalists, as well as scientists, may be in error.

Anyway, I settled in to read after supper, and completely forgot to watch my current favorite TV show, "Silent Witness", the British CSI show on PBS. Its the only show I've been watching lately. The main character is Dr. Sam Ryan, a female M.E. in Oxford, England. She's great, always digging, not only in bodies, but also in the situations that produced the dead bodies, in order to get to the truth. She often gets in trouble for caring enough to get to the heart of the matter. This episode was the last one of the series. I woke up in the middle of the night, suddenly realizing I had forgotten to watch the show! Darn. Who knows if the network will run it again. Darn. Did I mention that Dr. Ryan's detective partner, played by Nick Reding, is quite easy on the eyes. Sometimes I take notice of such things. The other characters are interesting, too, and down-to-earth in that low-key British way, unlike in most American TV shows, where women are unrealistically gorgeous and slim, and dressed provocatively. Also, "Silent Witness" utilizes many close-up facial shots, so you really feel like you're getting to know the characters.

Mary Magdalene's Day

This is my 50th blog post! So exciting, isn't it?!

Also, I post today in honor of my wedding anniversary.......29 years young is our marriage. Some of the lyrics from an old 1970's pop song, "Still The One", sung by the group Orleans, seem to hit the nail on the head for this marriage.....

"We've been together since way back when;

Sometimes I never want to see you again!

But, I want you to know....

After all these years.....

You're still the one I want whisperin' in my ear!"

I love the honesty of the first two lines. Husband and I were 15 when we met, and then got married at age 20.....that's quite young by today's standards. Maybe in a way we've grown up together. I would assume that nearly every married person has had the thought, "What was I thinking back then? How did I get myself into this?!" You just make up your mind to stay the course, and pray for wisdom. I have learned to keep my mouth shut about certain things, laugh as often as possible, and if all else fails, just head out the door and take a long walk.

I didn't know it back then in 1978 on my wedding day, but July 22 is also the day set aside to honor St. Mary Magdalene. (The church I grew up in didn't commemorate saints' days.) The Lutheran church I belong to now has been getting more into that sort of thing, and in our new hymnal The Lutheran Service Book, there is a hymn to honor special women of the Bible, "For All The Faithful Women" (#855). We sang it this morning in church, not all 13 verses, but we did sing verse 11, the one about Mary Magdalene. The Old Testament lesson was Proverbs 31:10-31, which begins with..... "An excellent wife who can find? She is more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her." I really chuckled inside, considering this was also our anniversary day. Humorous little synchronicity!

Later, Husband commented about the verses of Proverbs 31: "What's the husband's role all the while the excellent wife is doing things like bringing food from afar (verse 14), considering and buying a field (verse 16), making and selling garments (verse 24), etc., etc.?" I replied that the husband is to be "known in the gates where he sits among the elders of the land", as stated in verse 23. We wondered if that means Husband should sit in the town coffee shop and play cards with the old guys?!

I had worn a red shirt to church this morning in honor of Mary Magdalene, since she was so often portrayed in scarlet garb in old artwork. She was maligned for years by the Church, given the label of prostitute by some pope way back in the 500's A.D. The Eastern Orthodox Church supposedly views her as the "Apostle to the Apostles". Interesting. Today's Gospel reading was from John 20, where Mary goes to Jesus' tomb, finds the stone rolled away, and then has an encounter with the resurrected Jesus. Amazing that she, a member of the lowly female gender, was allowed the privilege of being the first person to see Him alive again after the Crucifixion.

I read The DaVinci Code a few years ago, and I have read a couple of Margaret Starbird's books, The Woman With the Alabaster Jar and The Goddess in the Gospels. I'm not convinced about the theory that Mary Magdalene and Jesus were married, but I did enjoy the latter book because Ms. Starbird goes into detail about the many synchronicities she experienced during the writing of her first book about Mary Magdalene. Fascinating......particularly the time when she unexpectedly met people from Provence, France. Her experience in the psychiatric unit hit me in a very personal way, as I once had a somewhat similar ordeal come into my life. What she wrote nearly gave me chills.

One speculation Margaret Starbird makes in her books is that the title "Magdalene" possibly does not refer to the town where Mary came from, but actually is "the Magdalen", meaning some sort of tower, referred to in the Old Testament somewhere.

Sometimes I do wonder, though, couldn't Jesus have been married? Marriage is not a sin. Scriptures don't directly state whether He was married or not. As a teenager, I remember seeing the movie version of "Jesus Christ, Superstar". Actually, I think our pastor had our youth group watch it so we could discuss the scriptural and nonscriptural aspects of the story portrayed in the movie. Mary Magdalene was given the prostitute persona, I think, and the movie probably suggested that she and Jesus were unmarried lovers, so it was easy for me to then dismiss the whole idea as a fable, since we know Jesus did not sin. Its a little more difficult to totally dismiss if you consider Mary Magdalene not as a prostitute, but maybe as the legitimate legal wife of Jesus. And I can't entirely rule out the possibility that a patriarchal church hierarchy would later cover up evidence of such a marriage.

Think about getting a church year calendar which shows saints' commemoration days throughout the year. I never thought I'd be interested in such things, but it does make me feel more connected to meaningful events far in the past. And if your birthday or anniversary falls on a saint's day, it can seem very special! I ordered my calendar online from the Fellowship of St. James, and it includes dates significant in both Eastern and Western Christian traditions.

Memories From Sixth Grade

After mentioning my sixth-grade class trip to the State Capitol in yesterday's post, many memories of that event swept into my thoughts. Let's see, it would have taken place in May of 1970. My friends and I were totally excited about going. For the occasion, I sewed myself a new jumper to wear----out of blue print fabric. It buttoned at the shoulders with blue buttons and I wore a blue blouse with it. Lots of us girls sewed many of our clothes back then, often for 4-H projects. Things were different then----we didn't have computers, or cell phones, or DVD's. We read Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden books, passing them around from person to person. We could hardly wait to get the next one to read.

In the schoolbus on the way to Des Moines we played cards and sang silly songs. "Ninety-nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall".......good grief......we sang all 99 verses! As if any of us were beer drinkers at that point in time. We took along snacks and sack lunches.

At the Capitol building we toured the grounds, looking at the various statues and taking lots of pictures. Lincoln and Tad was my favorite statue. Once inside the Capitol, we received the grand tour, even venturing all the way up to the cupola on top of the golden dome. I wonder if anyone is allowed up there anymore. Walking around up inside the dome made me feel whoozy, as I gazed wide-eyed at the dizzying view down to the basement level. We also toured the State Historical Building across the street.

Back to my sixth-grade attire......at some point during that school year, girls were allowed to wear pants or jeans for the first time ever at our small-town school. Can any girl nowadays imagine not being able to wear jeans to public school?! I remember the first pair of pants I wore to school......a red, navy and white striped denim pair. I was so proud of them----I thought they were really cool. Goodness! During grade school we had been allowed to bring pants to school to wear under our skirts and dresses at recess time, and we girls would usually wear shorts under our skirts anyway, so we could play comfortably at recess and not have to worry about boys seeing our underwear.

My kids stare at me like I'm from outer space when I tell them these types of stories from my growing up years! And my parents can tell truly amazing stories about living with no electricity and farming with horse-drawn equipment and riding streetcars in town. Each generation witnesses many changes!

Deep Summer in Iowa

Many years ago I read a novel, Deep Summer, by Gwen Bristow. Its setting was during the early 1800's on a plantation in the Deep South during summer. The author aptly conveyed the feeling of thick, heavy humidity and heat which blanketed the landscape, and permeated the homes and lives of the story's characters. That's all I really remember about the book, no other details come to mind. Right now, here in Iowa we're enveloped in similar overwhelming heat and mugginess. It's good for the crops......supposedly you can hear the corn grow if you're outdoors on a hot, humid night.



The photo shown here, one of the first taken with my new digital camera (sorry, I can't seem to get the photo to upload......imagine a green-striped farm field) shows where I spent all afternoon on Saturday driving the tractor pulling the hay baler. Not a bad place to be, since the tractor had good air conditioning. The guys unloading the bales had a much rougher time of it, as they labored and sweated out in the hot sun. Round and round the field I went, keeping an eye on the green swaths of hay being gobbled up by the rotating tines of the baler. Watching is important to make sure the baler doesn't get plugged up, even though it means getting a stiff neck from looking backwards all the time. Sometimes other things will go wrong, like the twine will stop tying around the bales correctly, or a pin will shear on the flywheel. Then I have to stop the tractor and assess the situation, fix it if possible, or call Husband to come out and help. Fortunately, nothing like that happened on Saturday, the baler operated smoothly like clockwork.



As I bounced along and steered the tractor, my thoughts wandered and I imagined that the bales are like the days or years of our lives. Each one being molded, shaped, and tied into a block of hay which then gets deposited in the wagon. When the wagon gets full......well, that's it folks.......a load of days and years gets dumped out and put away.



Make the most of whatever moldings, shapings, or tyings come your way today!!

Dictionary Game

Because I'm fascinated by amazing little coincidences, I have to describe something that just happened today. Here's some background: The book I am reading right now is The Lost Language of Symbolism by Harold Bayley, first published in 1912. I love reading about history, the more obscure the better, and this book is definitely that. It is all about watermark symbols used in early European papermaking. Apparently the earliest papermakers were from southern France, and tended to be some of the earliest Protestant-type heretics, many later called Huguenots. This interests me because some of my ancestors were Huguenots.

Anyway, last night, as is my habit, I read from the book until I got sleepy. The last thing I had read mentioned Osiris, the Egyptian deity. The book said that the word "Osiris" means "many-eyed" (Os=many, Iris=eye). I had never heard this before. It reminded me of some verse in the Bible, in Revelation, I think, that talks about a creature in heaven that is "full of eyes".

Ok, now back to noontime, today. Husband and Son were sitting at the kitchen table, waiting for me to get lunch all set out. Husband grabbed the big dictionary which we keep by the table for working on newspaper Jumbles and crossword puzzles. He said, "Let's see if we can learn something", and then proceeded to open the dictionary to a random page and was going to pick out a definition to read to us. Then I said, "No. Do it this way. Close your eyes and open to a page and put your finger down and read the definition your finger is touching." So, that's what Husband did. And guess what word he opened and pointed to......"Osiris"! I chuckled. With a puzzled voice, he read the definition: "The ancient Egyptian god of the lower world and judge of the dead, brother and husband of Isis."

It was a funny little coincidence, just for me privately, of course. But that makes it no less entertaining and interesting. Watch for this type of happening in your own life!

P.S. - I had to come back and add this! In my email just now there was a message from Amazon.com advertising an upcoming book entitled Coincidentally: Unserious Reflections on Trivial Connections, authored by George Rutler. His name is unfamiliar to me, but I may have to look into his book.

An Answer, a Bus, and a Play

It wasn't difficult to find information which answered my question about the second commandment. The early Church leader Augustine felt that Exodus 20:4-5 (Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image........thou shalt not bow down thyself to them....) was a commentary on the preceeding verse (Thou shalt have no other gods before Me), so that's why the Catholics, Lutherans, and Anglicans omit Exodus 20:4-5 as a separate commandment. Martin Luther would have learned the commandments that way, and that's how he lists them in his catechism. Some authors point out that God didn't actually ever announce ahead of time that there were going to be TEN commandments-----that is simply the way His words in Exodus 20 were organized by men. "Versification is a human invention" is a related quote I ran across in my search.

We've had a couple days of clouds and intermittent rain. We need the rain to settle down the frost boils in the roads and driveways, which are such a sloppy mess right now. Husband was able to get quite a bit of manure hauled before the rain started----he was happy about that.

During my afternoon walk on Thursday, I managed to almost get run over by a school bus. I was on our gravel road, walking into a strong wind, which prevented me from hearing what was coming from behind. I wasn't paying attention to that fact at all, as my thoughts were very far away. For some random reason I started to cross the road......I happened to look back and right there was a school bus coming at me. I ran out of the way and the alert driver slowed way down. Her window was open and I hollered out an apology for my carelessness. She smiled and waved, and wide-eyed students in the windows waved, also. I felt like an idiot.

My two high-school-aged children are involved in the school play performing this week. They have been faithfully rehearsing for several weeks. It is a very serious production about the Holocaust. Usually they do comedies, so this was a major shift. Last evening's performance was very well done. The director is meticulous about details, and he is able to coax excellent performances out of our local teenagers. The show was a good history lesson for the cast and the audience; I was glad to see that many high-schoolers were in attendance. And, by the way, they all behaved very respectfully through the whole show----you could have heard a pin drop whenever there was a pause.

When I was growing up, I read and heard much about World War II and the Holocaust. My mom still mentions how, as a girl, she remembers the many cartoon pictures of Hitler and Mussolini that would be in the newspaper. She always says, "I wish I would have saved some of them." And she remembers all the sirens blowing the day the war ended-----she was walking home from school and was frightened by all the noise. We would watch movies like "The Hiding Place", about Corrie ten Boom, whose family hid Jews in Holland and were eventually caught and sent to concentration camps. Also, on TV, I remember watching several mini-series, "The Winds of War", "War and Remembrance", and one about the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. My family would sit just glued to the TV during those shows. When I was younger, I remember seeing some of the Nuremburg trials on TV-----I don't know if it was a movie or actual news reports. In high school, I read novels like QB7 and Mila 18 by Leon Uris, and later the War and Remembrance series by Herman Wouk. I wonder if many young people nowadays read stuff like that, or even do much reading, period. Of course, we didn't have computers, video games, or movies on tape and DVD back then, so reading was popular. I still believe you benefit so much more from reading a book than watching a movie.

Speaking of books, I need to get back to organizing my bookshelf, which kept me busy yesterday. That's a peaceful, enjoyable way to make use of a rainy day.

Birds, a Book, and Old Friends

We've been blessed with another windy March day. Unlike yesterday's westerly winds, today's are from the south, giving me an opportunity to burn the brush pile north of the house. All morning I picked up piles of leaves and sticks and carted them to the struggling fire which I had to restart several times with newspaper. But it was a lovely morning to be out, once I got moving fast enough to keep warm. Birds in the treetops kept me company with their chatter and songs. Robins, blackbirds, sparrows, juncos, and once in a while a crow, made themselves known. Later, on my walk to the mailbox, I saw a pair of unfamiliar birds----they looked similar to the killdeer which are numerous in our fields, but were a bit smaller----so I looked for them in the bird book when I got back to the house. Possibly they were "semipalmated plovers", making an early spring stop here on the way to their breeding grounds in Alaska and northern Canada. They have a long way to go yet. Wouldn't it be fun to join them!

This afternoon the wind has really picked up and I am glad to be in the house. The weather forecast is rain for tonight and tomorrow, possibly quite a bit of it.

During my time outdoors this morning, I was thinking about my blog post of yesterday. I had mentioned the importance of walking for a certain length of time to get the best mood benefits. I then remembered about a book I had read several years ago during the time when I started the regular walking habit. The intriguing title of it had jumped off the shelf at me at Barnes & Noble.....The Art of Laziness!! I no longer have the book, as I gave it to a pastor who had told me that his wife was tired and achy alot of the time. I don't remember the authors' names, but they were German physicians, a father and daughter. In the book, they were focusing on the importance of getting enough rest, because each of us has been given a finite amount of energy to use during our lifetimes. They weren't actually advocating laziness, of course, just slowing down, resting more, and reducing stress on our systems, in order to use our energy wisely. They recommended a daily 30 minute brisk walk, if possible, and they felt that the perfect time to get up in the morning is 7:20 a.m. For some reason, I remember that specifically. I would recommend the book to anyone, because I felt it contained helpful, practical, common sense advice.

This evening I'm meeting a couple old girlfriends for supper and chatting. We've known each other since kindergarten. There's something special about friendships that endure that long, and I feel fortunate to be in the vicinity of a few such friends. Husbands and children are wonderful, but old girlfriends are a treasure, too.

Keep in touch with an old friend today!