I have had a number of slow spells at work lately and this was the result of the past 3 work days. I’ve never had any formal art training (which is quite evident) but I always have loved to doodle. I started outlining a barn while waiting (less than patiently) for a call and it just grew! 
Be nice, I’m fragile. 
I hope you’re all having a great week!
What you think…
Have you met new people and thought about them as you watched them doing anything, “They seem to be so much less capable than me (or insert a family member’s name or other friend’s name) in this area” as you think of them trying so hard to do something that comes easily to you? Or do you ever wonder as you struggle through getting anything accomplished, “I sure am out of my comfort zone with this task” and maybe think of that same person you felt was inept when doing something which comes easily for you? The thought being “(insert that person’s name from the first question here) could do this sooooo much better than I am doing it.”
We’ve had a number of really good lessons from our Pastor Chad lately about gifts and how different gifts and talents and personalities are all needed to complete the task at hand. In our new church’s case, reaching the Four Corners of the world with God’s love is the task. These principles can be applied to a family, a work force team, a community or civic group… the list goes on and on.
I think of a new friend of mine as I ponder this idea. She’s not as outgoing as I am so meeting new people seems difficult for her. Me? I can stand in a line at the grocery and talk to the people behind me & in front (unless in a hurry-then I want to let the one in front hurry on out 
) and invite them to church, or a concert or just tell them about my grand children! lol
This same friend (bear in mind how different I see us) is not a great cook, but has a couple dishes we exchange or when we put together a meal to share, we ask her to fix these. She can cook. I love to cook and make things for people all the time. I mean, in my family, there are ‘requests’ for certain things I am known for making. Favorites. I even gave potato soup & fried cornbread to my neice this year as a birthday present! lol Good thing too, since it was not so expensive & I was short in the money department!
Another area where I see a difference is in flexability. Not just this friend, but I know with a number of people, if things aren’t done just as they’d expected, they are thrown for a loop. Me? I take it in stride (usually) and still complete things, just in a different way than I’d had in mind. Not a lot of hubbub. There are folks though, who get all flustered and can’t go on when things are changed on them midstream.
Those folks who differ from me can aggrevate me at times, but Lord knows I’m thankful for them all the same. I mean, where would we all be if we were all good at the same things and did all the other things poorly!?!? Pastor Chad quotes another minister friend and tells us, “If two people always agree on everything, one of them is not needed.” Now that’s a thought to think, isn’t it?? 
Have a great day and stop by the new old friend’s site for some hugs!
I found more treasure when unpacking some boxes!
My mom’s things were still in my sister’s basement. Well, not all her things obviously, but some I don’t really use & had no place for here at first. There was a huge box that had a quilt of hers, that she’d sewn and ‘tacked’ by hand and a few books were in the box too.
A couple were more song books. ha It’s no wonder I love to sing so much. Of all mom’s things, there are more songbooks or handwritten pages of song lyrics than most anything else. We all recall her carrying these to church with her most of the time. She quoted the scripture to “…be instant in season, and out…” and she was. Always had a song if asked to sing. 
There are Bible’s and study books 
about the Bible, and then there are a few other books around. She didn’t have an extensive library of books to just read, but there were a few.
I copied the 3 pages of the one here that caught my attention yesterday as I sorted the treasure. It’s called, “Heaven In my Hand” by Alice Lee Humphreys. I hadn’t thought of this one for a long time.
I hope it shows up well enough that you can skim over it. Many of you may be familiar with this work. Others may find it difficult to read. The content is far from how we would say it in our present day, but I like it. The reasoning going on between her Lesser Self and her Higher Self is something with 
which all can identify at one time or another.
She uses a ‘vision’ she had while in the midst of this self-to-self discussion.
I like how Ms. Humphreys puts her Lesser Self in it’s place with triumph.
Something we have to do from time to time.
I want to thank Teri again for her help. I was getting nowhere fast with my intended site update. I found a couple things I hoped to use and she ‘fixed’ me! TY TY TY!
Teri’s the BOMB!
What a busy time! I’ve had so many superb things pass through the recesses of my mind of late that I could share here. The problem being, I have no recess from RL that allows me to sit & put them in this box!
I hope to be by here on Wednesday, unless another something or two are added to the day. Maybe I can stop by your place then and say ‘hey’.
For now, I’ll just mention to all my U.S. friends, make sure you vote this November 2nd! I know there is rarely a candidate who meets all our expectations, or with whom you agree 100%. This should not mean you don’t make your ‘voice’ heard at the polls though! It is important you review the voting records and positions they’ve held on issues most pertinate to you over their careers. I feel, personally, there are many more issues than only this war and the economy. So they will be my driving force to be there casting my ballot (and I’ll not leave any hanging chads on the thing either!). I think most everyone has a candidate with whom they more closely agree on many of the issues. I won’t bother trying to sway anyone nor will I even tell you, today, my thoughts on it all. I just want to express my desire to see people use the rights and freedoms for which so many in times past, and still today, have fought for us to have. One being the precious vote.
Have a great day everyone! ‘See’ you soon!
Shadows at Dusk, a Joke and Responsibility
Have you noticed when driving or walking just before darkness has finished nestling in around you, how things can seem to be there until you are almost upon them, then there is simply nothing when you look more closely? Your eyes, usually adept at focusing in on what needs to be seen are for that moment in time, unable to make your mind certain of the image before you from any distance. Darkness. It’s presence causes your eyes to lose their clarity.
The reason I am thinking about this is due to my long drives daily to my place of employment. I get up and out just before daylight most days and am on the way home just before dark. So I drive on familiar highways and byways in each direction. Roads I’ve driven hundreds, if not thousands of times, should always look the same. Not much excitement there, comforable, expected twists and turns. Then for some reason as I am driving I suddenly feel this sense of needing to apply the brakes to avoid something protruding onto the road from the side where there’s never been anything there before. A closer inspection shows me there still is nothing there.
Shadows in semi-darkness make things look much less as they are, and more menacing and even threatening. If there is sufficicient light, images are easily identified and you move through an area with confidence and assurance.
I have an anology here, an idea hit me as I pondered this thought. We are told that many people walk around in darkness, speaking less of physical light than of a spiritual or emotional light. While some seem to have a clear path laid out and navigate this path with ease, assurance and confidence, others stumble as though in a fog, semi-darkness or worse. I know there is scripture to relate that those who walk in truth do indeed walk in light. As I think of people who I perceive to have a clearly lit path, it does seem to me that these same folks also hold to a set of values and truths that make clear their way. Defining the roadways and things that would jump out in front of them in semi-dark haze, so they procede with speed and without fear.
I want to be one of those people.
One who sees clearly because I walk in truth.
Now a joke…
A WELL PLANNED LIFE????
Two women met for the first time since graduating from high school.
One asked the other, “You were always so organized in school, did you manage to live a well planned life? “
” Yes,” said her friend. “My first marriage was to a millionaire; my second marriage was to an actor; my third marriage was to a preacher; and now I’m married to an undertaker.”
Her friend asked, “What do those marriages have to do with a well planned life?”
“One for the money, two for the show, three to get ready,
and four to go.”
Responsibilty is my ‘Word of the Week’ for now. I have become outright disgusted with folks who wish to blame all their bad circumstances on others. I feel our culture has promoted a society of people who would rather wallow in self-pity and point fingers at others who may have hurt them or taken from them than to pull themselves up to move on in their lives. ‘It’s easier’, some would say, to do this. I beg to differ with that train of thought. Though effort must be exerted to get out of a rut and shake off the self-pity attitude to do something about the situation, lying in the mess is much worse.
Alrighty then, that’s all for now. Pics are everywhere but not yet ready to show the masses, many as they are who would see them here (snide remark but my own fault for being so stinkin’ inconsistant these days with posting, commenting and the like). I’ll work on them a bit later to post. You all have a super weekend and may next week be one where you walk in the light, have a well-planned life, and take responsibility for how things are around you. 
Unashamed tease follows:
‘“What is it about castration and art critics, anyway?” asks an exasperated Kimball’.
I thought today’s commentary by Dr. Chuck Colson on Breakpoint was an excellent opportunity to get some back and forth going on the way people ‘view’ things around them, including art. I realize more each day that perception demands a much larger percentage of how we ‘see’ things than is the actual image, situation, comment or whatever is before us to interpret. Take a look and then I’ll get to the meat of the article as far as what I drew from this today.
I believe art and it’s interpretation can be an obscure area for grasping the variable and indeed, personal ‘feelings’ and even beliefs of the beholder. I also feel there are intense feelings generated by art in all it’s forms. It can make us yearn, regret, be inspired, reminisce, tap our toes to a beat, wipe our eyes as tears flow freely and sundry other responses may be the result of our interaction with art. None of which might have been the intent of the artist, nor the artist’s feelings as they created the piece.
More often than not, if I ‘blow up’ over an issue with another person, over a seemingly minor issue, I can attribute this to something I’ve had happen to me in my past with another person and I suspect this person to act in the same manor. Thus I need to shield myself (or someone else) from what I perceive they are doing that is much worse than the actual deed or even intent, but which mirrors another event.
We all do this to some degree and many of us are even aware that we are dragging this forward as we muddle along day to day and have these situations arise.
I feel when we over analyze anything artistic we are missing the point of see (or hear or taste or feel or smell) and enjoy. This next paragraph says a lot to me:
‘But Kimball goes on to examine the reasons behind these ludicrous misinterpretations, and what he finds is a desperate need to interpret everything through personal ideology. He quotes art historian Keith Moxey of
This was an interesting topic to me and one I hope to use to make me more aware of my propensity to see things through the eyes of past issues and my ideologies so I can attempt to be more open to what is actual and true, and so I can enjoy and not pick apart the things God’s given us, in the gifting’s He’s placed in others.
Have a great day all.
misogyny
n : hatred of women [syn: misogynism]
OK, I’ll mostly let the pics speak, I have the ones from our 2004 Brown Family Reunion ready first. Mostly due to needing them for a booklet I’m putting together for everyone. I hope you like seeing our family sharing some good times. Eating and playing and singing and cooking and taking pics! (The last part is mostly me… heh heh) We play… & we play some more. Do you see a theme here at all? lol We have more kids than we had for a time there. Seemed most were grown up but not yet starting families, but we’ve seen that
Of course, there were kids playing too, with balls and each other. There are always a lot of things going on all around.
remedied the past few years. The kids make it so much fun, seeing how they’ve grown, what they can do now that they couldn’t the previous year.
Another of our favorite pasttimes at these gatherings is the eating. We have some yummy stuff due to all the great southern cooks and mingled in are the younger, healthier cooks too. We do enjoy a plethora of foods and deserts at these get-togethers. 
I can gain about 5 pounds just thinking of it. 
As you can tell, there are a number of these pics and I ran them together as I scanned them from my sisters pics on paper. Mine were mostly on disc but I haven’t really even touched those yet.
Back to the food idea…
I got myself spread pretty thin since we had the Canada vacation bumped right up against the
reunion and so I was struggling to make ends meet, where time was concerned. Sooooo… I had to make my chicken and dumplings at home and bring my cornbread fixins mixed & ready to add buttermilk and fry it, after I got there! It was fine, just meant it was more fresh and yummy! We all seem to love the ‘bad stuff’ like fried cornbread and chicken & dumplin’s and the rich deserts and Aunt Dody’s broccoli caserole (which has about 3 whole sticks of butter in it!!). But we don’t eat this way steadily, just when we get together mostly. The fave recipes are prepared with love and brought to enjoy. We all miss my mom’s good cooking, her younger siblings still living really do miss it as they grew up eating it, as much as their own mom’s cooking. My mom was eldest of 10 children and by age 6 took care of the next three kids & did the cooking when their parents were working all day in the fields.
We have a number of ‘hams’ in our bunch! lol 
The first shot is a mixed crew… My Uncle, Gene (he’s Aunt Dody’s husband, who makes the YUMMY broccoli caserole laden with butter!!) He’s standing at the right of the pic, his grandson, Michael is next to him. Seated are his daughter, Connie, my other niece, Angie (who is now my pastor’s wife too!) and Uncle Gene’s son’s son-in-law (Mike married Uncle Gene’s granddaughter, Tara. Not Connie’s daughter, she’s below in the next pic-but her brother, Jackie’s daughter.) Here are my cousin’s daughter, Andrea, and my niece, Missy, posing… More posing to come…
along with some who were caught not posed, but simpy standing about. (heh heh, sneaky photographers) Cousins, uncles and an aunt in the first one.
Then, in the second pic here, the infamous Aunt Dody, who makes the YUMMY broccoli caserole! (I think I mentioned that before. 
My sister caught her in the kitchen primping. She really is a great cook. She and I are the only remaining chicken & dumplin’s cooks in the whole lot! No wonder too… it’s a messy affair, but again, the made with love thing prevails. 
And speaking of love, one of our most favorite pasttimes since before I can really recall anything, has been our sitting around a person with a guitar or at a piano and singing, lifting our voices in harmony. I learned to sing the tenor part an octave above the men’s part from my Aunt Dody when I was a wee one. Then learned alto & in school often got placed in II soprano section, as I could ‘hear’ the parts and stay on mine so easily. I love these times.
No, not all of our family is musical, but most are, or the ones who feel they aren’t, still enjoy hearing the sweet sounds. There’s more to the harmony than simple notes and chords. It’s something that makes us feel harmonious. Difficult to explain, but it’s as real as the air I breathe. Uncle Raymond plays guitar too. His little grandson watches intently. Aunt Imogene always sang harmony with her brother growing up.
No one is too old or too young to sing along, help choose the songs, and in general, feel a part of things. I’m so thankful for this heritage.
In the 1st pic here, my cousin Jackie 
(playing guitar and is now pastor of the church my mom attended so long) has often said as we gather to pray blessing on the food and time together, “We should all be so thankful for the heritage of our parents and theirs. If any of us miss heaven for not making the right choices, shame on us, is all I can say.” He frets so about the ones who seem to have forsaken the values with which we were raised. We did have good examples, not just words. Never just telling you to do this or that. Examples. God, I appreciate it so.
Here are some more, Jackie, his sister Connie, her daughter, Andrea, in the middle of them and Uncle Gene (Jackie & Connie’s dad) holding Jackie’s grandbaby to the far right. In the last one of this set, their sweet harmony rising up as they sing a song written by Connie a few years ago.
I requested it.
Yup, we love to sing together. …sound pretty good too, if I do say so myself.
I hope you’re not weary with my pics & ramblings, but my family has come to mean so very much to me over the years. Even as a young person, I realized we had a special family when compared to many others I’d seen. The love and consideration, the honesty & guidance, the sharing and support… it’s just not in all families. Maybe not even in most families.
Craktpot has been known to post ‘thankful lists’ and on top of any I’d start, would be this bunch I’ve shared with you today.
Thanks for letting me go on and I hope you all have good families & fond memories I’ll read about soon at your sites.
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