‘Home is where they have to take you in.’ I am not sure if I got this quote verbatim, attributed to the famous poet Robert Frost. I thought about it for awhile. It is from our family we learn grace. We mess up badly and it is, often, our family that forgives us when we return home. No matter how badly I messed up I can return home and start afresh. Grace is a gift. There is no other way to put it. I don’t deserve it. Every person is flawed and makes mistakes. And we return home. No matter what we did.
Tags: every person is flawed, every person makes mistakes, forgiveness, God, grace is a gift, home, our family, return home, Robert Frost, start afresh, we learn grace
Posted in balance, children, God, knowledge&learning, life, relationships, time, wisdom |
Only by grace both of us are passionate about listening to music. I share the best music I know and come across with her. And that is a gift being able to do that. In the beginning I opened a whole lot of worlds to her: British music and other kinds. I never forget the emotional impact of any piece of music. And I share that music with her easily. And that is only by grace.
Tags: British music, emotional impact of music, God, music, my wife, only by grace, share music
Posted in God, knowledge&learning, local, love, marriage, music, time |
In the beginning of our marriage every morning I would play this Nicole Nordeman CD. She asked me to play the music today and memories came flooding back. Everything was new between us then. I like to say we are an old married couple but we are not–twelve years I think. Every day is still another discovery. I know she is a gift and only here by serendipity. The music reminded me of that fact.
Tags: everything was new then, God, marriage, married couple, memories, music, my wife, Nicole Nordeman, serendipity, she is a gift
Posted in God, knowledge&learning, local, love, marriage, music, time |
In the week I was gone my goldfinch stopped coming to my feeders. That happens every year. The goldfinch come in a steady stream to my feeders in the early spring. Then they stop. I sometimes wonder what they feed on later on but, obviously, it is something other the sunflower seed I put out for them. It is always a mystery to me.
Tags: bird-feeders, bird-watching, birds, God, goldfinch, spring, sunflower seed
Posted in beauty, birds, God, knowledge&learning, local, nature, time |
I appreciated my home better after I was gone a week. All my music at my fingertips. My wife, of course. And all my pets–all seven cats and three dogs. Now I am usually in charge of meals. There is nothing like being gone and back and realizing all your amenities are near by. Now I made my own coffee and drank out of my special cup. My coffee now tasted like I remembered it to. I did not have to listen to too many lectures when I did something wrong. My friend was a bit opinionated and overbearing, which is not to say my wife can’t be–she can. All in all I was glad to be home and grateful I had one to return to.
Tags: appreciated my home, cats, dogs, four dogs, glad to be home, God, grateful, music, my old friend, my own coffee, my wife, pets, seven cats, vacation
Posted in God, life, local, love, marriage, music, pets, time |
I was shaking after this close call. I was driving on the road that goes into mine when out of nowhere a pickup appeared in the opposite direction. The only way I avoided an head on collision was by immediately hugging the bank. It was only by inches I avoided an accident. Not only was that driver going too fast but was at least three feet over the center line. I could have been killed. Sometimes your life could change in a split second. It was a reality check.
Tags: avoided a collision, close call, driver going too fast, driving a car, God, reality check
Posted in death, God, life, local, time, wisdom |
Air travel is amazing. As I write this, there are thousands of airplanes in the air, all over the world, cruising at 35,000 feet and other altitudes, landing and taking off, taxiing, boarding and discharging passengers at countless airports. Flight Aware (www.flightaware.com) is one website that tracks these flights. It has a lot of information about each flight, and you can watch a visual graphic of each plane as it travels along its flight path between airports. Check it out ! I was amazed at how many planes are up there, day and night, all over the globe. I had no idea. As they travel, they are passed between various flight control centers, like Houston, or Atlanta. The air traffic controllers guide the pilots through the skies and have an extremely important job, coordinating all the different flights. It really is amazing how many airplanes are up there !
This is my first guest blog on Siggy’s Blurbs. Thank-you, Siggy, for inviting me to contribute.
Tags: air traffic controllers, air travel, airplanes, airports, flight control centers, God, pilots, Siggy's Blurbs
Posted in balance, birds, God, knowledge&learning, time |
Vacations always end. Today Chuck and I will go on that fishing trip we talked about for, at least, a year. Unless, it is cancelled, again. We were supposed to go fishing on Lake Pontchartrain on Wednesday but the waves were too choppy and the bottom of the lake was stirred up.
The fishing would have been lousy that day. This is my last chance this visit to go fishing. I have never caught a fish that weighed several pounds. I might catch a speckled trout or if I am lucky a redfish that weighs even more. Chuck has never fished in this area.
Maybe, next year we will go camping again. We will see. In any case it was fun and I am looking forward now to flying home and sleeping in the same bed with my wife and seeing all my critters (I especially miss Tilla, my favorite dog) and being in familiar surrounding. It was nice to go away but thank God I have a place to go home to. And a wife to return to. This is the longest we been apart–one week.
Tags: a place to go home to, camping, childhood friend, Chuck, dogs, fishing trip, God, Lake Pontchartrain, my wife, New Orleans, pets, redfish, speckled trout, thank God, Tilla, vacation
Posted in God, knowledge&learning, life, love, marriage, nature, pets, time, wisdom |
The weather was absolutely gorgeous. I checked the car thermostat. It was sixty degrees deep blue sky without a cloud in sight. I was running to the store for a last minute errand and quickly realized the silk shirt I had on was too warm and I had to take it off. I was going to see my friend Chuck and it was going to be at least twenty degrees warmer in New Orleans. I immediately put a tee shirt on when I arrived back from my errand. I was excited. I had arranged to have a window seat on both legs of my journey today. Vacations are usually another “world”. For a short time you enter someone else’s reality. We can get so used to our own and not see what is directly in front of us any longer. Vacations in a strange place have a way of jarring you. And that is a good thing. Occasionally, anyway.
Tags: airplane, deep blue sky, God, gorgeous weather, my friend, New Orleans, someone else's reality, tee shirt, vacation, visiting an old friend, window seat
Posted in balance, beauty, God, knowledge&learning, life, local, relationships, sports, wisdom |
It took another week for a woodpecker to find the new suet cage I filled and placed outside our bathroom window. Our neighbor gave us two wrought iron plant hangers and I stuck one in the ground now visible from the window by looking down. The bathroom is on the second floor. Today she noticed a woodpecker was feeding on the suet. I now have two suet cages which were early Christmas presents. The other one has been up for months. When I realized one suet cake can last for months, I was not hesitant to put up another. It was the squirrels who were eating most of the suet. Now they can’t do that so easily.
Tags: arrival of first woodpecker, bird feeding, bird-watching, birds, Christmas presents, God, my new suet cage, squirrels, suet cages, woodpecker
Posted in animals, birds, knowledge&learning, local, time |
What do I know for certainty? My wife loves me. So does my favorite dog–Tilla. Probably Coco, his sister. Maybe, that needs to be enough. Two dogs and my wife. Maybe, that should be sufficient. Let me bask in that love. I did nothing to earn that. Of course, I did not mention Jesus. He loves me, too. I don’t know why you can feel so separated and so alone sometimes?
Tags: Coco, dogs, feeling separated and alone, God, Jesus, love, pets, the love of my dogs, the love of my wife, Tilla
Posted in animals, God, life, marriage, pets, relationships, wisdom |
I had to remind myself of the scripture that says, ‘Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger.’ My wife kept complaining I was interrupting her all the time. And I thought of that passage from the bible and it gave me a weapon to help me to stop doing that. It was a bad habit I had and now I had a way to stop doing it. It would not be easy, though. I would have to work at it.
Tags: "quick to listen slow to speak and slow to anger", Bible, God, interrupting my wife, scripture
Posted in balance, God, life, local, love, marriage, mental health, relationships, wisdom |
