Whether We Carry The Choir Or Can't Carry A Tune

The first half of July for me and mine has been full of celebrations! We had our son Jeffrey's ninth birthday -- or in my blog speak, the beginning of Jeffrey's tenth orbit around the sun -- on the 2nd, the birth of our first local great-niece Avery our niece Breanna's daughter on the 5th, our nephew Trevor's fifth birthday on the 11th, and mine and Martha's thirteenth wedding anniversary on the 12th. And it's time to share the favorite posts, stats, and readings of mine as well.


Some you could celebrate too, David


1. God is for me and for you, whether we carry the choir or can't carry a tune. In life's noise, God is joyously praised.

(Dan Ofstehage, Christ In Our Home)

2. Ok well I just got the news that the police were at my house. Apparently there is a warrant out for my arrest. I just got home now & currently waiting for them to come back, no point running and making things worse. I screwed up & lost control and done things I shouldn't have. Now I have to face the consequences of my actions. If I could turn back time, things may be different but it is what it is. To one of you, thank you for keeping this a secret for so long but I guess at ...the end of the day the evidence will always catch up. If my family and friends get here before they do it would be great and if you would stick by me through this no matter what I did it would be good. I would message everyone individually but I thought it'd be easier just to post it on here. I promise you I will never forget anyone, or the amazing memories I've had. I'm gonna miss every single one of you that I knew and that treated me like family. I love you all so much. I promise to get better and do better, especially because this isn't real and you should post it as your status and see how many people actually read stuff till the end before they fall for it.. Let's go.


3. After 4 years of hard work and dedication, I'm saying "Goodbye" to IPS and driving over 200 miles a day .... NOW, it's time to make a decision. Should I look for another job? Or should I calculate my steps and open up a business of my OWN???? I'm a lil burnt out on phlebotomy, and I've already exceeded my maximum potential in this field .. I want a New challenge, I want to Chase a New dream ... Lord bless me with a vision within my reach and give me the wisdom, patience and d...rive to seek out a New venture in life without making excuses for myself .. Help me build for myself as I've built for others, from the ground up!!! My MIND & my GRIND ain't never been weak ... I know that ANYTHING is possible!!!! NOW, I JUST WANNA LIVE OUTSIDE THE BOX!!!! I'm a PRO at making the most out of a bad situation!!! I walk by faith & NOT by sight!!!! I TRUST MY journey!!!!




4. For everyone who hasn't read the Serenity Prayer in it's entirety.‪
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.






5. So D.C., a 68 square mile city of filthy rich politicians, is bidding for a (likely) statehood and name change, and yet we ignore Puerto Rico's consistent statehood bid, especially when they're in the middle of a financial crisis and closing hundreds of schools? Yeah, sounds like America to me.






6. Um, I've got nothing against gothic sex toys or sex toys of any kind, shape, or purpose...but to deliberately bait a religious family by displaying things that they will surely take as blasphemous & disrespectful of their religion? Not. Cool. We Pagans have long fought for and demanded respect for our beliefs -- showing blatant disrespect for another path only brings hostility and continued hate and misunderstanding. Shame on you and your aunties.




7. MY HUSBAND IS HOLDING MY PRINT COPY THAT I JUSSSST GOT HOSTAGE!

Him: "This is for me, right?"
Me: "NO! You can read it when I'm done."
Him: "But you have camp this month...I can read it while you are camping.
Me: "IM BRILLIANT! I CAN READ AND CAMP! GIVE ME THE BOOK!"
Him: "...I accidentally left it at the biz..."
Me: "LIES! YOU DID IT ON PURPOSE! GIVE ME THE BOOK!"

8. *tears* i was doing ok today, facebook, and then you had to remind me that a little boy died gasping for air and bleeding in a park for the crime of being black.
i'm sorry i don't know how to exist in a world where this happens to children.
and also i think these are the wrong two people to be writing a goddamn essay about this. make it mandatory police academy training, please. anything less is bullshit. when i was little, they told me that if i ever needed help i could ask... a police officer, and they would help me. i thought they were supposed to be our protectors.

stop acting like it's citizens' responsibility to protect ourselves from police.

9. Sometimes painful things can teach us lessons that we didn't think we needed to know.
Fake people don't surprise me anymore, loyal people do.





10. In primary school (ages 6-10) I was given a harsh telling-off because I read ahead of the rest of the class when we were supposed to only be reading one chapter of the Hobbit each week. I read the entire book in three days.

On a more crude occasion, I lent over to pick up the pencil sharpener I'd dropped on the floor and accidentally let out a small fart. The kid next to me got so irate about it that the teacher took him out.

In secondary school (11-16) I had the worst classmates for Music/Drama. They didn't listen, they talked over the teacher (who was fairly quiet /soft-spoken) ALL the time, and talked back and made arguments if she tried to send them out. Eventually she (the teacher) actually had a mental breakdown and was sent on indefinite vacation by the school. The class got a furious tirade directly from the headmaster and we were all split into new classes, taught by a strict man with anger management problems. Apparently they ended up married, so that's a happy ending to an otherwise unfortunate tale.

In college (16-18) I used to use the piano in one of the English teachers' classrooms during breaks. I got really, really into it (I think Rachmaninov) one time and the teacher who owned the classroom barged in. The staff room was right next door, but he said he could hear the playing from the other side of the entire campus. "So uh, tone it down a bit, Chris?" "Sorry, sir."

In university I started an argument about semantics between a lecturer and some other students about whether it was appropriate to say I disliked religious people who were "overly sanctimonious". The students tried to get the lecturer fired for disagreeing with them over their religion being "better" than my agnosticism. She actually stepped down voluntarily because she refused to apologise when the university said "Apologise or leave".


11. Emotionally upset wife, "fix it" husband.
Guys - don't. Just don't. Trust me, it will only make it worse.
This ranks right up there with "control" issues.


12. DIVIDE AND CONQUER .... The only words that keep playing over and over in my mind!!!





13. Our Sunday Scripture this week is the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). Here is a litany that puts a contemporary spin on the radical nature of Jesus' words:
“Do not pass me by,” the stranger cries, hungry from lack of food.
We are neighbors to those in need of nutrition.
“Do not pass me by,” the battered spouse cries, trapped in an abusive relationship. We are neighbors to those in need of protection.
“Do not pass me by,” the LGBTQ teenager cries, homeless after ...their family rejects them for who they are. We are neighbors to those in need of belonging.
“Do not pass me by,” the black life cries, dying on American streets quickly from violent oppression, and slowly from the poverty of inequality. We are neighbors to those in need of justice.
“Do not pass me by,” the refugee cries, their home unrecognizable now. We are neighbors to those in need of safe shores.
“Do not pass me by,” Jesus cries, whose face is reflected in all who are oppressed, victimized, beset by tragedy, and in need. We are neighbors to the stranger among us to whom we are called to be radically hospitable. We are neighbors to the world around us to which we are called to share God’s shalom. May we go and do likewise.
From the blog “Sacramental Effort” © Ben Anderson David Hensley. Permission is granted to reprint the liturgical material in this blog.




14. I was writing until the little red number on my Facebook app brought me here.





15. I woke up today realizing I am less depressed than I have been in years. There's no exterior reason for this. My life has all the usual ups and downs. I'm more broke than I've been in well over a decade to keep my daughter in place until she graduates.
Why? Because I've stopped acting like I don't have a choice anymore for that clergy collar. Everything from my personal life to my politics belongs to me again instead of sacrificing myself to some well-cultivated myth of living for others and that we are responsible for so much of their faith.
Acting as if one has a choice. I highly recommend it.





16. Mother to her daughter:
"I loved you because you were the one relationship I never had to earn. You arrived in this world loving me more, even when I did not deserve it. "
- "Vanishing Acts", Jodi Picoult
(I would add that most of us, thankfully, would say that we also did not need to earn our parents' love. Or God's love, obviously. It's still a beautiful quote.)





17. Weird writing related dream last night. A Devine Fire was published and for some reason Dean Winchester was reading it aloud in an English class... And it sucked. Like horrible, people were laughing at my writing sucked. And Dean kept looking and me like he was really sorry and telling the people laughing to shut up.
Stupid, mean subconscious.





18. I have nothing against Episcopalians, and I hope I didn't water down something meant to be good hearted and light to counter the darkness of our day. Despite my differences with Anglicanism, I do have a great appreciation for the great music they have brought the World and I am VERY excited to see more of that in my own Church through the work of the Personal Ordinariate!


19. Also, I think you all are reading maybe too in depth into the comparison thing. I doubt they mean "Hey this is EXACTLY like Tiananmen Square!" but more along the lines of "The idea of this picture, her peacefulness in the face of her opposer reminds us of Tiananmen Square.


20. I mean... great! Good! But I kind of feel like maybe people who believe in the magic healing power of Rhino horn might not be the most fiscally rational people in the world. They might decide that only the real thing will do.


21. My favorite issues from the second series (in no particular order):

-What if Wolverine was an illiterate high-school janitor who tried to make a difference?
-What if Wolverine worked for Lehman Brothers during the housing bubble but refused to gouge consumers?
-What if Wolverine was a double metaphone algorithm with a penchant for folk songs?
-What if Wolverine had prevented the incorporation of Boise, Idaho, in 1863?

22. So Tomi Lahren is under fire for saying "Black Lives Matter Is The New KKK?" ... People calling for her to be fired from her job for it.
BLM protesters remind me of those birds on the coast. The waves are the police officers and they are the birds ... they run up to them ... and then the wave comes to them and they run away only to come back to the wave when the wave backs off .. LOL
If this movement continues the violence, disruption in the streets, call for violence toward... the police ... they ARE going to be the net 'KKK' ...

Now try and fire me [hashtag]‪blacklivesmatter‬ - Can't take the truth when over half or more of your 'peaceful protests' are nothing more than you wanting to be on the media and WANTING the police to cause a stir just so YOU can have your fame and blame someone?

23. CHATS with [this poster's granddaughter whose name I withhold, I'll call her GDR]
Last night just before bedtime, [GDR] snuggled up to me on the couch and wanted to chat.
[GDR]: "Nana, did you know that every night when I go to bed I say "wishes" for tomorrow?"
NANA: "you do? What do you wish for?"...
[GDR]: "Well..." She turned her head ever so slightly and whispered, "they never come true."
My heart did a little flip flop as I pictured her wishing for whatever things her little 4 year old mind might conjure up to be met with disappointment the next day. Then in the next instance, leaned in with bright eyes and whispered, "but one thing did come true!" She held up one finger.
NANA: "What was that?"as I snuggled her closer.
[GDR]: "I wished to have a lovely day and I DID!" She had a big smile and then an extra tight hug for her Nana.

We can all take a beat from the mind and heart of 4 year old. Disappointment happens, but is often short-lived as joy is found in the simplest of things...like a "lovely" day.
This is making one of her "wishes" come true. She wanted to make a "Candy bread." I just found a basic quick bread and we added all kinds of candies and chocolate chips. We do what we can to make the "wishes" we can make happen. 



24. As much as I love to cook, it's not that often that I make a scratch made meal. With recent events, I decided to make a scratch made chicken soup following an example [Poster's Wife]'s Aunt Liz made last week. So I boiled down the chicken thighs to make the broth and sliced the carrots, onions celery, garlic and spices, strained the broth into the noodles and veggies waiting in the big pot and sat down to let the thighs cool before de-boning the meat. All looks great, smells great, etc, then, as I begin the de-boning process, utter confusion! Apparently [Poster's wife] bought boneless thighs, I thought I cooked them out. Or maybe I am in a KFC commercial. Honestly, I didn't know you could buy boneless chicken thighs.




25. I just saw my first set of conjoined twins...
Beautiful little girls joined at their hips.
You can't tell me that God isn't awesome





26. I just want to let everyone know my fiancé gave a dehydrated honey bee that was on our car windshield some sugar water and it drank some and was able to fly away ^-^
Love that man



27. Yes. Freedom is grand.

And unsubscribed


28. I think it's almost universally agreed that [Star Trek: First Contact] is both the best TNG movie and one of the best Trek movies, period. I think First Contact accomplished one big thing that both Rick Berman and the JJ Abrams would keep trying and failing at for years: making something that calls back to Wrath of Khan in an interesting way without being a terrible copy of Wrath of Khan. Nemesis tried it by giving Picard a mortal enemy and killing by Data, the finale of Enterprise tried it by having Trip give up his life, and of course Into Darkness... I cringe just thinking about that one.

But First Contact managed to take that Moby Dick theme from WoK and twist it around into something interesting without forgetting to house it in a great story. This time it was the hero instead of the villain who had the Ahab complex, which was super deep and cool.

First Contact also beats JJ at his own game in another way - by putting heavy amounts of action into a Star Trek film without losing the Trekiness of it all.


29. Prophets by their very nature have to be future thinking; it's not that they don't live in the present, but they're wise enough, even without divine insight, to be prepared for the future.

(David Alvin, The Chariot of Israel, And The Horsemen Thereof)


30. And ships don't fly around like airplanes when in space, lightsabers don't exist and you can't travel at light speed.

If you're going to nit-pick ever scientific inaccuracy in Star Wars you're gonna have a bad time.




31. A short story. At a con,I asked him for his autograph. I got it with a highly detailed head shot of Spider-Man. I wish I still had that book.


32. today on my mind?....thats a long subject actually. why is the entire world hell bent on destroying eachother ?...when love is just as easy to comprehend and express ...i mean wake up people !!!! , do we really see a need to kill anything or anybody? to complete our megear existance?....im sorry but thats just the way this girl feels today ...lately life is becoming more and more difficult to understand and the sheer fact that people everywhere have hate in their hearts rather than love .{wich really makes a difference}.. no im not a liberal...im just saying ....try to spread love ..we'll all better off