Elizabeth Sheffield

#$%@ Good Little Writer

2011-04-13T08:14:00.003-04:00

Sometimes life sneaks up on you. You're busy making your way through the day, thinking about what happens next, what happens after that, what happened yesterday.

And then you lift your head up and have a look around.

That's what happened to me yesterday. My daughter Meghan had a link to her current blog post.

Somewhere between then and now things have changed.

Maybe changed is the wrong word. Things have continued and matured. Picture a plant in full bloom. A lovely fragrant blossom.

One of the photos that Meg had posted reminded me of a photo that David took of her in Montreal when she was 18 and we were there for her birthday celebration. That seems like yesterday, but I realize it was almost 8 years ago. She's done a lot of living between then and now and so have I.

In 2008 (and just a few short blog posts ago) I commented how much I am enjoying my relationship with my adult children.

Can I add an Amen and Amen to that?

There truly is no greater joy than to see your children walk in truth. The truth of becoming the people that they were meant to be.

-Beth

http://megsheff.blogspot.com/2011/04/way-in.html

Saturday Mornings

2010-02-27T18:02:00.008-05:00

There's a tiny little spot right down where the Ganaraska River meets Lake Ontario that you need to visit. Today was pretty busy - it gets worse as the winter fades to spring and then summer is bad too - way too many people for my liking, but good for business. Anyway, I digress - a place that you should visit is the Rainbow Cafe. A wonderful homemade breakfast and all the coffee your bladder can hold for $5.50.

It was especially wonderful today because we had a table full of wonderful women - all in there sleepy finery. Except for one of us who struggles with obvious addictions - she was inebriated but had been up since 4:30 - she was really happy to be out for breakfast with friends.

And I use the word advisedly. I have begun to realize how flippant we are about the word, 'friends'. Usually it has to do with proximity. Beggars can't be choosers my mother used to say - not in this context, but if you feel like a beggar, you may settle for the friends to call themselves that.

Of course you can tell a friend by the way they treat you - friends don't tend to sniff around your apartment on the last day of the month to see if your cheque is in yet and see if they can weasel money out of you. If they have a baby they can use to explain the need for more money, so much the better.

And, off they go with my inebriated friend's money. Funny tho, they won't be around again until the end of the month, when they will cling like burrs until they get what they want.

But my much saner husband reminds me in my righteous anger that love costs what the person is willing to pay. These young men remind her of her son. That relationship is estranged. It's taken a lifetime to get to this level of dysfunction - it 's not going away quickly.

But I think breakfast every month is one really great way to start learning new tricks. It's all I got. Leave any other ideas below.

I had hoped to get to the thrift shop and wool shop shopping that made the morning complete - but I'll have to leave that for another day!

Thanks for stopping by!

-Beth

Let Me Add a Thought....

2009-06-02T08:48:00.003-04:00

over the summer, why not follow the antics of one of my favourite people who is in Paris - walking the tightrope sans net - which makes her even more special. Just don't drink coffee and read her blog - your computer keyboard will not appreciate it - consider yourself warned! Click to the left to see what I mean....
-Beth

I've been too busy for you

2009-06-02T08:42:00.002-04:00

it doesn't look any better any time soon.
But take heart - winter is only a few short months away.

Deborah's Collage

2009-02-09T09:11:00.000-05:00

John MacPherson at Cedarsfest

2008-11-13T07:56:00.001-05:00

Hey -
Here's the next thing out of Napanee - a cute kid who's got big talent and personality to boot.
Watch and be amazed!
you heard it here first.
-beth

I'm Missing My Baby

2008-11-10T09:38:00.003-05:00

and she wasn't celebrating the October birthdays with us in Kingston, so here Kate in all her flapper glory from Hallowe'en....

The Sheffs Do Kingston Minus One

2008-10-17T22:03:00.006-04:00

Connemara Pony, Connemara Region, Republic of Ireland

2008-10-17T09:11:00.002-04:00

I Have Become My Mother

2008-10-13T09:00:00.005-04:00

Not that I see this as a bad thing - it's been happening all my life. Slowly, imperceptively I have morphed from a young vibrant woman to a middle aged yet still vibrant matron.

"It's too bad the way your skin has come away from your jawline", Kate tells me with sorrow in her voice. "Too little moisturizer."

We immediately head out to the local pharmacy where I pay whatever it takes to re-glue my face. They see me coming and jack the price to $46.00.

So, while in Ireland, I pack my 'reading glasses on a string' in my purse with my map. And moisturize when I think of it, and decide to be the mother of children who are becoming lovely adults is much better than the alternative.

And, I have the joy of watching the process happen for those that follow me.

Home Grown Tomatoes

2008-09-09T09:03:00.012-04:00

One of the best things about summer is: home grown tomatoes. All winter we put up with the tasteless orbs that are shipped from the south - sent because they travel well, not because they taste good.

And while I was looking for some heirloom tomato names, I came across this recipe from David Lebovitz - a wonderful blog full of photos and recipes from Paris.

This recipe is the upscale version of what I do at least twice a week. And I don't have any that last a few days. I do reuse the olive oil however - very good to dip french bread in for lunch...

Bon Appetite!

Confit of Tomatoes
Buy some tomatoes, just about any variety will do.
2 pounds (1 kilo) is a nice amount.
Wash and dry them, then slice them in half.
Pour enough decent-quality olive oil in a baking dish so that it just covers the bottom of the dish, somewhere between 1/4 cup and 1/3 cup should do.
Sprinkle in coarse salt and freshly-ground black pepper, add a few branches of fresh thyme and/or a few sprigs of rosemary.
Then line the bottom of the baking dish with the tomatoes, sliced-side down. Don't be bashful; it's okay to really pack them in.
Peel and slice 3 or 4 garlic cloves, slice them in half lengthwise and tuck them in the gaps between the tomatoes.
Sprinkle the tomatoes with a bit more salt and a small sprinkling of sugar (less than 1 teaspoon... you're not making dessert) and add a few bay leaves.
Bake the tomatoes in a 350 degree (180 centigrade) oven until they are soft and cooked throughout, which should take at least 45 minutes.
Once they're soft, remove them from the oven and let stand until room temperature. You can scrape the tomatoes and juices and herbs into a container and refrigerate them for up to 4 to 5 days or use them right away. They will actually improve as they sit.Use them to toss into pasta, slightly chopped, or warm them and spoon them whole onto hot garlic toasts, perhaps with a few filets of good anchovies, and shower them with lots of fresh herbs. They're also nice served alongside a summer salad with some goat cheese, all drizzled with a bit of the tasty olive oil and juices.

Our Friends Bob and Jenn

2008-05-11T09:22:00.003-04:00

New Love.

True Love.

It doesn't get better than that.

Postcards From Your Mother

2008-04-30T09:28:00.000-04:00

So, I'm pretty transparent. I'm not much of a liar - you can tell what I'm thinking by the look on my face.

"Don't start playing poker any time soon", my boy tells me.

He's right.

Others of my children are not so kind. Well, kind yes, but not as intersted in giving advice. They do things like sending me links to websites I would enjoy.

Like this one: http://postcardsfromyomomma.com/ It has given me a new reason to get out of bed in the morning - try to get an email posted on this site.

I conjure up some pretty extreme emails to my children anyway, but given this new motivation, I'm sending some deuces, but can't take credit for this one....

nasal irrigator

In other news, your father asked me this morning if he could borrow my
nasal irrigator. I got very excited, thinking he was being pro-active in
fighting the cold that’s got him sniffling non-stop already. Turns out he just
wanted to use the irrigator to inject jelly into the croissants he was baking. I
could write a fucking book.I’ve got to buckle down now and read this new
script.
XXOO
MA

Corn Dispute - Fat White Man Wins Again

2008-04-16T08:04:00.001-04:00

Preacher Idol Ruth Update.

2008-04-08T10:39:00.003-04:00

Ruth came third.
Exactly where she'd hoped to be.
Top three and no need to take a seminary course.
We had cake at church to celebrate.

Preacher Idol

2008-03-07T08:53:00.001-05:00

Ruth Wilkinson - Preacher Idol Contestant
Ruth turns preaching on it's ear
by telling a story.
Watch, vote, and spread the word
for a fellow Resonate (Peterborough) attendee.

http://drewmarshall.ca/preacheridol/index.php

In real life, Ruth is the founder of the "Greenwood Tower Initiative", an advocacy group, making friends and pot luck suppers with the 100 or so folks who live in a residential hotel in Port Hope, ON.

From Dan's Blog

2008-01-16T09:10:00.003-05:00

"The quest for meaning is one that preoccupies all Canadians — and indeed all human beings who have met their basic needs for food, shelter and security, and begin to move up the Maslowian hierarchy to seek post-material satisfactions.

As aging baby boomers watch their parents and even their friends die, and as they look beyond materialism, hedonism and work that gave shape to their middle years, they will begin to search broadly for sources of meaning to fit later in life in contemporary Canada.

They are unlikely to be satisfied by the traditional religions so many abandoned in their youth.
But as they scan their environment for examples of the good life, they might find inspiration in the children of immigrants who are materially successful but often still deeply engaged with a spiritual life that is social, syncretic, globally conscious, and threatened neither by the old nor by the new."

I've Been Away....

2007-11-02T09:38:00.000-04:00

Well, not so much away as unavailable. Within my own skull I mean. Just not the headspace to be able to put pen to paper. I have been at my wit's end for most of the summer and now long into the fall.
Way to much on my plate, way to many people with demands, way to little power and autonomy.
Not so different from the rest of the world in that I guess.
But I'm feeling better.
I am seeing the trees at the edge of the forest in definition now.
I am feeling freer to practice (and practise) the person I am becoming.
And, with the best news yet, Martyn Joseph will be in Grafton on February 6th. Change your life to be there too.

2007-09-06T09:58:00.000-04:00

Some of us witnessed the passing of the torch this weekend: the much beloved Sylvia Tyson slipping away as a music icon and the birthing of the newest generation: Catherine MacLellan - daughter of the past pop era legend Gene MacLellan, singing on the same stage, sharing the same workshop, enjoying the comraderie of the song and lyric.

Some of us were busy making lunch for those folks.

I thank Dan Sheffield for the photo.

Haiku - The Perfect Creative Outlet for the Busy and Impatient:

2007-08-13T07:52:00.000-04:00

The Question

The God who is there
Will he show up tomorrow
When I need him most

Garden Produce

Flowers open and close
Like the sign in the window
Nectar sold daily

Avian Idol

Birds on their nests
Snuggling with their body heat
Next year's musicians

I remember when.....

2007-08-12T07:45:00.001-04:00

I remember in the late eighties when the punk thing was so new and scarey, and good christian folks were distancing themselves from the ungodly spiked haired safety pin wearing kids, I watched a group of them sitting together talking.

When one kid spoke, every head turned, every eye was on her/him. Then the next kid talked, and the same thing happened; everyone's attention was solely on them.

I was mesmerized - I realized that these kids had found themselves a family - a community in the true sense.

It's what the human heart craves - and we will look for it 'til we find it - regardless of the cost - and sometimes it costs a lot.

Osprey Media. - Northumberland Today - Ontario, CA

2007-07-07T15:33:00.000-04:00

Osprey Media. - Northumberland Today - Ontario, CA

Melwood Cutlery

2007-07-03T09:15:00.001-04:00

Amen and amen!

2007-06-21T11:33:00.001-04:00

A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken.
— James Dent

As Stolen Directly from Dan Sheffield's Blog....

2007-06-07T10:08:00.001-04:00

He's so old now, he won't even notice....
Happy Birthday by the way.

Scriptural holiness is the attitude embedded in your heart when you allow Christian scripture to shape every word, fill every thought, and guide every action.
that's a thot from the recent issue The Asbury Herald. J. E. Kalas, the president of Asbury Seminary added a few more thots in his editorial.
...scriptural holiness isn't manageable... holiness, like Aslan, the Christ symbol, cannot be domesticated. Just after we have found some new spiritual victory, we discover a whole new territory that is waiting to be taken for Christ. This isn't because the boundaries of sin have changed, but it is because we've become more sensitive to our reading of those boundaries. Once we were satisfied that our deeds were acceptable, then holiness asked us about our wayward tongues and our even more wayward thoughts. One day we thought we had at last gained humility, so we announced it -- and in that moment we lost it. Having won a battle with lust, we thought we had gotten purity of heart -- only to discover that self-righteousness is an even greater hazard to a pure heart.
and then there's the challenge to translate personal holiness into social holiness. Scriptural holiness doesn't allow us to be content with clean habits, clean speech and pure thought... holiness insists that we participate in social renewal. We can't be content as long as poverty, injustice, war and selfishness rule our society. We are driven into the public arena. Our neighbourhood begins to encircle the globe, and although our interests can't taken in everything, they're never allowed to be comfortable with what we can already manage. Scripture holiness isn't for spiritual sissies. It calls for heroic souls...
will scriptural holiness work in a culture as complicated and superficially sophisticated as ours? Not only will it work, I don't know of anything else that will. The ills of this age are too deep to be cured by religious or intellectual hocus pocus.

2007-06-01T11:43:00.002-04:00

I am thankful for the mess to clean after
a party because it means I have been
surrounded by friends.
— Nancie J. Carmody

2007-06-01T11:43:00.001-04:00

Happiness makes up in height what it lacks in length.
— Robert Frost

2007-05-28T17:36:00.000-04:00

Whoever one is, and wherever one is, one is always in the wrong if one is rude.
— Maurice Baring

glumbert.com - Master Juggler

2007-05-21T10:14:00.000-04:00

glumbert.com - Master Juggler

2007-05-18T13:15:00.000-04:00

Put all your eggs in one basket and – watch that basket.
— Mark Twain

Tori 4 Secretary

2007-05-14T17:53:00.001-04:00

Kate and Tori's video.
Fun to watch.

They Don't Sell You This At Hallmark

2007-05-12T06:56:00.000-04:00

Mother's Day was originally started after the Civil War, as a protest to the carnage of that war, by women who had lost their sons. Here is the original Mother's Day Proclamation from 1870.

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise all women who have hearts, whether our baptism be that of water or of fears!

Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies.
Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not betaken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says "Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."

Blood does not wipe our dishonor nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summon sof war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.

Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after their own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that ageneral congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests ofpeace.

Julia Ward HoweBoston 1870

Short Term Mission Trips

2007-05-11T08:43:00.000-04:00

Another perspective.
And they say we are self sufficient!
We go for us, not for them.
Turns out, we need all the help we can get!
DanSheffield

Sarah Harmer -I'm A Mountain (Shelter Valley Folk Festival)

2007-05-10T04:02:00.001-04:00

Kate and Meghan are Hippies

2007-05-07T20:07:00.000-04:00

Born 35 years too late they say.

Alas, they look longingly at this video from the 60's and pine and mourn.

meghan says

My prediction: In 35 years, their grandchildren will be saying the same thing when they look at this photo and video....

2007-05-07T20:05:00.000-04:00

Open up the doors and let the music play
Let the streets resound with singing
Songs that bring your hope
Songs that bring your joy
Dancers who dance upon injustice
-Delirious

What the *&^%$#@ are we doing. Or not doing.

2007-04-27T11:24:00.000-04:00

Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute. Speak out, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.- Proverbs 31:8-9

2007-04-27T11:17:00.001-04:00

Happiness is never stopping to think if you are.
— Palmer Sondreal

meghan says

2007-04-16T09:39:00.000-04:00

meghan says
is our daughter Meghan's blog. Very interesting and insightful reading -- if I do say so myself!

2007-04-12T11:17:00.000-04:00

Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come.
— Anne Lamott

I Like To Try New and Different...

2007-04-11T08:12:00.000-04:00

And sometimes they work, and sometimes they don't.
This template just feels more like me.
And my husband should be happy: he was struggling to read the text on a black background.
Like and old sweater, this new look feels good.
Snuggly, warm -- me.

2007-04-10T11:05:00.001-04:00

Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons.
— Ruth Ann Schabacker

Waving or Drowning?

2007-04-05T08:56:00.000-04:00

Waving or Drowning? Mike Todd's Blog has a great piece about what we as world citizens to help to help GW see a better way.
If you agree Gitmo is incredibly unamerican, sign here....

The Dignity to Give and Receive

2007-04-02T08:58:00.000-04:00

"Nobody is so poor that he/she has nothing to give, and nobody is so rich that he/she has nothing to receive."

These words by Pope John-Paul II, offer a powerful direction for all who want to work for peace. No peace is thinkable as long as the world remains divided into two groups: those who give and those who receive.

Real human dignity is found in giving as well as receiving. This is true not only for individuals but for nations, cultures, and religious communities as well. A true vision of peace sees a continuous mutuality between giving and receiving.

Let's never give anything without asking ourselves what we are receiving from those to whom we give, and let's never receive anything without asking what we have to give to those from whom we receive.

2007-03-30T16:55:00.000-04:00

May God bless you with a restless discomfort about easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships, so that you may seek truth boldly and love deep within your heart.

May God bless you with holy anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may tirelessly work for justice, freedom, and peace among all people.

May God bless you with the gift of tears to shed with those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, or the loss of all that they cherish, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and transform their pain into joy.

May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you really CAN make a difference in this world, so that you are able, with God’s grace, to do what others claim.

~ A Franciscan Blessing

I've Changed the Look of Things....

2007-03-26T11:05:00.001-04:00

Like moving furniture, and taking stuff no longer needed to good will, revamping is good for the soul. And mind. And heart. It's spring, and it's time to change things up a bit.

Strange, Odd, Freaky -- Sounds like Just the Right Ingredients for Restaurant Decor....

2007-03-21T08:59:00.000-04:00

The Blingdom of God: Jesus theme restaurant in Japan

An Honest Being-With

2007-03-15T10:12:00.000-04:00

Being with a friend in great pain is not easy. It makes usuncomfortable. We do not know what to do or what to say,and we worry about how to respond to what we hear. Our temptation is to say things that come more out of our ownfear than out of our care for the person in pain.

Sometimes we say things like "Well, you're doing a lot better thanyesterday," or "You will soon be your old self again," or"I'm sure you will get over this." But often we know that what we're saying is not true, and our friends know it too.

We do not have to play games with each other. We can simplysay: "I am your friend, I am happy to be with you." We can say that in words or with touch or with loving silence. Sometimes it is good to say: "You don't have to talk. Just close your eyes. I am here with you, thinking of you, praying for you, loving you."

- Henri Nouwen

Bono's Acceptance Speech

2007-03-12T15:29:00.001-04:00

St Patrick's Prayer of Blessing

2007-03-09T09:16:00.000-05:00

May you bind yourself today to

The power of God to hold and lead;

His eye to watch; His might to stay;

His ear to hearken to your need;

The wisdom of God to teach;

His hand to guide;

His shield to ward;

The word of God to give you speech;

His Heavenly Host to be your guard.

Amen.

An Ad for A New Design for Church....

2007-03-08T08:04:00.001-05:00

What a concept. An interesting idea. Can it be done? I watch and wait with baited breath.

Beauty

2007-03-06T16:49:00.000-05:00

You can take no credit for beauty at 16. But if you are beautiful at 60, it will be your soul's own doing.
— Marie Stopes

And this is my grandmother (Nana) at 94. Even more beautiful than she was at 16. Or 60.

- Beth

The Meeting of Minds....Dylan does Seuss

2007-03-02T09:57:00.000-05:00

as borrowed from http://dailyjive.blogspot.com/
Dylan Hears a Who!

Drew Marshall on 100 Huntley Street PART TWO

2007-02-24T08:39:00.001-05:00

Drew Marshall on 100 Huntley Street PART ONE

2007-02-23T18:44:00.001-05:00

Interesting Videos from 100 Huntley Street

2007-02-23T11:18:00.000-05:00

Post Script: they are no longer archived on their website. Interesting.
Watch and you decide.

Amazing

2007-02-21T09:55:00.000-05:00

Ages ago, Alex, Allen and Alva arrived at Antibes, and Alva allowing all, allowing anyone, against Alex's admonition, against Allen's angry assertion: another African amusement . . . anyhow, as all argued, an awesome African army assembled and arduously advanced against an African anthill, assiduously annihilating ant after ant, and afterward, Alex astonishingly accuses Albert as also accepting Africa's antipodal ant annexation.

—Walter Abish, Alphabetical Africa (1974)

Jacob Moon Trailer

2007-02-21T09:52:00.001-05:00

Jacob Moon Trailer

2007-02-17T12:59:00.001-05:00

Jacob Moon

Saturday Night in Roblin. Want details? Just ask.

Watch This Video. Change Your Life.

2007-02-16T08:58:00.000-05:00

Invisible Children

The Meal That Makes Us Family and Friends

2007-02-15T08:36:00.000-05:00

We all need to eat and drink to stay alive. But having a meal is more than eating and drinking. It is celebrating the gifts of life we share. A meal together is one of the most intimate and sacred human events.

Around the table we become vulnerable, filling one another's plates and cups and encouraging one another to eat and drink.

Much more happens at a meal than satisfying hunger and quenching thirst. Around the table we become family, friends, community, yes, a body.

That is why it is so important to "set" the table. Flowers, candles, colorful napkins all help us to say to one another, "This is a very special time for us, let's enjoy it!"

--written by Henri Nouwen

2007-02-14T08:33:00.000-05:00

You will notice I am truly slothful -- I did not leave the comfort of the hot tub. Yes, I am the one in the toque. I am very very practical. Soon I will have my own show.

Bono on Karma

2007-02-10T08:33:00.000-05:00

Bono: You see, at the center of all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics—in physical laws—every action is met by an equal or an opposite one. It's clear to me that Karma is at the very heart of the universe. I'm absolutely sure of it. And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that "as you reap, so you will sow" stuff. Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I've done a lot of stupid stuff.

Assayas: I'd be interested to hear that.

Bono: That's between me and God. But I'd be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge. I'd be in deep shit. It doesn't excuse my mistakes, but I'm holding out for Grace. I'm holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don't have to depend on my own religiosity.

Assayas: The Son of God who takes away the sins of the world. I wish I could believe in that.

Bono: But I love the idea of the Sacrificial Lamb. I love the idea that God says: Look, you cretins, there are certain results to the way we are, to selfishness, and there's a mortality as part of your very sinful nature, and, let's face it, you're not living a very good life, are you? There are consequences to actions. The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world, so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death. That's the point. It should keep us humbled… . It's not our own good works that get us through the gates of heaven.

Assayas: That's a great idea, no denying it. Such great hope is wonderful, even though it's close to lunacy, in my view. Christ has his rank among the world's great thinkers. But Son of God, isn't that farfetched?

Bono: No, it's not farfetched to me. Look, the secular response to the Christ story always goes like this: he was a great prophet, obviously a very interesting guy, had a lot to say along the lines of other great prophets, be they Elijah, Muhammad, Buddha, or Confucius. But actually Christ doesn't allow you that. He doesn't let you off that hook. Christ says: No. I'm not saying I'm a teacher, don't call me teacher. I'm not saying I'm a prophet. I'm saying: "I'm the Messiah." I'm saying: "I am God incarnate." And people say: No, no, please, just be a prophet. A prophet, we can take. You're a bit eccentric. We've had John the Baptist eating locusts and wild honey, we can handle that. But don't mention the "M" word! Because, you know, we're gonna have to crucify you. And he goes: No, no. I know you're expecting me to come back with an army, and set you free from these creeps, but actually I am the Messiah. At this point, everyone starts staring at their shoes, and says: Oh, my God, he's gonna keep saying this. So what you're left with is: either Christ was who He said He was—the Messiah—or a complete nutcase. I mean, we're talking nutcase on the level of Charles Manson. This man was like some of the people we've been talking about earlier. This man was strapping himself to a bomb, and had "King of the Jews" on his head, and, as they were putting him up on the Cross, was going: OK, martyrdom, here we go. Bring on the pain! I can take it. I'm not joking here. The idea that the entire course of civilization for over half of the globe could have its fate changed and turned upside-down by a nutcase, for me, that's farfetched …

Bono: … [I]f only we could be a bit more like Him, the world would be transformed. …When I look at the Cross of Christ, what I see up there is all my shit and everybody else's. So I ask myself a question a lot of people have asked: Who is this man? And was He who He said He was, or was He just a religious nut? And there it is, and that's the question. And no one can talk you into it or out of it.

From Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas, by Michka Assayas, copyright © 2005 by Michka Awwayas.

Somebody's Got To Do It....

2007-02-07T08:52:00.000-05:00

Sometimes, miscommunication happens.

Even when you have the best of intentions.

When a whimsical youngest child (daughter)says to a literal oldest child (mother), "For once, I'd like a cake with my name on it", that's what I did.

I aim to please.

I try to get things right.

David tried to translate. He asked," did she mean -- 'Happy 17th birthday Kate'?"

"Nope", I said, she said a cake with her name on it.

And this was the resulting face. "I didn't just mean 'Kate' written on a cake. That's stupid."

"Oh", was my reaction.

Thankfully, when she attempted to continue the whine for more than the alloted 10 seconds, she had older siblings who set her straight.

"At least you got a cake', was what I think the middle children told her. "At least they remembered your birthday', was what the child born at Christmas reminded her.

"Isn't that what you asked for," our oldest child suggested, scratching her head, and trying hard to figure this out.

Ah, yes, birth order. Like guilt, it's the gift that keeps on giving.

2007-02-02T13:49:00.000-05:00

If ants are such busy workers, how come they find time to go to all the picnics?
— Marie Dressler

If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded.

2007-01-31T16:49:00.000-05:00

— Maya Angelou

Something to chew on (aka Meditation).....

2007-01-30T09:48:00.000-05:00

We prescribe for one another remedies that will bring us peace of mind, and we are still devoured by anxiety. We evolve plans for disarmament and for the peace of nations, and our plans only change the manner and method of aggression.

The rich have everything they want except happiness, and the poor are sacrificed to the unhappiness of the rich. Dictatorships use their secret police to crush millions under an intolerable burden of lies, injustice and tyranny, and those who still live in democracies have forgotten how to make good use of their liberty.

For liberty is a thing of the spirit, and we are no longer able to live for anything but our bodies. How can we find peace, true peace, if we forget that we are not machines for making and spending money, but spiritual beings, sons and daughters of the most high God?

- Thomas Merton (The Monastic Journey)

Something Interesting to Ponder....

2007-01-29T08:24:00.000-05:00

Healing Our Memories
-- Henri Nouwen

Forgiving does not mean forgetting. When we forgive a person, the memory of the wound might stay with us for along time, even throughout our lives. Sometimes we carry the memory in our bodies as a visible sign. But forgiveness changes the way we remember. It converts the curse into a blessing.

When we forgive our parents for their divorce, our children for their lack of attention, our friends for their unfaithfulness in crisis, our doctors for their ill advice,we no longer have to experience ourselves as the victims of events we had no control over.

Forgiveness allows us to claim our own power and not let these events destroy us; it enables them to become events that deepen the wisdom of our hearts. Forgiveness indeed heals memories.

Quote of the day....

2007-01-26T14:42:00.000-05:00

Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification.
— Martin H. Fischer

Quote of the Day

2007-01-25T20:04:00.000-05:00

Always borrow money from a pessimist, he doesn't expect to be paid back.
— Anonymous

I've Been Tagged ....

2007-01-24T09:28:00.000-05:00

.... by that wild and crazy Paul Wilkinson. I like games, so I'm in. Here's the senario:

So it's about a five hour to flight to Los Angeles, and you've been given a free upgrade to first class and find yourself sitting next to ________________.
Of the Christian leaders and writers you're aware of, who would be the ultimate conversation for a five hour flight?

Okay, I'll let you name up to three.

Dr. Helen Roseveare
Dr Ron Sider
Dr Jean Vanier

I'm tagging Lesley, DanSheff, and Sherry.

Leave a comment with your answers. I'll let you decide if you want to tag somebody else.

Rev. King Is Selectively Remembered - January 20, 2007

2007-01-22T10:09:00.000-05:00

This past Monday, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., would have turned 78. He has been dead as long as he was alive – 39 years – and the world and especially his country are still grappling uneasily with his memory and message.

As Seattle journalist Geov Parrish has noted, many often recall King's"I Have a Dream" speech from the 1963 March on Washington. But our memories of King are often selective.We don't always recall, for example, that his home was bombed, his chest pierced by a knife, his body beaten and repeatedly jailed, his face rendered a spittoon by white racists, his personal world invaded by theFBI, and his life, and that of his wife and four children, constantly menaced by death threats, at times up to 40 a day.

Though each year on his birthday, now an official U.S. holiday, we are reminded of his lofty rhetoric and successful desegregation campaign inthe U.S. South, we seem to forget about mainstream U.S. scorn for King during his lifetime, and his widely held sobriquet, "Commie dupe."

We often even forget that he was a Baptist minister, and that his Christian faith and black church community served as wellsprings of his activism. Yet our recollections become particularly dissipated when it comes to his powerful indictments of poverty, state-sanctioned violence, and unchecked U.S. militarism, especially in Vietnam.

One of King's most prescient and compelling speeches, in fact, is one of his least quoted – his April 1967 address to a meeting of Clergy andLaity Concerned about Vietnam at Riverside Church in New York City. It was the first time King spoke out publicly against the war, and his outspokenness continued until he was silenced by a bullet in Memphis one year later.

King's diagnosis of our society that night remains as pertinent today asit did 40 years ago:"I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the worldrevolution,"

Rev. King intoned, "we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a`thing-oriented' society to a `person-oriented' society. When machinesand computers, profit motives and property rights are considered moreimportant than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, andmilitarism are incapable of being conquered."

Anticipating the Jubilee international debt relief campaigns of Canada,the U.S. and the U.K. (not to mention U2's Bono), King continued:"True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is nothaphazard and superficial. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A true revolution of values willsoon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa andSouth America, only to take the profits out with no concern for thesocial betterment of the countries, and say: `This is not just.'"

In light of the Bush administration's failed and morally insupportable invasion of Iraq, and Bush's recent order to escalate U.S. troopcommitment there, King's words could have been uttered yesterday:"The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: `This way of settlingdifferences is not just. This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of people normally humane,of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled withwisdom, justice and love.'" A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defence than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."

King's speech invites us to pause and reflect on what kind of future we want for our children and ourselves. Do we want a future marked by endless war? Do we want to live in a future increasingly divided into the desperately poor and insouciantly rich? King had a dream, and he asks us, across the years, to ponder what our own dream as a society might be. He also invites us to ensure that our collective dream is not a nightmare.

--- Stephen Scharper
The Star.com

Pearls of Wisdom... From My Momma

2007-01-19T08:07:00.000-05:00

Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.
If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin'.
Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.
The biggest troublemaker you'll probably ever have to deal with, watches you from the mirror every mornin'.
Always drink upstream from the herd.
Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.
Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin' it back in.
If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around.
Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God.

Quote of the Day.....

2007-01-17T17:43:00.000-05:00

Good instincts usually tell you what to do long before your head has figured it out.
— Michael Burke

For Sale

2007-01-15T07:47:00.000-05:00

We are downsizing. Purging. Simplifing.

Here is one thing that's gotta go.

Email for details.

2007-01-12T11:41:00.000-05:00

Modesty is the gentle art of enhancing your charm by pretending not to be aware of it.
— Oliver Herford

2007-01-11T10:20:00.000-05:00

When you are through changing, you are through.
— Bruce Barton

Quote of the Day

2007-01-10T10:17:00.000-05:00

The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend.
— Henry David Thoreauau

Quote of the Day.....

2007-01-02T08:57:00.000-05:00

Daily Meditation for January 2, 2007
by Henri Nouwen

Joy and sorrow are never separated. When our hearts rejoice at a spectacular view, we may miss our friends who cannot see it, and when we are overwhelmed with grief, we may discover what true friendship is all about. Joy is hidden in sorrow and sorrow in joy. If we try to avoid sorrow at all costs, we may never taste joy, and if we are suspicious of ecstasy, agony can never reach us either. Joy and sorrow are the parents of our spiritual growth.

2007-01-01T10:50:00.000-05:00

2007-01-01T10:29:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!

2006-12-31T08:31:00.001-05:00

Youth is when you're allowed to stay up late on New Year's Eve. Middle age is when you're forced to.
— Bill Vaughan

Bono - God's Gonna Cut You Down - Johnny Cash

2006-12-24T19:48:00.001-05:00

For Today, A Window is Exactly What I Need

2006-12-24T11:14:00.000-05:00

Window In The Skies

The shackles are undone
The bullets quit the gun
The heat that’s in the sun
Will keep us when there’s none

The rule has been disproved
The stone it has been moved
The grave is now a groove
All debts are removed

Oh can’t you see what love has done?
Oh can’t you see what love has done?
Oh can’t you see what love has done?
What it’s done to me?

Love makes strange enemies
Makes love where love may please
The soul and its striptease
Hate brought to its knees

The sky over our head
We can reach it from our bed
You let me in your heart
And out of my head, head…

Oh can’t you see what love has done?
Oh can’t you see what love has done?
Oh can’t you see what love has done?
What it’s done to me?

Oh, oh, oh, oh…
Oh, oh, oh, oh…

Please don’t ever let me out of you
I’ve got no shame,
oh no, oh no

Oh can’t you see what love has done?
Oh can’t you see?
Oh can’t you see what love has done?
What it’s doing to me?

I know I hurt you and I made you cry
Did everything but murder you and I
But love left a window in the skies
And to love I rhapsodize

To every broken heart
For every heart that cries
Love left a window in the skies
And to love I rhapsodize

meghan's translation of a rob bell quote:

2006-12-20T10:21:00.000-05:00

"The day after Thanksgiving in America, is called Black Friday. Roughly two weeks ago the numbers came in -- they believe Americans spent, on gifts for Christmas, roughly 9 billion dollars.

So we spent, the day after Thanksgiving two weeks ago, a number that would provide water and sanitation for the WHOLE world. "

I am SO glad that we are doing buy nothing christmas.. it doesn't necessarily add to the water and sanitation thing at all but it helps with my own mental sanity.

Songs For Christmas

2006-12-15T09:07:00.000-05:00

It's not often that the Sheffs agree on anything -- let alone music -- but Sufjan Stevens is one of a very small club of musicians: the Duhks, the Decemberists and the aforementioned Sufjan. We first heard him of NPR singing about the Lord God Bird (a 1.5 m tall woodpecker) thought to be extinct in the Arkansas backwater. Google this song -- very interesting.

In keeping with the season, I suggest you listen to some of Sufjan Steven's Songs for Christmas.

It makes everything right in the Christmas crazed world.

And helps you avoid the mall.

This man knows of what he sings.....

2006-12-11T08:33:00.000-05:00

I Need to Remember this Quote....

2006-12-10T10:38:00.000-05:00

maybe you do too....

We are the people we've been waiting for.
- Jim Wallis,
Sojourner Magazine

Interview with Bill McKibben ($100.00 Holiday)

2006-12-07T07:20:00.000-05:00

One of the ironies of this business is listening to people say, Oh but if you changed Christmas it would wreck the economy. The idea that our economic success should depend on the corrupted celebration of the birth of someone who told us to give everything we had should lead us to question the rationality of a hyper-consumer economy.
--Bill McKibben

Meghan At Night

2006-12-04T07:33:00.000-05:00

Quote(s) of the Day.....

2006-11-29T09:51:00.000-05:00

....as stolen directly from Mike Todd:

The Prophetic Imagination

"Empires live by numbness. Empires, in their militarism, expect numbness about the human cost of war. Corporate economies expect blindness to the cost in terms of poverty and exploitation. Governments and societies of domination go to great lengths to keep the numbness intact... Thus compassion that might seem simply as generous goodwill is in fact criticism of the systems, forces, and ideologies that produce the hurt." (p. 88-89)

and...

"Quite clearly, the one thing the dominant culture cannot tolerate or co-opt is compassion, the ability to stand in solidarity with the victims of the present order. It can manage charity and good intentions, but it has no way to resist solidarity with pain or grief." (p. 91)

Mike seems to have shovelled his way to the bookshelf. And I am grateful.

Our Little Emmy....

2006-11-24T15:28:00.000-05:00

.....All Grown Up and On MTV

Buy Nothing Day

2006-11-24T15:20:00.000-05:00

Quote of the Day....

2006-11-20T19:37:00.000-05:00

Even if happiness forgets you a little bit, never completely forget about it.
— Jacques Prévert

Alice Walker Quote....

2006-11-15T19:52:00.000-05:00

"I have learned to accept the fact that we risk disappointment, disillusionment, even despair, every time we act. Every time we decide to believe the world can be better. Every time we decide to trust others to be as noble as we think they are. And that there might be years during which our grief is equal to, or even greater than, our hope. The alternative, however, not to act, and therefore to miss experiencing other people at their best, reaching toward their fullness, has never appealed to me."

Quote of the Day.....

2006-11-15T19:42:00.000-05:00

Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.
— Napoleon Bonaparte

2006-11-10T11:24:00.000-05:00

The person who is waiting for something to turn up might start with their shirt sleeves.
— Garth Henrichs

2006-11-10T08:52:00.000-05:00

Teamwork divides the task and multiplies the success.
— Anonymous

Quote of the Day....

2006-11-07T11:37:00.000-05:00

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
-Martin Luther King Jr. (as quoted by Robson Jewitt)

Quote of the Day....

2006-11-02T08:05:00.000-05:00

"But I want first of all to be at peace with myself. I want a singleness of eye, a purity of intention, a central core to my life.... to live 'in grace' as much of the time as possible. By grace I mean an inner harmony, essentially spiritual, which can be translated into outward harmony."
Anne Lindbergh