U2 and Green Day -- The Saints Are Coming

Check out what Mike Todd is up to.....

Waving or Drowning?

Passion:

The most beautiful make-up of a woman is passion.
But cosmetics are easier to buy.
— Yves Saint Laurent

Bithday Roses

Folk Singers

It's funny -- just a little bit of hospitality and it makes all the difference in the world to people. Case in point, this 'band' (in the old english sense - not the rock'n'roll sense) were travelling by and honoured us with their presence.

We were already interested in what Catherine MacLellan was doing, and were already cheerleaders by proxy (her dad is Gene), but enjoyed getting to know her friends and fellow muscians.

When you model hospitality -- it's contagious. Our kids have invited travelling bands to stay the night. The stories from those events live on in infamy. You really haven't lived until you see several musicians stumble in at midnight -- tired and bedraggled -- but still sylin' in their tight 'girls' jeans, and "jet black (previously straightened) swept over the eyes hair" -- crash on the floor -- only to wake up bright and early -- found jumping on the trampoline in borrowed house coat (Meg's) and floppy Sponge Bob slippers (Em's)! Check out the band "Blessed by a Broken Heart" for photos of the guys. We show up on the credits for the first album. Just because somebody cared enough to make them pancakes.

The great thing about musicians is they are starving. They may have started the trip vegan, but by the time they land at your place, they will eat anything. Serve quiche, it's the best thing they have ever had. Serve it again at breakfast, and you are Martha. Make muffins from a mix, and you are voted elected to parliament. You really can't lose. Try new recipes. Try old recipes. Try out the stove. They will love you for it.

Turn the porch light on, join couch surfers.org, Tell your pastor to put you on the list for people willing to show hospitality to missionaries passing by -- that you have a pull out couch and make a mean cup of coffee. Trust me, there is no list, but you will start one.

Word gets out that you have the floor space for a mattress. Travellers are dusty and tired. You don't have to be witty and informed. Mostly they just want a quiet place to lie down.

Try it.

Get out there.

Get dirty.

Take risks.

Have somebody over.

Thought for the Day

Love one another and you will be happy. It's as simple and as difficult as that.
— Michael Leunig

A Case in Point....

The real problem of leisure time is how to keep others from using yours.
— Arthur Lacey

L.Bo's Heart Had Wings

As per Lesley's blog comment: she is a singer of rare renown.
Definetly one of my favourites.
In fact, here are my top two on stage together, SVFF 2005.

David Francis Sheffield

Hope is Healthy

He who has health has hope, and he who has hope has everything.
— Arabian proverb

Today's Thot

Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.

— J.M. Barrie

Thanksgiving Sunday Family Photos

Autumn Fun

We're big fall people in this family. It could be because some of us have birthdays in October. The kids go out on some kind of adventure for 'autumn fun' -- corn maze, pumpkin patch, apple orchard, and this year -- haunted house. I hear Kate screamed so long and so loud, a security guard came over to ask her if she had ever been through a haunted house before. Her reply, "Yep, every year!"
While they were out scaring themselves silly, the rest of us we recovering from deep fried turkey. All you could ask for an more.

It never hurts to be a bit forgetful...

Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn't know you left open.
— John Barrymore

Dragon Boating

What a great day. To see people who conquer their fears of the elements and the unknown, and step into a vessel where everyone is equal -- equal abilities/disabilities, equal strength/weakness, equal exhilaration/terror. The uniform united us: the race made us winners.

Pleasure is the flower that passes; remembrance, the lasting perfume.
— Jean de Boufflers

For My Mother

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.
— Albert Camus

ALL ANIMALS ARE GREAT CREATURES

NAIROBI (AFP) - A baby hippopotamus that survived the tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong bond with a giant male century-old tortoise, in an animal facility in the port city of Mombassa , officials said. The hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen and weighing about 300 kilograms (650 pounds), was swept down Sabaki River into the Indian Ocean, then forced back to shore when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on December 26, before wildlife rangers rescued him.



"It is incredible. A-less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to be very happy with being a 'mother'," ecologist Paula Kahumbu, who is in charge of Lafarge Park, told AFP.


"After it was swept and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized. It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother. Fortunately, it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond. They swim, eat and sleep together," the ecologist added. "The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it follows its mother. If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive, as if protecting its biological mother," Kahumbu added.



"The hippo is a young baby, he was left at a very tender age and by nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay with their mothers for four years," he explained.

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

This is a real story that shows that our differences don't matter much when we need the comfort of another. We could all learn a lesson from these two creatures of God, "Look beyond the differences and find a way to walk the path together.

My Pond