Sermon notes ... I am just someone who needs to be writing down notes when I am supposed to be listening to a sermon ... if I don't, I drift too much, and I start counting the light bulbs in the chandeliers and wondering how they are changed and by whom ... and if there are spider webs up there ... interesting stuff like that.  So ... notes ... these notes aren't necessarily what he said, they're just what I wrote down. It's what I heard, and maybe what I thought.  In other words ... this isn't going to be recognizable as his sermon.

"Biblical Pattern of Leadership"
Deuteronomy 17:14-20

Be sure to appoint a God chosen leader ... they had a prophet who helped out with the culling process.  Saul---> David ---> Solomon
I Sam 16:7 God looks at the heart
Pastor said, the land could be synonymous with an abundant (Christian) life
v 15 says ... don't place a foreigner over you ... I thought maybe that's where the Founding Fathers got the idea for a natural born citizen ... also ...  maybe a foreigner might be a person with totally different sensibilities then you
v 16 says  ... the King, moreover,

• must not acquire great numbers of horses
• must not take many wives
• must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold

Pastor said:

• horses = power
• wives = pleasure
• silver and gold = possessions 

any of which would be a distraction from the peoples work ... ruling well ... leadership

he drew on this quote:

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." ~Jim Elliot

And alluded to the ministry of  U.S.Senate Chaplain Barry Black ... wow.  The Pastor made this statement, "There are saints in Caesar's household" as he referenced Rev. Black.  Here is an interview with him, I am so glad to learn a bit about the life of this man.  Love this:

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, we do not doubt your generous love. ... ~PRAYER FOR THE CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL CEREMONY
Tuskegee Airmen 

and this story:

Small Enough...
After an evening of talk, perhaps about the fringes of knowledge, or some new possibility of climbing into the minds and senses of animals, we would go out on the lawn, where we took turns at an amusing little astronomical rite. We searched until we found, with or without glasses, the faint, heavenly spot of light-mist beyond the lower left-hand corner of the Great Square of Pegasus, when one or the other of us would then recite:
“That is the Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda. “It is as large as our Milky Way.
“It is one of a hundred million galaxies. “It is 750,000 light-years away.
“It consists of one hundred billion suns,
each larger than our sun.”
After an interval, Colonel Roosevelt would grin at me and say: “Now I think we are small enough! Let’s go to bed.”
We must have repeated this salutary ceremony forty or fifty times in the course of years, and it never palled.
From The Book of Naturalists (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1944, page 234); quoted in The Interpreter’s Bible (New York: Abingdon Press, 1956) volume V, page 436, in connection with Isaiah 40:12-17. *

I like that the message was intended to help us think about not only our leaders ... past, present and future, but our own leadership roles as well ... and our role as followers.  This is a turbulent time ... yet God, whoever he exactly is, is the same as always.  I like it a lot ... significantly insignificant and yet He is mindful of us.  Wow.

*Isaiah 40:12-17
New International Version (NIV)

¹² Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, 
    or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? 
Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket,
    or weighed the mountains on the scales
    and the hills in a balance? 
¹³ Who can fathom the Spirit^[a] of the Lord,
    or instruct the Lord as his counselor? 
¹⁴ Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him,
    and who taught him the right way?
Who was it that taught him knowledge, 
    or showed him the path of understanding?

¹⁵ Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket;
    they are regarded as dust on the scales; 
    he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust. 
¹⁶ Lebanon is not sufficient for altar fires,
    nor its animals enough for burnt offerings.
¹⁷ Before him all the nations are as nothing; 
    they are regarded by him as worthless
    and less than nothing.

Wow ... it was five and now it is six!  I thought to quickly check in on a couple of blogs which I read and read an interesting comment and I thought ... what kind of person made that connection ... curiosity encouraged me to make a jump and on the other end, I fell in to a photo blog of shots from Alaska.  Wow.  I made myself look at the time when I was really just wanting to go google earth in search of more info on a runway.  It looked either too wide or too short or possibly both ... and ... well to fly there is primarily why I want to spend time in Alaska.  I secretly wonder if I won't think I have arrived home.  Husband says one winter in would probably remind me that I am a beach girl ... idk ... the area around Anchorage looks like it might be one of the last "stations" before heaven.  Well ... suddenly I have a handful (that's five) blogs that I especially like for very different reason ... .  Oh!  Excellent!  Just became aware that it is raining here ... bedroom window now open.

So ... this morning, on the way to the coffee machine, I was thinking about a ginormous oak tree which I took several pictures of on Sunday.  L, taking a side road, showed us a little early subdivision of mansions built by executives at a now long defunct mill.  I was impressed by the trees ... and the street lights. C took a picture of one of the homes for her oldest brother ... they were on the phone with him when we stopped for me to get out and really see the trees.  I think it's nice that my husband will stop and wait patiently while I take pictures.

Picture of one of the homes ... taken for One so he could be there with us ... pretty fancy.

A really big tree ... probably a 30' drip line at very least.  While approaching the tree I thought there is no way I will be able to capture the majesty of this ... it is a tower ... at the base six men could stand shoulder to shoulder  and we would still see trunk on either side ... my camera can not convey perspective, there was nothing near by to scale the size of this tree ... and that's what I was thinking about this morning as I walked through the house ... I knew I was walking through poisonous ivy on the way to the base of this tree.  I hoped my camera would be able to capture a reminder of the awe inspired here ... this morning I can feel the tingle which will be a full blown rash by this time tomorrow ... I wish the picture were better, but I'd do it all over again for even this little reminder.

I am thinking about perspective, as in how one may train their way of seeing things.  I am very tempted to look at the way things appear to be ... the entire planet seems to be in a real crap basket ... Preacher did a sermon on "Biblical Pattern of Leadership" and I immediately noticed that neither of the likely candidates for Leadership of my country qualify for consideration, much less occupancy.  I'm running out of time for note making ... better get to what I told myself I would do early this morning ... sermon notes.  First this though ... 

"The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings." 
-Eric Hoffer

~found earlier this morning on the Alaskan Photoblog accompanying a photo of a branch of green hosting a string of crystal water droplets ... tiny blessings.

The exercise of 1000 Gifts ... back a year ago when I decided to note my way towards a perspective of gratitude ... I didn't realize that an attitude of thankfulness would be like that tree.  Yeah ... it's like that tree.  The root system collects "stuff" ... I can't see any of that going on, but I know it's there.  The leaves collect "stuff" ... I can see the leaves and the elements, but I can't see the any of the process, only the results ... a few of which are a very vibrant plant life providing support for all kinds of wild life and protection for these delicate little delights ... the truck branches out in all directions as it reaches for the light ... no telling how long it's been growing there, or what might happen around it in coming years.

The runway I was looking at this morning ... I know runways ... unmarked runways especially, can fool the under informed eye ... weather around runways can significantly impact perspectives.  We "land" on notions the same way.

 

I think I better come back later to note my sermon notes ... they would be lost in the hodgepodge of these musings!

Reading this:  we're not there yet ...
The Alabama bushwhacker was an 80 dollar fail ... have to say I do like coconut infused rum, and the Bacardi 151 ... comes with a warning : flammable.  I'm thinking, doesn't anyone capable of reading the label already know that alcohol is flammable ... maybe even in more then simply the most obvious of ways.  All this to say ... that 151 is delicious too.  Maybe I like rum ... who knew?  I have studiously avoided umbrella drinks ... now I wonder what the occasional splash of fruit juice would hurt.

Yesterday (sermon notes to follow ... I obviously need to review those as often as possible) the preacher said what the parents enjoy in moderation the children will indulge to their ruin. Scary words ... of course I thought of the devil's brew ... . Well, everybody has their opinions about ... pretty much everything ... so far so good with all the older children though (knock on wood).

So ... back to that little blog.  These guys have edited their lives back to a point where what they have may be carried on two bicycles and where they are going is where the day takes them ... one, educated to earn a living as a big city (yeah ... maybe headed towards slick) attorney the other ... as yet undisclosed (I think I am in the first couple of weeks out on the road and I think they intend to pedal their way to Central America ... I jumped ahead in the recipe section and found them somewhere in Mexico) ... yeah ... the other I think cooks because of the very specific culinary curiosity.  This morning I read about a roll stuffed with fried pig skin ... from the chapel of baked delights ...  it must have been fabulously inspiring, because today (that day) they became engaged. Crackin's ... who knew? So ... I thought I was reading a sleep eat pedal post sort of thing ... but now, personalities begin to emerge.  One is up for it ... whatever it is ... one would like to plan some of the its ... the photography is light filled and expansive ... .

Last night I read a couple of days worth in bed ... and I said to L ... this is just great ... we could do something like this ... just a couple hours earlier we had shared the road with a couple on a big bike, snuggled in together, they appeared to me to be less on their way to somewhere, more just right there ... together.  I liked seeing them.  At a stop light on the way through one of those sleepy Southern towns, they pulled along side us.  Both smiled over and their happy faces crinkled my eyes ... L said they sure were playing their music loud ... several miles back I had said that I'd read somewhere that you can get intercom to make communications pleasant and ... even a little heating boost that somehow plugs in to the bike for comfort on a cold day.  I like that couples can be together zooming through their own air.  Or, as these kids are blogging ... meandering towards something ... becoming more together.  All good.  I seem to be spending a good bit of my time thinking about together ... both together with God and together with my husband.  Souls seek together I think.  Snuggled in is a worthy destination.

We could do something like that I said as I turned off the lamp.  He said ... We are in no shape for that ... how about a loop around the neighborhood and we sleep in our own bed every night.  It makes me laugh. I know I will do something like that some day ... seeing the coastline may be even more appealing then walking the trail ... these bike bloggers are definitely on to something ... camping out some, bread and breakfasts and hot showers some ... interesting food everyday ...wonder filled things to see ... it's really good.  Maybe my buddy will get used to the idea of something like this eventually ... I am working on it.

Dropped C off for another week of helping out at camp ... she is life-guarding this week ... last week while here at home, she got to participate as a judge at the State dive meet ... very cool.  L and I drove on, in to town, to confirm the color and comfort of the dining room chairs I am saving up for ... and ... we sat on our favorite sofa and looked at the coffee table which inspired the one I want to have crafted by a local welder.  L likes the table well enough, but he doesn't believe the craftsmanship  can be reproduced.  He may be correct.  Industrial furniture (like everything else I think) is about attention to the details ... otherwise you get ... junk that nicks the knees of the uninitiated.  I am willing to spent a hundred bucks on a frame that might be exactly what I want ... and/or, I am willing to work towards a plan B.  That sofa ... rocks ... it is as deep as a twin bed ... and long, I love the leather wrapped luxurious comfiness of it ... too big a scale for any of the rooms in our house, but absolutely a perfect piece for somewhere.  At least the chairs passed the scratch and sniff test ... . He offered a Starbucks stop, which was tempting, but I know we would get to the counter and I would be the only one asking for a treat.  It was a gracious offer, but when I suggested browsing through FreshMarket instead, he was amiable ... we found fresh ripe peaches, salty cashews and those little sesame crunchy things I like so much ... I was really happy to see that he picked up two huge bottles of ice cold water while I was visiting with the fresh sushi (too much food for one person ... I passed).   Perfect car picnic for the ride home.

So ... today ... menu/grocery list planning ... time to empty the pantry and make sure everything goes back in shipshape ... that wipe the walls with bleach water sort of thing.  This week I'll work on the yellow ottoman and I hope to paint the foyer and hall on Thursday and Friday.  I'm going to do a horizontal tone on tone stripe ... 2 gloss and 3 matte.  It makes me smile to think of how perfect its going to be ... like the ceiling in the living room where I'm sitting.  I tilted my head back and looked up ... my ceiling looks like a bucket of milk where the cream has floated deliciousness to the top.  I'll be applying  the ceiling color on the wall through the doorway ... they are very close to the same color, but different I think.  The ceiling in that space is a very light grayish sea salt color.
*picture ... gun metal grey bucket, fresh white milk, thick cream ... the cream floats to the top.

91/1000 ... spoons ... full of sweet memories

 A Tupperware container, out in the garage, holds a bunch of mostly mismatched silverware ... I've had this since college.  From who knows where, a wild hair to decoupage magazine images ... primarily color ... on to them.  These five are actually from the same ... family.  Similar, different ... like my five.
once I get the "paperwork" done on these, I will do something (that I think is ) cool with colored embroidery thread ... and I'll hang this/these in the kitchen as a reminder ... not like I forget, more like a smile maker.
... finished project to follow ... may take a while.

• 2 scoops vanilla ice cream
• light rum
• coconut rum
• kahlua
• Bacardi 151

Mix equal parts light rum, coconut rum and kahlua.  For each drink, take 2 oz. of that mixture and blend it with the ice cream.  Put into a glass and  top with a generous splash of the Bacardi 151.  Swirl the 151 into the drink very lightly, and top with a cherry (or a dusting of cocoa powder, or cinnamon or nutmeg).

and ... this is where it's found ... we're not there yet ... a blog that I think I am going to really enjoy.  Ds set this recipe along because ... hmmm ... why?  Probably the drinks name ... Alabama Bush Wacker.  I will have to ponder the implications there ... ice cream ... a delicious forbidden yumminess infused with four types of alcohol.  I would probably get whacked on this.  I don't even want to think about it which is why I posted the pic and ingredient list right here I guess.  

Hey Ds, does this presentation remind you of street margaritas in Mexico?  Yes ... we survived our youth and may now taunt one another!  Will let you know how this goes ... and thanks for the pointer to my vicarious trek about.  LY (I absolutely do).

I thought it would be fun to sit outside and watch the stormy weather roll in while we enjoyed these delicious cocktails ... music via the iPad ... but, not so much.  It was .. too muggy ... this didn't taste enough like the cocktail ... movie night but no movie to see ... it was pretty much a no start, but definitely over for me when the question of how many calories did I estimate would be in this concoction.  Too many.  Too many things not Friday night.

Flowers on the communion table sometime this summer were placed there by their four sons in honour of the 68th wedding anniversary. Married for 68 years. 

He is ninety, she six years younger. I said I wanted to know something more about love ... and ... I truly wish I weren't so cynical about love. They are helping me to see love in a way I haven't seen it before ... it is deeply moving.

They live in a comfortable garden home under the departure end of 36 ... it was delightful to hear the continuous purr of light engines climbing. She said every evening that the weather will allow, they sit outside on their swing and watch the little airplanes and the hummingbirds. Neither of them has ever flown in a small plane, but they enjoy them the way I enjoy hummingbirds at the feeder.

I spent several hours in a rocking chair in their living room this morning listening to her reminisce ... and try to remember words to express what she wanted to say ... and straining to hold the thread of what she was saying. I like older people quite a bit. I am fascinated to hear what of their lives they want to share ... what was planted deep enough to still have hold in the oft tilled soil of their souls? She has always been a homemaker ... raising four boys. Pictures of their family are in frames on every surface. And there is a small Christmas tree in front of the fireplace, with lights, and garlands, and all her favourite ornaments sparkling in this morning's summer sun. She likes Christmas. I do too ... maybe someday I will have a little tree that stays up year 'round celebrating the birth of hope.

 He stayed for a bit to make sure she was comfortable being left with me while he ran a few errands  ... she doesn't remember me at all, and I was so glad I had a few pictures of L and I hiking the trail to confirm that I actually do know L.  He has always been one of her favorites! Sweet. I can't remember how many times she asked me whose wife are you ... She doesn't think I sit with him at church ... it's true that I don't always sit right next to him during the service, sometimes two or three kids will sit between us. He taught the senior adult men's Sunday School class at our church for many years and all the old guys are very fond of him, as are their sweet wives.

She is grateful for her husband's tenderness towards her. She started to cry a bit when she told me she wished they could die together ... She doesn't wish him dead she said, but she knows her health is not good and she can't imagine being without him. She said she is afraid to go to heaven without him ... she doesn't remember being without him nearby. She doesn't remember when he used to leave for a day at his office ... she sat where she could see his car coming up their street, and I kept an ear on the garage door opening ... I wanted to be sure to be watching her when she first saw his car. She still has a beautiful smile.  It is the kind of smile a woman with a well tended heart grows in to over time ... it is a smile that creates more smiles.  I think she has been bringing out the very best in people for a long time

The mind is an amazing thing. She really seemed to enjoy reading names out of the church directory and asking me about them ... what happened to this one and that one. It was fun for me to see how happy she was that I could tell her nice stories about her friends ... She wanted to know why one man was alone in his picture ... where was his wife ... The wife had been her Sunday School teacher for many years before she died unexpectedly on a tour of the Holy Land a few years ago. I could see her confused that I seemed to know so many sweet stories but she just couldn't remember ever seeing me before.

How are our impressions formed, and why do we remember what we remember? I am not afraid of forgetting large chucks of my life. I wish I could be there to see what remains important enough to stay put. And important enough really isn't even the correct sentiment ... . There was a beautiful crocheted tablecloth on the side table between their chairs. He was pleased to tell me that she began making it the year they were married. She remembered working on the table cloth. I asked her permission to take a picture of it ... when I got down on the floor for the angle I wanted, we both saw a pink wash cloth hiding underneath. She was embarrassed. She apologised for not being able to keep her home as she used to ... She said the cloth was left there from when she dried the feet of her friend. He was having some foot problem that required an occasional  soak ... she dries his feet afterwards ... He said it breaks his heart to watch her trying to figure out how to get the cloth between his toes ... Watching as your love disappears is courageous work I think.  Lonely work ... his strength will keep her safe in this confusing tangle on the path they walk together towards home ... I know he is trying to spare her his grief.

When he arrived home she was so precious ... lighting up like a school girl. Gosh, I can feel my chest tightening up as I type that. He came right up to her and handed her the mail, asking her how her morning was before smiling over at me. So precious. So very precious.  And ... it's easy for me to imagine her in heaven ... sitting there near enough to keep her eye on the gates ... waiting in joyful expectation for him to come through. When it was time for me to go, he showed me his garden, and I told him she was very fond of the swing out under the trees ... and the hummingbirds ... I know it is because of the time they have spent there together.  He wondered what she remembered and I told him she remembers how much her life with you has meant to her ... remembers a lifetime of sweetness with him ... and that's the truth ... that's pretty much all she was sure about. He had a tear squeezing his eye when he told me she sometimes wakes up at night and asks him if he is her husband.
Today she remembers.
Today she tells me that he has always been the best husband in the world.
Today she tells me that she always knows that he is her best friend.  She knows that with her soul I think ... in her soul the truth of that is a treasure beyond reach, and I see it sparkling from her.

Theirs is a love story which can be seen over time ... lots of time, and I don't know the story of each day. I know every one's life has joyous times and more difficult times woven together ... we help each other create the table cloth on the communion table where love is celebrated.  I can't see the individual stitches.  She has lived with her love, Him, long enough to remember what seems to me to be the sweetest, most precious, most essential thing ... it's the story which I Corinthians 13 tries to illuminate for us.
Love ... protects, trusts, hopes, perseveres ... and faith, hope, and love remain when all the other stuff falls away ... and God said the most important of these is love.
I like it that a husband became a best friend ... a friend of one's soul as Christ wants to be to us ... a best friend whom human frailties cannot shake loose even for a second ... I am certain that love is woven in to eternity

I like it that their family places flowers on the communion table to celebrate their love.
I'm trying to hear what the preacher is saying ... I'm hearing a story about love.

 ~noted last September ... There were flowers on the Communion table again this year to commemorate their 69th year of ... friendship ... love.  She passed yesterday ... I bet she is sitting there with her beautiful smile, waiting where time doesn't matter at all ... .

I don't even want to wonder how hot it is here today ... hot enough to plaster my ponytail to my back and run sweat in rivulets through unmentionable crevice y crevasse de todo corazón.

I guess I dislike grass encroaching on the sidewalk and over the front curb even more then I dislike taking care of it myself.  I am trying to wonder about what my dad would say about me doing what he would call heavy yard work ... would he say ... "Wow...great edge work", or would he say "Girl, you need to get some edge on!"  I am physically capable of running the edger and the weed whip ... it feels good to have my boots on ... . There is plenty of cool air and that marvelous shampoo for later, generously supplied by the labor of my husband.  This is one of those things that I just don't know what to think about.  My dad wouldn't allow Mom or me to spray round up. Now days, I would spray it, but for some reason ... maybe even some sissy pants reason ... I don't want to mix it up ... to not handle it is deep ingrained ... and yet ... someone has to do it, and I seem to be the one with the time.

I've been thinking about this sort of thing lately as I settle in to here for the foreseeable future.

I find myself perfectly comfortable in my own skin these days.

  
I  previously had a private concern about my "me-ness" which has been very sweetly and maybe even miraculously resolved ... guess I am trying to figure out what I will do and what I won't do, and why for either just in case God asks.  I don't want to be stubborn about not doing stuff I can actually do.  On the other hand ... the more I do the more I do.  I don't want to be hmmm ... bitter about stuff.  I'm trying to avoid the foolishness.

On a different note ... while I worked outside this morning I thought of a precious elderly couple who I love.  She is fading fast.  She may pass today and ... they have been married for almost 70 years now.  It's going to hurt.  I can't even imagine him sitting in church without her tucked in right by his side.  Sigh.  And ... I thought about the hope of salvation which is hers ... not because she is super sweet (she is ... not a mean bone in her body ... last time I sat with her while he ran errands she asked me when her friend would be back, then she was embarrassed because maybe she should have said her husband ... she said she feels very bad that it hurts him that she can't always remember that he is her husband.  I said I think it's very precious that she can always remember that he is her friend ... that is the picture I want to think about when I think of Christ's relation to the church and visa versa ... sweetest.)  So ... from there ... lotsa edging in my yard ... I started thinking about my buddy girl L who died from cancer a few years ago.  I can still hear her laugh when I close my eyes ... we thought the same things were funny.  Anyway, I remember saying the last time I saw her to rest easy ... that she would wake up in heaven ... and she whispered I hope so.  And ... that's what I wasn't ready to hear then exactly as I did upon reflection this morning. That is exactly the hope ... protect, trust, hope, persevere ... love ... that the scripture is talking about.  It's not a I hope I win the lottery kind of hope, it's more like our only hope ... a hope which is freely given, but made available at a huge cost.  I used to think hope didn't really fit with those words ... it didn't seem big enough, active enough.  Now I see that the other words aren't even possible with out it ... now I see how huge it makes the word love.

^{I Corinthians 13 4} Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
⁸ Love never fails. ... ¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. 

But the greatest of these is love.
~NIV

Well ... back to that edging ... I needed more cord, and some cold water and cold air.

PS ... Retired neighbor next door ... my dad's age of a guy ... he came up to admire my super duper edge and I asked him for some fatherly advice ... he said put on some plastic gloves and get a laundry cup to measure with  and ... go for it.  He said I wouldn't be making a career of it 'cause my batch would probably last for several months ... excellent advice and I'm going to take it.  It's a cherishment issue, but only because I think of it that way (that's what I said to myself).

90/1000

H

89/1000 Silver to match my "highlights" ... lol

Two surprised me with a choice of colors for a super cute hair bandie yesterday ... I chose silver.  Sweet gift.
Thankful for this one who delights in giving gifts.
Thankful for this little treasure (I've been wanting one) ...
and thankful for the silliness of laughing at myself as I tried to get this photo ... it's harder then you might think to take a picture of the back of your head!

Ottoman fabric arrived!

I am taking the old fabric off of this ottoman and refreshing it with this which arrived via Big Brown during dinner ... I was so happy to see the truck stop!  It's difficult to wait when you know something nice is getting ready to happen!  This piece is for the den ... very cheery.  It needs to be about two inches taller before I upholster it ...  feet or a riser board under the fabric ... deciding.  Maybe there will be enough fabric left over to do a pillow or a seat.  I'm really enjoying putzing around with the furniture ... now I have an eye out for pieces for the kids.  I could stay busy with this for awhile ... .

Synergy/ Leadership quotes

"Leaders don't force people to follow—they invite them on a journey." ~ Charles S. Lauer

"Children need love especially when they don't deserve it." ~  Harold S. Hulbert

"I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers." ~  Ralph Nader

"Good leaders develop through a never-ending process of self-study, education, training, and experience." ~  Manual on military leadership

"A good leader inspires others with confidence in him; a great leader inspires them with confidence in themselves." ~  unknown

"Forethought and prudence are the proper qualities of a leader." ~  Tacitus

"Synergy — the bonus that is achieved when things work together harmoniously." ~  Mark Twain

"Synergy is the highest activity of life; it creates new untapped alternatives; it values and exploits the mental, emotional, and psychological differences between people." ~  Stephen Covey

 "The first step to leadership is servanthood." ~  John maxwell

Everything is determined by forces over which we have no control. 

It is determined for the insect as well as for the star. 

Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust - 

we all dance to a mysterious tune, 

intoned in the distance by an invisible piper.

~Albert Einstein

(found image)

I would humbly amend this statement to "over which we have very little control"  ... 

Dr. Einstein is the genius, but ... surely choice accounts for something.  I'm trying to run down the context of this particular quote.

87&88/1000

thankful for a "rainbow" on my table early this morning

thankful for the joy and wonder of watching a summer shower boil up

... definitely the only one in my car thus amused ...

98*F in the middle of all that green today ... shower maybe 15 minutes up the way

visibility reduced my speed by 30mph ... briefly ... then we were back in the clear

pine pile

Sunday silliness and sermon notes

I liked the sermon today ... From Ezekiel 37

Preacher talked about dry bones ... bones so dry, vulture picked, sun bleached ... silent bones suddenly beginning to rattle ... yeah, I can see it ... Gettysburgesque, but skeletal ... and then kinda dancing skeleton fleshing out ... perfect scifi, an army is alive ... not a stretch for hi tech special effects ... piece of cake for the creator of all good things.

So, the take away for me ...

Dead stuff doesn't have to stay dead, 'cause God can do some pretty amazing stuff.

that

this

The electric bill was in today's mail ... 379 clams ... today and I remember it almost everyday ... I am thankful for air-conditioning ... cool air ... !  And the condensation on the window blurred the morning light.  You can't really see it as well as I hoped, but the cut glass balls hanging from the rose vine spin little "rainbows" in and on to the dining room wall. I think of them as symbolic of promises kept

Thankful for comfortable air temperature
Thankful for sparkling prism bent light

Thankful that when I look at this I can see that

86/1000 sunflowers and friends

Fibonacci Numbers

Plants grow new cells in spirals, such as this pattern of seeds in the beautiful sunflower.

The spiral happens naturally because each new cell is formed after a turn.

My religion consists of a humble admiration

 of the illimitable superior spirit who 

reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive 

with our frail and feeble mind. ~ Albert Einstein

Thinking of my best old friend ... sunflowers always remind me of her ... and there is something very friendly about a sunflower and it's humble demonstration of interconnectedness.  I have heard of things spiraling out of control, and I know my friend is having a very difficult time of late. What if it's really spiraling within control? I'm thinking about how precisely ordered these little spirals truly are.  I like it that we can see the sequence ... these slightest details.
I like it that things are safe in God's hands ... did his breathe blow this structure in to place?  Did he stir it with his little finger? No telling what a whole hand might accomplish.  

Shhhh ... everything is okay kay.  This is just a turn. Something new wants to happen. 

 railroad trestle over the Coosa River

 cotton

 hay

 the mantel in the den ... back together because the ceiling is completely back together ... yeah!

the brooklyn home company

I really enjoyed today ... it was a long day, beginning with the appraiser showing up before the first cup of coffee became a second one.  I had been up for a while doing that last minute stuff one does before a stranger shows up to open doors and  ... appraise.  The new multipurpose cleaner packs a punch ... wow ... here we are 16 hours later and I still smell the fresh fresh so clean clean of it! ... Candle lit ... I love that candle smell.  So ... up to pick up V.  There are so many really neat things to see on the drive. Each time I try to remind myself to leave earlier and feel free to stop for the pictures.  Today I missed the stacks of trees at ... maybe it is a paper mill, I don't know, but the trees are stacked stories high and maybe they shred all of them ... I need to find out more about that operation.  It always amazes me to see the forest of trees, laying down, stacked like match sticks on my Dad's poker table.  I'll stop for that one when I head back up that way on Monday.  There are three chimneys ... huge stacks ... on the river as I come over one of the bridges ... I'll have to snap that one from the car like I did the railroad bridge  this morning  it reminds me of a song and of a girl I met at Girl's State back when I was 16 ... she said the only thing to do in the sleepy little town she was from was done from the train bridge ... this song ... I wasn't thinking about that until now, kinda cool that I have a pretty shot of cotton and bales of hay to go with it.

Happened on to the Brooklyn Home Company site this morning ... really enjoy seeing their work ... I like the joinery on this bed ... I like the work in their portfolio ... cool small spaces.  Also today ... more interesting art from Olga Ziemska

Inspired by the natural spectacle of the northern lights, The light which can be heard... incorporates 13,610 acrylic hemispheres containing unique photographic images from a decade of KSU's dance, music and theatre performances.

Looked at several of her creations this morning while the house was being appraised ... lotsa good going on there.  Besides the wonderful willow woman I especially loved an entry way ... which I will search for again ... it was ... just right.  I wish this work inspired by the Northern Lights could be where the Lights are ... nice At Kent State and very dancerful, but ... well, I've never seen the Aurora Borealis, but I think it would recognize this ... if that were possible ... this is  beautiful.


What else ... nice to have the den put back together.  I hope the ottoman fabric will be delivered tomorrow ... still looking for just the right fabric for my rocker cushion ... .

Another Brooklyn Home Company image ... I really like the way the rails join at the top ... L says he will help me build a bed frame similar to this from lumber on our property ... I won't do a wiggly post, but this is a great inspiration piece. They really do neat spaces ... .


Tomorrow ... vegetable garden trellis building.  I am exhausted tonight!