SJT: Richer Still in Grace

 *Note* I originally wrote and published this post on Friday September 8th 2023 and I inexplicably deleted 1/2 of it and then deleted the rest trying to fix it.  If I could explic it, it wouldn't be inexplicable. 

The post contained below is what I wrote Friday, to the best of my growing faultier by the day memory.

Love, Dave

On the first Thursday of each month, An internet community gathers to explore the spiritual ramifications of a given topic or to make their own spiritual observations off the topic.  This months host is Patricia Franz of  the Reverie Blog Her entry is Life At The Speed of Grace.

I really enjoyed her post.  I liked her idea that grace is shorthand for God.  I especially liked her poem featuring an adieuing owl and a blooming cucumber.  I spent a good deal of time reflecting on Grace and the idea of God's grace and here are some of my reflections.

Allen Levi is my friend. He is also one of my heroes.  I have only met him 4 times and these have always been at concerts he's playing.  Yet I consider him a friend and kindred spirit.  In my opinion Allen is a jack of all trades, master of all.  He is a former lawyer, a former judge (with a 20 year gap between these occupations).  He left law in the early 90's to become an independent singer  songwriter.  During  that time he took a year off from singing, writing, and touring to be his brother's caregiver as his brother was dying, of cancer.  He wrote an excellent book about his brother called The Last Sweet Mile.  He has also written a fine children's book based on his song Oliviatown.

Recently Allen finished his first novel.  It is  called Theo of Golden and is available for preorder at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and on Kindle.  His website has a link to a sample chapter. Levi also is or has been a beekeeper, bird enthusiast, book reader (volunteers each year to regularly read to a grade school class) and blogger.  And those  are just the things I know of that begin with the letter B.

I say all this because when I began reflecting on Patricia's post the first thing that popped in my head were Allen Levi song lyrics and since Mr. Levi isn't the household name that I think he should be, I needed to answer the question of who Allen Levi is before I could begin in earnest.  And earnest I am; so begin I shall. 

As I mentioned Allen Levi is one of my heroes. The lyrics that popped in my mind when I started reflection on Grace, is from his song. "Most of My Heroes". 

The 2nd verse starts:

All of my heroes are rich in imperfections.  All of my heroes are richer still in grace.

Levi continues

They are people who are weak and bruised and broken, But they know somehow they'll make it through the race.

Grace has been defined as unmerited favor.  It is one of the main manifestations of God's goodness.  We grow in grace as we grow closer to God.  This is probably the reason why Franz says grace is shorthand for God.  Levi makes a similar point in the song's chorus:

Most of my heroes are very simple people.  All of my heroes look a lot like you.

Accepting God's grace in your life is a transformative process.  The more grace we receive the more we are changed and the more we attribute that change to God.  Consider Levi's powerful yet whimsical bridge, . . . 

And if you brag on them like I'm trying to do, I can bet what they might say to you. They'd say "thanks a lot.", and blush as if it's just not true.

The book of Hebrews spends an entire chapter  (eleven)  talking about the heroes of the Old Testament.  The same phrase is used over and over again in the chapter to describe how these heroes operated and that phrase is by faith.  Without God's faith in God those heroes would not have done the things God made them able to do. 

When I think of my spiritual journey, I think of grace, I think of faith and mostly  I think of Jesus,  In Chapter 12 of Hebrews, the author segues from the Hall of Faith to Jesus himself :

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

 The spiritual journey I am on is one of faith and one of grace. I am being perfected on this journey by Jesus. He is my hero and as I grow in faith through his Grace I will grow to look a lot like Him. 

 For more Spiritual Journey Friday click here.

Fitted in Black: How Hip-Hop Fueled The Greatest Rebrand In Sports (2023)

July Stats

 In the Month of June I only posted 4 times.  In July I posted 10 times, nut that was ten times in the first 12 days of the month.  I then went into a lull of a fortnight plus with no blogging whatso ever.  At the end of June I was looking at 164 posts by the end of the year.  Now that number has gone down to 158.

This month I want to finish writing my day by day recollections of Greece while I can still recollect them.  I also have a few more posts to put up.  I keep getting plenty of ideas for posts, so don't be surprised of there are some days this moth that you see more than one post here.

Dave Out Loud Parthenon

Taking A Mental Health Day

 I went to Greece last month and it was an amazing trip.  It was a time to celebrate 25 years of marriage to my best friend,  I had an idea of posting about each day exactly a month later on my blog and then posting it on on mine and my wife's FB page.  Now, to be perfectly blunt, very few people consistently read my blog and none of my FB friends are putting any pressure on me at all to post everyday.  Yet I put pressure on myself to do it.  So when I didn't post yesterday and got one day behind on this self imposed deadline and decided I would do two days today, and as of 9:30 p.m. had not done either I began to freak out.  Why? I really want to post about every day, but who cares whether it's exactly a month behind?  Why do we put so much pressure on ourselves for no real reasons?

I think everybody goes off kilter sometimes.  Not exactly like me, but I don't always go off kilter for the same reasons.  But it is important that when I do go off kilter, I bring myself back.  When this happens, I ask God for help.  I ask my family for help and I make changes.  Sometimes it just means letting myself off the hook for something.  Sometimes it means not believing lies.  Sometimes it means changing my plans.

So, as far as my memories of the trip go, I hope to recount each day  on the blog and then on Facebook.  But I do that because I love writing and I loved the trip and for no other reason.  It's not going to have to be each day 1 month later like some self imposed a to z challenge. And If I never finish it, so what?  It was a good trip and Amy and I both know it.

There are enough pressure on us as a society, that we need to stop putting additional burdens on ourselves and our friends and family.

I'll be back tomorrow, or so, to tell you about losing my phone on the Island of Sifnos on June 11th and the other more interesting things that happened that day.  I kicked myself a lot for losing my phone, but that was not an important thing that happened that day. I kicked myself a lot for not posting yesterday, but that was not an important part of yesterday.  Today, I worked for 8 hours at the movie theatre and when I got home there was a tornado waning after dinner.  After our family got back from the basement, my time was better spent decompressing with the family than holing myself up with the computer just to meet some imaginary time requirements.  I just sometimes have to remind that to my foot when it wants to kick myself.  

OTTG 1ML Day 5

 Our Trip To Greece

One Month Later

Day #5

6/10/23

Our first full day in Sifnos.  We heard about Sifnos through a Greek travel agent Amy found on line.  I had bought Amy a guide book for the Greek Islands at Christmas time and Sifnos was not even mentioned.  This travel agent told us it's the island where the Greeks like to travel to on their holidays.  We found it instantly captivating.

Our hotel was on the bus route and also just a short walk from the port of Kamares.  Our hosts were amazing.  

We had breakfast on our patio every morning.

Where we would often see one of the 3 tortoises on the property.

We took a bus from our town of Kamares to Apollinia.  We then hiked back to Kamares from Apollinia.  These trail markers were invaluable.  

Here is footage of our hike

and a few pictures ...

OTTG 1ML: Day 4

Our Trip To Greece

1 Month Later

Day #4 6/9/23 Amy here. Our fourth day in Greece was more of a mess than the previous few days. Before the trip had started we had heard how you could run around the Olympic stadium, in the mornings before they started charging admission to see it. We had planned to do this, just to say we had done it. So when we got into the cab, and were chatting away with the cab driver, we were wondering why the ride was taking so long. It turns out there are two Olympic stadiums in Athens; the one we wanted to go to which was built in 330 B.C. and then excavated in the 19th century for the first two modern Olympics and the stadium that hosted the 2004 Olympics. We realized that she was taking us to the stadium that hosted the 2004 Olympics, rather than the one from the 1800’s. When we finally arrived there, and it was crawling with people we didn’t end up running. 

 Here is what we missed ...

   

 It was disappointing. But then we decided to walk around Athens for a few more hours until we had to catch the ferry to Sifnos. We got some tea and then decided to find a local library. We LOVE libraries (it’s part of the reason we saw the ruins of Hadrian’s library), and have visited many many libraries in our 25 years of marriage. This library, however, was open only by appointment, and the doors were locked. We were denied entry. While we were searching for the library as we walked around we came upon what looked like a protest. It turned out to be a college graduation. 

 After we could not get into the library we walked around some more and went to a Greek street food place we had learned about on the internet before the trip called O Kostas .

 It was amazing, and well worth all the misadventures up to that point. 

 We then walked back to our hotel, to retrieve our luggage before getting a cab to the ferry. I get seasick and wore these wristbands which apply pressure and they worked like a charm! No ill effects from the three hour ferry ride. We arrived in Sifnos and I immediately fell in love with Greece!

Our Trip To Greece,One Month Later: Day 3

Day 3: June 8, 2023 

Day 3 of our trip is the first day that started and ended  in Greece, and Oh what a day it was.  

Before I get into the details, let me say this.  When you plan a trip of this magnitude, you don't end up getting to do everything you planned.  One example of this is that we both wanted to take a side trip to Corinth.  Corinth is about an hour by bus from Athens and is a city where the Apostle Paul penned at least two letters to the local church.  I say at least 2, because 2 of them became books of the Bible.  In the end there was so much to do in Athens while still heavily jet lagged that we didn't make it to Corinth.  

All of our accommodations provide breakfast for us.  The place in Athens was your standard breakfast buffet with a Greek twist.  We ate breakfast and ventured out into the city. The first thing we did was get a sim card for Amy's phone that allowed us to navigate Greece better. The only form of transportation we used that day was walking, and clocked over 22000 steps. 

We exchanged money at an ATM and found like we had been told that exchanging at an ATM was better than exchanging at banks or currency exchanges.  There were many shops, restaurants,  open markets, and street vendors and it was quite a sight to behold.  We did a little shopping and then went to Hadrian's Library. It was created by the Roman Emperor Hadrian in A.D. 132 so accolades to him for his construction are long overdue.  I know, a library joke.  It was either that or go Yo! Hadrian!

We purchase a multi-site pass at Hadrian's Library.  This also granted us admission to The Parthenon, and the Ancient Agora.  We had been told that if you but a multi-site pass to do it at a location other than the Parthenon to avoid the long lines there and we were very glad we did.  

After Hadrian's library we had our first meal at a restaurant in Greece.  I think this was the only time we ate inside other than at our hotel.  We tried many new foods while in Greece and Amy really loved all the Greek salads.  

After lunch we walked up the acropolis and we climbed up the Areopagus Hill also know as Mars Hill, I just posted a little about the significance of Mar's Hill on Thursday here is the link.  

Temple of Athena

Pathenon

Hadrians Library

GreekSalad

Mars Hill

View of Patrhenon from Mars Hill

Seeing these ancient structures and walking where they walked (the old people) was a bit overwhelming, and the significance was not lost on us. It was a reminder of God's greatness!

Our Trip To Greece, One Month Later: Day 2

 Day 2: June 7th 2023

June 7th the 2nd day of our Greece trip began for me on a plane in the middle of a flight from Toronto, Ontario, Canada to Athens, Greece.  There is a 8 hour time change between Chicago and Greece and a 7 hour time change between Toronto and Greece and you fly through all the time zones in between as you make your way to Athens.  So, I am not exactly sure where I was when the 7th became the 8th but it happened sometime on the 9 1/2 hour flight.  So when we left Toronto on June 6th at 6:10 p.m, It was already 1:10 am on June 7th in Greece.  When we landed in Greece it was nearing 11:00 in the morning there while just 3 a.m in Chicago where we had been the day before.

The flight was a night flight and the plane was crowded and after an hour or two of sitting I would be in a lot of pain.  The pain would be relieved when I got up to go to the bathroom or stretch my legs, but since the plane was dark for the majority of the flight, I was in the window seat and had to get Amy and someone else to move every time I got up.

In the morning I opened up the blind to my window and was treated  to some fantastic views, here are some  pictures I took of them:

When I saw this view, I knew we were on the right trip.  Amy love mountains and the sea and in the U.S. midwest we don't get a lot of either of them.  

 

As we were getting closer and closer to Athens I saw more boats and ferries knowing that in a few days we would be travelling on one. 

We landed, got our passports stamped, grabbed our luggage and made our way towards the Athens Metro.  In a bit of trip symmetry, we got to the Chicago airport by commuter train and left the Athens airport by the same mode of transportation.  In Chicago we only were on the train for 1 stop.  In Greece, we were on a very crowded train for over an hour.  We were exhausted, but also invigorated as we talked with some folks from the Netherlands who had also just got into the country.  The main  differences between us was that their flight was only about 2 hours and they didn't have to exchange money as the Euro is the currency in both countries.  

We had been told by our cell phone carrier before we left that we would be able to use our phones in Greece without having to buy a sim card to use there.  This was not the case, and as a result once we got to our stop we could not use the phone's g.p.s to get us to the hotel.  A lovely man at a bar we passed recognized the name of our hotel and told us exactly how to get there.  There would be MANY such occasions in days to come where the warm Greek people would happily help us find our destinations.

As we made our way to our hotel trudging all our bags we began to realize that especially in Athens everyone moves with reckless abandon.  The cars, the busses, the motorcyclists, the bicyclists, even the pedestrians.  There are crossing lights but people kind of go where and when they want to.  We got to the hotel, got all our stuff in our room and then we took a short walk around our hotel.

Amy here...we were so sleepy, but wanted to fight the jet lag and quickly adjust our bodies to Greek time. We discovered the rooftop restaurant of our hotel was situated across from the below stunning view of the Acropolis (hill) and Parthenon (remnants of a temple on top of said hill.)  We were agog and awed and enjoyed some delicious food (mushroom risotto and some type of fish) before falling into a deep sleep which would last around 12 hours. 

The View from our Hotel's rooftop restaurant.

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Spiritual Thursday, Poetry Friday, Rejoicing in the Summer Season

 Carol Varsalona of Beyond Literacy Link is hosting this months Spiritual Journey Thursday.  I hosted last month and then went to Greece just a few days after that.  

Carol's Theme this month is rejoicing in the Summer season.  I technically was in Greece this spring as the official first day of Summer was June 21st this year and I left Greece on the 20th.  However I am going to use some of my experiences from the trip in this reflection as the trip took place on my "summer" vacation.  

Carol asked us to reflect on this Elanor Duse Quote:

"If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the field has power to move you, if the simple things in nature have a message you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive"

As I reflected on the quote, I was reminded of the opening verse of Psalm 19 ...

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Psalm 19:1

I got to thinking why we  don't always stop to smell the significance of God's creation.  It reminded me of my flight to Athens.  I had a window seat and it was a beautiful day out.  There was lovely view after lovely view as we approached our destination. Most of the passengers were not looking out the window.  Some were sleeping, others were reading.  The majority were on their electronic devices are watching the screen in front of their seat.  

The View Out My Window

God's glory in nature

Is always displayed

To see it, it helps 

When I roll up the shade.

My second thought about creation also has to do with my trip to Greece.  The above picture was taken on my first day in Greece at a place called the Areopagus or Mars Hill.  The Apostle Paul visited Mars Hill and even gave a sermon there.  You can read about in Acts 17: 16 -34.  Essentially Paul is in Athens disturbed by all the idol worship in the city, he is reasoning in the synagogue and gets an opportunity at Mars Hill to explain the new teaching he was proclaiming.  Paul uses the opportunity to talk about some of the things he has seen in Athens and to compliment the Athenians on some of their practices.  He also talks about a statue he had seen that was to an "unknown" God and uses that as an opportunity to proclaim the God of creation and share the story of Jesus.

There is a tendency to celebrate nature in a natural way and not as the creation of a creator.  Instead of talking about God many just deify nature itself referring to it as Mother Nature or Mother Earth but rejecting the biblical idea of a personal God who created it all. Instead of taking an antagonistic or combative approach to these differing world views, I think an approach like Paul used on Mars Hill is more suitable.  People who find inner peace, and contentment, and wonder from nature should be commended even if they do not believe in the God who created that beauty.  Like Paul believers should use that common bond, a spiritual regard, for nature as a starting point to talk about the God that the heavens declare the glory of.

Spiritual Journey Thursday is a gathering that takes place on the first Thursday of the month,  Click here to see the rest of the July installment.  I left for Greece on June 6th and returned on June 21st.  Today I started daily posts about my trip exactly one month after the trip began. Please join me for those reflections.  

I am also including this post at Poetry Friday for the brief poem inspired by this weeks theme and the picture I took from the airplane.  Marcie Atkins is hosting this weeks Poetry Friday.  Join in, by clicking here.

Our Trip to Greece: Day by Day 1 month later

 Exactly 1 month ago my wife and I embarked on a trip to Greece to celebrate 25 years of being married.  Starting today we’d like to turn back the clock and give you day by day details of our trip a month after they occurred.

Day 1

6/1/23 Elgin Illinois

We wake up in our house and the big day we’ve been planning for for years is finally upon us.. We do a final check to make sure we have not forgotten anything and pack our luggage into our car. If you don’t count walking, escalators, elevators or the people movers at the airport we are going on 4  different modes of transportation today. First, we drive to our local bus station and I drop off Amy and our luggage. I then drive home, do a final final check for forgotten items and walk the 1/2 mile back to the bus station.  We board the bus and our trip begins in earnest with us shepherding our 1 each checked bag, carry on item and personal item on the way to the penultimate stop of the O’Hare bound Chicago Blue line train. 

We know this stop very well as when you take it towards Chicago it connects to the red line train, which has taken us to tens of White Sox games and several Cubs games over the years we have called the Northwest suburbs our home. I have since been there this past 4th of July to attend a White Sox game with my daughter. When we got to the station we were thinking back to the day before Mother’s Day a few weeks prior when while on our way to watch the White Sox take on former home town favorite Jose Aubrey and the Houston Astros we saw a man having a drug overdose and had to call 911 to get him assistance. No such drama ensued this time as we hopped on the Ohare bound train and got out at the airport.  

We had built a little what my Dad always called margin into our schedule so we had plenty of time for me to exchange a small amount of dollars to euros before turning in our luggage. This was by far the worst exchange rate I received.  It is always a good idea to have some of the local currency at all times of your stay as you can’t always use credit or debit cards.  It’s just best to only use airport exchanges when absolutely necessary. It’s ta captive audience thing, the equivalent of buying snacks at a movie theatre.  I work at a movie theatre, so I know of what I speak.

At this time of the morning foot traffic at “The World’s Busiest Airport” was fairly light, so we eased right through baggage to Security.  We had talked about paying the extra hundred dollars for a third piece of checked baggage but the previous night had discovered that that bag was light enough and small enough to be considered  as carry on baggage. So we ended checking only 2 bags. What we forgot to assess was whether the items in that bag were compliment to airline regulations.  The shampoo bottles were biggger than allowed so I had to go back to the front and check that bag as well. Something always seems to go askew when you travel, and since we had been planning to pay to transport that piece until the day before the trip it seemed like the small hiccup it was.

I just looked at the time, I have to go the aforementioned movie theatre and inflict 8 dollar popcorn on people. I’m going to have Amy take you to Toronto and beyond, but make sure she mentions the maple leaf cookies.

This is Amy… we landed in Toronto and bought maple leaf cookies because Dave loves them. We hung out for a couple of hours and then boarded the next airplane and flew to Athens. The flight was 9.5 hours and while being a bit squished, we were thrilled to be full-filling a years long dream of visiting Greece. We saved up for 6 years and now it was coming true! 

Elgin 2023 4th of July Parade

 

For more Wordless Wednesdays hosted each week at Comedy Plus click here.

June Stats

 June was a big month for me.  My wife and I went on a trip to Greece.  We left the Chicago area on June 6th and did  not return until June 21st.  It certainly was a trip of a lifetime and an amazing wat to celebrate 25 years of marriage to my best friend.  

It was not a big month in regards to blog output.  I put out 2 posts prior to our trip and exactly 2 more after we got home.  Last June I posted 19 times before posting only 16 times for the rest of the year.  I finished 2022 with 102 posts on the strength of my April A to Z posts.  If I only achieve 16 posts again in the 2nd part of 2023, I will finish with 2 posts  less than 100 for the year.  When May ended I was on track for 178 posts, with only 4 last month my projection is down to 164 by New Years Eve 2023. The problem is,  if I match my  16 posts  from the 2nd half of 2022 this year I won't get near 164 and not even break 100 by years end.  

No need for doom and or gloom.  I am a man with a plan.  Starting on July 6th, I plan to chronicle my trip to Greece with a daily recap a month late.  I did the same thing years ago when our family went to Washington D.C. If I am successful, I'll finish July right around 100 posts and be back in a posting groove.  

By brunobarbato, CC BY 3.0, Linkity: Prodromos 

Island: Paros

Country: Greece

I was in this city on a hike, but don't remember seeing this.  More coming soon.  

Dave Out Loud: Poetry Friday - Aileen Fisher's Rabbits Rabbits

Note:Aileen Fisher wrote the poems in this book but did not do the illustrations.  I did several takes of this video, and this was the only one where I omitted mentioning the fine work of illustrator Gail Niemann. 

Poetry Friday is being hosted by Irene Latham.  You can find it by clicking here.

Avengers: Infinity War Cast Sings "The Marvel Bunch"

Have not posted for awhile. More on that later. Now that I'm back, let's get righ to it with this Brady Bunch Avengers parody which is just a little bittersweet as it includes the late Chadwich Boseman.  Just a little in the box thinking from the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

 

Reflections on the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee Winning Moment

I just finished watching the finals of the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee. Before I announce the winner and the winning word I'd like to talk about my involvement in the bee.   

I spent the first semester of the 2022 2023 school year as a long term substitute teacher in a 6th and 7th grade autism classroom.  My group of students studied the same curriculum as the rest of the students in our school.  All my 6th graders and 7th graders  participated in a classroom spelling bee, which is the first step in the Scripps spelling bee program. 

I drilled my students for several weeks held a few practice bees and even had a scrimmage with another classroom.  It was exciting to see all my students grow in their spelling during this process.  At the end of the semester they found someone to take over the class and I moved on to my current position as a building sub in a k-5 building.  When the 2nd semester began my 6th grade winner and my 7th grade winner participated in spelling bees for their grade.  Unfortunately both of my former students got out on their first word.

Tonight I was turning off the television when I saw that the Scripps final bee was about to air live.  This brought up memories of my former class.  As a substitute teacher I may never get another opportunity to conduct a bee, but it was one of the high points of my educational career.  

The finals were amazing.  The students were polished, poised and prepared.  I especially liked the parts where the judge would affirm the incorrect speller on the amazing run they had just finished.

Dev Shah of Largo, Florida win the competition.  Here is how it happened.  

 

The winning word was psammophile.

May Stats

 The Month of May can be a low posting month for a blogger who has participated in the A to Z challenge. After posting 38 times in April, I really had no where to go but down.  I did make 14 posts in May for a total of 52 for April and May.  This amount is exactly twice the number of posts for the first 3 months of the year. I am on track to finish 187 posts by the end of the years.  That is only 5 less than it was at the end of April, which means that My May was not much of a letdown as it could have been.

Spiritual Thursday: Delivering the message of delivery.

It is time once again for Spiritual Thursday and I am hosting today.  Today I have some ruminations on the church.  But before I ruminate away, I have some questions you might want to reflect on and answer.  Of course these are just ideas and you are free to write about anything you  like.  

First, is there a physical place that has deep spiritual meaning to you?  Secondly, are there people  who have invested in, walked alongside, or that you have walked along side of in your journey?  How have they encouraged you on the way? Has your spiritual journey given your life purpose?  Does your journey have a way?  In other words, what has been your path on that journey?   In my mind the answers to those questions help constitute what church is to so many of us. 

*************************************************************************************************************

I am going to Greece in less than a week and I am super excited!!! We will be spending time in Athens and Corinth, but mostly be on the islands of Sifnos and Paros.  The island of Sifnos boasts 360 churches, the most if any island in the Cyclades.  Including this one which we hope to travel to.  

 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Church_of_Epta_Martyres_,Kastro_on_Sifnos,_153398.jpg#/media/File:Church_of_Epta_Martyres_,Kastro_on_Sifnos,_153398.jpg

While preparing for our trip we have found many churches that we can visit as tourists but have had more difficulty finding churches we can attend as practitioners.  This is what gave me my idea for today's post.

Oftentimes when we think of a church, we think of a structure.  Just in the same way when we think of the post office, we think of a building or perhaps a mail box.  Perhaps we might think of a person when we think of the church, perhaps a  priest, pastor or parishioner. Thinking of the post office, we might picture  our mail deliverer.  Sometimes when we think about the church, we might focus on the negative, the scandals, the abuse, the hypocrisy.  Again, at the post office, we might think about lost mail or someone going, well, postal.

I would say that the church and the post office are really about one thing, the same thing, and that thing is delivery.

There are 2 meanings of the word deliver and they work in concert with each other.  First, you deliver a message, second you deliver something from one place to another.  In the post office context, the message that gets delivered is separate than the place it was delivered from and where it's going. So if I send a letter from where I live in Illinois to where my sister lives in Virginia,   the route that the message is taking does not change the meaning of the message.

But the church is also delivering a message and being delivered at the same moment.  I will give an Old Testament and New Testament example, but there are countless  examples that don't derive from the scriptures.  In the Old Testament the Hebrews are literally being delivered from bondage in Egypt and being delivered to the promised land. One example from the New Testament is I Peter 2:9,

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

In this example, the message that is being delivered is that people are being delivered from darkness into light.

I guess what I'm saying is that when I think of the church, I think of the message being delivered and the journey from where you've been to where you are now, to where you are headed.  The two types of delivery message and journey are intertwined together.  

For me my spiritual journey is centered around Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has delivered me from slavery and is leading me to the promised land and is preparing a place for me there.  It is Jesus who has called me out of darkness into his marvelous light.  Before Jesus church was just a place and a practice.  Now the church is His body here on earth.  He is the message that we deliver and the Messiah who has is delivering us.  

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Wordless Wednesday: New Camera At Night

 Wordless Wednesday is at Comedy Plus.

My Daughter Memes Well

 Wordless Wednesday is at Comedy Plus. 

For more Wordless Wednesday click here.

Reason To Be (Somewhat) Optimistic On The South Side

 Happy Monday Baseball Fans.

The White Sox are 19-29 after 48 games and are in 4th place in the A.L central 6.5 games out of first place.  This is not great news for a team that was expected to compete for the division this year and possibly cash in on their World Series window.  

But if you look at the stats there are some gleams of optimism shining through an otherwise storm start to the year.

The White Sox are 10 games below .500 but they were also 10 games below .500 (an unimpressive 7-17) 24 games ago. This means that the White Sox have gone 12-12 in their last 24 games.  They have also won 6 of their last 8 games.  In essence they have stopped the bleeding and perhaps have made themselves a stepping stone for success.

After their successful homestand the Sox are just one game below 500 at the former U.S. Cellular Field which used to be called Comiskey Park prior to that.  They now go on a very important road trip with 7 games against the 2nd and 3rd place teams in their division (Cleveland Guardians and Detroit Tigers ).  The Sox are a lowly 7-16 on the road and only 9-7 against their division so they have their work cut out for them if they want to inch their way back into contention.  

Don't Cross The Snakes

Amy was reading to me about our upcoming trip to Greece. We are doing some hiking and she was reading about the two poisinous snakes that are in Greece. It summed it up by saying "don't put your feet or hands in crevices without looking first". And all I could think of to say was ...

If you are not familiar with that scene in Ghostbusters you can see it by clicking here.

Poetry Friday - The Poet That Lives Inside of Me

 Last week I shared how in our poetry writers group we were asked to write two poems about the writing process:1 serious and the other humorous.  I shared the serious one last week, and now the humorous attempt. 

The Poet That Lives Inside of Me

There's a poet living inside of me

We sometimes don't agree

My life sometimes gets in the way 

Don't write a thing from March to May

But the poet living inside of me

Is writing every day

He stores these poems somewhere

He doesn't say; I do not care

But when I need to write a poem 

He lets me know they're there

The poet living inside of me

It seems we're in a fight

But rather than we disagree

We know that we're both right.

Poetry Friday is hosted this week at Salt City Verse. Join in, by clicking here.

Wordless Wednesday: Russian Roommates Reunited

 Wordless Wednesday is at Comedy Plus. 

For more Wordless Wednesday click here.

A to Z Roadtrip

The A to Z Road Trip is here. This is a chance to give anyone who wants to regardless of whether they participated in this years A to Z challenge a chance to take a deeper dive into the blogs that did participate.

Here is the link to the road trip.  Here is the spreadsheet of those who are so far entering their blogs into the roadtrip.

Today I picked up a book from my library, a biography of Jim Henson.  In the prologue he describes a  Sesame  Street sketch where a little girl is reciting the alphabet to Kermit.  I reemebering watching this scene as a kid, and again with my kids when I bought the Sesame Street Old School DVD set,  I pulled up the scene from YouTube because it has an a-z vibe to it.  

   

56th anniversary of Mickey Mantles 500th home runs.

Poetry Friday: Questions and Answers on My Method

 

I attend a poetry workshop on the first Monday of the month at my local library.  Each month our facilitator gives us the opportunity to share a poem we have written, shares poems on the theme she has chosen for the month. and then gives us time to write a poem or two based on the theme, again giving us the opportunity to share those poems as well.

Last month the theme was the writing process and we were invited to write one serious poem and one humorous poem on any aspect of the writing process that we wanted to.  Recently on Poetry Friday's when I have particpated I have included poems that were not of recent vintage.  After returning to Poetry Friday last week after finishing the A to Z Challenge, I decided to at least for the time being, eschew the wayback machine, and share poems I have written this year.  

Today, I am going to share the serious poem about my writing method, which is title simply, Questions and Answers on My Method.

Questions and Answers on My Method

Why do I write?

Cause I want to?

Cause I have to?

Cause I need to?

Why do I write?

I write because 

Words are my life blood

They invade my sleep

They are my canvas

And my palette

How do I write?

Does it matter ...

Whether it's poem or prose?

fiction or non fiction?

Do I have a process?

Or am I just opening Pandora's box?

How do I write?

Sometimes ...

My poems write themselves

and then I sign my name

Sometimes ...

When I write,

I get an idea.

Then,

For 30 minutes:

I 

Write

Erase

Repeat

Throwing spaghetti

On the wall

Until something sticks.

Why do I write?

Because I can.

How do I write?

By any means necessary.

Poetry Friday is being hosted by Robyn Hood Black you can get there by clicking here.

My last 500 days of 50

Last 500 Days of My Fifties

5/12/2023 - 9/22/1964

 I'm in my late 50's.  I was born in 1964, the last year of the Baby Boomers.  

The year before  I turned 50, I wanted to do something special to commemorate my last year in my 40's.  On or about my 49th birthday I was with my family visiting the  elks in Elk Grove Village.  Elk Grove Village is a suburb of Chicago located near O'Hare airport, It is where I grew up and where my parents lived until very recently.  There is a forest preserve in Elk Grove that extends into neighboring towns like Schaumburg.  Ever since I was a kid there has been a herd of Elk maintained by the Forest Preserve in Elk Grove.  

As my family watched the elk,  an idea came to me.  I could write a limerick, and  post it on Facebook every day until I turned 50.  I wasn't completely successful in my quest, but I do believe that I wrote and posted over 300 limericks over that time period.  Why limericks? I never did figure that one out, but I think I owe a lot of the personal poetry renaissance I have been going through the last 15 months due to my year of limericks.

As my mid 50's turned into my late 50's I have been thinking how to celebrate the last part of my 6th decade.  No "elks" moment has hit me and I'm not sure my FB friends want a year of haikus or anything like that.

A couple of months ago an idea came to me that instead of having some special activity, I could just be more purposely reflective during the time.  I decided since my 50's were ending that I could perhaps extend the year   to 500 days.  So starting tomorrow I find myself in the last 500 days of my 50's.

Today is May 11th so that means that there are 20 full days left in the month.  There are 30 days in June, 31 in July and August and 22 days before my birthday in September.  That's 134 days before my birthday. There are usually 365 days in a year, but 2024 is a leap year so there are 366 days from  September 23rd, 2023 and September 22nd 2024. Some may wonder why I don't count until September 23rd, my birthday.  The answer, of course, is because that will be the first day of my 60's.

So, what do I plan to do with this time period that 1150% greater than Lent? First of all, give it up for Lent, it's a great religious observance, and it doesn't get nearly the credit it deserves.  I'm not sure really.  I think what I'll do is when I'm reflecting on my adventures in ageing, or perhaps doing something for the last time in my 50's I might blog about it here.  But mostly I'll do what I encouraged my 11 year old future sister in law to do 8 years before I courted her sister, and that is cherish the time.  

In the Bible we are encouraged to number our days. By delineating the last 500 days in my 50's I am inviting myself to live purposely.  It is of course very possible that I publish this post and then regular life and my ADHD conspire that I never think about it again.  This is part of the reason why  I'm publish posting this on my blog and on Facebook so I do pay  attention during these final days of my fifties.

Dear Facebook friends, this doesn't mean that there will be no more limericks.  It just means I'm commemorating the end of this decade differently than I did the last.  In fact, I think I feel a limerick coming on now:

I really thought it would be nifty

To write a limerick a day 'til I was fifty,

The days in my  fifties are numbered

I only have left 500.

I'll live them up, cause the will end swiftly. 

Wordless Wednesday 2014 Throwback Edition

 

.Wordless Wednesday is at Comedy Plus. 

 For More Wordless Wednesday click here

Poetry Friday -The Ampersand

 The A to Z challenge is over and now I can get back to my regular life for awhile. That means I can start  posting some of my poetry here again.  

Last month I participated in my first official poetry reading. The poetry group I attend with my daughter at our local library had all the poets who attend that wanted to read their works at a special Poetry month celebration. The poems I read ranged from being 9 months to 30 years old but on the walk to the library on the day of the reaidng. this poem popped into my head.

The Ampersand

The ampersand is very grand

When he is on vacation

He looks real great, is never late

For he is punctuation

The ampersand stands in for and

When and is on hiatus

He tells parentheses to let it be

When question marks berate us

He says to dash - don't be so brash

Because you are in morse

Without me

AT&T could never stay the course

The ampersand don't understand

Why pound signs now hashtag

The at signs name is apersand

Which really is a drag

The ampersand don't hang out late 

At exclamation point

But saves the drama for the comma

When he gets out of joint.

Check out all the other Poetry Friday fun and whatnot hosted this week by Teacher Dance by clicking here.

 

April Stats

 The A to Z challenge is finished. It is now May and time to look once again at how many times I posted last month.  I posted 38 times in the month of April that's 12 more posts than January Through march combined. At this rate I will have 192 posts for the year.

I of course, wont be posting at this rate for the rest of the year but I would like to try to average 10 or so posts for the rest of the year, so we will see what happens.