JWalking: The Blog

Come, ye thankful people, come, raise the song of harvest home; All is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin. God our Maker doth provide for our wants to be supplied; Come to God’s own temple, come, raise the song of harvest home. H ow many times have you sung these words at a Thanksgiving service? Thought about them much? I thought about them, and then I looked into the background from the hymn writers and was glad to see that I had suddenly understood what they were saying (after, lo, these many Thanksgivings). When I sing this first verse, I can't think of anything but the fields, the coming of the first frost, and the feeling of being "settled." In for the winter. Food has been stored. God has provided! But, even in this first verse, as I mulled over the words, I can see the references to a very different harvest, made much more clear in the verses to come. Come, ye thankful people...to God's own temple...for our wants to be supplied! All the wor...

B onita 's comment on my last blog got me to think about a Part II. She said, "Perhaps this is why we long to be the wind?" She quoted John 3:8. "The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit." "The wind blows where it wishes...." That would be our general tendency, would it not? We have an understood bloggy joke about being a 'whirling dervish,' but that's all based on the reality of our lives, isn't it? There's more here. Jesus actually said this when He was talking with Nicodemus about being born again. Nicodemus kept asking 'How?' Jesus said by the Spirit, which works like the wind. We can't see Him, but the presence of the Holy Spirit in the believer is undeniable. How else could we discern truth or direction? How would we know if we were being our own wind or if we were following God's will? And ju...

H ave you seen the wind? There's such definite presence when it blows in, yet it's indefinable in appearance--except by those things which attempt to define it: piles of leaves, dust, roadside trash, powdery snow, ruffling porch flags, inverted umbrellas. Wind is not a friend, really. God used winds from different directions to bring about different outcomes—wind and rain with one direction; locusts with another. Pooh called it 'blustery' for a reason! If we put a face on the wind, I think it would be as nondescript as the rest of wind. But purposeful! Pointed, perhaps. What's odd is that something so invisible is yet so tangible. Something so unfriendly is something we're prone to strive to be like. (Oh, just not the blustery part, right?) No, the part that moves things. We want to be movers and shakers. We want things to happen and happen with speed. We want to sweep people off their feet...swirl our ideas about. We want to go faster and faster, acquiring mor...

To MyADHDMe.... You need a REAL star, Hollywood! Thanks so much!! From me and CJ (the awestruck blogger-to-be)

W hen you make an appointment, you probably don't stop to think about how many people and subsequent events are involved in what you're doing. I had to go to the doctor for a procedure. Seemingly simple: Make the appointment. Go to the appointment. Go home. Done! I made the appointment... ...except the only choices I had were late Monday afternoon or the week before Christmas. Late Monday afternoon sounded just fine. ...except my husband is at a conference in Nevada (I won't say where, but what happens there, stays there), so needed to find some help. ...except CJ has Odyssey of the Mind on Monday afternoons. So I'd need to get her a ride home. Graciously, her team captains live in our neighborhood and said No problem. ...except that still left RJ2 at home. Graciously, my friend answers my request to come over for a few hours to watch RJ2. ...except her son has a make-up music lesson that she had to schedule for the same Monday. Graciously, her husband takes off part of...

w ho do we celebrate today? "Perfume and incense bring joy to the heart, and the pleasantness of one's friend springs from his earnest counsel." Proverbs 27:9 Yeah, Edie!! Happy Birthday!! Thank you for your earnest counsel, friend! Enjoy your special day! Edie requested a slice. Hope it was as yummy as it looks. Anyone else? Sharon, enjoy! CK, I gave you a piece, too, so you need to come back for your plate! Coffee with yummies!!!! OK....LIMBO TIME! OK....new game!! We can ALL play this one— I knew that would pull ADHDMe out of hiding! I took my piece. I'll be nice and share it with CJ tomorrow. ADHDMe left you a piece with some of the icing missing. Time to wrap up the rest! Feel free to put that in your freezer until next year. (Oh wait...that's not for birthdays. But...why not? Although, there is that missing icing....) It was such fun. Hope you enjoyed it! So let's dance, this last dance, to-niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. YEAH! Thanks again for taking care of...

K nock, knock!! Who is it? It's Mom! Can I visit? No! No? ( silence ) Knock, knock!! Who is it? It's Mom! Can you please open the door?? ( silence ) OK!!!! What are you girls doing in your house? Oh, it's a doll shop! Nice outfits! RJ2 says you need another style on this wall, CJ.... Gosh, is there anything better than playing in a cardboard box?.... With markers!!.... Especially when it's pouring rain outside.... and you don't have school.... and Mom and Dad had to go vote.... and you've already watched your morning TV.... Really , is there anything better than playing in a cardboard box?.... Well, only if you put the cardboard box on the kitchen table! (Note to self: Do not work on PTA newsletter at computer while daughters are home in the pouring rain—having already had television—with a cardboard box and markers without turning around occasionally....)

A Journal Entry By CJ Cousins' Trip Through Rock State Park, Maryland Photos by J.J.W. and K.O.W. W e pass an alligator. Lots of us hold up his mouth. We walk through trees and on rocks. It's like walking through an Indian graveyard. My knee joints get tired as we walk through every obstacle in our path. We step over leaves to find a jungle gym of rocks. We walk into a crack and hoist ourselves up onto a rock that could easily send us flying into Death Valley, with only a jacket for a parachute. Then we walk into another crack that leads us up to the King and Queen seat. It's too crowded, so we head up a crack to the Death Valley ledge again. Then we get off, only to find a cave. Where does it lead? Two of us go in the cave. We find a risky path that leads back to Death Valley Ledge. I don't go, but my cousin takes a risk and survives. We later go to a safer ledge to get our picture taken. We say goodbye to the jungle gym and walk back down the winding rock staircase th...