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Adventure

19 Nov

My Take

DiVoran Lites

 

Some sail the seven seas,

Others find it on their knees

They say, “God bless you,” when you sneeze.

How about a tropical breeze?

Should I climb mountains

Or scale high rocks?

Or run a-pulling up my socks.

Or go down in caves spelunking for free

What adventures are waiting for me

Where do I go and what do I wear?

Thank goodness I have some pretty good hair.

Will someone go with me

Or do I go alone

Incommunicado or take my cell phone

If I could ride horses in meadows so sweet

Or eat just the veggies eschewing all meat

If I got tea and scones with Devonshire cream

If silk saris and music were part of the dream

If I slept on soft sheets and read novels all day

Now that’s an adventure

I really might stay

So what do you think an adventure might be

For a little ole, stay at home lady like me?

 

 

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Same-o, Same-o

12 Nov

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Do you ever-read self-help books, and inspirational literature that tells you to get out of your rut, go a different way to work every day, take a risk, change the way you think and dress? I read them and sometimes I try the suggestions, but there’s a lot to be said for routine, as well.

A famous writer once said that if you take a walk in the same place every day things will become familiar so that when they change slightly you’ll know right away. The woods where I walk are so beautiful and natural I can’t think of a reason to go anywhere else, but occasionally I go down to the river with a friend and her sweet golden retriever. I enjoy that very much, but I love my woods the best. So does she, I think, but her dog refuses to go there any more, we don’t know why. Hi, AnnaB

How about daily habits such as making coffee, flossing and brushing teeth, putting on make-up? Do those things automatically and you can think other more interesting thoughts while you’re doing them. Don’t worry, though. We can choose happy thoughts. If you look for a new route to work every day doesn’t that take away from more important matters such as planning a date or a painting? Oh, yes, pay attention to your driving. I say stick with what you know works and focus on the new things that are going to happen all around you every day whether you go looking for them or not.

Psalm 118:24

 

See the bee?

 

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A Slice of America at the Polls

7 Nov

Our Wednesday installment of A Trip Across America will be posted on Thursday this week. Today DiVoran is sharing her beautiful thoughts on our American election-Onisha

 

 

 

I have a sticker on my shirt that says, “I voted.” A lot of people voted in this election. Today, as I stood in line at the polls, I looked around for something to think about. We vote in the recreation building of a comfortable trailer park here in Florida. The furniture was stacked in a corner by the fireplace and the many volunteers were in their places. Everyone was courteous and cordial, voters and helpers alike.

 

Two of our neighbors were there, one is newly retired military who got a wonderful job, he says his military training got it for him and he’s thrilled.

 

The other is a music teacher who teaches at a Christian school. She and her good husband have five boys and have lived in a small house on the next block since before the first one was born. For the past few years the line of white cars has grown to three in front of the house. Those are the boys’ cars. I wonder when there will be five. I’m absolutely certain they work and save for them. It’s the American way and I approve.

 

A couple who were no spring chickens themselves, brought an elderly mother to vote. She had a walker and had to wait so long they turned it so she could sit down, but still, there was no back rest and she had a bad turn. They were there a long time and it must have been grueling. But they stuck it out.

 

I passed a very young father holding a crying baby on his arm while he patiently tried to mark his ballot. Behind me in one of the lines was a lady dressed in lime green scrubs. When asked if she were a health care worker she said yes and gave me the names of the two assisted living places where she works. I said it takes a very special person to do that kind of work. She said, “I think of them all as my grandmas and grandpas.” What compassion!

 

As I exited by the back door that led to a pond, I heard the raucous cry of sand-hill cranes. They are huge birds with red feathers on their heads. The man who was standing by to keep people from falling down a step said the cranes had been there all day, but this morning there were three. Now there were only two and one of them was calling over and over for the third one to come back. I really listened then and I heard what the man heard. “Where are you, please come back, we’re worried about you.” The volunteer had obviously become concerned about the missing crane, as well. What a wonderful group of fine caring people were at the polls. Americans all.

 

At this writing, I don’t know who our president will be for the next four years. I only pray that the spirit of love and compassion that fills our country from sea to shining sea will prevail and that all will be well. I wear my sticker proudly. I voted.

 

 

 

 

I Voted!

I Voted! (Photo credit: • ian)

 

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Doing My Own Thing

5 Nov

My Take

DiVoran Lites

I hardly ever get bored even though I don’t have a job and our nest is empty. Now, as never before I’m thankful for the lessons my parents taught me even as a very young child.

The lessons go together:

1. Work at whatever needs to be done.

2. If you say you’re bored, Mother will be certain to give you a job to do.

3. Its better if you find your own thing to do and don’t wait for Mother to assign you one. You’ll probably enjoy it more.

I walk, exercise, help clean our house, do laundry, cook, garden, and look after my husband and two cats. They all look after me, too. I read, paint, and write. I teach Sunday School, sing on the church praise team, read, blog and email. I have a visit with a friend or relative almost everyday-every day if you count my husband.

I took painting lessons for about fifteen years, but now I’m doing my own thing. It’s easier with watercolors than with oils because it’s not such a big project to get all set up, but oils are so beautiful and buttery and make such gorgeous paintings that I don’t blame people for loving them. Our art league has open studios where you can go and just paint and everybody else is painting too (all kinds, from oils, to pastels, acrylics, watercolors, mixed media) and you can exchange information and encouragement. You can talk about your grandchildren, or muse together over what this world is coming to.

I’ve discovered that I like some crafts too. I have a wooden birdhouse I bought at a Hobby/Art store and I’ve been assembling things to decorate it with. I can leave projects set up in my garage which my husband and I have turned into an all around workroom for both of us. It is, of course, the messiest room in the house, but people seem to like it all the same.

There’s no profit in being bored or lonely.

Some things that can bore me are:

1. Daytime T. V.

2. Compulsive shopping

3. Listening to chronic complainers.

Some things that can make me feel alone are:

1. Going over the past and all the things I coulda, shoulda, woulda done.

2. Holding a grudge.

3. Worrying about the future.

Life is short; eat dessert first. (Ernestine Ulmer, writer, b. 1925). O. K. so I’m watching my weight, but there are other things like dessert and I hope and pray I’ll keep enjoying them for a long time to come.

Ecclesiastes 3

 

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What is Success?

29 Oct

My Take

 DiVoran Lites

Here’s the deal. If all goes as expected, my first novel will soon be published on several e-book sites. I can hardly believe it myself after all this time, but just the idea of it sets me to wondering whether people will like Sacred Spring or not. I sure enjoyed writing it.

People sure liked, To Kill a Mocking Bird. It won just about every award for writing there was and sold at least 30 million books. But with the greatest success possible, it was the beginning and the end of Harper Lee’s writing career.

I don’t want to be famous. I don’t want to get rich. I just want to keep on writing. I’ve got a bouquet of novels, some written and needing polishing, some still in my head. I am the consummate later bloomer and I’m beginning to think that is the best thing I could possibly be.

Other writers try to figure out why Harper Lee never wrote any more novels. They give reasons such as:

1. The publicity was so invasive she couldn’t bear to go through it all again.

2. Money wasn’t a big deal to her, either.

She had a sister and some good friends, and she loved to fish, but she loved to write best of all. She had a childhood friend, who was also a writer, who betrayed her and turned his back on her. He was jealous. How much effect does venom have on the life of a writer? I know from personal experience that some kinds of criticism can constipate a writer’s mind.

Many writers have overcome all those problems and gone on to write seventy or a hundred good books. But I feel that I could identify with Harper Lee, in the area of blocking myself and never going any further.

So, what is success to me?

Pulitzer. No thank you. I’m not in that league. Money, God is already supplying all my needs. So what does my writing dream come to?

I want to sit down at my computer and be myself. I want to commune with story people. I want to be interested in everything and everybody. Life is my lab. I want to arrange and rearrange sentences, describe things, play with words. I want family and friends who love me for myself and who are easy to be with. That’s all. Maybe I’m a success already, because that’s exactly the way I’m living right now and I love it.

The world is full of books, it is also full of food, the demand for both is endless. That’s success as far as I’m concerned.

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Cuban Tree Frogs in Florida

22 Oct

My Take

 

DiVoran Lites 

I must write something down. I can’t talk until I do.

It’s about Cuban tree frogs.

I have one in my shedlette.

He’s been around for about three years.

Ugly!

I think I know his mom, but she has moved on.

He lived with his sister under the porch eave and would startle when I ran the broom to take down spider webs.

Now he lives in my shedlette.

When I was moving a bag of fertilizer, he leapt down to the next shelf and hid.

I jumped back.

He’s much bigger now, but I think he’s alone.

Cuban tree frogs are exotics and shouldn’t be allowed to exist in Florida.

They eat green tree frogs.

It’s true, you used to see them by the dozens.

I love green tree frogs. Their golden racing stripes are real gold from God.

You’re supposed to kill Cuban tree frogs. The tree huggers say so.

Put them in a plastic bag and shove them in the freezer.

My friend knew that.

My son and I talked about it one day in front of his children, but they kept saying, “No, no, don’t do it”

So the Cuban is still here.

I  couldn’t do it anyway, but I know someone who knows someone who can.

Susan wanted to be a responsible Floridian.

However, she didn’t want her freezer full of Cuban Tree Frogs.

She has about a ga-zillion of them.

She chopped two in half with a hoe.

She felt so bad she decided not to do it ever again.

She says, “I could never kill them all no matter how hard I try.”

They hole up in her garage during hurricanes and they die and dry. “What can you do with a dried Cuban tree frog,” she says, “except make jewelry out of it?” Susan is an artist. She makes lemonade out of lemons.

Anyhow, she’s right. I feel so much better. I only have one Cuban Tree Frog and really—I don’t have to think about killing him anymore. I never was going to anyhow.

Exodus 20:13

 

 

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“Heaven is a Wonderful Place…”

15 Oct

I am especially pleased with this offering from DiVoran. It made my soul lilt. Today I am blessed to be undergoing a cornea transplant because someone  chose to give a stranger sight. I am humbled and do not take lightly the gift. I pray my donor is enjoying a” wonderful place” and I pray for comfort for their family. Onisha

My Take

DiVoran Lites

“full of glory and grace, I want to see my Savior’s face, ‘cause heaven is a wonderful place.”

When I was about four years old, I lived with my family in Crowley, Colorado, and I played with a little boy next door almost every day. One day when I was going over to his house I saw that the sidewalk continued and became a stairway. My friend’s mother was walking up it away from me. I called out to her, but she didn’t turn around. Sometime in the next day or so Mother told me the lady had died and I thought without emotion of any kind, “Oh, she was going to Heaven.” That’s absolutely all I can tell you except that I have never in my life had a doubt that Heaven exists and that I’m going there. Of course, since then I have been grateful to have an opportunity to take the step, which would guarantee it. When looking for a picture for this blog I saw something like the stairway again. I suppose someone else has seen it too.

Today I read in Streams in the Desert that a Christ Follower, who had a short time to live on this earth, looked at a mountain and said, “I may not see you many more times, but mountain, I shall be alive when you are gone, and river, I shall be alive when you cease running toward the sea.”

Fancy that. Have you ever seen the Rocky Mountains? We will outlive them all.

I’ve done some thinking and reading about Heaven, but unfortunately my imagination balks at the grave. Right or wrong here’s what I believe.

I believe the crystal sea runs down from the throne of God.

I believe the walls are made of precious and semi-precious gems and the gates are made of pearl.

I’ve heard about the mansion next door to Jesus in a song.

I would imagine that if something is special on earth, like love, it will be a million times more wonderful in Heaven.

We could take all the small things that give us happiness and multiply their effects. For instance, I have a calico cat with soft fur and a loud purr crowding me as I write. One day when I sneezed, she even acknowledged it with a prrrt. I thanked her.

Looking at the garden I see lavender plumbago flowers and yellow orange cosmos backlit by the morning sun.

Yesterday Onisha came for tea and we prayed together and spoke in sweet communion. Both our days were better because of that friendly interlude.

I don’t mean to leave out family, I can barely express how much mine means to me, and though there is no marriage in heaven, I believe again you will love each person there a million times more than you could the best spouse and children on earth.

I wonder about projects. What work, what projects will we have in Heaven? We’ll be making music, for sure. Will I have a beautiful singing voice and be able to play the harp without working up calluses? God must store up absorbing and enjoyable tasks for us or he wouldn’t have given us a need for satisfaction through a job well done.

This I do not believe. I don’t think we turn into angels when we die. I don’t think we are reborn as cattle or even humans again, thank God. Hebrews 9:27

It’s probably better that I don’t know what Heaven is like. I might yearn for it too much and miss out on all the joys available to me in the now. I am content to wait, but still, sometimes I wonder.

“Whoever lives and believes in me (Jesus, the incarnation of God) will not ever die.”

John 11:26

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My Love Affair with Chocolate

8 Oct

 

My Take

DiVoran Lites

I’ve been lying on my potato couch listening to Julio Iglesias sing and eating 72% dark chocolate. I can’t tell you if it’s Ghiradelli’s or Lindt, because I broke up both bars and put the squares together in a plastic box. I can tell you it goes down like nothing else I can think of.

Sidelight about Julio I met someone who knew him. She ran a bed and breakfast in England. We stayed there. She and some of her friends were hard-core Julio groupies and had somehow got into riding in his bus whenever he traveled around England. She said he gave her a hug once. I gave her a hug the morning we left, so does that mean…?

But back to chocolate. It all started with Eskimo Pies when our parents owned a small restaurant in Colorado. We called them Milk Nickels. It sounds healthy and the price was good. I was fond of Hersey bars with almonds in them. Then I progressed to peanut clusters. I could eat a bag in an evening along with about six coca-colas. That was when I was a hairdresser in the Los Angeles area. I eventually dropped the cokes, but stuck with the peanut clusters for a long time.

After I had my first child, I had to start thinking about losing weight so I read everything I could get my hands on and kept up with the chocolate. When I discovered dark chocolate, I was in paradise, especially dark chocolate wrapped in foil with almonds.

Eventually though I learned that I could have one dark chocolate after lunch and one after dinner if I didn’t eat pies, cakes, cookies, etc. As long as that was all the dessert I was going to have I figured I could afford good chocolate.

One time my son’s family gave me a tidy little box of Godiva chocolates tied with a ribbon. We were eating out and I offered everyone a piece of the chocolate, but someone said we should save it for after dinner. Why? Your palette works better if your stomach isn’t full. By the time we had eaten I couldn’t bring myself to offer again. I reasoned that they had given me the candy at great cost and it would be ungracious to give them all away. Besides, three out of six of them didn’t like dark chocolate. I didn’t dare take the chance they’d change their minds. They said I could do whatever I wanted with them so I kept them. I’m not proud of that. Most grandmothers would have shared. Anyhow, that’s the way it is with affairs, sometimes you just don’t have the sense God gave a goose. Drug addicts and alcoholics are the same way, or so I hear.

 

Psalm 34:8

 

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What Makes You Happy?

1 Oct

My Take

 DiVoran

I saw a documentary called, “Happy,” recently. It shows what makes people happy or unhappy all over the world.

The most shocking thing I learned is that many people in Japan are unhappy and worse they actually drop dead of overwork. It’s called Keroshi. It’s from trying to beef up their gross national product.(GNP) since the devastation of WWII. They have succeeded thanks partly to a hand up from the U. S. A.

So far, Danes are considered the happiest people in the world. They may choose lightly communal homes, which have large kitchens where folks share the cooking, and everyone takes at least one meal a day together if they want to. There’s always someone there and they make dear friends who become to them like family. Family and friends make people happy.

The Asian country of Bhutan is passing up striving for increased gross national product and going for gross national happiness (GNH) instead. When a business opportunity comes to the country the first thing the government asks is whether or not the steps they must take will further their goal of GNH or thwart it. This includes things like building dams and flooding communities just for material gain.

In America, we have a whole range from people walking around in Zombie fogs of self-pity to exuberant people (born extra happy).

Drs Meier and Minrith express a profound idea in the title of their book, Happiness is a Choice. Hannah Whitehall Smith echoes this idea, in hers, The Christian’s Secret to a Happy Life.

You may be wondering, however, what about money?

The thing about money is that if you have enough for the basic human needs described in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs you’re a great deal happier than if you don’t. Of course. Once those needs are met and you have some extra for comforts and fun things, then being rich doesn’t add a thing. That is unless like R. G. Le Tourneau you give away 90% of your income for God to use as he wishes. That’ll make you happy.

George Mueller is my hero. By 1875, he had lodged, fed, and educated over two thousand English children who would have otherwise been completely destitute and he did it without taking a salary and without fundraising. He prayed and taught the children to pray for all their needs and people obeyed God and brought the supply.

Here’s his take on happiness:

“I saw more clearly than ever that the first great primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord.

It’s miraculous how much that has helped me over the years as I have tried to practice it.

Nehemiah 8:10

 

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How to Stimulate the Economy

17 Sep

My Take

 

 DiVoran Lites

Last night after our friends left, Bill was watching a movie in our studio, formerly the garage and took his head-set off for a moment. Right away, he heard running water and got up to take a look at the laundry area. Hot water was running from the heater onto the indoor outdoor carpet for the second time in a decade. We rushed around getting things turned off and laying towels to keep the water from spreading any further than it already had.

Bill called the company from whom we lease the water-heater. They are responsible to replace the water heater if, no, I mean when it goes bad. They’d made good on the last one, and we knew they’d make good on this one.

The first thing we rented from the company back in 1965 was a clothes dryer for about three dollars a month. It was a deal we didn’t want to pass up, it was also the first dryer we’d ever had. It was great for Florida mainly because of all the rain we get some months. I was a bit sorry it was too late for the tons of diapers I’d hung out for our two kids, but that just made me appreciate having a dryer more. It lasted twenty-five years. The repairman that replaced it said, “They don’t make them like this any more. Now they have what they call planned obsolescence.” That was the first time I heard of it, and I was shocked.

In my home town one of the original Edison light bulbs still worked perfectly. Also I read that pantyhose existed that would not run, but they kept them off the market so they could keep selling them. I’ll bet they’re hurting now that they’ve gone out of fashion. We all knew about how much better cars could have been at lasting longer, but obsolescence is set up to stimulate the economy and if you love your country, you’re supposed to put up with all kinds of foolishness, so we do.

Bill called Saturday night at 10:30 and within twelve hours the man came for the old water heater and to install a new one. It took three hours. As he finished up, Bill complimented him on a job well done, and said. The other one lasted ten years. I hope this one will do better than that. The man said, “Probably not.”

When he was gone, Bill looked it over and said, I believe I’ll pipe that overflow vent outside, since a flood is the only thing that will tell us our water heater is ready to retire.

Wouldn’t you love to know how long a water heater would last if space age technology and craftsmanship were brought to bear on the problem? But what do I know? Excellence may already be on the way out. Ya think.

Colossians 3:22

 

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