The Young Men

24 Oct

My Take

DiVoran Lites

the-young-men

Painting by DiVoran Lites

 

 

 

The boys aren’t children anymore,
Yet they race kites along the shore,
The splashing surf roars up, away,
While twilight steals across the bay.
So tall and strong and smart these two,
There is nothing they can’t do.
And so they string a three-tiered kite
And loop-the-loop into the night.
When tails get tangled, kites swoop down
To trail the sand along the ground.
In silhouette the men stand tall.
And, as the kite begins to fall,
They run to lift it, set it free,
Performing high for all to see
Against a burnt-sienna sky,
An acrobat a-flying high.
The boy’s are men now – how they grew!
And there’s just nothing they can’t do.

Tags: , , ,

Treasures From Germany~Part 1

23 Oct

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

 

We were blest with being able to live in West Germany for a total of six years. We spent three years in Wiesbaden, then 10 years later, we returned to Germany for another three years in Heidelberg.   Both tours of duty were precious to us. God gave us the opportunity to live in a country that wasn’t our native land, to see the beauty of other parts of the world, and to know another culture. I wish every American citizen could have that experience – to see the United States from the viewpoint of other countries. It certainly helped us to see what a wonderful and free country we live in.

One thing we did, that I wish was imperative for every American, was to visit a World War 2 concentration camp. We visited Dachau several times – on our own, and with friends and family that came to visit us.

 

Memorial Wall
Crematorium

Dachau has been really “cleaned up” from what it was during the war, but the atmosphere is still there. It truly makes us appreciate the United States so much more.

 

Credit Google search
Credit Google search
Credit Google search

 

But there were other things that we did in Europe to make us wish we could have stayed longer. We traveled to England.

 

4

 

We traveled to Italy.

 

5

 

We traveled to Greece.

 

6

 

We traveled to Switzerland.

 

7

 

We traveled to Austria and Liechtenstein.

 

8

Mozartplatz in Salzburg

 

We traveled to France.

 

9

 

As you can see, we were well-traveled. We saw beauty everywhere. And we saw treasures everywhere we went. Some of those treasure we bought and brought home with us.

I’ve mentioned the alabaster lampstands, and onyx “eggs” that we enjoy. We had a friend in Maine who was a bit of a germaphobe and actually boiled the alabaster items her husband brought back! They literally crumbled in her hands! Ouch!

Somewhere along the line, we picked up this set of bells.

 

10

 

When I had a meal ready, I would “ring the bells” to let everyone know that it was time to gather at the table. I still have the bells, but don’t usually ring them anymore. I just yell for Fred to come.

I have never developed a taste for beer, wine, or any other alcoholic drink. However, that didn’t prevent me from purchasing this cute miniature wine-glass set.

 

11

 

When I saw it, it just struck my fancy. And as for the beer and schnapps glasses – they were a gift from a delightful German girl who came and stayed with us for a few weeks.

 

12

 

The York High School in Yorktown, Virginia, has a German “sister city” – Zweibrücken – and some of their students came to stay in Virginia to see how we lived. A lovely girl named Astrid stayed with us, and her thank-you gift was this beer and schnapps glass. We don’t use it, but think of her and the time we had together when we look at it.

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

Tags: , ,

Did you know these seven truths about your religion? | Janet Perez Eckles

22 Oct

Walking by Faith, Not by Sight

Janet Perez Eckles

 

cooltext206519742151781The best part of speaking before any group is what happens afterwards. Often folks stop and chat with me. This past week, that very thing happened.

A man shook my hand. “I was touched by your message,” he said, “and I just want to know how you deal with the fact that the disease with your eyes is hereditary?”

“What do you mean?” I said.

“Well, I have a disease. It’s hereditary, and I can’t let go the worry and total fear my child will inherit it. I’m afraid of the future.”

He paused. “And I don’t have any religion…don’t believe in much of anything.”

I wanted to give him a huge hug and whisper in his ear, “You don’t need a religion, you need a relationship with Jesus to set you free from that worry and fear.”

Forgive me for being presumptuous. But if you are one of those who believe that religion is the answer, here are seven truths to ponder upon:

  1. Religion offers rituals, Jesus offers a personal relationship.
  2. Religions can change; Jesus is the same today, tomorrow and forever.
  3. Religion works to win grace, Jesus becomes the grace we can work under.
  4. Religion doesn’t offer forgiveness; Jesus became the forgiveness for our sin.
  5. Religion offers no miracle; Jesus delights in performing them.
  6. Religion doesn’t take you to heaven; Jesus took the blame so we could enter it.
  7. Religions bind us; Jesus sets us free.

When we spend sleepless nights, we wring our hands about the uncertainty of tomorrow, and mistakenly, we go by the way of religion, that’s why Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

What rules your life these days—nothing in particular or a religion or a relationship with Christ, the Savior?

Source: Did you know these seven truths about your religion? | Janet Perez Eckles

Tags: , ,

If Calories Didn’t Count

21 Oct

From the Heart

Louise GibsonA photo by Ben White. unsplash.com/photos/4K2lIP0zc_k

 

 

‘”The two biggest sellers in any book store
are the cook books and the diet books.

The cook book tells you how to prepare
the food, and the diet books tell you how
not to eat any of it.”
Andy Rooney

If calories didn’t count. we could eat whatever
we wanted
and the number on the scales wouldn’t mount.
If calories didn’t matter and wouldn’t make us
gain a pound,
We could throw away our scales,
and forget about growing round.

“Which book is in YOUR hand? : -)

Louise Gibson

Tags: , , ,

A Fair View

20 Oct

 

A Fair View…From a Volunteer

By Patricia Franklin

1

DiVoran:

Our guest blogger, Patricia Franklin and her husband volunteered at the Colorado State Fair this year. These are her observations as seen in the Publication of Pikes Peak Citizens for Life newsletter:

I have been a volunteer at the  Pike’s Peak Citizens for Life booth for several years and would like to express what a positive impact it has had on visitors. This year, in fact, the display seemed to impress many people.

2

 

For more fetal baby models see:

http://www.hh76.org/details.aspx?prod_id=1333

Men, women, families, teens, and children were all interested in the display. The children loved the models and loved seeing how a baby grows. Boys as well as girls, asked to hold the 12 week models. Pregnant moms were excited to see how big their own babies were. I was particularly surprised and heartened by the number of men who commented, thanked, and encouraged us.

A man approached the booth, picked up a couple of 12 week models, and handed them to his two teenaged girls. I gave them a brochure, he pointedly said to them, “Read that!” as he handed me a donation.

One young man came up with several of his friends, saw the models and repeated excitedly, “My baby is 11 weeks old! My baby is 11 weeks old!” He hurried back to find his wife and brought her over to look at the baby models. His friends thoroughly enjoyed his outburst and enthusiasm.

Some men had tears in their eyes. One man with his wife and two teenage sons stopped, looked, and tearfully said, “I thank God every day for my sons.”

Several people asked, “How can anyone abort a baby,” or commented, “God bless you for your work.” Some from past years stopped by to give a donation.

The video stopped people in their tracks. Even mothers who already had children were excited and surprised that the baby in the film was opening its mouth, yawning, and sucking its thumb right in the womb.

A couple of men and a woman hurried up just as we were closing for the evening. They thanked us, took our hands, and prayed with us.

There’s really no other public venue where people have access to this type of information, and they are so pleased and grateful that it’s right out there for them to see and share with family and friends.

I just wanted you to know what an impact Pike’s Peak Citizens for Life have made on people’s lives. For me it is a blessing to be a small part of this experience.

List of Pro-Life Organizations.

 

 

 

Tags: , , ,

My 2016 Mid-West Trip~Part 16

19 Oct

A Slice of Life

Bill Lites

 

Day 16 (Sunday)

 

I began the day with a nice drive west on I-10 from Mobile to Gulfport, Mississippi. Since it was Sunday, I didn’t expect any of the museums to be open, and most of them were not. But I wanted to take a look at their locations anyway. My first stop was to check out the Busted Wrench Garage & Museum there at Gulfport. The building was closed and very small, and didn’t look big enough to house a lot of cars. But, when I Googled the museum, I was surprised to see photos of a nice collection of beautifully restored cars that I missed.

 

1

 

Just down the road a ways was my next stop at the Mississippi Coast Model Railroad Museum. Here again the museum was closed, and the building was not very large.   I could see through the window that they had a good sized model railroad layout, but not much room for anything else.

 

2

 

Next I drove a sort distance south of I-10 to check out the Gulfport Dragway strip. The fellow attending the entrance gate informed me that they had drag races on Wednesdays only, and no other races were scheduled for today. That made three closed attractions in a row so far today.

 

3

 

As part of the planning for this trip I had contacted my son about the possibility of meeting my granddaughter in Gulfport for lunch. Lacey is attending college in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, about 65 Miles north of Gulfport, and this would provide the perfect opportunity for us to meet and spend some time together. As it turned out, she was able to meet with me and we had a delightful lunch at Shaggy’s Gulfport Beach Restaurant on U.S. 90 overlooking the beach.

 

4

 

After lunch I took some time to drive around the beautiful Gulfport Marina, and took some pictures. There was a large ship tied up at the Gulfport docks, which looked like it might have been a cable-laying ship. I had never seen anything like it, and couldn’t figure out how it might work.

 

5

 

Then I headed west again on I-10 for New Orleans, LA. I tried the Cars of Yesteryear’s Museum in Metairie Louisiana, but here again they were closed.

 

6

 

Next I took on the 24 mile long Lake Pontchartrain Causeway from New Orleans to Madisonville. My objective was to visit the Lake Pontchartrain Maritime Museum.  This was a very nice museum filled with a large verity of local historical memorabilia.

 

7

 

Of course, there was also a considerable amount of information about the Civil War. This included a replica of the 2-man Confederate submarine CSS Pioneer (1861), which was a predecessor to the famous Confederate Civil War submarine, the CSS H. L. Hunley (1864). I had never heard of the CSS Pioneer and was surprised to discover that during initial sea trials, it sank with the loss of the crew of 2. After being raised and refitted for more sea trials, it was scuttled, for fear of capture, when the Union Army advanced on New Orleans in April of 1862.

 

8

 

More well-known is the Confederate Civil War submarine CSS H. L. Hunley, which was even more deadly than the Pioneer. During the sea trials of the Hunley, it sank on two different occasions, with the loss of the entire crew of 8 both times. Each time the submarine was raised, improved and refitted for more sea trials. Then finally, in February of 1864, when the Hunley was successfully used to attack and sink the Union ship USS Housatonic, it became the first submarine in history to sink an enemy ship during wartime. Unfortunately, the Hunley was lost, on that sorte the final time, taking all 8 crew members to their death, including the inventor Horace L. Hunley. Interestingly, I saw a full-scale replica of the CSS H. L. Hunley when I visited the Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile, AL just yesterday.

 

9

 

As I was leaving Madisonville I noticed a complex of unusual condos over-looking a small bay and marina. The owners had their living quarters on the second floor and underneath each condo was a protected slip for their private boat moorings. How convenient.

 

10

 

Driving North from Madisonville, back across that 24 mile Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, seemed to take a lot longer than it did going south. I was curious about the construction of the causeway and found the following details on Wikipedia. The two, 2-lane bridges that make up the Causeway qualify it, in the Guinness World Records, as the longest “continuous” bridge over water in the world, at 23.83 miles long. The two spans were built between 1955-1956 & 1967-1969, and the two causeway bridges are supported on 9,500 concrete pilings, and 40,000 cars cross the Causeway daily.

 

 

By the time I got to the motel, I was ready to relax and have some supper. I had enough of the Taco Bell Mexican Pizza left over from last night to satisfy me. Then I had a cup of Blueberry yogurt for dessert. That did the trick for my hunger, and I headed to the motel’s computer to check-in for tomorrow’s flight home.

 

—–To Be Continued—–

 

Tags: , , , , ,

A Peck of Dirt

17 Oct

My Take

DiVoran Lites

1

 

Small child
Kneeling in the dirt,
Making mud pies
To crunch and grind
Between your teeth,
And swallow.

 

Draw a hopscotch pattern in the dirt.
With a stick from off the playground.
Throw ancient, broken glass
Onto a hopscotch square,
Pick-up broken glass
Balanced on one leg.

 

Eighth grade softball
With the other kids.
On a dirt diamond.
Never miss a ball.
Sit on it if you must.
Everybody bathe on Saturday.

Tags: , , , ,

It’s Music To My Ears

16 Oct

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

 

Seems like I have always loved to sing. I vaguely remember being in the Christmas program in my 1st grade class, and sang a solo. I think it was….Santa Claus Is Coming To Town.

I’m sure I sang in the children’s choir in our church. I don’t remember much about that. However, I do remember being in the youth choir in our church. And when I turned 17 years old, those of us that age, were allowed to sing in the adult choir. I was rather appalled to realize that some of those older women really needed to stop singing in the choir! And I made up my mind then and there that, when I got to that age, and if I found myself “warbling” like they were then it was time to stop singing in the choir!

I remember singing in my Junior High School chorus. Back then, Elementary school was 1st through 6th grade. Junior High was 7th through 9th grade, and high school was 10th through 12th grade.

I do remember singing solo’s in church – and not just in my home church, but in churches that Fred and I were members of years later.

But my best memories of singing came about during my High School days. I remember that we had to choose between singing in the chorus (or being in the band if that was our talent) or taking P.E. I chose music.   I was in the girls chorus all three years of my high school.

But there were two other groups within the music at my high school that I was interested in:  All-State Chorus and a hand-selected group they called Dreamers. I had to audition for each of those groups each and every year. The first year I auditioned for All-State Chorus, I had a cold and didn’t qualify. However, the final two years of my high school I was able to be a part of that group. High School choruses from all over New Mexico came to Albuquerque for the concert. We met in the University of New Mexico (UNM) gymnasium for rehearsals and the concert. As you might imagine, the acoustics were not the best, but we needed the space. And since Albuquerque was more-or-less central in New Mexico, it was always held there. What a fantastic experience that was!!

 

1

1959 All-State Chorus from my high school

 

But I think, outside of All-State Chorus, the best thing about high school and singing, was to be a part of Dreamers all three years of my high school. There were 12 of us each year – four voices on each part of a trio. We always had a great blend, even though many of the voices changed out each year, as some graduated. We traveled to sing for other group meetings around the city. It was great!

 

2

1959 Dreamers

 

Our chorus director was Arthur Loy. He was also the director for those of us in the All-State Chorus as well as the Dreamers. He had a great love for music, and his students, and the talent to direct us. He picked great songs for us to sing – some of the old great ones: Night and Day was one of my favorites. I was sorry to graduate and leave his tutelage.

 

3

 

As you can see, music has been a large part of my life. I am grateful.

Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.

Psalm 96:1

 

 

Tags: , , ,

When Do We Grow Old!

14 Oct

From the Heart

Louise Gibson

fall-lake-header

 

 

 

I woke up in the morning,
mind refreshed and full of hope.
There is so much I want to do-
all within my scope.

 

My mind is willing, my mind alert-
I’ll spring right out of bed.
My mind is saying, “Go girl”
but my back says, “Whoa” instead.

 

Ego! Yes, ego is the culprit
in this aging game we play.
I don’t mind saying “I’m 87″
But,” getting old??? “No way!”

 

“None are as old as those who
have outlived their enthusiasm”

Henry David Thoreau

 

 

Tags: , , ,

Getting my Ducks in a Row~Part 2

13 Oct

On the Porch

Onisha Ellis

 

We remained inside most of the day after the winds of the hurricane began to die down. Traffic lights were not working and we didn’t want to deal with the hassle driving would be. So Saturday we decided to venture out. We visited a friend and helped take down her boards and later in the day we drove to the marina. There were four sailboats that had washed ashore, but I only took pictures of two as the others were further away.

The yellow is to keep oil and fuel from escaping into the water.

On the way home from our friends home we drove through a neighborhood where we once lived. It is an older subdivision with a lot of oak trees. I was fascinated with the moss that covered yards and the road, The hurricane stripped the tress so that some yards appeared to have gray snow on them. I wasn’t able to get a good picture of the moss as husband felt a tad odd taking pictures while people were in the yard cleaning up.

 

On our way home from the marina, we drove down “river road.” It has a name, but it has always been called this by locals. There was far less damage than I expected as the news had been warning of a storm surge. Thankfully they were wrong. When we were almost at the end of the road, we saw it was blocked by a tree and back tracked.

fullsizerender-4

On Monday, we went to the local Target to get away from the house.  The third day after the storm passed, freezer cases remained almost bare.

I was nervous before the storm about not being able to board up. We were fine, no wind damage alt all.  I do think it would be a good idea to order some of the plylox to have on hand in the future.

One of the heart warming and encouraging results of the storm is the way churches reached out to help people, especially widows, single moms and the elderly prepare for the storm . We are blessed to have young pastors who have a heart of love for the community. On Sunday, instead of holding a service, they are meeting to go out into the community and aid in clean-up activities.

Monday afternoon was a big day for many of our residents. Power crews were able to restore electricity to homes that had been out since Thursday night. I was visiting with a friend when her power returned and there was a lot of whooping and hollering going on. Power company linemen are heroes in our community and we are thankful for every single one who left their families and came to our aid.

One thing was missing in the midst of this disaster. No one asked who one was voting for in the Presidential election. Neighbors talked to each other. They shared information and acts of kindness were the norm. This is who we are. This election period has brought out the worst in our country, but Hurricane Matthew a force of destruction,  brought out the best in us.

 

Tags: , , , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →