Tag Archives: DiVoran Lites

Dateline Flanders, December 24, 1914

24 Dec

DiVoran shared a wonderful poem over on Rebekah Lyn Books.  I hope you find it as touching as I did. Merry Christmas to each of our bloggser and readers. I hope you are able to spend time with your loved ones. Remember our soldiers both past and present~ Love, Onisha

candle05

Dateline Flanders, December 24, 1914

By DiVoran Lites

 Cold night, starry night,

Not a solider here in sight.

Trenches dug as deep as graves,

No one stirs, and no one waves.

Suddenly from out the dark

Comes a candle like a spark

Set upon a small pine tree

Lighting bold and shining free.

German sign ‘cross no man’s land

A song rings out, a friendly hand.

Sunrise comes, thus ends the night.

“You don’t fight. We don’t fight.”

Daylight now, they bury dead

Not in trench, but grave instead

Then the boys share gifts of food

In Christmas cheer and kindly mood

And then a bit of playful rest

The touch of Life, a game of zest

Until the Brass Hats get the word

Oh, no, they say, it’s too absurd.

Get back to work and shoot some more

Peacefulness is such a bore.

The Christmas truce comes to an end,

Millions dead before the mend

In the spring red poppies grow

Around the crosses, row on row.

We’ll always have the wars you see,

But Peace has come for you and me.

British and German troops meeting in No man's ...

British and German troops meeting in No man’s land during the unofficial truce (British troops from the Northumberland Hussars, 7th Division, Bridoux-Rouge Banc Sector) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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Look Before You Leap

16 Dec

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Last Friday when I wrote the date, December 13, 2013, I thought, dum-de-dum-dum, it’s Friday the thirteenth, bad luck day. In case you didn’t recognize it, dum-de-dum-dum is the theme song to the old T. V. series, “Dragnet.” Bill and I use it as a warning that we’re entering suspenseful and dangerous territory.

This blog is about three of the many other superstitions I’ve heard in my lifetime. You probably know them too.

  1. If you walk under a ladder propped against a building you’ll have bad luck.
  2. If a black cat walks across your path…bad luck. I suppose the cat has to be black because black cats are associated with witches.
  3. If you break a mirror, you’ll have NINE YEARS bad luck. Don’t ask me why nine, not eight or ten.

So what’s the truth about superstitions?

  1. If you walk under a ladder there’s a better chance of a gallon of primer falling on your head than there is if you walk closer to the curb. But watch out on that, too.
  2. Any color of cat can twine around your feet if you get too close. You could trip and fall and break your arm.
  3. It gets much worse. If you break a mirror and a shard of glass flies up and cuts your leg you can get an infection that if you don’t clear up you could develop gangrene and have your leg cut off. The effects from that could last nine years–or a lifetime.

Mostly though, and this I know, God looks after us in our carelessness and preoccupation. This doesn’t answer the BIG QUESTION, of course, but to me it’s apparent that by asking the Holy Spirit, not why bad things happen, but how to take them, and in what way to be blessed by them will more than meet our needs for comfort and guidance when bad things do happen. The Holy Spirit knows all the truth and He will tell us what we need to know.

Meanwhile:

  1. If you take any wooden nickels, be sure they’re round tuits.
  2. Keep looking up.
  3. Look before you leap.

Have you heard of any new superstitions connected to the digital age that I don’t know about? I suppose you have, otherwise, why would we need Snopes?

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Rhythm Band

25 Nov

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Author, Poet and ArtistIn our Sunday school class, we have two drums. One is a Remo lollipop drum on a stick. I bought it at a consignment shop. It has a wonderful sound, and is beautiful with red, green, and blue stripes going around its face. I played it one day in church because it went with my bright red top. The other is a frame drum made by the same company. It would remind you of a tambourine with a drum top but no little cymbals. It also has a strong sound. Every Sunday during the Sunday school, but not in church, children play rhythm instruments and sing while the church music mistress plays the keyboard. Bill comes in to sing and pray with us and the assistant teacher is there too.

The two drums are always the first instruments the kids pick up. We have two ankle bracelets with big bells on them, a crow call, a stick tambourine, a wheel thing that makes a nice sound with metal ball chains, two sets of maracas. Something I’ve never seen before that my friend/associate teacher got at a thrift store is a bunch of plastic bubbles on a stem that hit together when you shake it. We have a triangle too. It is metal and has a metal mallet that makes a clear, ringing sound.

The only problem with the drums and crow call is that the ball on the end of the mallet of each gets such a work out that they take to popping off and having to be chased across the floor (not far) and stuck on again. Bill glues them, but the kids are so enthusiastic that they soon come loose again.

It’s fun to see how the newbies are usually at a loss as to how or when to play, but as the weeks pass, they become more and more integrated and sometimes we all play the same tempo and end at the same time. It must do a lot for us to learn to play together that way and to become cooperative and aware. It’s fun anyhow. Rhythm band anyone?

Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered together, there I am in the midst of them.” Matthew 18:20

Does that mean even when we’re making a clatter? I believe it does, don’t you?

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Smart Kids

18 Nov

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Author, Poet and ArtistI have my great grandfather’s fifth grade reading book called,  Appleton’s Fifth Reader (1880). In vocabulary it resembles a nowadays college literature book. It favors the Bible as a guide for life and explains its meanings and origins: Translation of the Twenty-Third Psalm: “The Lord my pasture shall prepare…

” It has numbered instructions as to how to live a spiritually, emotionally, and physically satisfying life in tune with your fellow human. I found this one particularly poignant: “Read no letters, books, or papers in company: but when there is a necessity for doing it, you must ask leave (permission).

” Poems such as, “Hymn to the Night,” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow make up a large percentage of the Fifth Reader’s pages. “I heard the trailing garments of the night trail through her halls…”

As I page through I find many things I would not have been able to understand in the fifth grade. I doubt whether there are many fifth graders today who would understand either, but surely…if someone taught us?

Kid’s are smart. They can learn and they are capable of deep thinking. I met a second generation Egyptian girl who is eleven years old, and who  speaks English, French, Chinese, and Arabic. I can attest that her English is flawless. I don’t know about the others I can’t speak any of those languages. And the nice thing about her was that she was kind, cooperative, respectful and interested. She gently taught the younger children how to jump rope.

The two children across the street are home schooled, and boy are they happy, sweet, and respectful…fun too. Every Monday their mom drives them half an hour to Classic Conversations where their curriculum for the week is laid out for her and they are schooled as well. This brother and sister study and memorize the Bible, they learn about morals, and they learn about America.

Essie, the “about to be ten” child is in her second year of Latin. She says it’s easier than it was last year. She and her brother spoke of their History timeline in song. I asked if they would sing it for me, but they said it was thirteen minutes long. I asked for a sample and heard words such as Mesopotamia and Nicene.

So maybe given the vocabulary, they could understand the Appleton’s Fifth Reader from 1880. Maybe the second-generation Egyptian girl could too. Really why think there’s anything today’s children can’t learn? Maybe it’s a matter of parents who know what they want for their children going out and getting it.

Are we still a do-it-yourself country or is that all in the past? Try Googling, why home school? You’ll get a lovely surprise. Your kids don’t have to be under educated or follow the wrong kind of peer pressure. I know a lot of home schoolers who are all grown up now. I’d like for you to meet them. They are the good future for our country. If attitude is all important, then they’ve got the most important thing in the world, a great attitude. If you decide to home school, you can get all the support you need to give your once in a lifetime kids what you want most for them to have. Go for it! 

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What a Friend

14 Nov

What a FriendLast Sunday one of our hymns was What a friend. Out of curiosity (I have a lot of that) I looked to see when this beautiful poem was written and who was the author. Fortunately our church uses an older hymnal which has the information at the bottom of the song. What a Friend was written in 1855 by Joseph Scriven. Apparently the longing for friendship and comfort is not new to mankind. The song has three stanzas and I would love to share them with you. I am taking the words from a Broadman Hymnal that was used in my church when I was a very young child. It is so old there is no copyright/publication page.

What a friend we have in Jesus,
All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
Everything to God in prayer.
How those words speak to my heart! Someone wants to bear my
pain.
O what peace we often forfeit
O what needles pain WE bear
All because we do not carry
Everything to God in prayer!
How silly am I when I choose to wallow in my pain when I
have friend who will bear it for me!
Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged.
Take it to the Lord in Prayer.
So many times have I felt discouraged. Who hasn't known 
the utter exhaustion of raising a family, trying to meet 
everyone's needs and no one meeting our needs.
Can we find a friend so faithful?
Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness.
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Have you been at the end of yourself, longing to share your
 heartache with someone? I have.
Are we weak and heavy laden,
Cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Saviour, still our refuge,
Take it to the Lord in prayer.


This brings to mind a modern song, Strong Tower by Kutlass


“You are my strong tower. Fortress when I’m weak”


What a blessing to know that my friend will be strong for me,
 and be my refuge.






Do your friends despise, forsake thee?


Take it to the Lord in Prayer.


His arms he'll take and shield thee,


Thou wilt find a solace there.




My friend, DiVoran once shared with me her personal picture of a grandfatherly God who would take her upon his lap, wrap his arms around her and just rock and love her. That has always stayed with me and often when praying for someone I ask for them to know  that blessed feeling of being wrapped in God’s arms of love.

You can read a short biography here or a more detailed account here.

				
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Working Together

	
		11
		Nov
	

	

	

		
My Take


DiVoran Lites


IAuthor, Poet and Artistt’s so great to work with other people. It’s one of my favorite things in the whole world. I’ll always remember when a friend came over and we made candles in paper milk cartons out of ice, paraffin, and crayons for Christmas. There was another time when a different friend and I made jelly together, and then there was that time when Bill’s sister, Judy, showed me how to make her special yeast dinner roles from scratch.


It sounds like most of my together times have been in the kitchen. I guess you could say the one today was in the kitchen as my office is part of the family room which is part of the kitchen. But it didn’t really have anything to do with cooking, except that Rebekah Lyn and I were cooking up ways to connect with friends on the Internet and find the best recipes to get our books out there where they can be appreciated.


Rebekah Lyn is a lot younger than I am. In fact, I knew her mother and dad before they were married, and we are certainly still good friends. Rebekah Lyn has a degree in Communications and she works for a big company, so she is one sharp woman. We even wrote novels together one year. That was great fun.


Today she came over because we had several matters to discuss. I’m going to get some business cards like hers to show our website address: Rebekah Lyn Books. We talked that over. We are both in several places on the Internet. She is on Rebekah Lyn’s kitchen, Twitter, Face Book, and of course Amazon. Who isn’t on Amazon? I’m on Old Things R New, Christian Poets and Writers, and Face Book, too. I also write a  weekly post  Writing Life for Rebekah Lyn Books.


R. L. taught me how to put a Face Book post on all my venues so I don’t have to do them separately. That will save time! She showed me her iPad. I want one. I was thrilled with what it can do, but I haven’t got to the place where I can justify buying one for myself, because I’m more of a stay at home body that an out and about person.


We tried to put a gravatar on the website for my replies to comments. In case you’re ignorant about what a gravatar is, as I was: it is a picture of me that will go where my name goes. We were stymied on that, but I know with her competence, she will figure it out and get back to me. Of course, she already has a gravatar for her posts, so it won’t take her long.


The most fun was discussing the new book she’s working on, Jessie. It’s about a young man growing up running wild in the area of Kennedy Space Center in the sixties. We talked about what Jessie might be up to next, and called Bill in because he was a working man at the Space Center in those days, has a passion for space, and was actually a young man once. It was like a party and we all had a wonderful time putting our thoughts together and tending to Jessie. Rebekah Lyn is a thorough researcher and interviewer and she has a great dad who ran around in the Florida woods himself from an early age. I can’t wait to read Jessie, and neither can Bill.


Then of course, as all things do, our work/play session came to an end. No matter. Rebekah Lyn lives within walking distance from us. We have worked together for years on our writing and technology and God willing, we’ll have many more years of good times to come.


 
 
 
  
 Guests of Honor 
 
 
  
 
  
 Launching Our New Books 
 
 
  
  


In place of a list of links, visit Rebekah Lyn Books to learn more about  DiVoran and Rebekah- Onisha

				
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Investigating Family Ties~Part 3

	
		7
		Oct
	

	

	

		
My Take


DiVoran Lites


Mother’s other grandmother was Florenda Jane Bingham Bedell Britton. Anyhow, Florenda Jane was born April 6, 1847. When Dora was six years old Author, Poet and Artistand her grandmother came for a visit, she came to Dora’s room every night and they kneeled by the bed and prayed together. That TLC, Mother said, was what helped her want to become a Christian later in life. Florenda Jane belonged to the Church of God Holiness. I assume from the name they were what we now call charismatic. Florenda Jane died December 28, 1936 at eighty-nine years of age. I was born two years after she died. I wish I had known her. We’ll all sit down and have a fine chat in Heaven some day. Please join us when the time is right.


One of my mother’s grandfathers was Ezra Marshall Bedell. He was born in Syracuse New York in 1844. During the Civil War he was taken prisoner for eight years.


This brings us to Mother’s parents, Mabel and Roger Bedell. They lived on an apple ranch just outside town and settled in to raise apples, vegetables, chickens, a few cows, a son, and two daughters. Roger was manager of the Gas Company from 1917 until the town got electricity. They made water gas. The formula came down through the family, but I’m glad I don’t have to make it in order to have lights and cooking fuel. If the light over the dining room table began to dim, it was time for Roger to get the machines going again.


During the Great Depression, relatives who needed a place to stay came and went. My family has a history of feeding other people. I imagine if you investigate, your family does too. In those days, if you had food, you shared it. Now you can share knowledge with your children about their ancestors. It will make them stronger and more self-confident, especially if they hear stories about how their relatives loved and served Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

				
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Investigating Family Ties~Part 2

	
		23
		Sep
	

	

	

		
My Take


DiVoran Lites


Even though I haven’t studied it in depth, I do know that genealogy can be exciting and interesting, especially if you have a passion for history. If it is your own history, you can enjoy it even more.


My Mother’s grandparents lived with Mother’s family in their old age. Mother was named for her grandmother, Dora Bell. One day when we were in that hometown, we went past a small house on the main road where Dora Bell once had her own shop. She sold gifts and items she had designed and crocheted herself. She was very creative and she taught my mother to crochet too. Neither of them ever used a pattern.


For fun, they made tiny dresses, teddies, shawls, coats and hats for Mother’s, “Little Dolls.” She had homemade furniture and other clothes as well. When I was a child, I got to play with the “Little Dolls.” I remember the non-crocheted hats best. They had deep crowns and wide brims and must have been the fashion in the 1900s. I like seeing that type of hat in pictures. I think it’s still my favorite style.


My playing with Mother’s dolls, and the fact that she and her grandmother made the clothes made a wonderful continuity in my life. So did Mother’s story telling. I feel as if I know my great-grandmother, Dora-Bell as well as any other member of the family, though I was only four years old when she died. It gives me a warm feeling of belonging, and I understand characterization mostly because of my mother’s stories.


Dora Bell loved her family deeply. When she grew old and frail she wanted them around her as much as possible. Mother said when she was a teen-ager Dora Bell would get ill whenever Mother went away for a short time. Once when Mother went shopping in the next town, Dora Bell had a heart attack and Mother was convinced it was because she left her. They both survived. Maybe it wasn’t even a heart attack, perhaps it was a panic attack.


In a way, I can understand that and relate to her, but in another way, I can’t. Her first husband left her with two daughters to rear, and that was enough to traumatize anyone. I’ve been to the cemetery where Dora Bell is buried next to her second husband whom everyone dearly loved. Her daughter, my grandmother is there along with my grandfather and my other two grandparents plus some other relatives. My parents are there too. I don’t know, it all just gives me a feeling of belonging that I wouldn’t trade for anything.


So there’s another plus for knowing where you came from and where your ancestors came from too. What do you know about your family history? Does it give you a feeling of belonging too?

				
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Good News

	
		23
		Sep
	

	

	

		
My Take


DiVoran Lites


Author, Poet and Artist


I like good news better than bad news. My family had a toast, “Health, wealth, and happiness.” Options, solutions, suggestions on those subjects interest me. As a Christian, and a writer, I learn by reading the Bible and other spiritual literature. I learn by journaling, praying, going to church, and most of all by following the leading of the Holy Spirit who brings information into my life in many different ways, mainly by directing me in my reading. Here’s some general knowledge I’ve acquired lately.


    

  • In about fifteen years, it’s going to become possible to live forever.
    • 

  • “The Case for Immortality,” by Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.
    

    • 

  • America could have better schools, if we modeled them after the schools of some foreign countries. “Save Our Schools”
    • 

  •  Some doctors are treating their patients without requiring medical insurance. AARP bulletin, September, 2013
    • 



Ray Kurzwell, an inventor on a par with Edison, plans to live forever. However, the argument he gets most frequently isn’t, it can’t be done, but it’s this: only the rich will be able to afford the technology. Kurzwell’s, answer? “That’s what they said about cell-phones.”


Our school system seems to be about teaching children to take tests instead of encouraging them to love learning and to think for themselves. In contrast, Finland has the top-rated school system in the world. The secret is in the quality, training, and support of teachers. Although their government does pay for the education of their teachers, it’s not the politicians that are in control of the school system, but the excellent teachers who are earnest about their work, and well paid to boot.


In a growing trend, about 5,000 doctors in twenty-four states do not accept medical insurance. That gives them and their patients a chance at the best, most responsible and most reasonable care possible.


I just have one question. If I opt to live forever instead of living in fear of old age and debility, will I still have all the love, the income, and the health I’ll need to make life worthwhile?. I’m certainly looking forward to Heaven, but I can’t fully, imagine the splendors there. My life here is good, so I may have to make that decision someday. One thing I know: I’d rather imagine living forever, even here on earth, than to live in fear. I don’t want to put off enjoying life for some future time either. Being present in the present just makes everything so much more fun. How do you feel about good news versus bad news? It makes you think, anyhow.

				
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Clean Indie Reads Authors Launch Big Sale

	
		15
		Sep
	

	

	

		
Finally Fall Sale
Clean Indie Reads Fall into Savings Sale


Are you tired of blood, guts, gore, and scenes that might make grandma (or even grandpa) blush?   Our wonderful author DiVoran Lites along with the authors of Clean Indie Reads have joined together to promote books that you’ll be happy to share without blushing.  NOW we’re running a one-week sale from Sept. 18 to 25.  Every book shown on the following website will be on sale at 99 cents or possibly FREE.  No contests to enter or hoops to jump, just click and buy.  Worry-free reads at rock bottom prices.  Support Indie authors by buying a “clean” read today.  For a “sneak peak” click here 



				
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