Tag Archives: DiVoran Lites

Choices

2 Sep

My Take

DiVoran Lites

DiVoran Lites

Doesn’t it drive you nuts when you decide to do something and you get so many choices you can’t make up your mind? For instance we recently changed cable systems and it seems the new one has even more choices of channels than the old one. They are up into the thousands now. I hear you can delete some of the channels and someday I may do so if I ever care enough to bother. I have found, “The Waltons,” and, “Little House on the Prairie,” and those should last me a while.

What about choices on our computers? We can do things one way or maybe we’d rather do them another way. The only trouble is, it seems to me as if sometimes one way works and at other times that way doesn’t work at all. Sound confusing? Think of the state of my poor mind.

Today I was browsing through a magazine that had pictures of several different kinds of artisan salt in it among them: Black, Red, and fleur de sel. By the way, new research is debunking the 100-year-old-idea that salt is supremely bad for everybody. Thank heavens. Anyhow, I might send away for the fleur de sel some day. Here is its description: fleur de sel is the caviar of salt (but honey, I wouldn’t eat caviar if you paid me, oh well, never mind.) It goes on: “made from the delicate crystals that blossom on the surface of crystallizing sea salts; delicate flavor; violet-like aroma: maintains integrity on wet foods. Now that sounds lovely and exotic, doesn’t it?

Don’t get me wrong, I really don’t want fewer choices in the world, I’ll muddle through the way things are. But how about religions? We have the Christic religions. That is an entirely new word for me that means what we once called Christ-centered. Or at least I assume from the context that’s what it means. Then we have Zen Buddhism, Hinduism. Humanism (yes, I do call that a religion), and a whole bunch more and within each they have denominations and branches galore. I’ve read a bit about some of them and I see some good things in some, (some really scary things, too), but the precepts that seem right and good to me are right there in the Christian Bible too. They were probably there first. To be more specific I like the Zen idea of being in the moment, but I know we have lots of scriptures that tell us the same thing. Jesus Himself did only one thing and I know he was paying attention when he did it. What did Jesus do? WDJD? He did whatever He saw His Father in Heaven doing at any given moment. And with this, I come to the crux of my rant. I keep coming back to Jesus every time I see another choice of religious precept. He is the one and only the all-in-all, the master, the bread, the salt. He is everything to me and will be everything to anybody who wants Him even a little bit. Then He and the Holy Spirit within us can help us make our choices, large and small, a very present help in trouble and in daily life. Psalm 46:1

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Woman Cures the Blues by Writing Poetry

12 Aug

My Take

DiVoran Lites

I am my own guinea pig. I figure what’s good for the goose is good for the gander, in other words, I learn things about myself all the time and wonder whether others feel the same way I do.

My latest discovery is in connection with the writing of poetry. I was in the middle of a final polish of my third novel in the Florida Springs Trilogy, Clear Spring, and I was feeling so down, I had to stop every thirty minutes to eat a teaspoon full of pecan pieces. Besides being nervous, a condition I attributed to stage fright because I was drawing near the end of my book, I also had a bad case of self-chastisement, a plethora of thoughts about how I wasn’t any good as a writer, nor as a person. I know I’m the only person in the world who ever has these thoughts, and that bothers me too. What is wrong with me?

Then I saw a Face Book call for entries for poems  about forgiveness from a Christian point of view. I was onto that like ducks on a June bug. First I started through my poetry workshop file, hmm, nothing specific on forgiveness, I usually write about more tangible things. So well, the thing to do is to start a new poem about the topic. I got so caught up in that I found the morning passing without a single bad thought or pecan piece. I wrote and rewrote. I asked my husband to read the poem to me. It was perfect except for one word. I wrote and rewrote again, this time shortening each line by two syllables. That required some word changes too. It got better. By the time I finished I was feeling mighty fine. No stage fright, no collywobbles, no cat-o-nine tails across my own shoulders. I felt ready to tackle anything, even polishing.

A similar thing happened once when my mother and I were waiting at a fish camp for our men to come home from a boat-shopping trip. It got later and later, but I didn’t have time to worry because I was working on a poem, “Bridgett’s Mustang.” You can see that poem in Bill’s, Old Things R New, “Slice of LIfe archives,” Our Trip Across America Part 9.

I need to go now, I am still working on forgiveness, and I hope to send it off within the next hour or so, then back to Clear Spring for some more polishing—stage fright free.

DiVoran’s books can be found at Rebekah Lyn Books as well as on Amazon

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A Little TLC Can Go a Long Way

5 Aug

My Take

DiVoran Lites

For the past several days we’ve been hearing a bob-white conversation from the woods behind our house. We back onto the Diceranda Scrub Sanctuary where threatened and endangered species both from the plant family and from the animal world have Author, Poet and Artisttheir habitats. We have the Diceranda (thincola) or Titusville mint (endemic, which means this is the only place in the world where it is known to exist.) It is endangered. It’s a small leaved plant with leaves that remind you a bit of rosemary with a tiny violet flower. It needs a bit of clearing alongside the trail to thrive.

We have Florida scrub jays. They are like blue-jays only plainer and more shy they are on the list of threatened species. We have gopher tortoises (threatened), great

lumbering creatures that look as if they crawled out of the swamp somewhere, but who, need xeric sandhills for their burrows. Many other animals survive because of them, the indigo snake is one that uses the burrows. Indigo snakes are threatened.

Did you ever wonder what all the hullabaloo was about when it comes to the different wildlife we talk about being endangered or threateneds? In a nutshell, what that means is that there are so comparatively few of each species that they will someday be extinct if something isn’t done to

This turtle likes bird seed.

Turtle eating under bird feeder

conserve them.

Conserving any kind of plant or animal necessitates conserving the places where they live, the food they eat, the water they drink (and swim in) as well as the nesting places where they rear their young.

So what? Animals come and animals go. Why should we worry about any of that? We have our nice homes and our lawns and picnics on beautiful summer days. We have our clean water, (we hope it is clean, anyhow).

The only trouble is that as the wildlife go, so goes the world. Prime example: have you heard about the honey-bees dying off in many countries including the U. S.? What good are honey bees anyhow? We don’t need honey, we’ve got tons of sugar. Yes, but did you ever think about what we have to have to make sugar or any other kind of food, including meat, milk, eggs, spinach, apples, and yes, sugar cane. The plants must be pollinated so they will grow, flower, turn into fruits and grains. Albert Einstein once said, “If honey bees become extinct, human society will follow in four years.” I’m curious how we could last that long, but never mind. The bottom line is: no pollinators, no food.

The birds, bees and insects, all depend on each other and on plants for basic life. Throw any system off-balance and you’re asking for trouble. So what can I do? What can you do? We can start with small things, small things can make a big difference. Look at books and websites on how to create habitat in your yard. What do your birds and butterflies need? What will bring bees to feast at your place. How can you live where there are endangered and threatened species and be a part of defending them. You’d be surprised what a little bit of TLC by a lot of people can do.

We’re hoping the bobwhite will start coming to our yard again. Once a momma and daddy slipped through our chain link fence and twelve babies jumped through too and followed them all over learning what to eat and what not to. How did we ever get so blessed as to have seen a sight like that in the wild? God loves all his creatures, so obviously He’d be happy to see us find some more ways to take care of each other and the wonderful world He has given us.

DiVoran’s books are filled with her love of nature. You can learn more about her and her books at Rebekah Lyn Books

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Susie’s Daddy

29 Jul

My Take

DiVoran LItes

Author, Poet and Artist

Earl plays the guitar for our praise team. He’s one of those who can play many instruments and play them without notes on paper.

Earl is a big man, younger than my son, older than my grandson.  I hold his hand in our prayer circle after practice. His hand is gentle, patient, and strong.

His little girl, Susie, is in my Sunday School class. She’s about to be seven as she puts it.

One day she brought a plush horse to Sunday School and I noticed he had construction paper wings. They were designed and cut and adhered to the horse with tape that stayed on through all Susie’s loving. “Who made your horse’s wings?” I said.

“My daddy,” she said. Later I learned that almost all her critters have wings daddy has made for them. One Sunday she told me about a small worry, and I suggested she tell her Mommy about it. AND my Daddy says Susie adamantly.

After practice on Father’s Day it came to me to compliment Earl on his fathering skills. Everyone likes to be encouraged in this way.

As we left the platform I said I had something I wanted to tell him. A look of fear came into his eyes and I realized that he had perhaps in the past been told a lot of things he didn’t want to hear, but he was brave, he didn’t bolt.

“Susie really loves you, I said. You are a good father.”

“She’s my baby,” he said, still wary.

I told him about the wings and how impressed I was with the way Susie loves him and trusts him.

“Just doing what comes naturally,” said Earl.

I told him I understood that, but that few daddy’s of my acquaintance gave their little daughters the kind of TLC he does.

“Oh, I didn’t know….” His face began to crumple.

In order to escape his embarrassment if he started to cry I started to move discretely away, but he kept pace with me. “Thank you for telling me that,” he said. “You can’t know what it means to me.”

I told him I did understand what he meant. Regular people so rarely see our own excellent qualities.

My grandmother Maire would approve of my telling him how I felt.. She always taught that if you saw something good about someone they deserved a compliment.

Pastor Peter Lord would approve too. His number one message these days is Eulogy:.tell people good things about themselves while they are alive. Don’t wait until you go to their funerals.

Most people need encouragement for the good things they are and do. To coin a phrase a quart of praise is worth more than a gallon of criticism. It’s one gift that makes both the giver and the receiver as happy as can be.

Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. I Thessalonians 5:11

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Damaged Goods

8 Jul

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Author, Poet and Artist

 

We’re all damaged, except maybe you. Congratulations.

As for the rest of us we have, like saplings all been bent

in different ways.

We’re not like anyone else,

No matter how hard we try to conform.

When we decide we’re never going to be invincible in ourselves

God can use us.

Do we have strengths that God can use?

Sorry, no. it is not our strength He wants.

He has plenty of his own.

What He wants from us are those weaknesses

He allows to be textured into our character.

When we are weak. He is strong.

So in muddling through, we find joy and sometimes sorrow.

Trust Him. His strength is there for us and in us. It is enough.

It is everything. He can do wonderful, miraculous, surprising things with it.

 

Bear

 

 

 

 

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Hope For Our Country

4 Jul

My Take
DiVoran Lites

Happy Independence Day. Will you be having a cookout, going to a parade, going to the beach, setting off firecrackers, or sitting in the shade drinking lemonade? Author, Poet and ArtistMaybe all of the above?
I love our beautiful world and this country called America, which God has made. Some people may malign us, but at the same time others are doing everything in their power to come here for a new start. No red-blooded American is going to argue that we still have the greatest country in the world. Is it possible God had a hand in that?

I have to admit I am shocked when I hear some of the things politicians in this great country have done. Think of when they killed off the bison so the Indians would die out and when they deliberately infected Native Americans with smallpox so they could take their land.

It appalls me to learn more every day about how bad slavery was. Yet I personally met an African man who explained the scars carved in his cheeks by saying they were proof that he belonged to a tribe that had once captured other villages and sold them to become slaves. He and his wife were in America getting an education. If we focus on badness we will see it everywhere, not just here.
The Dust Bowl was a result of our leaders manipulating the mid-American grasslands until they were exhausted and turned to dust.

The Great Depression was influenced by the Dust Bowl and both came from foolish decisions by the money-mongers in the country, not by ordinary families.
I hear people talking as if they believe the present time is the worst in our history, but what I always wonder is whether those who experienced the disasters I’ve mentioned knew their own time was the worst in American history. It was and they did, but we want to remember this one thing. Our country is a survivor due to those little people that some leaders and officials think don’t count.

Who are we to believe, then? The gov? Or God?

My take is that we are making a mistake if we think politicians good or bad are in control. They are not. Guess who really is. Right, God. God has His plans and He will see that they are fulfilled, every single one of them whether we vote for Him or not. He does however appreciate our cooperation as he does His work through us.
While the events I’ve mentioned were deeply hurtful and themselves left terrible wounds, they have all passed. In 1956 President Dwight Eisenhower signed legislation making the phrase, “In God We Trust,” the official motto of the United States and required it to be included on all U. S. currency. Do we believe it or don’t we? Taking it off the money will cost a lot, but won’t change the answer.

Voting is good. Voting is essential. Peaceful demonstrations are still legal as far as I know. We still have freedom of speech even though we are afraid we’re going to lose it. Signing petitions helps our elected officials know what we little people want. Telling the truth helps and so does morality. Trust and faith in God make us stronger, wiser, and happier. Let’s hear a cheer for the grassroots givers, teachers, helpers, mothers and fathers and the people who lift up holy hands in all kinds of service to their country. It is not we who are in charge, this is not our country, it is God’s country and He still has a plan for America.
“…the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air
Gave proof through the night that the flag was still there.

For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

LUKE 14 : 11

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Little Things Mean a Lot

10 Jun

My Take

 DiVoran Lites

Author, Poet and Artist

One of our adult Sunday School teachers happened to mention the other day he was sitting in the open door of his garage looking out and talking to God when a neighbor going by on her bike stopped to ask if he would fill her water bottle. He gave her a new one. He has done that before.

Every Sunday I see a man all dressed up in his black suit with his Bible in his hand waiting for a ride to church. He stands as straight as a soldier and I admire his faithfulness and that of the person who picks him up, sometimes after we have gone by. They don’t go to our church.

Funny what happens when you do only one little thing over and over. Your good deeds add up.

A woman in my class is a red-hat lady and she loves thrift store sales. You wouldn’t believe the bags of children’s clothes she finds in perfect condition for little or nothing. She brings them to church for families who can’t afford a lot of clothes for growing children.

Our other Sunday School teacher works at the hospital as a volunteer to take people to their cars in wheel-chairs. He’s a father himself and he gets a big kick out of being around teenagers who volunteer for the same job. What a precious counselor I’m sure he is.

I know someone who goes to the home of her aged mother-in-law where other members of the family care diligently for her and bathes her twice a week. She makes it special with soaps, and powders and takes supper for both of them that evening.

We hear so much about movers and shakers, about heroes, and heads of charities, but we don’t hear that much about the little people doing the little deeds many times a year. I’d like to celebrate them, wouldn’t you?

The song, “Little Things Mean a Lot,” is a love song, and why not. We show love with our small, faithful, routine deeds. Maybe we’ll discover that they pile up and if we could see the accumulation of them or the way they have changed people’s lives, we’ll be surprised. Won’t that be encouraging?

dog

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Timepieces

27 May

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Author, Poet and Artist

I received my first watch when my maternal grandmother went home. I was seven years old. The watch was beautiful and fragile, and of course it had to be wound. I was as careful as could be, and I had it for what seemed like a long time. I wore it on my left wrist so I could tell my left hand from my right. I thought about Grandmother Mabel every day.

But all that doesn’t explain the reason for my becoming practically obsessed about knowing what time it was. I have a clock or two in every room of the house including the bathroom and on the porch, I have four timers (one on my IPod) and five watches that work. Even I know that is excessive.

I read a book once about a boy in a mental institution who was obsessed with timepieces, but I don’t think I’m as bad as him. No, I more or less just love knowing what time it is and I love the wide variety of time pieces available. If it helps to know…I didn’t plan all this it just snuck up on me.

You’ve head the saying, “The unexamined life is not worth living?”

Well, to me the unscheduled life is full of pitfalls such as: T. V., computer dabbling, novels, eating chocolates, and others signs of enjoyable depravity. I get depressed if I give in to overindulge or get to feeling lonely because I’m not doing something that takes a bit of effort and thought. But that’s just me. You do what you like, it’s your life.

When Bill retired he stopped wearing a watch. He almost gave up looking at clocks, so we sometimes ran a bit late, which of course freaked me. Now I’m adjusting and I can even make myself late if I get absorbed in one of my projects. Maybe I need more timepieces or…maybe I shouldn’t care so much what other people think. I really like my timepieces and they all work. Three need the bands fixed or replaced, but I’ve figured out how to make that happen, at least for one of them.

All my clocks and watches are inexpensive except for the one in the picture. I wouldn’t want a fancy gold or platinum one with real diamonds because I’d have to wear it night and day in order to justify its existence. Variety is, after all the spice of life.

 

clock

 

“Hour by hour I place my days in your hand.”

Psalm 31:15

 

 

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Our Trip to Italy~Part 12

22 May

A slice of Life

Bill Lites

Bill

After a full day of viewing some of the most famous art treasures in the world, we made our way back to the convent for some much-needed rest. Then it was out again for a wonderful Salmon dinner at the La Vittoria Ristorante. The food was great, but our waiter was a sourpuss, and that wasn’t the kind of an end to our most interesting day in Rome we were looking for.1After a good night’s sleep, we were up and packed at 6:00 am for breakfast with the nuns. Then it was another “wild” taxi ride to the Roma Termini Railway Station for our 30-minute train ride to Rome’s Ciampino–G.B. Pastine International Airport.

3b

Johnny Depp

3a

DiVoran Lites with Marco Grimaldi

It was during our tram ride to the airplane that we met Marco Grimaldi, an Italian opera singer with the National Opera of Italy, and his 20-person entourage, who happened to be traveling on the same plane with us to Orlando. I told him that DiVoran thought he looked like the movie star, Johnny Depp, and that she had never had her picture taken with a celebrity, and wondered if he would mind if I took a picture of them together. He was, of course, pleased with the request and that’s when DiVoran struck up a conversation with him, and found out that he and his group were on their way to Tallahassee to start a concert tour in the U.S..

When we got on the plane, I mentioned to the flight attendants that Marco was an opera singer, and that if they asked him very nicely, he might be coaxed into singing for us during the flight. Well, they did, and after they had served our meal, Marco sang “Volare” to all of us over the plane’s PA system. He got a “standing ovation” from the passengers and crew. We were glad we had told the flight attendants about Marco and suggesting they ask him to sing, as it put the finishing touch on our overall trip, and made up for all the cold weather we had endured. That was one of the most unique experiences we had on the whole trip.4

The flight west, to the U.S. took a couple hours longer than it did going east to Italy. We finally made it, and after a short layover in New York, where Marco entertained the flight crew again, it was on to Orlando and finally to our own quiet little Titusville home. It was hard to believe how warm it was in Florida, after the cold in Italy. But, we just cranked up the A/C and boy, it was soooo good to get home and sleep in our own beds after all those different Italian beds. It was the end of a wonderfully exciting vacation trip, which we will remember for the rest of our lives.

5

Nice to be home!

—–The End—-

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Cloudland

20 May

My Take

DiVoran Lites

Author, Poet and Artist

 

I was telling about Mother playing with us and training our imaginations by showing us how to find dogs, cats, and worlds of imaginary creatures in the clouds.

There’s a lot to be said about clouds, though, and I’m saying more. It occurred to me that electronic devices use Cloud technology and God uses it too, in a manner of speaking.

Have you ever been concerned that you didn’t pray hard enough or long enough about a situation or that you had to constantly remind God of a need or your prayers wouldn’t get answered? Well, my printer set me straight on that one. I realized that all I had to do was hit, click, or press print and the item I wanted would store itself in the printer and, all things being equal, not go away until it was printed. I began to know that God was like that too. He doesn’t forget. In fact, the Bible says He, or Jesus, or The Holy Spirit, or all three pray diligently for us all the time. Yes.

When I was looking at the clouds I took it a step further. I have a computer, an IPod, and a Kindle. I no longer have to worry about having enough Gigas or whatever it was that happened when I first got a computer. All my devices have lots of room and if they run out of room, it can all go to the cloud and be there if I ever need it again. I guess God has enough memory too. And the thought went even further to trying to remember what I need to do, and ideas I have about things I’d like to do or write or whatever, it gets to be a lot, but hey, maybe all that is in God’s cloud too.

I have one technical question. If God can handle all that “stuff” and God lives in me, does that mean that there’s a place in me that keeps it all and that if I need it, He can make it available to me? Hmmm. Experiment time.

Psalm 34:8 Taste and see that the Lord is good.

 

Cloud

 

 

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