ten minutes

I am giving myself ten minutes for this post.

This is a photo I took of my Mom at my cousin's wedding on May 30th. I really like it. I think Mom looks looks so relaxed, open and beautiful. I was hired to photograph the wedding for my cousin and her darling fiance (now husband). I took over twelve-hundred photos in ten hours and I am now working through them.

We are extremely busy. There is of course the end of the school year stuff. This week Friday we leave for ten days in Florida where we will visit some dear friends and spend a lot of time at that material black hole known as Walt Disney World.

When we get back I will resume working on wedding photos and spend the week photographing the activities for VBS. I will make a slide presentation for their closing ceremonies that Friday and leave afterwords to teach another photo seminar at the library where my sister works and take photos of her darling son Kyler - who thanks to the prayers of all the faithful is improving by leaps and bounds. I will share more after the photo session!!

I will be glad when July comes and my life slows down and I can finish working up the wedding photos, and work up the photos from DW, and the photos of Kyler.

I miss you all but I feel my time is better spent focused on my family and on what needs to be done in my life. My down time is spent reading. I can happily recommend The Confessions of St Augustine which I am reading right now. I enjoyed the Still Growing: An Autobiography by Kirk Cameron. It was fun - I am from that generation after all.

I am rereading Silence by Shusako Endo - and I find that it is still as powerful as it was the first three times I read it. I was also sent a new book for review called The Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji (yes I still write for Suite101) and while had some raw language and juvenile humor (the protagonist is a teen) in places I found it to be an excellent and enjoyable book.

rambling

I just finished Laura Ingalls Wilder: Farm Journalist. Some of it was fascinating and some of it was boring. It shed a lot of light on the character of the woman. These quotes are particularly insightful and very relevant today.

"Tho we do not have the advantages of travel, we stay-at-homes may acquire a culture of the heart which is almost impossible in the rush and roar of cities."(November 20, 1919)

"Why should we need extra time in which to enjoy ourselves? If we expect to enjoy our life we will have to learn to be joyful in all of it, not just at stated intervals, when we can get time or when we have nothing else to do." (January 5, 1920)

"To simplify our lives as much as possible, to overcome that feeling of haste by remembering that there are just as many hours in the day as ever, and that there is time enough for the things that matter if it is rightly used.

Then, having done the most we may here, when we reach the limit of time we will sail over the horizon rim to new beauties and greater understanding." (January 1, 1924).



Last weekend, one of Light's school friends had her birthday at Eveland Farms (the place we go for pumpkins every year). It was a pleasant day and me and the girls (siblings were welcome) had a nice time.




My apologies to my dear friends here in blogland. I am trying to focus on the essentials and as much as I love the world out here on the computer. Reality is more important.



It was very springish when we visited the farm. Everything that was male from pigs to donkeys and from horses to turkeys and even the peacock shared their glorious (or not so glorious) masculinity with the world.

The Liberty of Obedience - Elisabeth Elliot

The Scripture means two things by the expression, "the world." First, and most simply, it means all that is temporal. Second, and by implication it means all those who are occupied solely with the temporal. The first category comprises things; the second, people.

...

All inanimate objects are worldly. They will pass away.

...

Things are not incompatible with Christ. They are all 'worldly,' in the simplest sense - they are for this world. They are not sinful for this reasons. Only human beings my be sinful, or 'worldly' in the most precise interpretation of that world.

It is not what goes into the man that defiles him. It is what comes out. It is our use of things that determine their effect on us. It is our response to events, not the events themselves, that shapes us.

...

We have said that all things are worldly, that the Scripture does not therefore call them sinful. We refer to inanimate objects. We do have some lists, however, in Colossians and James of worldly things that are condemned. Let us be very careful to note that these are not material things - they are characteristics of people, that is, they are specific sins. We are to put to death these worldly (or 'earthly') things, since we have been raised from the dead with Christ Himself, and we no longer have any business with immorality, impurity, evil desire, covetousness, anger, malice, slander, foul talk, lying....These spring from a desire for 'things' that the world can provide, such as acclaim and status. God's wisdom, on the other hand,is characterized by purity, peace, gentleness, approachability, tolerance, kindly actions, impartiality, sincerity.

so much for superman

" When money is plenty, it is a man's world. When money is scarce it is a woman's world. When all else seems to have failed, the woman's instinct comes in. She gets the job. That is a reason why, in spite of all that happens, we continue to have a world." Ladies Home Journal 1932

Of course, we know it is in God's hands and neither man nor woman's. But it is still nice to know where women often fit.

National Prayer Day

Dear Friends and Family,

On May 7, Christians have the privilege of participating in the National Day of Prayer. If you do not pray for our country daily, now is an opportunity to join with others in prayer. If you wish to find a prayer day event, the National Day of Prayer Task Force has a map that helps individuals locate the nearest event location.

In addition to participating in the National Day of Prayer, consider joining in a special prayer and petition campaign. President Obama's administration has set-up a special website on which they invite Americans to contact them with questions, comments, concerns, or well wishes for the President or his staff. The National Day of Prayer would be an appropriate day for Christians to unite and tell the President that we pray for him and to send him our petitions.

Consider sending the President Obama a prayer expressing your Christian support of him as our elected leader. Or send him a letter expressing your concerns about the well being of our country and what you as a citizen of the United States want from your elected officials.

If Christians unite in prayer, God will respond.

Please send this email to everyone you know who might be interested in letting our government know that Christians care about the decisions our elected officials make and that we pray for our leaders.