September 11, 2011

As we look forward to our week of remembering 9/11, I offer the following hymn of peace for your consideration today.

“…and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war anymore;
but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree,
and no one shall make them afraid,
for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.” (Micah 4:3-4, ESV)

I can’t believe its coming on 10 years since that day. I think the real message in September 11 is that there is a lot of pain and anger in the world. This world really needs hope and love. This morning I finished reading Philip Yancey’s “Where is God When It Hurts?” and he had something in there that startled me. In India only 3% of the country is Christian, yet Christians in India are responsible for 18% of the health care. In India when you ask someone what they think of when they think of a Christian, they think of love, compassion and graceful health care to the poor. Wouldn’t it be great if it were like that in the United States?

God of peace, bring your peace to our violent world: peace in the hearts of all men and women and peace among the nations of the earth. Turn to your way of love those whose hearts and minds are consumed with hatred. Amen.

Makin' Plans

This quote confirms what I’ve been thing nowadays. I’m now in Spring Break and halfway to my graphic arts degree. It is true … Aim high … It gets exciting!

Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men’s blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will not die, but long after we are gone be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistence.

– Daniel Hudson Burnham

A Blessing for the New Year

We, as a family, rang in the New year at the Klamath Tribes Pow Wow in Klamath Falls, Oregon. It was a great time kicking off the New year with Friends!

Allow me to share this blessing with you all ....

A Blessing for the New Year

May the light of your soul guide you.
May the light of your soul bless the work you do with the secret love and warmth of your heart.
May you see in what you do the beauty of your own soul.
May the sacredness of your work bring healing, light and renewal to those who work with you and to those who see and receive your work.
May your work never weary you.
May it release within you wellsprings of refresment, inspiration and excitment.
May you be present in what you do.
May you never become lost in the bland absences.
May the day never burden.
May dawn find you awake and alert, approaching your new day with dreams, possibilities and promises.
May evening find you gracious and fulfilled.
May you go into the night blessed, sheltered and protected.
May your soul calm, console and renew you.

- John O’Donohue

This poem is an excerpt from the book “Anam Cara”

http://www.johnodonohue.com/

A Plethora of Quotes on Love

What is love to you?

I found this on another blog ... Love: a temporary insanity, curable by marriage.

Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings.


Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction.

Love is a choice you make from moment to moment.

Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking.
It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails.


Love, like truth and beauty, is concrete. Love is not fundamentally a sweet feeling; not, at heart, a matter of sentiment, attachment, or being "drawn toward." Love is active, effective, a matter of making reciprocal and mutually beneficial relation with one's friends and enemies. Love creates righteousness, or justice, here on earth. To make love is to make justice. As advocates and activists for justice know, loving involves struggle, resistance, risk. People working today on behalf of women, blacks, lesbians and gay men, the aging, the poor in this country and elsewhere know that making justice is not a warm, fuzzy experience. I think also that sexual lovers and good friends know that the most compelling relationships demand hard work, patience, and a willingness to endure tensions and anxiety in creating mutually empowering bonds.

For this reason loving involves commitment. We are not automatic lovers of self, others, world, or God. Love does not just happen. We are not love machines, puppets on the strings of a deity called "love." Love is a choice -not simply, or necessarily, a rational choice, but rather a willingness to be present to others without pretense or guile. Love is a conversion to humanity - a willingness to participate with others in the healing of a broken world and broken lives. Love is the choice to experience life as a member of the human family, a partner in the dance of life, rather than as an alien in the world or as a deity above the world, aloof and apart from human flesh.


Love is anterior to Life
Posterior to Death
Initial of Creation, and
The Exponent of Earth


Love doesn't make the world go 'round; love is what makes the ride worthwhile.

Love is only half the illusion; the lover, but not his love, is deceived.

Love does not die easily. It is a living thing. It thrives in the face of all of life's hazards, save one -- neglect.

Love is the strange bewilderment which overtakes one person on account of another person.

Love is a promise, love is a souvenir, once given never forgotten, never let it disappear.


Love is like pi - natural, irrational, and very important. (Something I'm trying to remember in math class!)

In reality, in love there is a permanent suffering which joy neutralizes, renders virtual, delays, but which can at any moment become what it would have become long earlier if one had not obtained what one wanted, atrocious.

Love seems the swiftest, but it is the slowest of all growths. No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century.

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.


Love vanquishes time. To lovers, a moment can be eternity, eternity can be the tick of a clock.


Love is the only bow on life's dark cloud.
It is the Morning and the Evening Star.
It shines upon the cradle of the babe,
and sheds its radiance upon the quiet tomb.
It is the mother of Art,
inspirer of poet, patriot, and philosopher.
It is the air and light of every heart, builder of every home,
kindler of every fire on every hearth.
It was the first to dream of immortality.
It fills the world with melody,
for Music is the voice of Love.
Love is the magician, the enchanter,
that changes worthless things to joy,
and makes right royal kings and queens of common clay.
It is the perfume of the wondrous flower -- the heart
and without that sacred passion, that divine swoon,
we are less than beasts;
but with it, earth is heaven
and we are gods.


Love is a condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.

Love does not alter the beloved, it alters itself.


Love is blind, but friendship closes its eyes.

Love doesn't just sit there like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new.

Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart.

Love, I find, is like singing. Everybody can do enough to satisfy themselves, though it may not impress the neighbors as being very much.

~Author Unknown pontificating ...

Better To Light Candles

Better To Light Candles

Merle Shain

It is better to light candles
than to curse the darkness.
It is better to plant seeds
than to accuse the earth.
The world needs all of our power
and love and energy,
and each of us has something that we can give.
The trick is to find it and use it,
to find it and give it away.
So there will always be more.
We can be lights for each other,
and through each other's illumination
we will see the way.
Each of us is a seed,
a silent promise,
and it is always spring.

Have a most blessed evening everyone!~ Tim

Antoine's Rockpile

An interesting quote I would like to share with you all ....

"A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral."

~~Antoine de Saint-Exupery

when you don’t see the whole staircase ...

Faith is taking the first step, even when you don’t see the whole staircase.

Martin L. King

Avshalom & Rebecca/The Last Kiss Was Missing

A true story ... A tearjerker even ... In 1915, Sarah Aaronsohn fell for the handsome & dashing Avshalom Feinberg. But she was heartbroken when fell in love with Sarah's, Aaron's and Alex's younger sister (who is not mentioned in the Wikipedia excerpt) Rebecca. He and Rebecca courted and, just before Avshalom set off on his fatal mission to Egypt, agreed to marry after the war. He said that he would come back to her; she said that she would wait for him. Avshalom, of course, never returned.

Rebecca was inconsolable. She never married ... The only knowledge regarding Avshalom Feinberg's fate was the testimony of Lishansky, a team member. He said that he & Feinberg were caught in the crossfire when their Bedouin guides became involved in a gunfight with local Bedouin (from another tribe) near Rafiah. He said that Feinberg was shot and killed.

Fast forward about 50 years. In 1967, after the Six Day War, the Israel Defense Forces established a military government in Sinai. IDF military government officers in the Rafiah area learned that a certain date palm in the area was referred to by the locals as kubr yehudi, "Jewish grave." They went to investigate and, lo and behold, discovered Avshalom Feinberg's remains (which were subsequently positively identified). The date palm had (in the 50 years since his death) sprouted from dates that Feinberg was carrying in his pockets when he was killed. The tree's roots were entwined around his bones. Feinberg's remains were re interred with full military honors at the IDF cemetery on Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem. An elderly and frail Rebecca Aaronsohn was present and was given the flag that draped Feinberg's coffin. She passed away a few years later.

This is such an incredible story which gives even me watery eyes! He said that he would come back to her and he did; she said that she would wait for him and she did. I cannot help but think that now, at last, thanks to God in His great mercy, that Avshalom Feinberg and Rebecca Aaronsohn are together and that he is giving her the thousand kisses that he wrote about so beautifully.

Elef Neshikot, A Thousand Kisses

First kiss on your white forehead

like a bond in the middle of your figure

and from it come out in glowing abundance

of kisses to your hair

like a crown of pearls made of kisses

I will rain down on the ebony of your curls

that you'll be my beautiful girl

the perfect princess of all the girls in the city.

A thousand kisses to you my love

a thousand a kiss and a kiss

a thousand kisses to you my dear one

so small, so sweet and beautiful.

And also to your ivory white innocent neck

flexible like the neck of a swan

I will cover in chains of kisses

girl of (pure) water, my little one

and right now I'll just put my head on your shoulder

in order to find in it your heartbeat

and kisses for no reason too without lust or limit l

ike flowers thrown by a bride.

A thousand kisses to you my love

a thousand a kiss and a kiss

a thousand kisses to you my dear one

so small, so sweet and beautiful.

The sky isn't in front of my sinful eyes

and I'm not indulging in you till I'm fully satisfied

The light isn't in front of my impure lips

and my chest is scorched until the end

thousandth kiss is not possible, love

the last kiss is missing

only 999

sweet thundering kisses

but still I'll kiss you a thousand kisses.

A thousand kisses to you my love

a thousand a kiss and a kiss

a thousand kisses to you my dear one

so small, so sweet and beautiful.

~Avshalom Feinberg's

Going For It!!!

Good afternoon!

"If you worry about the weather and don't plant seeds, you won't harvest a crop. No one can explain how a baby breathes before it is born. So how can anyone explain what God does? After all He created everything. Plant your seeds early in the morning and keep working in the field until dark. Who knows? Your work might pay off, and your seeds may produce."
-Ecclesiastes 11:4-6 CEV

Yes, I'm in Ecclesiastes again... These verses are all so rural but they have a lot to say which is backed up elsewhere in the Bible. The bottom line is you never get to harvest what you never have the nerve to plant! I think what Solomon is saying here is get off the recliner and out of the house, say "Hi" to the girl at the market, take that class, in short get out, take risks and do something! He reminds the person who is unwilling to take risks "How can anyone explain what God does?" We live in a world in which there is no sure thing other that the Lords plans will take place. Therefore, those of us waiting for that "sure thing" may be waiting a very long, long time. How can anything be harvested if its not planted? We better be sowing and reaping when we can and keep at it, trusting God for the results. In other words go for it!

The "Why God?" Kind of Thing ...

I’m in one of those melancholic moods, nothing to bad mind you. Just one of those “Why God?” kind of things I guess. God has given us visions of His kingdom-a world that works for everyone, where needs are met and gifts are called forth. Paul in Romans 8:22 tells us that “creation grows in labor awaiting” for Jesus’ arrival. So I wonder Lord, why must things be so hard sometimes? Why really must we wait? Why can’t you do what I can imagine the creator of the universe would do … go shazam! Just bring it on, let your kingdom come!

Things on earth seem most fragile since you made it. God would have figured out how mankind can progress without pollution. God would have figured out how to create an economic system that allows everyone to thrive, not just those favored by the marketplace or whatever. All people would live abundantly. Gods way isn’t about wealth I know, abundance and wealth are two different things…

I know that things I long for and “need” do not make up for the fact I’ll ‘kick the bucket’ someday. I know that “fate,” twists of fortune, whatever, in an instant, can and will rearrange my plans. Its happened before in both quiet and large ways. For the “better,” for the “worse.” Bottom line is that a person can count on very little for sure! It can make one nervous …

So one wonders … why doesn’t God swoop in here and tidy up the place. Don’t we all yearn for this? On our own we are so helpless to make a difference. We can try to live frugal, not pollute, get along, help out, encourage, make others smile … But if so many others don’t do these things what difference will my small gestures make? We obviously can’t save the world!

We can do all these things because God has given us a vision. Just because they are right to do. For the sake of those who follow. We can do these things because we believe Your kingdom will come someday. And its best to know that I helped, even if just a tiny bit …

But at times it isn’t easy …

Tim, just typing away…

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for

This is not really a poem... but it's beautiful like a poem and I wanted to share it with you all.

This Is The Hour

You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour.

Now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour.

And there are things to be considered:

Where are you living?

What are you doing?

What are your relationships?

Are you in right relation?

Where is your water?

Know your garden.

It is time to speak your Truth.

Create your community.

Be good to each other.

And do not look outside yourself for the leader.

This could be a good time!

There is a river flowing now very fast.

It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid.

They will try to hold onto the shore.

They will feel they are being torn apart and they will suffer greatly.

Know the river has its destination.

The elders say we must let go of the shore,

push off into the middle of the river,

keep our eyes open and our heads above the water.

See who is in there with you and celebrate.

At this time in history,

we are to take nothing personally.

Least of all, ourselves.

For the moment that we do,

our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.

The time of the lone wolf is over.

Gather yourselves!

Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary.

All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.

We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.
~The Hopi Nation Elders

Have a blessed weekend everyone!

Numbers 6:24-26 The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD turn his face/lift up his eyes and give you peace.

Tim

Tim ..... On the other side

Since coming home fron the hospital, barely surviving a major heart attack with complications, doing the near death thing .... I have been asked often in various forms, "What was it like?" Here is how the question was put in the Yahoo group "a_savedsinglesgetaway":

Tim, what was it like ? what were you thinking and feeling during the whole time ? Did you think you were going Home ? Any Visions ? Any Voices ? Was there a Light in a tunnel ?

Would you be interested in sharing ?

As you know we all were praying for you, Melissa and your family did you ever think at some time during the whole time going to the hospital or in the hospital that things may have turned out different ?

I'm not really ready to answer this question yet but this is the answer I gave to the group:

I'm afraid I'm going to be disappointing answering this. My experience through the whole thing is so much different than for my family those around me. Never once did I think about death or dying ... It just never entered my mind! I don't really know what happened the first days other than I dialed 911 to have the Chiloquin ambulance to the hospital. I remember only very little of the emergency room and nothing after that until I woke up in Medford a few days later. All I can really say is that whenever I went through big anxiety or whatever (I was real sick for a couple of weeks in Medford and had to have 3 more surgeries) the Lord always provided this peace, a feeling of warmth and assurance no matter how much "faith" I had at the time.

The effect on Melissa, Ben, Xalina and Shay, was totally different. They were told I had next to no chance of living more than a few hours. I can only begin to imagine what that was like! Xalina in fact was told that if she wanted to see her Dad alive she better get in the car right now and make the trip to Klamath. She lives 6 hours away (I guessed it was 5 hours this trip) in Lincoln City. It was only a couple of days later after the "life flight" to Medford and many hours of surgery that the story changed and I was going to make it after all. My eyes still tear up thinking about all this ...

One thing I would like to point out is that a whole lot of Christians were involved in this which shows to me Gods hand in all this. My main surgeon Dr. Yondell, the greatest heart Doctor on the Left Coast, is very up front about his faith as well as the other surgeons. Many Nurses as well.

One last thing ... Please keep us all in prayer. Melissa and I are still sorting things out, My son Ben has lost it more than a couple times but is coming around with me and other issues in his life. The toll of Ben and his stuff on our marriage has been high. Xalina still calls me everyday to see if I'm alright. I have to see her again someday soon so she can see with her eyes I'm getting better. Its going to take awhile for things to return to normal ... In fact it never will as this has been such a life changing thing for all of us. Thank God for each new day ... I know now how precious they are ... troubles, hurt or not ...

Have a blessed afternoon everyone!

Tim

A "Why God?" kind of thing ...

I'm in one of those melancholic moods, nothing to bad mind you. Just one of those "Why God?" kind of things I guess. God has given us visions of His kingdom-a world that works for everyone, where needs are met and gifts are called forth. Paul in Romans 8:22 tells us that "creation grows in labor awaiting" for Jesus' arrival. So I wonder Lord, why must things be so hard sometimes? Why really must we wait? Why can't you do what I can imagine the creator of the universe would do ... go shazam! Just bring it on, let your kingdom come!

Things on earth seem most fragile since you made it. God would have figured out how mankind can progress without pollution. God would have figured out how to create an economic system that allows everyone to thrive, not just those favored by the marketplace or whatever. All people would live abundantly. Gods way isn't about wealth I know, abundance and wealth are two different things...

I know that things I long for and "need" do not make up for the fact I'll 'kick the bucket' someday. I know that "fate," twists of fortune, whatever, in an instant, can and will rearrange my plans. Its happened before in both quiet and large ways. For the "better," for the "worse." Bottom line is that a person can count on very little for sure! It can make one nervous ...
So one wonders ... why doesn't God swoop in here and tidy up the place. Don't we all yearn for this? On our own we are so helpless to make a difference. We can try to live frugal, not pollute, get along, help out, encourage, make others smile ... But if so many others don't do these things what difference will my small gestures make? We obviously can't save the world!

We can do all these things because God has given us a vision. Just because they are right to do. For the sake of those who follow. We can do these things because we believe Your kingdom will come someday. And its best to know that I helped, even if just a tiny bit ...

But at times it isn't easy ...

Tim, just typing away...

A Perfect Day

I hope you woke up this morning with a big smile on your face.

I hope the sun is shining just for you

And the birds are singing their very best songs ...

I hope your coffee is hot and tastes just right

and the cats are purring contentedly,

And the mailman waves a cheery hello and there are no bills in the post ...

I hope that your day is filled with lovely surprises

And friends call you up just to say "Hi" ...

I hope you feel on top of the world with a spring in your step all day ...

I hope just everything goes your way ...

I hope everything is well with your world,

A place for everything and everything in it's place ...

I hope you can enjoy all you do and you are complimented on the way you look

And you can laugh and talk and share to your heart's content ...

I hope you have all you wish for yourself and those dear to you,

And all your dreams come true ...

and at the end of the day I wish you a perfect moon shining just for you,

a snug and coy bed with the softest of pillows

And I hope you sleep like a lamb with a smile on your face ...

I hope you have a perfect end to the perfect day

and I hope that every day is just as wonderful in it's own way...

Author Unknown, at it again ...

The Brothers Karamazov/Father Zossima on Love

In The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Father Zossima’s humanity and his simple faith in the healing power of love were stressed. Now, another dimension is added. In these chapters we see that he can easily maintain an intellectual argument. Here is his response to a woman who tells him that she is afraid to die .... What do you think?

Go and Fear no More

"Don't be afraid of anything, ever. And do not grieve. AS long as your repentance does not weaken, God will forgive everything. There is not--there cannot be-- a sin on earth that God will not forgive the truly repentant. Why, a man cannot commit a sin so great as to exhaust the infinite love of God. How could there be a sin that would surpass the love of God? Think only of repentance, all the time, and drive away all fear. Have faith that God loves you more then you can ever imagine. He loves you, sinful as you are and, indeed, because of your sin. It was said long ago that there is more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner than over ten righteous men. Go now, and fear nothing. Do not be offended if people treat you badly. Do not hold it against them. And forgive your departed husband all the harm he did you. Become truly reconciled with him. For if you repent, you love, and if you love, you are with God. Love redeems and saves everything. If I, a sinner like yourself, am moved and feel compassion for you, how infinitely much more will God! Love is such an infinite treasure it can buy the whole world and can redeem not only your sins, but the sins of all people. So go and fear no more."

This Balkanized World

But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

-- from the Book of Jeremiah

How odd that my attention, for some reason, was drawn to this line in the Old Testament lesson.I wonder what would happen, in this Balkanized world, if those of us who for whatever reason feel ourselves in exile, attempted to cultivate this attitude instead.

A couple of Tolkiens and a Manning

A Blessing...

May all your expectations be frustrated;

May all your plans be thwarted;

May all your desires be withered to nothingness...

That you may experience the powerlessness and poverty

of a child and sing and dance in the compassion of God

Who is Father, Son and Spirit. Amen

-Brennan Manning

"This quest may be attempted by the weak with as much hope as the strong. And neither strength nor wisdom will carry us far upon it. Yet such is oft the course of deeds that move the wheels of the world; small hands do them because they must, while the eyes of the great are elsewhere."

-J. R. R. Tolkien

"I will not give you counsel, saying do this or do that. For not in doing, or in contriving, nor in choosing between this course or another, can I avail, but only in knowing what was, or is, and in part also what shall be."

-J. R. R. Tolkien