Sunday, April 4, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Not much going on today; the wind is howling outside, and Queenie, my little dog is having trouble with her arthritis so I've been helping her get around. I have arthritis myself, so I can relate. These changes in weather are no fun at all. I hope everyone out there is doing well and having a good time.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
The year is turning toward spring with all the hope and promise that comes with it. I have not been overly involved with the garden over the years, but this winter I started reading about urban homesteading. It is intrigueing to me that a little bit of the farm can be brought to the city. Arco is far from being a city, but there are little farms springing up even in big cities like Santa Barbara and other big cities across the country. How cool is that? So now I'm looking at the little garden plot that mom has been struggling with ever since we moved here (with only sporadic help from me), and suddenly, it holds a lot of interest for me. And hope. The hope of connecting in a real way to my farming roots. Hope of doing something meaningful and wholesome with at least part of my life.
So this morning I started cleaning up the raspberries in back of the house, got about half of them done. This is the first year I've really looked at the garden. It's a real mess: last falls long grass and weeds, old flower stocks and plants that were not cut down and raked up last fall; the starts of this years weeds. The yard is also a mucky field of a place right now, with the winter refuse of the birds and dogs and leaves that didn't get raked up. Lots to do, but this year I am looking forward to the work. If I can get the garden cleaned up and planted, and if God is willing, there will be green beans to can and raspberries to sell, and cherries to make surrup out of to sell. It will be farming again--really farming, not just thinking and dreaming about it.
So this morning I started cleaning up the raspberries in back of the house, got about half of them done. This is the first year I've really looked at the garden. It's a real mess: last falls long grass and weeds, old flower stocks and plants that were not cut down and raked up last fall; the starts of this years weeds. The yard is also a mucky field of a place right now, with the winter refuse of the birds and dogs and leaves that didn't get raked up. Lots to do, but this year I am looking forward to the work. If I can get the garden cleaned up and planted, and if God is willing, there will be green beans to can and raspberries to sell, and cherries to make surrup out of to sell. It will be farming again--really farming, not just thinking and dreaming about it.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
What makes you happy? List five things that truly make you happy. This is the assignment I was given by my counselor the last time I met with her. At the time I thought it would be an easy thing to do, but it hasn't turned out that way. All of us (or at least most of us) have things in our lives that we like: we like them to happen to us, or we like to do them, or we like it that they happen, but what is at the core of our happiness?
I haven't finished my assignment yet because, as a dissociative psychotic, I don't feel much of anything most of the time, and the things I do feel emotions about aren't necessarily real, and don't necessarily make sense, at least not to most people, and this assignment--write down five things that make you happy--made me stop and think: what makes me happy? Not the superficial "happiness" of the simple things we like to do, but the core of my happiness; that special something that makes all right with the world, and makes me look forward to each day and what that day might hold. Do I even have a core happiness? Does anyone else? What do you think?
I haven't finished my assignment yet because, as a dissociative psychotic, I don't feel much of anything most of the time, and the things I do feel emotions about aren't necessarily real, and don't necessarily make sense, at least not to most people, and this assignment--write down five things that make you happy--made me stop and think: what makes me happy? Not the superficial "happiness" of the simple things we like to do, but the core of my happiness; that special something that makes all right with the world, and makes me look forward to each day and what that day might hold. Do I even have a core happiness? Does anyone else? What do you think?
Friday, March 19, 2010
The Difference Part II
The post, The Difference did not publish properly. I apologize for any inconvenience this might cause to anyone who might eventually read this blog. Following is The Difference again.
On Wednesday night at bible study we watched a DVD about the tomb of Christ and how it was empty when the women came to anoint Him. It occurred to me that this was the most important defference between Christianity and all other religions. Christianity is built on the love of Jesus Christ and the work He did on the cross, and on His resurrection. Jesus Christ lived the law perfectly. He is the only one ever to do so; He never sinned. Not once. When He died on the cross, He took onto Himself the sins of those who are saved: His people. He had been in the tomb for three days when the women came to anoint His body, but He was gone. He came back to life and left the tomb, appearing to others for some time after the fact before ascending into heaven.
No other human being has ever raised himself from the dead. There have been people who were raised from the dead by other people, but never before or since has anyone raised himself. Jesus Christ did, and He did it according to HIS OWN MERIT. He is alive today, living in heaven and reining with God the Father, and is God Himself as part of the trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost). All other religions follow people or spirits or whatever, but in all cases there is a grave, or a place where you can find the one being followed. No grave of Christ will ever be found, because Christ did not stay dead.
When Jesus Christ rose from the dead He defeated death and it's hold over those who are saved. They must pass through death, but it is only a transition phase--they will live again. They will have all eternity to be with God and enjoy Him and His creation; to serve Him and worship Him. Those who are not saved must also pass through death, but the life that awaits them on the other side will be horrible. I would also like to point out that God, the god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the only true and living God. It doesn't matter whether or not people believe in Him, He goes on existing just the same. He will always save aside His remnant--His faithful.
On Wednesday night at bible study we watched a DVD about the tomb of Christ and how it was empty when the women came to anoint Him. It occurred to me that this was the most important defference between Christianity and all other religions. Christianity is built on the love of Jesus Christ and the work He did on the cross, and on His resurrection. Jesus Christ lived the law perfectly. He is the only one ever to do so; He never sinned. Not once. When He died on the cross, He took onto Himself the sins of those who are saved: His people. He had been in the tomb for three days when the women came to anoint His body, but He was gone. He came back to life and left the tomb, appearing to others for some time after the fact before ascending into heaven.
No other human being has ever raised himself from the dead. There have been people who were raised from the dead by other people, but never before or since has anyone raised himself. Jesus Christ did, and He did it according to HIS OWN MERIT. He is alive today, living in heaven and reining with God the Father, and is God Himself as part of the trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost). All other religions follow people or spirits or whatever, but in all cases there is a grave, or a place where you can find the one being followed. No grave of Christ will ever be found, because Christ did not stay dead.
When Jesus Christ rose from the dead He defeated death and it's hold over those who are saved. They must pass through death, but it is only a transition phase--they will live again. They will have all eternity to be with God and enjoy Him and His creation; to serve Him and worship Him. Those who are not saved must also pass through death, but the life that awaits them on the other side will be horrible. I would also like to point out that God, the god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the only true and living God. It doesn't matter whether or not people believe in Him, He goes on existing just the same. He will always save aside His remnant--His faithful.
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