When you are
Now back to our Woodbine-Sherrie Lane Adventure...we visited the creek where as kids we'd ride our bikes to and would walk in the creek to our picnic spot around the bend but this time we got there by driving down the path that starts where Coggins' house used to be in the culdesac court that we played in tar puddles once with our cousins and rode our bikes and big wheels and inch worms around and around...just before the top of the sledding hill that would take us all the way down onto the lake! and there was that curb along Sherrie Lane where my sister fell and broke her arm that I went back there to dissect the gum that fell out of her mouth to see if she was going to be ok while my parents had taken her to the hospital...and last but not least, actually first, we went to the office building where I used to look for agates for hours. We're going to go back there when we have more time. We looked across the highway at the spot where Dad (Grandpa Jerry) would take us in our station wagon and we'd swim at the Tanner's Lake drop off.
My parents were awoken at 4:30 a.m. yesterday morning by their neighbor Jim alerting them that cabins were burning just a few down from theirs. You can listen to Jim's story and about his missing cat, a wild one that was hopefully just hunkered down somewhere safe and will again have a spring litter of calico kittens in the neighbor lady's shed. Please keep these families and the arsons in your prayers. My dad called earlier and was telling me how he left their porch light on overnight last night and sprang from bed early this morning engulfed with a foreboding feeling and swearing he saw a flickering flame only to find it was likely just his imagination. My mom told of an elderly woman a couple cabins away from a burning cabin that was taken by ambulance as propane tanks around them exploded. Mom, Dad and Jim stood out on the frozen lake feeling the helplessness of the situation...nearly a foot of fresh snow had fallen making it difficult for fire fighters to get close and they recalled watching the recent devastation of the wildfires in California with a whole new understanding of what those people were feeling. Local news story here.
As I contemplate the purpose of this blog entry, two primary motivations rise to the top of the neocortex with plenty of "pure amygdala" promptings. First, it's a fun-loving attempt to rouse the slightest bit of affinity for the genre from one of the most unlikely of converts. Whoever could that be? It may very well serve only to install the aversion even deeper in her psyche. We shall see. Secondly, it is a personally embarrassing recollection of my first-ever favorite song by the country boy extraordinaire, God rest his soul, John Denver. One Sunday afternoon, my Dad peaked into my childhood bedroom and found me crouched on the other side of my twin bed wedged between it and the wall with this album cover in hand and pressed firmly against my lips. After the blood that had bolted up into my face faded to a lighter shade of pink, I explained how I was pretending he was that really cute boy at church that my heart was seriously crushing over, hoping that would elicit some compassion and understanding. I don't remember anything more other than feeling pretty foolish. I listen to the lyrics of this song now and am struck by how obscure and random they are and how much I didn't know what on earth he's really singing about. But something about it touched something in me that I still love even if I didn't really get it then. So, here is my contribution to the all time favorite country songs collection. If you have one you'd like added just include the song title and artist's name in your comment and I'll see what I can find on youtube and we'll get 'er done.
love this post! i am godmother to timmy, lauren and carlee...one of
each of my sister's and brothers' children, and i cherish them as if they were
my own. you have sparked me to write about these three special treasures meme
style on my blog and i'll tag you when i do as the inspiration! my youngest gem
is 11 now and we are meeting weekly for 'garnet mondays at ruby tuesdays' since
we share a january birthday and a lot of each other's personality traits too ;)
we get each other pretty well. love you linni. will take your thoughtful tips to
make these precious ones feel as special as they are.
Sitting on the dock of the 'Big Pine Lake' bay are my brother Steve alongside our first nephew Timmy. #18 is my sister Sue & Craig's firstborn son and my first godchild. His heart is as expansive as his shoulders are becoming in this memory picture from a few years back and like that first shocking big shoulder awareness that my little brother Steve was not a little boy anymore, Timmy has grown into a real man, loving husband to Stacey, and proud father to my first grand-nephew Jayden.
My beautiful niece Lauren [who looks remarkably like Cameron Diaz] just became a new mommy on February 28, 2008....just barely pushing before the leap year stroke of midnight! Lauren's voice and musical talents are mostly inherited from her angelic singing mother although my brother Tom can belt out a good tune [and with Ang they sing a mad toe-tappin' duet or a rousing "Skol, Vikings!"] so maybe it's just a perfect blend of feminine and masculine Imago Dei passed down to their daughter. LDubb, my precious first goddaughter...I love you dearly! 
Now, if you recall Joey, my special rock hunting companion, he is Lauren's brother...and just became an uncle for the first time. So one way or the other, this custom designed onesie is definitely going to be fitting for our new little nephew Trey. Only question is will he be shooting pucks or finding pretty rocks first?
If a picture is worth a thousand words, how valuable is a song that can transport you right back to a certain place in time? Some times we would rather forget. As I switched over from the usual cd selection the other day this was playing on the radio and swiiish! all those feelings came rushing back like a violent crashing wave tossed on the stormy sea to let me know that cynic is still alive and well down there somewhere and probably could use a little Jesus in that place...but for now she's just letting that part listen to the retelling of this extended chapter of the do bee di story.
But now, I’m remembering the joy each of my siblings and cousins experienced as every one of them were eventually blessed with a child, then another, and another… and I’m remembering the pain of those days, the unmet desire, the disappointment…month after month, hoping, praying… the old thought that I’d been forgotten, overlooked, why wouldn’t God bless me with this gift? Please! Tears flowed followed by sobbing at the deep pain I didn’t even know still existed.
Mine beloved! Today is a day of celebration that has been a long time coming and worth everything it's meant to get here. Nearly 3 years ago, sitting across from Uncle Bob lamenting through a last supper of sorts, Rob received a meta good butt kicking that in no uncertain terms propelled him leaps and bounds toward stepping into his calling. Oh yes it would require much of him; but so much more was on the line....his heart.
Ever since I was a little girl I’ve loved looking for agates. Back then a favorite place to search for those pretty rocks was at an office building with miles and miles (seemed like to me then) of river rock in a double perimeter around the building with an outer edge surrounding the parking lot. Thinking back now I realize those were times of really connecting with God and still are…like looking for that one precious stone and being so thankful to have my agate eyes to find such little treasures. My nephew Joey loved it when I took him to look for agates…it just slows you down and connects you at the heart. love it. Some I’ve found and polished for you to see here. With Joey when he was 4 or 5 he’d find some “pretty rock” and ask “is this an agate” and I’d say "no but it’s a very pretty rock you can keep it too!" and he did for a while; eventually when he got that response he’d toss it down like “no way” and then he got his agate eyes. 
I have one rock, slate like, nothing special except that when Joey found it on Easter morning probably 10 years ago now, it was in two pieces already…and he gave me half and kept the other and said “hey auntie di this can be our agate hunting rock and when we can we'll put them together whenever we look for agates.” I still have that rock. *tears.of.joy* We recognize, then, that only as we are within the fellowship can we be alone, and only he that is alone can live in the fellowship. Only in the fellowship do we learn to be rightly alone and only in aloneness do we learn to live rightly in fellowship. It is not as though the one preceded the other; both begin at the same time, namely, with the call of Jesus Christ.
From: Bobby G. Bodenhamer
The above was a recent e-xchange with good friend and Christian NLP author
Dr. Bobby Bodenhamer, another of the heaven on earth teachers God has so blessed me with. He has had an incredible impact on my Christian walk second only to author-pastor-friend Dr. Gregory Boyd. I'm telling you, I've hit the cosmic jackpot more than once in my life! Along with my beloved husband Rob and our equally cherished friends and pastors Kevin Callaghan, and Mike Davis, these are among God's most humble and gifted teachers, generous lovers of people, incredible men following hard after God who have, by example, been leaders worth following on a path to becoming more Christlike. And while ultimately none of this is really about them, they'd be the first to point you to Jesus, and my response is nothing less than meta amen knowing that when they see Him face to face, they will hear, well done, good and faithful one. Enter my Father's house.... and see the many lives you have touched. Well done. I am one eternally grateful soul that can truly and respectfully say you matter to Him and are mighty dangerous for good!
THE WORD which came to Jeremiah from the Lord:
Then the word of the Lord came to me:
the sweetest EVER!
Honey, you rock my world!
i could start at the beginning but somehow that just doesn't always work for me. i could start at the end but i'm not there yet although that does bring me to always and above all else guard your heart~that is pretty much all i have to say about that.
now here we are. testing the waters. still. but let me back up just a little. once upon a time...in a land far far away... 
