Bittersweet life comes
When rhythm and harmony are lost.
In music and love
Month: March 2015
9 reasons to learn French
That’s what I’m talking about. Or would like to if I spoke French, time to study harder!
Not When…
Let’s meet for coffee?
Soon, tomorrow? Later, let’s
set a date. Later…
Buck Books Event – Tuesday, March 17th
Who can resist books for a buck?
Flowering Currant Bloom.
So much beauty
Just for a bit of walkabout
Wilderness marsh
Why we serve
Like some other veterans, or maybe it is just me, I’m embarrassed when you thank me for my service. It’s because we feel that we were just doing our duty, just doing our job. Because I’m flustered I don’t often remember that this is what I want to respond:
“No, as a veteran, I want to thank you for taking the freedom we’ve defended and using it to live your life to the fullest and paying it forward by being all that you can be and, when possible, lifting up just one other person. It is our honor to serve.”
Well yes, but…
With Passover and Easter fast approaching and Ramadan in June it’s a good time to reflect on how we live our lives.
Don’t Just Believe In God, Believe Him is the title of a blog on The TJ Blog, by – wait for it – TJ. I know, you already guessed that. But take the time to get to know TJ. I know that you can only get to know as much about a person from their blog as they’re willing to share, but TJ does a pretty good job of that. But, he’s young, only a little younger than me, but that’s because he’s more mature than his years and I tend sometimes to be (someone I love would say immature) a little less mature than my years. Which doesn’t diminish what he has to say.
But, that’s not what this post is about. It’s about what TJ had to say on the subject of God, about believing Him. That’s spot on. Believing in God, is very different than believing God, and TJ clearly sees, from experience, that that simple difference has profound potential if you take the next logical step of trusting God. But, do you trust Him enough? There are amazing things to learn when you’re willing to trust Him enough to step off the path. The path that seems to be the main highway of life these days – the “my way or the highway”, “they’re different, they’re wrong”, “us or them” path.
But, then there’s Pope Francis. How’d he get into this discussion? Simple, he’s stepped off the path and taken the next logical step after TJ’s blog entry. Francis believes in God, he believes Him, and he’s obeying Him. If you’ve missed that, step back and look at what he is doing and saying because it’s all tied to two verses in scripture. TJ cited the first one, John 3:16, and Francis is living the second one, John 13:34 (Actually everything God wants for and from us is summed up in three verses: Mark 12:29-31, in the Qur’an 98:5 and 103:3 or if you’re neither Muslim or Christian, the Golden Rule). I hope you read and think about those references before you finish reading this post.
TJ lived it during his mission years in West Africa, read about it in his blog. TJ closes the blog entry that started this ramble with “Trust Him. Let Him take care of you. It might be scary at first, but He won’t let you down. He loves you.” But, now it’s time to love others!
Lost Everything-Tanka
I liked this for it’s form and structure as a tanka. And because I had seen two people on the street who made me think, how sad at that time of day to already be on the way, small paper bag to lips, to oblivion. I like this tanka because it addresses a condition of humanity that needs our attention. Besides they beat me to it, I’ll now have more time to consider how to address this Edge of Humanity. Well done.
Self-worth gone today
Once wore pressed clothes and stood tall
All have walked away
Today holding drink in hand
Will he make another day?
Copyright© Edge of Humanity LLC 2015
Fridays Art:: Anticipating Spring
The silver beech trees around my home are one of my favorite trees. One of the biggest housed a basic treehouse for my sons and was affectionately named “Fred”. No idea where that came from. Over the years Fred stoically took the drilling of woodpeckers and the implanting of BB pellets in stride, housed birds and squirrels and for a couple of years a pair of wood ducks every spring. But Fred finally gave up the position of emperor of the woods a few years ago and although these particular beech trees are elsewhere the painting has become Fred’s memorial.
Cradle of Liberty
Let’s get this straight: I am an American veteran, I served during Viet Nam, had a shipmate killed in action, spent a third of an active duty Navy career at sea, away from family, born in Columbus Ohio of a father who served in WWII and Korea and for an additional twenty years and rests in Arlington National Cemetary. I am a registered Republican, have belonged to the NRA, pay my taxes, read, believe, and defend the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the United States Constitution. And, Venessa Hicks’ photograph
MAKES ME PROUD! The flag as a cradle is the perfect illustration of this country as the cradle of liberty. It illustrates and honors the sacrifice and service that Vanessa Hicks, a fellow veteran, I, my family, have made and the Clevenger family is making to defend what this photograph so reverently illustrates.
I stand up, not in protest, but to salute Vanessa Hicks and the Clevenger Family.
Raymond Hasson, QMC (SS)
United States Navy (Ret)
Haiku Journey 