Archive for the ‘General’ Category

The Way We See it and Getting it Right

Monday, August 4th, 2008

Two wonderful little essays, with a touch of my own thoughts on them. :^) THE WAY WE SEE IT The eye doctor instructed her patient to read a chart on the wall. He looked at it and read, "A, B, F, N, L and G." The doctor turned the light back ...

Something to pray for

Monday, August 4th, 2008

In this piece, Steve shares a wisdom deeper even than he knows I think. WHAT I PRAY FOR Many years ago I found a short story about Mahatma Gandhi that I have gone back to several times. It has given me hope and courage. Even if you are not one ...

Everything Counts

Monday, August 4th, 2008

EVERYTHING COUNTS Early 20th Century African-American poet Countee Cullen spent the summer of his eighth year in Baltimore, Maryland. Shortly after he arrived he noticed a little white boy staring at him. Countee smiled, but the little boy did not smile back. Instead, he stuck out his tongue and called him a ...

The Real You – Let Yourself Shine

Monday, August 4th, 2008

Another of Steve's masterpieces, about the truth of us, our essence, and the light we all are within. THE REAL YOU One woman describes herself as "Five feet, three inches tall and pleasingly plump." After she had a minor accident, her mother accompanied her to the hospital emergency room. The admitting nurse ...

I know it has been awhile. :^)

Monday, August 4th, 2008

And I can't exactly promise that it will be better soon, or more frequent I should say. I AM still reading but that isn't the reason I've not been writing. I'm putting two or three of Steve Goodier's newsletters in here today, for a reason. Each speaks ...

Against the Wind

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

I'm still reading. But, at least, at last, I know why. I'm building something, creating something in a way, jen's shown me what and why and eventually I'll talk here about all that. That is for then, for now, I'm still just running against the wind, but ...

Bette Davis Eyes

Thursday, July 10th, 2008

Okay so someone out there needs to tell me what the hell this means. I am going to tell you a slightly weird story and I know someone out there has the answer, just not who. All day today, I have had this phrase, I didn't know it was ...

Limbo

Monday, July 7th, 2008

I'm a little crabby about this. That might show through. First though, some context, Michael Moore's, Sicko. That is where I start. The rest of the world can do this, why can't we? This is intensely personal. I might even use bad language. So watch ...

Okay then

Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008

Now that I've gotten those out of me, or out of my way, though that doesn't sound quite right, Steve Goodier is never someone to get out of your way, he is someone to cherish, I do have a couple things to rant about tonight. There is an old ...

Beauty

Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008

LOOKING FOR BEAUTY Many people like me feel slightly passed over in a world that seems to place a high value on beauty. But a short poem by Anthony Ewell reminds us that physical attractiveness can be over-rated. He writes: "As a beauty I am not a great star, There are others more ...

Now, just a little Steve – gene lies in wait

Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008

REAL LIBERATION I had a remarkable conversation with a woman about physical limitations. Nancy was a sufferer of M.S. She could no longer walk and spent her waking hours in a wheelchair. "I'm not 'confined' to the wheelchair," she insisted one day. "It doesn't confine me. It sets me free." I had never ...

The Dog, The Cat and The Rat

Wednesday, June 18th, 2008

I know I've been quiet. I've been, I am, both within and reading, for me one goes with the other and it isn't possible to do one without the other, not really. So I'll be bursting out here one of these days soon, but I got something in ...

Father’s Day

Sunday, June 15th, 2008

Your Horoscope for JUNE 15, 2008 You have a spiritual side that you don't often get to express, GENE. But today you could find yourself moved to pray or give thanks for something. The energy of the day is gentle and sweet, encouraging you to open your heart and feel your ...

Tim Russert

Friday, June 13th, 2008

Today, I grieve. I didn't know Tim Russert, we share the same age, and in some ways I would gladly change places with him, because I think he had a lot left to say. And I don't. Not of the import and meaning with which he conducted ...

What do you dream of?

Friday, June 6th, 2008

This comes from Steve Goodier, as so often, one of my posts seems to begin, lol. I so admire him though one might think we would have little in common, he being a minister of the Christian faith, and me, well, something, someone, outside of that tradition at this ...

WHO OWNS THE BACKYARD?

Monday, June 2nd, 2008

Today, just a little piece from Steve Goodier. It takes a moment to think through what he is saying here, but the time is worth it. I'll be back after it, for a moment. Vicki Huffman, in PLUS LIVING (Harold Shaw Publishers, 1989), tells about a man who ...

Dreams

Thursday, May 29th, 2008

This will probably not be what you are expecting. Then again, maybe so. I have had this "dream" in my head for a very long time. I'm not sure I wrote about it on my main site even, though I may have, it is how my site ...

Human Rights

Thursday, May 15th, 2008

This will not be what you think it is. Or may not be. I am writing this post, this day, in support of the joint effort of Amnesty International and the BlogCatalog, the latter of which I am a happy member. I don't know why I'm not ...

It seems

Tuesday, May 13th, 2008

that my real life keeps getting in the way of my "real" life. And I do not like that much, which is not to say there is anything I can, or would if I could, do about that. Those people who are in my real life matter to ...

Hold on tight

Monday, May 5th, 2008

to your dream. This song is a current advertisement for something, a Ford vehicle I think, I've been driving Fords since 1972. Why its here now is that it keeps popping up just when I need it. Just at the moment the dark threatens to envelope me, ...

Real Beauty and just real

Friday, May 2nd, 2008

It has been a very odd week. I'll come to that after this piece by Steve Goodier. His is the real beauty, me, later, is the just real, and that won't be as beautiful. I have questions this week and wonderings, not beautiful, except that there is ...

Joy along the way

Wednesday, April 30th, 2008

From my dear friend Steve Goodier's newsletter. Worth a look, I'll be back after. JOY ALONG THE WAY A senator once took Will Rogers to the White House to meet President Coolidge. He warned the humorist that Coolidge never smiled. Rogers replied, "I'll make him smile." Inside the Oval Office, the senator introduced the ...

Anne Frank

Monday, April 28th, 2008

I was led, in the oddest way today, TWICE, to the same place, both times quite by accident, to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. It is a place well worth looking at. Especially since it seems a good portion of the world is involved in the creation ...

Let’s talk billions and sense

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008

As opposed to dollars and cents. Because I've been holding on to a couple of articles for a few days now, just thinking about them. And they make no sense to me. We all know the foreclosure rate across the country is just decimating the middle class ...

Keep the motor idling

Tuesday, April 15th, 2008

I've got another from Steve Goodier and it is just marvelous. Had it stuck in draft and forgotten about until tonight. Take a look at a neat story. I'll be back after. :^) KEEPING THE MOTOR IDLING I relate well to the comment made by Barbara Johnson: "Patience is ...

All about choices

Monday, April 14th, 2008

This comes from Steve Goodier's Life Support newsletter and it has a telling point. If you don't make your choices sometimes they get made for you and you may not always be happy with the outcome. Life's like that, isn't it? I'll be back after with a ...

The Bi-Centennial Man, and others.

Thursday, April 10th, 2008

I'm not sure where that "others" part will take us and at the moment I'm not too concerned about that either. :^). Though there is a destination, I know not what it is. In my experience, in my mind's eye, or through Jenna, I've been there, done ...

Just a couple thoughts

Monday, March 31st, 2008

I'm not quite ready to cut loose. It isn't that I'm stuck so much as it is I'm waiting. It is hard to explain but I know exactly what I mean so it is all okay. I've got some random thoughts I thought I'd drop on the ...

Answer

Tuesday, March 25th, 2008

Interesting turn of events today. Jenna told me why she's been singing answer to me, what it means. Not prepared to shout it from the rooftops because it is decidedly personal, but she's not done this in this way before. So that I could understand I mean ...

Two little things tonight

Monday, March 24th, 2008

I've been engaged in another project of sorts, I mean to say Jen's kept me away from here, though I'm about ready to resume, I think. So for tonight, I want to share a little piece from Steve Goodier, immediately below. Below this post is one in which ...

Just not writing this week

Thursday, March 20th, 2008

I always know when and when not, I have this little helper within me and she's had me occupied with other things within for a bit.  I've got lots I want to, and will, say but not just yet.   Today, one of my little pieces of information said: "Today I am ...

A Little Faith

Friday, March 14th, 2008

I'm going to be brief tonight. :^). He says. So is the plan. I got a very nice little article today from Steve Goodier which I've reprinted below. I'll be back after that. A LITTLE FAITH The temporary church-school teacher was struggling to open a combination lock ...

The difficulty of Being

Thursday, March 13th, 2008

I'm skipping to the end of a chapter tonight, one that is really important, meaty important, but that I intend to come at from another angle, just not right now, I intend to summarize this one, in my own words, mostly, but for what I am publishing tonight. She ...

Now then onward with our discussion of government

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

We ended the previous installment from CWG Book 2, at the bottom of page 138, with God seeming a little put out that we called ourselves a "great society" when so many of us experience no such thing, when greatness is reserved for those well-born, or well-place, or exceptionally gifted, ...

A bit of an interruption to God’s continuing civics lesson :^)

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

Is going to continue but I have to do two other things first. Jenna has had this song in my head all day long, I Want To Know What Love Is, a wonderful song from 1984, George Orwell's year. I like their vision of 1984 much better. I gotta ...

Continuing on :^)

Monday, March 10th, 2008

Yesterday we stopped with God talking about the inability of we, the people, to see other than the extremes of government, the debate between those who would have government be all things to all people at all times and those who would prefer no government at all, essentially, other than ...

About government

Sunday, March 9th, 2008

Okay, so what I am going to do here is excerpt from Book 2 somethings God has to say about government. Then, talk a bit about them from my own perspective. Fair warning - this will be a little long. :^) To begin with this comes from chapter ...

Now, government

Thursday, March 6th, 2008

Okay this is the post I started writing two Fridays ago. :^). 13 days ago. Jen's had me occupied with other things. And I still am but I'm going to put this little bit out anyway. And I will come back to the meat of ...

Thoughts on global citizenry

Wednesday, February 27th, 2008

I've had occasion recently to have a discussion with a fellow who agrees with me on the idea that we can no longer consider ourselves, or should perhaps is a better word, residents of one country, but rather residents of one planet. The idea has been in me quite ...

Steve on forgiveness

Tuesday, February 26th, 2008

Okay, honestly, I have a post in draft I began last Friday night, on government, got distracted, had a busy weekend and never got back to it and last night was taken up with other matters, life intruding on life, you know? And, now, I am in the beginning ...

Today I want to talk about dogs

Wednesday, February 20th, 2008

Yes, I still intend coming back to the books. In a way this is that. It is, I think, no coincidence (and readers of the books will know that God says there is no such thing as a coincidence, that nothing, no thing, happens here without a reason ...

Lets talk tennis

Tuesday, February 19th, 2008

So you are thinking, what? Has he lost his mind? No, not quite. This comes about because of a conversation I overheard and an article I read and an event I witnessed. The conversation was about how a young girl of 7, Maria Sharapova, comes to ...

No Steve today.

Monday, February 18th, 2008

Just me.   :^).  This will be brief, by my standards, lol. I wanted to say that we are going back to my roots. Something tremendous has happened within me over the last few weeks. I am not sure entirely what it is. Or what it ...

A mountaintop view

Monday, February 11th, 2008

I wasn't planning to write tonight at all. But things happen in three's and three unique little things this day lead me to share one other thing. This is the 11th anniversary of my youngest son's most tragic mistake, in my view, in his, well, I'll never know ...

Two More From Steve

Wednesday, February 6th, 2008

One of these from Steve Goodier's Life Support newsletter, the second, has a funny in it that I've seen before, but which is still relevant. When we look at our children we make assumptions, about what they are thinking, seeing, being. And, as that little story points out ...

Two from Steve

Friday, February 1st, 2008

I know this is taking the easy way out. And I'm okay with that. :^). I'm in a place, at the moment, where I've been every year since 1998, midway between my youngest son's 21st birthday on January 7th and his death on February 11th. Every ...

Hallmark Hall of Fame

Monday, January 28th, 2008

Or at least that is where this starts. I should never watch one of those shows. I bet I went through a half box of Kleenex last night watching "The Russell Girl". Even the flipping commercials made me cry. I think last night's movie was too close too ...

Rebate/Shmebate

Friday, January 25th, 2008

I simply cannot believe anyone is taking this seriously. Not the economic situation, the solution. Does no one see through this? I understand the Senate has an issue with not including extended unemployment benefits - this is not a new problem, it has come up in "negotiations" ...

Two wonders from Steve

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008

A double dose of Steve Goodier today - two marvelous stories, both containing truths that would do us all well to remember. I've talked a bit, and will much more often during this coming campaign season of the pitfalls of giving tax cuts to the wealthy on the assumption ...

A wide ranging political discussion

Monday, January 21st, 2008

This comes from a discussion I had with someone who reprinted a scurrilous article accusing Hillary Clinton of being a lesbian in hopes of derailing her presidential campaign, the other side of the discussion. I thought it particularly appropriate for Martin Luther King day. There were a couple ...

I have been remiss

Thursday, January 17th, 2008

I know. This is not a good time of year for me. Thankfully it is getting better. It used to start before Thanksgiving, this dark night of the soul, but now has receded somewhat and begins really, well, okay it IS still there from Thanksgiving, but thankfully ...

The Evangelical Litmus test

Thursday, January 10th, 2008

I read an article in the Minneapolis paper last night that was just about the wisest thing I have ever read from a person of "faith", let alone who calls himself "evangelical". Because, to me, evangelical means proselytize. Which, to some, includes at the point of a gun ...

So who are we looking for again?

Wednesday, January 9th, 2008

I was under the impression that given the war in Iraq, Afghanistan and the situation in Pakistan, and, then too, the nasty video tape Osama gave the world as his Christmas gift last week, that it was still him our illustrious president was trying to find. But I saw ...

For Brandon

Monday, January 7th, 2008

I had all sorts of ideas for today. But as the day wore on, this song was all I've been hearing. Today would have been my youngest son's, Brandon, 32nd birthday. This is the only song I asked be played at his memorial, so all I'm going ...

No Future in the Past

Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008

This is from Steve Goodier's, Life Support Newsletter: The man looked a little worried when the doctor came in to administer his annual physical, so the first thing the doctor did was to ask whether anything was troubling him. "Well, to tell the truth, Doc, yes," answered the patient. "You see, I seem ...

Sweet Surrender

Friday, December 28th, 2007

I've had a relatively busy day for me, but this has been on my mind for most of it. I've mentioned this song here before. But, today, as I reflect on what happened yesterday, what is happening now in Pakistan, I just have to believe, that the world, ...

Benazir Buhtto

Thursday, December 27th, 2007

Today, I just want to add my voice to the millions around the world who are mourning this wonderful woman. That she was not perfect in every way does not make her a candidate for the extremists of the Islamic world to murder, it made her human. Just ...

Today

Wednesday, December 26th, 2007

Greetings Gene -- Here is your horoscope for Wednesday, December 26: You may not be on top today, but you can tell that you still have a strong chance at coming from behind and taking the lead. It's a good day to keep an even pace and let others wear themselves out. You know, I ...

Enough already

Tuesday, December 25th, 2007

I have just got to say that I am, well, if it actually mattered, worried about the outcome of this winter. Not so much the winter, as I think of it, but my tiny part in it. Because my dog just tried to kill me again. Okay, ...

A movie review

Monday, December 24th, 2007

So, not much to say the past few days. Sort of been within, things have been odd, it is the season, partly, I've lost all sense of it, many years ago, maybe almost 11, maybe before that. But definitely since that. So, Jenna's been having me ...

But does it?

Tuesday, December 18th, 2007

As I have often done, I am sharing a Steve Goodier piece here. But I disagree with him. Vehemently. Not in his basic principle, but in its particular application. I'll be back after. :^) CHANGING THE WORLD, ONE CLIP AT A TIME What can one person possibly ...

A girl like me.

Sunday, December 16th, 2007

A girl like me What I want to talk about this morning is this video. It was made by a young black woman and it is a series of vignettes in which young black women talk about what it is like to be  a young black woman in this free ...

How NOT to walk your dog

Friday, December 14th, 2007

About a month ago, I told you how not to go down the basement steps with a dog, while carrying a bicycle. When I wrote that, it seemed okay, and then I learned just how long it takes for an injury to the bursa between the patella and knee ...

What a month

Thursday, December 13th, 2007

This has been one of the oddest months of my life. A lot happening, yes, and reason for some of what I feel but what I feel changes so much from moment to moment, not just day to day, that it is making me a little more insane than ...

Let’s talk golf, giggle

Wednesday, December 12th, 2007

Specifically women's golf. But first a word from our sponsor. Me. :^). I've been a sports fan all my life, what else did a kid growing up on a farm in the middle of Minnesota have to do? I mean one who had no interest in farming, ...

Just another day in Bushite world

Tuesday, December 11th, 2007

I like that word, Bushite. It rhymes nicely with luddite, which of course they are, although Wikipedia defines them as "...This English historical movement has to be seen in its context of the harsh economic climate due to the Napoleonic Wars; but since then, the term Luddite has been ...

Odds and ends

Tuesday, December 11th, 2007

Random thoughts maybe. Odd things have been running through my mind. Well, anyone who's looked at the main site already knows that. I'm just talking about the past few days. It turns out I hate Christmas music. The last few years it has annoyed me more each ...

A Little Rant on Religion(s)

Monday, December 10th, 2007

Yes, again, or maybe still. I've seen a couple things that have just boggled my mind in recent days and have a couple things I want to say about them. I sort of began this with the story of the teddy bear "scandal" that caused what one might ...

The Celestine Prophecy

Sunday, December 9th, 2007

I am probably the last person in the world to have seen this movie, lol. Jenna led me to it this past week and I watched it, and I have to say I was mostly disappointed. Somehow from the hype, I expected more. I got a personal ...

A beautiful heart

Friday, December 7th, 2007

We've all seen, okay, heard of, the movie, starring Russell Crowe, A Beautiful Mind - I'm the one who hasn't seen it, lol. But this special little girl and her beautiful heart comes from Steve Goodier and is worth sharing. So, for tonight, this is it. ...