I'm in a blue funk today. Our friend lost his long battle with cancer, and my own mortality has annoyingly come to sit on my nose.
Death leaves a gaping hole in a small town like ours. We live in our own homes, but we walk and drive the same streets, we wave at each other, visit at the corner post office, and spend our lives in a family sort of way. Not only that, but his parents' farm was next to our farm when we were growing up.
What can a person do to show we care? Well, I've got two loaves of cranberry-orange bread in the oven as my fingers type this. Food seems to be the first thought for a tangible showing of sympathy.
Tomorrow night is the customary wake at the funeral home. I'm going to take a risk here and confess a fear that stems from when I was a little girl. Mom and Dad made me go to a wake... that was held in the parlor.....of an old spooky farm house... to look at the dead body... of a scary old woman... who always dressed in black like a nun. They never knew how that one night terrified me and scarred me for life.
As an adult, I've naturally lived through losses of loved ones, and I've secretly struggled my way through every single wake. There were times I'd have rather had my fingernails pulled out than tolerate them.
Oops, the timer just dinged, so the breads are done. Thank heaven for timers, or I'd have burned the house down long ago. My mind flits, and I forget that somethin's in the oven. Man, that reminds me of my dear mother. She was notorious for burning our carrots. It wasn't like it happened once in awhile, but probably 80% of the time. Omigod, it was so funny the time she forgot about the roaster of caramel corn she put in the oven. I kid you not, our house smelled from burnt popcorn for months. Ahhh, the silly memories we have of when things went wrong!
There's so much Catholic ingrained in me, now I feel like a priest should be giving me absolution and penance for confessing my wake phobia. Maybe I should have kept it to myself.
Nature Weaver's Sanctuary... A Quiet Place For My Soul
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Monday, January 30, 2012
We're All the Same
The alarm woke us at 6:30. Today's agenda warranted setting it so we wouldn't oversleep.
My dear mother used to complain of not being able to sleep the night before a day's outing. She said her mind raced from one thing to another while she wondered and she worried and she prayed. When she tried to explain her feelings to me, it was like throwing a rubber ball against a building. Mom couldn't understand me not understanding, and I couldn't understand her not understanding me not being able to understand.
It's easy to have regrets about things like that, but regrets aren't fair to us. Time cleverly distorts the important details of all situations, and more often than not our memories grow into inaccurate reproductions. I have the tendency to be too hard on myself, and that's not a good thing. We have to remember that at the time we did our very best, and that's all there is to it.
Try as we may, there is a noble way for us to understand one another based on five human truths. These truths are absolute, they span the oceans, the genders, the cultures, the generations, the races, the religions, the lifestyles, the wealthy and the needy, the skinny and the obese, the famous and the secluded. Every human heart on this planet responds to these truths............
People feel the need to be respected.
My dear mother used to complain of not being able to sleep the night before a day's outing. She said her mind raced from one thing to another while she wondered and she worried and she prayed. When she tried to explain her feelings to me, it was like throwing a rubber ball against a building. Mom couldn't understand me not understanding, and I couldn't understand her not understanding me not being able to understand.
It's easy to have regrets about things like that, but regrets aren't fair to us. Time cleverly distorts the important details of all situations, and more often than not our memories grow into inaccurate reproductions. I have the tendency to be too hard on myself, and that's not a good thing. We have to remember that at the time we did our very best, and that's all there is to it.
Try as we may, there is a noble way for us to understand one another based on five human truths. These truths are absolute, they span the oceans, the genders, the cultures, the generations, the races, the religions, the lifestyles, the wealthy and the needy, the skinny and the obese, the famous and the secluded. Every human heart on this planet responds to these truths............
People would rather be asked than be told.
People have a desire to know why.
People prefer to have options over threats.
People want to have a second chance.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Lamb of God
Worship is something not just for Sunday morning,
but for every day of the week,
in all we say and do.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Secrets in the Walls
There's a timeless charm to these rustic joints. One can almost hear their walls telling the secrets and tall tales left by the old regulars and the younger ones who come to town for a beer. Maybe the reason I'm so comfortable in these taverns is because that's where my grampa and daddy went when I was a little girl. Back in those days, it was customary for men to take a break from farming, go to town to the tavern, have a few beers, play cards with their buddies, and then come back home. Their wives were at home and would have a home-cooked meal waiting on the stove.
This tavern we went to last night has Friday night fried fish, with choice of baked, hash brown, or french fried potatoes, old-fashioned baked beans, and a generous and tasty help-yourself salad bar. Their deviled eggs are one of their signature foods, and I'd be curious how many eggs get boiled to satisfy their hungry crowds. The four of us ordered refreshments, sat down at a table for four, visited and had a bunch of laughs before we put in our food order. A man and woman sitting next to us commented how nice it was to see someone having fun these days.
When we were ready to leave and got out to our cars, the windshields were covered with ice. We had to wait a while for the windshield wipers and the defroster to clear them. A freezing mist was still coming down, so we took it slow on the s-curve road back home.
This morning blue skies and sunshine welcomed me downstairs. Housecleaning was done yesterday, so today hubby can watch his guy shows on t.v., and I can fiddle around with this, that, or nothing. Don't they say that weekends don't count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless?
Friday, January 27, 2012
Native Americans, England, and Rivers
Have you ever wondered what influenced the naming of our 50 beautiful states?
Alabama - Alabama means "tribal town" in the Creek Indian language.
Alaska - derived from the Aleut word alaxsxaq, meaning "the object towards which the action of the sea is directed."
Arizona - some historians think it comes from the Spanish phrase zona arida (arid zone) and others think the state was named after the Aztec word arizuma, which means "silver bearing."
Arkansas - derived from the Quapaw word kakaze meaning "land of downriver people" or the Sioux word Akakaze meaning "people of the south wind."
California - believed to have derived from a Spanish novel about a mythical island off the coast of India ruled by a Queen Califia.
Colorado - was named after the Colorado River, which starts in the state. Early Spanish explorers named the Colorado River the Rio Colorado, or red river, for the red-brown silt that the river carried from the mountains.
Connecticut - comes from the Mohegan word quonehtacut, meaning "place of long tidal river."
Delaware - named after the Delaware River, which was named for Lord de la Warr, the first Governor-General of Jamestown.
Florida - comes from the Spanish Pascua Florida, meaning "feast of flowers," but more commonly known as Easter, in honor of its discovery by the Spanish during the Easter season.
Georgia - is the feminine Latin form of George and was named after King George II of Great Britain.
Hawaii - comes from Hawaiki, legendary homeland of the Polynesians. Hawaiki is believed to mean "place of the gods."
Idaho - was possibly named as the result of a hoax (the so-called Idahoax). Lobbyist George Willing suggested the name Idaho, claiming it came from the Shoshoni word Ee-dah-how, or gem of the mountains. Later he admitted it really wasn't a Native American word, but was a word he made up.
Illinois - the early French explorers' name for the Illinois people. The name Illlinois has traditionally been said to mean 'man' or 'men' in the Miami-Illinois language.
Indiana - means Land of the Indians, or simply Indian Land in Latin.
Iowa - was named after the Iowa River, which derives its name from the Ioway people, a tribe native to the area.
Kansas - was named after the Kansas River, which derives its name from the Kaw or Kansas tribe. The tribe's name Kka:ze is said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south wind."
Kentucky - no one is sure, but most likely it comes from the Iroquoian word kenhtake meaning 'meadow' or 'prairie.'
Louisiana - named after King Louis XIV of France. When Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle claimed the territory drained by the Mississippi River for France, he named it La Louisiane, meaning "Land of Louis."
Maine - has an unknown origin. In 2001, the state legislature adopted a resolution which stated that the state was named after the ancient French province of Maine.
Maryland - named after Queen Henrietta Maria of England, wife of King Charles I.
Massachusetts - named after the native population, the Massachusett, which has been translated as "by the blue hills."
Michigan - is a French adaptation of the Ojibwe word mishigama, meaning "large water."
Minnesota - comes from the Dakota name for the Minnesota River (Mnisota) which can be translated as "sky-tinted water."
Mississippi - named after the Mississippi River, which got its name from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi "Great River."
Missouri - named for a group of Sioux Indians of that name. The word itself meant 'town or people of the large canoes.'
Montana - derived from the Spanish word for "mountain."
Nebraska - most likely comes from an Otoe word meaning "flat water" after the Platte River that flows through the state.
Nevada - from the Spanish word meaning "snowfall" after the Sierra Nevada mountain range.
New Hampshire - named after the English county of Hampshire.
New Jersey - named after the British Channel Island of Jersey.
New Mexico - comes from Mexico, "place of Mexitli," an Aztec god or leader. The name Nuevo Mexico was first used by Francisco de Ibarra who explored far to the north of Mexico and reported his findings as being in "a New Mexico."
New York - named after York, England, to honor the Duke of York.
North Carolina - named after King Charles I of England (Charles translates to Carolus).
North Dakota - named after the Dakota tribe and means "ally" or "friend."
Ohio - comes from the Iroquois word ohi-yo, meaning "great river."
Oklahoma - from the Choctaw phrase okla humma, meaning "red people." A Choctaw Chief suggested the name in 1866 during treaty negotiations with the federal government regarding the use of Indian Territory.
Oregon - has an unknown origin. One theory is that the name comes from the French word ouragan which means 'hurricane.'
Pennsylvania - was named after Sir Willlian Penn, who received the first land grant for the area Sylvania, which means 'woods.' The name literally means Penn's Woods.
Rhode Island - means red island, named after the red clay that lined its shores.
South Carolina - got its name from Carolus, Latin word for Charles, with reference to King Charles I.
South Dakota - the southern half of the Dakota Territory, originally named for the Dakota Sioux tribe which inhabited the area.
Tennessee - got its name from the Indian Cherokee village called Tanasi, which means big bend and was used to describe a river in Tennessee, which eventually got the name Tennessee.
Texas - comes from the Caddo Indian word taysha, or "friend," which was used to refer to the larger Caddo nation. The name was borrowed into Spanish as texa, plural texas.
Utah - comes from the Spanish designation for the Ute people, yuta, in turn perhaps a borrowing from Western Apache yudah, meaning "High."
Vermont - hails from the French words vert (green) and mont (mountain).
Virginia - was named after Elizabeth I of England, who was known as the Virgin Queen.
Washington - named after George Washington.
West Virginia - broke away from the State of Virginia during the Civil War.
Wisconsin - was named after the Algonquin name for the Wisconsin River. French explorer Jacques Marquette recorded the name as Meskousing in his journal, but this was later misspelled as Ouisconsin.
Wyoming - comes from the Munsee Indian word xwe:wamenk, meaning "at the big river flat."
Alabama - Alabama means "tribal town" in the Creek Indian language.
Alaska - derived from the Aleut word alaxsxaq, meaning "the object towards which the action of the sea is directed."
Arizona - some historians think it comes from the Spanish phrase zona arida (arid zone) and others think the state was named after the Aztec word arizuma, which means "silver bearing."
Arkansas - derived from the Quapaw word kakaze meaning "land of downriver people" or the Sioux word Akakaze meaning "people of the south wind."
California - believed to have derived from a Spanish novel about a mythical island off the coast of India ruled by a Queen Califia.
Colorado - was named after the Colorado River, which starts in the state. Early Spanish explorers named the Colorado River the Rio Colorado, or red river, for the red-brown silt that the river carried from the mountains.
Connecticut - comes from the Mohegan word quonehtacut, meaning "place of long tidal river."
Delaware - named after the Delaware River, which was named for Lord de la Warr, the first Governor-General of Jamestown.
Florida - comes from the Spanish Pascua Florida, meaning "feast of flowers," but more commonly known as Easter, in honor of its discovery by the Spanish during the Easter season.
Georgia - is the feminine Latin form of George and was named after King George II of Great Britain.
Hawaii - comes from Hawaiki, legendary homeland of the Polynesians. Hawaiki is believed to mean "place of the gods."
Idaho - was possibly named as the result of a hoax (the so-called Idahoax). Lobbyist George Willing suggested the name Idaho, claiming it came from the Shoshoni word Ee-dah-how, or gem of the mountains. Later he admitted it really wasn't a Native American word, but was a word he made up.
Illinois - the early French explorers' name for the Illinois people. The name Illlinois has traditionally been said to mean 'man' or 'men' in the Miami-Illinois language.
Indiana - means Land of the Indians, or simply Indian Land in Latin.
Iowa - was named after the Iowa River, which derives its name from the Ioway people, a tribe native to the area.
Kansas - was named after the Kansas River, which derives its name from the Kaw or Kansas tribe. The tribe's name Kka:ze is said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south wind."
Kentucky - no one is sure, but most likely it comes from the Iroquoian word kenhtake meaning 'meadow' or 'prairie.'
Louisiana - named after King Louis XIV of France. When Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle claimed the territory drained by the Mississippi River for France, he named it La Louisiane, meaning "Land of Louis."
Maine - has an unknown origin. In 2001, the state legislature adopted a resolution which stated that the state was named after the ancient French province of Maine.
Maryland - named after Queen Henrietta Maria of England, wife of King Charles I.
Massachusetts - named after the native population, the Massachusett, which has been translated as "by the blue hills."
Michigan - is a French adaptation of the Ojibwe word mishigama, meaning "large water."
Minnesota - comes from the Dakota name for the Minnesota River (Mnisota) which can be translated as "sky-tinted water."
Mississippi - named after the Mississippi River, which got its name from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi "Great River."
Missouri - named for a group of Sioux Indians of that name. The word itself meant 'town or people of the large canoes.'
Montana - derived from the Spanish word for "mountain."
Nebraska - most likely comes from an Otoe word meaning "flat water" after the Platte River that flows through the state.
Nevada - from the Spanish word meaning "snowfall" after the Sierra Nevada mountain range.
New Hampshire - named after the English county of Hampshire.
New Jersey - named after the British Channel Island of Jersey.
New Mexico - comes from Mexico, "place of Mexitli," an Aztec god or leader. The name Nuevo Mexico was first used by Francisco de Ibarra who explored far to the north of Mexico and reported his findings as being in "a New Mexico."
New York - named after York, England, to honor the Duke of York.
North Carolina - named after King Charles I of England (Charles translates to Carolus).
North Dakota - named after the Dakota tribe and means "ally" or "friend."
Ohio - comes from the Iroquois word ohi-yo, meaning "great river."
Oklahoma - from the Choctaw phrase okla humma, meaning "red people." A Choctaw Chief suggested the name in 1866 during treaty negotiations with the federal government regarding the use of Indian Territory.
Oregon - has an unknown origin. One theory is that the name comes from the French word ouragan which means 'hurricane.'
Pennsylvania - was named after Sir Willlian Penn, who received the first land grant for the area Sylvania, which means 'woods.' The name literally means Penn's Woods.
Rhode Island - means red island, named after the red clay that lined its shores.
South Carolina - got its name from Carolus, Latin word for Charles, with reference to King Charles I.
South Dakota - the southern half of the Dakota Territory, originally named for the Dakota Sioux tribe which inhabited the area.
Tennessee - got its name from the Indian Cherokee village called Tanasi, which means big bend and was used to describe a river in Tennessee, which eventually got the name Tennessee.
Texas - comes from the Caddo Indian word taysha, or "friend," which was used to refer to the larger Caddo nation. The name was borrowed into Spanish as texa, plural texas.
Utah - comes from the Spanish designation for the Ute people, yuta, in turn perhaps a borrowing from Western Apache yudah, meaning "High."
Vermont - hails from the French words vert (green) and mont (mountain).
Virginia - was named after Elizabeth I of England, who was known as the Virgin Queen.
Washington - named after George Washington.
West Virginia - broke away from the State of Virginia during the Civil War.
Wisconsin - was named after the Algonquin name for the Wisconsin River. French explorer Jacques Marquette recorded the name as Meskousing in his journal, but this was later misspelled as Ouisconsin.
Wyoming - comes from the Munsee Indian word xwe:wamenk, meaning "at the big river flat."
*from www.ask.com.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Burls and Pearls
 |
| Two tree burls next to each other |
 |
| Inside of a tree burl |
Somewhere along the line I watched a television program about a guy who creates one-of-a-kind bowls and centerpieces out of tree burls. His finished products were exquisite. He pointed out the spiraling, the knotting, the twisting and the gnarling of the wood grain inside these burls that is responsible for the intricate patterns and colors that cannot be found anywhere else.
What causes these burls, or abnormal growths, on trees? Some think that fungus or insects can stress the tree enough to cause the disruption in growth, others think it comes from injury to the tree, while still other theories lean toward genetics and environmental pollution.
 |
| A pearl growing inside an oyster |
Just imagine the number of these healing miracles that are happening on Planet Earth right at this moment. We can't hear them and we can't see them, but they are near us and are everywhere. If we want to find them and be aware of them, all we have to do is look for the things with flaws and defects.
"I think miracles exist
in part as gifts
and in part as clues
that there is something beyond
the flat world we see."
~Peggy Noonan
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Walmart Confusion
When we go shopping, each of us takes a cart and does our own thing. That way hubby doesn't have to linger in the lipstick aisle, and I don't have to chew my fingernails in the fish bait aisle. It works for us. We carry cell phones to let each other know when we've had enough shopping and are ready to pay and go home.
Okay, here's a recap of our confusing experience at Walmart last week. My cart and I were finished traipsing up and down, back and forth, forth and back to the tune of an 8-mile walk. (Why the hell do they keep moving things?) I'd not seen the other half since we went our separate ways, so I retrieved my cell phone from my purse and called him for status and location. This was our conversation.......
Me: I'm ready to go. Where are you?
He: I'm done, too. I'm standing in number 12.
Me: Okay, I'll be right there.
(Push my cart from the bananas back to aisle 12)
No hubby in sight.
Gave him another jingle.
Me: Where the heck are you?
He: In 12.
Me: No, you're not. I'm standing in 12 and you're not here.
He: Yes, I am.
Me. No, you're not.
He: Well, I sure am. I'm standing right here at check-out number 12.
Me. Oh, for god sake, I'm standing by the cake mixes in aisle number 12.
He hangs up.
Me hangs up.
I laugh.
He laughs.
We pay.
We go home.
Still laughing.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Pine Nuts and Hickory Nuts
Anyone who watches the Food Channel has heard of the pine nut. Most of the chefs are using it to make pestos, salads, and other good stuff. My question is: what the heck is a pine nut?
Unbeknownst to me until now, they're the seeds found in the cones of certain varieties of pine trees, and they've been part of the human diet for a very long time. The ancient Romans made them into wine, preserved them in honey, and even used them in sausage. In the Southwestern part of the United States, the kernels of the American Pinon tree were supposedly a staple food 10,000 years ago. The harvested nut looks like a cream-colored tear drop.
When I was a little girl, in the fall of the year, our family took a day to go picking hickory nuts in local timbers. That was back when farmers welcomed people to their property. No one wanted food of any sort to go to waste, and there were a lot of hickory trees. Daddy knew the farmers personally and always asked permission before we picked. Gramma and Grampa went with us, which really made it an extraordinary annual outing. For me, it was the equivalent of a kid today going to an amusement park.
Each of us took a pail and split ways to find our own hickory tree. I couldn't have been the greatest nut picker, cuz my memory bank still holds too many pictures of squirrels chasing each other through the dry leaves and up and down the trees and back and forth on the branches.
Mom and Gramma spent the winter hours cracking the nuts with a hammer and digging out the nut meats with a silver nut pick. It was fun to sit close by, cuz once in awhile they'd hand us kids a nut meat to munch on. Those days hickories were a prized ingredient for baking cakes, breads, pies, and cookies. My Mom used hickory nuts instead of pecans for our Christmas pies. Omigod, they were over-the-top scrumptious. She placed perfect hickory halves on top, blue ribbon style. Pecan pie is my Ferrari choice of pies, but the hickory nut pie was even better. I suppose that was because of the fun we had gathering them.
What they say is true. The older we get, the more we re-visit our childhoods and the more we realize that we never grow out of them.
 |
| Pine cone nuts |
 |
| Hickory hulls and nuts |
When I was a little girl, in the fall of the year, our family took a day to go picking hickory nuts in local timbers. That was back when farmers welcomed people to their property. No one wanted food of any sort to go to waste, and there were a lot of hickory trees. Daddy knew the farmers personally and always asked permission before we picked. Gramma and Grampa went with us, which really made it an extraordinary annual outing. For me, it was the equivalent of a kid today going to an amusement park.
Each of us took a pail and split ways to find our own hickory tree. I couldn't have been the greatest nut picker, cuz my memory bank still holds too many pictures of squirrels chasing each other through the dry leaves and up and down the trees and back and forth on the branches.
 |
| Hickory Nut Meats |
What they say is true. The older we get, the more we re-visit our childhoods and the more we realize that we never grow out of them.
Monday, January 23, 2012
Weathering the Weather
 |
| Note the goldfinch coming in for a landing... at the base of the two evergreens. |
This morning is blustery, with snow blowing off the rooftops and trees doing their winter branch dance. Whirlwinds whip the snow in circles like mini tornadoes. Definitely a day for us to stay off the highways.
But, it's nothing compared to this date back in 1916, where in Browning, Montana, the temperature plummeted 100 degrees in 24 hours, going from a mild 44 degrees to -56 degrees. This has been credited as being the greatest drop in temperature ever reported in the United States in 24 hours.
Makes me shiver just thinking about it!
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Einstein Said it Best
Few things push my buttons more than people waving their intelligence flags, leaving the rest of us cookies feeling like somebody forgot to put us in the oven.
If there are over 7 billion of us now, there are over 7 billion individual heads computing individual perceptions, thoughts, situations, feelings, interests, goals, and abilities. That's why it's so absurd for any one to boast about themselves, the things they've done, the places they've gone, and the experiences they've encountered. Every human has his/her own list of things they've done, places they've been, and experiences they've lived through. It's okay to share them, but not use them as ladders.
While raising us kids, mom and dad both used old adages to get their points across to us. Lord only knows how many times we heard, "Self brag stinks." Another one was "Don't judge me by what I don't know.....judge me by what I do know."
It's good to feel good about ourselves, but bad to fling our accomplishments and our knowledge around like spit balls. Sure, we all have our highlights that we'd like others to know about, but sometimes it's the way we go about it.
The best advice we can give ourselves is to stop and recognize and cherish the gifts, talents, and level of competence we have. Life is all about balance, so it's equally necessary that we recognize and appreciate the gifts, talents, and level of competence of those around us. No one ever said life is a competitive sport of who is better, who is smarter, who is more of this and that. Life is like a recipe, with different amounts of each ingredient, when mixed together, turns out to be the perfect formula for the ultimate goodness of all.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)