as i am getting older, i am realizing i am getting more emotional. more sensitive to things. it really does frustrate me. does that mean i am caring more about what others think. i also find it has something to do with how busy i am, or how much fun i am having. if i am bored and tired i retaliate a bit more. if i spend a lot more inside, i get edgy too. so, i wonder if that is just changing or if it does come down to being outside and realizing once again that the world around me is bigger than me. maybe, that’s what it takes, get involved in something you are passionate about, call that home for a while and see how things change.

Last night Jason and the missionaries stopped by. I asked for a blessing. Out of three priesthood holders, none of them had any consecrated oil. They consecrated some and left it in my freezer! To me, that is soooooooo cool!!!

During the blessing, Zeke put his head on my lap. I prayed that he would feel better, too.

Wow! We went to sleep and neither of us had gut distress ALL night long! When I woke up, I had to touch Zeke to make sure he was alive. Once I got up, he was very frisky During the night I had soaking night sweats. I feel much better

Also….yesterday we were under a winter weather advisory. We were supposed to get 3 to 7 inches of snow….more in the higher elevations. We usually qualify as “higher”. It did snow and it did start to pile up. When I woke up this morning there was no snow. Not what I expected!

GEOGRAPHY FACTS

Alaska

More than half of the coastline of the entire United States is in Alaska.  

Amazon

The Amazon rainforest produces more than 20% the world’s oxygen supply.

The Amazon River pushes so much water into the Atlantic Ocean that, more than one hundred miles at sea off the mouth of the river, one can dip fresh water out of the ocean.  The volume of water in the Amazon river is greater than the next eight largest rivers in the world combined and three times the flow of all rivers in the United States.

Antarctica

Antarctica is the only land on our planet that is not owned by any country.

Ninety percent of the world’s ice covers Antarctica . This ice also represents seventy  percent of all the fresh water in the world. As strange as it sounds, however, Antarctica is essentially a desert. The average yearly total precipitation is about two inches Although covered with ice (all but 0.4% of it, ice.), Antarctica is the driest place on the planet, with an absolute humidity lower than the Gobi desert.

Brazil

Brazil got its name from the nut, not the other way around.

Canada

Canada has more lakes than the rest of the world combined. Canada is an Indian word meaning ‘ Big Village.’

Chicago

Next to Warsaw , Chicago has the largest Polish population in the world. 

Detroit

Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, carries the designation M-1, so named because it was the first paved road anywhere.

Damascus, Syria

Damascus, Syria, was flourishing a couple of thousand years before Rome was founded in 753 BC, making it the oldest continuously inhabited city in existence.  

Istanbul, Turkey

Istanbul, Turkey, is the only city in the world located on two continents.

Los Angeles

Los Angeles’ full name is El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula — and can be abbreviated to 3.63% of its size: L.A.

New York City

The term ‘The Big Apple’ was coined by touring jazz musicians of the 1930’s who used the slang expression ‘apple’ for any town or city. Therefore, to play New York City is to play the big time – The Big Apple.

There are more Irish in New York City than in Dublin , Ireland ; more Italians in New York City than in Rome, Italy ; and more Jews in New York City than in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Ohio

There are no natural lakes in the state of Ohio , everyone is manmade.

Pitcairn Island

The smallest island with country status is Pitcairn in Polynesia , at just 1.75 sq. miles/4,53 sq. km.

Rome

The first city to reach a population of 1 million people was Rome , Italy in 133 B.C.  There is a city called Rome on every continent.

Siberia

Siberia contains more than 25% of the world’s forests.

S.M.O.M .

The actual smallest sovereign entity in the world is the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (S.M.O.M). It is located in the city of Rome, Italy, has an area of two tennis courts, and as of 2001 has a population of 80, 20 less people than the Vatican.  It is a sovereign entity under international law, just as the Vatican is.

Sahara Desert

In the Sahara Desert , there is a town named Tidikelt , Algeria , which did not receive a drop of rain for ten years.

Technically though, the driest place on Earth is in the valleys of the Antarctic near Ross Island . There has been no rainfall there for two million years.

Spain

Spain literally means ‘the land of rabbits.’

St. Paul , Minnesota

St. Paul, Minnesota , was originally called Pig’s Eye after a man named Pierre ‘Pig’s Eye’ Parrant who set up the first business there.

Roads

Chances that a road is unpaved in the U.S.A : 1%, in Canada : 75%

Russia

The deepest hole ever drilled by man is the Kola Superdeep Borehole, in Russia . It reached a depth of 12,261 meters (about 40,226 feet or 7.62 miles). It was drilled for scientific research and gave up some unexpected discoveries, one of which was a huge deposit of hydrogen – so massive that the mud coming from the hole was boiling with it.

United States

The Eisenhower interstate system requires that one-mile in every five must be straight. These straight sections are usable as airstrips in times of war or other emergencies.

Waterfalls

The water of Angel Falls (the World’s highest) in Venezuela drops 3,212 feet (979 meters). They are 15 times higher than Niagara Falls .

I have always said , you should learn something new every day.

Unfortunately, many of us are at that age where what we learn today, we forget tomorrow.

But, give it a shot anyway.

Today is Guruvayoor Ekadashi.

My wife observes it by abstaining from eating rice. In the evening she will fast.

In the early morning, we all went to the Guruvayoorappan temple at Mayurvihar, Phase 1, in Delhi.

I wonder if Ekadashi (eleventh day after full moon/ new moon) is observed any where in the north India!

In the United Tanks of America; this week is Thanksgiving, the season started by Abraham Lincoln during the darkest days of the American Civil War to remind americans that they did indeed have a lot to be thankful for.  WordPress decided that they would take the opportunity to get people Vlogging about the things in their lives for which they are thankful… however I have missed the proverbial boat, and haven’t the time to go video editing at the moment (hence the tumbleweeds flying around my YouTube channel).

However I thought that in the spirit of things, and always loving the excuse to have a bit of a holiday, this post is about things, places, people and ideas that I – as a lowly british citizen who will most likely amount to nothing – am thankful for. So let’s begin with the obvious: My Existence.

When all is said and done, I am just a great big humanoid mass of cells, made up of molecules which in turn are made up of atoms which in their turn are made up of mostly empty space… if they weren’t so electrically charged, you could actually walk through walls. But this arrangement of atoms didn’t have to be me, I could have been any combination of human DNA imaginable… I could have been taller, shorter, fatter, thinner, disabled (I don’t call asthma a disability) or indeed you and for the chance to live a life, however brief and however pointless, I am immensely thankful.

Next on my list is my family, however flawed they are individually, and however much they argue, without them I would not be the person I am today, without my mother I would never have got even close to some of my goals, and without my father’s deadpan philosophies I would be just as certifiable as my mother can be (sorry ma!). My dear brother could be called a nemesis, except that as he has grown up he has become one of my best friends… despite being a mathematician, rock musician, and politically apathetic to the point of perversion… and I couldn’t be without him.

Talking of Friends, it’s probably worth mentioning them in general, but to go through each one I was thankful for would be beyond the scope of this blog, so I will just mention a couple. The Debaters come first, the people whomI can have a proper discussion with about our differing opinions, but still have mutual respect at the end. Secondly there are the Strategists, those few people whom I trust implicitly enough to confide in on anything, and who will pick up the pieces when I fail. Lastly are the Educators, the friends I have who will answer my questions, no matter how dumb, about their subject areas of specialist knowledge. I have a great respect for my friends, and for my enemies, and I am thankful for them beyond words.

 I am thankful for being in a world I do not understand, as to understand everything in the world, let alone the universe, would then mean there would be no knowledge left to gain, and the point of existence (at least to me) would be null and void… I do wonder what will happen when the span of human knowledge gets to a theory of everything.

That said I am also thankful for Science as when you want to know something, where do you turn? In this world you have two basic options, Science or God, and anyone who reads my blogs/facebook notes will know my views on the latter. Science gives us a toolbox with which to search out the answers to all the questions in the (un)known universe, and it is truely brilliant to gaze up at the night sky, or down a microscope, and find whole new worlds just lying there, that you had never known before.

You can probably add Human Curiosity to this list, and I agree wholeheartedly when Dr Who says things that make him seem to be rather in awe of Humans, remarking on the human inclination for curiosity and exploration. This is one of the things that makes us great, and whilst some all fear the unknown to some extent, we should all try to embrace it.

Mssrs. Jim Thomas, Alan Brown, Zahid Akram and Chris Sweetland are four men whom I am most grateful for having known, and for having had the luxury of being taught by at school, because the four of them together (and by no means on their own) gave me a lust for learning of which I am still afflicted, the former two being Geography Teachers and the latter being Science Teachers were all extremely enthusiastic in their subjects, although of variable teaching success, each and every one having something to bring to the table, Alan made Human Geography bearable and even interesting, and even helped me self learn Meteorology, whilst Jim taught me Glacial Geomorphology, and this I think is the main reason why I went into a Geology. Chris has a way with chemistry that can make it fun and understandable, whilst his industry background gives some perspective and relavance to the teaching, and dear old Zahid, whilst not being the best physics teacher I ever had, was by far the quirkiest, funniest and had the highest enthusiasm!

The last item on my list is Books, mainly non-fiction… because if there is anything you want to know about, even in these days of internet and wiki-(no-peer-review)-pedia there are always books. I sincerely hope there always will be, for there is nothing more satisfying that sitting with a well written book and whiling away the late hours learning something new from the carefully printed and edited pages, and thanks to public libraries, they are accessable to all.

So what about you? What things are you thankful for and why? Perhaps with people taking just some time to consider that question, some will be happier for it.

looking for life is like
looking for a gun when you
don’t have one
you won’t find it
you can’t find
what’s always there
with you
it’s not love
it doesn’t turn
to shade
like hate
though death
is like aspirin
for those who
grieve too long
and when you’re
dead you won’t
find anything
but acceptance
for what it was
you were looking for
all along
the tide
a seepage
from the imprisonment
of bones
their agonies
blinding us to
what we had
to what
we were asking
who made
me
what am
I ?

And why not? It’s the last ragged remnant of my harvest. The tomatoes visible behind the chard are actually riddled with fungus. They wouldn’t taste like summer anymore, anyway. After taking months to recover from our pair of hungry bunnies, the chard is still bitterly delicious. It apparently enjoys a light flirtation with frost. I hope it’ll still stand tall in ten days, when I return from California.

For now, I’m grateful to have time with my family. Everyone is (reasonably) healthy. None of the various cancers in my family has made an encore appearance. I’m still recovering from last winter’s mystery illness, and as long as I notice continued improvement, my spirits are (mostly) good. My father is clearer-headed than I’d expected. There’s hope that his memory lapses may be at least partly due to a vitamin B12 deficiency, and thus treatable. My niece is recovering well from back-to-back swine flu and a complex bone break that required surgery. My own kids are masquerading as angels, so thrilled are they to be with their cousins and grandparents. My mom still makes the world’s most delicious caramel rolls.

Everything dear to me is as fragile and transient – as tough and resilient – as my garden. My task is to be in the moment, savor the last leaves of the harvest, taste their solid transience, and know that planting time is only weeks away.

Happy Thanksgiving, kind readers. May your blessings taste as sweet as mine.

My Grandmothers embroidery

I remember sitting around the heater in her living room on cold winter nights.. no television, no radio… no sound until someone found something worth saying… how much do kids miss these days… My grandmother – Mamaw as we called her -  sat quietly in here place on her couch…nimble fingers weaving, knitting beautiful things as she taught us all with beautiful words…  soon she would fold her work… silently pick up her worn bible that she had read through seven times… She read to us a verse that came to her heart… then taught us its meaning… prayer…. then we talked…often of those who were already gone… of he mysteries of life… of her experiences… of the wagon trip to get to this place… how my grandfather cut every log for the house…  the fire is warm protecting us from the frozen world outside… and we learned…. and we learned love… and we learned to wonder…

And we learned to wonder at the sky and the clouds, the stars and the Heavens...

I would run into the farm house in the middle of the green fields when I saw a beautiful cloud.   MaMaw would stop what ever she was doing to come look with me… “Oh, isn’t that beautiful”  she would say.. And we would stand there in wonder… I a mere boy… my grandmother a woman who had seen so much, worked so hard… but who would stand with me staring into the sky …. teaching me to wonder….

I learned to take joy in all things

I remember standing on the front porch with my mother when it would be raining, thundering and lightning… she was terrified of lightening… But she wanted me to be filled with wonder… not with terror… She wanted me to wonder at the mystery… at the power… so she held me beside her telling me a story… of God… when a new bolt of lightening would strike and the thunder would roll she would say as she trembled “see God is moving furniture… that was a big piece of furniture wasn’t it”…  what a beautiful thing to teach a child beauty from a place of your own terror… when you can barely stand still… but you want to give your child a gift.. the creation of wonder…

Today, I love storms… I wonder at the lightning… I marvel at the thunder…

I came to wonder at the art of my grandmother… that fingers could fly so fast creating… just out of whole cloth… and I slowly came to understand that I could do the same in my art… music… now teaching… now photography…

and I learned to wonder at the creation… to look up into the sky to think why… why do clouds form… why does the light change from moment to moment in the storm…

I learned wonder… I learned it from my mother out of her terror of storms… from my grandmother out of her devotion to life… and family… and God…

And as this true teaching was done with me so I was given an incomparable gift…

The creation of wonder….

Image courtesy of brookes-bearnecessities.blogspot.com

Well!

I knew it. Of course I knew it. But somewhere along the line it slipped from my awareness again.

And yet, there it is once more, confronting me with such glory and such delight that it dizzies me.

Do you want to know?

Here it is:

Food enjoyed – and I mean, really enjoyed, with that close-your-eyes-and-experience-the-taste-to-the-full kind of intensity – almost a Capital Letter Enjoyed! – oh, such food is how one should eat most of the time. That’s not the principal discovery, though.

It is this:

When food is truly Enjoyed like this, you need only a little to satisfy you completely.

This week I lunched at a restaurant and had an aubergine vegetarian stack: aubergine, tomato, feta, mozzarella and … hmmmmm! basil pesto – and I swooned with pleasure. I ate both little stacks on my plate, but afterwards realized just one would have sufficed. So little!

There are probably tons of research about this phenomenon, but I don’t need research to figure that when you enjoy food with all your senses, your brain just gets that message so much more completely that you are actually nourished.

This is the second time in as many weeks it has happened to me, and I realize that contrary to my normal belief, I really enjoy eating truly good food.

I used to have my nose in the air about haute cuisine. All those large plates with tiny morsels on them, surrounded by curlicues of some sauce, I said. Served in seven courses combining to less than a full plate of homecooked food, I said. How pretentious! I said.

And then, one single time in my life, I enjoyed such a meal. And I learned, much to my surprise and my eternal delight, that eating small, beautifully prepared portions enabled me to really appreciate what was on my plate. To fully experience the food with all my senses! It was one of the times in my life I felt the most nourished, the most replete.

It made me pause.

After this week’s experience, I’m converted.

Do you realize the implications? What would happen if ALL our food was served beautifully, delighting the eye and the nose as much as the palate? What if ALL our food was a wonderful combination of complementing fragrances and tastes?

I dare say we would have a world full of thin, healthy, happy people.

Could anything be more wonderful than really enjoying food the way you really enjoy moving your body or drinking in a breathtaking view? They’re all the same. They speak of living with passion. They speak of LIFE.

It needs to be fully enjoyed.

Oh, and I do!

basically, this is amazing.

De zomercollectie van Walter Van Beirendonck heet Wonder. Hiermee kaart hij de copyright-problematiek aan…

Gene zever. Bewonderd zal mee kaarten, zonder gebluf. Meer wonderen dus op www.waltervanbeirendonck.com

I only shoot when I am moved by the moment itself.  Regardless of the subject, my camera simply becomes my translator of the moment as I experience it.  Instinctively maneuvering myself and my lens to embrace the moment fully, through framing, perspective, and ambient lighting, I ‘dance’ with my camera.  Like a first kiss, a moment cannot live again.  Thus I only have an instant to capture that moment… no re-takes… either I caught it or I did not.

Black and white photography has always held an added dimension of wonder for me.  The hushed unfolding of the moment, without the distraction of color, leads me straight to the story itself.

Color photography recently became a renewed form of storytelling for me.  The energy of color, whether bold or subdued, can heighten the sensory connection to the moment.

Regardless of your own preference for color or black and white photography, I invite you to ‘dance’ with the moment as you view my images.

Spiritflow – 2007

As time goes by,

I realised there are just too many things in this life that I need to handle. I need to know, I need to understand, I need to cope and I need to get over it if I want to survive.

I don’t understand what has happened in my life so far, but as I grow older, I found more hurtful phenomenon.

I found more obstacles, more discrimination, more tears, more who bleed…

This week, I learnt about two things:

1. World has changed just too much.

New viruses, outbreaks, H1N1, disasters, wars… lengthy yet ironically being overlooked by most of us. Does this show our world has changed to the extent that we could not even understand it anymore? Is it our fault? Or the world just simply changed?

I guess the world has indeed altered into something that I could not imagine what it would be in the next 10 years if these disastrous phenomenons keep happening.

,

2. Life-beings – humans, animals, plants – are just too ancient

Everyone perceived with the technological advances, we are labeled as modern society. Modern human-beings. But do you really believe that is the state we humans are currently hold?

I don’t see anything like that. We are just too old, too ancient, too long. We are worn out.

Life without technologies would leave us stupid. Life without competitions is not supposed to be in modern life.We are too ancient compared to all the technologies we’ve ourselves created for ourselves.

Within one month, can you imagine how many new gadgets being produced to accompany us in this country? But, have you ever wondered how many of them actually save our lives and make our lives to be better? Let me repeat myself, better! Convenient doesn’t mean it is Better.

Mobile phone, mp3 player, e-book, plasma tv, laptop, etc… All these do you really think it makes our life better? Everyday, they produced new design, new feature, new price etc.. but how much damage have these gadgets give to our ancient self?

phone – radiation caused cancer?

mp3player – blast out more to your ears and your ears capabilities to listen is gonna be like our old aunt.

e-book – eyes?

How about the waste of these products after they are thrown away every time we purchase a new cooler design product?

I am sure you who read this is mature enough to know what it ‘contribute’ to our environment.

….

When every month we have our new gadget being produced, does anyone even care with new disease being found or those long-history disease that have not received much focus by the government? We just don’t care, we care about what we’ll wear, what will be hanging on our body..

Take an example of “psoriasis”. How many of you know about this disease? How much have people done to research on  this disease? How much have been forked out by the government to take a look of this disease to find possible cure?

Others are too busy with politics, technologies, fashion, lifestyle, entertainment, education while ignoring the basic.

TO SURVIVE and LIVE ON…

To be cooperative and help our other fellows to survive. Create an environment where we can all live together. Support each other basic need in life. Physically – health, emotionally – love and religions.

//

I wonder…

Do you think 2012 is really a dooms day? It has been refuted by the authorities that the maya calendar does not say that it will be our doomsday.

A lot of people have watched the infamous 2010 movie by now I bet (though I have not). What do you guys think about doomsday?

I don’t know when, but I believe that our world and life-beings in this world are just too ‘chui’ (damaged) to continue living, running and surviving.

Shouldn’t there just be doomsday? when everyone is just being scrapped together with this world as He remake a new fresh one? I wonder…

Or should we find that silver lining and start to change ourselves. Change our focus of life not only as a “pursue higher and higher” but “pursue balance and harmony”?

.

a supposedly optimistic individual,

sign off.

Nifty home-made compost tumbler by Heather and Luke

Taking down the old fence and putting up a new cedar picket fence

Building more garden beds

No idea what she’s building. Nice butt

Raised beds painted a pretty blue

I find it amusing that Heather is acting like I was when I was pregnant with her. I did a few building projects while I still could….and of course I had a garden! Heather always does things 10 or 100 times better than me, though….

I listened to this program on NCPR today and thought about how Heather is not typical…and how sad that is for other kids. I wish more could be set free to learn and grow like Heather! Hmmmmm….what will her son be like????

Are you driving to your Thanksgiving dinner this weekend? Beware that your risk while rolling down the highway may be higher or lower depending on the state in which you are traveling. When it comes to dying in a car accident, some states are more deadly than others, and the ones at the top may surprise you. See the chart, Car Occupant Fatalities by State, 2006, below:

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” James 1:17

Suggested Scripture Reading: I Corinthians 12:1-11

Many times in life, we can be so caught up with the gift that we forget the Giver. We live in a land of abundance. Most of us do not want for anything. Throughout this land, God’s blessing upon us is evident everyday and is seen in all things. God has allowed our land to be fruitful with provisions above and beyond our expectations. Our land provides us with beauty and wonders which enable us to take pleasure in enjoying our creation through exploring, traveling and vacationing. This gives us the ability to be refreshed mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually.

In His Word, God guarantees us that as we live in His land, it can be a land flowing with gifts of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, kindness, and self control. What a prosperous land that awaits all who are in Christ. It is promised to those who have accepted the gift of Jesus Christ.

I would encourage all of us as we start each new day to begin by acknowledging and walking in thanksgiving to the “Gift Giver.” May we never let the gift shadow the Giver. Be encouraged to know that every good gift is heaven sent.

Encouragement: Look Around And See The Many Gifts God Has Given

I encourage you to look around and see the many gifts God has placed in your life. I would like to take this opportunity to thank God for each one of you. Each person God places in our paths is a gift to us. May we never take any gift for granted.

Yesterday is history,
Tomorrow is a mystery,
Today is a gift,
that is why it is called the present. (Author Unknown)

Heather kept telling me she doesn’t really look pregnant….she looks like she ate too many donuts. Snicker…..looks like a baby bump to me!

Mix To Go Magazine Presents

DANCE AFTER DARK | The Mix Show

The theme: “At A Classic Pitch”

Dance After Dark

Mix by DJ FREEDOM

Live at 632 Studios in Brooklyn, New York City

Monday, November 23, 2009

(DOWNLOAD LINK AT BOTTOM OF SONG LIST)

SONG LIST:

(1) Razamatazz (Free*Mix) – Quincy Jones

(2) Portuguese Love (Free*Mix) – Phil Asher’s Miami Samba Vs DJ Freedom’s Tribal

(3) You’re My Latest, My Greatest Inspiration (Quentin Harris Remix) – Teddy Pendergrass

(4) Make Sure Your Sure (Quentin Harris & Timmy Regisford Remix) – Stevie Wonder

(5) Baby I’m Scared of You (Free*Mix) – Womack & Womack

(6) Still In Love With You (Masters At Work Dub) – Melisa Morgan

(7) Forget Me Nots (DJ Freedom’s Back To Basics Mix) – Patrice Rushen

(8) Club Lonely (Original Vocal Mix) – Lil Louis

(9) Everybody Dance – Chic

(10) Encore (Freedom’s Classic Club Vocal Remix) – Cheryl Lynn

(11) In The AM (Quentin’s Remix Vs DJ Freedom’s Remix) – Mary J Blige…dedicated to cousin Ann Douglas!

(12) Horizons (Freedom’s Classic House Remix) – The Sylvers

(13) Nights Over Egypt (Freedom’s Nights Over Ibiza Remix) – The Jones Girls

(14) Super Constellation 2009 (Freedom’s Disco Pitch Remix) – Sousa & Mad

(15) Ecstasy (Freedom’s Classic Pitch Remix) – Barry White

(16) Ready 4 More – International Featuring Miss Lynsey

(17) The Night The Lights Went Out (The Black Science Orchestra Remix) – The Trammps

(18) Don’t Talk Just Dance _Free*Mix Project Featuring Jon B

(19) No One – Maxwell

(20) Bad Times (I Can’t Stand It) -Captain Rapp

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FIWPVCN4

I was walking down the old dirt paths and slowly navigating my way through the landmine of pinecones and taking in each snapshot of scenery that dripped with raw beauty. I was taken in by all the things around me. The sweet harmonious melodies of the birds singing in choired unison and the romantic whispered chirpings of the cicadas’ calling me deeper into the forest, deeper into the night. It is this call that leads me to wonder if there is more to life than a book? Is all that life is, summed up in the pages of 66 authors?

I wouldn’t be able to share with you my experience in a captivating forest if all I did was read about the forest. I might be able to give you glimpses and a sort of scientific approach to what it might feel like if I were in a forest, but the experience is vastly different than the science. One is factual, the other is life-altering. This isn’t to say that facts don’t have the ability to change our lives, but studies have shown that one out of one person are always changed by their experiences, whether good or bad. I could have explained to you a map of the forest, but it wouldn’t have given you the contours, colors and outlines that you can only experience in person.

You can sit down and read a really good book. You might even feel like you are one of the characters drifting through each of the pages, but there is nothing like living your own story. If we replace the word living with writing, then maybe what we might be able to say is that all of us are still writing not just our story, but God’s story as well. We get to write with Him. In The Bible: The Biography by Karen Armstrong, she asserts that before the Old Testament was canonized that the Jews had this belief that they were responsible to reinterpret scripture as much as possible so that it was relevant and spoke to the current structures of society. In fact, one place, she even says that they had thrown out certain parts of scripture because it wasn’t relevant to the time. For most, this is a different view to what we have been taught(but just because it’s different doesn’t mean its not true). And if it is true, then what are the ripples in the pond? I think for those who believe the Bible holds all the answers then it seems like an attack rather than an enquiry, because it seems a bit reductionistic to try and make the Bible anything other than the Word of God. Yet, this is isn’t the hope of postmoderns or those with questions. It is to experience God as those in scripture did. So rather than see the bible as trail map to be studied, it is more like an invitation between friends to come and walk with God and discover the raw unedited beauty of the journey. To come and discover God. To “taste and see that he is good”. Both words for taste and see in the Hebrew when translated mean “to experience”. God is inviting us all not to simply read the pages, but live the pages. Write the pages. And Be the pages.

Postmodernism is running through the halls of our churches and fortune 500 companies and classrooms, but is postmodernism the enemy? Can’t postmodernism be a good thing too? It can help us revisit things and begin asking hard questions that maybe aren’t that comfortable but might be necessary to pursue together to find the answers to. Postmodernism is simply asking the question “Is there more to life than this? Is there more to the Bible than this? Is there more to truth than this?” The ancient Jewish followers of YHWH believed it was imperative to ask questions. To be Jew meant you had questions. To be a person who lived and breathed meant you were a person who was driven to seek answers to those questions, no matter how long the journey took. No matter where those questions took you, it was your responsibility as a Jew to make sure you found the answer.

Giant Crystals

I was going to make my next post a simple household hint that everyone should know, when I saw a documentary on National Geographic about these crystals. My jaw dropped. Those are people on those crystals. Apparently the Earth has these mind blowing phenomena at a level below the crust that we just never get to see, but the configuration of the caves in Mexico gets us to this one. It is so hot and filled with poisonous gases that researchers can only be in there for about 9 minutes! It makes you wonder if the areas of the world that are considered spiritual energy vortexes like Sedona or Shasta, perhaps they are right on top of a certain configuration of crystals! You can see more of these incredible images at www.nationalgeographic.com Household hint to follow!

From the annals of Scientific American, (my father’s favorite “magazine,” the latest issue always adorning the coffee table in my childhood home), comes the announcement of the world’s first hard drive featuring Random Access Memory or RAM as it would come to be called. This first hard drive was part of IBM’s 305 RAMAC and weighing in at over one ton, it was capable of storing a whopping 5 MB of data!

This technological milestone occurred in 1956, the year I was born. Just look how far we have come: I am wearing, on a lanyard around my neck, a tiny little device capable of storing 16 GB (or 16,000 MB) of data.

Consider this: Dr. Robert Birge, a chemist at the University of Connecticut, creates data storage (memory) devices from the protein bacteriorhodopsin which occurs naturally in swamps and is capable of capturing enormous quantities of data in a tiny vial of the protein. This is one possible direction for the future of data storage. Wild stuff. Literally!

Some of us are old enough to still be awed by all of this, but what really staggers my mind is that entire generations to come

First hard drive being unloaded.

will never know a world without this technology. Perhaps we can share with them what it was like in the “old days” so they have an appreciation of where this technology they take for granted came from as well as the incredible minds which created it.

The human mind truly is a wondrous thing.

“We live in terribly complex times. We are confronted by very serious problems. Some of us are faced with sickness, with economic difficulties, with worry and concern over many matters. Our refuge, our peace, our well-being lie in walking in the way of the Lord.”