My Poor Car

It looks a little better than it did Sunday night... but this is after the mechanic started checking out the damage and taking things apart. It was almost considered totaled. almost...

I am extremely thankful it was the wheel and not my door! Please continue to pray for me and Mel as we are both suffering from sore necks. Please also pray for the Bolton family -a Bolton hit me and was cited for a DUI. They seem to be well known by the police. And the fact the guy was high and driving with a baby in the car goes to show you that this family and the guy need alot of prayer and maybe prison time! I just hope his car insurance is paid up. I'd really like to use my tax return for a vacation not a deductible!

There is probably a lot more I could say but I'll let the picture say the rest for now!

Passionate Celibacy on a Snowy Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day-
"...here's wishing you, as Oscar Wilde says, a 'passionate celibacy!'" so said my friend the other day.

2 years ago I wrote a devotional that would be published for the winter quarter of 2007. The specific day I wrote for was today February 14, 2007 -Valentine's Day! In it I stated I thought it rather ironic that I got to do the Valentine's devotional, me a single woman who at the time of writing was suffering a rather fresh broken heart.

So for the last 2 years I have thought of all the people who would one day read today's devotional and be moved to pray for me -perhaps that I would get a Valentine for next year! I have been looking forward to this day, for some reason I have been depending on this powerful host of prayers and prayerers to bring about a breakthrough of some kind! And as I sat thinking about Valentine's Day 2007 I know I felt those prayers all day.

Valentine's Day was eclipsed by a SNOW DAY! So it didn't really feel like Valentine's Day much at all. There was no room for feeling sorry for myself or disappointed in any way because the day was so full of cozy loveliness and roommate camaraderie.

The day went like this:
The sound of sleet or freezing rain hitting against my window was a sure sign that I would be sleeping in... All 4 of us were home! By 9ish we started to make our way to the kitchen. What followed was homefries with sausage and eggs. Then, some connecting with the bosses to figure out if I could in fact stay home all day. The 4 of us cleared the driveway and came into chicken noodle soup and brownies. We watched "The Illusionist" - excellent movie I highly recommend it- I clapped at the end. I lite my first fire in the fireplace and all night we sat cozily by the fire beading, quilting, surfing the Internet, sipping Lambrusco to the tunes of Frank Sinatra and Michael Buble' which at times inspired a little cha-cha-cha hip action! Did I mention I spent the whole day in my pjs! At one point, we ran out of logs so I put on my boots to gather more. It felt strangely exhilarating, the chill of the night and the thrill of gathering wood as if I were
momentarily an Ingles or a frontierswoman...

I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day ... a snowy Valentine's Day with my roomies.
And I have had at the back of my mind this "passionate celibacy" that my friend jokingly wished for me... my response to him was "But if I must have celibacy... then it might as well be passionate!"

I'm pleased to say it was a passionate day... a Passionate Celibacy on a Snowy Valentine's Day... it is possible and it is simply lovely...

Reflections

It was cold and sunny and a glorious Saturday. Because hope, glory and wonder abound my afternoon walk at the creek refreshed and ushered me into the presence of God.

The stirring sound of the moving water and the way the water reflected the sunlight on the underside of the "Monet" bridge as I like to think of it was just gorgeous! (I tried to get this to play as a video, but no such luck.)

When my fingers started to go numb I decided to sit in the car with the heater on! From my car seat, I looked over at the opposite side of bridge and I could see more reflections on the underside of the bridge and then I saw 2 deer -one of which was dripping wet. I thought to myself: if I had come a little later or a little earlier or if I parked in a different place or left right away I might not has seen either. What a loss that would have been!

And the song that played in the background of these thoughts and the deer and the sunny reflections went like this, "...Here in your presence heaven and earth become one..." That's what it felt like heaven and earth were melding together and I was in God's presence and his reflection could be seen all around.

On Dying Well

This week I have witnessed from a far -through the intimacy of blogs- the triumphant homegoing of Al Groves a professor at Westminster Theological Seminary.

Although I met him only once and emailed him a couple of times for work I have been greatly touched by his dying so well. He was a man that was loved by all those who knew him. I remember my heart broke with the Westminster community when they found out last year that Al had terminal cancer because I knew how important he was to them.

Over the past year, I witnessed through his blog what happens when a Christian gets cancer.
His wife blogged on his final days and hours that there was much storytelling, laughing, singing, praying, and the blessed assurance that soon Al would see Jesus face to face.

He died well because he lived well.

http://algroves.info/ If anything read the entry for 1-16-07...