Where My Lines Are Laid

I've been listening to The Wind in the Willows on podcast and am thoroughly entranced! I've never read it before. Pom Pom, don't be ashamed of me. I have a copy of the book with illustrations by Michael Hague and am leafing through looking at the beautiful paintings. This was my favorite section from the entire book; and one very appropriate since I was listening to it on our way back from Oklahoma.

"As he hurried along, eagerly anticipating the moment when he would be at home again among the things he knew and liked, the Mole saw clearly that he was an animal of tilled field and hedgerow, linked to the ploughed furrow, the frequented pasture, the lane of evening lingerings, the cultivated garden plot. For others the asperities, the stubborn endurance, or the clash of actual conflict, that went with Nature in the rough; he must be wise, must keep to the pleasant places in which his lines were laid and which held adventure enough , in their way, to last for a lifetime."

I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Mole. I'm a creature of tilled field and hedgerow, linked to pasture and lane of evening lingerings. My lines are laid in pleasant country places with adventures enough for my lifetime.

True Woman Blog- I'm Not Reading "Fifty Shades of Grey"

Please read this well-written post about a new book that's causing a sensation. Believe me, you will hear about it. This article will give you the ammunition to speak sensibly to those you meet who rave about it. I concur with True Woman. I'm not reading it either. No apologies.

True Woman | I'm Not Reading "Fifty Shades of Grey"

LOVE-The Greatest Thing

"I tell you the more I think, the more I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people." Vincent van Gogh

I've been thinking lately about what it means to truly love. I think the opposite of love is judgment; the bad kind that is critical, proud, and not done in order to help another person. I guess that could be called hate. It's more about tearing that person down in order to built yourself up, although I think there are many motives for being judgmental. I know sometimes I don't even realize I'm being that way until someone points it out to me.

There's a good kind of judgment that everyone takes part in every day. You decide which kind of shampoo to buy or someone performs an action that isn't good and you decide to talk to them about it. We do this thousands of times a day. We couldn't live any other way. I'm not talking about this kind but the destructive kind.

I'm watching two of my friends right now play this 'bad judgment' game. Actually, one is playing it and the other is trying to be likable to the judgmental one. It's painful to watch, because I used to be pretty judgmental myself. Not vitriolic but not kind either. I didn't like this about myself, so I started praying to God, the author of perfect love, to change this about me, and slowly over the years I've become able to love the unlovely.

It hurts me to see a friend being abused by hateful judgments against her, because I love her and don't want her to get hurt. But also because I see myself as a harsh judge and wonder how many people in my past (and probably present) I've left bleeding on the side of the road from the trainwreck that is my tongue.

I think the first time I acknowledged my judgmental attitude was when I was about 21 years old. We were newlyweds and friends with another recently married couple. We lived on the same street, went to the same church, and hung out together. But she drove me crazy with some of her mannerisms! They weren't wrong; just got on my nerves big time. I began praying that I would love her in spite of those things, and God not only did that...those things actually stopped bothering me at all or I just started finding them amusing. I never could have done that on my own.

And look at the effects of being judged in an unloving way. We all know how that makes you feel. And does it accomplish anything good? Does it bring about change for the better? No and no.

Contrast that with what love does. It draws you in and causes you to desire change; maybe not immediately but at least a crack may occur in the heart. Have you ever been around anyone that just exudes love and acceptance? I have and it draws me in like a magnet would metal. I want to be with them and I want to be like them. Only true, Christian love will change the world for the better.

Oklahoma!

This week we're visiting our soldier son and his wife at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. I've never been to Oklahoma before. I'm surprised at how much it reminds me of Colorado. We've got one more day here and then we'll start the two-day trip back home. I read one book on the way up and hope to read the one for my bookgroup on Friday on the way home.

More images to come...

"Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?"

"We are living in an isolation that would have been unimaginable to our ancestors, and yet we have never been more accessible. Over the past three decades, technology has delivered to us a world in which we need not be out of contact for a fraction of a moment. … Yet within this world of instant and absolute communication, unbounded by limits of time or space, we suffer from unprecedented alienation. We have never been more detached from one another, or lonelier. In a world consumed by ever more novel modes of socializing, we have less and less actual society. We live in an accelerating contradiction: the more connected we become, the lonelier we are."

—author Stephen Marche, in his widely quoted Atlantic article, "Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?" [The Atlantic, 5/12]


What do you think about the above statement; agree or disagree?

Rewards of the Simple Life

"To find the universal elements enough;
to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be
refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter;
to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated
over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring...
these are some of the rewards
of the simple life."
John Burroughs