Definition #123 Jeanne from Queens

These humans are messy.....

These humans are messy…..

thinking – 2006

pink cheeks in the mountain peaks

no need for red hair!

Definition #122 Disobedient

Bob Marleyby Ray Ferrer

Can an elder be

a disobedient child?

Choose self over God?

Definition #121 Spontaneous

The oddest anomaly: an intimate letter to a stranger Ask the baby owls!

The oddest anomaly:
an intimate letter to a stranger
Ask the baby owls!

Pico Iyer said:

“The less conscious one is of being ‘a writer,’ the better the writing.

And though reading is the best school of writing, school is the worst place for reading.

Writing should

… be as spontaneous and urgent as a letter to a lover,

or a message to a friend who has just lost a parent …

and writing is, in the end, that

oddest of anomalies: an intimate letter to a stranger.

Definition #120 Orange

Birthday Flowers from my daughter Move from orange roses to orange tiger lilies in one week

Birthday Flowers from my daughter
Move from orange roses to orange tiger lilies
in one week

citrus freshness winks

sprouts its fragrant fireworks far

astral stars rejoice!

Definition #119 Religion

Obama speaks of US Religion

Obama speaks of US Religion

I believe that the starting point of faith is some doubt — not being so full of yourself and so confident that you are right and that God speaks only to us, and doesn’t speak to others, that God only cares about us and doesn’t care about others, that somehow we alone are in possession of the truth

Our job is not to ask that God respond to our notion of truth — our job is to be true to Him, His word, and His commandments.  And we should assume humbly that we’re confused and don’t always know what we’re doing and we’re staggering and stumbling towards Him, and have some humility in that process.  And that means we have to speak up against those who would misuse His name to justify oppression, or violence, or hatred with that fierce certainty.  No God condones terror.  No grievance justifies the taking of innocent lives, or the oppression of those who are weaker or fewer in number.

Humility; a suspicion of government getting between us and our faiths, or trying to dictate our faiths, or elevate one faith over another.  And, finally, let’s remember that if there is one law that we can all be most certain of that seems to bind people of all faiths, and people who are still finding their way towards faith but have a sense of ethics and morality in them — that one law, that Golden Rule that we should treat one another as we wish to be treated.

The Torah says “Love thy neighbor as yourself.”

In Islam, there is a Hadith that states: “None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.”

The Holy Bible tells us to “put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”  Put on love.

Definition #118 Birthday Tractor

John Deere Bday Gift Oliver's Fourth Birthday Built by Jeanne and Don

John Deere Bday Gift
Oliver’s Fourth Birthday
Built by Jeanne and Don

Front loader lifts snow

birthday boy, blizzard’s dampness

forward, reverse, brake!

Definition #117 Temptation

Kaitlyn QuenbyMichael9-2014

What we learn from watching our relatives

Three ways to avoid

temptation: clear boundaries,

truth, and self-respect!

Definition #116 Ceremony

tablesharing

Michael Pollan is a big advocate of the family meal.

Divide household duties to make home cooked meals possible.

“There’s something magical that happens when people eat from the same pot…The family meal is really the nursery of democracy. It’s where we learn to share; it’s where we learn to argue without offending. It’s just too critical to let go, as we’ve been blithely doing.”

Definition # 115 Filters

OrangeHair01

OrangeHair04OrangeHair07

OrangeHair08

OrangeHair09

Definition #114 Rough and Tumble

bikesnarlby Bao Pham

To Margo

by Gavin Ewart

In life’s rough-and-tumble
you’re the crumble on my apple crumble
and the fairy on my Christmas tree!
In life’s death-and-duty
you’ve the beauty of the Beast’s own Beauty—
I feel humble as a bumble-bee!

In life’s darkening duel
I’m the lighter, you’re the lighter fuel—
And the tide that sways my inland sea!
In life’s meet-and-muster
you’ve the lustre of a diamond cluster—
a blockbuster — just a duster, me!

“To Margo” by Gavin Ewart from The Complete Little Ones. © Hutchinson, 1988. Reprinted with permission.

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