Somewhere over the rainbow.....

Do you ever have days where you wish that you were Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz?

Not me....

I do sometimes wish that I were somewhere over the rainbow however.

These past couple of weeks have been rough ones. Having some unknown person rifle through my possessions was disconcerting. Then to have said person(s) steal my possessions, well that was just down right nasty. Thievery sucks.

To make matters worse, I've had a little breast cancer scare. The jury is still out on that one. I have to arrange to have my mammaries squished and bombarded with radiation. Then, depending upon those results, a biopsy may be in order. Cancer sucks.

In spite of it all, I'm optimistic.

We get to choose how we respond to our circumstances in life. It would be so easy to lose myself in my own anger and my own fear; but I refuse to do so. Life is too good, too precious, to waste on such things.

That's not to say that I don't allow myself to feel those emotions. I feel them all right and then I let them go. If I hang on too long, those powerful feelings will dig deep and begin to define the person I am. I won't have that. That's a kind of death in and of itself.

I choose life, this life.

Don't you see?

Somewhere over the rainbow is right here...

I Was RobbeD!

I was robbed!

Crooks broke into the studio and absconded with the computer, my fine silver and beaded jewlery pieces....

They also managed to steal the red roadster...(my husband's car).

I won't be blogging for while...check back in a week or so!

The end of a political monopoly?

Story and photo here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/5/12/124522/832

I am a woman of faith.

I am also a Democrat.

It is ironic to me that because I am a Christ follower it is assumed that I am also a Republican. Likewise, if I identify myself as a democrat it is assumed that I cannot be an evangelical Christian. Yet I am both.

I do not believe that my love for Christ obligates me to carry a big whomping stick to bash pro-choice advocates and homosexuals any more than I believe the American constitution should condone discrimination, or limit a woman's right to choose.

I have chosen a different way. I have chosen the way of love, over the rule of law.

So many Christians seem to live their lives believing that it is their love for Christ that unites, strengthens and empowers. They use Christ and Holy Scripture as their own spiritual whomping stick to bludgeon the weak, the vulnerable, and the unloved into submission to their own way of believing.

I, on the other hand, believe that it is Christ's love for each of us that is the true source of unity, power and strength. I believe that Christ loves the saved and unsaved; the pro-abortion advocates and pro-life; the heterosexuals and the homosexual. His love for us, is the precious thread that weaves all lives together into a beautiful tapestry which transcends both time and space.

Scripture is clear. Christ has commanded me to love our God, to love myself and to love my neighbors.

This isn't an easy path; but I am pleased at least, to see that it is a path no longer monopolised by the Republican party.

Where's Grissom?

Today my husband took our seven year old son with him to the State Crime Lab on a routine, business related errand.

When the two of them entered the foyer, my son looked up at his father, walked over to the reception desk and earnestly asked, "Where's Grissom?"

It is my understanding that the receptionist barely hesitated as she smiled and replied, "I'm sorry, Grissom isn't here today, but Dr. Grimsbo is!"

Oh but I had a good laugh over that one! I'm guessing everyone in the crime lab did as well!

Kids are just too funny!

My pick for book of the week!

My sister recommended this book to me.

When I examined the book for the first time, I couldn't help but notice that The Poisonwood Bible also has the Oprah Winfrey seal of approval plastered all over the front cover.

Don't get me wrong, Oprah is cool and all, but my sister's recommendation carries far more weight than Oprah's ever could.

I'm guessing that some of my Christian brethren might find this book a difficult read. After all this novel questions the very foundation of faith, as well as the missionary approach of bringing western living to the jungles of Africa. For myself, I was also intrigued by the peripheral issues of land management and whether or not it is genuinely within man's ability to control nature. Leave it to me to find the environmental issues interesting....

So what's this book about you ask? Well, I think the jacket blurb on the book itself says it best...

The Poisonwood Bible is a story told by the wife and four daughters of Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist who takes his family and mission to the Belgian Congo in 1959. They carry with them everything they believe they will need from home, but soon find out that all of it -- from garden seeds to Scripture -- is calamitously transformed on African soil. What follows is a suspenseful epic of one family's tragic undoing and remarkable reconstruction over the course of three decades in postcolonial Africa. The novel is set against one of the most dramatic political chronicles of the twentieth century: the Congo's fight for independence from Belgium, the murder of its first elected prime minister, the CIA coup to install his replacement, and the insidious progress of a world economic order that robs the fledgling African nation of its autonomy. Taking its place alongside the classic words of postcolonial literature, this ambitious novel establishes Kingsolver as one of the most thoughtful and daring of modern writers.

If you should decide to read this book, be forewarned. Kingsolver writes with a rich and full bodied prose style. Moreover, The Poisonwood Bible, is not a book meant to be read in haste. Kingsolver's words and her poetical use of language are meant to be savored.

So, if you have the time and think you are up to the challenge, I would encourage you to read this book. It's worth the effort.

Hey, don't just take my word on that....after all, Oprah loved The Poisonwood Bible too!

I've been wandering....

Oh, but I love to wander.

It's harder for me now that I have five children, a husband and a dog; but the desire to wander over this big world of ours still burns within me.

I learn so many important truths when I make even the shortest of journeys.

I've recently learned that I'm not always a gracious guest. It pains me to admit how small and narrow my way being in the world has become. Wandering has taught me that I cannot be gracious when I am so self-centered....

My recent wandering has also taught me that there is a world within worlds right here at home. It is a strange irony that I must sometimes leave everything behind in order to discover that the life I am seeking is the very life I have left behind.

Today I have returned from wandering and I am content to gaze upon my lime green walls with their royal purple curtains.

I am content because I have remembered the woman that I was. That woman was not so narrow or so small. Her way of being in the world was as bright as her lime green walls and as gracious as the billowing purple of the curtains.

Wandering has restored me.

WHAT?

I found this product warning tag attached to my new Conair curling iron.

What am I supposed to think when I see this sort of thing?

Do people actually try to curl their eyelashes with these super hot styling wands, or what?

I've burned my fingers with a curling iron....had a close call once when my hand slipped and I almost burned my neck; but, I don't think I've ever had a mishap come close to my eyeball.

If there are fools out there actually trying to curl their eyelashes with Conair curling irons, what other unusual curling/straightening applications occur in the secrecy of thousands of homes all across America?

Oh me, oh my!

I can only imagine what sort of product warning tags might result if that's the case!