Refractions and Reflections

When I was in the first grade, I discovered one of my classmates lived right around the corner from me. She became my first unrelated friend. We lived in rural Northwest Ohio and spent the summers riding our bikes and/or walking down the freshly tarred back road she lived on. Maybe three quarters of a mile away, past nothing except a neighboring farm warranting its own traffic signs (My sister kindly went and took these two shots for me today.) :) and fields growing corn taller than we were, we would visit a drainage ditch with two tunnels under an even "backer" road. We called this magical place "The Bridge". I introduced my brothers and cousins to The Bridge right away. My older brother almost stepped on a snake there once. My youngest brother liked watching two small otters that played there one year. My cousin David caught a crayfish, a.k.a. the strangest-looking creature I think I ever saw outside of a zoo or a science book. Me? I would lie on my sto...

Link Here to Bloghop at DL Hammons [I originally posted this during the A to Z Challenge in April 2013, but recently it has been getting some hits, so because people seem to be interested, here is a timely review of Boxing Day.] December 26 is a national holiday known as Boxing Day in Australia, the UK, New Zealand, and Canada. Many people do not really understand the historical meaning of this holiday (kind-of like Christmas and Easter!), believing it to have arisen from the need to empty the house of empty gift boxes the day after Christmas. Rather, from what I can tell, December 25 th was traditionally the date upon which people exchanged gifts with their equals – family and friends; while the 26 th was a day for alms – when people gave gifts to those subservient to them, such as employees, servants, and the poor. Honestly, I think Boxing Day has a more applicable meaning than our current translation of Christmas Day to the true spirit of Christmas. Christmas honors the...

After completing my graduate degree coursework in September 2013, I decided to use 2014 to catch up on my reading for fun (instead of primarily for assignments)!! One of my year-long goals was to read at least one book per two weeks. I am now in the midst of my twenty-sixth, so...CHECKMATE! ;) I even caught up on a few classics I'd never had time for. Overall, I'm very satisfied with my year of reading. Here are the books I read this year: 1) The Long Ships by Frans Bengtsson 2) A Better Atonement by Tony Jones 3) The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky 4) The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger 5) Dorothy Parker: Complete Stories 6) Anna Karenina  by Leo Tolstoy 7) Wicked by Gregory Maguire 8) Something Other Than God  by Jennifer Fulwiler 9) Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens 10) Three Lives by Gertrude Stein 11) The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett 12) Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen 13) Southern Living: Easy Gardening (Spring 2010) 14)...

There comes a limit to my compassion, my understanding, my friendship...my love. Especially when it seems someone kicks and screams against it...or misuses or takes advantage of it. In my entire life there have been MAYBE 10-12 people with whom I have particularly not meshed...people toward whom, for some reason or other, I found it difficult to live out the love of Christ. Or even just my own love. I'm a pretty loving person, after all...generally speaking. But yeah, there have been times when, though I didn't not love someone, I chose to be selfish rather than giving...perhaps the person needed me and I chose to be lazy or self-serving rather than go the extra mile to do something for them. I have a couple of regrets in this area, in fact. But I'm talking about the people against whom I would rather take revenge . Someone from whom I would like to withhold love, in order to punish them, or at least in order to just "be done" with them in order to protect mys...

---1--- I have not done 7QT in so long...but I have been collecting snapshots for a little Take I've been planning on CREEPY THRIFT STORE FINDS: Hunchback Santa or South Park Santa?  Take your pick here.... I thought the PeeWee Herman costume was the creepy thing about this photo, but now that I see the ceiling, I think I was mistaken. There is absolutely NO CHANCE this doll will come to life and kill you in your sleep if you take it home. Money-back guarantee. Glowing, smiling rabbits in a rusted-out amusement park ride cage. The thrift shop people really are trying to give the children nightmares.   ---2--- Speaking of thrift store finds (but non-creepy ones this time), I learned a little more about my icon egg.     I discovered (from the Cross on the back of the egg) that it is Russian Orthodox in origin, and through a little more digging found that it is Our Lady of Kazan, or Holy Protectress of Russia....

[ source ] I am a Once Upon a Time fan - it is one of the handful of television shows I keep up with on Hulu. It often makes me think theologically. In the most recent episode [season 4, episode 9], for instance, Ingrid casts the spell of shattered sight on Anna; the purpose of the spell has always been to distort people's perceptions of what they see. Theologically, it makes me second-guess myself. The literal rendering of the Bible passages that speak of God allowing people to "believe a lie and be damned" or "turning them over to a reprobate mind" has always caused me fear - would God actually allow me to be deceived because I dared think outside the box of legalistic religion? I don't think so. But I still have a few remnants of that insecurity. And then on the road searching for Emma, Mary Margaret and Regina have a conversation about whoever wrote the book in which their lives have been chronicled. Regina is convinced that the author decided ...

---1--- Over the last few weeks I have been reading the two-book series of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children . (I took a break this past week because I needed to focus on midterms.) But the books were inspired by old photographs found in bins at thrift stores and flea markets...you've probably seen them. I thought it was a great idea!! So today I went to a thrift store and finally found some here in town (I found some in the town I previously lived in, too, but these are the first I've come across here.) I found a few gems. I'll show you below!    This is the one I found the most striking. ---2--- I also found the following two intriguing.    What are they hiding behind their backs...? ---3--- And this one here?? Yeah. It looks all normal and everything....   But turn it around, and... ..."sort of a druggist" [druggist?]. Hmm. ---4--- The thrift store I went to was a new one to me, and I thought it was...