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Posted on 04/17/2006 9:38:35 PM PDT by Billie
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Every Thursday at the Finest  |
'Night, Billie.
A blissfull rest to you...
Isn't it magic how Billie transforms an image?
| April 19, 2006
Keep A Low Profile
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The National Weather Service advises that if you're ever caught out in the open during a severe lightning storm, you should kneel down, bend forward, and put your hands on your knees. Then, if lightning strikes nearby, your body will be less likely to serve as a conductor. Maximum safety depends on keeping a low physical profile.
The same applies to Christians caught in life's storms—we must assume a low spiritual posture. This means we must humble ourselves before the Lord (Psalm 34:18), be-cause pride and rebellion can harden us. We must speak truthfully (v.13), depart from evil, do good, and seek peace (v.14). Our heavenly Father wants us to stay close to Him when our hearts are hurting so He can impart His renewing strength and healing love.
Yes, we'll get drenched in the driving rains of adversity, and sometimes its fierce winds will buffet us so severely that we'll almost be swept off our feet. With each blinding flash of lightning we may be strongly tempted to get up and run. But keeping a low spiritual profile of humility and fear of God is the surest and safest way to weather the storm. David assured us that those who trust God in life's storms will not be condemned (v.22). —Dennis De Haan
God doesn't shield us from life's storms; He shelters us in life's storms.
I'm a semi-retired writer - still doing my column of 18 years - a nostalgia column. This thread put me in mind of them. Thought you might enjoy this one.
Astraddle Two Worlds
Winter provides a lot of thinking, reminiscing time. The sun goes down when only half the day is over and in polar-bear cold like this, there’s not a lot of outdoor time or chores. You can only read so many books – and this from a book-a-holic – listen to so much music, knit so much, and so forth.
So now I’m at a point where I spend a good gob of time curled up with my cat, ‘itty-kitty, and a heavy wool afghan that was crocheted about the year I was born, (they don’t make wool like they used too,) and just sort of snooze and let my thoughts drift back over all the years, places, things, and people that make up the many decades of my life.
Lucky Lindy had made his historic solo flight across the Atlantic only 8 years before I was born. Now we are looking at the red dirt and rocks on Mars like we were looking out our living room windows.
I spent my younger years on the ... Farm, tucked deep in the ... forest, and never saw a plane fly overhead. We heated with wood stoves, which also provided the means for hot water. The water came from our hand-dug well, thru’ the red pump on the end of the soapstone sink. The cream separator sat in one corner of the “cook room” where Grampa Roy poured the milk fresh up from the barn. Kerosene lamps provided our light and there was a “two-holer” down at the end of the granary.
The kitchen cupboards and cellar shelves groaned with sparkling jars full of Grammie Mabel’s canned fruits and vegetables. Barrels of apples, potatoes and other root crops were stored safely. Grammie’s sweet butter was kept cool on the shelves just inside the cellar door. No need to warm up the car and go to the supermarket.
Baths were in the big galvanized tub in front of the woodstove. This is actually a wonderfully cozy way to take a bath. (Well, if the tub were a dight bigger.) The warmth from the stove keeps the water warm and your skin as well. No chilly skin. Out of the tub into stove-warmed flannel pajamas and into a cozy feather bed that was pre-warmed with a copper bed warmer.
Our bath towels were, like as not, the cotton flour-sack towels. These were “free” in that they were, literally, flour sacks. Most folk baked all their own breads then and flour came in 20-50 pound sacks made of 100% sturdy, close weaved cotton. Some times the cotton was all white, except for the print of the brand names, which washed out. Others were the flower printed flour sacks that provided large pieces of cloth for clothes, like my skirts, blouses and over-aprons, as well as all the other uses. All you had to do was let out two seams and you had a goodly size piece from which to make curtains, aprons, pillowcases and, of course, to use for hand towels, dish towels and bath towels.
I finally found a source for flour sacks a coupla years ago and grabbed over a dozen as I got them at wholesale prices. I use them in the kitchen and the bathroom and made café curtains for the kitchen windows – stenciling a pattern across the bottom. And in the summer, I use them for bath towels, as they are super absorbent. That also saves on having to wash heavy bath towels. In the winter, though, I want those huge, thick bath towels.
It was a good, snuggly life, those long ago years on the farm. Simplicity supreme.
And now I sit here knocking out my columns on a computer to email off to the editor. I have my own web site and can instantly chat with people all over the world. Television dumps virtual world – and “solar” - events into our laps, our telephones perform about every function but make the morning coffee, people are run-run-running to make enough money to pay all the bills and buy all the things that we used to do for ourselves – certainly not the more leisure time lives we were led to believe we’d be living by now.
My life is about half and half. I have my wood stove as well as the furnace. I have my flour sack towels as well as the super big, extra thick bath towels. I have my kerosene lamps against power outages or for ambiance. I have an old-fashioned fountain pen as well as my computer. I have my flannel sheets and my feather bed. I have a little red pump on my well as well as my running water in the house.
Yep. I hang on to many of the old tried and trues from the past. But I appreciate being able to turn up the thermostat, flick on a light switch, climb into a bath tub - and I’m dang sure glad I don’t have to make that dash through a long, cold granary to get to the two-holer.
Wonderful..and brings back my memories of my Mamaw and Papaw's farm..I am going to post a link to this on the next thread..It's "warm and fuzzy Wednesday" at the Finest and this is perfect.
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