August 23, 2020 thought for the day: Would you know your daughter? See her in company. Portuguese Proverb

Here’s another of the ‘laid back’ days. I try to keep Sundays that way, a little old fashioned maybe but as acknowledged a day to honor.

We had one of my favorite ministers for our service today. His sermons are always so uplifting, sometimes with a bit of something different and surprising tossed in. They are always relatable to today living. I hope he will be with us until I am no longer able to be there. My spirits were down when I left the house for church, by the time the sermon was over my attitude was much improved.

The August 22 challenge was “this evokes a memory”. The twins were here for an over night visit and wanted to go to the park for a while. That was a perfect place for a photo to fit this theme. I used the swings, “monkey bars” teeter totters, and slides  with my children as they grew up and then their children and now Sue’s great grandchildren. Some of the equipment seems to have become “obsolete”, the teeter totter, the “monkey bars”, as least as we knew them. Some have been replaced with a climbing wall and other new fangled and fun contraptions.

The sermon did the trick but there was a bit of news after church that burst the bubble. The news was related in part of the discontent related to this time spot in history and not, to my way of thinking, truly necessary to original God given  Christian teachings. It seems to me like some foolish person is trying to add an addendum to our beliefs, so to speak, that is totally discounting  the meaning of Christianity in the first place. Like rewriting or reinventing the meaning of Gods words. I had to get this burst of anger off my chest. I don’t like it when ANY history (fact and truth), spiritual or human, is ignored or twisted. I’ll get off my personal soap box now.

The word for today is links. When we bring back with us the objects most dear, and find those we left unchanged, we are tempted to doubt the lapse of time; but one link in the chain of affection broken, and every thing seems altered, Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington.  A babe in the house is a well-spring of pleasure, a messenger of peace and love, a resting place for innocence on earth, a link between angels and men, Martin Farquhar Tupper.  Through every rift of discovery some seeming anomaly drops out of the darkness, and falls, as a golden link into the great chain of order, Edwin Hubbel Chapin. For if one link in nature's chain might be lost, another might be lost, until the whole of things will vanish by piecemeal, Thomas Jefferson. Charity is the sweet and holy bond which links the soul with its Creator: it binds God with man and man with God, St. Catherine of Siena. The virtues we acquire, which develop slowly within us, are the invisible links that bind each one of our existences to the others - existences which the spirit alone remembers, for Matter has no memory for spiritual things, Honore de Balzac.

Today’s photo challenge is “pet”. I have no shortage of these photo. My pets are my most handy models. I have a couple of photos of Sweet Pea in this months collection so I thought it was time for one of Sugar.

I am writing this, my opinion, before I have read the whole article but it appears to me that it is about another touch of the digital world coming into being as well as a “gift” from the old, the availability of Longaberger baskets through parties as well as a help with an online approach. Longaberger at one time was a billion-dollar company. The new owner, Xcel Brands, says their goal is to make it a billion-dollar company again with some changes. They “envision...this company Longaberger as the anchor of “‘the world’s largest and most engaged social-commerce community.’” They plan a shift in products “an array of kitchen and home decor, furniture, jewelry and bath products”. It is planned for these products to be sold on line. They plan on selling the Longaberger products “through agents, ‘stylists’”, they use to sale like Tupperware, Avon and Pampered Chef do. They plan the online portion of the business to be a “mashup of Create & Barrel with Restoration Hardware with social engagement like Longaberger had. Because of the coronavirus pandemic hiring and training became easier. A Longaberger consultant wanted to play a part in the relaunch of the new company.

I think it will take-out tacos again this Sunday.

Joy