December 31, 2023 a thought for today, Life can never give security, it can only promise opportunity. Chinese Proverb

 

The first upload for December 31 is “the final selfie of 2023". I don’t like selfies. But I want to fulfill the photo a day assignment. I chose to take it into a mirror to cover my face.

 

The second upload for yesterday was “black and white”. We can do that two
ways, set the digital camera to shoot black and white or shoot in color then change to black and white in Photoshop. This one was shot in black and white. Many times I prefer the black and white copy to the color one. I was trying to show the “black hole” in the white clouds.

 

The last shot for December 30, 2023 was “flame”. Instead of a candle which I have used a couple of times I decided to use my gas stove for to get the flame.

 

Life today. Someone forgot to turn the heat up in the sanctuary for this mornings service so it was a little chilly. The message was far from that though. It was a good message and well given. 

I have still to see more of the family for the Christmas holidays, at least it will be withing the “12 days of Christmas”. I will be seeing the rest (minus one...out of the country) tomorrow for a couple of hours. It seems colds have affected several members of the family during this holiday season which has forced some changes in visits. 

 My first upload for the last day of this year is “fave photo of 2023". This has some sentimental meaning. It is some of Bob’s last possessions.                

On the subject of some of my church “duties” the web page has been on my mind most recently. It needs updated. I agreed to tackle that task after the first of the year. I decided when I had a  little free time to start that a little early. Then found as I tried to log on to begin the updates yet another obstacle popped up. Our provider made some changes and have forced us to change  provider to one o their other groups in order for me to even be able to regain access. I am trying to figure ways we may get past that or decide to change. It’s beginning to weigh on my mind. I am thinking of offering some of the same information found on that site in another form. Possibly Facebook which is free and Instagram which is also free. They are some what restricted in the way the information could be presented but I am hoping to find a way that is suitable and would fulfill our purposes.     

It is cold outside. Winter is here. We aren’t having the snow and ice....yet. I am also sure that this is only the beginning of the cold temps.

 

The second upload for today is “new years eve”. For me this year it is a candle in the night. I haven’t stayed awake long enough for the past few years to issue in the new year. 

The word for today is still. Be still. Stillness reveals the secrets of eternity, Lao Tzu.  In stillness the muddied water returns to clarity, Laozi.  I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man's being unable to sit still in a room. Blaise Pascal.  Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment. Benjamin Franklin.  Many people die with their music still in them. Why is this so? Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live. Before they know it, time runs out. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Hope is the only good that is common to all men; those who have nothing else possess hope still. Thales.  Be still my heart; thou hast known worse than this. Homer.  The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers. Matsuo Basho.  The outward man is the swinging door; the inner man is the still hinge. Meister Eckhart. I listened, motionless and still; And, as I mounted up the hill, The music in my heart I bore, Long after it was heard no more. William Wordsworth.  Let us, then, be up and doing, with a heart for any fate; still achieving, still pursuing, learn to labor and to wait. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  Our deeds still travel with us from afar, and what we have been makes us what we are. George Eliot. Young love is a flame; very pretty, often very hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. The love of the older and disciplined heart is as coals, deep-burning, unquenchable. Henry Ward Beecher. 

My last photo for 2023 is “a thought for next year”. I am uploading an image of my well used bible for this one. I am hoping for the Message (in what ever print) to bring peace to all everywhere.                                                                                                                              

The article. I didn’t read this article all the way through before I selected it. The title tugged at my heart. The title is “Looking for light during holidays”. It’s on the sad side but there is a message. A friend has been placed in hospice. As the article goes on it passes on that Christmastime is suppose to be a time of joy, And goes on “but it can be hard to find light when pieces of the world feel dark and unknown”.  She goes on to say she is “in search of that light — to be it, if only a flicker, because one candle in the darkness is better than no candle at all”. As she thinks of this friend and the times they have had together. One of her memories was of a trip they were on together and had stopped for lunch. The author had ordered only a salad, the friend a baked potato. AS they began to eat the first noted that the author needed more nourishment because she was pregnant. So she wanted her to take the baked potato. The salad had been eaten and the fork thrown out. The friend said take my fork, “don’t you need it?”..... “I’ll use it when you are done”. Even though the author considered that it might be a bit unsanitary she went ahead and used the fork wanting to accept her friends concern and “generous heart”. She was thinking of how generous and happy this friend always was in all ways, looking out for others. She always listened to the 10-year-old daughter as she chattered on about her teenage interests. She so loved that she was the first person the daughter invited to a “princess party” at church. The author mentioned the times she spent with her friend as she lived in hospice care. They walked together and talked together as long as the friend was able. She told her friend how pretty her shirt was one day and the birds in the design reminded her of a wonderful world, it pleased her friend and she agreed that it was a wonderful world. In her remembrances, the author said “I will treasure that conversation forever”. She goes on to say “sometimes......we have to look back” to those conversations, “mundane at times”, snapshots of when life was normal. Sometimes a light is hard to find “we have to borrow it” form the people who have the gift to find it “being able to look forward to blessings yet unseen. Grace is one of those people”.

Potato soup for dinner.

Joy