March 9, 2025 a thought for today, True poverty does not come from God. Yiddish Proverb

The first upload for yesterday was “my choice”. I used one of my series of “partial”. The part of this fire hydrant as the subject for this upload. 

The next upload was “feet”. I didn’t have any bare feet available to as I was
waiting at Kroger I snapped several photos of people walking by and some of loading their groceries in the car.

The next upload was “details”. I think this one show details in the brick in the shape of the pipe, in the cracks in the pavement, and maybe the chalk marks around the pipe. 

Life today. Where do I begin? I think the last time he gave the message I said “he did it again”. Well, he did it again again. Enough words don’t come to my mind on how to describe the presentation of todays Sunday message. But I will try....leaving a lot out because there is not room here. The message was about salt....the salt of the earth, biblically. As his foundation he clearly and in detail talked about salt and its value by pointing out how it relates its past and today in history, geography, economy, health, seasoning, preservative, and more.  All of that, identifying its value to the human body and soul. To reenforce the strength of the meaning “salt of the earth” and its correlations he sighted passages, book name and chapter numbers only, of the bible where it clearly showed how the salt idea worked and could and still today. Those scripture inserts (without reading the full verses) brought 2000 years, unchanging through time to today. Not reading whole sections of the scripture but only name and number with short phrases that showed significance of scripture periodically cut down on too much but gave strong impact. It strongly seems to me that he is a natural in quietly and softly encouraging relationships with the Holy Trinity and our personal journey in Christianity. I knew one other much like him and his way with the word, Rev. Calvin Didier. 

This is Sunday so there is not much on my agenda. There is still a pile of old loose siding laying on the front lawn but there is not much I could do to move it. I guess it is just one of those times to be patient. 

The first upload for today is another of the “my choice”. And another of my series of “partial”. This is a cement shape that once held a light post I think. The light post has been broken up so there is a story of some sort, but then, there is a story in all photos.  

I have a relatively light week coming up. I have a friend at church who has mentioned that she would be willing to help me with moving information from memory cards that tape the church service to an archiving drive. I am going to meet with her and show her the easiest way I have discovered in doing that. 

The next photo is an image of “m is for....”. In this case it is for menu. This menu is maybe 70 years old. It was from what use to be called the “Broad and Hague Restaurant” in Columbus Ohio. 

The word today is symbol.  Light is the symbol of truth. James Russell Lowell.  Love is a symbol of eternity. It wipes out all sense of time, destroying all memory of a beginning and all fear of an end. Madame de Stael.  Little children are still the symbol of the eternal marriage between love and duty. George Eliot.  Mysticism is the mistake of an accidental and individual symbol for an universal one. Ralph Waldo Emerson.  The whole earth is the tomb of heroic men and their story is not given only on stone over their clay but abides everywhere without visible symbol woven into the stuff of other mens lives. Pericles.  In the long-run every Government is the exact symbol of its People, with their wisdom and unwisdom; we have to say, Like People like Government. Thomas Carlyle.  Every phenomenon of nature was a word, - the sign, symbol and pledge of a new, mysterious, inexpressible but all the more intimate union, participation and community of divine energies and ideas. Johann Georg Hamann.  Architecture has recorded the great ideas of the human race. Not only every religious symbol, but every human thought has its page in that vast book. Victor Hugo.  Every natural fact is a symbol of some spiritual fact. Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Tears are the symbol of the inability of the soul to restrain its emotion and retain its self command. Henri Frederic Amiel.  Symbols are powerful because they are the visible signs of invisible realities. Saint Augustine.  The Earth with its scarred face is the symbol of the Past; the Air and Heaven, of Futurity. Samuel Taylor Coleridge.  Everything is bilateral in the domain of thought. Ideas are binary. Janus is the myth of criticism and the symbol of genius. Only God is triangular! Honore de Balzac.  Nature is the symbol of Spirit. Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Signs and symbols rule the world, not words nor laws. Confucius.  It is through symbols that man consciously or unconsciously lives, works and has his being. Thomas Carlyle.  An idea, in the highest sense of that word, cannot be conveyed but by a symbol. Samuel Taylor Coleridge.  All things are symbols: the external shows Of Nature have their image in the mind , As flowers and fruits and falling of the leaves. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  

The last upload for today is “my fave drink”. I think those of you who know me well know what that would be.....iced tea. It us to be most any kind of diet soda. 

Article: I think anytime we can see versions of controlling anger it is important to take note, probably for some of us more than others.  Here is the title: “Anger is a flow of emotion like water through a hose − at work, it helps to know when to turn it up or down and how to direct it”. I think I may work in places other than work places also. The article relates they looked at it this way they “studied the causes, underlying processes and consequences of anger from the perspectives of management, psychology, marketing and negotiations”. In the study they “reviewed more than 400 research articles across psychology, business and related fields on topics ranging from brain activity to negotiation to race relations”. At that point they had found no way to “understand the complexity of the life cycle of anger and how to manage it most effectively”. They realized that maybe reframing their thought processes about anger would lead to a “flexible framework” to deal with daily life emotions. They came up with looking at it as a “flow of emotion, like water through a garden hose” that way it leads to the path and strength of the anger. From that point it can be determined how to handle the direction of the “stream”.  From there determine how to “redirect the anger and amplify or weaken its intensity”. The article asks “when you are angry, do you try to distract yourself from the anger, let it simmer, or embrace it?”  In the areas of anger we need to learn “to self-regulate your thoughts and behaviors” that “can help you manage the intensity of any anger you find yourself feeling”. Handling emotions so you have control is the answer. That could mean thinking about the “cost” of the expressions of your anger. Learning how to handle it is “no small feat”.

It’s something from the freezer for dinner. 

Joy

                                maintenance needed