The Day After: Part II

Jude 1:25 All glory to him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are His before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time! Amen.  (NLT)

Through all of this, I have been literally brought to my knees in humble prayer. Thanksgiving was a day to give THANKS and nothing short of all thanks, was given to Him.

I awoke in normal fashion, wobbling through the house while opening the blinds (with the wand) to see such a wonderful ray-stretching sunrise. I waited for sounds to fill the house before I did much else. The sounds began just before eight a.m., and after wishing all my writing friends a happy Thanksgiving via facebook, my day went on.

I made it to the kitchen, as Steven woke and opened all the blinds, via pulling the string, to the very top of the window (that’s his new thing since gaining his sight back.) He came to help me load the bird without wings into the baking pan. It was ten by the time I finished cleaning Tom turkey and prepping it, then Steven took over like a mad man!

I mean that in a good way. He wanted me to rest and as he knew my wobbly legs wouldn’t hold up to the normally exhausting day, he took charge in a way a blind man never could have. Well he could, but it would have taken him extra time, but how glorious is it to see your once blind man, scurry through the house looking like he had sprouted wings on his feet?

We were invited to his moms house, and my dear friend from church wanted me to come give thanks with her and her family, but with Steven still acclimating to sight, he wanted to take the day in and drink from the scents of the day and the hurriedness of making a holiday meal. He just wanted peace and serenity and to share it with Adam and I.

As we sat to eat the hearty meal, after our prayers, we each took a turn saying what we are thankful for. Adam went first, me second and Steven cheated by saying he was thankful for everything! :) Yeah, the ol guy is coming back at full force. Although the doctor won’t allow him to play his sax, and the Christmas get together with family out here on the farm, might be put off, we move forward. He will be fitted for glasses come December, and this will give him much more vision! The doc also told us that the eye can take up to six months to a year before it is completely healed; thus the need for prayer continues.

We normally put up the tree the day after Thanksgiving (that has been our tradition for nine years) but this year, this day is a day of rest. He can’t lift more than ten pounds and well, I’m completely incapacitated on being able to lift and walk up stairs, so we will get it done when we get it done. We’re in no hurry, but I think I have someone here who is eager to SEE the tree and all its lights! AMEN!

Christmas holds none of the old world traditions for me. To me, the tree is a symbol of life. The lights to me are a symbol of the Light of the world. The ornamentation of the tree holds memories of each year that passes. The manger is the symbol of a Savior who was born (although it may have not happened on the 25th of December.) Christmas has never centered on Santa, and since my son was born on the 27th of December, it has always been about Light, love, joy, and birth!

I send to you the joy that you find within your heart to celebrate a season that has been overly commercialized, over sold and ticketed as a gateway into the New Year with drinking, lasciviousness, and idol worship. May you find your family’s honored tradition, respected and embraced. And may you understand that love and Light is what this season is all about! Give thanks this Christmas. Allow Thanks and a giving heart to live all year long. And may you all be blessed with a living miracle.

The Day After

Ps 63:5 You satisfy me more than the richest feast. I will praise you with songs of joy.  (NLT)

Here it is Thanksgiving past already. The day we all await to arrive, it comes and goes so quick, then you’re left with still feeling full upon wake-up. That’s right Thanksgiving has come and gone and now we hurriedly move towards Christmas; but wait, let’s recap the building up to Thanksgiving so we don’t allow the day of gratitude to pass by without a mention.

As many of my readers know, I often open the vein into my world, and I thought, “What better time, than when you are all at home ignoring me today?” But I might get a few who care to actually scurry in here as you sit at your computers. Welcome to my world.

Right before Halloween, I began hearing Christmas music playing on Wal Marts sound system. There is no time to waste when it comes to the Day of Giving and getting, stress, and noise, lost joy, and loud toys. I’m not a bah-hum bug by any means, but if man is going to decide that Dec. 25 is Jesus’ birthday, shouldn’t we show Him SOME respect and celebrate it in a proper fashion? Nah, man is too weak for that. The respect we show the Lord is by televising women in bras and panties, waltzing down the runway? And men sitting there drool faced lusting in great pleasure? And human beings allowing this? A sad sad society we live in!

Thanksgiving is left in the dark as we speed right through the Thankful meal to get to the stores either at midnight or early morning as we absorb like a sponge, all that the media has fed us and we fall prey to the demon that grabs us. We are mighty thirsty for what that demon offers and I sit here, just enjoying life. Happy to wake up and see a glorious sunrise, not caught up in a world that wants me to conform to their rituals and self absorbed habits.

Some of you may also know that Thanksgiving was going to be extra special for Steven, Adam and myself, since Steven got his sight restored, and by golly it was the best Thanksgiving I’ve had possibly in all my life. But it was not without its twists. Since the many Omaha trips have taken a serious toll on my body, I sat planted on the sofa, unable to do much except enjoy the comfort of my heating pad.

The month of October was full of pain from a tooth that was screaming for help, and by mid-October, my legs and back could really feel the strain of seven hours of tense filled driving, over five times that month. By Halloween, and the success of the cornea transplant was a go, my body collapsed, literally. My legs wobbly like rubber-bands, pain shooting in my mouth, everything that could possibly attack me, did and had its pleasure.

My fight, was to see a dentist, done! Tooth gone and pain in my mouth somewhat subsiding. Then my numb legs, I knew I had to see the doctor; I thought, this is pretty serious. I CAN NOT WALK, and when I do, it’s five steps and I feel like my legs are jell-o. Blood tests came back all clean. Now I await the x-ray results and hopefully SOMEONE will give me SOMETHING to relieve this pain and misery, or it is GOODBYE CHRISTMAS for me!!!

Not that Christmas is all about shopping to me, it is all about bright lights and celebrating the appointed birthday of my Lord! I love the lights, I love the living mangers, I love Church and my church family, because they are whom He placed in my life, MY life, at this time, since no one else (except a selected few) has taken notice.

All Glory and praise to the living Spirit that dwells in me!

Chess anyone?

It is impossible to win gracefully at chess. No man has yet said "Mate!" in a voice which failed to sound to his opponent bitter, boastful and malicious. ~A.A. Milne
***

So you were anticipating a blog post about the correlation between writing and chess? Well let me tell you, I can give a really good analogy of a chess/life scenario but I’ve really got to work on the writing/chess scenario.

Okay where do I begin? I’ll start with the white side. This is the team I always go for in playing chess. It reminds me of purity and all that that entails. Strength,wisdom, knowledge,etc.

In writing, the white team can be visualized as the protagonist, or the good guy. The dudley-do-right, the main character of the story. Then we have the black team and they are the antagonist, the bad guys, the dark force, the one or ones that will be causing all kinds of trouble in the story.

We have pawns on both sides, correct? The same powerful pieces standing behind the pawns on both sides too. The pawns can be seen as the disposable characters, if you will. Now you have all of these characters standing behind you vying for a place so lets give them a place.

The rook will be the homestead or the solid foundation of your story, the dark side has an ominous looking castle which probably houses Count Dracula or some other dark figure.

The knight will be the character in your story that does all the fighting for you. They don’t call it the Knight in shining armor for no reason at all. He just might save, your damsel in distress. The dark fights for the light, the light normally wins IN THE END, hopefully, with fingers crossed, the Light will win. (emphasis on WILL win)

Then we have the bishops. They can be your moral compass. The bishop can stand for our values, beliefs, hope, faith and promise. The good seed buried in all of us that sometimes we call a conscious. Now the dark bishop is who in your story? Well it’s the dark force or the bad seed that will not and can not take root because you’ve given him/it no fertile soil in which to grow. He is going to be the turmoil around every corner in your story.

Ah, now we have the king and queen. This will be the strong lead characters in your story who eventually are left standing with the dark side (king and queen) all alone on that big checkered board, or white paged palette we call a storyboard.

What do we do in this position? We do what any good writer would do and that is knock the pants off of the Dark Force and we have our main characters all full of light left standing in a triumphant glow of completion. Check Mate!

Does any of this make sense? Well to my demented writers brain it does. Look out Stephen King, I figured you out! Now lets see if I can see what gardening and writing have in common. Okay, I’m kidding! (not really)

Now we know what makes a story so what are you waiting for? Why are you sitting here reading, shouldn’t you be writing? 

***

'Tis all a chequer board of nights and days,
Where destiny with men for pieces plays;
Hither and thither, and mates, and slays.
~Edward Fitzgerald

Poetry Sunday ~ Gods Whisper

Gen. 27: 8 Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee.
***
God’s Whisper
***
He booms right in with words to say
“I will show you all the way!”
He lifts me up into the sky
“I give you this, don’t ask me why.”

“But I am lowly, humble and meek
why attack me when I am weak?”
Teeth they ooze with blood not clean,
his gripping claws are not unseen.

“I give you more, a powerful soul
you’re my child, I’ve made you whole.”
It’s in the pool of my heart His stir,
the words of God, softly whisper.

A thunderous roar screams out to me
“I can not just allow you to be.
I own you now with all your lies
I feed your walk of innate disguise.”

“Eternal life of light and beauty
I call upon you, your earthly duty.
All I gave you shall not blister
with me you’ll soar,” I heard Him whisper.

I give my life, to the one whose call,
makes me bow; I begin to fall.
It only takes a quiet sound
of God’s own voice to bring me ‘round!

Worldly Wednesday ~ Conformity

Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
***

Those are words I don’t just read, they’re not just words, to me. To me, they are THEE Word! Sometimes I find that people, understandably, have a hard time practicing what they preach, or what they read in their bibles.

Practice meaning, exercising, making constant use of, or putting into action. We can not just read the bible and put our own spin on it so that we shape it into us. We have to be molded into it, and I mean that in a good way. Conforming to this world, is reading what you want, watching what you want, doing what you want and never giving a second glance at the Bible to see what God wants. He wants us different, and rightly so. Every religion wants us to be different, not just Christianity. We might all have different Bibles that we use, but I believe, we all have the same God.

How would you feel being invited to someone’s house, only to be ignored or disrespected? You wouldn’t like that now would you. That must be how God feels when we ‘claim’ to be Christian, but then disrespect Him by not living as one. He comes into our house, sits at the table, you bring out the food, jam to some rap music, read your book Twilight or The DaVinci Code, drink a beer, and then look up at God and realize, “Oh, you’re here?”  He looks at you and says, “YOU invited me!” What’s your reply? “Wanna beer?” How does that make you feel? Good? Bad?

What I said is exactly what people are doing. They’re conforming to this world, inviting God over, then asking him to partake of what THEY believe in, not respecting what HE believes in. And you’re okay with that?

My writing has taken on a dark nature as of late. When someone comments that my poetry is saying the same thing over and over, then it is time for me to take a double-take and see what it is I’m hooked up on that is giving me a dark edge. Well can you say LIFE?

I look around and see a world where people are conformed to lust; (yes, watching half naked women (or men) prance ANYWHERE, and having the thought of, ‘man I’d like some of that’, is called LUST.) greed, (yes wanting more and more of everything is called greed); idolatry, claiming Christianity, but practicing astrology, so many other things that just bring me down as a human being trying to be righteous in an unrighteous society.

I’m not perfect and surely don’t claim to be. I am a sinner just as each and every one of you are. The only difference is this, when I invite God over, I want HIM to be the center of attention, not me me me and my selfishness. Him and all His glory! I’ll put praise music on, I’ll have a good meal and ask that he add blessing; I’ll tell Him how much I adore Him, and go right on drinking some tea and having a wonderful conversation with Him, only to open my eyes and realize, He’s been with me ALL THE TIME!!!

He’s not a stranger in my world. I don’t invite him just for dinner, or on Sunday’s because that’s what the world wants me to believe, He only want to come to dinner on Sundays? Or invite me to His house on Sundays?

My writing reflects the darkness that tries to consume my soul and the Light that owns me.  I will work on writing what GOD wants me to write...oh wait...I just did! :)

Quotation Saturday

LIFE

Matt. 7: 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

Life is like playing a violin in public and learning the instrument as one goes on. 
~Samuel Butler  (1835 - 1902)
 
We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.
~Sir Winston  Churchill (1874 - 1965)
 
The unexamined life is not worth living.
~Socrates (469 BC - 399 BC), in Plato, Dialogues, Apology

LOVE ~

Jude 1:21 Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
 
Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too; this is why a great and clear mind loves ardently and sees distinctly what it loves.
~Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662)
 
To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.
~ David Viscott
 
There is no remedy for love but to love more.
 ~Henry David Thoreau  (1817 - 1862), Journal, July 25, 1839
 
1 Thes. 1:3 Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father;

LIGHT ~

Rom. 13:12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.
 
There are two kinds of light--the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures.
~JamesThurber (1894 - 1961)
 
Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind's eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye; and he who remembers this when he sees any one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter light, and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by excess of light.
~Plato (427 BC - 347 BC), The Republic
 
2 Cor. 1:17 When I therefore was thus minded, did I use lightness? or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be yea yea, and nay nay?

Poetry Sunday~ Wellspring of the Season~

Psalm 107:20 He sent his word, and healed them, and del- ivered them from their destructions.

***

Wellspring of the Season
(c) Joni Zipp
***

Spring flourishes as buds burst through the soil
branches have nubs that appeared without toil;
long winter nights have now given swift rise
to sweeping old leaves from the cloudless skies.

Earth has shaped this beautiful display
of fragrant pleasantries and colorful array.
We take for granted the burgeoning blooms
looking for light where all darkness looms.

Hand in hand we walk through the meadow;
orange collides with buoyant yellow.
The warmth of the sun; the tickling grass
all give rise to Springtime's sheer glass.

The beauty is wrapped in a myriad of shades;
sunbeams dance off of dew-laden blades.
We inhale the life of this glorious treasure
wrapped in the love of heavenly pleasure.

Humans who falter in the deceptive lure
bother not with keeping things pure.
Guilty and gullible with nary refrain
never enjoying the soft-spoken rain.

Dance in the sun, let its fingers drizzle ~
your body is sculpted by its gentle chisel.
Allow it to shape and mold your being,
relish our God and all things you’re seeing. 

All rights reserved: copyright © Joni  Zipp

Poetry Sunday~ Lil Green Patch

Pss. 90: 6 In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.
 

Ex. 23:20 Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.
***

Lil Green Patch
***
Where flowers in a field did prance
the moonglow perches ready to dance,
coyotes now howl, the elk they call
on the crux of the rising fall.

Spilling over are leaves on the lawn
silently I await the dawn.
Darkness lingers as frost gives rise
I wipe the stardust from the skies.

Little hearts all take a bow;
shooting stars kiss me somehow.
They reach across the open plain
sprinkle down like falling rain.

Drizzled in an earthly show
something grander is here, I know.
Within my mind I speak to them
give a little of all that I am.

An earthly angel they see in flight
to bear to them a heavenly light.
The heavens open in a fury
to Him I tend to give all glory.

Awakened now from this dream
everything is, as it would seem.
From the pages I dispatch,
the joy I found in a lil green patch.