Saint Brigid of Ireland

    

 

                     

 

(Poem attributed to St. Brigid herself, which seems highly unlikely.)

I’d like to give a lake of beer to God.
I’d love the heavenly
Host to be tippling there
For all eternity.
I’d love the men of Heaven to live with me,
To dance and sing.
If they wanted, I’d put at their disposal
Vats of suffering.
White cups of love I’d give them
With a heart and a half;
Sweet pitchers of mercy I’d offer
To every man.
I’d make Heaven a cheerful spot
Because the happy heart is true.
I’d make the men contented for their own sake.
I’d like Jesus to love me too.
I’d like the people of heaven to gather
From all the parishes around.
I’d give a special welcome to the women,
The three Marys of great renown.
I’d sit with the men, the women and God

There by the lake of beer.

We’d be drinking good health forever 

And every drop would be a prayer.  

Brigid was born in Ireland in 450 AD. Her mother was a Christian and father was a pagan. He treated the both of them as slaves.  Brigid was a beautiful girl and this was a distraction to the community. 

 site of a mound, Navan Fort, where rituals and pagan holidays were recognized

Brigid asked God make her ugly, take away worldly beauty.  God granted her request, and she spent much of her life as a ugly woman.  Her father had tried to use her beauty to connect with a husband, but being ugly made that impossible.  

Brigid headed to convent of St. Macaille and made her vows to dedicate her life to God.

There she performed miracles and healing. She wove a cross from river reeds, and lay it on a dead man, and he rose alive. The woven handmade cross hangs on my walls.

Her beauty was restored, and her work expanded into a double monastery, for both nuns and monks. Brigid established art school for metal and illumination.  The earliest illustrated manuscript was written in the Manuscripts of Kildare, and is recognized as being the oldest illuminated in early church history.

February 1 is known as the "feast day" and "Mary of Ireland" and it is celebrated as the first day of spring.  It is also the day on which Irish plant potatoes.

Just how many Irish saints are there? St. Patrick, St. Collumkille, and St. Brigid.  

That is far more than I intended to write.  Looking at Brigid's life and her acts of devotion made me want to tell you more about her.  A Christian, in a country where paganism was strong, had to carry a heavy load.

                                                         

 

 

 

 

250 years since Amazing Grace was written

"This week marked the 250th anniversary of the first time “Amazing Grace” was sung. What has become one of the world’s most-beloved Christian hymns debuted on New Year’s Day 1773 at the Anglican parish church in Olney, England. Wilberforce was the driving force in abolishing slavery in England and then pushed to free the slaves in the English countries. Ultimately, the bill to abolish slavery was passed " from Wikipedia.

 

victorianweb.org/history/antislavery/antislavery.html.

 Wilberforce felt drawn to convert to Christianity. Meeting with John Newton led him to pursue the abolishing of the slaves even more passionately. It was a hard fought battle, but the month after he died, this managed to free 800,000 slaves.

This was a major change in England, but there was another important event. John Newton had been a slave trader until he felt a conviction that this was a sin. Newton found Jesus Christ as a low point in life, became a monk serving the poor in England. It was then that he composed this song:

"Amazing Grace" is a unique song;  it still stands a universal song that is known by many people of all races and languages. It was played by a bagpiper at our grandfather's funeral. The song was even sung by a few attendees who knew the words of the first line, sang with gusto.

John Newton to William Wilberforce to us. What a meaningful creation came from their friendship. That led to a song that comforted and guided many people.

 

                          

                                                     

                                                            Peter Hollens

Join in the song. Peter Hollens is a great performer. His vocals and talented performers are excellent. 

The Drum Drives the Music

                                                              top drummers of all time
 

Being able to dance is a wonderful.  Being able to dance skillfully and gracefully is truly a gift.  

For one whose dreams alone allow me to dance, I confess that I am rhythmically impaired.  Two steps and I am lost.

But that does not take away the joy of dancing, of watching dancing.  The best dance ever done took place on New Year’s Eve, 1979. 

Our daughter was about 4 ½ and our son “Johnny” had just turned one.  We always threw a ‘big’ party with our small children on that day.  We let them stay up until almost 10 PM and eat all manner of party foods.  

 

We put on our favorite music albums and artists, cranked the music up loud, and we danced.  We danced all over the house.

It was the Fleetwood Mac album when the real dance began. On stage, it is a little jagged, and I'd stop at about 2 or 3 min. 

Fleetwood Mac in 1979, YouTube

On stage, it is a little jagged, and I'd stop at about 2 or 3 min.  

While still not too steady on his feet and clothed in a simple diaper, Johnny was stunned by “Tusk”.  He held onto the coffee table, and he danced.  And boy, did he dance!  Perfect rhythm, into the music, shaking his head, singing as only a toddler can!

When the  sorta-free form drum solo kicked in, he stopped and waited for it to be over.  Then the music started again.  And Johnny broke into dance

  

I have never looked at dancing the same.  And I still get all happy when the Tusk album and Fleetwood Mac** are filling the air, with the drummer being the best part of the song.  Drummers like Ginger Baker, John Bonham, Charlie Watts, Keith Moon....they set a standard that is a challenge to new drummers. 

Drummer here is Fleetwood Mac, himself.  This is a bit odd, 

just wanted you to hear some of his skills.

This is a re-post of November 6, 2013. You just have to be amazed to enjoy it.  We are in the throes of health and life.  I hope you enjoy this re-post and leave a comment. 

Grandma Amy and her books

My Grandmother Amy, about 1916

Amy Lucille Nichols Peck became a pharmacist in 1916, a difficult career move for a woman of that era. She had been preparing to be a doctor, but the money wasn't there. So she adjusted her plans.  When Grandma died in 1972, she left me a number of her book collections.  Most interesting were the books on science.

In Gray's School and Field Book of Botany by Asa Gray, she assiduously (!) made notes in the pages and pressed leaves. A rather vague comment was on the page for "Xanthium".  Xanthium--such a lovely word! I thought. 

The definition of this delightful Xanthium is:

  A coarse and vile weed, with stout and low branching stems.
  
  Grows in barnyards and waste manured ground, about 1 to 2 inches high

  ....hooked leaves and the fruit is a burr fully 1/2" long, with 2 beaks at the apex

  ....numerous prickles with sharp bristles.

What!! What?? The Xanthium is a burr plant? The kind that catches on socks, pants, every fabric, and resists removal?

I was severely disappointed by this.  I am sure you are as well.

Please share your experiences and/or thoughts of the hated Xanthium. or any other hated plant that has been in your life.

This is Grandma's rocker. She read the Bible through every where. She maintained her pharmacist credential until her 80s. Her textbooks from 1919 were still on her bookcase when she passed. Grandma was brilliant.

 Grandma Amy Lucille Peck

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Boys at the Top

 

After work, after the business of life, the team had been eager to settle at the nearest watering hole. It had been a rough day.

Hey, Jim. How did the office manage all that blow back from the big guys up at the top?
   

"Well, you can imagine, Tom. It blew them all away. I mean, what did they expect when the stink settled down after the clean-up crew took care of the rot?"

Again, all nodded. The fifth co-worker, Kevin piped up. "I'm exhausted. We complain every day. Can't do anything about them. They can take us down without a thought."

 
  "Big guys at top? They live well, really well. I mean they go to work in their spiffy black suits,

"Big guys at top? They could eat us alive, or dead."

 

 

 

They grumbled and took off for home where family and friends lived. Come sunup, they would be at work. At sundown, they would be lined up again. 

The big bosses were already singing together their raucous out-of-tune songs. In their black suits and ties, they smiled at their success.

Silently, the crew left, singing songs of their own,

sweet songs.

Bosses of the sky, bosses of the trees 

They stayed.

The bosses in black suits

Singing raucous songs, non-stop songs

 

This is a repost of 2019 post. The blackbirds are swarming about, singing. I wonder what they are saying.

Obsessed

A life time of "Oh, he is so cool/sexy." has always been bald men.  Yes, bald men have a mystic coolness about them.

   

                                               Vin Diesel, Fast and Furious (I love him so much.)

 

Jason Statham, actor and gold medal Olympic diving 

 

Denzel Washington. Awesome actor, strong beliefs. 

He is moving into the ministry, stepping out of the light of Hollywood. 

 

Matthew McConaughey.  He is a Christian man, whose life revolves

around his family and faith.  

 

Dwayne Johnson/The Rock

What can be said of The Rock.  He has quite a body of movies.

 

James McAvoy 

"Mr. Tumnus" from Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe

The line-up of handsome bald men is long, but I chose the ones I knew and liked. But there is one bald man who started my obsession with these hunky guys.

           Yul Brynner with Deborah Kerr in The Journey

They were in The King and I together. Magic.

 

Hot, really hot.  Yul Brynner

 It is just the way I roll.

Wait on the Lord

 

Soar on wings of an eagle

Chris had never been known to be a “waiter”; instead he always threw himself headlong into many diverse adventures…here, there, here...He loved the adrenaline rush, the way it drove him. After that rush came his pride and carelessness. Being a fireman can do that.

Who and what Chris was then changed radically when he became a man whose greatest desire in life was to wait upon the Lord.  

Be intense, diligent… …taking on the most mundane of tasks.  Wait upon the Lord…were the words running through his mind                                                                             when the alarm bell rang.

“Take it, Chris!” cried out a fellow fireman.  At the clunk sound of hose thrown to him, adrenaline surged. Gripping the heavy hose tightly, Chris reminded himself ”Time to serve!”  as he raced into the blazing house.  

YouTube from movie "Fireproof". Video is about 4 min. long.

 

 This is from a movie, and it impressed me.  Kirk Cameron is the lead actor.  He is an Evangelical Christian who lives what he preaches.

This was a Wednesday Word challenge to writers to try out some skills.  I removed the underlines that would normally be used.  This is from 2015, and I feel awkward using them again.  I give credit to Elephant's Child and River who have maintained this after Delores handed it over. She has retired, doing battle with the computer had that effect.  She no longer maintains her site.

People of God

 

Life in a farming community was a great world to be and grow. The world was somewhere out there, with the Martin Luther King, Jr. , Pope John, Janis Joplin and other people whose lives and mine would never intersect. 

There is a hidden group that has been persecuted for 2 millennia, the God's people, the Jewish people. Six million gone in a matter of a few years, there is little sympathy for a people that escaped genocide.  

But there is no reason to dig this up.  They went on their own choice. Get over it.  These are part of the language that puts the Jewish people down more.

Just who are the famous Jewish people?  Maybe You will be surprised.

Chris Pine        Robert Downey, Jr.    Adam Lambert    Scarlet Johannson    Jack Black

Gene Simmons   Andrew Garfield   Steven Seagal    Paul Simon   Art Garfunkel  Joaquin Phoenix      

Zac Efron     Natalie Portman    Paula Abdul   Jake Gyllenhal     Sylvester Stallone     Bob Dylan

So many talented Jewish people went to the entertainment and music. But why to entertainment?

       

    Jews were prohibited for working in the community from One Millennia to another to our current age.  Instead they were allowed to work in entertaining at fair.  They emigrated to America, where the Hollywood industry was picking up.  Jewish actors were hired above other actors. After all, they had spent 2,000 years practicing their skills as a way of surviving.

Many of the producers and directors (Steven Spielberg) were part of the Jewish people talent repository made necessary by the rest of the world.

What talent came from and immigration to America! We are blessed to be part of their lives.

Disturbed: David Draiman

Draiman with his son

                                   Disturbed, with Draiman singing the Israel anthem.

David Draiman is Jewish, was educated in Israel, studied in America.

                                                        The Light with David Draiman

Each is about 3 min. long, worth listening to at least part of it.  This is a real departure from what I had heard before. His voice is hypnotic.

I met the Disturbed music quite by accident. It was my 10 yr. old gr-daughter who showed me the new cover of Sound of Silence played some selections that I really enjoyed.

Thing is that if I had not fallen in love with David Draiman and his powerful voice, I would never have gone to find his work, even listened to him. Happy accidents.

                                                     One of the guitarists brought his 9 yr old

                                               son, Justin Donegan's birthday. One time

                                              Draiman introduced his pregnant wife with

                                             her pregnant belly.  He was so proud of his

                                          family, and his love for them is awesome.

 HERE: some about his training.

 

Draiman was trained to be a cantor, given the voice.  "As a child I had trained as a cantor, who leads the Jewish congregation in prayer, so I’d had quite a bit of vocal training. And that’s still with me to this day."

 

Daiman considered studying Law or becoming a rabbi. He felt his interest in becoming a rabbi was discarded.  He studied law, planning to become a lawyer, but his voice and talent were not in a law book.

  

Before David Draiman became famous as the singer of the heavy metal band Disturbed, he trained to be a cantor. That didn’t go so well. Growing up in Chicago, he was expelled from three different yeshivas, and after a rowdy night of Purim drinking as a teenager, he blew up his high school rabbi’s van.

 

 

I know that Disturbed is a rock band of some fame, which I am just discovering.

Just really enjoyed listening to his voice and songs. The musicians are incredibly 

talented

 His voice fills the stadium. 

 

 There you have it. I have fallen in love Disturbed and David Draiman.

 

 O/t (phys therapy) is moving me along. I am starting to respond to comments.  So glad to see a hope and future. I so appreciated your faithfulness in commenting. You have no idea.

 

 

 

1968. Take me away.

 

1968…was an important year in my life for many years, one of which will make you snicker, hopefully.

One girl in my junior high school English class brought a National Enquirer-like paper to school.  Our circle of girls encircled her as she read aloud:  “UFOs need young women!”  That’s what we are!

Apparently, alien planets desperately needed healthy human teen-age girls/women with which to reproduce, replenishing their depleted planet.  The first requirement?  These breed stock must be healthy, with no flaws. The second requirement?  These healthy perfect females must stand in an open area north of any dwelling at ten a.m. on a certain day.

Did I want to do that?  Heck, yes.  Anything to escape a male-dominated farm life of repeated drudgery! Oh boy howdy.

Flawless?  I was a little weak on the one, being near-sited.  BUT the eye doctor said that this was probably due to the excessive amount of reading I did, and this would clear up when I reached the extent of my growth.

To prepare, I ceased heavy reading and ditched the glasses for a week. The night before the transporting I showered thoroughly, put my hair in rollers (so I would look like Mary Tyler Moore), and slept lightly.

Ten a.m. found me pacing eagerly in the wide open driveway and pasture. Here I am!...Please take me!...I waited over an hour, scanning the clear sky.  Nothing.

Why did I do this??

Escape has already been mentioned.  Another reason was I was darn curious about sex.  In a rural environment, birth control was virtually impossible to obtain, even for an unmarried woman.  Getting pregnant by an aggressive teen age boy would be a certain padlock in farm life.

 

So…I continued to think Here I am? Until my college years. 

 

Sorry to be so wordy.  That is not like me.

Do. Not. Sit. Down.

 

 

 It has been raining heavily for the better part of two weeks. Now, don't get me wrong. I love the rain, have even gone dancing in it with my grand kids. I love so much about rain (we live in a desert climate), that it hurts to admit that enough is enough.

 So what do I do when these black shadow clouds hang over me? Videos of toddlers doing fun things. I mean, if those sweeties are having fun times, this has to be my fun.

 Makes sense. 

Charlie and Daddy--good times.  When she is 4, let's see what she is like then.

Happy Birthday, Robert

 

Robert Peck, 1951 - 1997

All my life, my family has called me "Sis".  Now that there are only three of us, hearing "Sis" comes less and less frequently. That fact pulls out stories  about a few of those times.

My brother Robert was born January 14, 1951.  Then about eleven months later, I was born on December 4, 1951.  We were inseparable, sometimes enemies and sometimes friends.  But, always always we were ready to be there for the other.  

Robert was able to talk me into cook or bake a treat for him.  How, I don't know.  "Sis...let's make some..."  only he did not do the work. 

He convinced me to make deep-fried onion rings on Sunday afternoon. My hair smelled like onions even when we went to church at night.  Had to shampoo several times to remove that odor.  Then he thought frying up some bologna sounded good and I made that for him.  

But, Robert's favorites were anything sweet.  Again, he would say, "Sis...let's make some..." I would sigh, but there would quickly be some dessert of any type.

Here are some of his favorites, taken from Mom's cook book given to her as a wedding present in 1946. The binding is gone, pages fragile and crumbling. Lots of splatters and wear speak volumes.

God bless Betty Crocker.

She taught many war brides how to cook.

Sis. How I would love to hear Robert say "Sis...let's make some..." again.  I probably would mix up hundreds of batches, just for him.

Robert is holding his son Tony. Robert was a big man, and Tony is now.  

Robert is on the left. His vision was so bad, and no one knew it until he was 2 or 3. I am on the right in a red gingham dress. Mom is holding me, I don't know how she survived. My father is the handsome dark man. His family were from the Iroquois tribes; he and his brother had features and skin color from that.  

Ruby in the kitchen Wednesday Words

 

Ruby dumped the yeast roll dough onto the wooden table. Brioche?  Were they serious? Brioche takes 24 hours to prove.  An hour or so of kneading and the dough was thrown into the proving drawer.  I hate making brioche.

Next was the apple cranberry crumble pie. Ruby, peeling apples and cranberries were nothing. In an hour, the pie was pulled all bubbling from the oven.  I love apple pie!

All was well until the word PI popped up.  PI ? 

Everyone knows 43⋅(π(5)3) Sheesh.

Timer rang, and Ruby felt her duty for the honor of St. Catherine's Women Auxiliary was met.  Cleaning and wiping baking materials, Ruby was done. 

 

Ingredients for Classic French Brioche

• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup nonfat dry milk
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon instant yeast