Snapshots In My Time...
Of My Time.....Hauntings.
July 30, 2006
Birthday Aftermath
Snapshots In My Time...
Of My Time.....Hauntings.
Yesterday was my birthday and overall it was a good day. I decided not to go into the office and try to get ahead for the upcoming week. It was my birthday afterall. I decided to make it really my day. My child had the day all lined up for me. Breakfast made by her. Cereal, and fruit with yogurt and my favorite irish tea. She was so proud of herself for planning out my whole day. It only involved just the 2 of us. After breakfast we had time for just us...a rare thing normally. We played all her favorite board games. Disney Uno and the Disney Music Game. It was fun. We had a tourament of sorts.
After that we did do a little cleaning, laundry and each of us took a nap. Now a nap is a serious thing. I normally cannot sleep at all during the day no matter how tired I am so, that was a different kind of animal. I felt better for it.
For dinner, my parents planned a birthday dinner for me. We had to be there at 6. My mother told me she would be serving at 6 but we got there at 5:45 and she was still cooking...just finishing up. It was a dinner that the Whitehouse chef would be hard pressed to duplicate. In fact it was a dinner fit for the Whitehouse. It was very, very good!
To start, we had a salad made from baby greens with duck crackling. Wow, that was tasty. The main course was roasted glazed duck, thai ginger rice, snow peas, carrots in orange sauce, hawaiian rolls and tea. That was a feast! Duck is one of my favorite things to eat.
Dessert was a key lime birthday cake made for me by my daughter. It was good. Now it did not appear to rise to high, so it was almost like a keylime bar. This was her very first time trying to make a cake on her own. She wanted no help. I think something was missed in her attempts but it was still edible. Like a good mother I raved about the cake and we all ate it. That reminded me of my first attempt to make pancakes for my mother eons ago. (We all have to start somewhere!)
Age? 39 and holding. I turned a year older but I do not feel any older. In fact I have not felt any older for the past 6 years. Am I headed for the middle aged crash sometime soon when all will go wrong? I hope not. I am going to be holding for a long, long time!
After that we did do a little cleaning, laundry and each of us took a nap. Now a nap is a serious thing. I normally cannot sleep at all during the day no matter how tired I am so, that was a different kind of animal. I felt better for it.
For dinner, my parents planned a birthday dinner for me. We had to be there at 6. My mother told me she would be serving at 6 but we got there at 5:45 and she was still cooking...just finishing up. It was a dinner that the Whitehouse chef would be hard pressed to duplicate. In fact it was a dinner fit for the Whitehouse. It was very, very good!
To start, we had a salad made from baby greens with duck crackling. Wow, that was tasty. The main course was roasted glazed duck, thai ginger rice, snow peas, carrots in orange sauce, hawaiian rolls and tea. That was a feast! Duck is one of my favorite things to eat.
Dessert was a key lime birthday cake made for me by my daughter. It was good. Now it did not appear to rise to high, so it was almost like a keylime bar. This was her very first time trying to make a cake on her own. She wanted no help. I think something was missed in her attempts but it was still edible. Like a good mother I raved about the cake and we all ate it. That reminded me of my first attempt to make pancakes for my mother eons ago. (We all have to start somewhere!)
Age? 39 and holding. I turned a year older but I do not feel any older. In fact I have not felt any older for the past 6 years. Am I headed for the middle aged crash sometime soon when all will go wrong? I hope not. I am going to be holding for a long, long time!
July 29, 2006
Voodoo is Still Alive and Well
Snapshots In My Time...
Of My Time.....Hauntings.
In an annual ritual that ended Monday, worshippers from across the Caribbean nation arrived for the weeklong Saut d'Eau pilgrimage.
The ritual, among Haitian Voodoo's holiest, comes amid a surge of violence in Haiti's capital that U.N. officials say is an attempt to destabilize the new government of President Rene Preval.
Saut d'Eau's mystique owes to a 19th century legend that an image of the Virgin Mary appeared in the waterfalls. Believing the waters hold magical powers, followers strip to their underwear and scrub their bodies with aromatic mint leaves and soap.
Arms raised to the heavens, they ask the gods for help with fixing broken relationships, curing sickness and even lucky lottery tickets. Some collapse in convulsions, overcome by emotion -- or maybe spirit gods, called loas in Voodoo.
When I read this article it reminded me of my grandmother who according to my mother died a voodoo death or thanatomania. What happened to my grandmother, is something my mother still talks about. I find it hard to believe. My brain tells me that she had cancer or some other undetected ailment. My mother insists--NO! She said that on the day she died, she took her to the doctor twice and twice the day before....to the emergency room..and noone could find anything wrong. They prodded and poked and no one different doctor or nurse could find anything wrong with her. Yet she was dying. My mom said that my grandmother had consulted a root doctor that no one was aware of. My mother only knew because when she went to visit and saw how sick she was she collected her and all her things and brought her to her house to get medical help. My grandmother lived on a sea island in the south.
As they were packing, my grandmother indicated that she needed a small bottle of dark liquid that was next to the night stand. Medicine from the root doctor. It was inky and dark and my grandmother had to drink it everyday to undo what had been done to her. I am an anthropology major and I studied magic and rituals and I think that those things work only if you are in that culture and that is your belief system. Now my mother always stayed away from things like that and we were never exposed to that whole voodoo thing. But, she was as a child and insists that voodoo can affect people.
Just the other day she told me that someone put a hex on her sometime ago...years...when she was still working. I remember her telling me about odd smells in her work areas and even odder things. Weird frogs and white powder being all over the top of her desk in the mornings. She would wipe it away and about a week later it would be there again. Also in the breakroom she would see odd things there. She was always the first to get to work and put her lunch in the employee refridgerator. One moring that was what looked like a bundle of multicolored rags tied from a string hung from the ceiling over the break table. She was looking at it wondering what it was when another employee came in and saw it and yanked it down saying it was some sort of voodoo.
The thing that really sealed it for my mom that she was being hexed was her lunch. One day she brought in a salad. She put it in the fridge. Now she has always had a salad spinner to get all the water off the leaves so her salad was normally quite dry before any salad dressing. One day at lunch she got her salad and it was wet. The leaves were wet. She thought about it and then decided it must be condensation from the bowl and the fridge. She ate and got very sick. She was sick for about 2 weeks and she believes to this day that someome did something to her food. She went to the doctor and they could never find out what was wrong. She eventually got better.
Years ago as a joke, I told her there was a circle of chicken bones on the front porch. It was around halloween and she got very agitated saying that the might be voodoo. She would not go to the porch to see what I was talking about. She became so upset that I got scared and finally told her I had made it up as a halloween joke. Trust me, that was the last time I ever did that.
Voodoo and me? We are still at opposite poles. It is something I do not want much to do with. I remember when I was right out of college and still living in my home town, I was working with social services. We had some clients who were very distasteful. They did not want to do anything more in life than collect a welfare check. Now, I remember one of my co-workers telling me she got an envelope with a penny in it from someone in her case load. I had never heard of the penny curse. She said it was some voodoo curse that would bring money woes if you kept that penny. To counteract that, you had to mail the penny back to the person who sent it to you. Luckily I never got a penny curse. That was odd. She mailed that penny right back as soon as she saw what was in the envelope.
With Katrina and New Orleans, I wonder what is happening with voodoo there. It had such a stronghold in New Orleans. I did a google search and only found info on this voodoo shop trying to reopen after Katrina. Erzulies.
As they were packing, my grandmother indicated that she needed a small bottle of dark liquid that was next to the night stand. Medicine from the root doctor. It was inky and dark and my grandmother had to drink it everyday to undo what had been done to her. I am an anthropology major and I studied magic and rituals and I think that those things work only if you are in that culture and that is your belief system. Now my mother always stayed away from things like that and we were never exposed to that whole voodoo thing. But, she was as a child and insists that voodoo can affect people.
Just the other day she told me that someone put a hex on her sometime ago...years...when she was still working. I remember her telling me about odd smells in her work areas and even odder things. Weird frogs and white powder being all over the top of her desk in the mornings. She would wipe it away and about a week later it would be there again. Also in the breakroom she would see odd things there. She was always the first to get to work and put her lunch in the employee refridgerator. One moring that was what looked like a bundle of multicolored rags tied from a string hung from the ceiling over the break table. She was looking at it wondering what it was when another employee came in and saw it and yanked it down saying it was some sort of voodoo.
The thing that really sealed it for my mom that she was being hexed was her lunch. One day she brought in a salad. She put it in the fridge. Now she has always had a salad spinner to get all the water off the leaves so her salad was normally quite dry before any salad dressing. One day at lunch she got her salad and it was wet. The leaves were wet. She thought about it and then decided it must be condensation from the bowl and the fridge. She ate and got very sick. She was sick for about 2 weeks and she believes to this day that someome did something to her food. She went to the doctor and they could never find out what was wrong. She eventually got better.
Years ago as a joke, I told her there was a circle of chicken bones on the front porch. It was around halloween and she got very agitated saying that the might be voodoo. She would not go to the porch to see what I was talking about. She became so upset that I got scared and finally told her I had made it up as a halloween joke. Trust me, that was the last time I ever did that.
Voodoo and me? We are still at opposite poles. It is something I do not want much to do with. I remember when I was right out of college and still living in my home town, I was working with social services. We had some clients who were very distasteful. They did not want to do anything more in life than collect a welfare check. Now, I remember one of my co-workers telling me she got an envelope with a penny in it from someone in her case load. I had never heard of the penny curse. She said it was some voodoo curse that would bring money woes if you kept that penny. To counteract that, you had to mail the penny back to the person who sent it to you. Luckily I never got a penny curse. That was odd. She mailed that penny right back as soon as she saw what was in the envelope.
With Katrina and New Orleans, I wonder what is happening with voodoo there. It had such a stronghold in New Orleans. I did a google search and only found info on this voodoo shop trying to reopen after Katrina. Erzulies.
Circle of Friends
Snapshots In My Time...
Of My Time.....Hauntings.
I have found a circle of friends. It is a blessing. With work, home, kids and a schedule that goes non- stop I have made time for God. Bible study. At first I was wondering how I would ever have time for bible study. It seemed like an optional, but unnecessary 2 hours of the week that I could be devoting to cleaning, spending time with family, pets.. what have you. I decided to give it a try and I was welcomed into a wonderful new circle of ladies. Now it is something I look forward to each week.
As a young adult in my 20's I look back and I had all sorts of friends and I went out a lot with girlfriends. I had a lot of best friends. Then in my 30's, career was the main focus and some of my friends went by the way side and with family, my social network dwindled down to a handful of friends.
Now, that circle is expanding. Not only do we learn about the bible, but I now have a close group who is almost like family. If something happens, there is a core group of woman who can come to your aid right away. Blessing it is! I am not an ultra religious person at all. But it is amazing to me how much the actual bible study has enlightened me. I had not attended any sort of bible study ever. It has made me realize just how much I do not know and have to learn.
Right now were are using one of the study series by Beth Moore. Now that is an amazing woman! She is into bible literacy and she is not playing about that! Take a study with one of her courses! You will not be the same!
Devotional
"Your love has given me great joy and encourage-ment, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints." —Philemon vs. 7 NIV
How many times has someone come up to you and said, "Hello there, do you remember me?" You haven't the faintest idea who that person is and you are so embarrassed. We have a temporary friendship with so many along the path of simple living -- neighbors who stay for just a short time, people we meet at a resort or convention. It is so hard to remember everyone.
In today's scripture, Paul is telling his friend how happy he is that his friend has "refreshed the hearts of the saints." Perhaps you may not remember everyone's name, but who knows what an impact you have had on the people you have met. If you allow the Lord to be your guide, you may be able to encourage and inspire someone during that short fellowship together. If so, you're responding to Jesus' command: "Love your neighbor as yourself."
You may not remember that person, but your caring love may have enriched the life of that person without your even being aware of it. And that is the blessing!Heavenly Father, give me a loving, caring heart to bring others closer to you. Amen.
July 27, 2006
The Donkey
Snapshots In My Time...
Of My Time.....Hauntings.
One day a farmer's donkey fell down into a well. The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn't worth it to retrieve the donkey.
He invited all his neighbors to come over and help him. They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well. At first, the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly. Then, to everyone's amazement he quieted down. A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well. He was astonished at what he saw.
With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up. As the farmer's neighbors continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up. Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!
Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up. Each of our troubles is a steppingstone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up.
Remember the five simple rules to be happy:
1. Free your heart from hatred - Forgive.
2. Free your mind from worries - Most never happen.
3. Live simply and appreciate what you have.
4. Give more.
5. Expect less
NOW -------- Enough of that . . . The donkey later came back, and bit the farmer who had tried to bury him. The gash from the bite got infected, and the farmer eventually died in agony from septic shock.
MORAL FROM TODAY'S LESSON: When you do something wrong, and try to cover your butt, it always comes back to bite you.
July 22, 2006
Olny Sarmt Peolep Can Raed Tihs
Snapshots In My Time...
Of My Time.....Hauntings.
I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid! Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm.
Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! If you can raed tihs psas it on!!
July 02, 2006
Cannabis Ice Tea
Snapshots In My Time...
Of My Time.....Hauntings.
British health food shops will soon be offering customers iced cannabis tea, its Swiss distributor said.
Sold under the label "C-Ice Swiss Cannabis Ice Tea", the beverage contains five percent of hemp flower syrup and a tiny (0.0015 percent) quantity of THC, the active ingredient of marijuana.
Any ingredient that could put it in the drugs category has been removed and the tea will not lead to dependency.
But British anti-drug campaigners say that selling the tea is dangerous because it will give young people the impression that cannabis is commonplace.
The product was launched in Switzerland in 2003 and is already available in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)