The Slow Lane

After spending so many years of my life on such a set pace, a schedule which usually began in the before sunrise hours and ended as the sun was saying good evening to my part of the globe, I have moved over to the slow lane. It is a shame, to some extent, that life treats us in such a manner as to sneak by without as much as a hello. Why we run so fast, why we strive to accomplish so much, why we push ourselves to our limit exhausting our energy, and for some abusing our bodies all in the name of accumulation of things, a reputation, acknowledgement by others, making our mark, success, financial freedom, personal satisfaction, gratification or what ever other name we choose to call it. Yet it does seem to have all been conducted in the "fast lane" traveling at a blurring speed not slowing down enough to even enjoy the passing scenery. However, here I am, shifted gears, slowed down and moved over into the slow lane. The memories of past travels just that, only memories and in the past, I have yet to know someone who has arrived at their destination staring into the rear view mirror. Do I look back, of course, and with fondness of times spent with my dear wife, and our little girls. Those times of hugs and adoration, dad can fix anything, times of laughter filled with playing in the snow, building giant slides in the heaped piles of frozen snow in our front yard, trips to the zoo and so many more. I can recall so many, of the good times, yet still it is in the past, and I am still driving forward, and I am driving in the slow lane, perhaps this is the time to be able to recall so many of those events, perhaps at this speed one has longer times at stop lights, perhaps at this speed one has the occasion to use the rest stops more. What ever the case, I am enjoying this speed and still look forward to arriving at my destination. Still moving forward, just a bit slower. Did I enjoy those days at blistering speed, sure, I enjoy every day, but now I am able to see more. Thank you Lord for the slow lane.

Alone

Although I am a person who embraces each "day" from the prospective of it being a gift from God, and even though I enjoy this "day" immensely and look forward to whatever it is that I am able to do, whether that is work, play or just vegging out, yesterday was one that did not hold such glamour. I was forced by the events of extended family circumstances to bid the love of my life, my partner, my friend, my wife, my Patty farewell for a week. I was pressed upon to resign our time, nearly 24/7, together so that she might serve with her God given gift of "helps". With a swollen foot, discomfort and pain, my dear wife, put herself aside to leave the warmth behind, leaving me behind, to attend, to assist her sister and mother during a time of surgery and recovery for her sister. I am blessed beyond measure to have a woman like this to share my life with, to enjoy her love, and to love. This "day" I speak of was non other then our 38th wedding anniversary, yes, I was to say goodbye, for a short time, to her on the 20th.

Now, being alone, and I am one who does need some alone time, and true I am not completely alone, as staying here in the warmth I have my sister in the house and of course Keto, I still am more alone then I care to be. Those times with I need to escape to my basement, when I am home, or into the office, here at the house, I always know, I always feel, the presence of my beloved spouse. I always sense her being, her spirit, close to me no matter which room separates our physical proximity. However I must do what I must do, and get through this time I will, not liking it, not willing it, and I will play golf today, and enjoy each "day" I have as a gift, however the best gifted day will be Saturday when I meet her once again to feel her embrace, and to be able to hold her close once again. Missing you, my love.

Own Kind

More pondering about greys and black and whites has directed my thinking towards considering who might else be black and white, concrete thinkers, which in turn, lead me to ponder upon those individuals who are dedicated to the concept of having the great apes as great grandfathers many generations removed. As completely opposed and in disagreement with this people, I do however, admire their solid convictions. They are absolutionists ( I know that is not a word) But it does best describe them as well as myself. I live in the absolutes. Now as I peer into my own beliefs as opposed to those I aforementioned, I do have to establish the fact that each of us has approached the answers to life and it's beginnings from two different starting points. It is my understanding, of course I could be misinformed, ( unlikely) the evolutionists have started from the base camp of humanity. I have started from the base camp of God's word. Oh I know, I have already polarized the situation, and even the greys might say that both starting points might be right and compatible with each other. This is just the kind of thinking I am not capable of. Starting from the base camp that I do, I have to state each living specimen has given birth to it's own kind. I use as the truth for this cause the following scripture:

Gen 1:24-26
24 And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." NIV

The argument that some kind changed at some point just does not agree with this, the first recorded history of mankind's beginning. Rather then trust what was recorded as dictated by the creator, these people must insist they can tell more from dead remains of it's own kind.

Now this could be the longest of blogs which I will spare you from having to endure. I only wish you to ponder this too. I invite your comments.

Finished Pondering

In all the times of conversations with people, especially the greys, my black and white views strike some of them as narrow and dogmatic, unable to bend, unwilling to compromise, hard nosed and stubborn. I suppose that may well define me, to some extent, however this position I have evolved to has it's roots in my faith. For the life of me, I cannot understand how people really believe mankind, the created, is greater then God, the creator. As I pondered upon this concept, some thoughts occurred to me:

With all the unrest throughout the world
With all the conflict between countries, religious beliefs, racial barriers that still exist.
With all the diversities in the social economic levels which bring greed, envy and jealous behaviors
With all the struggles for power and authority over other persons
With all the ways in which mankind seeks to find solutions from within
With all the concerns and disagreements over "Global warming" and "Climate change"
With so many other areas mankind seeks answers and solutions for.
With the greys proclaiming the problems are too complex for any one man to resolve
or there is more then one answer.

This last is the closest to the truth I hold to............. the problems are too complex for mankind to resolve, but there is only one answer.

As this country endeavors to separate itself, the state, from the church, God, it reenacts the past events of mankind over the ages. When ever mankind determines it does not want to be in a right relationship with it's creator, a prolonged period of disaster has befallen upon it. Angst and unrest resulting in captivity. In years past this may have been to another King, tribe or Nation, but today, I am convince it is a captivity to "self".

Mankind is so consumed with itself, so enamoured with it's own prowess, so boastful of it's own accomplishments, so self endowed, it does not need God. Mankind has caused all the problems it believes it has and this same mankind can fix them.

My faith in God and in His Son, Jesus Christ as the one and true answer for all the ills of mankind gives me the black and white optimistic view for the future. Not necessarily the future of mankind, but the future of my life. I know God will meet all my needs according to his riches......
My hope and my prayer is for mankind, for those who seek truth from within themselves
for those who look to the wisdom of humanity, for those who put their trust in they own strength and knowledge, that they will still their "self" long enough to hear the still quite voice of God calling to them, "come onto me, and I will give you rest".

Mankind will never solve it's condition until it comes to the realization that God is.

Here I am

Sorry about the lost days of blogging, my time here on Marco is so relaxing, my mind is so still, that thoughts of self, and reflections of concepts and ideas have taking a back sit to the casual attitude that has infiltrated my mind. With warm days, plenty of sunshine, opportunities to smack that little white orb either at the range or as in yesterday, around the 18 holes with new friends, walk, soak in the warm water of the pool, and work, if you can call it work, on the cad program designing my future model railroad, I have allowed my brain to slip into a more tranquil mode then usual. There has been some exchanges of substance, which stimulate the brains cells lurking deep within, however at a cost. Several evenings ago my sister had some of her friends over for dominoes and dinner. I had promised not to bring up any conversation that would in any way cause a situation of stress in her life. The subjects of my inner most thoughts, God and country were off limits, knowing me, you must understand that small talk is not my strong suit. However, because of the love I have for my sister, I restrained myself and talked as small as I could, I think I was somewhat successful and the evening passed. That was not the case the other evening when it was just the three of us, my sister and I once again engaged in very stimulating conversation regarding issues we surely stand 180 degrees upon. One thing is for sure and we did agree, she is a grey person and I am a black and white person. I know greys are out there, and believe in all their heart issues have way too much complexity to understand, or to deal with in concrete ways. Is my simple black and white approach not attainable? Does my faith in the Holy scriptures and my God keep me from seeing the complexity of the issues? I might have to ponder upon this more, not to change my mind, but to understand it better.

Warmer

Yesterday the 4th day of 2008 we saw the temps raising back into the normal Marco Island condition. It was beginning to look a lot like Florida, everywhere we looked, palm trees and bushes dressed in an array of colored flowers being rinsed by the rays of the sun. Yes now the reason for the season was at hand, and I being who I am just had to make my way to the driving range just North of the Island to see of these rusty bones could still swing. It has been several months since Jim and I had to curtail our weekly pilgrimage to Locust Hills Golf Club in Ohio. The weather was beginning to brother my old friend, the last day it was only about 45 degrees and he was not doing as well as he thought he would in those temps and decided we better hold up for the winter season. Well I cheat, getting to come down here, getting to enjoy the blessing of my sister. and so off to the range, and man I was in the zone, these old bones did pretty good for themselves, and even after a large bucket, 110 to 120 in number, they were not feeling so bad. God has been good to me and keeps things in pretty good condition. After returning from the range I set out for my walk, I found a route from the house to Tiger tail beach and back that works out to 2 miles. Now I know you youngsters think nothing of 2 miles, but for me that seems like a good hike, and I try do it in about 40 minutes, again a 20 minute mile is pretty slow, but remember I am a heart patient and I just need to get the muscle working, not over doing it and ruining the vacation time for Patty and Char. So a brisk pace is just fine and I handle that alright. Happy hour and Pasta for dinner followed by a few rounds of dominoes, Char whooped us again, was a great end of daylight with looking forward to settling in with my honey to watch a movie. Man life just doesn't get and better.

Stimulating Conversation

Before I begin, I must apologize for this long Blog, I am compelled to express myself and it will take a few words to do that. Sorry, please read at your own risk.



Yesterday was a cool day on Marco, temps were only in the upper 40's but I was determined to get a walk in, so I set out with sweatshirt and wind breaker as the winds were somewhere in the 30mph with gusts up to 40 or so, the walk across the bridge on Collier on my way to Starbucks was surely in need of a life line to hold onto. Talk about wind, nearly blew me right off the bridge. A breezy day to say the least, not that I am complaining a bit, I hear back home has 9 inches of snow and below temps. But I got my coffee scoop, which I was after as I forget to bring the one I have at home, and the last two mornings the coffee was on the weak side, having to get used to a new maker, and such, I thought I better have the right size scoop, then out on the walk to get the rest of the body moving. Later in the day we got ready to make our journey off the island to the place that Park & Shar Davis live. They had invited the 3 of us for dinner. It was a delightful time including "happy hour" and such, snacks that were great, and conversation about the ailments of the aging fivesome present. What else do older people talk about? Well dinner was very superb, Shar out did herself, and everything was very tastefully done, including the dessert that Park made an exceptional presentation of, I thought I was in a most excellent dining Establishment. As the dessert was being consumed the conversation turned to the environment, Shar was expressing her opinions of how we humans are consuming all the natural resources of this planet and how they are almost used up and what are our children and grandchildren going to do. In fact with the "Global Warming" all the ice is melting, but rather then an increase of water level, the water level is decreasing due to most of it evaporating into the air, and not staying in the clouds to return as rain, but rather continuing to raise far into the atmosphere and getting burned up by all the greenhouse gases. Now I sat respectfully throughout that distortion even if it did not seem to me to contain correct facts. You see I have studied to some extent the evaporation of water from the Earth's surface. When water evaporates into the air and raises with the air into the upper levels of the atmosphere something called "lifting level of condensation" occurs. As air raises it cools around 3 degrees per thousand feet of elevation and at this point of lifting level, it condensates and forms clouds, that is why those nice big white clouds are flat on the bottom. As the moisture continues to enter the cloud it gains more and more weight until it can no longer remain aloft and returns to the Earth as rain.

The idea that this moisture could continue to pass through this lifting level of condensation and remain in a vapor has no merit at all. I did not express that to my host as I would have been completely out of line insulting her idea, and the fact that both Park and Shar are extremely nice people, and have extended the hand of freindship to me. Knowing, however she will not ever read this blog, I am free to do so now. I did, however, after much restraint, have to express my own beliefs regarding us humans using up all the resources of this planet. I explained as calmly as possible, and knowing me, you must understand that is not my normal mode of action, how I believe we have not even tapped the natural resources this planet has for us. Because I am a creationist and believe that God did in fact create this planet with all the foreknowledge of how advanced us humans would become, and what we would do that could have any effect on his creation, if any at all. Because of this foreknowledge and his promise to provide all of our needs according to his riches in glory.



Phil 4:1919 And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. NIV

In meeting all our needs which include all the natural resources we will ever need. He will sustain us, He created an Earth that would not only meet all our needs but would continue to do so and be reactive to any actions on our part. As an example of that, the North American Continent has been labeled as a "carbon sink", you may read many articles regarding this, one which has some interesting facts is:http://www.ucsusa.org/publications/catalyst/fa04-catalyst-forest-carbon-sequestration.html

The whole and sum of all this I explained was that if God did not or could not create an environment for his creation, us, that would meet all of our needs and sustain us and itself at the same time, then he would not be God. The idea that we could destroy what God created seems to me to express the idea that man is greater than God. How could we humans have more effect then God on his own creation? Sorry my friends, I just cannot accept that in any form. Do I believe we should run wild and attempt to destroy it, absolutely not. Do I believe we should care and tend to the Earth, absolutely! I have planted many trees and seen to the planting of many more. I recycle, saving the land fills from things that will not biodegrade and form methane gas which has been used for energy in some cities. Even through the garbage of our lives, God has given men wisdom as to use it to the betterment of mankind. The fact is, according to my beliefs, is God is greater then men, and we cannot ever destroy this planet, in fact God will someday, as he has also promised, and instead of being so concerned about the temporary place we live, we should consider with great thought about the eternal place we will live. If we put to much value in this temporal Earth, and little value on the other, the scripture tells us that where a man's treasure is there also is his heart. The question we all need to consider is, what do we place value on, where is our heart?

Well, enough for now, I suppose some might wish to comment about this long blog, that is your freedom, as it is mine to write this. Have fun.

Setup

The first day of 2008, wow! Another year has flown by and the good Lord has allowed me one more day, and this one in the warmth. It was one of those days that seemed to be all about getting things in order so to have our surroundings in a workable fashion. You know how each person has preferences as to the way things need to be, and with a vacation house it always seems to be set up so poorly. Who are these people that own these homes and decorate with such poor taste? This home does have some great basics however, the floor plan was the number one reason I think it was chosen by the powers to be for our temporary time spent here.
Char has the master bedroom suite and Patty and I have the choice of two of the other bedrooms, one with a double bed the other with two twins. The fun begins, the double bed room has an open view into the tv/family room and also has the air conditioner just outside the window wall,which does has a certain hum about. Two twins is completely unacceptable for such a close pair as us, so remove the head boards which prevented the two from coming together and set the two up as a king, there was even extra bedding to accommodate that setup, now dressers had to be changed as the double bed room had a better one with a big mirror that had to be taken off to get through the doorway and put back on in the new location, a heavy TV needed to be transferred from the twin, now king, room to the double room, along with its dresser.
And we are ready, clothes in the closet and drawers and all is set for the night hours. Char needed to set up and office space for herself, and a certain piece of the living room furniture made an excellent desk, so move that into the master room and it looks like we had done it. the house environment is now to our suiting. Off to the stores, need food and all kinds of stuff. So we spent most of the day in stores, but we have success! and the excellent adventure is ready to continue.