Doing Other Things

Sorry for no posts yet today. I have, as they say, been doing other things. I'll try to scrape something up for this afternoon. Meanwhile, lunch awaits, a take-out from Western Sizzlin'. Oh, joy! But I ain't complaining. I didn't have to cook it, and I didn't even have to pick it up. Dear, dear Grandpère was kind enough to do the errand.

It's a beautiful spring day here, a little cool, a rare treat in our weather, which usually jumps from winter (such winter as we have) into warm or hot summer. I hear that it's 59 degrees in Panama City, Florida. Brrr... if you're on the beach in your swim suit.

Cheers!

Canine/Feline Sayings

"Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful."
Ann Landers

"In order to keep a true perspective of one's importance, everyone should have a dog that will worship him and a cat that will ignore him."
Dereke Bruce

"Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea." Robert A. Heinlein

From Grove Books.

Thanks to Erika for the link.

The Chickens Going Home To Roost?

From Anglican Mainstream:

On May 15, Christ Church Virginia Water hosted + Wallace Benn, Bishop of Lewes and President of the Church of England Evangelical Council. + Wallace spoke on Confessing Anglicans in Global and Local Mission.
....

THE launch in the UK and Ireland of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (FCA), an orthodox Anglican movement for mission at global and local level, is to take place on July 6 in London.

The Fellowship is the outworking of last year’s GAFCON conference in Jerusalem, at which 1200 delegates signed up to the Jerusalem Statement. Those attending Gafcon 2008 represented some 40 million Anglicans world-wide, 70% of the total active membership of 55 million.

The launch event, entitled ‘Be Faithful! – Confessing Anglicans in Global and Local Mission’ will be held at Westminster Central Hall from 10.30am-5.30pm. The aim is to encourage and envision Anglicans who are committed to the orthodox teachings of the Anglican Church and who are passionate about global and local mission. It will be the first of regular ‘fellowship’ events both in the UK and across the world.

Perhaps, the Archbishop of Canterbury didn't foresee the launching of FOCA or FCA, as they now call themselves, on his turf, but I surely did. Once the group sets up in England, I wonder if it might occur to them to want their own province.

Speakers at the event in England will include:

Bishops Keith Ackerman, President of Forward in Faith North America
Wallace Benn, Bishop of Lewes
John Broadhurst, Chairman of Forward in Faith UK
Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali
Dr Chik Kaw Tan
Archbishop Peter Jensen, secretary of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans

PS: 1200 delegates representing 40 million Anglicans and 70% of the active membership seems an unrealistic estimate to me. Of course, I could be wrong.

AWAC Retreat Featured Archbishop Orombi

The Association of Western Anglican Congregations, is now a diocese in the Anglican Church in North American, or ACNA, according to Fr. Bill Thompson. Well, maybe not quite yet. It may instead be poised to become a diocese in ACNA.

DIOCESE OF WESTERN ANGLICANS TO BECOME A REALITY

"Dear Brothers and Sisters, I write this from the Provincial Council meeting in Dallas/Ft. Worth. As of 11:45 a.m. CDT on April 24 the Diocese of Western Anglicans is now a diocese of the Anglican Church in North America. May God's Name be praised. In fact we were the first diocese to be so approved. Please forward this information to your parish's delegation to Western Anglican and to the congregation as a whole. I want you all to know what a privilege it is to be the Collegiate Vicar of Western Anglicans during this exciting time. Your brother in Christ, Fr. Bill Thompson+"

Is it "to become" or "is now"? I report; you decide. Or is it "ever shall be. Amen."

AWAC (I'm guessing at the acronym) sponsored a men's retreat this weekend. The special guest speaker for the retreat was Archbishop Henry Luke Orombi of Uganda. Here's the page showing the schedule and the contact person for the retreat. A reader sent me the link and pointed out that the contact person used the email address from his workplace to do religious business for AWAC. Isn't it rather unusual to use one's workplace email for this sort of religious activity?

The Girl Wins The Preakness

From The Huffington Post:

Girls rule! The best 3-year-old in the land just happens to be a filly named Rachel Alexandra.

Jockey Calvin Borel all but guaranteed victory in the Preakness Stakes and, boy, did she deliver, becoming the first filly in 85 years to win the second leg of the Triple Crown.

A rangy bay _ as big as most of the horses she beat _ Rachel Alexandra shot to the front Saturday and wasn't seriously challenged until a late close by Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird.

By beating him she ended any chance that thoroughbred racing would have a Triple Crown winner this season. Affirmed was the last Triple Crown winner in 1978.

That's our Calvin (The Cajun) Borel, from Catahoula, Louisiana, riding the winner once again. There may not be a Triple Crown horse winner, but our Calvin may be the Triple Crown jockey. I wonder if Mine That Bird would have won, had Borel been the jockey.

Calvin says: "I'm not worried about nothing....It's going to take a racehorse to beat her."

I hope so, but the Belmont is the long race. It will be a test of both horse and jockey.

Geaux Rachel Alexandra! Geaux Calvin!

How To Plant Your Garden

First, you Come to the garden alone,
while the dew is still on the roses....

FOR THE GARDEN OF YOUR DAILY LIVING,
PLANT THREE ROWS OF PEAS:

1. Peace of mind
2. Peace of heart
3. Peace of soul

PLANT FOUR ROWS OF SQUASH:

1. Squash gossip
2. Squash indifference
3. Squash grumbling
4. Squash selfishness

PLANT FOUR ROWS OF LETTUCE:

1. Lettuce be faithful
2. Lettuce be kind
3. Lettuce be patient
4. Lettuce really love one another

NO GARDEN IS WITHOUT TURNIPS:

1. Turnip for meetings
2. Turnip for service
3. Turnip to help one another

TO CONCLUDE OUR GARDEN WE MUST HAVE THYME:

1. Thyme for each other
2.. Thyme for family
3. Thyme for friends


WATER FREELY WITH PATIENCE AND CULTIVATE WITH LOVE. THERE IS MUCH FRUIT IN YOUR GARDEN BECAUSE YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW. NOT BAD, HUH?!

My instructions were to send this to people that I wanted God to bless and I picked you!

From Doug. I am honored that he chose me. This one arrives right on time.

And now, I choose you, my readers. May God bless you.

More Prayers, Please - From Margaret

From Margaret's blog:

Please pray for my beloved --he's in the hospital. They think he's had a series of small strokes.

The episodes started last night --we thought they were a food allergy or something, because he couldn't control his speech and his tongue was like a rubber band. Nothing else but that. We were with our neighbor Ben, who is a big time brain doctor... last night he showed some concern. But the episode passed quickly.Today, Joel lost his speech again while talking to Ben, and Ben called me and said that I was going to spend the next six hours in the emergency room and either hate him because it was allergies or love him for saving Joel's life.

I love Ben... he saved my husband's life.

So after about two hours in the ER waiting room, I asked to see Joel and they let me back in the ER, and this is what I saw--


--an empty ER room, except for his shoes.... That is just so wrong.... so I figured I could cry or take a picture.... I did both.

He was brought back shortly--they had been running some tests. So, Joel is where he needs to be--he is safe and in a very good hospital.

So, g'wan. Go to church. If for nothing else but to pray for my beloved Joel.... Please.

Lord God, bring healing to Joel; give strength, comfort, and consolation to Margaret, and give wisdom to those caring for Joel that he may be restored to full health and strength, in Jesus' name in unity with the Holy Spirit, we pray. Amen.

UPDATE: From Margaret in the comments:

Grandmere--thank you so very much for this. Joel is better today--he knows what year it is and is not as red as a lobster --and he can turn a pun on its heel.

I am deeply grateful for your prayers. Will keep you posted.

And Elizabeth --you are in my prayers, as is your brother John.

blessings all.

Prayers Please - From Elizabeth And Roseann

From Elizabeth Kaeton:

Bad news just in: My brother John was just diagnosed with temporal lobe deterioration and early Alzheimer's Disease. He's 55 years old. Yes, that's 55. His wife, Mary, is the primary caretaker for their granddaughter and her aged parents who live with them. Needless to say, she is quite overwhelmed. I am too stunned at the moment to know how I feel, exactly, except terribly, terribly sad and deeply concerned for my brother. Of my three siblings, he and I have been the closest.

Prayers, please.

Elizabeth, My heart goes out to you and to your brother and his family. That is devastating news! I join you in your grief. It's a sad situation. I commit this whole matter into the hands of the all-loving God and pray that you all experience God's powerful and healing presence.

From Roseann in the comments:

Just want to let you all know I am feeling better. The stuff that goes in my feeding tube is working like a charm. My main issue now is I am having trouble with dialysis. I am suddenly unable to breathe and they have to put oxygen on me. It is a horrible feeling, like a panic attack. Right now they don't know what is causing it. Could be an insulin surge or who knows.

I know I ask for prayers a lot but please pray that this is cleared up quickly. Right now it feels like one of the last hurdles.

Love, Roseann

Thanks be to God that you feel better, Roseann. We pray that the doctors find the problem with the oxygen and the dialysis and correct it. Day by day, each problem as it comes, we pray. For each and every improvement, we give thanks.

Don't ever concern yourself with asking for too many prayers, my dear.

...pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Flies To Fight Fire Ants

From CBCnews.ca:

Researchers in Texas are trying an unusual approach to combat fire ants — deploying parasitic flies that turn the pesky and economically costly insects into zombies whose heads fall off.
....

[T]he researchers are trying a tiny phorid fly, native to a region of South America where the fire ants originated. Researchers have learned that fire ants in their home region are kept under control by as many as 23 phorid species.

The flies lay eggs on the fire ants, and the eggs hatch into maggots inside the ant and eat away at the pest's tiny brain.
....

There is no brain left in the ant, and the ant just starts wandering aimlessly," he said.

About a month after the egg is laid, the ant's head falls off — and a new fly emerges ready to attack another fire ant.

Fire ants are pests and a menaces. Off with their heads! I've been bitten many times. The bite hurts like hell. My children and grandchildren have been bitten badly when they were quite young. One of my grandsons is allergic to the bites and has to take Benadryl immediately when he's bitten. The bites itch and form tiny pustules, which the children scratch. Sometimes the bites get infected, and impetigo follows.

Very young lambs and calves have been killed by the ants. What an agonizing death that must be. The ants are garden pests, too, forming large ant hills around plants that eventually smother the plant. I'd be more than happy to be rid of them.

The scientists say this is a long-term project, and we will have fire ants around for some time into the future. The ants are not native species. They came to the US from South America, so perhaps it will be a good thing to have a predator from that same area that the fire ants originally came. For now, the experiment seems promising.

I hope there are no negative unintended consequences from the introduction of the flies.

Yeats, Meet My Mood

THE SECOND COMING

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

William Butler Yeats