Saturday, November 27, 2010

A Few For Now

We just got in from our annual Thanksgiving camping trip to Pismo Beach. We got some great pictures, but they sure don't show how cold it was! After sleeping in a tent I am more thankful than ever for central heat, indoor plumbing, and much else! A few photos for now and then off to bed for me! A real bed! Ahhhhhh!

Monday, November 22, 2010

Only in Mathematics

Only in mathematics was there that sense of moving through another dimension, one that didn't exist in time and place - that feeling of falling into and through a puzzle, of having it surround you in a physical way.
from The Eight by Katherine Neville

Friday, November 19, 2010

Hide and Seek

Here where the dead lie hidden
Too well ever to speak,
Three children unforbidden
Are playing hide-and-seek.

What if for such a hiding
These stones were not designed?
The dead are far from chiding;
The living need not mind.

Too soon the stones that hid them
Anonymously in play
Will earn their names and bid them
Come back and hide to stay.

Robert Francis (b. 1901)

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Olber's Paradox

The heavens hold more stars than earth has grains
Of sand, and given time, each tiny sun
Combined should make a world where starlight stains
The sky bright white and dark would be undone.
And yet the night remains. the dim stars gleam
Their separate ways, and constellations drawn
Connect their dots, while under them we dream
And sleep, then wake to such a thing as dawn.
The universe, expanding since its birth,
Is larger, older than its light; sublime,
The force that keeps this constant day from earth
The same that measures out our years -- is time:
The limitation that provides us night
And saves us all from unremitting light.

Robert W. Crawford (2004)

Monday, November 15, 2010

Fall and Night Fall

It's finally fall in California (though you wouldn't have known it by the warm temps today!)


"Fossils" of a fall long ago!


Fall and summer fighting for dominance:


A certain slant of light . . .


Sunset through my home-office window . . .



. . . and nightfall:

Thursday, November 11, 2010

At Arlington


Two dates carved in stone above his grave
tell us he was seventeen, not how
this soldier died, nor whether he was brave
or terrified, or both. No matter now:
the only life he had to give, he gave.

Wiley Clements 2004

Random Act of Culture


YouTube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp_RHnQ-jgU

Saturday, November 06, 2010

In This Short Life

In this short Life
That only lasts an hour
How much -- how little -- is
Within our power

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

STEPHEN TO LAZARUS

But was I the first martyr, who
Gave up no more than life, while you,
Already free among the dead,
Your rags stripped off, your fetters shed,
Surrendered what all other men
Irrevocably keep, and when
Your battered ship at anchor lay
Seemingly safe in the dark bay
No ripple stirs, obediently
Put out a second time to sea
Well knowing that your death (in vain
Died once) must all be died again?

C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)

Tuesday, November 02, 2010

Status

On facebook I can post a status - in some sense that's what this post is - and the status is good!

I had such a busy day I didn't notice the date (Nov. 2) until now. It is 3 years since David's stroke. Whew! It seems both longer ago and shorter ago. Though things are still not as they were before that, we are thankful for the tremendous healing that has been granted by God's grace!

We are sure in a different spot three years ago today!