A "Cat Drive" ??

I saw this today and it was to funny so here it is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk7yqlTMvp8

This is just for all those cat lovers out there.

Mervi

Dec. 27, 2007
If I have anything left to do in this measurement of time we have called 2007 I’d better get a move on!!
Really, I have set the last three mornings with a cup of foul back fluid (coffee) and reviewed my balance sheet for the year coming to an end, so very quickly. How much good have I deposited in others, how much hurt have I deposited into others? Have I reached out a hand to help, have I withheld that hand that could have helped? How often was I in too big a hurry with MY stuff to hear a friend, how often did I invest that few moments to just sit and hear a friend out?
You see there is quite a bit to ponder on this balance sheet. I know that I have always been the type of person who liked a balance sheet. It keeps me advised of what has come in and what has gone out, where I stand at any given moment. But, I ponder my balance sheet knowing full well that one day I shall give an accounting. My balance sheet shall be balanced against HIS and then I shall both know and understand the TRUE balance of my existence as a human being.
A happy entranced into the New Year to each who have taken the time to read my words!

Mervi

A Christmas Prayer

This is a very good video for here at the Christmas season. A little on the sad side, yet, it does bring the desire for family very close.
Should you take the time to watch this video? Then I would ask you to take a few moments to pray for those on the field of battle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5leMiif4pM

"Marry Christmas to all and to all a good night."

The eighty years old lady who is marring for teh fouth time.

The local news station was interviewing an 80-year-old lady because she had just gotten married -- for the fourth time.
The interviewer asked her questions about her life, about what it felt like to be marrying again at 80, and then about her new husband's occupation.
"He's a funeral director," she answered.
"Interesting," the newsman thought."
He then asked her if she wouldn't mind telling him a little about her first three husbands and what they did for a living.
She paused for a few moments, needing time to reflect on all those years. After a short time, a smile came to her face and she answered proudly, explaining that she had first married a banker when she was in her early 20's, then a circus ringmaster when in her 40's, later on a preacher when in her 60's, and now in her 80's, a funeral director.
The interviewer looked at her, quite astonished, and asked why she had married four men with such diverse carters?

She smiled and explained,
"I married one for the money,
two for the show,
three to get ready,
and four to go."

“The search for pleasure at all cost.”

I lifted the following from the Catholic Times this morning.

“The joy that Christians experience-- even in the midst of worldly woes-- can be
seen in the lives of the faithful, the Holy Father said. As a vivid example he
offered the witness of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who "experienced the trial of
the dark night of faith, yet she continued to give everyone the smile of God."
No such joy can be found in the lives of those who "idolize happiness," the
Pope continued. Unfortunately, he remarked, that tendency is ever more powerful
today, in "the search for pleasure at all costs." The results, he said, are
evident in "the increasing use of drugs as an escape, a refuge in an artificial
paradise which is subsequently revealed as merely illusory."

“The search for pleasure at all cost.” Pleasure, personal option, does not have a price tag. It is those thing that we do for others that can not be repaid. I was taken by surprise last week as I was sitting in Wal Mart enjoying a cup of coffee and people watching. As a lady drop a small item I called this to her attention. Another stranger stopped looked at the dropped item laying there on the floor and picked it up. The lady stopped with a strange look on her face. My next words started and avalanche of the same, “Marry Christmas.” It seemed to spread for person to person.
The gift we give to a stranger not a physical gift, but that of a kind action or word. These are the truer gifts of the season. Because He came and gave us the same. A kind word, “Go in peace.” A simple action, “He broke the beard.” Let us go and do likewise.

Mervi

According to a ledged

Satan and his demons were having a Christmas party. As the demons guest were departing, one grinned and said to Satan, “Marry Christmas, your majesty.” At that, Satan replied with a growl, “Yes, keep it marry. If they ever get serious about it, we’ll all be in trouble.”

Well, get serious about it.
It is the birth of the Baby.
It is the coming of God.
It is the intervention of God’s presents among men.

(The tale of the tardy ox cart, Chuck Swindoll)

Mervi

To the ladies, the proper way to weigh ones self.

How to correctly weigh yourself...

I can't believe I was doing it wrong all these years.

We must get the word out.

This is that day, “which shall live in infamy

This is that day, “which shall live in infamy,” (President Roosevelt). We, as a nation, need to remember the price which those young men and women paid to maintain liberty, the freedom of choice, in this world. This is that day on which we must take a few moments and reflect on the price which was paid for our freedom to choice. That freedom of choice, which allows us the freedom to choice where I choose to live, where I choose to work, what I choose to buy, and how and where I choose to worship the deity of my choice. I have a very deep regard for those young people who both serviced and gave the highest price, their lives in that war. I had two uncles who served in the Pacific theater and two in the European theater. All have died, yet the stories which they told me, as I was a child still linger in my mind. I have passed these stories on to both of my sons and to their children. Why? So that when my decedents see these memorials to war, World War Two memories, the Vietnam wall and other memorials of war. So that they will have an understanding of what was at stake and the victories that they sacrifices brought. Victories, the right to have the political process in which we, as a nation, are now involved in. That process to elect a new President of our Nation.

Yet, I have a concern or fear. What would have been the out come of World War two if there had been live cameras imbedded within these troupes as they engaged the great battles in the South Pacific and those in North Africa or the Battle of the Bulge? How would our parents and grandparents have reacted if they would have seen, life, the invasion of Europe? Would the war have ended the same if that war had been shown / fought in the front rooms of the America people, as they are now? I will quote President Roosevelt again, “I hate war Eleanor hates war.” I believe that we can all agree that we hate war! Yet, there comes a time where we, as a nation, must arise and meet force with force to those who impose their will upon others unjustly.

Artificial intelligence (?)

Artificial intelligence (?)

Here a few days ago there was a lot of talk about the coming of Artificial Intelligence, the ability of a computer to respond to a human.

Microsoft had an artificial Santa line, where Santa (?) would respond to children through the inter-net. Will things went wide of the mark. Here is a link to the story.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20071205/D8TBITJG1.html

Mervi

That trinity of need

This is barrowed from John Leax professor of English at Houghton College:

His fathered flame dusted dull
By ice cold,
The cardinal hunched
into the rough, green feeder
but ate no seed.

Through binoculars I saw
Festered and useless
His beak, broken
at the root.

Then two: blazing, one gray,
Rode the swirling weather
Into my vision
And lighted at his side.

Unhurried as if possessing
The patients of God,
They cracked sunflowers
And feed him
Beak to broken beak
Choice meats.

Each morning and afternoon
The winter long,
That odd triumvirate,
That trinity of need,
Returned an ate
Their sacrament
Of broker seed.

Let us, Mervi included, look and see. Is there a broken beaked soul close to me!!

Mervi.

Sand Castle, Castle of sand

Sand castle, castle of sand
Oh what beautiful view from your Bulwarks survey
Look- See the beauty of the ocean, at your door.
Hear the sound of the coming waves.
Can you feel them as the come?

Sand castle, castle of sand
Who was your modeler, who fashioned your great walls?
What have they done to protect you, more?
Hear the sound of the coming waves.
Can you feel them as they come?

Sand castle, castle of sand
THE WAVES HAVE COME
THE WAVES ARE HERE
They are washing away at your great wall, it has been breached
Where are your modelers?

Sand castle, castle of sand
All is lost All is gone
Your great beauty is--- is washed back into the - - -
Where are your modelers, Where are your builders
Where have they gone?

Look standing there hand in hand to small children.
With a smile, with a joyous laugh upon their voices
They run down the beach hand in hand
Just to stop once more just beyond the waves
Just to start over once more.

Sand castle, castle of sand
As I sit and watch MY castle of sand
As I sit and watch the waves of life
Pray tell PLEASE tell me if you can
How will I respond when my - - -

Sand castle, castle of sand
Is once more swept back into the sea~

Do You hear? Do you listen?

To Listen:
This thought was spooned yesterday by Sis. Allard’s comment about listening to teenagers.
How well do we listen to one another? Do we stop speaking and allow the other person begins to speak. Are we attentive to their words as they try to commutate with us? Or, are we thinking I need to say ----? Is this listening? Do we pause in our line of words and the other person starts and we look at a new “whatever” whishing we had that “whatever”? Did we hear?
Merriam-Webester on-line:
transitive verbarchaic : to give ear to :
hear intransitive verb
1: to pay attention to sound
2: to hear something with thoughtful attention : give consideration
3: to be alert to catch an expected sound
When was the lasted time we sat with a loved one and “to hear something with thoughtful attention.” To sit and grasp the words they are using to communicate to us their feeling, fears or emotions. Did we do them the respect of, “to hear something with thoughtful attention?” Or was our mind off taking care of quote, “more important business!”
I would ask, for the next few days when someone we love comes to us with the only real form of communication that humans use, words. Let us first before they speak take the time make the effort to clear our mind, so that we can “to hear something with thoughtful attention.” Thus rendering to them the best we have in thoughtful attention to their communication.
Please allow me to leave you with a thought I gathered for an instructor in an Interpersonal Communication class. “The next time you kiss your loved one. STOP and think where am I?”
Mervi

Monday Morning.

Monday morning and here I sit coffee in hand and laptop lightning my way. I am doing some reflecting some on the weekend that has just passed. We had our kids, grand kids and great grand girl, all in our home for dinner Saturday afternoon. I so enjoyed seeing them and spending a little time with each. Getting to hug their necks, sit and listen to their life’s goals, hopes and dreams. Doing the best I could to just listen and not do too much other then offer a suggestion and a question or two with the hope it would cause them to think some about their life’s direction.
Yes, I did get to both enjoy and give thanks for the things that are really important in my life, my generations from the Lord!

I hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day.

Mervi

There are things we should be thankful for.

There are things we should be thankful for.


What things:
New Webster’s Dictionary,
THINGS “material or inanimate object, entity; specimen; commodity;”

What are the things we are thankful this Thanksgiving Day. I do not think that what we should be thankful for things at all.

May you and yours enjoy this Thanksgiving Day.
Mervi

The Muslims are asking the Christians to come back.

Dispatches From Iraq: Come Home
Friday , November 16, 2007
By Michael Yon

A bishop came to St John’s Church in Baghdad on Thursday, where a crowd of locals welcomed him home. They were joined at the service by soldiers from the 2-12 infantry battalion, many of whom had fought hard to secure these neighborhood streets. Members of the hard-fighting Iraqi Army 3rd Division also were here for this special day.
The Most Rev. Shlemon Warduni, auxiliary bishop of the St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Diocese for Chaldeans and Assyrians in Iraq, officiated standing directly beneath the dome under the Chaldean cross. Speaking in Arabic and English, Warduni thanked those American soldiers sitting in the pews for their sacrifices. Again and again throughout the service he thanked the Americans.
Lt. Col. Stephen Michael told me that when Al Qaeda came to Dora, it began harassing Christians first, charging them "rent." It was the local Muslims, according to Michael, who first came to him for help to protect the Christians in his area. That’s right. Michael told me more than once that the Muslims reached out to him to protect the Christians from Al Qaeda.
Real Muslims here are quick to say that Al Qaeda members are not true Muslims. From charging "rent," Al Qaeda’s harassment escalated to killing Christians and also Muslims.
Untold thousands of Christians and Muslims fled Baghdad in the wake of the darkness of civil war. Most of the Christians are gone now, having fled to Syria, Jordan or Northern Iraq.
The ceremony was long and very Catholic, and since I was not raised Catholic, I would not have understood most of it even if it were all in English. But some of the American soldiers understood what was going on, and they said it was good.
Muslims mostly filled the front pews of St John’s, Muslims who want their Christian friends and neighbors to come home. The Christians who might see these photos likely will recognize their friends here. The Muslims in this neighborhood worry that other people will take the homes of their Christian neighbors and that the Christians never will come back.
And so they came to St John’s in force, and they showed their faces, and they said, "Come back to Iraq. Come home." They wanted the cameras to catch it. They wanted to spread the word: Come home.
Muslims keep telling me to get it on the news. "Tell the Christians to come home to their country Iraq."

Not enough time :-]

Nothing today!

I am getting ready for a class on both Saturday and Sunday. Plus, I am trying to add a little to my Masters Thesis.

Just too much writing today.

Mervi

I am not afraid of death, it is how!

In Bakersfield, Ca today at the University of California at Bakersfield Terry Waite will be speaking. Mr. Waiter was one of those held hostage in Iran some years ago. In the opener to his speech or the lead into his story he makes this comment, “"I wasn't afraid of death," Waite said. "I was afraid of the means of how I would die. Would it hurt when the bullet went through my head?"
I am sitting in a little gourmet coffee shop with a high speed wireless for my lap top, reading the news, e-mails and blogs this morning. As I read this everything came to a halt!! Mervi, do you fear death? Or is it the method of dying that causes fear?
We hear from history that Bro. Paul who RAN to the executioner. I can see that in my, sometimes demented mind, the point of pain, physical that is, would be quick and over. But to exit this life as we all have seen others do in days of deep pain and sadness. Now we have some differences in the end process of life. For one to endure days, weeks, months and sometimes years of physical pain. The length of time is a torment of its own, and then the emotional pain that it brings into the lives of our loved ones.
I think I will agree with Mr. Waite. I do not fear death; it is the method that is used to bring me to that exit of life.
Please feel free to add your thoughts.

It must be a beautiful Isle!

There is a very wonderful and beautiful place to go and see. It must be, because I have heard so many people say they plan to go there. Yet, they never seem to start the trip. I am sure that you have heard people talk about the same place and maybe you yourself have said that you have plan to go there to.

This, it must be so wonderful, place is called someday I’ll. It must be a beautiful Isle somewhere? Yet, everyone has it in a different place. Most people plan to go yet they say. I will wait until after Thanksgiving and then someday I’ll. But then it is I will wait until after Christmas, then someday I’ll. No wait until after the New Year then someday I’ll. But remember that Easter is coming. Yes, someday I’ll, but wait till school is out then someday I’ll? But remember vacation is coming, someday I'll. Ok, when the kids get back in school then someday I’ll. But what about the holidies that are coming, someday I'll.


Yes, we all have planned to go to the beautiful I’ll of someday. But, we never seem to start the trip. The trip could be a diet, save a little more money, look for a new (?), to improve my relationship with (?) or it could be my relationship with the Lord.


We can keep putting it off to that place someday I’ll, but why not start the trip today?

Mervi

Keep your eyes upon Jesus.

I am going to lift a thought from a book that I have been reading at night. I have a habit of reading something devotional just before I enter the realm of sleep. And this is the book I am currently reading, "More Stories for the Heart.

"When Leonardo da Vinci had finished his immortal "Last Supper," He asked a friend for an evaluation. The friend heaped superlatives on the masterpiece and especially praised the wine cup in the Lord's hand. At that point, Lenardo blotted out the cup. "Nothing," he was said to have exclaimed, "should distract one's attention from the Lord." (Author Unknown)

I laid there quietly for sometime, thinging and wondering what has or might distract my attention from JESUS?

Mervi

Veterans Day

I had, he drank himself to death at about 40, a brother who was a Vietnam Vet. Larry was a very hard worker but he brought home, with him, too many memories of those muddy rice paddies. Those paddies covered in blood floating on top of the rice. Yet, in my passing through this life, I have had the fortune or the misfortune of meeting another type of Veterans. Those who were wounded in the battle for the Cross and their comrades walked off and left them to die or stood afar and shoot at them as they tried to find a Medic or cover form the incoming, “friendly fire.” I have sat with tears in my eyes as I listened to these men and women tell their stories. Do I take it all as right and correct, NO. But I do try to balance some of it and offer a helping hand and a caring heart to them. Yes, they took their eyes off of the Cross and watched a MAN. Yet, how or what can be done to help them, “find a place of repentance.”
Those who wear the colors of our country I salute you. Those who carry the marks of Christ I salute you.
Mervi

Influence

As I pass this way.
I must stop and think of all those great men who reached out a hand to me as I passed through their life. The hands of these men made many changes I my life. Changes which have produced who I am this day. Is change good? Yes! For without change there would be no growth or advancement. The real question is in which area of my life is changing and who or what has influence that change? This is where the problems come in. Please allow me to post a question to you. Who or what are you allowing to influence the changes you are making in the core of who you are?