Carwash

It is the little things that make us laugh the most sometimes. Today while coming home from breakfast with my mom, we stopped at Walmart then we headed home, but she wanted to take Christine through the car wash. An astute reader will notice that I called her car Christine and a wise reader might question naming a car after a homicidal car from a Stephen King book. If you want to know why we did that, head on over to my mothers blog called: All My Mother's Fault.

So we pulled behind the library and headed toward the car wash. "I wish you were driving," mom said as we got to the entrance.

"Well pull over and let's switch," I said. It was an easy fix. But as she slowed down, I looked behind us and saw a car pulling into the wash as well. "Pull into a parking spot, there is a car behind us."

Instead of pulling in she decided to go up to the car wash. "Please select a wash. Please insert money." The machine told us. After a few minutes of fighting with the payment method of putting a credit card into the reader and pulling it out, she opened the door to get a better reach. Eventually she managed to get the card into the slot and get the reader to read it. To be fair, even I had a hard time getting the reader to read the card when I washed my car.

After the bout with the machine and managing to emerge victorious, we rolled up the windows and pulled into the wash. The sprayers started, at first it was OK, but then I noticed a splash on the dash, then a drip by the door. Then hell broke loose as the brushes got near the door. Water spraying everywhere, soap sudsing the dash, mom's clothes were wet like she had pulled them out of the wash. I started laughing. She started screaming. I laughed more.

I looked over at the wet carnage of soap and water and said, in a gentle and calm voice, "You should shut the door."

With a bit of a scream and more water pouring in, she pulled the door closed and the water stopped coming in. Instantly a stream of curse words poured forth like that would make even the toughest sailor blush. I think it could have even sent C'thulhu scrambling into the depths to slumber once again. I laughed some more and she looked at me and sent a few curse words toward me. Which made me laugh more.

After the wash, we began to pull out, letting the driers blow some of the water off the car. I suggested that we open the doors and let them dry the inside as well. I only received a glare that told me to shut up. We headed home and half way around the circle in the center of town, She burst into laughter. I followed suit. It was very funny to see the water dump on her, and only fitting because it happened to me in one of her other cars and she was laughing hysterically while also complaining about the water in her car. It was like the cosmos was granting me vengeance years later.

She may argue some of the points, like being able to scare an old god back into his slumber, but I will remain steadfast in my side of things. I do sometimes wonder though, was it Christine that caused this to happen. I hope she remembers that she likes me.


On a more personal note, thank you for a year of fun blogging and have a happy 2014!

In Defense of the Christian Christmas

Every years I hear people say how Christmas was a pagan holiday and the early Christians took it and made it their own.. But that's not the whole story you are hearing.

"In 46 BC Julius Caesar in his Julian calendar established December 25 as the date of the winter solstice of Europe. Since then, the difference between the calendar year (365.25 days) and the tropical year (~365.2421897 days) moved the day associated with the actual astronomical solstice forward approximately three days every four centuries, arriving to December 12 during the 16th century. In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII decided to restore the exact correspondence between seasons and civil year but, doing so, he did not make reference to the age of the Roman dictator, but to the Council of Nicea of 325, as the period of definition of major Christian feasts. So, the Pope annulled the 10-day error accumulated between the 16th and the 4th century, but not the 3-day one between the 4th AD and the 1st BC century. This change adjusted the calendar bringing the northern winter solstice to around December 22. Yearly, in the Gregorian calendar, the solstice still fluctuates a day or two but, in the long term, only about one day every 3000 years." - Wikipedia

This means that at the time Christmas was first presented and celebrated, sometime 4th century, people knew the Winter Solstice as the 25th of December. The Winter solstice is the shortest day of the year. Where the tilt of the planet's axis is at the farthest away peak in the revolution around the sun. This is the case for Northern Hemisphere only, southern hemisphere would have been equivalent to June 25th or so.

For the early Church, that meant from this day on, the days grow longer and the light begins to prevail again. Its a symbol of how Jesus fulfilled the promises of old, and created a new promise between God and man. It is the start of new life. The early church knew that it was not a literal time of Jesus' birth, anyone reading the bible can surmise that his birth was most likely in spring or summer.

Yes it is true, many pagan celebrations and holidays begin, end or take place around this time of the year, such as the oft cited Saturnalia. And many of them also share this idea new life or a new cycle beginning now. But to say that Christians took the day and is not really correct. The Council of Nicea realized how many things were going on at the time and thought it would be good to also be able to celebrate a Christian holiday at the same time. It is easier, as any Christian going out into the world and sharing the gospel will know, to open conversation when you are sharing something in common. In this case, we can tell the world while the rest of the world is celebrating their religious holidays, about the grace and love of our Christ Jesus. It is very true, many of our 'traditions' are taken from pagan things, such as gift giving and Christmas trees, but adopting traditions of people again makes it easier to share with them. Besides who doesn't like decorating Christmas trees and opening presents?

When you hear people talk about how the holiday is losing its Christian roots, that's because it is. Christmas is a Christian holiday, hence the first part: Christ. It will be a Christian holiday until the end of time. If you do not agree with that, then I ask you, please do not celebrate it. You don't have to stop giving presents, stop spending time with your family, stop doing whatever tradition you do on Christmas, but for those of us who do believe, it is the day we celebrate and honor the birth of of our Lord Jesus, and the first step in God's salvation of the human race and to bring us back into the arms of our God. If you so wish to still celebrate it without the true meaning behind it, that is OK, but please do not try to ruin it, try to change it, or make things harder for the rest of us. I respect your choice to to believe it, or celebrate it, so please respect mine in my celebrations. 

Christmas is the second most important holiday in the Christian year. But people make it like it is the most important. Yes the birth of our Christ is important, but its main purpose is to fulfill prophecy and bring us hope. Hope came to the world as a baby. That hope grew to be a man which will bring us to the most important holiday. So embrace the hope that the season brings, hope of a life of grace and salvation through the baby we celebrate.

Also, for those out there that think X-mas is a bad thing, it really isn't and has been around for a very long time. The X refers to the 22nd letter of the Greek alphabet, Chi. The Greek X has a kh sound like 'ach!' or 'Achmed.' It is also the first letter of the word Χριστός meaning Christ. So to say X-Mas is still saying Christmas just with a Greek flare to it.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

Night is a Cruel Mistress

Today while I was sitting in church waiting to take communion, I felt God touch me. It wasn't a more than a little pang in my heart. I have been struggling with the drama that I mentioned before. Every time I think it's over, it comes back again. It's like a pain, a thorn in my foot. Today God reminded me he is working. It is his plan, and we are to fill the parts of his story he would like us to fill. So when my drama stuff begins to get in the way of my worship of him, there is stuff that needs to be fixed.

I feel the effects of the drama at night. So many nights are spent in a discomfort and sadness at the loss of friends, hopes of that perfect girl for me, and a loneliness that goes beyond them all. But it is God who has and always will be there for me and can calm even my over active brain from its horrible thinking.

I have a friend, she is a beautiful young lady who struggles through the same things as me. We usually seem to do it at different times, which is great because the other can cheer the other up. Tonight I was talking to her about this very stuff. And while I was talking to her I found a way to sum up the problems so many people have.

Our brains are our worst enemies. Our brains begin to think, not on what we want them to, but on the things that we do not have and each time we do it the same way, first we are happy, then we see someone we think is happier than us, then we get sad because we want to be happy like them too. At least that is the way it is in my head, and the order of my thought processes. Then I remember just because they have what I want doesn't mean they are happier in anyway. They have what they have, they may be breaking on the inside like I am over something they see me with. And I try to keep in my head that in the end, whatever I am waiting for will be even better when it does happen, in God's time.

The Bible even talks about things at night.

"For you are all sons of light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or the darkness. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night." 1 Thessalonians 5:5, 7

"Let us walk with decency, as in the daylight: not in carousing and drunkenness; not in sexual impurity and promiscuity; not in quarreling and jealousy." Romans 13:13

 And others. It talks about the things we do in the dark, and warns against them. Many times in this world, one of those things is porn. With computers in every room, and in our hands and pockets all day long, it is easy to let the darkness creep in and succumb to the temptation of it. Even happily married people can fall prey to porn.

In my case, and the case of my friend, we talked farther, and broke it down even more. It is a jealousy that builds up at seeing what others have and wishing for it for oursleves. This jealousy is what drives the depression into a sadness and bitterness.

As I quoted above, the Bible talks about all the stuff we do in the dark, but if its not sexual impurity, drunkenness, or some other vice, people like me and like her, we have our minds that mess it all up. Even if we don't think about it, it is us doubting God at work. But as the song says,

"The only thing that comforts me, when I watch the world breaking, That in spite of the stillness, God your still moving." Quiet Science

He is always moving, working and building everything even better than even our dreams could do. I say it a lot, but it is ever so true, we need to keep our eyes on Jesus, our minds focused on God, and our hearts filled with the Holy Spirit, if we ever want to beat depression and other wrong thinkings that we do. 

The night is full of silence, and the silences in our head are louder than all the noise of the world. They are mighty and wicked storms smashing at our minds. There are many types of silences in the storms, but there is always God who can fill the silences with peace. The quiet empty will be filled with the love of a God so great, so mighty, he measures the universe in his hand. 

Some parts of this wonderful universe have it right. They are working for God, instead of trying to fight Him like us. The Bible tells us:

"The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky proclaims the work of His hands.
Day after day they pour out speech;
night after night they communicate knowledge.
There is no speech; there are no words;
their voice is not heard.
Their message has gone out to all the earth,
and their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens He has pitched a tent for the sun."

Psalms 19:1-4

 Maybe we should take a cue from the stars, maybe when that night comes and we find ourselves in that darkness and lost in the thoughts of ourselves, maybe we should turn around and sing with the stars, add our voices to the amazing symphony God already has playing in the background. We worship a God who has his own score playing every second of every day in this story of him. Praise Him.

Of Poems

I love to write short stories because like me, they are not to short that I feel I am missing out on more, and not too long that I grow bored of them. They are the perfect size for enjoyable reading. But I have always had a soft spot for poems. I know poems are so nichey and so many people 'don't get it.' But poems are short and sweet ways to get how you are feeling across without using thousands of words.

True, there are some big ass poems out there, looking at you Odyssey. However, most are a bite sized chunk into the author's heart. One thing I love about poems is that you can write them about whatever you want. All you have to do is like it. Its true.

One time I wrote a poem about the Coke bottle that was on my desk, well about the Coke inside it. It was a good poem. I listed a few things that I liked and worded them to flow nicely and poof I had Ode to Coke.

Poems are a delightful piece of writing meant to fill and satisfy the reader. So I am going to share my Ode to Coke poem with you, and I am going to write a new one just for fun. I hope you enjoy my Ode to Coke.

Ode to Coke
Oh fresh coke, how cold you are,
Your bite is refreshing when I am thirsty.
The smell of the coke smoke,
Is a bitter perfume,
When opened ice cold.
When you mix a little cherry,
For that very unique taste,
A delightful smooth drink,
Is made to quench a thirst.
Oh my coke my lovely coke,
How do I love thee.
With your lovely taste,
And your red and white label,
You make my life complete.

So many people think poems need to rhyme, or be set to a particular pattern, but I never cared. The poem should be how the author needs it to be. I wrote this one for a class in school. I got an A of course. It also helped that the teacher also was a coke lover and always had a can on her desk. Since then I have also written a second one about Coke, but maybe I will share that another time.

I guess now comes the time for me to write another poem. I didnt know what I was going to write about when I sat down to write this. But after thinking for a little bit, and browsing the internet, I think I have a good one for you.


He suddenly knew what he was looking for,
When he saw her smile light the room.
From the farthest corner he could see,
That she was smiling and laughing,

Found on Pintrest. It was the last part that I liked.
And I used it for the first line.

And he just needed it more.

He slowly walked across the floor,
Trying hard to remember to breathe.
Until he came to her table,
And managed to squeak out a "Hi"
As her attention turned to him.

He then forced through his throat,
All the air in his lungs,
As he asked her to dance.
She smiled and said "Sure,"
She walked out onto the dance floor.

The night seemed to swirl,
His heart was beating so fast.
But when that dance was over,
They knew it would be alright.
They knew everything was just right.

They married early next spring,
They celebrated their marriage with everyone,
And began a new life together.
Time would continue to march on,
But they never seemed to mind.


Ok, so when I started this one, I had something else in mind. Weird how those things work. But I guess it turned out nice. A young man meeting a woman who they just naturally clicked. Guess I am still a classic romantic.

I like telling not just my feelings in poems, but sometimes use them like very short short stories. Like the Odyssey, sometimes a poem is a perfect place to tell someone something. Sometimes even short ones like mine, are just the right length for what had to be said.

I wish poems would find a bigger place in the market, after all, I have one book of them published now, and several more I am working on. Poems need to find a way to come back into the light of written text, share the stage with Novels and Short Stories. Finish of the literary trilogy.

If you would like to read my poems, which are better than the ones above, feel free to check out my book:

lulu.com

iBookstore

Barnes and Noble