At about thirteen, when I’d grown enough to be a fishing partner in the rugged Sierras, Dad initiated me into the mysteries of the fine art of pulling trout from mountain streams, a skill his grandfather had passed on to him. Learning from the master, we became fairly competitive on catching both the largest and most. Three years later, I landed a 16-inch rainbow on Oak Creek, huge there. I felt pretty confident until…
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image from wabc-tv.com
What Child is This: A Praiseworthy Gift
Welcome to Day 4, our journey’s end. Christmas has come! We’ve seen Jesus as a humble human, a conquering king, a reconciler. At the core—Jesus is God’s gift to us. A gift so great we can get lost in him. A gift so great it can break the back …
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image by tarkwanews. net
Deliver the Goods
Reading the newspaper was a daily ritual growing up. Dad picked the front page first, mom got the local, and I went for the comics. Then we’d shift around. I’ve always liked papers, and even wrote a weekly column for several years for our local news rag. BUT. I’m likely to end a decades-long habit. We had a fine local paper, then…
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My Latest, and Maybe Greatest, New Temptation
The pic above reveals my latest, and maybe greatest, new temptation. No, not a Honda S2000 sports car, one that tempts me to break every speed limit I can. No, just a regular and slow 4 cylinder Accord. But with a handicapped plate, one that allows the vehicle to park free at meters instead of paying a fee, to park close to stores instead of six miles away, and even to use high occupancy lanes when alone. So why the temptation? I’m not handicapped. Now, my wife has fibromyalgia and qualifies, but only when she’s in the vehicle. Frankly, I’d ...
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Albert
Why Worship?
I made a new friend last Saturday. Albert. Yeah, that’s his pic above. A squirrel. During a friend’s retirement party, standing under a tree, talking to another old friend, he gently mouthed, “Squirrel.” I slowly turned, about one foot from my face was who I later learned was Albert. Apparently he wanted some of the food so freely available, and I held a finger up for him to sniff. He promptly yet gently bit it, almost as if to say, “No, squirrel food. Please.” Quite used to humans, he never flinched when I reached down for my phone to snap some pics of him. He seemed to pose.
But another brief conversation with the wife of another old friend (get over all the “olds,” this WAS a retirement celebration) sparked this post. She mused, “Why does God need worship? Is his ego so fragile it needs stroking?”
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Photo by Houghs-The Tour
The Upper Bedroom
That day riding along the Oregon combined breath-taking scenery with bone-chilling cold. We’d headed west from Salem to the coast at Pacific City, then we turned north to Tillamook where we had lunch and sampled their world famous cheeses. Well, famous anyplace west of Wisconsin anyway. The beauty of one stretch forced me to shout for joy, with ocean flats on our left as trees formed a canopy over our two lane road. Clouds blocked the sun enough to give a gauzy sense of beauty, but with enough light to see it well.
In all the years of the Gray Hog touring, this road neared the top of the list. But when we turned south, the sun took a nap as the fog rolled in and the world turned gloomy and damp and cold...
Read MoreMy Non Resolution
I gave up on New Year’s Resolutions some time ago—their certain failure brought frustration, and I need neither. But God may be getting my attention, courtesy of Home Depot.
Although tending to be a bit mellow and easy going, I’ve noticed my impatience level getting worse lately, and New Year’s Day brought it to a peak.
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