Some excellent advice

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

I'm speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

Andre Rabe shared this translation of Romans 12:1-2 with me as he read my entry last week. This about says it all.

Friday Report

What my day off looked like today?

6 am an hour of spiritual conversation in my study with Jim.

9 am visited friends to comfort a woman whose husband died last night. He had fallen out of bed, and ruptured a vein in his brain which swelled and put him into a coma. She regrets not saying goodbye.

11 am 1 hour walk in the mall. Listened to Enya on the Ipod.

12:30 healthy lunch followed by unhealthy but delicious McDonald's Ice Cream Cone

2-4 PGA Golf on TV-I continue to believe that watching pro golf will make me a better golfer, really, I do.

6 Dinner with 4 friends at the Pizza Place

8 Watched Slumdog Millionare-not what I was expecting. Incredible tale of overcoming an unimaginable bad childhood, a story of brothers who went different ways, and of love that overcame enormous odds. India yesterday and today is so different than anything I have experienced.

10:30 Good bye Jay Leno after 17 years, time flies, one day at a time.and this day was filled with so many experiences of living and laughing and loving. A good day.

Getting the Knack with Verizon

My Cell phone went through the wash with my pants. Despite my enjoyment of the possibilities of an Iphone I went with the Samsung Knack as a replacement. No camera, a basic model with more size to fit my fingers, and very little else. I feel I have been cutting edge most of my adult life. I was always able to help people with computer issues, love electronic gadgets, and have enjoyed the internet and blogging, but....I am pretty sure I am not ever going to twitter, have very little need for text messaging, and I am more eager to save money by bundling something somehow than by dropping or adding anything drastic to my world of connections. I do not presently have a DVR and would like one. So my stable is presently, Verizon Wireless Cell Phones for both of us, AT&T land line and High Speed Wireless with a modem that allows us both to browse at the same time. Dish Network with no movie or special channels, only one TV in the house.

Mathew is coming and going

Matthew spent 21 days in Europe, four in NYC, much shorter than his plan because he said the money ran fast and free no matter how frugal he attempted to live. He saw Ireland, Scotland, England, Norway and Sweden. He has been home living with a friend for two weeks thinking through his next move, and.....it is Denver Co. He is tired of our heat and misses green trees and grass and loves mountains. There is an opening at the same hospital bed supply corporation he works for here, and friend who will put him up as he transitions. All his single guy worldly posses ions in his car. God bless you Matthew, may this next step bring inner transformation and outward usefulness and fulfillment.

Skinny Cow

Less beef and more Skinny Cow, thats our motto around the Hendricks household. Seriously, this is a low cal low fat treat that you should check out if you have not already.

Prayers and lots of love to my daughter Melissa, a women of excellence, a wife, mother, designer, worship leader living with MS. Kansas Bob reminded me this was National Multiple Sclerosis Day. Not preventable, not curable, but survivable. That is our earnest hope and prayer for all who have this diagnosis.

Here's the Beef

August 29, 2008


May 25, 2009








See what happens when you drink cow's milk all day. I think baby cow on the left is going to feed the Courtney's protein needs this winter.

Memorial Day 2009

The Veterans of Sun Lakes stage a meaningful Memorial Day event. I was a last moment substitute for the Rabbi who fell ill so I continued my enjoyable roll as unofficial photographer. Cmdr Sepulveda has done three tours in Irag and just returned in March, his son was also deployed at the same time. All gave some, some gave all.

We had a controversy about praying in Jesus name in front of the Jewish veterans in one of the groups this year. I was consulted for advice. Today, I prayed God's shalom upon our world, and the thought hit me. Jews and Christians should not try to offend each other, neither should we be offended by the other. Jewish people should not get riled when we invoke Jesus name, we don't have to insist that we do it all the time.

Happy Birthday Jim

Jim and I have been friends for over a decade. He and his wife have nine children. Four married. For his fiftieth he had friends from work, from his jazz ensemble, (they played for us as part of the party). A great afternoon.

As unofficial photographer I asked his girls to give me a models, "I'm all that" pose and this was the result.

The Perfect Will of God

Sunday #3 in Romans 12. A beautiful teaching. The rare word for metamorphosis, the exciting concept of renewal, and knowing the will of God. Unfortunately, many people have carried burdens of misunderstanding of the will of God that have done more crippling than leading.

I think the idea that there is the straight path that we must find unswervingly is unhelpful. I remember in my hopes for a wife, I tried on a lot of personalities through dating, when some of my friends had written the name of their future wife that God had told them in envelopes. I think we find God's will through moving in the direction of faith.

The word perfect means complete or mature, not perfect in the sense of being without any error. A preacher loves Oceans, and he gets contacted by a church in Pensacola FL and Cinncinnati OH. Should he doubt that God would actually give him his desire of an oceanfront ministry?

I don't think this has anything to do with where we live but with using our gifts, and growing in our faith through living kingdom heart and kingdom values. Its not about hoping that all our life will be blessed but by determining that we will be a blessing throughout our lives. And any preacher who says there are all blessings and no trials is trying to fill a stadium. Scripture says we will suffer for doing the will of God on occasion.

Mall Walking Thoughts

You have to remember that I was always a mover. Our family picked up roots every three or four years and replanted ourselves in some new town. So now I have finally lived in one town long enough to see change, and decay...well, sort of.

When we moved here almost 20 years ago we were part of the opening of the new Superstition Mall. It was a marvel of stores, theatre, fountains, that spawned a whole shopping area around it with car dealers, strip malls etc. Food Courts were new back then and the whole thing was a shining marvel, a cheap date every weekend....you get the point. Now I have moved to another part of the east valley.
I no longer shop here weekly.

Yesterday I did my hour walk before opening and I observed that they had several major remodels, the floors, the former gathering place in front of the theater is now a Borders books, the Theatre closed years a ago and a second attempt to revive it is about to open. Inside about 20 percent of the stores are closed, especially down at the end where one of the anchor stores closed. Former retail stores are now offices for services like lasar hair removal. You get the feeling that this former magnet of activity is trying to figure out how to survive until people start spending money again.

It made me kind of sad. Ive seen worse when I travel home to Mississippi in the hurricane battered cities, but somehow I sense that our country may never return to that early 90s level of economic prosperity, and wonder if we should.

Creation Blessing

I have been reading Creation Blessing, by Matthew Fox. The book got him kicked out of the Catholic Church. He is reflecting of Augustinian Theology and its influence on both Catholicism and Protestantism. Some much of our image of God has been tempered by the imprint his writing made on our theology and thinking. It is hard to imagine how an early Church writer can set the parameters for so many centuries, but I am seeing his imprint on our reading of scripture and beginning to think differently about how this all balances out. The flesh/spirit dichotomy is scriptural, but it can be extended to a type of Platonic dualism that changes Paul's meaning. I am just still a kid in the candy shop learning about this, and I am reading Fox with care and discernment, but the quotes he has collected alone have been inspiring, and the weaknesses in our theology that he exposes have been so observable to me that I know he is onto something. If any reader has other books that touch on these issues let me know. Heres my email d.hendricks@att.net

A Hummer is a thing of beauty

My six month desire to photograph a hummingbird ended a month ago at the Chihuly exhibit one spring evening. The ease and speed of the wings of this tiny sweet lover is a marvel of creation.

He or she, hovers from flower to flower, grabs a snoot full and moves on to the next. My flash set at 1/60th of a second caught the wings still.

In my ten year quest to deepen my understanding of why we are here and where we are going, I find myself falling more and more in love with creation and the sheer joy of breathing, eating, thinking, silence, arts. All this because I have grown to see that the restoration of creation is God's goal. That all things in heaven and earth are going to be part of my future. The Augustinian duelism that clouded my understanding is slowing disintegrating and I am integrating healthier paradigms in my thinking. It is beautiful, The Lord is beautiful, His good creation is beautiful.

Blest be the Tie that Binds

Place of service #2 for me was 1983-1989 in Moss Point Ms. We had a young family and a smallish Southern Presbyterian Church full of unique and beautiful people. Tonight I had a two hour conversation with two of our friends, husband and wife, whom we knew before they married, and with whom we have kept in touch.

The renewal of Christian fellowship separated by time and moves and changing circumstances proves to me how relationships can last from one age to another. We have different lives, jobs, circles of friends, but those original connections somehow stay connected, if the ever living Christ was the instigator of said friendship. Even though our friendship is 25 years old, we are still searching for more complete and mature ways to express our faith and hopes, still desiring truth uncluttered with traditions and dogmas that do not satisfy deeply.

Still flawed, still hopeful, still young at heart, still wanting to help people know God and enjoy him. Still very aware how limited and broken we are and those around us are. A lot further down the road, not so easily enamored by shortcuts or gimmicks, we want to spend our time and life in ways that last. Thank you Steve and Michale for your authenticity, for hungering and thirsting for truth, for being relaxed enough to keep on doing what you think is right, while you test out different ideas, know that the truth will set you free.

Recompense

I began to follow Jill Hollis through her blog "Altered" several months ago. She wants to share her journey while she trusts God through Lou Gehrig's Disease. It is hard to think about her struggles with fear and trust, and encouraging to see her surrounded by caring people. She has a family she wants to grow old with and will not be allowed to. Stories of shortened lives are always with us. My friend Connie has been sharing how tragic cancer is, having been moved by Farrah Fawcett's recent documentary.


Memorial Day is our chance to pay respect to those who died in war. Who one moment were alive and in an instant the pain of a bullet or a bomb, and....darkness.

Everyone who serves knows it could happen, but I am sure most believe they would come home. Recompense is the idea that God remembers victims, sufferers, those who died in the holocaust, those whose lives were lived in desperate circumstances like the Israelite during the 400 years of bondage who did not live to be delivered.

Rom. 11 has a doxology that states that God owes no one recompense, no one earned it and could demand it, but the import of the doxology is that God does hear our cries and knows our suffering. I cherish a theory that God has ways of recompensing those who lost more than others. Don't jump on me for this, its not a well developed idea but I can see how God's character and creativity could pull it off, in a heartbeat.

A Duet and a Gathering

Sundays for my generation have always been joyful. I can truthfully say that I do not miss the evening program, although it was ideal for youth groups before or after the evening service. It made for an exhausting day. We enjoyed hearing our friends P and D do a Gaither song for special music today. He is tenor and she alto, and they blended beautifully.

A relaxed gathering of some newer couples in our fellowship in the evening meant exploring peoples historys and finding the commonalities we all share, lots of stories and laughter. Thanks to A and F for hosting, and to A for allowing me to test drive his Apple IPhone, which is a marvel of functionality.

A mind renewed daily

A sign photographed in Europe somewhere. Must be an old folks crossing. Kind of cute and kind of sad and certainly true. I stand at the threshold of old age, I will be 59 thus summer. In my mind I can dredge up literally thousands of teen age thoughts, but not one teenage physicality. Like Paul said, outwardly we are wasting away, no matter that we eat right and excercise, aging and dying are written into the contract.

The Gospel directs us to a transformation process which is crucial, and is evidence that we are not just "dust in the wind". It is the renewal of the mind, which is to be practiced daily, independent of any circumstance. I think of how many people who had encountered the urgent message of Paul in Romans 12:1-2. Paul calls it our reasonable service to God. This metamorphosis apparently cannot take place in someone running from God, or resisting God, or hating God, but in the heart of one who is submitted to God. It is the work of God's spirit in the one who slows down enough to let God do His work amid whatever is happening today, good or bad, up or down. It must be trans cultural, trans political, trans generational. It must work in riches or poverty, war or peace, sickness or health.

While inward, it will have outward manifestations, and it will be in line with the love God has for mankind in Christ. I have been walking in Christ for a good while now, not a superstar but a plodder, and by golly, I am so young at heart I can hardly stand the joy that wells up most days, and I am not whistling dixie. Thy youth shall be renewed like the eagle.

Star Trek Rebooted was a great evening of fun

Laura and I went to the movies to enjoy entering our fifth decade with the creative work of Gene Roddenberry. Seeing the recreations of those original characters in their maiden voyage and watching that same marvelous interplay between Spocks reason and Kirk's passion is always entertaining and creative, and no matter how many awesome special effects, there is always someone getting punched in the nose.

I am active in promoting womens rights!

Laura and I are a two income family. We are in the last decade before retirement and really are trying to prepare for it. She is using her college degree and earned Masters to bless first graders with the tools and skills to become life long learners and readers. She works hard and deals with many people and frustrations daily. When she arrives home at 5 she has several hours more of grading and prepping and does not want to strap on the apron and become my little homemaker.

I told the women on Mother's Day they should retire from cooking like their husbands retired from work on Sunday. The men know I am a trouble maker. But seriously, should not men learn enough about shopping and food preparation to relieve their spouse on occasion. I am the chief griller in our home, and I do a great steak and chicken and hamburger and turkey burger or fish. I love and make a fairly good chili and spaghetti. What's the big deal. Women's gots rights. I learned that from Lt Robinson Crusoe in the 70s, in a charming Walt Disney Movie with Dick Van Dyke.

Theologically I see the point of complimentarianism, and its abuse in our culture. Spiritually there is not a Pastor living that does not know that women have spiritual depth, teaching ability, and leadership skills given by God Almighty. We just don't want to rock the boat. I do not desire the absence of male leadership which characterizes many churches today, but the old argument from some of Paul's passages have been more than balanced by reexamination of Paul's recognition of their gifts. Come on guys, get over it, learn to cook and clean, you will still be a leader, and probably more like the leader Christ envisioned. Not Whistling Dixie on this one. I love my wife.

An angry divided, rude and vulgar society?

The ORielly Factor discussed the level of attacking, disparaging, and belittling public discourse that has occurred with the changing of leadership from Republican to Democrat. One guest called it a poison that will destroy our culture, and the point was being made that both liberal and conservative sides were engaging in this vicious, hate filled rhetoric. I agree and I am really disturbed.

In recent years my walk with Christ has finally come to the point of getting at the core of Christ's work of reconciliation. He really wants us to see everyone through His eyes and to see what sin has done to all humanity, not just the other guy. There are real political issues to be wrangled with, but the condemnatory and violent language is destroying something that was great about our country. I believe Christians need to set a better example of servant love, prayer for unity, and left handed love, weak but powerful, to bring the level of this civil war of words to a calmer place.

I feel like singing a couple of choruses of that 60's Folk Song...."When will we ever learn, when will we ever learn." Today's pictures say it all. Nice matters.

On a lighter note, I do not watch much TV, and have an oath never to watch reality TV until the silly fad dies and they bring back Bonanza, Carol Burnett, or something with actors and plots, But I have really gotten involved in the drama and mystery of Lost. Now that was a year ending finale with a lot to think about.

Metamorphosis

One of many cute signs decorating The Peppersauce Cafe

Romans 12:1-2 is a very important verse in Paul's application of the Gospel. I am about to teach from Roman's 12 for a while. I do not believe this is a formulaic type passage, ie. do this and this will happen.
I am really looking forward to revisting this passage that has been a favorite from the beginning. I wonder if we realize we are being tranformed or just discover that our motivations have changed. I believe worship here is a lifestyle, not a pew sitting experience. The word renewal is completely fascinating to me....what does it mean?

My friend Jerry Bernard, Christian thinker and writer, performer, and father of Crystal Bernard the actresss, has this quote on his blog. I absolutely love it.

Prayer for Truth
Rabbi Mordechai M. Kaplan
From the cowardice that shrinks from new truths, from the laziness that is content with half truths, and from the arrogance that thinks it knows all truth, O God of truth, deliver us.

I hope I avoid all these traps as I revisit this passage on Sundays.

A Lunch and a Memory

It is one of those little breakfast and lunch places tucked away in an industrial area with a good menus, friendly waitresses, and delightful ambiance. Larry and I discovered we both had a warm spot for this place today. He and his wife eat there fairly often, and I had not set foot in the place for 15 years. But the memory of that oasis of grace was tangible as I talked to an older version of the young women who opened it in 1993. Today we discussed feeding the homeless and poor, the last time I ate their I was not homeless, but I was very, very poor.

I had taken a business to business, commission only sales opportunity. It was brutal for a mild mannered pastor type like myself to face hour after hour of rejection, overcoming sales resistance, and struggling to knock of 50 doors to get 12 interviews, to get 3 sales, (at least that's they way the manual says to do it) It was for me a crushing, depressing, and desperate three months. My once or twice weekly lunch there was peaceful, restorative, and memorable. A small respite of hope that enabled me to survive another week.

The events of those months brought me to the end of myself in a few crucial ways and wrought some spiritual transformations in me that a still reaping inner and outer fruit in my life today.

The tough times we face are hurting all kinds of people. I do not write this to promise God will rescue you, but just to share that He was there, I survived to return to my calling....and I have a respect for commisioned sales people deeper that you can understand. Thank you Pepper Sauce Cafe, Thank you God, and please Lord, help those struggling in jobs they hate to feed their families.

Proud of my Kids

Melissa and her family thanked Mom with hugs and gifts. She is raising two children while living with MS, so far under control, she is strict with diet and meds. She leads singing at her new church plant and earned an interior design degree she uses as often as she can.

Matthew Emailed greetings from Scotland, he has been touring Europe for the last month and spending money faster than he had hoped. He got a taste for travel in the Marines and I think this will help him return to finish his college degree and find something he enjoys doing.

Brian called from NYC. His Drama degree was worthwhile but he recently decided to pursue his other passion and has been accepted into Parsons School of Design. He has always had incredible artistic and creative ideas and this will give him an outlet for this dream, and he can keep working and living in the City that never sleeps.

I want my kids to find themselves and their lives to have joy, love, meaning and purpose. They all love God but are survivors of the pastors kid syndrome and are all finding their own expressions of faith, for which I am thankful.

In His image, Male and Female, He created

To feel the creation of a life, nurture, protect, train, help and love a child is a great privilege and responsibility. I thank God for our Kids and Grand kids, and hope they realize how great their Mother and Grandmother is.

Blessing and honor to mothers everywhere.

On a side note, it was hot today and our swimming season started at the neighborhood pool. Shannon is clearly flying in the photo.

The God of peace shall be with you

The Bible that has been translated and preserved for us, which has forged itself into our collective conscious and continues to serve as the constitutional document of the Christian faith must become a message to be lived and believed.

If we turn it into a weapon for cultural warfare, ie. God loves me and my lifestyle and He hates you and your lifestyle....or...we are freedom loving Americans must destroy God's enemies as Israel destroyed the wicked nations of the world. You end up with something thing that may fuel politics or forge national policies....but you will not be followers of the Christos who came to make all things new...who laid down His life for his enemies....who reconciled the world to Himself and told us to be ambassadors of this message.

It is the character of God in the New Covenant that is our arriving point for a new direction for humanity. May God make you and I instruments of that peace.

Why not word for word?

The word Hell has a medieval dark ages feel to it. A pitchfork and fire connotation.
Why not use the word which was translated from the original language. Gehenna, which has the connotation of the place outside the city walls where trash was burned and in which some idolatrous sins were practiced. Let Hades be the realm of the dead, don't use hell to translate Hades, its very confusing. Let tartarus be the word for the prison house of the demons, not a third translation for hell. Then the King James 54 uses of Hell becomes 11 or so and fits in a wonderful framework of covenantal transformation. It's worth it to pull this thing out of its cell in our brain and declare it to be the crazy uncle that it is.

I am very thankful for the holiness and justice of God in Christ, and fully believe in the just and merciful judgment. Rethinking our traditional view of Hell does not mean anything goes.

But, you don't need me to be your teacher, the resources are there, think it through yourself, just don't continue to rehash a view that is inconsistent with the gospel in which Paul left the Gehenna teaching and painted word pictures of restoration, and reversal of the curse, a covenant in which God's desire for reconciliation was accomplished without our cooperation.

The Irreverent use of the Hell Word

As this is a family blog, it occurred to me that I was so angry in yesterday's rant that someone might take offense at my play on ideas of time share contracts and the Hell word.

It is true, my time share trades did not get me two bedrooms, but we did stay in the French Quarter when Brian was a High School grad, and we enjoyed an older hotel in our favorite beach town in California.

If you really want to see me rant. It is the hurtful misinderstanding of the actual translation of the word Hell in scripture, and the ugly misrepresentation of God's contractual obligations to torment people eternally that really get my blood boiling, to use a really poor adjective.

When I hear some well meaning Christian say "after all Jesus spoke more about Hell than He did about Heaven". I want to scream. First, it is not true; second the King James translators did the last five hundred years of believers a great injustice for translating four different greek words as Hell.

With great excitement and thanksgiving I am grateful to the God who created Hawaii that we are recovering in my time a gospel that is as good as the gospel that Jesus truly preached, when He judged the Old Covenant and brought us by His blood and life into a New one. I beg the believing reader to embark on a reconsideration of our traditional views of what we think is the only "final solution" for man's rebellion. And I'm Not Just Whistling Dixie on this one.

Time Share Hell

I have spent a great deal of time studying the relationship between time and eternity. Yesterday I learned that I willingly signed a contract that is binding for all eternity.

With many tricky persuasions, including a free vacation and an expensive dinner. I bought an every other year timeshare on Kauai, Hawaii, USA in June of 2001. It was two bedrooms so I could share it with my kids. Long story short, I have never received a two bedroom vacation in trade, and never had a chance to get anywhere near a beach in any other resort in the last four even years. I had caught a lot of hell from my wife for this purchase, Literally, brothers, hot, painful recrimination.

Yesterday a portly salesmen came to my house to remind me that I would be paying maintenance fees until I die, and so would my children and their children and their children for all eternity. Its a contract you see, and even though they have never honored their deal with me, even though they cashed my check to pay for it, they will use their skill to keep the money flowing for all eternity, literally brother and sisters, hear me, hear my warning from the pit of time share hell. Tell your children, do not buy a timeshare.

So yesterday the fellow offered me the new enlightened time share salvation called points, my company will give you points for guaranteed happy vacations to honor said eternal contract, but you must sign up today, brother, do not leave this kitchen without changing your eternal time share destiny. How shall I be saved? I pleaded.......write me a check for $3000 dollars and your're in heaven, forever.
'
Thanks, but no thanks, we said, from our beach property in Hell.

Original Blessing

Laura had an evening class so I took the opportunity to give myself a mini-retreat and practice photography....at the foot of the Superstition mountian range. For over two hours I sat in silence or walked around looking for beauty, trying to capture a shot that does justice to this amazing formation of God's good creation, and pondering how Augustinian Theology created a dualism that made it hard for me to affirm my unity with those mountians.........Say what???? Why don't you just think about the economy and jobs??

Because its all related. While I sat under a shaded picnic table provided by the United States Park service, (Government) I had four species of birds (God's creation) come visit me and allow me to photgraph (Mans invention and technology)them, while they hoped I would throw them some bread or a Chito, (Private Enterprise), while I (God's crowning act of creation) was reasoning and thinking and breathing in the beauty of this ecosystem that God is sustaining and preserving and yes, in the process of restoring.
Its all too wonderful, but not as wonderful as "THE WORD" (God, Christ, Spirit, Creator) Click on these pics to get the full effect(neat computer abilities, the key and link to a transformed future revolution of knowledge)

Blogging reflections

This is my 250th post. My readership is small, but sending my thoughts and pictures into cyber space has been fun. The few blogs I follow have been enriching...if only to be reminded how similar we all are as we journey through life in the west.

Dixie and Marc are going back to school to prepare for pastoral ministry. She reflected on the truth that moving is loss and change and that it is upsetting.
Dixie blogs at Vandermeander and Marc at The Eagle & Child Pilcrow Magnate. Sorry I cannot seem to figure out the blog insert thingy.

Here was my comment on her reflection:

When I was 33, we moved to our 2nd Church ministry. We began to get to know a large family in the church. The matriarch began to love and enjoy us, and one day said to me. “I don’t want to love you and Laura because we will get close and you will leave someday and its all too painful” But she did, and we did, and it was. In their case they sold their restaurant and moved up to the country home and left us, before we moved on a few years later.

We now have a totally different group of people that are our circle of friends, and this is three circles of friends later in our ministry. I now am beginning to see why the reunion in heaven will be so wonderful, because time and space will not allow us to keep those friendships tended. I can tell you this, if your family goes with you, it will be home, and if you remain the lover you are, there will be circles of friends ahead, for sure.

The picture today is of some of our current circle of friends, and we are now saying goodbye as many of them live part of the year here and part elsewhere. Such is life.

Ninogenerians???? Men?????

I spent some time with two men this week whose combined age would be 186. How few men outlive their wives and reach the 90s in good health. I asked if they had any secrets to their longetivity. Both answered in a surprisingly similar manner. I loved my work. I was physically active in my work and family life. I had a great wife. I had a couple of close calls healthwise but the right people and the right timeing kept me alive.

To me, as I listened, it seems that God has chosen the right career and the right lifestyle and the right set of genes for these men who are rerighting the rules for length of life. O, I forgot the last one, they both have a sense of humor that shows in their stories and their smiles. They both thank God for their long life and both are not raring to go on the the next yet.

Under construction, go somewhere else!

I thought this was cute. Duh? What do you mean I can't use the putting green? Golf is such a strange sport. Wednesday I shot 10 strokes lower than today. I felt in control and enjoyed the day immensely. Today was a struggle. I think that is why those of us who stick with it keeping trying to find the illusive key to consistency and also refer constantly to those seven inches between the ears as the problem.