I drove by a little local fruit stand yesterday and the thought occurred to me how much I really like this time of year. My favorite time of year is Christmas, there's no denying that! But this is probably my second favorite time of year.
There's something to be said for structure. I love summer and the unstructured freedom it affords in my life but once August comes and I know a much more structured routine is on the way, it is comforting! I really look forward to it.
At this time most every school in the country has started. The routine has begun. Most are not quite settled in the routine but are well on our way to making the adjustment. The days are still warm but the nights are getting a little cooler, (I know those in Florida haven't had that yet. Their air conditioners are still running full blast as they have since March). But the rest of us are watching for the little subtle changes and know they aren't far.
As I passed this fruit stand I saw a large wooden wheel barrow out front full of watermelons. And beyond that up on a shelf was a line of pumpkins. It occurred to me that, that was an odd sight. We don't really associate watermelons and pumpkins coming together at the same time. But there they were, right there at the same fruit stand, on the same day.
I was thinking about watermelons and how nice they are. How refreshing they are on a hot summer day. I realized their time was fleeting. That is probably the last wheelbarrow full of watermelons we will see until next summer. It caused me to remember the last watermelon I ate. I was in Pennsylvania at my aunt's house. We had, had a fabulous 50th wedding anniversary and a family reunion and it was the last few minutes I would have with them and my parent's before we departed for home. It was great and just the way I like it--civilized.
I like my watermelon civilized. As a child we were given a slice of watermelon with the rind attached (as a handle) and told to go outside. Of course, all of the guys would want to have spitting contests. I'm not sure if they even liked watermelon or just the chance to spit! The juice would drip down your chin to your clothes and eventually wind up on your feet (because of course, we were barefooted-that's how we were in Florida). I just about quit eating watermelon because it just was not a civilized activity! That is until I became a little older and realized I could cut the "meat" off the rind and place it on a plate. Then remove the seeds, cut the "meat", add a little salt and enjoy. I didn't have to mess up my clothes or have a footwashin' when I was through! So I very much prefer my watermelon, civilized!
At the recent consumption of the watermelon at my aunt's house the guys were still guys. They sat outside spitting seeds while I was very content to sit in the air conditioning and eat mine with a FORK!
As I passed by that fruit stand I thought about pumpkins. As the watermelons disappear and pumpkins show up in all shapes and sizes it turns our thoughts to harvest time. The scarecrows in the fields let us know the farmer's have worked to protect their crops and the pumpkins on the shelves, the corn sitting beside them, the beans in the bin, etc. let us know it has worked.
But before we give too much credit to man alone, this time of year reminds me that it is God's hand that has set the harvest on the table. God gave us the soil to put the seed in. He gave us the seed. He provided the rain to water the earth and the sun to cause the seed to wish to push through the earth and make it's way in the direction of that nourishing orb. Harvest is the representation of man's hard work, but it still could not have happened without God provision. We've all seen what a dried up patch of corn looks like. We know if rain doesn't come at a certain time the corn will not be able to survive. We know if too much rain comes the roots rot and the stalks cannot be maintained.
So as I turned from the watermelons to the pumpkins my thoughts went to God's mighty harvest which brought me to a verse. After the flood Noah set about making an altar to worship the Lord on. After his sacrifice God pronounced a promise. It went like this, "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." Gen. 8:22. We have God's promise that as long as the earth exists there will be seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night.
That's a great blessing to think about during this season of our year. While all of the wild and wooly things are going on around us, God is there. He is there keeping the earth, causing seedtime and harvest. Aren't you glad?
Snowy Day 1-20-09
Yate's Mill
And, I'm still STANDING!!!
If a person ONLY gets their information from the mainstream media and never looks beyond what is presented, their thoughts of what is going on are very jaded.
I've been voting since 1980 and I've never agreed 100% with any elected official. Even my favorite president, Ronald Reagan, had his moments. I've been married for almost 25 years and I don't 100% agree with my husband, either. So I am not focusing on finding a politician that I 100% agree with because I know better.
I did support Bush, both times! I'm not ashamed or apologetic about that. My goodness, the man stood up before a nation and prayed to the Creator of the Universe on behalf of the people he represented. He wasn't ashamed, or didn't feel his countrymen too diverse to put forth his true, heartfelt beliefs.
And yes, I supported John McCain because as the choices were presented I knew I couldn't support Obama. Obama stands for a vast majority of things I stand against. I am not ashamed or apologetic of that either. I am an American, that is my right but more importantly, my resonsibility!
I can't vote for a man who in 2007 gave a speech to Planned Parenthood telling how he would support abortion for all females; then in 2008 told the nation at the Saddleback forum that identifying the beginning of life was above his pay grade; and then a few days after the inauguration with a stroke of his pen he suddenly feels conception is NOT above his pay grade anymore. He either can't remember what he stands for or is flat out lying. Either way, I'm not a supporter of an alzheimer's victim or a liar for president.
We really knew where he stood no matter what he said because his record in the Illinios senate bore that out. The man voted at least 4 times to promote abortion at all costs. He voted to strip the rights of American citizens who survived an abortion gone wrong (right?). He told you and me the wording wasn't right. Yet, if you look at what really happened you see he insisted certain wording be added so it would align with what was past at the federal level. Once that wording was included he still voted against it. Now I say, "Liar, liar pants on fire!" I'm okay with being a little juvenile too! I'm an old lady and every chance I get I try to take it!
I'm not inclined to support a man who in less than 3 months has racked up a larger deficit that any previous administration in all of their years combined. But yet, every time he goes to talk about why he's doing what he's doing he blames the previous administration for the mess they left him. And acts like that's all he should have to say.
If we can pull our thoughts back to the memory station and remember what the previous administration had been doing those past 8 years we will recall that the last 2 years no one got anything productive done because congress refused to promote anything that was good for this country for no other reason than partisianship. Then the 2 years before that there was enough of a majority in the house and senate that many things Bush tried to get done for the betterment of the American citizens was filibustered--through yet more partisianship. So Obama's excuse is nothing more than passing the buck and it's very unbecoming a man or woman in his position.
Not to mention--I've been paying bills for our household for a long time. We've been in financial trouble before--you can't spend your way out of financial issues! It doesn't work--It has never worked and will never work, not on the personal level and certainly not on the national level. For the man to get up and say ONLY the federal government can get us out of this mess simply shows his ignorance. He can't remember, or has never understood, who the federal government is, or who they are employed by.
We the people have to pay every bill they commit themselves to. Essentially they are commiting us to those bills. We are trying to grab the checkbook and say, "Oh no you don't! We don't have the money for that and it is NOT in our best interest to obligate ourselves to that." The man can say oh yeah we will spend, spend, spend and then we will have money to pay, pay, pay but does he understand the spending and the paying are coming out of the same wallet?
I can't support a man who voluntarily sat and listened to a man get up and preach the damning of America; and his wife, who said she was never proud of her country before her husband ran for the greatest office in the land. (I guess she wasn't proud of anything going on in Illinois either). And now, in that same vein we have your representative and mine globe trotting with the message that he doesn't like the American people either. He apparently hasn't been proud of his country either. He thinks we have been arrogant, derisive and divisive all of these years. And right near the shores of Normandy. You young people need to pull out those old dusty history books, you might not get the true info from the internet--it's being changed to fit what they want to suit the next generation of tickled ears. You might want to sit down and talk to that grandfather or great uncle. Let them tell you what America was all about. Let them tell you how hurt and betrayed they are to hear someone from their own country say they are arrogant.
And, now his own administration has turned us against ourselves. He issued a proclamation that people who don't like BIG government; those who believe abortion is wrong; those who are returning from foreign lands they went to, to protect; those who think illegal immigration ought to be "illegal"; just might be right-wing extremists and involved in terror activities. They won't call internatiional terrorists, terrorist but they don't have a problem calling their own people terrorists. I'm quite upset and mighty angry at such a screwed up administration.
And some want to still claim to not understand why American's would be upset now and not before. I'll tell you--before we were being attacked from without and our within was being protected. Now our without and our within is being attacked by the very people someone(?) voted in to protect our without and our within.
I've been voting since 1980 and I've never agreed 100% with any elected official. Even my favorite president, Ronald Reagan, had his moments. I've been married for almost 25 years and I don't 100% agree with my husband, either. So I am not focusing on finding a politician that I 100% agree with because I know better.
I did support Bush, both times! I'm not ashamed or apologetic about that. My goodness, the man stood up before a nation and prayed to the Creator of the Universe on behalf of the people he represented. He wasn't ashamed, or didn't feel his countrymen too diverse to put forth his true, heartfelt beliefs.
And yes, I supported John McCain because as the choices were presented I knew I couldn't support Obama. Obama stands for a vast majority of things I stand against. I am not ashamed or apologetic of that either. I am an American, that is my right but more importantly, my resonsibility!
I can't vote for a man who in 2007 gave a speech to Planned Parenthood telling how he would support abortion for all females; then in 2008 told the nation at the Saddleback forum that identifying the beginning of life was above his pay grade; and then a few days after the inauguration with a stroke of his pen he suddenly feels conception is NOT above his pay grade anymore. He either can't remember what he stands for or is flat out lying. Either way, I'm not a supporter of an alzheimer's victim or a liar for president.
We really knew where he stood no matter what he said because his record in the Illinios senate bore that out. The man voted at least 4 times to promote abortion at all costs. He voted to strip the rights of American citizens who survived an abortion gone wrong (right?). He told you and me the wording wasn't right. Yet, if you look at what really happened you see he insisted certain wording be added so it would align with what was past at the federal level. Once that wording was included he still voted against it. Now I say, "Liar, liar pants on fire!" I'm okay with being a little juvenile too! I'm an old lady and every chance I get I try to take it!
I'm not inclined to support a man who in less than 3 months has racked up a larger deficit that any previous administration in all of their years combined. But yet, every time he goes to talk about why he's doing what he's doing he blames the previous administration for the mess they left him. And acts like that's all he should have to say.
If we can pull our thoughts back to the memory station and remember what the previous administration had been doing those past 8 years we will recall that the last 2 years no one got anything productive done because congress refused to promote anything that was good for this country for no other reason than partisianship. Then the 2 years before that there was enough of a majority in the house and senate that many things Bush tried to get done for the betterment of the American citizens was filibustered--through yet more partisianship. So Obama's excuse is nothing more than passing the buck and it's very unbecoming a man or woman in his position.
Not to mention--I've been paying bills for our household for a long time. We've been in financial trouble before--you can't spend your way out of financial issues! It doesn't work--It has never worked and will never work, not on the personal level and certainly not on the national level. For the man to get up and say ONLY the federal government can get us out of this mess simply shows his ignorance. He can't remember, or has never understood, who the federal government is, or who they are employed by.
We the people have to pay every bill they commit themselves to. Essentially they are commiting us to those bills. We are trying to grab the checkbook and say, "Oh no you don't! We don't have the money for that and it is NOT in our best interest to obligate ourselves to that." The man can say oh yeah we will spend, spend, spend and then we will have money to pay, pay, pay but does he understand the spending and the paying are coming out of the same wallet?
I can't support a man who voluntarily sat and listened to a man get up and preach the damning of America; and his wife, who said she was never proud of her country before her husband ran for the greatest office in the land. (I guess she wasn't proud of anything going on in Illinois either). And now, in that same vein we have your representative and mine globe trotting with the message that he doesn't like the American people either. He apparently hasn't been proud of his country either. He thinks we have been arrogant, derisive and divisive all of these years. And right near the shores of Normandy. You young people need to pull out those old dusty history books, you might not get the true info from the internet--it's being changed to fit what they want to suit the next generation of tickled ears. You might want to sit down and talk to that grandfather or great uncle. Let them tell you what America was all about. Let them tell you how hurt and betrayed they are to hear someone from their own country say they are arrogant.
And, now his own administration has turned us against ourselves. He issued a proclamation that people who don't like BIG government; those who believe abortion is wrong; those who are returning from foreign lands they went to, to protect; those who think illegal immigration ought to be "illegal"; just might be right-wing extremists and involved in terror activities. They won't call internatiional terrorists, terrorist but they don't have a problem calling their own people terrorists. I'm quite upset and mighty angry at such a screwed up administration.
And some want to still claim to not understand why American's would be upset now and not before. I'll tell you--before we were being attacked from without and our within was being protected. Now our without and our within is being attacked by the very people someone(?) voted in to protect our without and our within.
See The Light
North Carolina Fall 2008
God's Amazing Beauty
Quiet Country
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1 comment:
Camille, I enjoyed your blog very much. Fall is also my favorite time of the year. The watermelon in PA was very good. The love and fellowship we shared was even better. Love, Mom
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