Dragons have been attacking me from all around and for far as I could see.  Little ones, big ones, fast ones, slow ones, obnoxious ones and some that crept up upon on cats’ paws, nearly taking me out before I was even aware of them.

I feel as if I’ve been taking part in some of the stories told in the book of Revelation with dragons having seven heads, all clamoring for me at once.

What say ye?  Any dragons in your life of late?  If so, how do you feel about that and how do you conquer them?

I don’t know about you, but for me, trust in God to be MY great defender in all has been my life saver.

For the moment, all of my dragons are at bay.  How about yours?  I cannot sit and rest, too long, though, for wounded dragons sometime roar back again more ferociously than ever.

Still . . . it is good to have a still and quiet day now and again, you know?  I have longed for this day for the longest of times, too, which makes it doubly a pleasure.

Well, enough of dragons for today, how is your picture taking and collecting going for the Finding Direction Summer 2010 Photo Contest – theme, “Summer Time and the Livin’ is Easy?”  Entries have begun coming in and the FD Judges are chomping at the bits to get a look at all of them.  You have until August 15th in which to enter.

Remember that the photos do NOT even have to be your own,  for those of you w/o the gift of photography.  There are certainly lots of photos on the internet to choose from, if you don’t have access any other way to summertime fun photos.

That’s it for today.  Comment and let me know how you fight your dragons and give me some ideas about fighting mine, okay?!

Cheers!  And many blessings to each of you who read this.  You Dragon Slayers all!  (If you are really a “hidden” dragon trying to sneak up on me, forget it.  I’ve got you covered!)

Dee

How’s everyone’s summer going so far.  I CANNOT believe it’s already after 4th of July!  Can you?

Anyway – here’s the latest on the brand new “Finding Direction Summer 2010 Photo Contest” that I just started last week, I think.  I can’t remember.  At this age, time goes by WAY too fast, ya know?!

Here’s some of the “rules” for you entrants, and I’m waiting patiently – or not – for the first of you to show up with some great summer photos.  To enter, just go to the “Contact Me” tab above and write to me from there.  I will send you my email address so that you may submit your photo(s).  The theme this time is “Summer Time & The Livin’ Is Easy.”

Here’s some “rules,” such as they are:

(1) Enter as many photos as you would like under the “theme” as stated above.  The photos, preferably, will be your own that you have taken, but do not HAVE to be, knowing that not everyone is a God-gifted photographer.  In fact, you may “Google” or whatever online to find some good summer time photos to submit.  People in the past have done so.

(2) I’m giving y’all the rest of July and until the 15th of August by which to submit your photos.  At that time, the revered Finding Direction Judges shall review all of the entries, shall go over each with a fine tooth comb and shall make their esteemed decisions, based upon quality of the photos, personality of the entrants (just kidding!), and appropriateness to the subject matter.

(3)  All photos should be submitted as jpegs or gifs, preferably jpegs.

(4) The Finding Direction Judges shall consider the entrants’ behaviors during the contest period, i.e., attempts at cheating, seriously and shall engage in appropriate “penalties,” as needed.  This is especially true of those who are currently ministers of the Gospel (Good News) and former ministers of the Gospel, now engaged in burying the dead, otherwise known as funeral directors.

(4) Humor in photos will have points added to their “values” as the Finding Direction Judges are greatly in need of humor in their lives at the moment.

(5) All decisions are final, based purely on objective values, and prizes shall be awarded, as needed.

(6)  The Grand Prize Winner shall have their winning photo displayed on the Finding Direction Judges’ desktop home computer, which is a “grand” prize, indeed!!

(7)  The Finding Direction Judges shall award an ACTUAL GRAND PRIZE award to the winner this time, for about the 3rd time, btw (Greg!), so y’all pay attention and get with it here, ya hear?!

That’s it for now, guys.  Take some photos or sift through what you already have taken and have stored away in your computer, because I KNOW that the lot of you have LOTS of photos to choose from – either your own, some you’ve received in Power Point presentations, or on the internet – that you can enter.  So, get WITH it!!

Cheers!  And many blessings to each of you today!  Dee

I haven’t done one of these in over a year, but inspiration has struck me (thanks to Greg over at “why, soitenly,” although I still have him booked as the “Ex-Rev’s Ramblings”) and I’m now on a roll.

For those of you who may be new, the quickest way to get up to speed is to check out my Categories on my right side bar and go down to the entry, “Finding Direction Contests,” where you will find all of the “rules” (slack though they may be) and entries of each of the categories, which are determined by moi at some point along the line.

I held five Finding Direction Photo Contests, in the Winter of 2005-06, Summer 2006, Winter 2006-07, Summer 2007, and Winter 2007-08.  So, y’all have had lots of time to collect photographs to enter.

I don’t have the time right now as today is Monday – Laundry Day – but when I do have a bit of extra time, I’ll put the links here to the winners blog posts from the five contests, along with the “rules,” – don’t worry if you don’t know any of them, it doesn’t matter.  Doesn’t even have to be your own work!

Okay – here’s two from Summer 2006 and Winter 2006-07.  I went back through all the winners’ blog posts and found that the photos  were all missing, so I’m going to have to check with TheoBloggers to see if their expert/genious status can pull them up for you all to see.  But, do go back and read some of the entries under that category – Finding Direction Contests, because then you’ll see how much FUN we all have “competing” in these.

Love you all!  Sorry I’ve been so long in posting.  We were out of town most of last week gone to a Tri-State Press Association convention in Tunica, Mississippi, just south of Memphis.  It was for Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee, and we had a great time.   I’ll post a photo later.

Cheers!  And many blessings to each of you today!  Dee

But, of course, I had side stops in the Dallas area both directions and did some driving around “town” there as well as out in Abilene, so my total miles driven were exactly 1,750 miles by the time I arrived back home.

That is a LOT of miles for one person alone, much less me.  When Tom and I go anywhere, he always drives.  In fact, if we’re going any further than about an hour’s trip one way, I usually fall asleep and wake up when the trip is over.  I always offer to drive, he turns me down, and I go back to sleep.  Love to sleep in the moving car.  Just like a baby.

It drove him nuts after he had his recent heart surgery that he couldn’t drive for six weeks.  And believe me, he wasn’t a very good passenger!  My driving drove him crazy.  Hey – I’m a good driver.  Just not near up to his perfectionist’s standards.

I started out Memorial Day weekend, and traffic was heavy on parts of I-20.  Very heavy.  And people were driving fast, too.  As in more than a few miles above whatever the posted mph were.  You know, it’s scary out there on the roads of America.  I think on the entire trip, I probably had at least six or eight moments that could have ended in death or critical injury by people switching lanes at high speeds unannounced, following too closely doing 75 mph, and trying to inch just one car ahead in a mass of thousands around Dallas.

I think I did as much praying as anything on the trip and that was for my own life, that I make it safely where I was going and back.  Interstate 20 across north Louisiana just outright sucks!  It’s a terrible road most of the way.  Texas has by far the best, smoothest, widest interstates, U.S. highways and even local roads of anywhere I’ve ever been.  And, other than out near where my daughter lives, I didn’t come across much construction going on at all, which was a huge relief.  Almost made the at times heavy traffic on a holiday weekend worthwhile to miss construction.

But, you know – over all, people traveling the highways of this country were courteous and well mannered.  Anywhere I stopped, and I stopped every couple of hours the entire trip to rest and walk around, people were flat out nice.  I noticed a lot of new places off I-20 where you could stop to refresh, buy gas, get something to eat.  Very nice, new places.  This was especially true across east Texas.

For years, when I was on a trip alone, I would stop at McDonald’s along the way to refresh, use the restroom and sometimes get some coffee.  I still do, occasionally, but recently have been looking for and stopping at Cracker Barrel.  For one thing, they have a large menu, including a number of small lunch items and some good salads, if I need to eat.  The other thing I like about them is that they have large restrooms and the large “gift shop” area in each store, which gives me something to do while walking around either waiting to eat or to get a bit of exercise.  I rarely buy anything, but it’s fun to look and pass the time for a few minutes.

Looking for them also keeps me occupied on the road, watching for huge billboards advertising which exit to get off for the next Cracker Barrel.  Do they have Cracker Barrels anywhere but across the south?  California?  In the northeast?  Where do y’all stop when you’re on long road trips?  I can’t imagine having to find some “strange” place each time I get off the road.  I do that some, but like the familiarity of places I know at home, ya know?

This time I listened to some MP3s that Tom loaded up in the car for me.  It was all his music (we couldn’t find the ones he’d made with my music at the last minute), so I had quite a different selection than I would normally listen to.  The first “folder” on the CD was all Cajun & Blues Christmas music.  That was really way out, but helped me feel cooler in the 95 degree weather.  ha!  Helped the long, boring hours go by faster, too.

Do you like to go on long road trips?  Alone?  Do you like to drive?  What do you most think about along the way?  What kind of places do you find to stop?  This trip I made is one we’ve made probably dozens and dozens of times over the years, if not more, so it is quite boring.  How do you make such a trip better?

Comment and share with me today, y’all!  Let’s talk about this.  You see, I’m going to be flying back out to Texas in less than two weeks and then Tom is going to drive out to meet me for several days and we’ll both drive back together.  So, we need some good tips for this upcoming trip!  (How to stay alive, for one thing!)

Dee

P. S. Your prayers for me have helped me this week exceptionally well.  My spirit is greatly calmed and uplifted!

I am spending my time, whether doing other tasks or not, in deep prayer and supplication to the Lord, requesting wisdom in knowing how to counsel with those around me and how to receive the best counsel in my own heart to bear these load, myself.

My deep faith sustains and guides me.  I seek forgiveness from those I may have wronged in my past, although I’ve always tried to do the best I knew to do at the time I was acting.

I do not like to write publicly in such a frame of mind, yet I do not turn from trying to be honest and open with the struggles in my heart with all who will bear with me.  I regret in my younger years having been judgmental toward many around me when, instead, I should have listened more carefully to their hearts and found that they were just like me.  We all seek the same thing deep down inside – to be truly loved and accepted for who and what we are.

I have long since learned better, having found true love and acceptance from this man to whom I am married.  Because of his great love for me, I came to know and understand – to really feel and believe – the unquenchable, eternal love of God, our Father, and Jesus Christ, our Savior.  Although he was God’s Son, he came here to earth to live as a man – as we live – to be one of us in all ways – and die, in his perfection, so that we might be redeemed by grace.  We are living, breathing souls and as God’s children, we are already living in eternity, never to face death, except in this physical, bodily form.  We have been saved by grace through our faith and in following after God to share His love to all around us.

We are the embodiment of Christ’s body – the church – upon this earth.  We are to exemplify Jesus in all our ways with each other and even with strangers and enemies.  May God help me live this out from now on, the remainder of my human days.

To God be the glory, and may we each recognize that Jesus loves  us.  Each of us.  You.  Me.  He will not forsake us or let us down, so matter how much we stumble or grow weary and weak.  “Jesus loves me, this I know.”

Please pray with me today, y’all, and know I pray for you, too.  Dee

On Sabbatical

Hi, guys!

Wonder where I’ve been the past week, huh?!  Or not.

I’m on sabbatical this week and part of next out here in sweet home, Abilene.  (Think the song “Sweet home, Alabama.”)

Of course, neither one look like the picture here, but hey . . . I can pretend, can’t I?!  I mean . . . they have the dirt and sand part down here.  It’s just the bright blue-green water, white sand and lots of seashells that are missing.  And working on a great tan.

I should have written here earlier this week, but Mom’s computer is ancient and soooooo soooooo veryyyyyyyy slooowwwww that I can type way faster than it can keep up, which is frustrating.  Plus, we’ve been busy.  Pretty much doing nothing.  Sleeping late (me), eating, reading, playing around on the computer (although I cannot even watch videos here it is so slow) and just hangin’ out.

I’ve been on the computer so much that I’ve caught up with all of my friends on Facebook!  Now, that’s a feat, let me tell ya.  I’ve even gotten caught up pretty much reading blogs, although I’m having trouble leaving comments for some unknown reason, so don’t think I haven’t been by because I probably have.  Just think brilliant and insightful and you’ll have the gist of all of my blog comments, okay?!

Will be here a couple of days longer, and then will start back east toward Dallas area for a few more days before heading home.  Y’all comment and let me know what I can bring home with me to send y’all as gifts from the great republic of Texas.  They have some doosies of gifts out here, let me tell you, beginning at the airport in a really neat gift shop there (although I drove this time round).

Let me know what you are doing this summer for fun, friends.  Tom & I have some things coming up later after I get home, beginning with going to the Mississippi Press Association’s Summer Convention in Tunica, Mississippi, just below Memphis, Tennessee.

Comment, ya hear?!  And MANY blessings to each of you today!  Dee

Many of us are making “holiday” plans for this three day weekend starting tomorrow, including our president – our erstwhile “Commander in Chief” – who is going off for enjoyment, rather than going over to Arlington National Cemetery to lay wreaths among the fallen soldiers of this great land of ours.  I don’t know about you, but that really bothers me.  A lot.

I mean – we have plans, too, but quiet ones.  Nothing ostentatious or celebratory by any means.  In fact, in looking for a photo to place here on this post while ago, I found several images that had superimposed over them the words “Happy Memorial Day.”  I find that offensive.  Since when is a day of remembrance of men and women of valor who died for the cause of their country to be a “happy” day?  I think not:  in any way, shape or form.

Tom & I just finished watching the 10 part HBO series “The Pacific,” about our fathers and other elderly relatives, fewer every day who remain living, who fought in the Pacific Theater of World War II.  It was horrific, both in presentation on TV, and even more so in reality.  They talked with aged veterans at the beginning of each episode and the interviews were hard, even now, for some of them to do, all these many years later.

By the time the series closed; when we got to the 10th and last episode, I could barely stand it and cried most of the way through the hour for these men who came home changed forever.  The series had followed the lives of real soldiers who fought real battles, who had families they left behind, who had plans and dreams for the future.  Some of them didn’t make it home at all.  For many of those who did, it took a long time – if not a life time – to get over the nightmares of their experiences.

What made me cry the most is that their story has been so long in being told.  Some of the guys in the group had written books about their lives in war.  Others kept journals.  They were part of one company, so knew each other in real life.  But, most of these real life soldiers have already died.  Some as long as 20 or 30 years ago.  Just a couple of them remain alive today, and both are very elderly.  The majority did not live to see the respect and tribute that some among us so wanted to give them, including Steven Spielburg and actor, Tom Hanks, who produced the movie.

Nearby in New Orleans resides the National WWII Museum, which is magnificently done!  Tom Hanks had a lot to do with it, as well.  It began as the National D-Day Museum (exactly 10 years ago next week – June 6), a dream of author (now deceased) Steven Ambrose, who wrote of WWII in several books.  The museum was so well done that people flocked to New Orleans to come experience that important time in our history.  Thus, they expanded it to cover all of WWII, not just the European fronts.

I urge you all – any of you who can – to come to New Orleans and go there.  You will be forever changed by the experience, which includes listening to and watching oral histories of every day people who lived through it here in America, as well as soldiers who went overseas.

This is my “sermon” for the day.  For the weekend.  I hope to participate in remembrance activities on Monday and to stop and reflect on all who have served and fallen from the very beginning of this country of ours.  May we ever seek God’s favor and grace on us as we live as Christians in the freest land in the world, at least from its inception up until now.  And, may we NEVER forget.

God bless you all today, and God Bless America.  Dee

Mom & Laura got to see some of the lovely wildflowers in bloom around Abilene, and I was happy for them about that.  Yet, I missed not being able to go with them.

However, a good school friend sent us some outstanding photos of the spring wildflowers around where they live, near Austin.  I thought I’d share these with you here today.  Enjoy!

Aren’t those really beautiful?  And, to think I grew up in Texas!

But, hmmmm.  Somehow I don’t remember seeing any of these when I was just a kid living in Abernathy, just north of Lubbock about 17 miles.  Why do you suppose that is, huh?

Oh . . . maybe it has something to do with the two photos below taken of Lubbock this spring.  Up on the high plateau of what is called the Caprock in the lower panhandle of Texas.  Check it out for yourself:

Now WHY did my dad have to be a cotton farmer up on the high plains of Texas.  Why not a rancher down in the beautiful hill country?  Or, maybe a country and western singer like Willie.

You can see why I left there at 18 and have never moved back.  But, I DO love to visit home, all my family and all of the  beautiful parts of Texas I missed growing up.  You have to admit, it’s a big enough state to have it all, folks!  And IT DOES!!

Cheers & many blessings to you each today!  Dee

She was 19 years old and married to a small thin man in his late 30s or early 40s who looked to be twice his age and was crippled up in his left arm from a working accident some years before.  Thus, he was disabled and unable to work any more, at all, although the work he’d done before was just as a laborer.

She had four little girls of her own, although she was just a girl herself.

They were destitute.  They lived in a small shack consisting of three room, with no bathroom, far off the nearest paved road among the tall, matchstick pines.  Being summer, it was swelteringly hot and humid, but they had no air conditioning, of course.  Nor did they have much furniture.  In fact, other than in the kitchen, I recall none.  The three little girls and baby all slept on bare mattresses reeking with the strong odor of urine.  They may have had diapers for the youngest, but the nearest place to do laundry was in town, and that cost money they didn’t have.  Neither did we see any clothes, anywhere.

Their only transportation was an old dilapidated pickup, and it was not there when we arrived.  The doors were wide open, so we went up the flimsy back steps to the kitchen and went in to look around.  We saw a small table with bowls on them, a couple of chairs and some cheap bent spoons.  The small refrigerator’s door did not shut well and it was full of big ants, but very little else.  Ants crawled all across the tiny kitchen, including on the counter, where we found the remains of their pitiful lunch.  Water gravy and water Koolaid, with a bit of sugar in it.  There were no signs of anything else to eat.

We had wanted to see them to visit, but instead we just left the big boxes of food, produce, milk and staples, for them to have when they got home.  We left some small clean clothes, too, for the girls, and took note of what else they needed.  It was a long list, because they needed everything, beginning with a habitable place to live.

We were not only saddened, but sickened at what we saw.  The wretchedness of the place; the poverty.  But, for the moment we had done all we knew to do.

We found out later that the reason they were not “home” was because all of them had driven to nearby Lufkin to the welfare department to try to receive a bit more financial help then what he was getting.  The girl told us that what we saw in their shack was the very last of the food that they had.  The water gravy and Koolaid.  They had nothing else.

When they returned home, completely dejected and hungry, they were overjoyed to find the food we brought.

My friend, a young Christian mother of four, herself, in her 30s, and I – just a married college student, myself, with a little one, David, who was two years old, had driven back into town by then.  I pondered what I had seen and experiences.  I deeply identified with this young girl, as I was expecting a baby soon, and would have two little ones at 21.

We lived in student housing in a small two bedroom apartment that was $67 a month, which we could not afford, either, but we managed the the four married couples’ buildings around our square and that paid our rent.  My husband went to school full time and worked all kinds of odd jobs at night to help with bills, too.  One job, sitting in a chicken house where the incubators were all night long to keep the eggs from burning, paid 33 cents an hour.  It was a miserable job, but we needed the money.

Yet, when I compared my life to hers, and she was a brand new Christian, I felt deeply blessed.

We did not leave them as we found them.  Charlotte, my friend, went back repeatedly to help them and even got the girl a decent paying job in town soon after.  Charlotte made sure she was able to come worship with us and bring her little daughters.  The girl dressed them up as best she could with the hand-me-downs and they looked shiny and sweet.

They are able to move into town and the church helped them greatly.  Their lives improved very much due to the love and care and benevolence of the compassionate Christian community there in Nacogoches.  It was inspiring to me to see true Christianity in action – Jesus love – and the impressions of that girl’s life have stayed with me until now.

This did not happen during the deep Depression of the 1930s.  This happened in 1966, and happens still today in many places all around us here in America, if only we will take the time to really open our eyes and see as Jesus would have us see.

My daughter, who lives in an a far suburb of Dallas told me a few years ago that she did not know any poor people.  (Although she lives out in the country and has trailer homes on both sides of their property.)  I was stunned.  I told her she would find them all around her, even there, if she would just look.  She took my advice, and did.  Since then, she has been involved in ministry with her congregation of Christians and on several mission trips outside this country, even.  We financially supported her in doing those things and have supported her morally and in every way we could to encourage her in her work.

Tom and I live in a very poor area of the south here in Mississippi where people such as the girl in the woods live, as well.  May I ever seek out those I can help in some way – as God’s child – a Christian – and not forget they are all around me too.  To get to our house in the woods, we drive by dozens and dozens of run down trailers and trailer parks that look like junk yards.  They are here.

I hope you will be encouraged today to look more closely around where you live to find someone you can help – in Christ’s name – to show them the love of God and Christ even in their lives!

Many blessings to each of you today.  Dee

Well . . . this turns out to be a change-in-progress as not only can I not please myself, but also all of my readers.  Thus, I’m enlisting your help here today – whoever you are and however you happened to have come by here.

This page is the second theme I’ve chosen in the past two days and the third photo across the top.  The first photo I had, along with a multitude of sidebar widgets I had showing, just because they were there to play with, seemed to many of you – along with me after about the third time looking at all of it myself – way too busy and distracting from what I write and want to talk about.   (I’ll show it to you in a moment below.)

The second photo was of a road/path, which reflects the theme of my blog – Finding Direction: The Wind Vane Chronicles – but Tom thought was too seasonal and too southwest looking.  It was of a road in Santa Fe, New Mexico taken during a Christmas season.  Thus, Mr. Andrews – my number one guide and editor in all things written and photographic – nixed it and he – as he is 99.9% of the time – correct.

Moving on to photo number three – the current one.  It was taken by none other than Mr. Andrews, himself, nearby over in Pass Christian, Mississippi, at sunset, along the coast highway (you have to look closely at the photo to see the road in it, plus the photo is greatly cropped), a couple of years before Katrina hit us all, taking most of that tree with it, along with all of the old stately homes along that road.

I, with Tom’s highest pleasure, have now decided that I want to keep this photo on here for a while and keep this them, at least for the time being, if and until I can find one that serves as well or better.  The photo is local – south Mississippi – taken by my beloved – Tom – and offers a serene look at why we love living here so much.

So . . . here are the three choices for you to look at and see what you think.  Number 3 – the current one – first:

Now, the Santa Fe, New Mexico photo:

Last, but first on this blog the other day (I know – all of this is backwards), the graphic I started out with:

I guess I’m like Goldilocks and the three bears.  First the photo is too busy.  Second the photo was too seasonal and distant from us (New Mexico – remember that sad saga of our “dream” vacation turned nightmare?).  Finally – third time’s the charm (I hope y’all will agree with me) – I’ve gotten the photo – and cleaner look on my page, sans 57 widgets! – that I like, although I DO terribly miss the way my blog page looked before.  I agree with JoAnn Glock – the MistyLook theme and photo and layout were outstanding.  It was just very outdated and wouldn’t allow me to do much with it. Mainly, I had to give it up because it got hacked and was spewing a lot of spam email out to people.  I hope you didn’t get any of it.

You will note at the top of the page here I have a special place set up now where you can privately contact me, if you do not wish to publicly comment, although I wish you would.  (To comment, you now have to go to the top of each post – see above under the headline – and click on the word comments.  Thanks.)

Hope y’all are having a blessed weekend.  It’s stormin’ here.  Big time.  Very dark, thundery and stormy.  Love it.  Dee