It's that special time of year in the South when the outdoors beckon and nature "teases" with alternating days of gentle warmth and the last vestiges of cold. The daffodils have put on their early show, as well as the forsythia and Bradford pear trees, while the dogwood and azalea are preparing for their stage entrance. We have bleeding heart in our garden which is like the "trumpeter" of Spring .... emerging from the ground and offering it's pink blossoms in what seems like a matter of days... Following closely behind, the hosta starts to emerge from the ground And the Dogwoods prepare to join the azaleas in their floral display Besides the urge to go outside and "play...
We had been looking forward to our vacation for a couple months and when the time finally arrived to prepare for our trip we had one major obstacle to contend with: Hurricane Irma. Planning a vacation to Florida in the month of September is always risky since it is hurricane season, however we’ve done it before so we thought it worth doing again. Hurricane Irma was not just a threatening storm, it was billed as the largest and most dangerous storm to our hit our land in any of our lifetime. After watching the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey and all the damage that storm did to Texas, this was not something to be taken lightly. So we had a serious...
As I looked over the blogs I've written in the past one of my recurring themes (although not intentionally) has been aging and the elderly. Perhaps this is due to my own age and the realization that although getting older is a process we all experience from the womb onward, facing the decline of old age is as unnatural an experience as there is. Just this past week we spent time with my wife's folks (who are approaching 80) and also had lunch with a church friend who shared her 90+ year old mom's testimony with us. I've talked previously about the value of the aged but not as much about the emotional challenges that aging brings. Our church friend lost...
One of my favorite exercises to keep my mind sharp while also feeding my spirit is to memorize God’s Word; specifically some of the Psalms. Since there’s 150 Psalms and I’ve memorized like 7 I’m hardly in line for a medal; however as I do get older and my mind becomes more selective, memorizing things that matter is part of my “activity” to age gracefully. A favorite of mine is Psalm 92 and specifically how it compares the righteous (God’s people) to the growth of a palm tree, and that it still bears fruit, even unto old age (Ps 92:12-15). I remember reading this verse to my mother a couple years ago when she was questioning why she was still...
Every woodworker knows that once friends and family know you have a shop and a few tools, all sorts of random requests come your way. Everything from, "could you remodel my kitchen" to " can you repair a drawer in an old chest". For a carpenter, every request is a bit like a challenge issued.........we hate saying "no" to any project because "sure, I can do that":). It's a blessing and a pitfall. The blessing is that you get the pleasure of helping out a friend, solving a problem, or "fixing" a treasure. The pitfall is that we "wood guys" can end up taking on projects that are either beyond our shop capabilities or that divert our focus. Did I...
