"My cloistered brothers" are getting closer to the answer to "What do you expect to happen when you pray?". We are reading Tomes Halik's Is God Absent?. The discussion brought up the question. We tied it to the Olympics, which is presently taking place. We asked, "Is everybody praying to win?"
We decided asking God for things is like hoping magic happens. Rather, our prayers should be contemplative, in trying to discern God's Will. We should ask to understand God's plan for us.
The Martha's Vineyard Beach and Book Club by Martha Hall Kelly is a relaxing read. Surprisingly easy because it actually is an historical novel with romance. I always enjoy reading books with local venues. Martha's Vineyard is a swim away (for good swimmers, not me) from Seacoast Blvd. I judge the weather by looking at the island from the end of Seacoast Blvd. Heat fog, rain, misty, or a clear day.
The story takes place in 1942. There are soldiers all over the island practicing for "D" day. Again, I can identify. Right across from my beach, are remnants of a paved road on Washburn Island, because this island, also, was used for "D" day practice. This island, I really can swim to, in fact just float across. Washburn has my family's favorite beach. It's not crowded. You don't need a beach sticker.
The characters are the Smith family and their farm. The women are left to tend to the property. Briar, the teenager sees U Boats off their beach. No one else does. But she's correct. A man from the U Boat swims ashore and Briar rescues him. He wants to defect. Briar takes him home and hides him. They have seen what happens to German prisoners and they don't want that to happen to him.
Briar's sister Cadence is a would-be-writer. She falls for one of the soldiers on the island. Grandma is ill and is in the hospital. Bess is pregnant with the girls' brother baby. Don't forget "Briar the Liar." This is the family trying to hold onto the farm.
There's a couple of murders around them. There's also a spy but who?
Oh, the Book Club--it's a planning session for the girls and a few friends. They plan to distribute books to the soldiers. It isn't easy but they make a skinny book that is easy to carry and it's accepted. They help with the farm, with whatever they can.
This is a time of confusion and sadness. The story gave me pause for reflection. I am happy to have been after the war. Thank you, Daddy.
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What to do with leftover spaghetti? I found a recipe for spaghetti pie and made it my own. Here's the recipe. First you need leftover spaghetti.
a pie plate
about a pound of ground meat
half an onion chopped
1 glove of garlic chopped
3/4 tsp. oregano
salt to taste
pepper to taste
1 can crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup parsley
1/2 cup mozzarella
Put the meat mixture in the pie plate, over the spaghetti. Spread it evenly. Sprinkle mozzarella liberally over the top.
Bake at 350 degree oven until the mozzarella is melted--about 20 minutes. Enjoy
A friend of mine recommended Fairy Tale by Stephen King. I tried it. I found it odd that every time I was going to quit reading it, the story became interesting. As it came out to be, I read the entire book. It is ridiculous, but it is a fairy tale and they are ridiculous.
The narrator is the main character. Charlie Reade is likeable, strong, honest, and everything a hero should be. Since Charlie's mother died, his father became a drunk. Charlie prayed to God to have his father to stop drinking. Being in a similar situation, I know praying to get someone else to change doesn't work. Free will! But Charlie made a bargain with God that if his father stopped drinking, Charlie would dedicate his life to doing good deeds. Again, I know from experience, that making bargains with God results in outcomes that aren't what you want. However, they are in a way. I guess God is just smarter than us.
Anyway, back to the story of Charlie Reade. Charlie's good deed was helping a grouchy old man and his dog. Through this man, Mr. Bowditch, Charlie finds gold (literally). A hole in Mr. Bowditch's shed leads to another place and time. Remember this is a fairy tale.
Charlie's adventures in this new land is the story. They're hair raising, but this is not a scary Stephen King book. I did not have nightmares. I found how the two worlds, above and below the ground come together, interesting. It was a different type of book for me, and Stephen King.
A board that I serve on wanted to change its meeting time. We used a program called Genius, which is a scheduling program which recommends the best time slots for meetings. There were about twenty of us. We put in the times we would be available for meetings. Genius did its computing.
The result was that there were no times that everybody could attend. But it listed some suggestions. Actually, it was me that spoiled Genius' choice. The time it picked was the time my walking group, walks. I reasoned that our meeting was only once a month; I could miss one Walk. I also could just leave the group, or end the walker earlier, or just do a short walk--once a month. Anyway, I capitulated.
That's not what I want to point out. I was thinking that if AI can figure out a way to schedule meeting times to placate everyone, why couldn't we use AI to settle world-wide problems? Every country could express their needs and ask AI to satisfy everyone.
Remember AI didn't actually satisfy all members of the board. I had to capitulate. The same probably would happen with countries. Every country would have to agree to negotiate.
Doesn't everyone desire peace? Why wouldn't every country agree to abide by the negotiated agreements they devise?
I can think of one, maybe two, reasons. One, needs are not wants, and the countries need to see that. Secondly, of course, the countries' leaders/negotiators, are human. Errare humanum est.
Ugh, another wrench in my plan. Ephesians 6:12.
My previous post explained how I found this crucifix. As I cleaned off all the dust, the corpus fell off. I guess my sins put Jesus there, why am I having such angst nailing Him back? You know what. I'm going to glue him back. I don't have those itsy-bitsy nails, anyway.
Why don't I just leave Jesus off the cross and keep it that way--a cross. I think it's because I need a reminder just how much Jesus loved me. He loves me enough to suffer for me. Thank you, Jesus, for loving me!
This morning, I knocked over my hairbrush. I need my hairbrush. It fell off the back of my dresser.
Picture the back of my dresser. We have lived in the house for forty-six years. I have never dusted the back of my dresser. Think what that means. Dust galore!
Since I need to brush my hair, I had to look behind my dresser and see where the hairbrush landed. As I retrieved the hairbrush, I saw my old cross. I had forgotten about it. I think it may have been my grandmother's. She had one like it. I actually have another, exactly the same. Maybe that's why I never missed it. Anyway, I retrieved it. This is what this picture depicts.
There is a corpus (body) on this cross. As I was dusting it, the corpus fell off. What now? Nail Jesus back on?
Meditate upon that thought.
"My cloistered brothers" are getting closer to the answer to "What do you expect to happen when you pray?". We are read...
