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Sunday, January 13, 2013

The Grasshopper

Posted on 6:13 AM by Unknown
My hydrotherapy did not get off to the best of starts.  After I had toiled up the steps and down the steps and found myself in the hot pool - which is lovely - I asked the young physio which part of Oz he came from.

"The best part.  New Zealand."  he said.

Ooops. Anyway, we talked about our travels in NZ - how we (the Captain and me) considered retiring there at one time (to South Island) - and did some exercises.  I was longing to swim, and while Young Master NZ had his back turned doing some notes, I attempted a quick swim, but I forgot that he had attached a float to my foot, and the subsequent floundering attracted his attention and he set me some more exercises.

I feel in a lot of pain, but at least I have had some exercise.

As I toiled along the road to the Kingdom Hall this morning, I had to think of that beautiful poetic evocation of old age in Ecclesiastes.

"Remember, now, your Grand Creator in the days of your young manhood, before the calamitous days proceed to come, or the years have arrived when you will say: “I have no delight in them”;  before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars grow dark, and the clouds have returned, afterward the downpour;  in the day when the keepers of the house tremble, and the men of vital energy have bent themselves, and the grinding women have quit working because they have become few, and the ladies seeing at the windows have found it dark;  and the doors onto the street have been closed, when the sound of the grinding mill becomes low, and one gets up at the sound of a bird, and all the daughters of song sound low.  Also, they have become afraid merely at what is high, and there are terrors in the way. And the almond tree carries blossoms, and the grasshopper drags itself along, and the caper berry bursts, because man is walking to his long-lasting house and the wailers have marched around in the street;  before the silver cord is removed, and the golden bowl gets crushed, and the jar at the spring is broken, and the waterwheel for the cistern has been crushed.  Then the dust returns to the earth just as it happened to be and the spirit itself returns to the [true] God who gave it."

The grasshopper dragged itself along to the Kingdom Hall this morning.  And I was reminded of my Creator, and the hope that we can live forever, in the restored earthly Paradise.

Jackie is back!  Although only for a couple of weeks and she is off on her travels again.  We had a home-cooked (by Cooks) green chicken curry, followed by salted caramel ice-cream - which, if I am to go by the cookery programmes on the telly, is the trendy ice-cream. It was also from Cooks - and very good too.  We also had a lovely egg custard dessert from Lidls.  The only thing I cooked were some cheese straws for nibbles to start us off.
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Friday, January 11, 2013

A Mystery Solved

Posted on 2:14 AM by Unknown
Bohemian Waxwings, Bombycilla garrulus
The waxwings are back in town!

The current issue of the Awake magazine has solved a problem for me. I have been wondering why I am on a cancer medication.   I didn't realise until it was the cancer nurse who turned up to supervise my first injection and sit with me afterwards. I never thought to ask him why.

Is there something they haven't told me?

However, in an interview, Dr.Paola Chiozzi (a molecular biologist) says, speaking of the body's highly controlled and complex programme of cell death: "Some studies indicate that when cells fail to die as they should, rheumatoid arthritis or cancer may result. On the other hand, when cells die before they should, it could cause Parkinson's disease or Alzheimer's disease."
("Awake!", January 2013,pp.6,7)

There is the connection. And it is a chilling one. But, if correct, it may indicate the area of genetic damage that affected me, my mother, my granny and who knows how many of my forebears.

She speaks of her study of the complex mechanisms of cellular biology, and says: "The process is so well-designed that it's absolutely awe-inspiring."

She could see, clearly, not only that the body is beautifully designed - as the Psalmist says: "in a fear-inspiring way, I am wonderfully made" - but also that it was made to last forever.  Why doesn't it?

Anyway, if you want to read her story, how she found out, then please accept copies of the current magazines when they are offered to you at the door.  Or go to the Society's website: http://bit.ly/ScMeUV

The butterfly paperwork for December arrived yesterday, and I did all the computer work, but am stymied when it comes to sending out the membership packages as I haven't to enough supplies. Mark o' the Waxwings is calling in with some more supplies next week.

My own fault. I took my eye off the ball. Frustrating though as I like to get them done, dusted and sent out asap.
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Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Lord Fifthgear

Posted on 12:26 AM by Unknown
If I ever meet the inventor of the fifth gear - Sir Edmund Fifthgear perhaps? - it will be a test of my new Christian personality.  I herkyjerked the car out on one magazine route call yesterday, plus a trip to the shops.

It was a sad call, as my householder, a lovely guy who had taken early retirement, has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer.  What to say, beyond how sorry I am, and not to give up hope.   I did say a little about what the Bible has to say about death.  There is nothing more comforting and more reassuring. It tells us that death is a dreamless sleep, held close in "the everlasting arms",  with a wonderful awakening at the other end.

He and his wife are coping with it in a calm commonsense way.  They are selling their house, as she does not want to be left alone in a large house, and are looking for a suitable flat.  I said that we are very happy with our decision to move into a flat at retirement.  They have looked at our block, but noted that they rarely come up for sale.

I also did some shopping.  And have started on the paper mountain - lots of things to reply to. Two letters done yesterday (Kathryn, and the Broomhill KH).  And Captain Butterfly has parcelled up a camera for Gabi.

He is off on his woodland work this morning, clearing rides for butterflies.  So I am hoping to hitch up a sledge to my butterfly team and have them drive me off to the post office with his parcel.
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Sunday, January 6, 2013

Going Home

Posted on 11:04 AM by Unknown
Our talk at the Hall this morning was especially lovely, and twice the speaker referred to us being on the brink of going back home.  We were always meant to live in Paradise, and very soon the restoration of the earth to the Paradise it was always meant to be will begin.

I must get back out on the doors. Sadly, today, gettting myself to the meeting and back, plus making us a supper, is just about all I have managed to do.  Everything hurts and I feel too shaky to drive very much.

I am still a bit herky jerky in The Geranium.  It has a fifth gear - technology which throws me a bit. What is it for? And am I in third?  Or am I in fifth?

I don't think I have ever quite mastered the physics of why we can't just have one gear and keep it simple.  And that would not have surprised my old Physics Teacher. Although given that the laws of physics seemed to repeal themselves in the Convent School laboratory, perhaps it wasn't completely my fault I was so hopeless at science.

"Now watch girls as I drop this apple and we will see Newton's law...  oh, well" (pulls apple down from ceiling) "write in your notebooks that it fell to the floor."

I have been asked if I can write a poem - a longish one - on the subject of Homeland/Motherland.  I haven't written any poems for years, so its an interesting challenge.  The impulse that lead me to write poetry has gone, so something else need to inspire me. IF I succeed it will appear here.

You have been warned.
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Friday, January 4, 2013

Calendars, as previewed

Posted on 5:59 AM by Unknown
January's butterfly calendar has a portrait of a Brimstone.  Here we see the exquisite work of our Grand Creator, Jehovah of armies.  And also the work of an excellent photographer, in Captain Butterfly himself.

Had I taken that photo, my thumb or the lens cap would have featured strongly and the butterfly would have been missing its head.

The 2013 Jehovah's Witness calendar for January and February says this:

""To him there were given rulership and dignity and kingdom" - Daniel 7:14

During Jesus Christ's 1,000 year reign, he will undo all the harm caused by the Devil. At the same time, Jesus will ensure that the entire earth is transformed into a paradise home for his human subjects. - Luke 23:43

For family discussion:
Name some of  "the works of the devil" that the Son of God will break up. (1 John 3:8)  What Kingdom blessings do you look forward to?"

The works of the devil. It was Satan who brought death into the world when he persuaded our first parents to cut themselves off from their Creator, their Source of life.  So, as the Bible promises, once the works of the devil are broken up,  "death will be no more".  And, therefore, I look forward so much to seeing my parents again, as the resurrection of the dead progresses.  And my granny.  I never thanked her for the wonderful world of Nabbs Cottage.

The Bible tells us that "many of those asleep in the ground of dust will wake up" - and that there will be a resurrection of both "the righteous and the unrighteous".

And I long for the time when nature is no longer "red in tooth and claw with ravine" - when all the earthly creation is at peace, as it was in the Garden of Eden.
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Thursday, January 3, 2013

Thoughts about Calendars

Posted on 2:08 PM by Unknown
Our new calendars - Captain Butterfly's Butterflies of 2012 - and the JW one - are now in situ, and I wondered, given that the JW calendar is (of course) a teaching one, if I shouldn't put it in my blog every two months.  Think think

But first, I am trying to think what I did today and yesterday...   Mark O' the Waxwings came over for tea and biscuits yesterday afternoon - and this morning, I went for yet another blood test.  One day, as I crawl into the surgery for my millionth test, they will look all triumphant and say they have diagnosed me at last.  It will turn out that I am severely anaemic...

Then we shopped.  At Sainsburys. Did a massive restock. And I made yesterday's quorn mince into a shepherds pie.  We had it with spaghetti yesterday.   It was quite nice.  Tonight was the meeting at the Kingdom Hall.  Lovely to see everyone again.  And I needed that teaching.  Kind young Isaac was waiting at the bottom of the path and helped me in.


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Tuesday, January 1, 2013

How I became a Twitcher's wife.

Posted on 7:25 AM by Unknown
"The waxwings are in town!"    Captain B and his cameras hurtled out the door and weren't seen again till lunchtime.  "I'll take you out to lunch" he said.  "Where?"  "The waxwings are now in Lewes!"   Cameras, hurtle, door, drive drive, through a beautiful winter day, the first day of the new year, screech to halt at roadside where a mob of twitchers are assembled with cameras and binoculars, and (later) lunch at The Giant's Rest.

I did my studying in the car, while watching the birds come and go and pose prettily.

Our Bible verse for 2013 is Joshua 1:9:  "Be courageous and strong... Jehovah your God is with you."

We will need to be courageous and strong and trust in Jehovah with all our hearts as this old system on the earth comes to its end.


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