Dr pepper ballpark left field (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

This afternoon over on Walker Street white Morning Glories shouted out. Then this and that happened and I bought a Chattanooga Times Free Press and Cleveland Daily Banner. Let’s talk some smack.

One of my brothers the other day said he heard somebody talkin’ smack on TV and he didn’t like it. Since I didn’t know what smack talk is, I looked it up. Smack talk can be good or bad, depending on which on-line dictionary you’d like to check. (You probably already knew). The best definition (to me anyway) of smack talk was at Wiktionary, which states simply that “smack talk” is “to talk aggressively or boisterously.”

Smack talk can be bothersome unless it’s giving somebody a positive shout-out, but now we have to tolerate (barely) that mix-up of religion and politics that’s all up in our faces like flatulence. (Now I’m going to have to check my Archives and edit things, because some smack talk might be in there somewhere).

Here’s what…do any of us really need to talk a lotta smack, when lo and behold, there’s already a randy newspaper or a restless nation near you, already talkin’ some smack right up in our faces, right this minute. Religion and politics is a poison drug and we don’t need newspapers and nations smackin’ our arms, lookin’ for a vein to shoot us up.

Why do those religious newspapers and those political churches want to control us? Why do religious newspapers and political churches want to turn us into political and religious junkies? It’s worse during an Election Year, right here in 2012. Jesus said not to mix religion and politics. “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God‘s. Now don’t be talkin’ some smack and tellin’ us Jesus meant something else. My Mama told me “the main thing is the plain thing and the plain thing is the main thing.” Jesus also said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” So let’s rock with that.

You should have seen those Morning Glories, which I didn’t even know could bloom in the afternoon. I thought those were just morning flowers. If I were a flower, I’d be a night flower, but let’s not hold anything against those Morning Glories. They looked like happy white trumpets, lifting up their voices with the green leaf orchestra in the background.

When I went over to buy those newspapers (Hello, my name is Brook and I am a news junkie), I also bought a little pack of Frito-Lay Dorito brand jalapeno-flavored crackers and a Dr. Pepper to make my taste buds sizzle a little. Also, sometimes I buy things because they’re affordable and cute, like this 12.5 ounce Dr. Pepper.

So here I sit, with those crackers enjoyed. That Dr. Pepper spewed because I’d let it roll around in my Dollar General Store “Save Time Save Money Save Green” bag. I let that Dr. Pepper spew out its frustration and everything calmed down and the mess is cleaned up.

If I think of it, I might go check on those Morning Glories tonight, just to see if they’re closed. Here are a couple more things. Today I didn’t wear my pierced-ear earrings like I’ve worn just about every single day since I was 20-something years old. When you get old, it’s like you’re finishing a game of strip poker and you’re losin’ and things start falling down or falling off or you take them off or throw them away. Unless we’re throwing each other away, we have to believe less is more, don’t we?

So please oblige and be patient with me while I get older. I’ll try to go trim my Archives and take some of the smack out, maybe:)

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Christmas tree at Yonge-Dundas Square, Toronto, Canada. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Over at Hobby Lobby, the lit-up Christmas trees are already out. Autumn and Halloween things are over there too. But my family is like tangled Christmas lights all strung out, not on drugs.

It’s hard. Holidays are hard maybe every year, with all the family gathered, or trying to gather, pretending to be blissfully happy in all the hub-bub. I do remember some truly happy holidays, especially Christmas. Sometimes the happiness is real, sometimes not. Either way, the weather of Christmas usually fits, if we get winter.

I love winter, if it’s real, without those untimely flowers in January. Winter is cool and cold and offers its strange bare warmth. If people can’t find warmth, it’s easy enough and feels good to offer warmth like a soft blanket or warm socks or just company, just standing in the cold with somebody while somebody smokes a cigarette, one hand in the other pocket.

Waffle House is always open, for people who don’t have anywhere to go, or don’t want to go, to be with family at Christmastime. Waffle House is a ministry on holidays. At Waffle House, at least one cook or one waitress will be there to greet you, usually more. They might not like it, but they show up for us.

If you’re lonely or broken or broke for the holidays, you know what it means to feel like tangled Christmas lights all strung out because of the holiday blues, which can turn as dark as indigo. One woman whose family is breaking up told me she found some Christmas lights in the basement, so tangled she was thinking of throwing them away. How will her Christmas be this year? Maybe she’ll go to Florida. She loves Florida.

One year I bought a little fiber-optic Christmas tree and all you had to do was plug it up and waves of gentle colors glowed into the night. I loved turning off the house lights, staring at that peaceful tree, which never made a fuss of itself. Maybe I’ll buy another one of those little trees with the waves of colors, like deep pink and deep blue and maybe deep green. My favorite on Christmas trees is all blue, wintry blue.

Today Ms. Linda said it’s almost time to put up the Thanksgiving tree at the center. She said it would be okay to put on autumn-colored lights, like gold and orange. Then she said it would be time for the Christmas lights. Maybe I can find all blue lights, the miniature twinkling kind.

The other night I heard a preacher talk about when the Virgin Mary became pregnant with the Christ child, about how this teenage girl, who had never known a man, was told by the angel Gabriel that she would bear a child by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit would overshadow her and she would bring forth Jesus, sent to save His people from sin. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son….” When Mary heard this news, she said, “Let it be done….”

Mary consented to having her whole life tangled up so God could give you and me and the whole world a Savior and a Blessed, Thankful and Holy Christmas. Just thinking about it calms me down. When I think about Jesus, it helps. He knows about tangled lights and Christmas. He’ll be there with us. If we ask, He will absorb all that sorrow into Himself. He is able to bless us with His Glorious and Joyful and Peaceful Presence. He promised to keep in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Him. It’s hard to believe Christmas is on the way.

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Psalm 48:10 (Photo credit: [Share the Word])

We heard about Psalm 88 yesterday at a downtown church here in Cleveland, Tennessee. The lady associate pastor said Psalm 88 is a lamenting Psalm, a “Psalm of Lost Causes.” Psalm 88, she said, is about gloom, despair and agony, like the old song from Hee-Haw. The choir sang that Hee-Haw chorus from yesteryear and it sounded good for right now, lifting spirits.

Sometimes it’s not possible to post daily happy notes on Facebook. But yesterday’s message said: “With God in the Pit.” The pastor explained that Psalm 88 shows us we can give honest voice to our pain. The New International Version Bible points out that Psalm 88 is “a maskil (a teaching Psalm) of Heman the Ezrahite.” The NIV notes add that the Psalm “recalls the fact that although godly persons live lives of unremitting trouble (Psalm 73:14), they can still grasp the hope that God is Savior.” The late Charles Haddon Spurgeon, “the prince of preachers,” wrote that Heman the Ezrahite was known for wisdom and “had done business on the great waters of soul trouble.”

The pastor yesterday mentioned Job and Joseph and Hannah and Naomi, who went through bitter times to better times. These people felt terrible soul pain and cried out the sorrow, dealing with things as hurtful as infertility and treachery and death and family troubles.

It’s that lady’s message and not mine, so it’s also yours. She reminded that suffering disorients us. Sometimes we feel out of sorts and out of sync and might misplace those prescription eyeglasses and then forget to wash that pair of slacks and forget how to feel good.

It’s one thing after another sometimes and we have to pray and work and wait for the crooked places to be made straight again, like the Bible says God can make happen.

The pastor’s message was so good and helpful. She said there is “faith even in the complaints” and that those complaints are “best shared in community.”

So there we were together and here we are together. Thank you again for being here.

“When our vision is clouded by tears,” the pastor said, “it’s hard to see the road.”

This morning a funny little thing happened when Ms. Linda and I were trying to get the food out for everybody. Our bottoms brushed up against each other and we laughed a little and thought of that dance “The Bump.” Remember “The Bump?” It’s fun to bump into each other that way, on the up and up and all.

We’re all in this together, bumping right along. Somehow, we’ll make it. Take it easy now. That kind thoughtful man in the crisp lavender shirt advised:)

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Giant Redwoods at Humboldt 2 (Photo credit: benjcohen)

Yesterday I took down pieces about the poor, afraid of not pleasing somebody, ashamed and guilty for telling about the plight of the poor, which has become my own. Afraid to make anybody out there feel less than cheery because I use Cable TV as solace and somebody else paid for it.

But then last night, for one thing, I read about the Giant Redwoods in the late John Steinbeck‘s book “Travels With Charley: In Search of America.” Overnight and over-morning, I changed my mind and decided not to write for followers anymore. So, if you are following and want to leave my little place here, feel free and hopefully, no hard feelings. But I must write about plights and blights and sometimes brights and I must write what’s real, what’s real to me now.

The late Mr. Steinbeck wrote of the Giant Redwoods as “ambassadors from another time.” I wish you could read the whole book “Travels with Charley” because the writing is so magnificent, like Giant Redwoods.

“The feeling they produce,” the late Mr. Steinbeck wrote of the Trees, “is not transferable. From them comes silence and awe.”

It seems almost irreverent to even repeat it, about the Trees and Mr. Steinbeck, whose writing inspires my awe and joy and wonder.

So maybe someday I’ll get to meet Mr. Steinbeck’s “ambassadors from another time” and feel the silent mystery of grandeur in those glorious trees, and in that man’s glorious writing, which is also an ambassador from the past.

The late Mr. Steinbeck’s courage gives me courage to keep writing about the plights and blights of the poor, which is what I’m learning about now. On-line, at http://www.gradesaver.com, I learned that Steinbeck attended Stanford University, but did not finish. Instead, he chose to work manual labor jobs while he wrote stories and books. His first “successful” story was “Tortilla Flat,” about Mexican-Americans. He understood the stories he wrote because he lived them and knew the people through experience with them.

If I can find a manual labor job I can work, I’ll take it, if my old feet can take it. Meanwhile, I hope to keep writing about the struggle of looking for work, of living hard in hard times. If you don’t like my place here, I’m not writing for you anyway, correct?

But, if you read about Steinbeck’s Giant Redwoods and you feel something mysterious and awestruck and quiet, we can be here peacefully together. We can be real. Not always cheery, not always dreary, but real. I hope you stay a while. If not, that’s okay too.

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Scarlet Macaw at a rescue centre in Panama. They try to release the injured or left behind animals into the wild if possible. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Earlier I wrote something else and the day before too. Both entries were so complaining and depressing, too depressing and complaining to leave there. I took those entries away. But, please forgive me for being so complaining and depressing. (I hope you will:)

I don’t expect too much of a pass, but I’m really sorry for being such a self-centered bummer way too often. You’ve been so patient! *Thank you.*

Here’s something hopefully more cheery, with a smile:)

For some reason later I thought of a day this summer, over at the parking lot near Goodwill and Dollar Store and down the road a bit here in Cleveland, Tennessee. That day I never expected to see a Scarlet Macaw in the parking lot. It was a woman’s pet bird. She was looking for directions on her way to Michigan to see her grown children.  The bird almost got out of her car at a stop light. But she finally got the bird back in the car by holding out some kind of perch for the bird. They were on their way.

Here’s something else fun and wonderful. It’s the first line of Bruce Barcot’s book called “The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw: One Woman’s Fight to Save the World’s Most Beautiful Bird.” The line is: “The scarlet macaw looks like a creature dreamed up by Dr. Seuss.”

At Switchzoo.com, it says the Scarlet Macaw is one of 17 species of the Macaw, one of the largest neo-tropical birds. The Macaw, it was explained, has wide strong wings and can fly up to 35 miles per hour. “It’s one of the most beautiful members of the parrot family,” the website says.

Yes, that scarlet color is one of the most beautiful colors I’ve ever seen, possibly the most beautiful bird. But there are so many beautiful birds. Enjoy!

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Cheddar cheese from Bravo Farms, Traver, California (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

These Frito-Lay cheddar cheese crackers sure are good right here in the Lee University library in Cleveland, Tennessee. It says on the little clear and brick-colored wrapper that these are officially “Cheddar Cheese Flavored Filling on GOLDEN TOAST (trademark sign) Crackers.” Also, the cheddar cheese is “Cheetos” brand and it feels kinda happy (or not miserable) just to eat these buttery-cheesy crackers this afternoon.

It would be easy enough to dwell on the little bad things, in addition to the deeply painful tragedies we endure. Sometimes we can’t help it. It can all add up fast. But I won’t make a long list of annoying little things, but you get it. You know what it feels like when somebody annoys you or hurts your feelings or worries you first thing in the morning or last thing at night. What did that woman mean, waving me out of the way in the post office parking lot, like I’d done something wrong? But maybe it was me, not paying attention. Good grief!

Here are some good things to think about. I’ve already mentioned those good crackers, which I already finished and threw the wrapper in the garbage can. Garbage cans are good. It’s good to have a place where we can throw our junk and not litter up the whole world any worse than we already have.

By the way, the other day I was driving behind a big garbage truck and traffic was slowed down behind the truck while two men ran back and forth, from the street to the truck, running and hefting and lifting those heavy and full plastic garbage cans while everybody was looking and waiting. I wanted to get out of the car and thank those men for the work they do, because it’s hard work—and probably harder when people are waitin’ and starin’ behind the truck. There must be a way to thank people who do the “dirty jobs,” like that show on television.

It wears me out just to think about it, about all the dirty jobs and all the other jobs, about how to be grateful and say or feel “thank you” for all the people doing the dirty jobs and all other jobs that help keep the world up and running or limping along.

We’re all inter-connected and inter-dependent and just like President Obama said, we didn’t build anything all by ourselves. Somebody thought of cheddar cheese and buttery crackers and putting those two things together and somebody had to make the good crackers and make the good cheddar cheese and somebody else had to take care of the dairy cows and somebody else drove that dairy cow’s milk to market and so on and so forth.

It won’t work to dance with the devil and none of us should even try, for our own good and everybody else’s. But whenever possible, it soothes the soul to be glad for the good little things people do or that we take for granted. Have you ever thought about being glad about the goodness of a bath or a shampoo? This morning a woman who’s in her 70s told me she cannot take a whole bath or full shower, but only sponge baths. She has health problems and said the water sometimes causes her to have seizures. She lives alone, with nobody to help her. But this woman was so glad today, because she had been able to wash her hair without having a seizure. Her hair looked so soft and pretty. Imagine that. Imagine having to risk your life just to wash your hair.

It’s amazing, isn’t it? It’s amazing.

So, if nothing else (and sometimes that’s all there is) we can try to be kind to the next person and so on and so forth, as much as it’s up to us. Right now we all live together here on Earth. We can’t think of and thank each other enough. But it’s still possible, when it’s safe and sane, to fill out the flavor for somebody somewhere. That way, hope springs eternal in the human heart. I hope we all have a good Monday night and hope to see you Tuesday!

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Honey (Photo credit: quisnovus)

Who can think straight? Too many things happen all at once sometimes. I’ve already been to the bank three times tryin’ to keep things straight.

This morning Ms. Linda and I talked about how Jesus said “the poor you will always have with you,” but Ms. Linda asked Jesus if she could please not be one of them. We get it. Who wants to be nickeled-and-dimed all over the place when you barely have two pennies to rub together.

It was going to cost around $21 to order checks, so I told the nice bank tellers to hold off on that order. They really are nice ladies and gentlemen over at my bank, which is where I store what God provides day-by-day until I pass it out to other people as much as I have to or can. That favorite preacher I told you about, Joseph Prince, said milk and honey have to flow or they just sit there and go bad. It bears repeating. Let’s say Pastor Prince was talking about money too. Money has to move or it goes bad like that jar of honey Ms. Linda said she still has at her place. She said she wasn’t going to eat it. I’m glad because who knows if it would make her sick.

We know if milk sits around too long it turns solid and not in a good way or on purpose, like sweet cream butter or cool cottage cheese, to go with fresh cucumbers or delightful fruit or to make delicious lasagna. Honey is good and I used to eat those little Bit O’ Honey candies and the flavor is wonderful, but now my old teeth can’t take it. That’s another thing about the aging process. You have to search out soft foods and let your crunchy cereal melt around in the milk a little while. Crunch life while you can without hurting anybody.

Things still aren’t exactly straight today and one of my loved ones needs to go to the doctor for a check-up and other things have happened. But when I was out trying to do all that bank business and buy stamps too, I saw two or three of those Dodge Ram trucks, in different colors. I thought of the “ram in the thicket” God provided for Abraham, the Father of Faith. Sometimes you take a sign where you can find one.

Then I thought of how sometimes we don’t love our honeys like we ought to and we can’t make that honey love us back either. Like the song says, he won’t or she won’t. But somebody will love us. Somebody does love us and somebody else will love us. Let’s get that straight. Let’s have a great rest of the day! (And can you still buy Bit O’ Honey? Let’s Google that:)

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English: Nessun Dorma In a rehearsal for the Raymond Gubbay Classical Spectacular at the Manchester Evening News Arena. The tenor John Hudson sings Puccini’s Nessun Dorma from the opera Turandot, accompanied by conductor John Rigby, the Halle Orchestra and the ladies of Leeds Festival Chorus. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Last night I got to hear Nathan Pacheco sing Nessun Dorma on Georgia Public Broadcasting television. It’s too beautiful. That song is too beautiful.

Many tenors besides Pacheco have sung Nessun Dorma (None Shall Sleep) including Andrea Bocelli and the late Luciano Pavarotti. But the Nessun Dorma performance I remember most is when American soul singer Aretha Franklin sang it at the 1998 Grammy awards. Her magnificent performance gave me chills and the audience gave her a standing ovation.

Some songs are too beautiful, so beautiful it’s joy and anguish to hear them. Beth Moore the Bible teacher teaches about how God gives us joy and anguish at the same time. A lady at an alternator shop here in Cleveland, Tennessee told me about that Beth Moore Bible study of joy and anguish.

Today in Cleveland the city is fighting, among other things. The Cleveland Daily Banner headline says: “Council, tea party leader argue over apology need.” The article by David Davis says Mayor Tom Rowland and Bradley County Tea Party President Donny Harwood “became embroiled” in a 40-minute argument Monday at a meeting of the Cleveland City Council. Maybe I can catch that fight on Channel 5 later.

In the Chattanooga Times Free Press, a reporter named Judy Walton is writing about alleged “impropriety” in the 10th Judicial District. It all sounds wild and crazy. Yesterday I read in The Times about how “investigators found a partial bottle of whiskey (Jack Daniels) and packets of pseudoephedrine, which is the key ingredient in meth, in 10th Judicial District Drug Task Force agent Angie Gibson’s truck after she wrecked it August 7, 2011, in Madisonville, Tennessee.” We’ll see what happens with all that.

It’s not even night yet and already I’ve seen a Very Important Person. I got heartburn after lunch and what’s better for heartburn than ice cream? So I was sitting in my car over by Cooke’s Food Store eating ice cream and reading the newspaper, when I looked up and saw a man in a business suit holding his Droid or Android or whatever away from his ear about three or four inches. He seemed to be listening very intently and you could tell it was a business call because he was looking Very Important instead of Very Involved. People are usually animated when they’re involved but they are usually important when they are uninvolved.

So I sat there a few minutes and just ate my little $1.31 McDonald’s ice cream sundae and read a little bit more of the Banner when the VIP came out of that store with a plastic bag filled with food items. This time he had that snazzy phone about one or two inches from his ear, perpendicular! Perpendicular! What is that?!

Then I was thinking how it doesn’t work when Very Important People try to tell us they’re important with Blue Teeth and things in their ears, all hands-free and disconnected. It seems like they are putting on airs and when that happens, None Shall Sleep. I wanted to tell that businessman and his phone to get a room.

So now I’m sittin’ here tryin’ to figure out how to love people when they’re all up in the air like that. Love seems to happen on the ground and it sure can get dirty. Never try to love anybody who’s way too clean. Love gets messy.

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Last night it felt like I’d been to a fight instead of to a church. But the late great preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon said not to look at second causes, so I hope there’s a good cause behind that disagreement.

It’s complicated. The bottom line is I’m still lookin’ for a church for all nations. It’s sad to think some churches fight over things like baptism or chicken. Where’s the beef when you need it—or don’t need it? Remember those “Where’s the Beef” Wendy’s fast-food restaurant commercials? Wendy’s makes a real good fast-food hamburger and they have beef and chicken too, like McDonald’s. I love those little plain hot fudge sundaes at McDonald’s. (They have free Wi-Fi too). The little sundaes only cost about a dollar, with the vanilla ice cream (or frozen sweet milk or whatever) and the delicious hot fudge. You can taste the plain good vanilla soft ice cream and the warm good fudge that’s not too melt-y. That little McDonald’s hot fudge sundae deserves a shout-out, even without all the nuts and whipped cream, it’s real good.

When I got home I turned on T.D. Jakes and that wonderful preacher was preaching about “Save the Scraps.” Mr. Jakes said just like God used that little boy’s two fishes and five loaves of bread to feed thousands, God can use each one of us, even if we feel overlooked (or disagreed with..I added that). It was good news to hear last night from Pastor T.D Jakes.

Then I heard part of the John Ankerberg show and Dr. Hugh Ross was talking about God and dark energy and how there are 10 billion trillion stars in the universe and each one has a reason to exist and does something good for the whole universe. Dr. Ross talked about physics and galaxy clusters, which I do not understand, and he talked about what’s behind and before us and all around you and me and he said it’s God, a God Who is Personal and Who loves us.

God is El-Shaddai, the All–Sufficient One. According to http://www.el-shaddai.org, God is the All-Mighty One and Christ is All in All, as explained in Colossians 3:1. God is God and not like any other “god.” The website goes on to say Christ completely revealed the invisible God to us when Christ walked the Earth before He went back to His heavenly home. At http://www.freegrace.net, we can read about how God is also Jehovah-Jireh, The Lord Will Provide. (Although it’s scary right now). God, the site says, is “Father-Mother God.” The father of faith, Abraham, back in the Old Testament, knew God sees and God provides.

Last night I walked outside later and saw Ms. Allen, who just got home from the hospital because she had a heart attack last week. I’m not using her real name, but she’s a real person. That’s how bad the stress got, bad enough to cause a heart attack. “I had to call on the Lord to use the phone,” she said. Both hands were numb, but God made a way. We’re glad Ms. Allen’s okay. We missed seeing her out on the porch.

My downstairs neighbor was outside too. She said she’s been having trouble with her breathing, but last night they asked her to sing at church and out came a song. God provided.

Before I went inside last night, I got to see my neighbors and friends and Ms. Ella and Ms. Pat were outside too. I looked over behind me and it was dark, but a man stood in the doorway of his home with a crying baby in his arms. Their silhouette was back-lit with kitchen lights and they looked golden standing there while the man’s baby cried in the night air. I’d been to church after all. We didn’t fight. God provided.

Psalm 13:5 (Photo credit: [Share the Word])

Something uneasy happened this morning. But wait!

If you’d like to read about dealing with uneasiness, here’s a passage from Psalm 4 from the Jerusalem Bible, a Psalm of David, an evening prayer. David apparently wrote this Psalm when he was in some kind of trouble. Over time, David’s troubles included being hunted down by King Saul. If you’d like, listen to David take his fear to God: “God, guardian of my rights, You answer when I call, when I am in trouble, You come to my relief; now be good to me and hear my prayer.”

“…Know this, Yahweh works wonders for those He loves, Yahweh hears me when I call to Him.”

“In peace I lie down and fall asleep at once, since You alone, Yahweh, make me rest secure.”

Yes, Jesus loves us. Yes, Jesus loves us. Yes, Jesus loves us, for the Bible tells us so.

I hope you have a good evening. I hope to see you again Saturday, Lord willing:) Meanwhile, God’s peace to you! (That unease went away. A Psalm is solace for uneasy times).

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