Pandora evenings

My new favorite thing on these cold and dark evenings is to close the blinds, build a fire and light a big fat candle for the middle of the dinner table. Then I put out whatever we are cooking or reheating for dinner and put on Pandora on my laptop....a website that lets you create your own "radio stations" custom designed with the music, artists and styles you like. You can sign up free at: http://www.pandora.com/

I am so enjoying listening to songs I have not heard for years and finding new artists that are similar to those I already like. Now I prepare dinner to James Taylor, Carol King, The Carpenters, Olivia Newton John, Roberta Flack, even Huey Lewis and the News! Rod's Pandora is more instrumental with stations like jazz, piano, classical, blue grass and some strange techno stuff that he likes. I will say that his music works better for dinner; mine after dinner.



We also have some good praise music like Hillsong but I am enjoying catching up with some of my old favorites right now. It's nice to have music in the house again, I had given up trying to find music I liked on the radio years ago. What a difference to do the things we do on these cold winter evenings with great music to lift our spirits and add some energy.

This is New Years Eve and we passed on parties to enjoy a relaxing evening with our books and music...maybe we will watch an old movie or play a game before midnight but I know I will be in bed soon after if not before...these days I look forward to waking up rested and enjoying my first cup of coffee on New Years Day more than being out in the cold and on the roads...although last year we did have fun playing games at a party.

Having the kids home for Christmas, including new grandbaby Micah kept me too busy to blog.
How is your post holiday time going? How are you coping with the dark evenings and cold?
Maybe you need one of these Micah guys to cheer you up? :)

Butcher paper thanks

Remember back before Thanksgiving I was musing over my desire to bring the focus of Thanksgiving back to our blessings?
Well, I tried one of the ideas I had read....a poster, butcher paper, on the stairway closet door with a marker attached. Family and guests were invited to write in things throughout the holiday...one I always forget is really quite long...4 days.

The hard part was finding pictures...even of food which I was trying to downplay. I commissioned new son in law Dan to draw the church at the bottom.
It became obvious that Thanksgiving has become a "blip" between Halloween and Christmas, mostly ignored by our commercial world...even Christian publications were strangely vacant of Thanksgiving pictures!

Interesting that we downplay a holiday about being thankful so we get on with a holiday about getting more things? hmmm.

Anyway, it was a good focus and as you can see it caused some good direction of thought.
I hope others will try it next year....maybe put it in the back of your 2007 calendar for Nov 2008?

"When there is no hope, one must invent hope"?

The above drawing is by Ala, Age 13

Like many other children, Ala witnessed conflict between rebel groups and the Janjaweed. This drawing depicts a rebel soldier first shot in the arm, then executed by gunshots to the groin. Ali, a teacher in a refugee camp, said the rebels are killed this way to emasculate them. "They [the Janjaweed] know what they are doing," he said. "They are doing it with purpose."

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Many blog ideas have been circling my head the last few weeks, (oh and I did get my clean clothes all put away...I don't regret giving that time to ME). I want to talk about the effect of winter light deprivation and the depression and lack of energy, and some of the cool things people are doing to combat that...maybe in January I will get to it.

What got me out of my chair and here at the computer today however was what I just read in the paper today. It was in the TV section about the HBO special tonight on the African Sudanese crisis of Darfur that George Clooney will narrate on HBO called "Sand and Sorrow".

It chronicles the genocide of Arabic nomad Africans against non arabic black farmers. These arabs want to drive all the non arabs out and torture, killing innocent women and children , and other heinous acts seem to be perfectly ok from their viewpoint...maybe even fun? I cannot watch this as we do not have cable but a few things caught my eye in the article.

*400,000 people have died in Darfur...met by a giant international shrug

(If this many have died, imagine how many are maimed and/or refugees?)

*The media's response in 2006: ABC: 18 minutes, NBC: 5 minutes, CBS 3 minutes

(Martha Stewart got 130 minutes)

*Researchers who have gone to Africa to document this took paper, crayons, and pencils to "keep the children occupied" while they interviewed adults. The results were graphic drawings of what the children had been through and witnessed...many of these drawings now are on display on a national tour here in the US.

The quote in my title is by a french philosopher Albert Camus...and is used in the article in the context that something must be done to get the world past this passive "yawn" attitude towards such suffering.

I have heard that some evangelical churches are encouraging their congregations to limit Christmas spending on self and family this year and instead as a church, take on projects in places like Africa to provide life sustaining relief such as paying for a well to be drilled for a village without clean water to drink.

We have already taken steps to limit Christmas spending this year and I have already written a check to help orphans in this area of Africa, http://www.lahash.net/ ,but I can and want to do more.

Maybe the question to ask ourselves this Christmas is , "What would Jesus do?"