THANKSGIVING

My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving, not because it reminds us of the pilgrims landing in Plymouth and after much loss of life came together in harmony with the Native American Indians shared a feast and gave thanks to God, but because I need to be grateful everyday.

Twenty-five years ago during the summer I met somebody near and dear to my heart at the time she was Kathy and I was Cathy (now we both go by Kathleen and Catherine). I left my home in suburbia and went to a state run facility that was less than ideal. I was talking to Kathy from a pay phone

and she said, I want you to do something. I was listening. Every morning, I want you to write down 5 things you are grateful for, "FIVE THINGS!!!" (If you know me personally then you also know that everyone on my floor, the floor above and below probably heard me). This was so foreign to me, I could feel my ears turning red and I probably said something like I probably can not even come up with 3. Kath said let's do the first one here on the phone, just tell me 5 things you are grateful for. I don't know what I said, I am pretty sure I made it through the list and I am sure that being sober and my cigarettes were on that first list. Why? Why did I need to write this list every day? The answer "Grateful drunks stay sober." Well, that was the point I wanted to stay sober. I think the phone call happened in September of 1985.

It was hard at first. A real struggle to come up with 5 things every day, but I was willing and soon I was writing 10 then 15 and eventually up to 20 things that I was grateful for each day. I kept up this discipline for about 2 years. I've gone through bouts of writing a gratitude lists and on occasion I still do.

When our children were small on Thanksgiving we would ask them what they would grateful for and Dan or I would write it down. Once they were able to write, we would write our own lists and then read them out loud to one another. It is so important in this life to be grateful. It has been said, "When you invite gratitude to your pity party the party disappears."

Here are some things that I am grateful for today:

That my girls get to spend some time together this week.

My son is a young man who knows how to work hard.

For my husband who has the gift of mercy (good thing for me I can be a real pill at times)

For our vehicle (we are sharing one presently)

Our newest abode in Shrewsbury and the view of the sunrise from here.

For the God who is there

For the Bible which is the Word of God

For Jesus, His grace, mercy, lovingkindness and LOVE

Being able to read and write

Being able and willing to come along side other people

There is so much more than that to be grateful for today. My heart is glad, my house is warm and life is not easy but thank God it is never boring.

I am well please to have been given the gift of knowing about the importance of gratitude and I need to get back to it. Sometimes it is really hard when life becomes hard to remember that there is always something I can find to be grateful for like the breath in my lungs.

Take a good look at your own life and acknowledge those things that cause you to pause and say, Thank you God.

When you sit down for your feast next Thursday take a few moments to express some gratitude.

The Wall came down

November 9, 1989

Don't know much about history

Today is the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin wall. My home page on my web browser is the BBC, a news organization with a more global outlook than most American news source. The picture on the home page caught my attention. At that time I didn't know very much about the difference between East and West Germany. I don't claim to know much more now 20 years later. East Germany was a communist and oppressed country, that was the extent of my knowledge. Recently I watched a film, The Lives of Others

.

It is a foreign film with subtitles. The setting was 1984 and it was an education in government activity of East Germany. The film was eye opening. It also carried the universal theme of the love of human beings for each other and the sadness of a life lacking in love. On the anniversary of this historic event, I recommend you watch the movie with your older teens. It is both moving and enlightening. And your kids will think it is much better than a textbook version of a look into the history of East/West Germany. It has real people, real drama a look into what really happened in that part of the world, not just some extracted facts, dates, and places. History is best told through a story by someone who lived through that time in history.

If you go to Google today this is the picture you will find. Sesame Street is celebrating it's 40th birthday, which puts me in the launching audience catagory. Oscar was my favorite character probably because he was both green and grouchy. I was tickle by yesterday Cookie Monster

Google. It is just fun. I love when Google dresses up their logo and when you click on it, you get more hits about the what the current art represents than there is time to read.

Here in my final week in Marlborough, any writing that I will be doing will be for my NanoWrimo novel. Since I have more readers than commenters, and some who are vocal about wanting me to write more stuff. Thank you for reading and your patience.

Foliage

This is a sampler of some of the foliage found in Massachussetts specifically, Marlborough, Northborough and Southborough. I was able to share the whole album from my Snapfish account, click on the sidebar to see the rest. Soon all the leaves will fall off and the branches will be bare as we look to another winter, but in the mean time today will be Indian Summer and we will delight in it.

The Process.....

As many of you know, the Mullaney Pilgrims have been wondering around the homeland, Massachusetts for the last 2 years. This past summer we went from a FL tag to MA license plates. After both the girls were off, I resumed house hunting. The search is not over but the packing has begun, trusting that God is indeed preparing a place for us. While going through some things I came across this bookmark that my friend Dawn gave to me years ago, it reads as follows:

"We are, quite naturally, impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages.

We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.

And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of inability and that is may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you. Your ideas mature gradually - let them grow, let them shape themselves with out undue haste. Don't try to force them on, as though you could be today what time (that is to say grace and circumstances acting on your own good will) will make you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be. Give our Lord the benefit of believing that God's hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete."

I do not believe I could have said it better myself. It was exactly what I needed to read this evening. I am looking forward to the new adventures that lie ahead. Yes, you can count on me keeping you "posted."

Fall pictures still to come......

Canopy of Colors

is a great way to describe New England in the Fall. Pictures to follow.

The First Word

Just over a year ago my daughter Grace while speaking to a group at a conference shared something that keeps coming back to me time and time again. I am pretty sure it came to her while she was at L'abri in the Netherlands. She was talking about people and when we encounter every person we ought to view them in the following way; the first word about people ought to be, "this one is created in the Image of God." It came up in conversation again, last night.

In Christendom, we often view people as sinners first who need the Lord's forgiveness offered by the shed blood of Christ. This is true. All people are sinners and we, as Christians quite regularly have this as our first word about people. Sometimes it is in a judgmental tone other times with compassion. Those thoughts can often lead to "they are on the highway to hell and they are beyond help" or "I need to share the gospel with them."

The judgmental tone needs to be left for the Only One who has a right to judge the living and the dead. And I know that I need to grow in my compassion for other people. I think part of the key to doing just that is for my first word about people to be: this one is created in the Image of God. Then I just may view the effects of The Fall i.e. sin, on this particular, man, woman or child with compassion. Knowing full well, that I am a fellow person, created in the Image of God first and that I too have been scarred by my own sin and that even though my sins have been forgiven and that I am a new Creature, I still walk around with that sin nature. I still mess up, fail, fall and yes, I sin.

Do we wish to be lovers of people? Is not the greatest commandment to love the LORD with all your heart, soul and mind? And the second, to love your neighbor as yourself? Can not the story of the Good Samaritan answer the question who is my neighbor be answer with a single word, "everyone"?

I do indeed wish to be a lover of people. I fail to love regularly but I wish to begin again and again. If I remember that we did not just simply evolve from Lucy or Ardi but that we were fashioned, yea lovingly created in the Image of God for His Glory them I just may have success from time to time as well.

What a wonderful thing to be learning this lesson from my own child who is now a young woman. I am so grateful that God gave me the gift of being the mother of Grace, Katie and Michael and that He would involve me in the creation process.

St. Francis of Assisi

The Peace Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace!

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon.

where there is discord, harmony.

where there is doubt, faith.

where there is despair, hope.

where there is darkness, light.

where there is sorrow, joy.

Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood as to understand;

to be loved as to love;

for it is in giving that we receive;

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

I first encountered this prayer in what might seem to be a strange source in 1985 in the book The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous. Although as a child we sang a song based on the prayer in church. It is a prayer that I wish to return to and keep close to me. It keeps me in third place right where I belong, with God in first and others in second.

Today October 4th the Franciscan brothers are celebrating 800 years of the order established by God through the humble servant St. Francis of Assisi who toke a vow of poverty. Franciscan rule of life is:

"To observe the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, living in obedience without anything of our own, and in chastity."

I was made aware of this and wanted to share it here on my blog.

Television Event

When I was a kid there were annual television events: once a year you could see The Wizard of Oz and The Sound of Music among others. If you missed it, you had to wait til next year, there were no VHS tapes, DVDs or Blu-rays, no YouTube or other Internet sources for your enjoyment. It also meant that it was usually a family affair. Children in feety pajamas hoping they could make it til the first commercial if they needed "to go." Parents putting aside their book or evening newspaper (there was a morning edition too in those days) to watch a classic with their family.

So I thought, are there really any television events left? Immediately, I thought about the Super Bowl, people still hold Super Bowl parties, bars and restaurants make it special too. It really is An Event. Tuesday September 11th, 2001 was a television event that most Americans watched. I was not one of them not because I didn't have a TV but I was doing something else. I became aware of the event in progress and since I was in the car I tuned into the news via radio. When I arrived at my destination there was a TV on and I witnessed the first Tower to come down, but I didn't stay. The man standing next to me freaked out. I wanted to know what was going on but I didn't want to be glued to the set. I would tune in later that day. Coverage lasted for days. I watched the President address the nation from a bed and breakfast in Queens. That's right, Queens one of the five New York City boroughs is where I was on September 20th, 2001.

As our friend Bob Dylan likes to say, "times they are a changin' " Some parents will not have their children watch the Super Bowl with them since Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction. Other parents allow their children to have their own TV's and often parents have a TV in their bedroom. We can watch classic movies anytime and almost anywhere on a laptop. We have gained so much over the years but we have lost a time, date and place for the family to get together around a television event.

*These thoughts were brought on by my latest email from Barnes and Noble. The 70th anniversary of the Wizard of Oz is out. They even have an ultimate collector's edition. It can sit on your shelf reminding those of us who remember when it was a television event or you can watch it any time with everyone or all by yourself.

TO ALL THOSE WHO ENJOY THINKING,

BEING CHALLENGED

AND WHO LIVE

IN NEW ENGLAND

OUGHT TO CONSIDER

http://www.labri.org/mass/lecture.html

FRIDAY NIGHTS IN

SOUTHBOROUGH, MA

CHECK OUT THE LINK HERE

OR ABOVE FOR TOPICS,

TIMES AND LOCATION.

I HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE.

The Highland Games 2009

My maiden name is MacDonald, I am a second generation American and my paternal grandparents were from Nova Scotia and did not refer to themselves as Canadians but as Scots.  Oddly enough this was the first time I attended the Highland Games, I have never been to Canada but I did learn Scottish Country Dancing as a kid.  

Two of my nieces and my nephew participated in the games.  The girls danced (and placed) and the fine lad piped his way to a first place finish with his band.  I would say that I am a participant of life. It was a challenge and at the same time relaxing to take it in as a spectator.  I am already thinking about next year and wondering how I can join in.  

Our arrival in the early morning met us with a chilly mountain air.  The girls were up first dancing with the wind at their backs and a young lady on the pipes.  The Highland fling is just one of the dances that they competed in wearing matching kilts.  Two of the other dances are the Sword and the Scottish Lilt.  Pipe and drums compete in grades and perform in massed bands.  The sites and sounds are just a part of the culture of these clans from Scotland.  

At some point I ran off to get a progr'm.  Half way through the day I wrote the following that probably best describes my reflection on my day at the games:

"Never too old to dance, to pipe, to drum, to embrace your heritage, to know the history of your people."   CM

"In Essentials UNITY, 

           In Non-Essentials LIBERTY, 

                                   In All things CHARITY."

                                                                    

                                                                                           Rupertus Meldenius 1627

In other words "they will know we are Christians by our love" and if we fail to do so, the apostle Paul reminds us, that we will eat each other alive.  This past week with Katie and the rest of the Communicators for Christ 2009 traveling team I experienced all three and above all was the LOVE.  

Thank you David, Teresa, Wendell and Devin.

Lead and Lead the Escape

Attend Christian Educators Reception 

and/or

Lead the Escape Program

Tomorrow at 330pm and 7 Respectfully

1075 Washington St. Hanover, MA

at 

Living Hope Church

www.instituteforculturalcommunicators.org

Unsubscribed

My inbox has been filled with emails that can disappear with a simple click or two. So, in an attempt to clean out the inbox, I decided that I can minimize the cleaning if there is not as many emails addressed to me.

" Take me off the list, unsubscribe, I have received this email by mistake." Mostly, I am unsubscribing to magazines, department stores which of course also have online stores, and ministries. You can ad to the list ad infinitum. Most of which I never read but had at one time or another, I will read that later. Rarely was that happening. Then I just let my inbox fill up with unread emails.

My kids would look at my number of unread emails and laugh. Now, I just have to get rid of all those ones that I have unsubscribed to and I will be on my way to dealing with the emails that I really want to read, there are probably 3 subscriptions that I read regularly, the rest is pretty much correspondences and at the moment listings for homes in Central MA.

So for my fellow self-inflicted sufferers, I say before you hit the delete button, go ahead and unsubscribe. I know you can do it. If I can do it, anybody can.

The Bread of Life

"For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love."

"For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.  For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

But I say, walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.  For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.  Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these.  I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.  And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.  Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another."

Galatians 5; 6, 13-26

English Standard Version

Up on a crisp September morning in New England

There is nothing quite like a late summer day in New England that starts out chilly or crisp (not yet cold and no where near freezing, we are 21 degrees above that) that increasingly warms up like the oven does over the course of the morning.  

Today I really need to decide on what Scripture to memorize.*  So I started to think about it and asking myself "what is it that I need in my spiritual life?" Do I need praise? gratitude? truth? the gospel? Yes to all of those things.  

There are some passages in the recent pass that I have read everyday for a matter of weeks or months but I have not committed any to memory.  And I am not too old.  Jesus said that man does not live on bread alone but on the very Word of God.  

Time to pick up my Bible, make a decision and stick with it.  

*I decided it has been way too long since I memorized any Scripture

I know you by your foot steps on the stairs

Have you ever paid attention to the sound of a person's gait?  Some sound confident, others purposeful, still others walk so softly that they are nearly right behind you before you hear them.  Then there are those with a spring in their step as if their feet are always dancing to a tune that only they can hear. I remember learning about what makes us individuals when my kids were very young and one of the things that is unique to us is our gait.  The way we walk is the signature of our feet.  [Being a little more observant these days in a place that is not my own.]  

(Blogger and GMail connected directly yet if you go to the more in your drop down menu and click "blogs" it will not connect you to your blogger account.  You have to go to "even more."  That makes about as much sense as wearing a bathing suit in a N'orEaster in the middle of Massachusetts in January.  

Now that I got that off my chest.)

The Numbers

As a number of people know (not necessarily all my readers), I have been working at my brother-in-law's store since the middle of May.  We sell Lottery tickets LOTS of them.  Scratch tickets, Mega Millions (up to $170 million this week), the Daily Number, etc.  You get the picture or you never go into that kind of establishment or if you do, you totally ignore it and you have no idea what in the world I am talking about, regardless, just stay with me.  

On Tuesday, my daughter's birthday, I had the urge to play the numbers.  It was more about the numbers than the winning money.  For the first time I saw this angle from the customers point of view.  The month's numbers are all written up on the Lottery calendar made specifically for that purpose.  Two of the regulars were discussing the pattern of the month and suddenly it hit me.  For some it IS about trying to win money and for others, it is about actually playing the numbers.  Some of our brains are just wired to think about numbers and patterns.  Recently, my friend Carol has cracked up over my ability to remember people's birthdays, dates of where I have lived (17 moves in 6 years) and world and personal events that have happened.  (However, if you ask me about my 75 or so passwords for the Internet and accounts I have and I will have to go to my book)  I enjoy numbers and it is probably why I create so many passwords instead of using a small variation of one.  It is just the way my Creator wired me.  I didn't play any numbers and I never really have had the desire before this, but I started thinking about the numbers in Grace's birthday.  I don't remember my room number in the hospital (oops) but I know the exact time she was born, the day of the week, the fact that it was raining, how old I was.  Sometimes I have said or had the urge to say when a number arises, say a total on my grocery bill is 19.66, my thought is "maybe I should play that number," but I never do.

If you asked me what is the worse thing about working at the store: hands down, having to sell lottery tickets, but a lot of the regular customers are lottery customers.  It is important to be courteous, even when they come back to the counter for the 11th time to buy 2 more of the same scratch ticket that they bought 2 at a time from the same book of tickets the previous 10 times.  It requires patience.  And in my growing in patience with the people, I have in someway started to look at the game from there side of the counter.  It is hard to hate an activity and still serve the participants of it with love.  First hand, I see how the hatred can slip across the line to look like hating "those" customers.  They are high maintenance for sure, but they are people first, image bearers of God.  With each passing day, I see how much mercy I need and that same measure of mercy we need to extend to the people who come across our path.    Do any of us deserve that mercy?  No, but we all need it.

Doing my best to finish this blog before 10:17 on the 16 of August in this 95 degree heat in the summer of 2009. 

Written in the hand of one Grace Mullaney

(the following I found while finishing going through Grace's things to make sure she had everything she needs for the next 4 months or so)

Perhaps this was something that Grace was going to speak about at Masters 2009 since it has a lunch schedule for Masters on the same piece of paper.

"teacher - authority

leader - quiet strength

mentor - challenger

servant - see here . . .

friend - encourage me

my privilege . . . honor"

Grace was launched from the nest in 2007 and now Katie has followed this summer.   What a blessing to have children walking in the truth.

July 19th, 2009

Today I stopped by to visit my dad while I was in Boston.  We got onto the topic of my brother-in-law Billy's store Endicott Variety which is located in Dedham, MA.  It so happens that the Bank that Billy uses, Dedham Savings Bank use to be Norfolk Savings and Trust the very location that my dad worked at back in the early 60's.  

The story he told was one of his advancing from assistant manager to manager but the theme to this particular story was the delight my dad took in the work.  I will do my best  to recount it to you perhaps I can get him to read it and he could help me with anything I missed.  

Back in those days the bank was using an accounting system, IBM 403 (I believe).  My dad was given the opportunity to upgrade the entire system to the 407.  The program(software) had to work on the incoming system(hardware).  It is my understanding that my dad worked on the program and was able to go into the Boston IBM office to test out the program before the system arrived (My dad said he is pretty sure you can't do that anymore).  the conversion took about a 1/4 (3 months) to complete.

One of the VPs kept a close eye on overtime paid each quarter.  My dad's department had $2600 of overtime during the quarter that he did the conversion.   He called my dad looking for an explanation.  "Well," my dad said, "$2400 of that was paid to me."  

"What for?" the boss asked.  

"Converting the accounting system from the 403 to the 407." 

 "Oh yes, how could I forget - a terrific job and someone else in the office said no one could have done a better job."

As a result my dad was promoted to manager with a pay raise.  

There was more to the story and perhaps I left out my dad's favorite part but the most important thing I got out of the story was that my dad loved what he was doing and the fact that I have been working in Dedham and frequenting Dedham Savings Bank which was one of my dad's old haunts, prompted a flood of memories for him.  I am grateful to have been there to listen and my dad enjoyed telling me the story.  

A link to the history of IBM Accounting Machine

http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history/402.html