Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Anne McCaffrey

The news of the death of Anne McCaffrey at the age of 85 hit me hard. She was an author of more than 70 books and many short stories and was a wordsmith of great power to move my mind.

I discovered her quite by accident in 1992. I was on a flight home and had a late night layover in the Pittsburgh Airport. By that time I had read every book that I had taken with me on that trip. The airport stores were closed and I had hours to wait before my flight home.

I wondered the concourse and saw a tattered book abandoned on a bench.  It was "Dragonquest" by Anne McCaffrey. I do not care for dragon fantasies but I was desperate for something to read. Then I discovered that it was science fiction  set on a distant planet called Pern. Within reading three pages I was hooked on Anne McCaffrey. I now have all of her books and I love them all.

She was one of the great story tellers of our time and I will miss the expectation of waiting for her next book.

Rest in peace master story teller Anne McCaffrey!

Monday, November 21, 2011

Thanksgiving Day History

In 1863, by the way, President Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday. He decided that Thanksgiving would take place on the last Thursday of November. 


In 1939 President Roosevelt proclaimed that Thanksgiving would be held on November
23th (instead of the 30th that year) as a way to spur economic growth and extend the Christmas shopping season during the last years of the Great Depression.


Thanks to that idea we now have "black Friday" with some stores opening just before midnight on Thursday. Good grief!


Happy Thanksgiving

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Turkeys

There are two kinds of "Turkeys" and through they are related they are not much alike.

The Wild Turkey:

Ben Franklin nominated the wild turkey as our national bird because it is smart and majestic.
It is indeed an intelligent bird that knows its territory like a map. It hunts for food both seed and bugs. It can fly and sleeps in the trees. It is wary of predators and is good at hiding.

 The Domesticated Turkey:

This is a stupid bird that is known to drown in a rain by looking up and keeping its mouth open. Most of them live their whole lives in a cage being fed and cared for so that they grow fat. Humans have enhanced them so that they develop large breast, so large in fact that they can not reproduce with out human help.

They have the same brains but the wild bird uses its brain while the caged bird has no need to exercise its mind at all. The difference is impressive! Now what does that tell us about ourselves?

Learning To Pray

There are a variety of prayer formulas that are helpful for people who want to learn to pray. One is the four steps of prayer that I learned a long time ago and it works well for almost any prayer concern.

1. Praise God - Recognize in your mind and heart who you are praying to.

2. Thank God - Have an attitude of gratitude even in your most dire need.

3. Ask God - Request what  you need and even what you desire.

4. Listen for God - A quiet time of meditation listening for God before you say amen and close the prayer it vital. 

Some people who say that God never answers their prayer never take the time to listen and they miss the answers they are looking for.

May your have a rich prayer life in Praise, Thanksgiving, Asking and Listening.