Meet some of the members of the Dexter Orchestra group. They ran a car wash to raise money to send to the Katrina victims. Way to go guys! (I love this town!) 

My girls, summer of 2005 

Asleep in the Light Part II

I recently wrote a post called Asleep. I confess that the word image I used was not an original one. My sister-in-law gave me a CD by Keith Green that had the song "Asleep in the Light" on it, and I realized just how closely my post followed this song. I am laughing at myself, because I hadn't made the connection on a visceral level until now, even though the words have been in my soul for a long while. Have you ever memmorized a song that was beyond your maturity level and then gone back to that song and still been able to sing it word for word - but this time the lights go on? That's what this was for me.

Well, the reason I wanted to make this post was because I found the words to that Keith Green song on the internet. I am posting them here and hope that I am not violating any copywrite laws.



Asleep in the Light

Do you see, do you see
All the people sinking down
Don’t you care, don’t you care
Are you gonna let them drown

How can you be do numb
Not to care if they come
You close your eyes
And pretend the job’s done

Oh bless me lore, bless me lord
You know it’s all I ever hear
No one aches, no one hurts
No one even sheds one tear

But he cries, he weeps, he bleeds
And he cares for you needs
And you just lay back
And keep soaking it in
Oh can’t you see it’s such a sin

’cause he brings people to you door
And you turn them away
As you smile and say
God bless you, be at peace
And all heaven just weeps
’cause jesus came to you door
You’ve left him out on the streets

Open up open up
And give yourself away
You see the need, you hear the cries
So how can you delay

God’s calling and you’re the one
But like jonah you run
He’s told you to speak
But you keep holding it in
Of can’t you see it’s such a sin

The world is sleeping in the dark
That the church just can’t fight
’cause it’s asleep in the light
How can you be so dead
When you’ve been so well fed
Jesus rose from the grave
And you, you can’t even get out of bed

Oh, jesus rose from the dead
Come on get out of your bed

How can you be so numb
Not to care if they come
You close your eyes
And pretend the job’s done
You close your eyes
And pretend the job’s done

Don’t close your eyes
Don’t pretend the jobs done
Come away, come away, come away with me my love
Come away, come away, come away with me my love


~Keith Green

A Present and a Commitment

TriMo Begins September 1st 2005 / Ends November 31st 2005
1,590/50,000 Words Written

Things to do today (yeah right… I know it won’t all get done.)


Home: Sort through my inbox (always!) This weekend we will be doing fall cleanup. Cleaning out closets, switching from summer to winter clothes, taking down the pool, that sort of thing.

Ritt’s End LLC: I have the new license application on hand. So I will be filling in all those blanks, plus I have a huge check to write to the Red Cross for Steve and Janet’s CPR and First Aid course, my yearly CPR refresher class and my daughters Babysitter’s course (where she too will gain her CPR and First Aid certification along with things geared toward caring for kids.

Church: Base Camp (evening meetings): FirstWork needs to be compiled on Monday/Tuesday and it would be good to finish the outline for the first several weeks in our “Extreme Faith” unit. Mostly, we will be talking about the drastic ways in which the world is from the way Christ leads us to be. Let me apologize now, much of what I sort through for creating this curriculum will spill out here in my journal. I never was very good with chewing with my mouth closed.

Notebored: The weekend is the time to read, crit and vote for the Wednesday challenge on the NoteBored, and the writing period for Liberty Hall’s 90 minute flash happens during the weekend too. Check out his site at www.munsil.net to see if you have what it takes to write a story in 90 minutes!


Current Book(s) I am reading for fun: I finished Drums of Autumn and am on to the next in the series, The Fiery Cross, by Diana Gabaldon.

Books (s) I am learning from: Shattered Dreams – Larry Crab, A Young Woman after God’s Own Heart – Elizabeth George. Oh yeah, my friend Lindsey gave me the book “No Plot? No Problem!” by Chris Baty, the founder of the National Novel Writing Month, affectionately known as “NaNoWriMo.” I am one chapter into that.

Movies(s) I have rented or bought: Hmmm, nothing new recently.

Sunday, September 04, 2005
A Present and a Commitment

I am so excited! Not only did I get a book from my friend Lindsey in the mail, but another friend, Karen, gave me a book of poems that she wrote. I will be returning it, as it’s the only copy she has, but I am so very thrilled at being able to read it.

Poetry is such a personal thing, a view into the soul. This book, in many ways is the distillation of her life, the footsteps of her past. There fore, I am deeply honored. If you want to get to know her, she has just started a blog of her own and here is her url: http://spaces.msn.com/members/awritersramblings/ I highly recommend getting to know her. Granted, her blog is new, but this lady has good things to say.


On other news, I made a commitment to ride in next years DALMAC with Bill and a handful of other people. It’s exciting to know that I will be in training next year to do this bigger-than-life thing that I might never have done on my own. I am looking forward to the training, but slightly afraid of going. The route is here on this map. (I am taking the shorter, green route which is 277 miles.)

So, by this time next year I will be going on this long bike ride and hopefully in better shape than I have been in since I started having babies. Today I am excited about it. Will someone please remind me that I am supposed to be excited when I begin the training rides and my butt is saddle sore? Remind me how I am on my way to having a lean body when my muscles cramp? *grin* To be honest, I am thrilled at the idea of having hubbie to myself with no kids and wind in my hair for four days. I have always supported him in biking and encouraged him to go on the DALMAC in 2003, which he did. This will be as good for him as it will be for me.

The Moment Of Crisis

TriMo Begins September 1st 2005 / Ends November 31st 2005
875/50,000 Words Written

Things to do today (yeah right… I know it won’t all get done.)


Home: Sort through my inbox (always!) Today I have begun the TriMo novel I am working on with Tim. I am excited! Also today I have my friend Lindsey coming to visit. She moved recently and so visits from her will be an “on purpose” thing and so are treasured!

Ritt’s End LLC: Write, stuff and mail a fall-season parent letter. This happens to coincide with the dreaded billing that I am working on today. I did get all my fliers delivered like I wanted, so that’s good.

Church: Base Camp (evening meetings): Today I need to get FirstWork out… It’s days late because of the influx of kids for the daycare. Business is good, but it wrecks havoc on all the other plates I spin!

Notebored: Today is Friday, that means I close down the writing period for this weeks challenge and set up the polls, fess up thread and guessing frenzy threads. Monday I’ll close the polls and set up a “reveal thyself” thread where we find out who wrote what story.

Writers Hideout E-Zine: Okay, I admit that nothing has happened yet beyond my mock up and crazy idea for how to market it. But, I am afraid that if I don’t put it out there in front of me, I will loose it in the shuffle. Plus, when I am working on it, I have a place to record progress.

Current Book(s) I am reading for fun: I finished Drums of Autumn and am on to the next in the series, The Fiery Cross, by Diana Gabaldon.

Books (s) I am learning from: Shattered Dreams – Larry Crab, A Young Woman after God’s Own Heart – Elizabeth George. Shattered Dreams is the book I am journaling through, where I read a chapter and then spend my quiet times internalizing the truths and letting the Spirit lead me through the Word for confirmation and prayer in applying those principals. A Young Woman After God’s Own Heart is the book that my daughter and I are working through in my discipleship time with her. I am LOVING the time with her alone, without any of the other girls competing for my attention.

Movies(s) I have rented or bought: Hmmm, nothing new recently.

Friday, September 02, 2005

The Moment Of Crisis

So many changes since I last wrote! Where to start? Well, Ritt’s End is growing. I will be applying for a new license for up to 12 children, and hiring on help. Business is that good these days. I have two people coming to interview for placing their kids in my care. Yikes! One of them is today at 2:30, Do I have anything clean in my closet to wear for that “first impression” that doesn’t have spit up or food stains? Most of my wardrobe these days is sweatpants and t-shirts…. Ah well, I will stress about that at 2:00 and not now. I also have a few people on the line to interview for the position of helping me as an aid.

The Raeburns, have already agreed to help (One will help me while the other one home schools their kids and they’ll trade off.) They have both quit their other jobs so as to launch into their own ministry. They are Christian clowns who do balloons and VBS’s all over the nation. (And I get them for my daycare until they are able to transition to ministry full time!!!!) You can read up about them at www.RedNoseMinistries.com. If you or your organization has any questions about booking them, you can contact them through their site.

So, the business is growing, and that’s good news. On the “every day side of things…I am glad that I got billing done yesterday. Today, I will stuff envelopes and get them in the mail.

Yesterday my girls found out about the terrible circumstances in New Orleans. It was very hard for them. I will tell you though, as a mother, I am terribly proud of my girls. They understood the enormity of the situation and their very first response was to respond with tenderness. No, I don’t enjoy seeing them cry or be hurt, but it goes deeper than that. Since we don’t have television programming in our house (only videos that we buy borrow or rent) my girls aren’t hardened by the media’s attempt to dramatize real tragedies or trivialize casual violence. They responded with tender hearts, and out of that response, prayer and help was the first thing that came out of them, well after the tears that is. So, we are deciding how we can best help as a family. I have already donated to the Red Cross, but it seems to me that there is more we can do.

It makes me grateful for the life that I have, but wary too. It’s all an illusion, you know, these things we cling to so tightly. None of those things has the ability give back. No matter how busy my schedule is (and like most Americans, I pack it) I fight to remember that these things around me, and the seeming importance of what I do, will pass away. They aught not be the thing that defines me or where I put my trust.

I know that something like this can happen here, just as easily as it did there. Because I have focused so strongly on building relationships, relationships with my God and with neighbor, even if the house and everything in it is gone, I won’t have to worry that I spent my life’s energy on something that fire, flood, quake or war can destroy. I will grieve it if it goes, sure, but the temptation in my everyday life is to be swayed by what I see, what gets waived under my nose to draw me away from what is most important… that being, my God and the people I come in contact with every day.

I realize that this may sound as though I am being self inflated, and I will take that risk, but the heart of what I am trying to get at is that for those who have poured their lives into their houses, their jobs, their soccer clubs, their gyms… and now it’s gone… what are they to do?

A bible verse comes to mind, let me go look it up and make sure I am using it in the right context before I type in here. Yes, here it is:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy, He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1st Peter 1:3-9

Because I have taken this stand with Christ, I view terrible circumstances “grief in all kinds of trials” as the passage says, within a context of opportunities to deepen my faith. There is a saying “That which does not kill us, shall surely make us stronger” it’s the old fight or flight moment, the moment of crisis where you must dig in deeper and cling all the tighter to your faith or run from that belief because it’s let you down in some way. God, “allowing” such a thing in your life.

But what about those who don’t know Jesus? The ones who have never been tenderly held in his hand while they weep, or defended from the enemy simply because they have taken his protection? What are they to do? Who do they go to in their crisis? What do they do when all they have worked for is in ruins at their feet? Do they run faster from God? Do they cling to him as the only anchor that makes sense in the flood?

These are the ones I pray for, the survivors who must navigate the road of life after the waters have destroyed all the landmarks and bridges. Those who have lost loved ones and now must go on alone. My heart breaks and I weep for those who shake their fist at God for not protecting them from disaster when they never appealed to Him for protection by bending to His authority in their life. I pray that as they meet this crisis, and they view so close at hand how fragile this earthly life is, that the immortal God, will draw them into his embrace. For the rain falls on the just and the unjust. God, who did not spare his son from mortal death, is far more concerned with the state of our spirits. Yes, he allows terrible things to happen, becoming a follower is not protection from sickness or death. I cry for those who are lost. But more, I am deeply grieved for those who have met this crisis of faith and held even tighter to the anger. It bolts the doors of their spirit from the God who wants so badly to bring them into relationship and comfort them. The bible says “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the father except through me.”(John 11:25) Heaven, the’ goal of our faith’ as the passage above says, is reached through Him alone. I see Jesus sitting at the outside door of their hearts, knocking, pleading with them not to be angry any more but to come into discussion with Him.

So much pain. So much loss. I have spent the morning I should have been writing in my TriMo novel, unable to concentrate on anything but the strong need to pray for that segment of people who are dealing with what was left from Hurricane Katrina.

I am not usually this preachy. I don’t mean to chase people off with my viewpoints, but my heart is broken and this is what leaks out. The purpose of pain and loss is that it acts as a refiner’s fire.

For the thousands of people who shiver tonight for lack of heat, here is my prayer. I pray that the questions on mortality, the “why’s” that are raised, will be a fire that is kindled within them. That their crisis moment will be hedged from the enemy so that while those inner walls are down and they are vulnerable, questioning God, He will answer them in their deep and hungry places. I pray that those who have survived will find the courage to stand and talk to him and not run in blind anger. I pray for the children, and homeless, the defenseless ones who are now drifting on the currents of charity. And last of all, I pray for me and my family, that we would be your hands, and that you would show us how to act. Amen.

Well, my children are now down and getting breakfast, the daycare kids are here and asking for some breakfast too. It’s time to set aside my quiet time of the morning and move on with my day. My heart will linger here though as I go through the motions.

Thank you, reader, for sticking with me as I verbalized my thoughts. I realize that you may not share my faith, I pray you were not offended or felt as though I were trying to proselytize you. But I am grateful if you stayed long enough to let me share my heart’s prayer.

Nesting

TriMo Begins September 1st 2005 / Ends November 31st 2005
0/50,000 Words Written

Things to do today (yeah right… I know it won’t all get done.)
Home: Sort through my inbox (always!) Open Journal page and sort out my day over coffee. Pay bills, catch up the transactions into QuickBooks. Move desk and bookshelf downstairs. Three loads of laundry. Clean off the piles on my desk and stacked beside it. If I am really efficient, I will even sort my “to file pile.” Yay! Today I don’t have to drive the tutoring loop!

Ritt’s End LLC: Catch up daycare time log. Record payments received. Make deposit. Write, stuff and mail a fall-season parent letter. Deliver stack of fliers to schools and the gym across the street.

Church: Base Camp (evening meetings): Contact volunteers for the Jr. High group and create a new schedule for 2005-2006 school year of events and meetings. Base Camp (Sunday school): Outline suggestions /ideas for curriculum units to cover for the year. FirstWork (The church prayer and praise e-mail) Get the snail mail version to the mail box, since Tuesday the e-mail version went out.
Notebored: Catch up on the crits for the Polish Challenge over at NoteBored, Sort out who is moderating the Wednesday Challenge.

Writers Hideout E-Zine: Okay, I admit that nothing has happened yet beyond my mock up and crazy idea for how to market it. But, I am afraid that if I don’t put it out there in front of me, I will loose it in the shuffle. Plus, when I am working on it, I have a place to record progress.

Current Book(s) I am reading for fun: Drums of Autumn – Diana Gabaldon, Mummy – Ann Rice

Books (s) I am learning from: Shattered Dreams – Larry Crab, A Young Woman after God’s Own Heart – Elizabeth George

Movies(s) I have rented or bought: Oceans Eleven, National Treasure

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

I am in a strange kind of mood today. The closest I can relate it to, is when I was pregnant and about do deliver “any day.” It’s a nesting thing.

Bill and I have been rearranging the house to make more room for the daycare. We’ve been and turning the basement more into our living room, swapping out den furniture and the bigger TV, and the stereo cabinet for more floor space upstairs. The hope is that soon I will hire on help for the daycare and have room for up to 12 children.

Two days ago, the girls split up roommates and rooms, there is now 3 in one room and the eldest now has her very own room for the first time in her nearly 12 years. Soon I will be exchanging what clothes they have in their dressers for the winter season and the next size up. It’s amazing how long their legs grew while they were playing in shorts all summer! I see “the routine” looming, changes to the house reflect it.


To whatever degree, this journal is my effort at structuring my inner self to reflect those changes too. I don’t want to just make this public to-do list. But I do think it’s fun to have a place to record where my day goes so that it doesn’t slip through my fingers. I am easily distracted; I am hoping this will help.

Ah well, I am off to switch the load of laundry that is buzzing at me, fold that “now-done” load, put away the dishes that are drying on the sink, finish paying bills and putting stamps on the snail-mail FirstWork.

Then I am off to make sure we have a Wednesday Challenge set up, and read and crit the Polish Challenge stories.

I realize that absolutely none of the photos in my vacation tour showed up. :-( I did get them to work in the mirrored thread over on my website http://rittinger.admiralxp.com/index.php If you are still curious, register there and you will see the whole shabang. In the meantime, this is a picture of the sunset off of the beach at the Naval Recreation Center in Solomon Islands in Maryland. I love this sunset... ahhhh  

A Day in My Life

Have you ever felt like the world was moving too fast for you to keep up? I have so many things circling out there in a nebulous loop around my head that I just can’t get them to sit still long enough to prioritize.

School is starting soon. The hardest thing for me here is that I must fight my own dislike of structure and schedules and begin waking up much earlier to get the rest of my family moving. During the summer, the daycare kids come later and I wake up when ever Bill is stumbling into the shower. Now, I must start the day running and much earlier than this night owl likes to get up. Crazy as it sounds – this intangible element is harder for me to adjust to than the frisking at the door for backpacks and the routine of doing homework.

Base Camp (The Jr. high morning Sunday school and evening meetings) Here is where I am really worried. We lost two of our volunteer helpers. This leaves Bill and I as the only ones working with the middle school youth. Bill, is a tax man and is unavailable from Jan. thru April. Can I keep the youthgroup, Daycare and home routine going alone? I remember how stressed I was last year. I really need another person who is detail oriented to help with the event details. I can do the teaching. I am passionate about communicating Christ to these kids. I am smitten with them and with the age group, nothing is more satisfying to me than sharing the life changing work of Christ. But to be very honest, I stink at details. I need help in hammering out fun events. Please pray that God would rise up someone to meet this need.

Ritt’s End (My Daycare business)

The NoteBored (Peer Review Writing Workshop) We are growing! My laid back approach to most things work in a one on one environment. It’s not so good when dealing with nearly 100 members. So we are discussing ways in which to organize and structure the growth. I have a few new moderators and I hope that the level of administration needed will not overburden them or me.

In the meantime, I am also:

Collaborating with a friend to write a longer story, each using the others strengths to build a better story and learn from each other. We’ve spent a great deal of time establishing the world building, basic plot and characters. We will soon begin the writing and it will coincide with the NoteBored’s version of the National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo. The NoteBored group will be starting their novels in September and finish alongside NaNoWriMo contestants in November. We are calling it NoteBored’s “TriMo”, and it’s the first one we are attempting.

There is still the endless loop for taking my daughters to tutoring twice a week. Remind me sometime to share with you all what I have learned about dyslexia.

I am also drawing up designs and gathering ideas for a revamp on my website.

I am toying around with starting my own web e-zine, called the Writers Hideout, and tying it in with a marketing idea that has a print version component that is unique in approach. I might talk about that in another entry sometime, but I am still doing the research on copy write protection and the legal ramifications of this venture. Okay, I am also waiting for my self-confidence to catch up with my bold imagination. I’ve had a friend try to kick me into gear after I spilled this grand idea, and so far I sit safely in the shadows.

My head is spinning

One thing I know: no matter how thin I spread myself, I would rather do this, be growing, than sit in front of the TV, and feel myself slowly rot.

There is a day in my life. Spitting it out here has helped me to hold it still long enough to look at it all at once. Thanks for letting me bend your ear.

Asleep.

I am asleep in the light.

I am a Christian. I asked Christ into my life when I was 15 years old. The first miracle I ever witnessed was watching my father, who had been chained to drugs, alcohol and his own selfish pursuits transform overnight into a man free of them. My first glimpse of who God really was, was as a life changer.

I grew in my knowledge and faith, finding myself soaking up the word and his love, his soul quenching love for me when I was so broken and afraid. My spirit had become as a parched earth, cracked and hard. I had come from an abusive background, physical and sexual abuse. I had killed the hope of there being the fairytale kind love. It hurt too much to let it sit there mocking me. So I used others to get my own needs met. I assessed a room quickly to see who wanted what out of me, and if I was willing to give it or not. I manipulated in order to make sure that I was never again left without control or power.

Then, that day long ago when I was 15, I felt the first stirrings of God in the form of his Spirit. I throbbed with the fear that He was real, and feared just as equally that He was in fact real. For if there were such a thing as God, if His Spirit and His Son truly existed outside of the fairy tale that I had placed him in, then I would either have to act on it, or turn away from it entirely; for this love, this passion was larger than the tide that my life drifted in. I was hurting, half dead with soul malnourishment, flashbacks, fear of never finding anyone who would love me -- or worse, letting someone inside that wall I’d erected to keep myself safe. Love, would make me vulnerable. I was starving inside my own prison.

The thing is, My understanding of God came in parts. My hunger pulled me from the cage, starved and mangled, twisted with need and greedy for those things that satisfy I approached God for the first time. He bathed me in light, and I was ashamed of all those things that I had armored myself with. My scheming nature was exposed, and in the light of that warmth, I saw it for what it was. I saw how I had used people and reacted out of my own pain, hurting those around me. I sobbed, feeling hopeless, for those very coping skills that had kept me sane while in abuse, were no longer needed in my present state.

How to make myself clean?

How to undo what years of pain had wrought?

Why would he call me? What could I possibly have to offer Him? I was despicable and empty.

Just when I didn’t think I could stand being in that light any longer, I saw the way. I saw how it wasn’t my righteousness or usefulness but Jesus’s that made the difference. He saw things in me that I didn’t. He saw what my life would look like when that dry cracked ground was saturated with Christ. He saw the soil of my soul, with righteousness seeded into it. He could see the future, a possible future. And with trembling steps, I began my walk of faith.

Over twenty years later, I am a mother of five. I have seen the illustration of what it might be like to be called the bride of Christ when I submit to the authority and care of my husband. I have glimpsed as through a bubbled and warped glass, the nature of his love for me when I became a mother myself. He established the dynamics and relationships that we weave our lives in and out of every day, the heavenly blueprint, mirrored here. I only needed to experience it from that viewpoint to understand it on that level.

Now, I am going to church and training my children to love him too. We go to worship him and my spirit responds to him through song. I serve the body through leading the jr. high youth of our congregation. My passion for people, my dedication to Him has not stopped, though I have often been sidetracked by the busyness of life.

But still, I find that I cling to old and familiar ways. My heart has been forever changed, my life transformed and my passion is still hot, however, we live in America in a culture that is radically different from the way God calls us to live move and be. The abundant life that he calls us to is not one that satisfies our desire for more things, to get ahead in the world or to succeed. His call is not about our own happiness, making a comfortable and safe nest of our lives built by what we can own or make payments upon.

We are asleep in our safe little worlds where no one gets to see each others pain or mess. I once had an inner wall that protected me from the world, and it shielded me from others viewing my strangeness and my inner deformities. I have found that there is another wall, one I have not been able to find a way out of yet that prevents us from truly living that radical and extreme love that Christ lived out. This wall is covered in pleasure, and exudes a lassitude that invites us one and all to… sleep. Hours of our time pulsates to this wall of pleasure. Even those of us who are serious about our love for the Lord, we throb, to the metronome of it by asking that God make our friends, who’s lives are messy with cancer, divorce, mental illness become once again smooth and calm. That the distresses would be removed and the path made clear so that they would be comfortable.

I wonder at what Jesus would say to that.

So now I tremble yet again. This time, not at the inner wall that hid me, but at this outer wall of American culture and comfort where so many others and me have been napping. And I am afraid. I am afraid that I will feel this today, and tomorrow I will fall back to sleep.

In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus walked a ways out from his disciples and begged them to pray. Pray for me, he said, while he prayed for the cup to pass and for the courage to remain there. He knew the soldiers were coming, he ahd sent Judas off into the night himself, setting those wheels into motion. And now he prayed for it to pass or for another way to be made, like Abraham when the cry of the ram in the thicket released him from that terrible duty.

I am still saved, I am still one of his disciples crying out for others to see what His deep love can do, how it can transform a life… but like Peter, James and John, there in the garden, I sleep.

There is a parable of the ten virgins, warning them to keep their lamps ready, to be able to meet the Bridegroom. Our culture is different today than it was when that metaphor was used to the Israelites. A man pledged to a woman in a binding that was as strong as marriage, but the wedding itself, the ceremony and banquet didn’t happen until he had built his house and could provide for his bride and new family. Her job while he was gone, was to remain pure, assemble the necessities for the household, and keep oil in her lamp (to be ready) for the call to arise and join him, the actual wedding day could come at any time. She must be ready when he calls.

The story tells of how only half of the brides who were called were ready, and how even now the call goes out that the bridegroom comes.

*sigh*

Today I tremble. Today I feel hollowed out for the vision of the radical ways in which He calls us to live, to love and to act toward one another. We are so alone inside our inner prisons and outer walls of comfort. We see this bright vision when we are in church on Sundays, we warm our hands by it, open our spirits to it in praise… but we never actually leave the doorway of salvation, we never truly… wake up.

Naval Rec Ctr and Washington DC

It’s been a while since I last posted anything. We went on vacation and now I have lots of fun pictures to share.

We had a family reunion too, but I won’t share the majority of those pictures here. It just doesn’t seem fair to post pictures of other people on the web without their permission. So I won’t. But there were some really cool things to see in DC and they were definitely picture worthy!

First of all, was the drive in.




We took the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The mountains were beautiful! It surprised me how much of the countryside was undeveloped, miles and miles of forested land that made my ears pop with the up and down elevation. When we came to the top of one of those mountains and were afforded the view of the valley below, it just took my breath away. I would have pictures, except we didn’t stop and the view between the trees didn’t last long enough on any given stretch for me to get my camera booted up and ready to shoot.

We went through some tunnels.




And then we turned a corner and there was Pittsburgh! The homes were built into the mountainsides, and bridges were everywhere! There must have been some construction going on as well, for nearly everywhere I looked there were cranes. Really huge ones!



Then when we arrived at the reunion site it was late in the evening. Solomon Islands, Naval Recreation Center in Maryland, was wonderful! They had a beach, a pool complex that actually contained a baby pool a wading pool, a lap pool and diving pool; with a slide in both the lap and diving pools. On the grounds they also had put-put, paddleboat rentals, playgrounds and camping, both tent and RV. We who were there for the reunion however, stayed in the lodges. They were duplex cabins that had three rooms each; an open living, dining and kitchen, a bathroom and a bedroom that had a set of bunks and a double bed (plus the couch in the living room was a hide a bed). Each cabin came with comforts like: an iron, microwave, coffeemaker dishes and utensils, a TV and a DVD player. I could have stayed a month there and still not run out of interesting things to do. All the pictures of the cabins I have though, have other people in them. So, you will have to just take my word for how beautiful they were.

The beach … the beach is a source of wonderful stories and pictures to share with you though! The first night we got there it was near dusk. We’d been in the car for what seemed like forever and the weather was just hot. After check in and a mad dash into bathing suits, and attempted to get into the pool. Our luck, they closed at 7:00 and it was only 10 minutes till that time. Undaunted we descended the small hill path to the shore. There weren’t many people around, but the few that were all stood at the waters edge looking into the lagoon. Apparently, a stingray had wandered into the swimming area and wasn’t frightened off by the splashing. On top of that, there was an infestation of jellyfish! Most of us waded in about knee deep, and some refused to enter. We Michigan folk were used to our fresh water lakes that didn’t have things that want to bite or sting you waiting under the waves. It was depressing. We felt like wimps at first, but then a little boy got stung by a jellyfish and well, it was easy to just say no after that.

I couldn’t get a picture of the ray, but I did get a couple of the jellyfish.









And here is gross one of a horseshoe crab that washed ashore and fed the flies.




Here is a picture of some wildlife that flew in and floated on the lagoon.



This one will be my next desktop wallpaper. The sunset was so beautiful; I just wanted to breathe its orange light right into my soul.





During the reunion, we had a slide show, a silent auction and lots of time for conversations. It was over too quickly, the hugs and pictures cementing into spirit and film this slice of time. We took many upon many family photos, told stories and wished time could stand still for a while longer.

Then we drove the couple hours back toward DC from Maryland. We rented a hotel, dropped our stuff and got on the Metro. This train went both underground and above. Sometimes it went deep enough to make my ears pop! About half of the stops were above ground though, so I don’t think it was a true subway. In anycase, there are several “lines” all color coded and intersecting at various points. There is also a tram that can take you on tour spots and deliver you from one end of the city, Metro entrances as well, to the other. So between the two, it’s entirely possible to walk all of DC. We were only able to hit a few spots and in the heat, it was enough!

Here is a picture of the interior of the Metro.





My picture tour starts from the “Mall” area where I was able to get great shots of the Capitol, White House and Washington Monuments, all from a distance.

Here they are:













Our first up-close view was of the WWII Memorial. This is an impressive structure of sculptures, fountains and inscriptions on the walls. I was whelmed, and not just by the heat.

It’s roughly in an oval shape with two towers that anchor either end and a fountain between.





One says Atlantic




And the other says Pacific.




All along the edges are columns that contain the names of each of the states. I like this picture because it was framed to get a closer picture of the columns and read what’s inscribed on them, but it had the Washington Monument and a flag also, balancing the picture.




It was the hottest part of the day. We’d just trekked from the metro station to this memorial and I was cowering in a sliver of shade and dearly blessed the architect that had fashioned benches along the edges. Bill and three of the girls went to the edge of the fountain and slipped their feet into the water. He told me later that while he had them there, and the power of the place held him in its thrall, he explained how freedom felt from tyranny by using the heat of the day and the cool of the water as his metaphor.




After I had recovered a little, I noticed that all along the edges of this monument, there were quotes that had been etched into the stone. Being a lover of words the quotes held a power over me that eclipsed the architecture. Here is a picture of but one of them.





From there, we went to the Lincoln Memorial. Another long trek, but this time, someone had thoughtfully planted a double row of trees along the edge of the reflecting pond with a pathway between. While still about halfway there I took a picture, knowing that once I was closer I would not be able to frame the entire building.





And here is the statue of the great man himself.





Carved into the pedestal that he sits on is this inscription. It reads: “In this temple as in the hearts of the people for whom he saved the union the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined forever.”





For me, the coolest part was reading the Gettysburg Address out loud from the inscription along the side of the walls, and hear my voice echo words from our past.





Jessica thought it was pretty cool too. That or maybe she was just tired.





Here is another very cool picture that I took there. The reflecting pool, doing it’s job of reflecting. 





Then it was time to move on. The next closest memorial was the Vietnam Memorial. There was a retaining wall triangular in nature made up of panels of dark stone each etched with the names of those died or are missing still onto the wall. At the bottom of some of those panels were flowers, pictures and mementos that people had left behind. One person even left a medal of honor there at the base. Where the WWII memorial shouted it’s victory with statues and statements of stone. The Vietnam Memorial whispered the names of those who paid their lives. This was not a temple, it was a wailing wall.




When we left there, we went off for the final long walk of the day to The White House. It was a walk made much longer by the fact that we were carrying children by this time. The heat had sapped our energy and the kids held up so well for so long, but it was near evening and they had just had it. We finally made it though, and the view was beautiful.

Here it is




I have this little quirk I’ve noticed in my photography. I like to get pictures of the girls with Bill from behind. It measures their growth, it cements the moment from their viewpoint in terms of what they are looking at, but it also shows the kids my viewpoint as I am often the caboose to Bill’s engine. This is how I remember them, hand in hand with their daddy who walks them through life. It is precious to me. This is Bill with Megan on the left, and Jessica on the right.





That was the end of our tour for the day. We went the next day to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.

The building and even inside was simply too big to get good pictures. By that I mean compositions that held enough of one thing to be able to identify what it was you were looking at. It was ginormous! They had the first airplane, Apollo capsules, missiles, an Imax theater and flight simulators, along with exhibits that were very hands on and kid friendly.

Here are a few pictures





I think my favorite exhibit was one in which a working model plane is suspend from wires over a bank of fans. The station had all the working levers, pedals and joystick of a plane that allowed you to control the pitch, roll and yaw of flight.





I can’t resist putting this one in as well, even though it’s not in focus I love the lighting, the wind blowing through Megan’s hair and Kimberly looking on.




Next came the National Archives Museum. If you have ever seen National Treasure, the building on the inside is not quite like the movie portrays. But I am ahead of myself! Here is a picture of the outside of the building. It is so large, that this picture is taken from across the street and halfway down the block.





Here is a picture of the carving at the peak of the roofline.





On either side of the massive stairs is a statue on a pedestal. Around the left side of the building (looking on) and under the stairs there is the tourist entrance. Where you are filed through a metal detector, just like at the airport. Here is a picture of the statue and the inscription, which reads: “The heritage of the past is the seed that brings forth the harvest of the future”





We had been standing in the bright sunshine and oppressive heat, waiting in line to get into the building. Once inside, it was blessedly cool and dim. I swear I could have plopped right down on the floor and snored until the next day. Then the realization hit me of just how dim it really was! There were hundreds of us lined up inside the foyer with signs posted that no flash photography was allowed. The ceiling of the entrance was lit up, and I snapped a picture of all of us in the crowded foyer waiting to view the documents.





That was the best picture I could get in the building. The movie National Treasure made it look much brighter than it really was and I won’t even bothering posting the other pictures I took. For one the light was too low, but also because the documents were so very faded, that it was difficult to read them, even with my nose pressed to the glass. The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and a number of other documents were on display there. There was a definite aura of reverence in the room, with paintings in banners along the edges of the wall, marble columns and brass accents. I hate to compare it to a mausoleum, since the heart of our country, the documents that structure it are housed there, but that is the feeling I left with. I think the wall paintings may have come out, I will post those pictures too but I am sorry of you aren’t able to see it well. I haven’t done any retouching yet.








Our last stop for the day was at Arlington National Cemetary. So off we went to the nearest Metro station and descended the escalator. By this time we were pros at the Metro and while the kids thought it was fun on the first day to try to stand up and hold the rails, by this time our feet and backs hurt and we would gladly have sat down. It was rush hour of a weekday though and they were all crammed. Here is a pic of our group looking down the tracks to see the train coming.





We’d lost our stamina, but not our sense of humor. Here is a picture of the train from the outside:





At Arlington there are rows upon rows of headstones in perfect formation. I discovered that Robert E. Lee originally owned the property and two of our Presidents are buried there, John Kennedy and Robert Taft. There are memorials scattered throughout to honor generals and distinguished people. The most impressive part of it to me, was to see the hillside ripple with headstones as far as the eye could see.





And here, if you look between the branches of the tree, you can see the hillside beyond it as it too is spotted with headstones.





Then while there, we were in time to catch the changing of the guard for the unknown soldier. The “Old Guard” watches over these three tombs night and day, rain or shine and has kept continual vigil since the practice began. They take exactly 21 steps in front of it. Pause for 21 seconds and turns to take another 21 steps. Every half hour the Guard changes and does so with a ceremony. This picture is of the commander who comes out to explain the ceremony and the significance of the number 21.






Then he walks back in that peculiar ceremonial gait to greet the new guard. There they go through an arms inspection.





After the new guard meets his approval, he marches him up to trade places with the previous guard and both of them walk back into the interior of the amphitheater that the ceremony takes place in. This whole time, no one in the audience speaks.





It was very moving for me, the air practically crackled with the crispness of the event. It had the feeling of being very intense and precise in purpose and reverence. When the reality that this ceremony has happens 48 times a day, every single day and has done so for decades… I was awed. For those of us who have lived for some of those decades the weight of the years hung in the air and provided a depth to the service – a layer that shimmered as in shadow. We ask a lot of our men and woman who risk their lives for their country. But we also honor them.

Here is the marker: “Here rests in honored glory an American Soldier known but to God.”




And that, my friends was our tour of the Capitol. I will never forget it.

He that lives upon hope will die fasting

He that lives upon hope will die fasting. ~ Benjamin Franklin

That is the trigger for this weeks challenge at The NoteBored. Do you write? Are you interested to see what kind of story you can come up with in three days that is under one thousand words? Register at http://rittinger.admiralxp.com/index.php and look for the “Challenge!” forum to play along.