Coup de Tat-- My Queen Deposed!

The beauty of the Spaniard was my only comfort, as I watched the vanquishing of my "reigning" Queen Serena! I am in Tennis agony, as it were. She has sat upon her throne, virtually unscathed, until yesterday.

A thorough spanking it was, in straight sets. It sent my good woman, though probably not dispondant, for she made a very good showing; she better get some practice sessions in, before their next meeting, which will probably be at Wimbledon.

Garbine is a wonder on the court. Her legs don't seem to have to be on the ground when she makes contact with the ball. She seems to have overcome the nervous choke that beat her, last year at Wimbledon. So the season has much to anticipate in the possible complete wall of protection from the breaking of the absolute record, which seemed totally inevitable, last year, to the unchallenged real Queen of the Modern Tennis Era!

The good thing is that the Queen may not retire this year and we may have some time, to watch her get back up on her throne, this season.

Happiest Mothers Day!

Where are my scissors?

A Soft Word Turns Away Wrath

How many times have we discussed this?  Why is it that you find it necessary to holler about stuff like where your scissors are, etc.?

A gentile North Carolina girl learns to discuss matters in a soft tone.  They indirectly touch at the emotion of the situation, without resorting to the guttural nature of hollering.  I say, they save the guttural for the tennis courts.  These are the same women who find strength in grunting at their backhand crosscourt shot.

I find this a guttural practice, myself.  Still, I can see the effectiveness of evoking an intimidation response from your opponent.  You stand there and say, is that going to be a harder ball to return?  You really do, but if it's not followed by power, it serves the opposite purpose.  It serves to create an anger and intensity that it wasn't supposed to,  at least in my heart.  The intensity that it produces is not usually an easy one to overcome.

Anyway, keep it down in the morning about your, stupid scissors. Would you?

Learning to appreciate the Bodden eccentricities

I am so glad that you asked me about our family dynamic. Mu, Ruth and her sisters and friends and my mother's life and then my sisters' love dynamic is a history that I really don't want you to forget, even if you are far from experiencing it first hand. We are always inebriated by something. I had never really thought about that aspect of our family. I have done some to keep myself from being a chemical dependent, but I still carry the family habit of overdoing it. Religion and worship are something to do and overdo and we do that too. The Bible says, "do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit..." It is as though God saw our family love experience and allowed that verse to be penned so that we could translate our love talk from alcohol to the Holy Spirit. Let the bottles on the table that we consume be the Holy Spirit. I remember walking into Aunt Ju's house and she said did you hear Larnelle's new song. We drank that bottle together and rejoiced together as though we were drunk. I wish that for you and your sisters and brothers. Don't be a distant bunch. Enter each others' lives and dance through your seasons in the Holy Spirit. Don't think that the solution to chemical inebriation is stoicism. It is Holy Spirit giddyism. I love you for listening to my story of driving Ruth's drunk self home.

I hope you didn't take our talk, last night...

as dissing motherhood?

I love getting to talk to you as a grown woman. You have a way of challenging my thinking and getting me to say things I probably would never say to anyone else. That is the joy of mother daughter discussions. I was 25 starting out as a mother. I am grateful for a wonderful church home and great husband to assist this endeavor. It still was the hardest thing I have ever done.
My sister Amy helped me to see that when you have alot of children, people think you think it is easy. They minimize what you say, if they have had a hard time, in some cases. It is not easy, in the best cases. It is difficult and takes a committed relationship and Christ's intervention at all stages, to give strength and guidance. We had some of the best!
We had some of the best preaching and instruction. We had some of the best fellowship with people of the same ambitions. We had some of the best discussions with each other about what we wanted and we still fell short.
Aging is about looking back and seeing where the resources were spent wisely and unwisely. Issues of women and men's roles and child rearing guidance was the greatest treasure anyone can ever have. We say to ourselves, where did we spend it?

For, I suffer a woman not to preach, nor to usurp authority...

Embracing the power of the womanly dominion of the spiritual warfare is a mighty thing, daughter. Don't you see how very tempting it is to snatch the scepter of authority in the church and the home from father and husband and preachers and pastors and take them unto ourselves as though they belong to us. Oh, how we moan that we weren't called to lead in such ways!

Motherhood, sisterhood and wifing are such strong responsibilities that God has called us to undertake, that He had to undergird our calling with strong prohibitions to taking up other "callings". You are called for a purpose to glorify God in your body. A woman's body, a sensitive and spiritual body for God's glory. Working and clearing and cleaning and praying and fighting the spiritual warfare, for the glory of God! We knead the words and precepts of God, deep into the souls of our near and dear and pray for the increase and like the ground we, either are fruitful in our dealings or fallow. God help us be fruitful for Christ's sake! Amen.!

Christmas 08

In defense of God's Providence!

OH! The Wall Street Journal gave me much fuel for prayer for our blinded rich society. We are blessed with so much tangible and so little spiritual. I am grateful for the musings of a blind soul seeking the real message of Christmas in the pile of sentiment that is heaped upon us in the season. We are expected to enter in, mindless or spiritless and let sentiment lead us to the "Christmas Fare". It will come upon you, they tell us. One moment you have no Christmas Spirit and then, it zaps you. Does it? Did it zap Dickens, to write such a telling story as a Christmas Carol?

I love Dickens. I think the Holy Spirit moved him to write it, so that makes me bias in my debate of such a subject, nevertheless I retort.

It is true that the miserly and the extravagant duke it out in this season. The good steward sheiks and the giving tree advocates throw jabs at each other in this season using the season as a reason for their tackling the extremities. That is not what Dickens was talking about in "Carol". He was individualizing the sentiments for us and tackling them one at a time. Scrooge was certainly in a seared state and unaware of his souls desperate condition. Grief had made him thus. He had lost his true love. He had no family close to keep him attached to sentiment. He had lost his business partner who, at least had agreed with him on the benefit of ignoring the season, which may have brought about heart twinges that were too much to bear.

Giving was the fruit of a spiritual transformation that had taken place. Whose air are you breathing? To whom are you indebted, as the entire community is to your lending practices? God came to him with these questions. The spirits and the ghost of Marley were the truths of the shocking reality that life is certainly brief. He had a chance to see his eternal demise as swiftly approaching and have a change of heart. God arrested his soul and placed him in the shackles of joy, which are no shackles at all, but the greatest liberty in any realm. His griefs had bound him lifelong and were about to wrestle him into eternity in such a state and God, used the prayers of his nation and community and the testimony of a poor, content employee to convict him of his empty estate. "Oh, God, don't let that be me that they are talking about!"Scrooge implored. We all are with him in this ghastly desire. To have no one to mourn your loss, at last is not the worst state.

As we go about our Christmas traditions, please let us remember the physical, financial and spiritual disenfranchised, who live and walk amongst us. Let us remember that the season is joyful to some and is a savor of death to others, in its flagrant, bold truth that Christ is Among Us. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. He came to give us life. I love that no person gave Scrooge the gospel, per say. He was so seared that all that he had heard was calling for judgement upon his soul. Christ's Truth is everywhere about us. His conscience was so saturated that the spiritual warfare was within him. Let us pray for the many in that condition around us.

Grief is no excuse to miss Christ, but it often serves as an excuse to sit sullen in our sad state. Poverty is no excuse, nor is wealth an excuse to miss Christ in Christmas. We who are poor are giving the word of our testimony. That is what Cratchet gave to Scrooge. Who was won, without a word. His fruit of becoming a giver, means that he received the most important lesson that can come at Christmas time. We are the beneficiaries of the eternal life from Jesus and we owe more than we could ever give. God be praised that this truth is still pervasive and was shed light upon by this ancient delightful story of love and eternal life. God give us grace to receive it, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Working woman, where'd did you put my...

fill in the blank. The bustling house that we are in makes bumping into each other inevitable. I bump into you much less, with our conflicting schedules and your 2 new jobs.

I took your bulb out of your light in the morning and I wanted you to have a fit about it, so that I could see you for a minute. I knew you would wake me, if I was sleeping, or call me from anywhere, if you found out that I took your...Love you for your attention to detail. I appreciate how you always remember the little things that we need and that we do to and for you. I love that you put little lines in the drawings of our lives that make us who we are and what we are as a Walker Family. You are a very special woman in my life and I am very grateful for you! Love, Mommy

I am remembering Ruth this morning. I am angry that her pot is in the fridge, dirty. It wouldn't be, if you weren't working. You make a fuss about things like that. I usually don't and I realize that it is probably why you do. She was an annoying person in my life and I think about her everyday, because of her annoyance. Don't be that kind of memory to the people in your life. You are a wonderful woman and I think of you fondly. Happy Thanksgiving!

I miss my Grandma Today!

She took this picture. I remember it as if it were yesterday. I was a new big sister and we were off to the park. We stopped to show off baby Abby at Grandma's house. She said wait, I must take a picture! Why? was our thought, if we wait the courts will be full. Time is at the essence when you are a tennis family. Wait, she implored! I really remember thinking what a waste of time picture taking is. She sent them to where she wanted the photo taken and she and I scurried around inside looking for a flash for her "INstamatic" Camera. I said what do you need a flash for outside, Gram? It is a shady spot and the flash will make sure we get everybody clearly in the photo. I love you, Grandma, for thinking of everything. The courts were not on your mind at all. My precious baby brother's wondrous arrival was the most amazing thing and we have this significant picture to show off my pride at his birth. I miss him and I miss her, too.

Blessed Messiah!