Thursday
Good morning, then! In due course 'll find a picture to put up there, maybe a car, maybe a fish. Who knows?!
Early, first hour with hot & black out here on 7H porch admiring Creation, the Bay, a few gulls, an osprey sailing then stopping to hover before moving on. Earth with its firmament, the light blue bowl that sits atop this flat surface.
That first hour was totally sans personal electronics for a trial to see whether not having my phone in my hand would give me the shakes, nomesane? It didn't, and basking in the freedom was - - I dunno. As one use of Time, I watched the street lights go out over at Tyndall.
My first cuppa was 8 ounces of my perfect June club coffee. Now back outside with a 12 ounce plastic pitcher drawn from my Keurig, and two thin wedges of a combo blue-streaked soft cheese from Aldi's. We don't hit Aldi's much when Bill's is right up the street. I disappreciate that Aldi's replaced Winn-Dixie with the fried catfish; and now a serve yourself deli has replaced the fried catfish and fried chicken livers that they had at Piggly Wiggly. So, no catfish, and my only source of fried chicken livers now is Tally-Ho Drive-In on our city's northern border - -
- - reared against the sky, proudly stands our alma mater as the years roll by.
Sorry, that slipped out igniting a bit of the nostalgia that increasingly invades my mind to drive away all earthly concerns.
It's working: my weight-loss program to distract my doctor's attention when I go for my annual appointment the first week of August. It's mind over matter, isn't it, a clever game of lettuce, coleslaw and furosemide. This morning I'm within one pound of the goal that will avoid him telling me to come back in six months and my telling him, "No, 12 months, please."
At this age, when I know everything that's right and everything that's wrong with my physical self, I can relax and enjoy life as long as I don't have the anxiety of a doctor's visit more than once a year.
Like the raw oysters and fried mullet at Captain's Table and Gene's Oyster Bar. Not to mention the porterhouse steak, rare, at Longhorn and at Outback. I've found out that if I want a steak, a steakhouse serves it up far more delicious than I can do here at home, and the cost is about the same except that I don't leave a tip for myself.
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POD: nothing on calendar for Thursday. We're going to finish clearing out kitchen cabinets and countertop, for tomorrow's visit from the Demo team.
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My +Time blogposts are evolving, a bit eccentric yea unto weird as I try to begin with nonsense and phase into something of substance. Here's from next Sunday's lectionary, e.g. ->
Galatians 5:1,13-25
For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.
Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. 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 be guided by the Spirit.
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Maybe I'll take just one thought out of that, "through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"
The yoke of slavery Paul is talking about is the Jewish obsession that the only way to get right with God is by slavish obedience to the laws spelled out in Torah. He's telling his readers that in Christ, the only law now is "Love neighbor," a new way of life.
Love Neighbor: two-thousand years on, and we still don't get it, but it's okay: the Universe is expanding and, never in a hurry, God doesn't share our personal sense of urgency that everything has to be completed during our lifeTime. We are still evolving into that godly image, you know.
RSF&PTL
T89&c
pic: I'll just post that deep view into the Universe to help remind myself of the immensity of my Creator.