Stone throwing

There is no right way to say what I want to say about Osama bin Laden's death, but my sister, on facebook, boldly made an attempt, so I will share here the quote she posted, along with my reply, and a few further comments.

"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that" -mistakenly attributed to MLK by my sister (source is actually unknown)

"We should be glad that he's gone, and can no longer hurt anyone. But we should not rejoice in his death, nor that he has died in such a way. We should grieve that it was a necessary thing to do, and that he was not at all sorry for what he did. And let us keep in mind what Jesus said to those who would condemn another as in John 8:7 'He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone....'"

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The quote my sister used quoted the Bible. I know that we want good to triumph and evil to be vanquished. The Bible does speak of this. But the message in the Bible is not primarily one of justice, but one of grace. The Bible is very very very clear, "There is no one righteous, not even one." "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity (the guilt) of us all."

Justice is that all of us deserve hell. No one deserves His grace.

But for the grace of God, there go I. Only fear has kept my feet from treading down some very bad paths. I thank God for that fear.

The beauty of it all is expressed so wonderfully in Romans 5, where Paul speaks of God's lavish redemption of us WHILE WE WERE YET SINNERS - while we were his enemies! By faith - given to those who believe freely by his grace - we are RECONCILED.

But we ought not rejoice that others are not, even when they have been so bold in their evil and so unjust.

Flooding on the Winooski River

While we were away on vacation, it apparently rained a lot and the water level of rivers and lakes in our area of the world was pretty incredible. Before we left, lake Champlain was at flood stage, 100.2 feet the day we left. Vivace had a field trip at the ECHO Center on the lake the morning we left, so we got a cool view of it. Very fun. By the time we returned, it was much higher than that, I think around 100.8 feet, so we checked out the Winooski River near us on the way home from the grocery store Monday the 25th and made mental note of what was and wasn't under water. Tuesday 4/26/11, the thunderstorms began, at roughly 6pm. They continued all night. And I mean pouring, raining, deluging rain. It probably could have been worse, but it went on . . . . and on . . . and on. It rained roughly 2.5".


We knew the rivers would be high as a result, what with all the rain, and the snowmelt from the mountains.... so we decided to go see just how high the Winooski was by driving around after I picked up Vivace from preschool. That was around 12:30 pm. I've heard of high waters, but this beat anything I'd ever seen. After school, we decided to drive out again to see what if anything had changed, and to show Patience who was now with us. Of course I didn't have my camera either time, but we could tell the waters had gone down about a foot from high water marks and wetness we could point out to her. So after some more rain (nowhere near as much) on Wednesday morning, I went for a drive again, this time with the camera, to see what I could see. Boy had the water receded, but still there was flooding, and I recorded it for good measure.

These first two pictures are of a farmstand we often visit, and where we pick strawberries and blueberries every year. I noted on the picture how high the water got. Just click on them to enlarge and see more clearly. Here in the pictures, the river is still flowing through the lower fields. This often floods. But to get up INTO the farmstand, that's some pretty big flooding, and that doesn't happen every year by any means. It must have been 4-5 FEET higher than what you see here.

This 3rd picture is of a road that often (always) floods when there's high water. But the day before this picture was taken, it was so under water you couldn't even tell where the road was. Period. The 2nd time we came by, w/Patience, when the water had begun to go down, you could tell where it was by the ripples as it flowed over and tumbled off the edge of the road. And of course now the road is open. Amazing difference, yet still flooded.

The last two pictures are basically evidence of where the fields were completely covered. I mean totally and completely under water, no sign of land.
Now all the water that drained out of the Winooski in that 18 + hours had to go somewhere, and that would be Lake Champlain. Talk about the Water Cycle God created in action such that you could touch see and feel it. And my pictures don't come close to touching on the damage and impact of the Tuesday night rains elsewhere in our region (like "flood days" where some local schools were closed due to rains etc), nor do they reflect the additional inch of rain that fell on Thursday, so stay tuned in upcoming days for more documenting of this past week's weather and water story....

Time to say good bye

Today we said goodbye to our faithful steed "Black Beauty" as my mother affectionately called our wagon. She was a faithful machine these past seven years, but salt and wetness in the winters here in this fair state does a job on the steel frame of most cars, and she was not immune. We knew she wouldn't pass inspection and her last day to be legal is tomorrow, so it was time to let her go, and long anticipated. Thankfully, we got to use her and preserve the new van through the winter.

Last night, Constance cried and told us we couldn't do such a thing because she liked the black car.... We seriously didn't know what to make of that. Fortunately she was ready to accept reality this morning. Dante and Constance gave her big hugs and even a kiss on their way out to school this morning. The weigh in at the scrap yard was simple: she topped 3000 pounds and we walked away with some money in our pockets (granted, not a lot but still something). Kind of fun.

Good-bye old friend!

Uno!

I just enjoyed a terrific - and dare I say speedy - game of UNO! with Vivace. It took all of 3 minutes start to finish and we both enjoyed the time together. It's a win/win situation. I get the fun of saying "yes" to a game, he doesn't have to hear "No" or "I'm sorry, I don't have time right now.", we both enjoy the time together, and we're not making commitments we can't keep. I can find time for this! It was really fun game too - he made the first move and was down to one card when I finally got a turn. (He forgot to say uno!) It stayed like that for a couple moves until I was able to get him back by making him draw a half-dozen cards and shortly thereafter I won. Just delightful time together. I love my kids and I love spending time with them!

294 Days Until Christmas

I really wanted to say something but am at a loss for words, so I thought maybe this would at least let anyone paying attention know we're still here. Along the newsy front, my brother-in-law got engaged last weekend (yay!), we've had a wonderful school vacation, celebrated my beloved's birthday, enjoyed visits from both sets of parents, enjoyed time with friends, made tons of puzzles, played many games, and much more - but I can't find anything to say. So, Happy shopping.

Fragmented Lives

Those of you who know me, know that I struggle w/how to balance every thing, every one, every whatever I come across. I so want "one life" - an unfragmented life, where all that I do is "unified" whatever I mean by that. I don't want to have my "home", my "church", my "school", my "play", etc. all be so separate. How many "me's" are there? I'm still me in all of the places I go, and in all of the things I do, and while I know different contexts bring out different aspects, perspectives, strengths and weaknesses, I hate the fragmentation that I don't believe is necessarily a part of that. But I don't always know how to act, progress, unify, defragment, etc.

I find (in a related way) the concept of homeschooling my kids very appealing. We've always been homeschoolers at heart, probably because of this whole vs. fragmented life mentality in my case. While our kids are in the school system, we are engaged with them and with the schools, we know at least to some degree what goes on at each level and in each classroom, and we are participants in our community. We more or less "homeschool" our public school children, interacting with them and what they're learning and thinking and doing pretty much all the time, as we go about our lives. Granted with four kids, we miss a lot, but on the whole, we're in this together.

But I grieve the time they're not at home, where we're not part of the discovery, the learning, the exploring, and both not directing it nor watching them run with it. For this I long for the day when truly homeschooling may happen (vs. sending them off to another place for 7-8 hours a day). Some of you may think I'm crazy, but I like the way this mom put it if you want to read why she homeschools. I think I would do it for much the same reasons. It would be challenging, but boy would it be fun. And I do indeed think that it would lead to a more whole life than that which we currently lead.

John Jay

As a child, I lived for a number of years near a high school named after "some famous guy" named John Jay. Honestly, I never knew anything about "John Jay" nor did I really care at the time. That said, years later, it must be said that I do like history and learning about famous people and so an article I saw earlier today in a magazine I was reading caught my eye. "John Jay: An American Wilberforce?"

Cool. I like Wilberforce and have read about him. This John Jay guy must be interesting too!

So I read the article. Very nice. I have decided I'd like to learn more about this Mr. John Jay, apparently a contemporary of Wilberforce, and a Chief Justice of the US in its infancy.

Here is a quote of his, as found in the article with some context. I loved it particularly because it reiterates a lesson I'm currently learning - that is to trust my sovereign God to take care of His business. My job is to follow His lead - He'll accomplish what He has set out to do.

"In 1785, while serving as the Secretary of Foreign Affairs for the Confederation Congress, Jay lobbied in New York State for gradual abolition of slavery, but a bill passed by both the Assembly and Senate was vetoed. To console himself, he wrote: '[all that wise and good men can do is] to persevere indoing their duty to their country and leave the consequences to him who made men only; neither elated by success, however great, nor discouraged by disappointments however frequent or mortifying.'"