It’s Meemaw-palooza Wednesday!
Some of you were asking how our almost blind/stone deaf/geriatric/possibly senile rescue weenie dog is doing, so I thought I’d give you a Meemaw-centric post today.
Suffice to say, she is SO much better than when we found her! She’s put on some weight, due in large part to the fact that our beloved friend and house sitter Gigi hand-fed her salmon from Whole Foods the entire time we were in Europe. (Meemaw is fervently hoping we head out of the country again real soon.) She is still a little stagger-y when she walks outdoors on the grass, but she gets around on the hardwood floors like a champ, albeit a rather stiff, arthritic one. The other two dogs are still not sure what the heck she is, but they have been very polite, if somewhat reserved with her– a few discreet butt-sniffs here and there, but no aggression at all, even though I am sure they think it is a tremendous ripoff that the *drunk ferret* gets CANNED FOOD twice a day and all they get is dry. Life can be so unfair.
Meemaw’s activities fall into three distinct categories: eating, sleeping, and trotting in a large circle around the kitchen or deck with a determined look on her face but no apparent destination in mind. When she does that, we refer to her as Trotsky. She certainly does enjoy her food, and she actually amps it up into a canter when she sees someone carrying her dish into the laundry room, her ears flapping and a blissful doggy grin on her grizzled little face. She has completely claimed Pip’s old donut bed as her own, and likes to be wrapped up in her old lady afghan when she sleeps. Madi Rose is still her favorite, and Meemaw gets positively girlish when she comes home from college for the weekend– that’s the biggest reaction we EVER see out of her! I occasionally get a slight tail-wag and a tiny lick on the nose, but her heart definitely belongs to Madi.
Here are a few recent pictures and a short video to let you see for yourself how she is doing. Thanks for asking about our Meemaw– in spite of my grumbling about the extra care she requires, I really do love the old gal!
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Thanks = )
That’s exactly how I get up stairs now!!!!
Looks like you folks are taking excellent care of her. You get the “Canine Humanitarian Award” of 2012. (Sorry, there’s no monetary award.)
So……how’s the house selling coming along? I saw that you were hanging drapes on your FB wall. Is it new drapes in your new house?
Small-j– You’re welcome!
LindaB– Nope– new drapes in the current house! (We’re gilding the lily…)
Tori, I absolutely LOVE you and your family for taking care of Meemaw. And that is in addition to being a huge fan of your writing and your husbands’ singing.
Funny, I’ve recently become a huge fan of Russ’ writing and Tori’s singing !! Not to mention her shoulders = )
LOL Good one jonny.
Thanks for the update, Tori! I am so glad that you and Madi took her in. I think she’s pretty happy about it, too.
It blesses my socks off! My dog is 16 years old and weighs 45 lbs. The vet said no more stairs for him so I have to carry him up & down many stairs. Thank God that nobody can see me up on my mountain – I’m sure it’s a funny sight to see since I’m as old and crickety as he is! But, I love my little shadow. Blessings to you & your family!
Last night, my husband and I carried a table into our house–up just a couple of steps of a stoop. With the weight of the table–for some reason, my legs really didn’t want to hold my weight going up the stairs. My thought–oh my, I’m MeeMaw!!!
I too am SO touched that you found and took this sweet dog in!!
BTW, hi everyone!!! I have done more lurking than talking this summer as summer is my time of insanity!! (Girl Scout trip to New York and 9 days of day camps, 4-H trip to Madison and Fair Superintendent, visit from daughter and grandsons, work,……………)I am actually thrilled to see September–except missing my daughter and her family!! I am now officially an Empty Nester too.
Eldonna– Well, as you can see, she IS kind of irresistable, in a weird kind of way…
small-j– Trust me, my shoulders are WAY better than my singing. (Although Russ can indeed write…)
DonnaMariePatterson– Dang, I don’t think I’d be very good at carrying a 45 lb. dog anywhere! That’s why we just keep getting those little yappy kind!
Gramma Jac– YAY, you’re back! Sounds like a crazy busy summer– we’ve missed you!
Gramma Jac– Well, fortunately, the Bloomr’ nest still has a few of us peeping about = )
jonny–you’re one of my favorite peeps!
That meant absolutely nothing–I just realized that for those of you in another country with different slang–maybe I said something naughty!!
(Having lived in Australia–I have lots of stories–but nothing with the word peep!)
Gramma Jac– HA! No, I think you’re still G-rated around here. OK, maybe PG… But definitely not PG 13!
Yeah, PG-13 is strictly Former territory around here !! = )
To My Precious Taff Family,
I know I look a bit worn out
And I stumble all over the place
But don’t think I don’t see you melting
When you look at my sweet little face
I’d like to tell you thank you
In a hundred different ways
Because you sure have made me happy
In my not so golden days
I’ve snowed you girls real well
Gracious, you treat me like a queen
But give me a little clue
How to win over the music dean
You know my licks on the nose
Can be quite delightful
But I’d not dare it with him
‘Cause I’m quite insightful
I wish Madi could be home more
She has such a loving touch
Not that you don’t, sweet Tori
You have….just not as much
Oh I do love my little Taff family
They are so good to me
If only Tori would hustle
When she knows I have to pee
But then I can’t complain
I’m happy as can be
Let’s see…in about an hour
It will be time for tea
I’m not worthy = )
That was nothing short of truly wonderful. Thanks Momma Love !! = )
Ok, Momma Lloyd, THAT WAS BRILLIANT!!
Totally made my day– I just read it to Russ and he laughed out loud!
Fantastic Momma LLoyd – Well done.
Have any of you ladies read the book ?”Captivating” by John Eldredge ?? If so, would appreciate your thoughts/opinions concerning it = )
Well, since I’ve already jumped track with the previous Say it!, I might as well go whole-hogwarts and share something that happened today. Former, Rachel Momma Love and Gramma Jac may at least get a kick out of this.
I’ve had an interesting friendship with a female friend the last few months. I’ve now ended up going to her church with her to support where she is at with things. We’ve had some pretty interesting and challenging life and faith/life in faith discussions. One pretty big one happening earlier today. Also today, and not too long ago, I heard a gorgeous new love song from one guy I greatly admire when it comes to putting together songs; and on top of all that, I finally had some time to catch up with today’s Utmost For His Highest reading. It’s been a few days since I’ve read one. It also tide in with all the previously mentioned. So, taking up on some past suggestions to do so, I decided to turn this all into my second attempt at writing a love song !! This is a complete and absolute rough with no meter or melody line in mind. I’ll probably get back to it when there are such things to contend with, though = )
A Possessor In Heart
A possessor in this tumultuous heart
Who’s touch caresses where all’s not whole
Who’s whisper is carried up through so much noise
And gently rests its beauty to quietly kiss my soul
My source of caring thoughts
So painful, deep and sharp some cuts need to be
‘Cause there are times when upheaval must have its say
No right or wrong, or even an absolute to refute
Just life in love hoping pave a new and clearer way
My source of caring thoughts
Clouds will come to shadow a friendship’s face
With love itself all shrouded up in veils of tears
Still, I hold on trusting more has to be revealed
And see how it all fits in with a hope of many years
My source of caring thoughts
Will there still be faith after storms have blown ?
Could we embrace a greater that ignores what lurks inside ?
Would intellect and understanding get in the way of truth ?
Will confidence allow us to reach a shape beyond our past ?
This and more are a result in
My source of caring thoughts
jonny, there’s a lot of good stuff in there but I don’t particularly care for the ” quietly kiss my soul” …..perhaps something somethinglike “softly brush across my soul.” As I said, in my opinion which is far from professional, I get the feeling you are confused with wanting to be in love with this girl and afight going on inside against it. But, then, maybe it is the struggle that you are wanting to express. Lot of feelings in there.
First off Barbara, I can not thank you enough for taking the time to give some feed-back on these. Truly seems to be God’s timing. More on ‘God’s timing’ later. You are also the first to give any feed-back on these and I’ve truly been wanting some because of a lot of new ground that seems to be being covered in the situation itself, and also in doing these specific lyrics themselves. I felt compelled to try and cover some of what had seemed to be going on at that point with my won faith life, concern for her’s in some areas, various responsibilities in both and work with other new things in lyrics that Christ has been using decades in my life, like My Utmost For His Highest. I also wanted to try and bring in an area of responsibility of love in the ‘responsibilities’ section, and areas of friendship and love I understand to be true in Christ, Love itself, but don’t believe I’ve experienced being covered in a ‘love song’ before. Hope that was all not a case of ‘too much in the sane paragraph’ type thing !!
“I get the feeling you are confused with wanting to be in love with this girl and afight going on inside against it.”
Confusion is indeed a HUGE element in this song. One I wanted to embrace, if I remember correctly. From the devotion I read that day, and used bits from —
“There are times in spiritual life when there is confusion, and it is no way out to say that there ought not to be confusion. It is not a question of right and wrong, but a question of God taking you by a way which in the meantime you do not understand, and it is only by going through the confusion that you will get at what God wants.”
I’m stuck on how to express this, but I don’t believe wanting to be in love with her is an issue, or an element here. I’m glad you brought that up though, that you got that from the lyrics. What I do find challenging, and at a loss for –in real life; not lyric life– is why I can be so concerned for her, and what to do with the love and caring I do have in my heart for her. And at times there can be a ‘fight’ to control it, try and balance it, run from it, maybe even try and kill it; all of which would then allow me to not have to be responsible for it; or deal with it in any way. At the last service, or meeting, I attended with her at church, Christ basically broke me in one subtle move letting me know He placed her in my care for some things, a lot of which we have already discussed together, but also that He was not going to ease up anytime soon what He seems to have put on my heart, maybe even soul, concerning her. That very well executed, sly moment is what the first verse attempts to deal with, and it truly felt like His spirit quietly kissing my soul in that move. I will try and see if there is another way to describe in the lyric what happened in that moment, though.
And to God’s timing again. I truly felt compelled to start those lyrics at that moment, and also to share them here. No getting easily off the hook on that one either. In some ways what I’m dealing with with this new friend also connects with some of what I went through In Him concerning Maria; who is doing very well at the moment = ) Anyway, much confusion there too, but different. Well, minutes after sharing this rough here at Bloomr, maybe even seconds afterwards, Maria let me know via facebook that she herself has finally decided to attempt another dating type relationship, or ‘in a relationship’ status type thing. I try not to read into things too much as far as God and His workings are concerned, but I took this as soe sort of confirmation that ‘yes,’ I was supposed to post those lyrics her at that exact moment, that yes there is a connection with what He is doing in/with/through me in this new friendship/relationship as He clearly did with Maria, and that she is not my responsibility in Him anymore like before. I hope that came across the way it was intended.
Anyway, thanks to the Bloomr community for letting me post things like this here, and thanks to all who have helped with feed-back in the past and helped make it through some confusing times.
More from Oswald —
“The Shrouding of His Friendship. Luke 11:5-8. Jesus gave the illustration of the man who looked as if he did not care for his friend, and He said that that is how the Heavenly Father will appear to you at times. You will think He is an unkind friend, but remember He is not; the time will come when everything will be explained. There is a cloud on the friendship of the heart, and often even love itself has to wait in pain and tears for the blessing of fuller communion. When God looks completely shrouded, will you hang on in confidence in Him?”
“The Strangeness of His Faithfulness. Luke 18:1-8. “When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on the earth?” Will He find the faith which banks on Him in spite of the confusion? Stand off in faith believing that what Jesus said is true, though in the meantime you do not under stand what God is doing. He has bigger issues at stake than the particular things you ask.
Matthew 20:22″
jonny, I love that book…read it many years ago. I’m only going to say one more thing and I hope you are not feeling that I am discouraging you in the slightest. Even though it’s all about your confusion, I wonder if you couldn’t put it away for a few days and then come back to it with the idea of showing that you are clear-minded about your confusion…that you have this conflict which you recognize? And what is your goal?
Please forgive me if I am saying anything wrong to you because of my lack of understanding, my friend.
Oh, not a problem. Before I answer that, or get into that with my own words, I will share what I JUST read in today’s My Utmost —
“The simplicity that is in Christ.
Simplicity is the secret of seeing things clearly. A saint does not think clearly for a long while, but a saint ought to see clearly without any difficulty. You cannot think a spiritual muddle clear, you have to obey it clear. In intellectual matters you can think things out, but in spiritual matters you will think yourself into cotton wool. If there is something upon which God has put His pressure, obey in that matter, bring your imagination into captivity to the obedience of Christ with regard to it and everything will become as clear as daylight. The reasoning capacity comes afterwards, but we never see along that line, we see like children; when we try to be wise we see nothing (Matthew 11:25).”
OK, I personally am not in a state of confusion, or turmoil in the ‘real life’ situation presently. In spite of all the upheaval that went on before, and some of which Christ seems to still be allowing, I have an incredible peace about all of it; and trust Him with all of it as well. I believe it is all necessary in order for Christ to get us to the new and better, whatever it is, and I’m not fighting it at the moment. It’s also not something I’m actively, or purposely dwelling on. Those hours in which I did the rough for the new lyrics were intense, as have been some others times –especially last Saturday– but it was all temporary and good things seemed to stem from it; as I understood that might happen at the time.
I believe the goal in all if it has been the same, to draw me even tighter into listening to His voice, and His voice alone, in this and with many things, also a continual deepening of the surrendering of my will to His, and allow Him to use this to help bring to the surface that which should be brought out into the light at these times and in these ways.
By the way, really nice spending a Friday evening with you here at Bloomr = )
Well Momma L, according to an on-line dictionary, ‘kiss’ works better than ‘brush;’ and has brush in one of it’s definitions.
brush1
vb
3. (tr) to touch lightly and briefly
kiss (ks)
v.
2. To touch lightly or gently: flowers that were kissed by dew.
3. To strike lightly; brush against: barely kissed the other car with the bumper.
BUT, I’m now not sure either work, lol !! Since ‘gentle’ is already in the line, maybe something along the lines of ‘embrace’ would best suit things; and ‘kiss’ used elsewhere —
“A possessor in this tumultuous heart
Who’s touch can kiss where all’s not whole
Who’s whisper is carried up through so much clamor
And gently rests its beauty to quietly embrace my soul
My source of caring thoughts”
Oops, at least a couple typos in the “First off Barbara” Say it! !!
‘I felt compelled to try and cover some of what had seemed to be going on at that point with my own faith life…’
‘Hope that was all not a case of ‘too much in the same paragraph’ type thing !!’
And, this was probably too strong, not worded the best way —
“also that He was not going to ease up anytime soon”
That probably should have been more like ‘let off the hook.’ As mentioned, there are some times where it can be quite intense, most not. But, it’s still there to some degree and it all seems to be good. So far so good, anyway = )
jonny, if you are sure you aren’t fighting falling in love with this girl, then perhaps it isn’t a love song? Then, it would seem to me to be a song more of concern…even distress…with the burden of wanting to help this person. And yet, I am still getting the idea you are fighting against falling in love with her…perhaps because of her emotional problems and your conflicting thoughts about her.
“Who’s whisper is carried up through so much noise
And gently rests its beauty to quietly kiss my soul”
How aboutquietly stir my soul”
Sweetheart, I kinda think you have to dig down deep and decide whether you are falling in love wth this girl or she is becoming a burden, in which case perhaps you should speak a bit about what it is that torments you so much in this relationship.
jonny, I may be off center completely. If so, I certainly don’t want to add to your confusion. Maybe the thread running through the song is actually confusion and should reflect that openly.
It’s super late over here at the moment, so I can’t get into a lot of this right now = ) I will add though that the attempt is truly at a ‘Love’ song, as I understand it, not a romantic relationship type song, or a falling, or being in love with a person type song. Although I believe one affects the other. Or, it’s not a typical one. I would not attempt a ‘Love’ song unless it deals with Love itself to some degree, or felt called/lead to attempt such a thing. A lot of what I write about is dealing with, or maybe even exposing, what love may not be, or may pass for love, but may not truly or fully be. This is an attempt to go more directly at an aspect of Love itself, though.
The first verse is in a direct connection, or correlation with Christ Himself, not a human type person. He didn’t ‘stir’ my soul in this moment, one of many actually, but with a touch so small it would get lost on a pin-head, it embraced my soul; for a lack of a better way to describe it at yet. And describing it accurately is of the UTMOST importance to me. Personally, my life has never been touched, affected, challenged, changed or bettered through a ‘message’ type song; or any thing else thing message based for that matter. But, what Christ has used best, most wonderfully in my life are bits and moments connected with accurate truths in Him and about us. I have found that the more honest and accurate, in Him, the songs communicate various truths and realities, the more useful they seem to be for His Kingdom, and in/for the lives of others.
OK, I’m afraid i gotta stop here and get some sleep now. Look forward to getting back to all this again later, though = )
Well, can’t sleep after all. OK, first off I believe we’ve seriously gone the wrong direction here, and the ‘love song’ thing has been taken the wrong way as well. I’ll re-qoute myself first —
“I’ve had an interesting friendship with a female friend the last few months”
I really don’t see a ‘falling in love’ thing here with her, fighting or other-wise. And I’ve been going over that a lot since you’ve brought it up. It truly is a friendship, and one that has been used in wonderfully interesting, at times challenging, ways. That is not the basis for the lyrics though. As mentioned, “I decided to turn this all into my second attempt at writing a love song.” The ‘All’ in this includes the things mentioned in that same paragraph, but some other things as well. One being Amy Grant’s My Utmost For His Highest based song “Lover Of My Soul.” For whatever reason I then went onto ‘Lover Of My Soul, and Possessor Of My Heart’ in my mind. I then went into how THE Possessor of my heart also allows others to be, in part, a possessor of it as well. For example one’s children, spouse, a dear friend. Based on conversations and experiences in Christ I’ve had with the one friend we been discussing, and other things mentioned, I used that –with other things mentioned as well– to help flesh the idea/concept out for the rough draft; especially since I don’t have any children, spouse or anyone I am in love with myself presently. It also has to do with what others have shared in these areas, too. And, as mentioned before when sharing other lyrics here at Bloomr, the songs I write are rarely about me, or anything personal concerning me; although I’m sure aspects of me, my life, get in their from time to time. But, they are not the focus.
This, I guess, is about THE Possessor of my heart allowing others to have a share of it as well. And since He is Love, and it is a love based thing, it is in turn, hopefully, a love song in the truest sense possible; at least within these guidelines or parameters of this concept, reality I believe I was called to take up that day, and will get to again later when it seems time for it again. This is also the very beginning of the path, journey with these new lyrics. I truly have no idea where they will end up, be like at the end of the day, just like I have no idea what will come about the friendship I now have with this one person, or anyone else for that matter Christ has in my life presently. And that’s not written to avoid your concerns, it is the most honest answer I can think of at the moment. And, with the core of anything any of us have in/with our Maker, trusting Him with all of it is the number one priority. ‘All of it’ meaning anything brought up, shared, discussed here.
And here’s something one pastor friend just shared concerning the lyrics; but I guess it could fit relationship-wise as well = )
“What is the biggest obstacle to creativity?
Attachment to outcome. As soon as you become attached to a specific outcome, you feel compelled to control and manipulate what you’re doing. And in the process you shut yourself off to other possibilities.- Gordon Mackenzie”
She told me to leave this one alone, but I can’t let it go. Regarding “perhaps because of her emotional problems and your conflicting thoughts about her,” she doesn’t have emotional problems. Truly. Really feel bad if something I wrote here communicated that in any way, shape or form about her. She did get a kick out of reading that, though = ) Nor do I have conflicting thoughts concerning anything regarding her or our friendship. Not that either of us are aware of anyway. Again, a lot of what the song deals with doe not deal with her and I directly, just bits and pieces of things used to help flesh an idea, concept out. I do feel bad that this may have caused you so much concern and that I did not consider more carefully how some things would have been communicated, taken = /
jonny, you keep working on it, my friend. No one can really express your innermost feelings the way you truly feel them. Or, at least that is the way I feel about it. In fact, you have said that I took it a different way….and this tells me that specific words oftentimes mean one thing to one person and something else to another. Even more importantly, because I am far from professional, I suspect my age puts me in an entirely different place when expressing specific feelings. I see you are sharing your song with the person about whom it has been written. I suggest you listen carefully to the things she says because she just might be the one who would have more insight into everything.
Actually, your feed-back, possible concerns, expressing how you take things has been a TREMENDOUS help/blessing/massively useful thing !! I truly can not thank you enough for stepping in like you did =) The thing about you believing I was fighting falling in love got me a bit concerned for awhile there, but it’s all super good now = )
Anyway, latest up-date: I noticed there was a strong faith element in these words and shortly after discovering that, one friend put up a wonderful Corrie Ten Boom quote on facebook that seemed to fit this powerful underlining faith thread. I also noticed that the first verse seem to fit in with how God will sometimes use people, even Blogs = ), as tools/instruments in His purifying process of the heart. I then noticed that another verse seemed to deal with the ‘transforming/renewing’ of the mind process. I tried to work a bit more in those directions with them as a result !! Also, since this should be a love song, I changed the titled to Fearless, since perfect love cast that out <3 Oh, there should also be more history now. and, I would not consider myself a pro with any of this, I just like sinking my teeth into such things; especially when it seems to be something our Maker has set up for me to take on = ) = ) = )
?"Faith is like radar that sees through the fog-the reality of things at a distance that the human eye cannot see."
– Corrie Ten Boom
FEARLESS
A possessor in this tumultuous heart
Who’s touch can kiss where all’s not whole
Who’s whisper is carried up through so much clamor
And rests its beauty to quietly/gently favor my soul
My source of caring thoughts
So painful, deep and precise some cuts will/need be
In these moments where upheaval should have its say
No right, no wrong; or even an absolute to refute
Just/But living love/life in love hoping to transform a new clear/transform a better way
My source of caring thoughts
Some clouds will come to shadow a friendship’s face
With Love itself all shrouded up in veils of tears
Fearless I will hold, trusting in what’s to be revealed
To see how/where it all shapes together the work of many a year
My source of caring thoughts
I prefer your new title. It seems more fitting to your words. And it reads more smoothly to me now. There certainly is a lot of strong feeling there…
Really glad you like the new title, and I think it flows a little smoother now as well ! And, for what it’s worth, it wasn’t until I came to this place with it that it started getting to me emotionally, personally as well. Up to this point I’d been pretty much emotionally detached from it; but ‘favoring my soul’ and ‘Fearless I will hold’ were used to change that = )
Don’t know if I’m flogging a dead horse here, or if anyone’s even bothering with this thread anymore, but had to share at least one more thing. Yesterday Mike Stand, front man/main man behind the Eighties Garage Rock band Altar Boys shared with concerning similar things that were used to prompt me to write the words that have been sharing and have been wonderfully discussed here. As a result, I thought it too interesting not to share what he and his son Keith came up with. He also used the ‘upheaval’ word as well in his introduction, which in turn got my attention when I first came across this —
“During this challenging time of financial challenges, political bantering, and upheaval all around us, I would like to encourage all followers of the “Carpenter from Nazareth” to take a big breath and know that God is in control. In the midst of all this “stuff” we need to remember to sing praises and honor to our God. One of the best ways to “Sing Praises to our God” is through music. My son Keith and I have collaborated on a song called “King of All” (that is very much recorded in the style of “Altar Boys”). It is available as a FREE download through INDIE VISION. May it be as much a blessing to you as it was for my son and I to write and record it!!”
http://www.indievisionmusic.com/2012/09/17/mike-stand-son-king-of-all/
Enjoyed that link…and the knowledge that the father and son are doing a project together. How wonderful for them. And the song’s message is clearly a praise the Lord rally.