Music proves the existence of a creator God.

"When I'm asked what proof there is in the world for God, I sometimes point to music. Empirically, it doesn't make sense that a series of varied, modulated sounds could move us as they do. There would seem to be no evolutionary reason why we should love it so. Why it should touch our hearts in ways nothing else can. And yet most of us understand that, when words fail us, music speaks to the soul. "  Paul Asay on Plugged In.


Amen!  I agree with the truth of his words:  Music is evidence of the existence of God, and His amazing creativity and His desire to bless His creations.  Amen!  

Good, lively morning at the dojo.  There is a new adult student (yay!) who seems like he'll enjoy training at our dojo.  All four of my young warriors were there, and that was a good class, too.  I laughed quite often.  Now if only they could all learn their left and their right.  Sure, we did "The Hokey Pokey" for reinforcement, but the effects of that seem to last only about five minutes and then they no longer know which is their right foot and which is their left foot.  That is one of those interesting things that when a person does NOT know it it can seem so difficult to learn, but eventually, over time, most people really do assimilate that knowlege.  I just happen to be teaching a physical skill at a time when that mental knowledge is far from in place!

I realized today that while I do like to go out, I do LOVE to come home!!

Mexican rice and beans with lots of Montery Jack cheese for lunch.  Yummy!  And I'm reading "Leaf by Niggle" by J.R.R. Tolkien.  Heart happy!  And I will work with Grace on her school work.  Uh. . . that could be a blessing, too, we'll see.

Picture this:

An unseasonably warm January day in New England.  Dead grass peeks in patches through icy white snow.

An aging karateka stands on the asphalt-black driveway, face full ON to the bright winter sunshine, glad to want to be outdoors after many days of very cold weather.

And suddenly, a new practice tool is discovered.  It is, exactly, the sun.  Because this sun is so bright against her eyes that she must close her eyes, and begin doing all her kata with her eyes closed.  The glare of the sun over the white snow strongly prohibits any urge to open the eyes to momentarily get her bearings.  The sun itself  is the teacher, giving both reason to keep the eyes closed and, indubitably, a warm bright sense of where it is standing (hanging, I mean, in the sky).

Doing kata with eyes closed is a good practice habit, and I need to practice it that way often because I tend to lose my balance when I close my eyes and move, so today the sun was an ever-present instigator to keep my eyes closed.

Also it was great to be outside, and to feel the sun on my face!  Face-to-the-sunshine:  mentally imperative quite often, physically a blessing quite often, too.

Yesterday, due to a snow storm, 7-y-o Emma, (yellow belt rank) was the only student in my 10 am karate class.  We had great fun. She did good work on her punching, kicking, self-defense, kata, and running laps.  She worked hard and then, at the end of class, we got ready to play the game where we try to grab a colorful strip of cloth from each other's belt, while also defending our own strip of cloth.  It doesn't really have a name, that game, but yesterday Emma changed it up.  (I think this girl has an imagination that matches my own!)  She said that I would be the wild duck and she would be the fox.  (Laughing so much right now.  I'm much bigger than she is, much faster than she is, and am a lot more skilled than she is, yet she cast herself as the fox and me as the poor little duck.  So funny!)  So she chased me around the mats trying unsuccessfully to grab my green cloth strip (and getting a ton of exercise in the bargain), and then sometimes I chased her too, pretending that I was a big and unusually ferocious wild duck.  We both made our respective wild animal calls and really had a good time.  She didn't like the fact that she never did win at the game, but she had to accept it and be willing to try again next time, so her character development got some exercise, too.  Sometimes I do let the kids win, but yesterday the duck really didn't think that fox have an easy time of it!  ha ha ha!

Emma makes me smile.  She is easily distracted and has lazy forward stances, but she has good, strong punches and a generally cheerful attitude.  I really like teaching karate.

Impossible? NO.

“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” 
― Muhammad Ali

That quote was seen on a young friend's Facebook status.  Strung together statements of heart and hope and drive and unlimited possiblities.  Well said, Muhammad Ali. Of course it leaves out God, but what they might or might not know is that God is the invisible connection between each of those statements Who makes each one true. 

With God all things are possible.  

Leona has a blog about tv trivia.  If anyone out there would like to check it out, go here.

Leona, as a name, makes me think, "lioness", which makes it a great name.

Regarding obsessive computer games, I have given up Bejeweled.  There was a time (a year ago? I'm not sure) when it rather dominated large blocks of my time.  I wasted a lot of time playing Bejeweled, on Facebook, sitting like a mindless lump at this computer.  On the plus side, it was sort of fun.  On the negative side, I was obsessed and wasting a lot of time.

Since then, I gradually became less enamored with Bejeweled, playing it daily but for very short bursts of time. It had gotten so I played maybe ten minutes of Bejeweled a day, which I saw as a fun little break.  However, I do not play Bejeweled on FB any more because now they won't let me play unless I agree to let them "Post as me".  They want my permission to post things about me and my games, and post who knows what else as me, on FB.  Well, how about a big huge "NO" to that?  I do not want to play any FB games that take away my right to choose what they post using my name.  So, no Bejeweled, and no FB Words with Friends and no lots of other things. (Truthfully, if Scrabble soon takes the same stand, insisting on "posting as me" I don't know if I will be strong enough to say a big huge "NO" to them.  Maybe I will, and just find another, non-FB way to play computer Scrabble with my friends.  Or another non-FB game.)

For the record, I also dabbled with FarmTown and FarmVille on FB, and cannot believe I spent time on them in the first place.  If someone I really like invites me to play one of those, or CityVille or anything remotely like them, I must stay strong and say, "No, but would you like to come to my house and play a board game, in person?"

Anyway, Bejeweled and those other FB games are gone, and my new brainless activity is Solitaire on my phone.  WHY?? Why is this fun? It requires so little thinking.  Actually, that is both its draw and its detraction.  It requires so little thinking, and yet I get to watch things happen. Cards line up:  they zoom across my tiny phone screen in happy black and red chains. And sometimes everything comes out right!  What's not to love?  But at least I don't spend hours doing this, just a few minutes here and there. (Probably too many minutes, because as addictions go this one is still new, and just a little bit enthralling. LOL.)  But since there is no deep voice saying "Awesome!  Excellent!" and no bright lights crashing together in front of my Bejeweled-bedazzled eyes, Solitaire does not have the grip on my psyche that Bejeweled once had.  Whew!  Computer-game addictions:  No, thank you!

Business meeting are not boring at my church!

2:30 am and I am awake.  Sleeping would be better right now. This often happens to me after an evening karate class, because the adrenaline that was revved up in class continues to roll through me during the night.  Last night, though, I did not go to karate class.  Last night I went to our annual church business meeting!  Tonight's adrenaline has nothing to do with kicking and punching and kata and everything to do with God!

Last night God came through mightily for Sophie, and for me.  You see, when Sophie landed at her Christian university in the fall one of the meetings that ignited her was a missions meeting.  She could go and share God's love with people in a new, exciting place with a group of fellow students.  She was really motivated to go somewhere and work for two weeks doing God's work, and she gently began raising the money to be able to go.  Her fundraising efforts were blessed by some of the people at our church, generously, but she by today she was far, far short of the amount needed to reach the January 20th deadline of half the full amount needed. She called me this afternoon and was sad but accepting at the thought that she might have to return what she had earned so far and drop out of the mission trip, due to lack of funds.  She has been praying for the Lord's will and His provision in this, wanting it to be completely a walk of faith.  I have been praying that with her, and she has asked others for their prayers as well.  

This afternoon, knowing that it looked, from a human perspective, like she would never raise nearly two thousand dollars in three days, I prayed that the Lord would speak to my heart and tell me if He wanted her to go. After praying I really thought the answer was "yes" and I had a sense of peace that He would handle it, one way or another.  Then, tonight at the church business meeting our pastor brought up before the church members the question of whether or not the church could give Sophie money for her mission trip.  Immediately many, many of the church family spoke up, saying "yes, definitely" and suggesting ways for it to happen.  I was so amazed by everyone's generosity, and obvious love for Sophie and our family.  So, they voted, and found a way to give her even a little more than she needs for this first deadline.  Sophie and I both see this as God's amazing hand of love, and of His confirmation that He does indeed want her to go on this trip.  We both know that human efforts were not enough here, and He, through the love of the brethren, was showing His power and His blessings on Sophie's behalf, and on behalf of the furtherance of the gospel.  It was so wonderful.  A lack of a night's sleep is a very small price to pay for this prayer adventure and its amazing outcome.

In other business, I was wrong about the crack in the church ceiling last year. (See blog note of February 8, 2011). I really thought that with my husband on the job it would have been fixed by this year's meeting, but no, last night we again sat beneath the room-long crack and laughingly gave the task of seeing it fixed once again to the House Committee.  This year Jerri is on the House Committee, so the odds of it being fixed by next year's meeting are at least fair, I'd say.   

Unfortunately I was right about the church nursery being without speakers another year, mainly because the nursery did get moved to other rooms and:  no speakers there!  However, Paul and Nathan have volunteered to wire the new nursery rooms.  Paul is very motivated since he spends a lot of time in that nursery with his son, so hopefully by next year there will be functioning speakers present, so anyone in the nursery can still hear the message being given upstairs.  My hope is pretty strong that this will come to pass.  

A lot of other things were discussed tonight, also, and the House Committee has quite a long list of items to handle.  If they do them all successfully I predict that next year's meeting will have a great deal fewer things to discuss!  If they do not do them all successfully I predict that at next year's meeting we will have some good laughs at ourselves just like we did at this year's meeting.  : )  

God is so good!  

Being bookish

I'm a bookish sort, very bookish.  I love BOOKS.  I love the ideas and knowledge and places that one finds in books.  And humor and humanity and courage and God:  these are all found in good books.

Two of my daughters are also bookish; one is not . . . yet.  She doesn't like to read, doesn't pick up books automatically and start to thumb through them, she doesn't peruse the bookshelves of others when visiting.

She is more screenish, if you know what I mean.  So, for the next four months of home schooling she and I will read a lot of books.  There will be a heavy curriculum emphasis on reading books, actual books.  Maybe I can turn her in a more bookish direction, or maybe she will emerge just as unbookish as ever.  At least I will know that I gave it my best shot.

Some people are very intelligent but just not bookish.  My husband is smart and knowledgeable on many subjects but not bookish, so maybe Grace takes after him.  However, since having a passion for reading is a blessing to one's soul, I will continue to seek books that ignite that passion in Grace.

We shall see!  An experiment:  nature vs. nurture, in my own home.