This Makes my Heart Sing

Many waters cannot quench love.

Rivers

     cannot

         wash it away.

Big Pill, Send Water

German theologian-pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer was executed for opposing the Nazi regime. Here is what he had to say about his enemy:

"Nothing that we despise in the other man is entirely absent from ourselves. We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or don't do, and more in the light of what they suffer."

I don't want these words to be true, but something about looking in the mirror tells me they are. AND I have this weird tendency to WANT my enemies to suffer. At least he said that what I despise in another is not "entirely absent" in me, as though I am bad, too, but not THAT bad.  Of course, he could have left us with an even worse pill to swallow, like Jesus did, and reminded us to actually LOVE our enemies. Something about "regard" seems easier than "love" but I guess it's a start.


Warm regards...just kidding, Much LOVE,
Kim

PS - I'd love to hear your inspiration on this subject.

Gene Autry and the Big Black Bear

I grew up in North Carolina with an ocean to the east, and mountains to the west. I love both, but in my heart of hearts I'm a mountain girl. My family went to Tweetsie Railroad, Blowing Rock, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Gatlinberg, and I've hiked the Chimney Tops and even chased a bear or two.

The most recent bear chase was this December when I took my son, WillMcJ to see my beloved Smokeys. Okay, we didn't chase the bear, we ran from the bear, but it was a really big bear, and I know you're not supposed to run, but we couldn't seem to get that message to go from our brains to our feet before we were high-tailing it back to the river. We tried to run like we weren't running, you know, the way kids do when you tell them not to run in the house.

We had a Gene Autry souvenir pocket knife with us. Fortunately, the bear did not feel threatened by it in the least. A guitar would have been as helpful, maybe more so. You know what they say about music calming the savage beast.

My friend Dawn tells me they're blasting the tops off of MY mountains, leveling some of them. I'm sure they have good reasons, that there is big money and there are valuable resources involved, but my heart is breaking over it. The means is certainly not worth the end of the many lifetimes cradled by that blue Appalachian glory.

We saw a devastated mountain on our way home from Gatlinberg this December. We were devastated, too. I'm so sorry, WillMcJ, that your children and grandchildren will be left with this horrible lesson in greed and lack of respect for God's creation. I'm going to write to my government officials and ask them to please help. There IS a better way. I promise you, Will, I care enough to learn more about this and do whatever I can to help. Let's check it out together:

Google search: LEAF-mountaintop removal and you can read all about it.

Much Love for ALL of God's creation,
Kim

The Gift That Keeps Giving

In a scratched up wooden frame behind a broken piece of glass these words are written in beautiful calligraphy and hanging on my music room wall:  "I press on toward the mark for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus." It was a gift when I was a teenager from someone at my church in N.C., someone whose kindness I remember but whose name I have forgotten. This little plaque has moved with me many times; that's how it got broken. The words are from the Bible, Philippians 3:14. I have felt like that little broken frame carrying God's word around in my heart, trying to live by it. I was never quite sure what the goal was that I was suppose to be pressing toward, I just tried to press on in God's direction and hoped it would take me to the right place. I have learned that sometimes simply pressing on is enough. Press on for more of God, and I promise He will meet you more than halfway.

You're going to love the prize.

Much love,
Kim

Forgive and ForWHAT?

When I was a kid, 9 or 10 years old, I was riding in the back seat, unseen, unheard,  and unbuckled, listening to a conversation between the two grown-ups in the front:

"...and she should never...and she's so this and so that...and she ALWAYS does this to us...and furthermore, and so forth...well, I'll forgive, but I WON'T forget," he declared.

"No, of course not," she replied. "That would be foolish. I don't forget, but that doesn't mean I haven't forgiven."

To which he responded, "People never change. Forgiving is NOT forgetting; after all, we can't help it if we remember. "

They nodded. They agreed. They grew old. They forgot, but not the wrongs done them. By the look of them now it seems they forgot that they had ever promised to forgive.

Much Love,

Kim

Hello, My name is Kim and I'm a blogger.

Here I go, blogging. When I first heard that word a few years ago I thought it was a joke. It sounds like "blah" as in "blah, blah, blah," a direct quote from Charlie Brown's teacher. Blog. It's the sound my shoe makes when I pull my foot out of slimy mud. Enough. I give up. I'm blogging. I hope this connects me with more people to care about, who might care what I have to say.

I follow some blogs. I've read books that were blogs first. My favorite so far is Ignore Everybody, by Hugh MacLeod. I guess writers blog. Actually, writers write, and if they handed me a pink crayon and a cinder block and told me it was the new format, I'd peel myself a crayola and start scratching out some lines.

So, thanks for checking out my blog. This should be fun.... Much Love, Kim