As always, this comes courtesy of the nice humans at Greensboro Birds.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Equal opportunity
Bird blogging continues. This one --local like the previous birds-- is a Red-bellied Woodpecker. As always, this comes courtesy of the nice humans at Greensboro Birds.
As always, this comes courtesy of the nice humans at Greensboro Birds.
Friday cat blogging: "Birds Out There"
Yes, this is what I titled this photo back in January '06 after I had it developed and printed. That is, yet again, the late lamented Sensei, sitting on his computer (he made clear early on that I only had it on loan, see be
low a second photo titled "This laptop is MINE" which is from the same day) and checking out the birds from the window of my study at home.
Honoring Florence Nightingale and all nurses
Today the Episcopal Church remembers Florence Nightingale. (1820-1910)I want to honor all nurses along with her, and may add a bit to this post later in the day. (My blogging is going to get sporadic the next few weeks while I retreat to work on a Big Academic Tome and other personal writings offline.)
Meanwhile, here are some biographies. Read 'em. This is one interesting woman.
There is a good bio at the Daily Office site. Go here and then scroll down (below Canticle 18) and click on Florence Nightingale's name for the bio by James Keifer.
From the Florence Nightingale Museum in the U.K.
From Spartacus School U.K. online.
This one, shorter, has a focus on the conditions patients endured in FN's day.
Note how appalling the nursing and medical conditions were in Nightingale's day and how much she changed them!
Life-giving God, who alone have power over life and death, over health and sickness: Give power, wisdom, and gentleness to those who follow the example of your servant Florence Nightingale, that they, bearing with them your Presence, may not only heal but pain and fear; through Jesus Christ, the healer of body and soul, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
************From the Daily Office site
Eating the words of God
Dorothee Soelle said that you should eat a Psalm for breakfast every day.
In the Morning and Evening Prayer of the Episcopal and Catholic and Orthodox and many other churches, there are Psalms, of course, as there are (in greater number) in the various monastic offices.
But one Psalm will do.
In fact --I have written this before-- the words of Morning Prayer are often too much for me. If I am alone (the group prayer experience is different) I have to break up MP if I say it, because I just want to chew on the Psalm for a while.
This morning's scriptures in the Daily Office offered a related story:
I looked, and a hand was stretched out to me, and a written scroll was in it. [God] spread it before me; it had writing on the front and on the back, and written on it were words of lamentation and mourning and woe.
[God] said to me, O mortal, eat what is offered to you; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth, and [God] gave me the scroll to eat. [God] said to me, Mortal, eat this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it. Then I ate it; and in my mouth it was as sweet as honey.
******** Ezekiel 2:9-3:3
In the Morning and Evening Prayer of the Episcopal and Catholic and Orthodox and many other churches, there are Psalms, of course, as there are (in greater number) in the various monastic offices.
But one Psalm will do.
In fact --I have written this before-- the words of Morning Prayer are often too much for me. If I am alone (the group prayer experience is different) I have to break up MP if I say it, because I just want to chew on the Psalm for a while.
This morning's scriptures in the Daily Office offered a related story:
I looked, and a hand was stretched out to me, and a written scroll was in it. [God] spread it before me; it had writing on the front and on the back, and written on it were words of lamentation and mourning and woe.
[God] said to me, O mortal, eat what is offered to you; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth, and [God] gave me the scroll to eat. [God] said to me, Mortal, eat this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it. Then I ate it; and in my mouth it was as sweet as honey.
******** Ezekiel 2:9-3:3
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Alan Johnston (abducted BBC reporter) support
As a member of a family of journalists, including foreign correspondents, I feel compelled to post this. With acknowledgment, of course, that many others suffer in the region and that many other journalists have met with danger and demise especially in the last decade. But we all have our personal connections. I am always moved to hear the brief acknowledgement of Johnston on the BBC when I listen to its radio news, which I do often.
(I generally listen to the BBC on my local public radio station, but as you will see via the "radio news" link above, you can listen online.)
I should figure out where to post this semi-permanently on the sidebar, but meanwhile, here it is. Click on the picture for the BBC site and a small way to help.
On related matters, the Committee to Protect Journalists is here.
I salute my relatives -- and I mean not just my blood relatives, but journalists worldwide, to whom I will always feel related.
**********************
A post-scriptum on May 20: I had no idea when I wrote the above that the day I posted this, May 17, was Alan Johnston's 45th birthday. Look at the article with AJ's father's face (same blue eyes - scroll down a bit for that photo) and his birthday message, too.
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