What to Wear

The moment I wake up

Before I put on my makeup

I say a little pray for you

While combing my hair now

And wondering what dress to wear now

I say a little prayer for you

Or

Tumble outta bed and I stumble to the kitchen

Pour myself a cup of ambition

Yawn and stretch and try to come to life

Jump in the shower and the blood starts pumpin'

Out on the street the traffic starts jumpin'

With folks like me on the job from 9 to 5

While neither of these actually fits my morning routine, they often do pop into my head as I am laying out my clothes for the next day. I had to really contemplate what I was going to wear today. It’s kind of a special day at the office. The candidates for our new director will be in this week: today, Wednesday, and Friday. Today’s candidate is the favored one at this point in the process. We actually attended the same graduate school, and I want to impress him considering that I want him as my new boss. I hope he holds up to what we think of him so far. One of the difficult things about this process is that we have an internal candidate. And as much as I may like him, I don’t want him as my boss. I don’t think he’s ready for the position. Whoever becomes director, I will only have to deal with them for a few months since I will be out at the end of October. Hopefully, whoever the successful candidate is, I can deal with them for the next six months.

By Himself

And when he had sent them away, he departed into a mountain to pray. (KJV) ( Mark 6:46 ) 

Prior to this verse Jesus had performed a miracle by feeding thousands with only a bit of food.  His immediate reaction is to draw away to pray and rest.  Praying has a way of filling you up with energy, restoring, and recharging.  It's very important if we have intense schedules or physically demanding duties, we take time to reconnect with God and restore ourselves.  If you are able, take today to draw away, in order to draw close to the Lord.  If today isn't possible, plan a day this week to do this. 

Moment of Zen: That Smile

History

I’m off work today but have to work tomorrow. Do you know what that means? If you’ve been following this blog then you know I’m taking a museum studies class, and I have to go to a museum each week. So if you guessed that I’m going to a museum, then you’d be right. This week, it’s a history museum. I will be going to the Vermont Historical Society. It’s just up the road in Montpelier, so hopefully, it will be a nice trip.

Prohibition Pig

One of the problems in Vermont is there are very few places where you can get really good food, which is why I cook myself more than eating out. Every once in while though you find a real gem. Last night I found one such gem, Prohibition Pig in Waterbury. Prohibition Pig is known for their BBQ and beer. They have their own brewery in the back and brew up numerous Prohibition Pig beers, though they serve it in very small glasses. I don’t drink beer so, I didn’t have any. However, what I did have was their chopped BBQ pork, which was outstanding. It was spicy without being too spicy and their bacon BBQ sauce was delicious. With my chopped pork, I had collard greens, cheddar grits, and hush puppies. The collard greens were good, but not great. The cheddar grits were not grits and in my opinion were close to inedible. The hush puppies, however, tasted almost like my grandmothers, though they were very oddly shaped. Hush puppies should be close to round, these were shaped like ginger fingers. The BBQ pork was definitely the star, along with their delicious sweet iced tea. If you are ever in Waterbury, Vermont, I highly recommend that you check out Prohibition Pig.

The Tree of Knowledge

The Tree of Knowledge

by Shane McCrae

The hastily assembled angel saw
One thing was like another thing and that
Thing like another everything depend-
ed on how high it was the place you saw

Things from and he had seen the Earth from where
A human couldn’t see the Earth and could-
n’t tell most human things apart and though
He hadn’t ever really understood

His job he knew it had to do with seeing
And what he saw was everything would come
Together at the same time everything
Would fall apart and that was humans thinking

The world was meant for them and other things
Were accidental or were decora-
tions meant for them and therefore purposeful
That humans thought that God had told them so

And what the hastily assembled angel
Thought was that probably God had said the same thing
To every living thing on Earth and on-
ly stopped when one said Really back but then

Again the hastily assembled angel
Couldn’t tell human things apart and maybe
That Really mattered what would he have heard
Holy or maybe Folly or maybe Kill

About This Poem

“‘The Tree of Knowledge’ is part of a tiny sequence of poems featuring a being I call ‘the hastily assembled angel.’ A lot of the poems I’ve been writing lately seem to me to be very belated responses to the Martian poetry that briefly appeared in the United Kingdom about forty years ago, and so feature protagonists to whom Earth seems even more strange than it seems to people who live on Earth in a more everyday way. If our country is going to be led by a comic-book villain, our poems might as well be filled with Martians.”
—Shane McCrae

Shane McCrae is the author, most recently, of The Gilded Auction Block forthcoming from Farrar, Straus and Giroux and In the Language of My Captor (Wesleyan University Press, 2017), which was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He teaches at Columbia University and lives in New York City.

Seeds of Deeds

The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise. (KJV) ( Proverbs 11:30 ) 

Has someone done something thoughtful for you lately?  Have they gone out of their way for you?  It's easy to keep moving on or get busy and forget about recognizing them.  However, it's important to express to them your grateful heart.  Put a little thought into how you want to express your gratitude through friendship. 

Daily Devotional App

Moment of Zen: Sauna

When I was in graduate school, we had a great gym at the university and I used to love to go to the sauna and relax after a hard workout.

Goodbye, Mrs. Bush

Barbara Bush, the widely admired wife of one president and the fiercely loyal mother of another, died Tuesday evening. She was 92.

During her husband's 1992 presidential campaign, Barbara Bush stated that abortion and homosexuality are personal matters and argued that the Republican Party platform should not take a stand on them, saying that "The personal things should be left out of, in my opinion, platforms and conventions." Her personal views on abortion were not known, although her friends reported at that time that she "privately supported abortion rights." She explained, "I hate abortions, but I just could not make that choice for someone else.”

Not everyone liked her because she was outspoken and loyal to her family, but I always thought of her as a true lady who spoke her mind.

The Mock Song

BY JOHN WILMOT, EARL OF ROCHESTER

I swive as well as others do, 

I’m young, not yet deformed, 

My tender heart, sincere, and true, 

Deserves not to be scorned. 

Why Phyllis then, why will you swive, 

With forty lovers more? 

Can I (said she) with Nature strive, 

Alas I am, alas I am a whore. 

Were all my body larded o’er, 

With darts of love, so thick, 

That you might find in ev’ry pore, 

A well stuck standing prick; 

Whilst yet my eyes alone were free, 

My heart, would never doubt, 

In am’rous rage, and ecstasy, 

To wish those eyes, to wish those eyes fucked out.

John Wilmot (1 April 1647 – 26 July 1680) was an English poet and courtier of King Charles II's Restoration court. The Restoration reacted against the "spiritual authoritarianism" of the Puritan era. Rochester was the embodiment of the new era, and he is as well known for his rakish lifestyle as his poetry, although the two were often interlinked. He died at the age of 33 from venereal disease.

Cold

I have a bit of a cold, so I went to bed early last night.

Work

And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. (KJV) ( Genesis 2:15 ) 

Do you dread Monday mornings? Work was God's first task to humans in the Garden of Eden. God didn't give us work to make us trudge along in our days. He did it so we could receive joy from our accomplishments, seek Him, and bring glory to His name. If you don't find what you are doing to be a labor of love, try changing your attitude. Or try changing your circumstances. 

Daily Devotional App

Moment of Zen: Those Eyes

Dinner

I had a reception and dinner to attend last night at the university. So no real post today because I didn’t get in until late.

Inappropriate? Indecent? What do you think?

A man claims he was sexually harassed at a New York City gym when three men in a steam room with him dropped their towels and started pleasuring themselves. 

The alleged victim has filed a lawsuit against the fitness chain Equinox, after claiming he was enjoying an afternoon steam at the location on Broadway in Gramercy Park last November.   

'I'm relaxing, I'm sitting in the corner, it's very meditative,' the man, identified in court papers as just GB, told the New York Post.

'The steam clears... And I look across from me. This gentleman, sitting pretty close, his towel is open, his legs are spread and he's looking right at me, and the guy next to him was rubbing [the man's] inner thigh. 

'He's looking right at me, his towel's off, and he's masturbating.' 

GB, who is a straight single father, told the paper that he then looked around and realized the third man in the steam room at the time was also masturbating.

He then said he panicked and thought he wouldn't be able to escape - worried the three men might overpower him and sexually assault him. 

The alleged victim then quickly left the steam room, dressed and went to the front desk to report the incident, but said staff members didn't take any action. 

He said the incident left him 'shaken up.'  

GB also alleges in the Manhattan Supreme Court Filing that Equinox 'has known for as much as 10 years prior that similar wrongful acts were occurring in its steam showers.' 

In a recording, taken by GB and obtained by the Post, the manager of the fitness chain location acknowledged it was a problem.

'It's something that every gym in New York City, not just Equinox, has an issue with,' the manager can be heard saying. 

The gym, where memberships cost upwards of $200 a month, told the Post it 'thoroughly investigates' complaints. 

A spokeswoman for the location said staff 'did exactly what in this case,' adding 'we maintain a zero-tolerance policy for any inappropriate behavior in our clubs.' 

But GB claims the gym refused to revoke the masturbators' memberships.   

From UK Daily Mail

Random Thought

The other day, I overheard someone say that they “don’t believe in homosexuality.” What does that actually mean anyway? We aren’t something mythical. We aren’t ghosts. We are real, so there is no believe it or not. Homosexuality exists. I and many of you who read this blog attest to that fact. The thing is that what he really meant to say is that he doesn’t believe that homosexuality is a moral lifestyle. First of all, there is nothing moral or amoral about homosexuality, and second, it is not a lifestyle. It is a sexual orientation. This guy had it all wrong. He didn’t know what he was talking about. Even in liberal Vermont there are still people who feel this way, which is amazing to me. But it doesn’t matter what state or even country you live in there will always be those people who believe that homosexuality is wrong. One day, maybe that will change, but I’m afraid it’s a long way away.

By the Stream

By the Stream
by Paul Laurence Dunbar

By the stream I dream in calm delight, and watch as in a glass,
How the clouds like crowds of snowy-hued and white-robed maidens
pass,
And the water into ripples breaks and sparkles as it spreads,
Like a host of armored knights with silver helmets on their heads.
And I deem the stream an emblem fit of human life may go,
For I find a mind may sparkle much and yet but shallows show,
And a soul may glow with myriad lights and wondrous mysteries,
When it only lies a dormant thing and mirrors what it sees.

Fairbanks

Yesterday, as part of an assignment for the class I’m taking, I had to go to a natural history museum. I chose the Faibanks Museum in St. Johnsbury, VT. The Fairbanks Museum was founded in 1889 by St. Johnsbury industrialist Franklin Fairbanks.

Inside the classic Victorian building, you find a dazzling array of animals and artifacts, dolls and tools, shells and fossils, and much more! When Franklin Fairbanks opened the doors to this Museum in St. Johnsbury over a century ago, he invited all of New England to see beyond the horizon by bringing exquisite examples of natural science and beautiful artifacts from around the world to his home town. Inside, the collections include:

• natural science specimens (mounted birds, mammals, reptiles and fish; insects; nests and eggs; shells; fossils; rocks and minerals; herbarium)
• historical artifacts (tools; toys; dolls; textiles; weapons; archival photographs and documents)
• ethnological items representing Oceania, the Near East, Africa, Egypt, Japan and native North America.

It was a small museum but very interesting. The sheer number of birds in the collection is astounding.

I’d have liked to have gone to another museum while I was there. The Atheneum, which is the public library and art museum is supposed to be quite fabulous but sadly it was closed on Sunday. Another museum was also closed on Sunday, and yet another was closed for the winter. So, I only got to see the Fairbanks Museum.

Broken Walls

He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls. (KJV) ( Proverbs 25:28 )

God has given us a unique ability through the Holy Spirit...self-control. Unfortunately, we do a not-so-good job of letting our emotions, finances, and appetite for food get the best of us. Food is my major weakness. Merely shrugging our shoulders and accepting ourselves the way we are is not honoring to God. We should not allow ourselves to be at the mercies of our uncontrolled appetites. It is entirely possible to change. After all, we can do all things through Christ. Our body is a temple, and we should treat it as such.

Moment of Zen: 🙂

Needed Sleep

I made dinner then read the rest of my assignments for class and afterwards fell promptly to sleep. I must have been more tired than I realized. I didn’t wake until after 10 pm. So I wrote this and went back to sleep.

From you have I been absent in the spring (Sonnet 98)

From you have I been absent in the spring (Sonnet 98)
William Shakespeare, 1564 - 1616

 From you have I been absent in the spring,
When proud-pied April, dressed in all his trim,
Hath put a spirit of youth in everything,
That heavy Saturn laughed and leaped with him,
Yet nor the lays of birds, nor the sweet smell
Of different flowers in odor and in hue,
Could make me any summer’s story tell,
Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew.
Nor did I wonder at the lily’s white,
Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose;
They were but sweet, but figures of delight,
Drawn after you, you pattern of all those.
     Yet seemed it winter still, and, you away,
     As with your shadow I with these did play.

Back to School

In order to make myself more marketable searching for jobs, I’ve decided to go back to school to get a certificate in museum studies. It’s a three course program all online with Northwestern University. According to their website, “The Museum Studies certificate program unites history, theory and practical learning in a curriculum that prepares participants for professional or volunteer careers in administration, collections and specialty disciplines within museums, zoos, aquariums, parks and botanical gardens.” I am looking to be in the museum field for quite some time, but I need the credentials that this certification can give me. I will continue to look at community colleges for a return to teaching, but I’d really like to stay in museums. I’ve never taken an online course before, so this is a learning experience in more ways than one. Class starts today. I’ve already looked at some of the material and it looks quite manageable. I’m hoping this will be an enjoyable learning experience.

Happy Easter

Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him." So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes.

  But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned and said to him in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, "Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'" Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"-and that he had said these things to her.

John 20:1-18

Easter, which celebrates Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead, is Christianity's most important holiday. It has been called a moveable feast because it doesn't fall on a set date every year, as most holidays do. Instead, Christian churches in the West celebrate Easter on the first Sunday following the full moon after the vernal equinox on March 21. Therefore, Easter is observed anywhere between March 22 and April 25 every year. Orthodox Christians use the Julian calendar to calculate when Easter will occur and typically celebrate the holiday a week or two after the Western churches, which follow the Gregorian calendar.

For Jesus' mother, his disciples and his followers, Jesus' death was a tragedy. You can imagine that all hope was naturally gone. We today can face the same feeling. Many times in life, with homophobic politicians, the increasing rise of anti-gay homophobic groups, and everything that is going on in the world — war, famine, disease, natural disasters, discrimination, and hate — there can be a loss of hope and faith. Yet the resurrection gives us hope that no matter what has happened in our lives, no matter how much faith and hope we have lost, we can experience hope, we can overcome and regain whatever we have lost in our lives.

Our hope includes the knowledge that evil does not win. Sometimes today, it seems that the bad guy often wins. Sometimes it seems that the one who cheats, the one who lies, the one who steps on others to get ahead, is the one who prospers. Far too often, I read of this person cheating or that one (or catching a student cheating) or another kid, gay or otherwise, who has been bullied, lost hope, and committed suicide. How often do we read of politicians cheating, or working to make sure their businesses get the good contract? It seems that there is no hope for the little guy, the one who lives right, to ever get ahead.

With a positive attitude that through God we can accomplish anything, we truly can make the world a better place. With hope that springs eternal, just as the flowers in spring show the rebirth of the earth, we can be assured that God's promises will deliver a better day, a rebirth our faith. The promise that Jesus would rise from the grave on the third day is remembered every Easter Sunday, it is the greatest sacrifice God could give for our sins. When we are baptized, it is done in symbolic reverence as our old body dies in its watery grave to be reborn and rise from the dead as Christ did for our sins.