My Time at the Inn

Do you ever get discouraged? Do your circumstances in life cause you to complain? Do you sometimes have sad, lonely thoughts?  Honestly, who among us has not experienced some of these at some times in our lives?  I know I have.  Today, in my devotional reading from Martin Luther's Through Faith Alone devotion, available through Concordia Publishing House,  I found answers for the difficult moments in life.  We all have these moments, but we can find help through the Word of God. The answer is simple, really, just praise the Lord. (Psalm 118:14.  Luther says that when we are happy and sing praises to God, the devil has to flee from us. When we begin to praise the Lord and think upon Him, our complaining and impatience will soon end.  How can we complain and be impatient when we are thinking upon our God who has done so much for us?  When we think of His promises to us that He will never leave nor forsake us nor forsake us, or "God is not a man th...

Cork, Ireland As we did our dinner dishes this afternoon, my daughter and I got to thinking about what might have led our family to leave their home in Cork, Ireland to immigrate to America.  My Great Great Grandfather Thomas O'Harra (This is how the family spelled the name) was born in Cork.  The stories I heard from my Grandmother was that they came over sometime either before or during the Irish Potato Famine.  Ireland had been a quite a struggle with Great Britain, before this as well, and apparently, Cork suffered severely. It was time of great poverty.  Perhaps that is why the family left.  I heard from my Grandmother that the O'Harra family had suffered a great deal in Ireland and sacrificed a great deal to come to this country.  I don't know all the truth to her stories, because all they passed down was the spoken record not a written record, and they are difficult to trace.  I don't have the time to spend on "endless genealogies",...

Today, in the book I use for my morning devotions, Martin Luther said, "A Christian is righteous and a sinner at the same time--both a friend and an enemy of God. " (From 365 De3votional Readings from Martin Luther, Through Faith Alone." )  I suppose philosophers though the ages have wondered how that can be, and that is what led  to works righteousness.  If they do enough good works, they would not feel the sin any longer.  I know I am a sinner, and I struggle, but Christ is the answer to all my struggles. This week I have struggled with fear.  I kept thinking of the verse that says, "anything not of faith is sin".  So my sin is always before me.  Today, I realized that perfect love casts out fear. Not my love for Christ, but God's divine love for me.  It's truly amazing.  God loves me so much that when I had yet to be born, Christ knew me and died for me.  The human mind cannot comprehend this.  So how do we struggl...

I finished the sweater tonight!  I decided to add some color by using the flower buttons.  Buttons can make all the difference to a garment.  I hope the little one's mommy enjoys it!  I think the next time I make one, I will not make so many buttonholes. I think two or three at the top might be enough.  What do you think? Next time, I think I'll make it lacy too.  That might be fun, again, what do you think?  It is fun to be creative and make these little sweaters.  I am toying with the idea of putting them in an Etsy shop.  Hope your evening is restful!  Good night!  Guten Nacht!

Last night as I worked away on a lovely baby sweater, for a friend's baby, I realized I made a mistake, and had to take out about 3 inches of knitting. Now, I have had to this before, but what made this tricky was that I am knitting this sweater from the top down, all in one piece. The sleeves are on stitch holders, and these are knitted on the round.  That made things tricky, because it becomes difficult to keep tension even.  I did it,  but I felt rather like Fraggle Rock, in this little song.  I thought some of you knitters might appreciate my little dilemma.  For those of you who do not knit, just think of the times you have made mistakes, it might make you smile. I hope you all enjoy a blessed Saturday!

I love reading!  So far this month I have read three good books.  Alexander McCall Smith wrote two of them, The Sunday Philosophy Club and La's Orchestra Saves the World .  I recommend both of them; I enjoy anything written my McCall Smith.  He writes with vividness and in La's Orchestra, I found myself caught up in La's world.  The third book by John Knowles, A Separate Peace , is a thought-provoking book.  Do we all have war inside of us?  Must we make peace with ourselves before we can make peace with the world as it is?  John Knowles first novel makes one think, as does McCall Smith's, La's Orchestra and Th e Sunday Philosophy Club.  If you have not read these good books, I encourage you to give them a try, and if you have read them, I would like your thoughts on them, Dear Reader. I am currently tackling three books, McCall Smith's Tears of the Giraffe , the second book in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Series, Flora Thompson's Lark...

My grandmother, Carrie May Thorn O'Harra, affectionately known by her grandchildren as Muzzy, gave her family a wonderful heritage.  Not in wealth, for she was poor, but she left us the gift of laughter.  I remember her as always upbeat and positive. She was not perfect, for I know she had a sharp tongue that she could use on occasion.  None of us are perfect, but she had an ability to see joy in life.  She was always ready to smile and share a joke or two, and always, she had time for her children and grandchildren.  I always picture her in a dress and apron, very neat and tidy.  I remember the game she played with me called Drink Tea.  She would fix a pot of tea, and after pouring the hot, brown aromatic tea into her best china cups, she would begin to spin a tale.  After reaching a very curious spot in her adventure, she would say, "Drink Tea," and we would take a sip of tea, and it would be my turn to continue the story where she left o...

 Photo by J.T  Saturday we made a trip to Whitewater Draw, near Willcox, Arizona to see the migration of the sandhill cranes.  There were thousands of them in flight, and the sight amazed all who saw it.  As many as 30,000 cranes migrate in this area, and they come from as far away as Siberia. They came in groups one group followed by another in continuous flights from around ten o'clock in the morning until around two-thirty in the afternoon.  We always new when a new group approached, because the ones already on the ground called them in.  There would be silence from the flocks on the ground, and then slowly we heard the cooing call arise louder and louder as the newest flock approached.  This amazed me, for it sounded as they encouraged the new groups in as though to say, "We are here, the long journey  has ended, come in and rest."  When the new flock landed, silence returned over the area once again. The Lord's creation always ...

Yesterday I went to work at the church library ready to start another ordinary day, but wanting to be on the lookout for the extraordinary, right? Two things leaped out at me.  First my day was far from ordinary. The printer refused to work, my Internet didn't work, and when I tried to put the tape on the barcode labels, the tape kept wrinkling and I had to reapply it, which of course meant making a new barcode, but of course the printer wouldn't work, so I couldn't do that. So an ordinary day can twist itself into knots on occasion. Later in the morning, I did get help with the printer, the Internet came back on, and I returned to that mundane routine, which I found quite fun.  So, routine is good.  It certainly is better than a knotty type of day! As I walked to the school library with some books that belonged there, I glanced at the overcast, dreary sky, and in the distance I heard birds singing.  They made the sky less dreary.  While contemplating that, ...

Today I go back work at the church library.  I had taken time off to be with family during the holidays, and Sunday, our son goes back to college in Texas.  Today seemed like a good day to return to my "mundane" tasks of preparing books to be shelved.  Books, that frustratingly, few people will check out.  Life returns to the ordinary routine.  So, I asked myself this morning, what is good about the mundane,ordinary things in life? I found the answer to be that ordinary days give us routine, and we need routine in life.  Routine gives us rhythm to life.  But I also found that ordinary days become extraordinary days with Christ.  He gives us another day to breathe, another day to serve, another day to be a light to shine in this dark sin-infested world.  Even all alone in the church library, I can have a day of wonder.  The last time I was in the library before winter break, I came across a commentary by Paul Kretzmann, and I sat and re...

The obsolete definition of discipline is instruction.  Discipline instructed rather than punished.  According to Merriam Webster's first meaning, it means to punish.  This is what we often think of when we hear the word discipline.  The third meaning, again according to Merriam Webster, discipline means a field of study.  If you went to college for nursing, nursing is your discipline.  The fourth Merriam Webster meaning relates to the second, obsolete meaning: training that molds, or perfects the mental faculties or moral character.  This relates to instruction in that when we discipline a child, for example, we don't or shouldn't want to merely punish the bad behavior, but we should strive to correct it.  Let's say you have a child sit in time out when she misbehaves, but you give no instruction about the bad behavior or what good behavior you expect from the child, then what has the child really learned?  She has learned that she may spen...

Yesterday, Saturday, January 7, 2012, we spend the morning with a good friends.  We met a Beyond Bread, and drank hot coffee, ate yummy toast, and had good fellowship with a treasured friend on all kinds of topics. We discussed the philosophy of music; authors that made us laugh, think, and cry; people who crossed our paths and went different ways.  We had a delightful morning.  We meet with this friend once a month, and we always look forward to the time shared with him.  When our son returns to college for his spring session, we will skype him, and he will join us in this lively talk. From there we went to the Friends of the University of Arizona Library Book Sale.  We browsed the various books, but only one really caught my eye, Kochen Heute by Arne Kruger and Annette Wolter.  A German Cookbook! It was written in 1973 and the photos are wonderful.  This one will be fun!

My husband has the patience of Job; and  when it comes to me,  I think I require a lot of patience.  Yesterday, when I went to work on my quilt, I discovered the sewing machine did not work. When I plugged in the foot pedal cord to my Bernina, it just would not move the machine.  I had some trouble with this in the past, but if I jiggled the cord, it would usually go.  I worked at for about five minutes, and then I got my husband.  He can fix anything!  He came into the room, and he tried, and nothing happened, so he said, "Let's just take it the Bernina store and get it fixed."   So, off we went with foot pedal and book about my particular Bernina machine in tow.  We live in the country and everything is at least 30 or more minutes away from us.  We arrive at the store and the gal plugs my foot pedal into one of the machines there, and it worked perfectly.  I felt pretty silly, but my husband thought that meant the machine its...

I have worked on my quilt, and the piecing can be tricky, especially since I am a new quilter.  Learning precision helps: cutting accurately, sewing precise seams, and precise measurements all work together to make a beautiful finished product.  If you know me, you know that the most challenging thing I face is the precision element.  Yesterday, I took out as much as sewed, and I had to recut a couple of pieces, and I felt the frustration mount, but in the end I got the pieces put together. I had to learn patience.  Patience for my Irish temperament does not come easily, but the reward of seeing it look good far outweighed any frustration. My mother left me a lot of quilt blocks in many different styles.  She never pieced them together.  I wonder now if she simply enjoyed the work of getting the pieces to form a unique block?  She made the Dresden plate, butterfly, nine patch, four patch, and many other patterns I have yet to learn the names of....

Blue sky on a glorious day Yesterday we had the blessing of visiting with dear friends whom we have not seen in quite a while. The men gathered and had their fellowship in the living room, while we women took our hot tea outside on the patio, our sewing in hand. We did a lot of sewing and a lot of talking, and I must say my dear friend encouraged me immensely. As the warmth of our Arizona sun shined upon us, so the warmth of the love and fellowship of my dear friend warmed my heart and encouraged me. At one point I looked up and saw a row of birds perched upon a wire. It was though they looked upon us and our sewing approvingly, and I think I said, "They are watching us enjoying ourselves." Silly, isn't it, but that part of me that has the big imagination, imagined a little children's story of a group birds singing encouragement to the sewers below them. It was a glorious day!   We had some light-hearted laughter, and some deep philosophical talk about music as...

"Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee."( Hebrews 13.5) This was part of my devotions four days ago, and I have pondered it ever since. Paul also says in Philippians 4:11, "Not that I speak in respect of want; or I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."  Contentment.  Noah Webster's 1828 dictionary defines content as,"Rest or quietness of the mind in the present condition; satisfaction which holds the mind in peace, restraining complaint, opposition , or further desire, and often implying a moderate degree of happiness."  Do you struggle with being content with yourself, or what you have?  Do you find yourself a little envious of others?  If I am honest with you, I would have to say I am not always content.  I struggle with it. I would have to say honestly, that I would like a different house, a new stove, etc.,bu...

Each new year brings with it so much potential, doesn't it?  It seems like the slate can be wiped clean, and we can begin a fresh start, even without resolutions, which I loathe, the years holds a lot of potential.  It will be what each of us make it, I suppose. I read a blog where the author wrote a list of things she would like to do in January.  She had a lot she wanted to accomplish, and I commend her for it, but just reading the list wore me out!  But she had a good idea, in that she said when you write down on paper you can check off as accomplished, and then things get done.  So I decided to try her idea, but make the list shorter, smaller bites, so to speak, and perhaps I too can get things done. Her list motivated me, perhaps something I write, may motivate you.  As Christians, we are here to help one another grow, and I can do that, then I have accomplished one of my long-term goals (note: I see a difference between a goal and a resolutio...

May God grant you a very blessed and Happy New Year! Thank you all for taking the time to stop in and read my musings.