Autumn Wisdom

The Prophet Isaiah (55:12) talks about mountains and hills breaking forth into singing and trees clapping their hands.

It seems to me the mountains are singing clearer and louder in Autumn. It is in the Fall of the year that the mountains call us to see and hear and experience the beauty of the mountains!

John Muer made some interesting comments about trees, not just about trees singing but also preaching! He wrote: "Few are altogether deaf to the preaching of pine trees. Their sermons on the mountains go to our hearts; and if people in general could be got into the woods, even for once, to hear the trees speak for themselves, all difficulties in the way of forest preservation would vanish." -John Muir, naturalist, explorer, and writer (1838-1914)

A few years ago, Ken Cook, a meteorologist, spoke to our Retired Pastors group at Simpsonwod United Methodist Center about his flower business in North Georgia. He told us that his Dahlias bloom in the Spring and in the Fall. He said that when they bloom again in the Fall, the colors are more vibrant and sparkling than when they bloomed in the Spring.

More vibrant, more sparkling in the Fall? (The photo above is a small vase of the Amazingly beautiful Autumn blooming Dahlias from the garden of Terrell and Sheila Shaw (October 17, 2009) On the right is a dahlia blooming in a pot near my driveway now in October 2010. (photo by Joan)

What about the Autumn of life? I wrote a poem! The last verse of my poem is for all of us who are “old” and for the rest of us who are planning on getting a “whole lot older.”

Autumn Wisdom

I walked into October
And lifted up my ears to hear
The very mountains singing
Choir-robed for praise . . .
in Autumn . . . clear . . .

Sunset yellows, burning bush reds.
My heart . . . in awe . . . took off its shoes
And stood on Holy ground to view
Creation's God in Autumn hue . . .

For every tree was clapping
The Doxology . . . lifted high
I think some unseen maestro
Was pointing to the sky!

I heard the mountains singing
With concert voices raised
When every hill pulled out the stops,
Adorned in breathless Autumn praise!.

I shall long remember this:
The mountains grandest notes are sung
Not in springtime's newness .
But in Autumn’s aging tongue.

by R.B.S. copyright 1989

Five Get-To-Know-You Questions

Five Get-to-Know-You Questions


1. What was your favorite game as a child? Hop Scotch, Jack's.

2. What's the best thing about being you? I am blessed by my children and their children. I had the love of my husband, a good man. My parents were loving and good people. But finally and forever, my relationship with Christ.

3. What's your favorite meal of the day, and why? Breakfast. I do not know why...but it is the start of a new day.

4. Would you rather be exceptionally smart or exceptionally good-looking? Who in the world made up these questions? It is a difficult one in that most of us, it seems to me, want to be as smart and also as good looking as possible? My generation of women felt they were judged by the their appearance. So perhaps put too much importance on "looks." I always thought it would be nice to be a petite blond. But not a dumb one.

I taught a Senior Citizens Sunday School Class a few days ago. The lesson was about Paul writing to Timothy to instruct the church to take special care of the older men and women and especially the widows in the church. One of the women said, it is intersting how people pass by older women as if they do not see them. So we all agreed that losing one's "good looks" is about as difficult as losing one's mind. In which case I thank God to still have a good sense of humor.

5. How would you describe your underwear drawer? Unfortunately I have my own lonely bedroom so I have double the space I used to have. So everythng is fairly neat.

Happy Birthday Carol on August 26!

Happy Birthday Carol on August 26!

Carol is our middle child with a brother and two sisters older than she and two sisters and a brother younger. Carol calls herself The Median Sib, but there is nothing middle about her except being the fourth of seven children born to her daddy and me. On a scale of one to ten, she is a ten! Never a four!

Carol was a beautiful baby and a very feminine little girl with blond curly hair, She was as beautiful and wonderfully precocious as her own son and daughter and the three precious little granddaughters she now loves to be with and often writes about.

Carol is more like me in size (four other daughters being short in height as was their paternal grandmother and other women in the family. Carol is about five feet six as am I. Carol also shares my love for cooking. She is a fabulous and innovative cook.

Also, as Joan of Daddy’s Roses fame pointed out, Carol (and Joan) share my reserved nature so they may actually “understand me” somewhat better than their 5 more gregarious siblings.

However as we all know, none of us are limited by being “reserved” or “gregarious” but all of us are a combination of both with unlimited possibilities though the grace of Christ.

All those who have grown children know that they all think (whether they are reserved or gregarious) that they understand their parents only too well.

But I am blessed beyond measure to love and have a good relationship with all seven of my children and my five sons-in-law and two daughters -in -law. The picture on the left is Carol with her 3 younger siblings.

Happy Birthday Carol! Carol is an outstanding teacher and writer and has a great “Erma Bombeck” sense of humor illustrated in many of her articles published in the Nashville paper a few years ago.

The first snapshot on the left above is a current photo of Carol and next is Carol and her husband Ron with grandaughter Lily was diagnosed with Leukemia on December 1, 2009 and is doing well now. The picture on the right is Carol sitting next to me in our parsonage home in Ellijay GA. beside her is her two younger sisters. One her right is her daddy and two brothers.

In 2001 Carol (on the right) took time off to drive me to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore from my home inGeorgia for TriGeminal surgery by Dr Ben Carson. Carol and I spent a few days of recuperation with daughter Janice and her family in Maryland. The picture shows Carol and Janice with me in the hospital.

Hymns












Occupational Hymns

Dentist's Hymn.......................Crown Him with Many Crowns
Weatherman's Hymn...............There Shall Be Showers of Blessings
Contractor's Hymn..................The Church's One Foundation
The Tailor's Hymn...................Holy, Holy, Holy
The Golfer's Hymn..................There's a Green Hill Far Away
The Politician's Hymn..............Standing on the Promises
Optometrist's Hymn.................Open My Eyes That I Might See
The IRS Agent's Hymn.............I Surrender All
The Gossip's Hymn..................Pass It On
The Electrician's Hymn.............Send The Light
The Shopper's Hymn................Sweet Bye and Bye
The Realtor's Hymn..................I've Got a Mansion
Massage Therapists Hymn....... He Touched Me
The Doctor's Hymn..................The Great Physician
Husband's Hymn......................Oh Why Not Tonight

AND for those who speed - a few hymns:

45mph...God Will Take Care of You
65mph...Nearer My God To Thee
85mph...This World Is Not My Home
95mph...Lord, I'm Coming Home
100mph...Precious Memories


Give me a sense of humor Lord,
Give me the grace to see a joke,
To get some humor out of life,
And pass it on to other folk


(copied from email)

Mama as Midwife

Mama as Midwife
My mother was energetic and thoughtful.

After my Father's death, in addition to holding down a responsible job (as a weaver in the Cord Weave Shop, weaving heavy cloth for tents and other such material on massive looms ) in the large Osprey Mill near our home, Mama also did cooking, cleaning and looking after her family and was always ready to assist neighbors during sickness or childbirth

In the 1930's, babies were born at home in small town Georgia. Our neighbors would send for the doctor and often for Mama. I am told Mama was respectful and good at helping the young mother to rest and stay calm between contractions during labor.

Then a new doctor with new methods came to town. One day our neighbor, Mrs. Geneva Johnson had her eighth baby with the help of Mama and the new doctor. It was a boy.

Mrs Johnson, thrilled with her fifth son and eight child said, "I'm going to name him after Dr. William Baxter and Mrs. Baird." The baby was named William Baird Johnson. One reason Mrs. Johnson was so delighted with the baby and the people who delivered him was the "new" birth technique.

Dr. Baxley actually was able to "put Mrs. Johnson to sleep" before he delivered the baby.

Prior to Dr. Baxley's arrival in town, Mrs Johnson and other women in our area had their babies the old fashioned way...work (long and hard labor.) In other words "natural childbirth" without so much as a aspirin and without a coach. Well, the mid-wife was the coach. The husband-father had been banished from the room.

When Mrs. Johnson woke up and realized her baby had been born "while she was asleep", she was incredulous. Mama said Geneva kept saying over and over (still giddy from anesthesia,) "I don't plan on having any more young'uns (short for young ones), but if I do, I'm sure going to have Dr. Baxley here... and you, too, Mrs. Baird."

Saying of Will Rogers

Will Rogers, an American sage in the early part of the 1900's, died in a plane crash With Wylie Post in 1935.

I well remember the "Breaking News " about the death of Will Rogers in 1935. (on the radio and in the newspapers and word of mouth) Some say Rogers was probably the greatest political sage this country has ever known.

Some of his sayings include: :
1. Never slap a man who's chewing tobacco.
2. Never kick a cow chip on a hot day.
3. There are 2 theories to arguing with a woman...neither works.
4. Never miss a good chance to shut up.
5. Always drink upstream from the Herd.
6. If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.
7. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it and put it back in your pocket.
8. There are three kinds of men: The ones that learn by reading. The few who ` learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves.
9. Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

10. If you're riding' ahead of the herd, Take a look back every now and then to make sure it's still there.
11. Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier'n puttin' it back.
12. After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him.
13.Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.
14. When you're full of bull, keep your Mouth shut.

ABOUT GROWING OLDER.

First ~ Eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age
and start bragging about it.

Second ~ The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.

Third ~ Some people try to turn back Their odometers. Not me, I want people
To know "why" I look this way. I've traveled a long way and some of
the roads weren't paved.

Fourth ~ When you are dissatisfied and would like to go back to youth, think of Algebra.

Fifth ~ You know you are getting old when everything either dries up or leaks.

Sixth ~ I don't know how I got over the hill without getting to the top.

Seventh ~ One of the many things no one tells you about aging is that it
is such a nice change from being young.

Eighth ~ One must wait until evening to see how splendid the day has been.

Ninth ~ Being young is beautiful, but being old is comfortable.

Tenth ~ Long ago when men cursed and beat the ground with sticks, it was called witchcraft. Today it's called golf

Eleven~ If you don't learn to laugh at trouble, you won't have
anything to laugh at when you are old.

CINNAMON and HONEY

WeeklyWorld News, a magazine in Canada, in its January 1995 edition gave a list of diseases that are said to be cured by honey and cinnamon. Whether it is "Fact or Fiction," it is interesting reading?

HEART DISEASES: Make a paste of honey and cinnamon powder, apply on bread, instead of jellyand jam, and eat it regularly for breakfast. It reduces the cholesterol in the arteries and saves the patient from heart attack. Also those who have already had an attack, if they do this process daily, they are kept miles away from the next attack. Regular use of the above process relieves loss of breath and strengthens the heart beat. In America and Canada , various nursing homes have treated patients successfully and have found that as you age, the arteries and veins lose their flexibility and get clogged; honey and cinnamon revitalize the arteries and veins.

ARTHRITIS: Arthritis patients may take daily, morning, and night, one cup of hot water with two spoons of honey and one small teaspoon of cinnamon powder. If taken regularly even chronic arthritis can be cured. In a recent research conducted at the Copenhagen University , it was found that when the doctors treated their patients with a mixture of one tablespoon Honey and half teaspoon Cinnamon powder before breakfast, they found that within a week,out of the 200 people so treated, practically 73 patients were totally relieved of pain, and within a month, mostly all the patients who could not walk or move around because of arthritis started walking without pain.

BLADDER INFECTIONS:Take two tablespoons of cinnamon powder and one teaspoon of honey in a glass of lukewarm water and drink it. It destroys the germs in the bladder.

TOOTHACHE:Make a paste of one teaspoon of cinnamon powder and five teaspoons of honey and apply on the aching tooth. This may be applied three times a day until the tooth stops aching.

CHOLESTEROL:Two tablespoons of honey and three teaspoons of Cinnamon Powder mixed in 16 ounces of tea water, given to a cholesterol patient, was found to reduce the level of cholesterol in the blood by 10 percent within two hours. Asmentioned for arthritic patients, if taken three times a day, any chronic cholesterol is cured. According to information received in the said journal, pure honey taken with food daily relieves complaints of cholesterol.

COLDS:Those suffering from common or severe colds should take one tablespoon lukewarm honey with 1/4 spoon cinnamon powder daily for three days. This process will cure most chronic cough, cold, and clear the sinuses.

UPSET STOMACH:Honey taken with cinnamon powder cures stomach ache and also clears stomach ulcers from the root.

GAS:According to the studies done in India and Japan , it is revealed that ifhoney is taken with cinnamon powder the stomach is relieved of gas.

IMMUNE SYSTEM:Daily use of honey and cinnamon powder strengthens the immune system andprotects the body from bacteria and viral attacks. Scientists have foundthat honey has various vitamins and iron in large amounts. Constant use of honey strengthens the white blood corpuscles to fight bacteria and viral diseases.

INDIGESTION: Cinnamon powder sprinkled on two tablespoons of honey taken before food relievesacidity and digests the heaviest of meals.

INFLUENZA: A scientist in Spain has proved that honey contains a natural Ingredient which kills the influenza germs and saves the patient from flu.

LONGEVITY: Tea made with honey and cinnamon powder, when taken regularly, arrests theravages of old age. Take four spoons of honey, one spoon of cinnamon powder and three cups of water and boil to make like tea. Drink 1/4 cup, three to four times a day. It keeps the skin fresh and soft and arrests old age. Life spans also increases and even a 100 year old, starts performing the chores of a 20-year-old.

PIMPLES:Three tablespoons of honey and one teaspoon of cinnamon powder paste. Applythis paste on the pimples before sleeping and wash it next morning withwarm water. If done daily for two weeks, it removes pimples from the root.

SKIN INFECTIONS:Applying honey and cinnamon powder in equal parts on the affected parts cures eczema, ringworm and all types of skin infections.

WEIGHT LOSS:Daily in the morning one half hour before breakfast on an empty stomachand at night before sleeping, drink honey and cinnamon powder boiled in onecup of water. If taken regularly, it reduces the weight of even the most obese person. Also, drinking this mixture regularly does not allow the fat to accumulate in the body even though the person may eat a high calorie diet.

CANCER:Recent research in Japan and Australia has revealed that advanced cancer ofthe stomach and bones have been cured successfully. Patients suffering from these kinds of cancer should daily take one tablespoon of honey with one teaspoon of cinnamon powder for one monththree times a day.

FATIGUE: Recent studies have shown that the sugar content of honey is more helpful rather than! than being detrimental to the strength of the body. Seniorcitizens, who take honey and cinnamon powder in equal parts, are more alert and flexible. Dr. Milton, who has done research, says that a half tablespoon of honey taken in a glass of water and sprinkled with cinnamon powder, taken daily after brushing and in the afternoon at about 3:00 P.M. when the vitality of the body starts to decrease, increases the vitality of the body within a week.

BAD BREATH:People of South America , first thing in the morning, gargle with one teaspoon of honey and cinnamon powder mixed in hot water, so their breath stays fresh throughout the day.

HEARING LOSS: Daily morning and night honey and cinnamon powder, taken in equal partsrestore hearing. Remember when we were kids? We had toast with real butter and cinnamon sprinkled on it! And real honey from combs.

Happy Birthday Dear Janice

Happy Birthday to our Precious daughter, Janice On June 3. Jan1ce was our first baby. No couple could have been happier when our bright and beautiful Janice Dianne was born to Charles and me just ten months after our marriage. We were young and had much to learn, but were idealistic and eager to be good parents. Janice was a beautiful and outgoing child who learned to walk and talk early. Janice at 7 months in baby stroller.

With no children to play with at home, Janice slipped out of the yard to visit and talk to all the neighbors, children as well as the adults (a safe neighborhood).

With her shy mother close behind her, Janice taught me how to make friends with all my neighbors.

My wise mother mentioned to me that she had tired to teach her children many things but found she had also learned much from each of them.

I can say the same because Janice early on taught her young introverted mother how to be neighborly. Janice and my other children and grandchildren are still teaching me in my old age.


In fact today, when people compliment me for being "smart" because I went back to school and earned college and Seminary degrees after my children had already earned theirs, I tell them that if I have any "smarts" it is because I have been taught so much by my wonderful seven children, starting with Janice.

Janice was -- and still is -- a daughter to make her parents proud. She was and still is a loving “big sister" to her younger siblings, setting an example of excellence in school and in life and in her Christ centered career .

Happy Birthday to my precious, daughter...now a wife, mother, grandmother and Christian leader.

The Star Spangled Banner

The Star Spangled Banner

Lyrics By Francis Scott Key 1814

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave ...O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep, Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave, O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,

A home and a country, should leave us no more?

Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave

From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave ,O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand

Between their loved home and the war’s desolation.

Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n rescued land

Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto: “In God is our trust;”

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave, O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

The Boll Weevil and Peanut Butter.

I have written in another family story about my mother blaming the tiny bug called the "boll weevil" for our family giving up cotton farming.

The farm was in the community of Oak Hill. (Oak Hill is in Newton County near the Henry County line and also near Rockdale County.(about 30 miles Southeast of Atlanta). Cotton was king in the South, and most farmers made their living by raising cotton. When the boll weevil infested the cotton plants, it wiped out the cotton farmers’ profits. Many farmers lost their whole year's wages.

My father got a job in a nearby textile mills in Newton County and moved our family into Porterdale, a “model mill town” in the fall of 1922. I was born the next year
Giving up farming for life in a Textile town was a difficult decision. My father, also in failing health thought this his only option after the boll weevil wiped out his whole years profits.

However, Porterdale became "home sweet home" to my family. It was a great place to grow up with dedicated school teachers, as well as many church and community activities. My brothers, Tom and Jack who served in the Armed Forces during World War II, talked with such nostalgia about Porterdale, all their buddies declared they were looking forward to one day visiting Porterdale.

But Mama, in a time of class as well as race divisions was aware that "mill workers" were considered low class. She said she first thought of Porterdale as "the jumping off place,"a place where she would never have lived had it not been for the pesty, destructive Boll Weevil. Mama loved the farm and she sure had a "green thumb" in growing flowers in our small plot of ground as well as pots of flowers growing on the front porch.

Aunt Cora, Mama's older sister visited from Atlanta a week or so every year in her old age. After breakfast every morning she would say to Mama, "Lets go out and sit in the garden awhile." She and Mama would walk the few feet out the front door, and sit on the porch swing or in one of the comfortable rocking chairs amid the pots of flowers Mama had blooming.

We are told boll weevils first came to the United States from Mexico eating through Texas all the way East into the cotton fields in Alabama and Georgia.
I grew up hearing the boll weevil blamed for much of the continued povety in the South following the Civil War Between The States.

When the Cotton Factory Owners moved South looking for cheap labor, they apparently found plenty of hungry people, both Black and White looking for work. Early on, even children were hired for some of the jobs early on and later as soon as they were old enough. The Cotton Boll Weevil took people out of cotton fields into cotton mills.

So I was amazed to learn that someone actually built a monument to the boll weevil in Enterprise Alabama in 1919. The 13- and- a -half feet tall Boll Weevil Monument consists of a statue of a lady in a flowing white gown, with arms stretch high above her heard to display a big black boll weevil. It is surrounded by a lighted fountain. It seems that two enterprising business men (H.H. Sessions, C.W. Baston) in Enterprise Alabama determined that peanuts would make a good crop to plant where cotton had been grown.

Dr. George Carver of Alabama's Tuskegee Institute also did research to find as many products as possible using peanuts. . Carver did not invent peanut butter but did popularize the use of peanut butter and found hundreds of industrial uses for the peanut plant. It is hard to believe that when cotton was king there was "no such thing" as peanut butter?

I like the story Gregg Lewis , my son-in-law tells about George Washington Carver's conversation with God. In Carver's words: "I said to God, Mr. Creator, I would like to know all about the creation of the world." And God answered, "Little man, your mind is too small to understand creation, ask something more your size. Then I said, Mr. Creator, I would like to know all about the little peanut." Big men like Dr. George Washington Carver are brilliant enough to understand human limitations. Little men like whats-his-name in California who brag about their atheism are too small to ever see more than an inch beyond their nose and beleive in anyone or anything they cannot fully comprehend.

Albert Einstein said, “The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious . It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true science. He who knows it not and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead.” Einstein’s view is shared by other great scientists like Niels and Bohr, who concluded there is room in a rational universe for incomprehensible wonders.