Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May

To The Virgins, to Make Much of Time
by Robbert Herrick
1591-1674

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morroe will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he's a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he's to setting.

The age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.
 
Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry:
For having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry.

The Not-So-Merry Month of May

Well, at 5 am. today our puppy dog Ruby went to doggie heaven. I KNOW there is no such thing, but it does help me grieve better.....She's buried out in our own Pet Cemetery down near the garden. We bought a Rose-of-Sharon tree on Friday to place down there to mark Jazz & Briar, never thinking that we'd see another dog go there. She was 5 months old. She was a happy pup; very quick, aggressive, and enjoyed a good run. She found a short tail shrew which she decided to eat and that was her undoing. Our neighbor looked up this shrew on the internet because Dave felt that the pup had been poisoned. The SHREW emits a venom that paralyzes its' victims and then the venom works on the muscles and nervous systems of said victims. It can cause a great deal of pain to humans, too, if they decide to handle the animal. Though Ruby was quite a bit larger than the SHREW, and had regurgitated the meal, the damage was done. Symptoms showed up later and she got to the vet's too late.

Ruby was the "runt" of our past litter. I had decided to keep her because she seemed like such a "lonesome girl" in that she didn't relate to the other nine so quickly. But as the pups went to their new homes, she came out of her "shell" and began to harass the other pups and adult dogs. She was FEARLESS! We are missing her......

The Merry Month of May

Here we are half way through May 2010! The days move along rather quickly. I've been doing some reading: The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes, The Body of Death by Elizabeth George, and now Preaching to a Postmodern World by Graham Johnston. This last book is a definitive expose' of our world as we live it now; no absolute truth, your truth is for you and not for me. Hard to tell others of Jesus saving Grace in this type of world. However, I am only in the FIRST chapter of this reading, so there is more to come, I can see.

Mother's Day has come and gone; I do not need to celebrate the parents' days now, I guess, but of course, I did pause and think about both Mom & Dad and the TRUE legacy that they left us the siblings. I have come to realize that it is a different legacy for each one of us. It seems that even though all five of us lived in the same house, under the same set of parents, our experiences have had different outlooks as to what really transpired. And my dear Mother told me one time that SHE didn't remember the stuff I talked about, so it didn't happen and I was making it all up! (The key view to postmodern philosophy...denial!) WOW! That set me back for a bit as I protested that these things most certainly happened....I find the things my Father taught me to be the core of my life's beliefs. My Dad was really pretty tolerant of Mother except when she'd tell him ethnic jokes that she'd learned at Syracuse China. Then he didn't want us to hear these and form prejudicial ideas about various peoples; God had created us all and we were to take that into account.

I now wonder what other people are learning in their homes in today's world and what will they take away from their parents that will help them to successfully live/cope with their lives? Our families are being destroyed by the world's views and the pull to "be like everyone else" is very strong in all people. The Jews of Israel wanted to be "like all the nations" instead of being separate and God's chosen people, and look at the heartache and problems they incurred over the centuries because of their choices! So some knowledge of history is necessary if we are to NOT REPEAT the same mistakes that others have made before us.

Well, I need to digress and finish my chores; they are ever with me. LOL....