This Morning

Last night I sensed people praying and had a good evening in that regard. I had no dreams, and slept all the way through, at least that's what I recall. I curled my hair and read several interesting passages in Old and New Testament and also prayed. I felt a lot of encouragement from what I got.

I got to the gym and came through the back door to the front and caught some of the Obama-Tusk speeches. I felt a few times of good energy. I caught most of it, didn't know there was yet another speech, and came in right after the Polish guy started speaking. I thought of my mom a lot too because she predicted a lot of things last night that were true. She didn't tell me she was doing that, she just did.

She said, while she was on the phone with me last night, "The pen." Something to someone else about a pen while at the bank and then she said emphatically, "I'll take it!" and I said to her, "You'll take what?" and she said, "A 3 day weekend." ?? I don't know, something seemed weird.

Then I was at the women's shelter and I went up without getting my curlers. I had one bag at the gym and one bag at the shelter. So I was upstairs and went downstairs to grab them and to the office for a minute and there was a pen sitting there on the desk and the woman was on the telephone and I wasn't paying attention but while she was on the phone, I had no plan or purpose but I just took her pen off of her desk and put it in the "outgoing mail" box to the side. Right as I did, she had been in the middle of saying a sentence and I had just dropped it in the box when she finished her sentence with ."..the pen." She had just been in the middle of a sentence to the woman upstairs saying, "I will have someone go up with a pen." Something like that. And she got as far as "go up with (PLOP! I dropped it into an outgoing mail box) a pen."

And she stared, gaping at me and I said, with my chin up in the air, "Have a good night!" and turned, sharp military style, straight posture, and left and then thought, "Hmm, I don't know what I just did but that was interesting." And then I thought about my mom.

The woman at the desk hadn't said one word about the pen and I just took it, the only one on her desk, and moved it to a standing carrier for "Outgoing mail" and left. And it was never thinking once about my mom either. But I DID think about my mom later, and wondered if somehow she had known I was going to do this before I even did.

Anyway. I think someone had made something symbolic out of it maybe but I wouldn't know what it was supposed to mean, if anything, just a prediction I would grab a pen and I didn't know I was going to do it either. I thought about it after the fact.

Then I curled my hair up and felt great energy and then I got to the gym and when I went to my locker I discovered someone who works at the gym got into my secured locker that no one has a key to except for a Y worker, and made 4 cuts into the plastic bag that holds my other set of curlers. I wouldn't have even noticed, because I had already curled my hair up last night and wasn't going to do it again, but I looked at saw someone had did this and knew without a doubt someone from the Y is accessing my paid-for and secured locker. And whatever point they are trying to make by putting cuts into the bag, isn't appreciated one bit. Keep your hands to yourself or you will be caught. I showered this morning but I didn't get my hair wet.

Then I picked out some books (ended up taking 4) from the library and that's what I'm going to do. I'm just going to type out sections from these books and work on my speed and listening and learning what I picked out. I went at random, to a section and picked the first one out: Women in Congress (1917-2006), and then Robert's Rules of Order (newly revised) 10th edition on Parliamentary Process. I just picked these out at random, the one not because I'm interested in congress but in lives of people and I thought I'd find out what Congress is. Because actually, I don't even know. Then the next one was smack in front of me, and it's about parliamentary process so I thougth I'd look at this. I'm not going to write about these though.

If anything, writing excerpts of poetry, yesterday, wasn't truly just getting up my word speed. It had nothing to do with that and I was joking. What it did do is generate all these ideas for poetry in my mind. And if I am putting in excellent literature and poetry, I am going to feel more inspired to write. I had this very fun, rollicking poem in my mind yesterday but I only wrote down one line.

Then I went to the next book, from the poetry section and chose "The Oxford book of Christian Verse" chosen and edited by Lord David Cecil and then the last book I pulled out, after I pulled it out, it had this big UNIcoorn on it (Brewser's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable) by John Ayto.

I like this quote I've found from the women's suffragists for Congress. They are holding up a poster that says: "No self-respecting woman shoud wish or work for the success of a party that ignores her." Susan B. Anthony.

I will probably just skim this book and go to wiki for an overview of what Congress does and then look up other parts of government stuff later. I randomly opened up to a page for "Clare Boothe Luce". I think I'll just open to a few women's bios and highlight a couple of things and then mve on. This woman's photo is captivating. She has blond wavy hair and dark lips with eyebrows like bows and wears a striped shirt with a black jacket over it and a very large rose on her lapel. I especially noted how beautiful this rose looks. She was a Republican from Connecticut. She once described her philosophy as "America first, but not only." She was elected in 1942, having never held an office before. She had a few husbands and children, and wrote a Broadway hit called "The Women", a satire about idle, rich, women. Her interest in politics took off during The Great Depression. she worked as

(All of the worship music was about dying so I switched to my station I created for my son Oliver. And the first song is "Go the Distance" by Hercules.)

Anyway, there is too much about every woman to write about. The main thing would be that she was noted for saying exactly what she thought and wasn't afraid to do it, at a time when it was more uncommon.

The next woman is Ella Tambussi Grasso (1919-1981), Democrat From Connecticut. She has a pretty name (I like it, personally): Ella Rose Giovanna Oliva Tambussi. She was someone who was in politics a long time and for whom the office in Congress was just another thing on Capitol Hill but she preferred state politics. She worked on things like bringing up minimum wage, through the Fair Labor Act.

The next one is Sue Myrick (1941-). Republican from N. Carolina. She has fought a personal battle with breast cancer and has worked on legistlature to sponsor federal program funds for low income women to get medical treatment. She also supports prayer in schools, and is opposed to abortion. She left her post in Congress to take a position in Energy and Commerce Committee and focuses on cancer and brain disease issues. She enacted drug and crime fighting programs and welfare initiatives.

Ruth Hanna McCormick (had a motto of "No Promises and No Bunk!" She worked on Agriculture Committee. She got into politics when she was looking for decent milk for her kids and and was appalled by unsanitary conditions at dairies. She opened a dairy and then got into politics involving agriculture. She also organized women voters.

Deborah A. Stabenow (1950-) is a Democrat from Michigan. In 2000 she became the first woman to represent Michigan in the Senate. She worked on laws for protection against child abuse and neglect. She also worked to bring in computers to the poor, and organzied bus trips to Canada to buy cheaper prescription drugs. She has made healthcare one of her primary task. She also sponsored bans on drilling near Great Lakes, and has passed some bills involving tax cuts for jobs in the U.S.

The last one I'll note, which just happens to be another woman I turned to, is Millicent Fenwick (1910-1992), New Jersey Republican. The main thing about her, was how outspoken she was. She was called the Katherine Hepburn of Politics, and also had a title of Conscience of Congress. She got involved during the 1930s and was so fiscally good at managing money, she was able to return more than $450,000 in unspent allowances to the U.S. Treasury. She also returned $35,000 in congressional pay raises that made her feel uncomfortable. She was also known to be a careful observer of others, spending a lot of time watching debtes of others, because getting to know them and where they were coming from, and could better evaluate them and know who to trust. She didn't take money from special interests and said, "Nobody pressures me! And nobody has the right o...say, "we supported you, didn't we? You'd better vote for this. And after she said this, she lost. It was written about her, "She fought the good fight," and she went out the same way she came in, with class."

The second book has too much to write about...A lot of rules and form and procedure but I could mention the author. It's by a man named General Henry Martyn Robert, who wrote a book to give order to meetings, based on English Parliamentary law and the U.S. House of Representatives. He was a U.S. Army Engineer officer of Huguenot descent born in 1837. He was a private citizen who decided to write such a book after he and his wife were involved in different civil affairs and he thought it would make it easier for people to get their ideas out if it was organized in such a way that traveling from one location to another didn't make a difference in the ability to get the same things accomplished.

From the Oxford Book Of Christian Verse
(just writing out whatever I turn to):

John Skelton
Woefully Arrayed 1460-1529

"Wofully araid
My blode man for thee ran,
It may not be naid;
My body blo and wan,
Wofully araid."

Gavin Douglas (1474-1522)
From the Prologue to the Tenth Book of the Aenid
"O thyne inestimabill luf and cheryte!
Becam a thrall, to mak ws bondis fre;
To quykkyn thy sclavys, tholyt schamfull ded maste fell.
Billsyt be thou, virginal frute, that hereit hell,
And pait the pryce of the forbodin tre!

Thocht thou large stremys sched upon the rude,
A drop had bene sufficient of thy blude
A thousand warldis to have redmyt, I grant;
Bot thou the well of mercy wald nocht skant,
Ws to provoik to lufe the, and be gude.

Our all this, syne, thyne infynyte Godhed,
Thy flesch and blude, in form of wuyne and bred,
To be our fuyd of grace, in plege of glor
Thou hest ws geif, in perpetuall memor
Of thy passioun and dolorus paynfull ded.

(could almost hear another woman reciting this last 2 verses with me, as if she has a personal copy or knows this verse)

Quhat thnkis dew, or ganzeld, Lord benyng,
May I, maist wrachit synfull catyve indyng,
Rendir for this souerane peirles hie bonte,
Sen body, saule, and all, I have of the?
Thou art my pryce: mak me thy praye condyng.

My makar, my redemar, and support,
Fra quham all grace and gudness cumis, at schort,
Grant me that grace my mysdedys til amend,
Of this and all my warkis to mak gud end:
Thus I beseik the, Lord; thus I exort,

From the begynyng and end be thow my muse:
All other, Jove and Phebus, I refus.
Lat Virgill hadl hys mawmentis to himself:
I wirschip nowder ydoll, stok, nor elf.
Thocht furth I write so as myne autour dois.

(I started laughing out loud because the song that came on while I was playing this was a "Silly Song" by Larry about "Cookies for Santa" and then I came to this part in the poem with the word "elf" and just cracked up laughing. It's a really great poem. I just put a part of it here)

John Keble
'Red O'er the Forest'
"Red o'er the forest peers the setting sun,
The line of yellow light dies fast away
that crown'd the eastern copse: and chill and dun
Falls on the moor the brief November day.

Now the tir'd hunter winds a parting note,
And Echo bids good-night from every glade;
Yet wait awhile, and see the calm leaves float
Each to his rest beneath their parent shade.

How like decaying life they seem to glide!
And yet no second spring have they in store,
But where they fall, forgotten to abide
Is all their portion, and they ask no more.

Soon o'er their heads blithe April airs shall sing,
A thousand wild-flowers round them shall unfold,
The green buds glisten in the dews of Spring,
And all be vernal rapture as of old.

Unconscious they in waste oblivion lie,
In all the world of busy life around
No thought of them; in all the bounteous sky
No drop, for them, of kindly influence found.

Man's portion is to die and rise again--
Yet he complains, while these unmurmuring part
With their sweet lives, as pure from sin and stain,
As his when Eden held his virgin heart...."

William Habington
"Welcome, thou safe Retreat!"
"Welcome, thou safe retreat!
Where th'injured man may fortify
'Gainst the invasions of the great:
Where the lean slave, who th'oar doth ply,
Soft as his admiral may lie..."

John Lydgate
"Vox ultima Crucis" (1370?-1450?)
Tarye no lenger; toward thyn herytage
Hast on thy weye, and be of ryght good chere.
Go eche day onward on thy pylgrymage;
Thynke howe short tyme thou has abyden here.
Thy place is bygged above the sterres clere,
NJoon erthly palys wrought in so statly wyse.
Come on, my frend, my brother most entere!
For the I offered my blood in sacryfice."

Charles Wesley
"Come, O thou Traveller unknown"
Come, O Thou Traveller unknown,
Whom still I hold, but cannot see,
My company before is gone,
And I am left alone with Thee;
With Thee all night I mean to stay,
And wrestle till the break of day.

I need not tell Thee who I am,
My misery or sin declar;
Thyself hast call'd me by my name;
Look on Thy hands, and read it there!
But Who, I ask Thee, Who art Thou?
Tell me Thy name, and tell me now..."

(I broke and digressed to find out who Gavin Douglas is and about the Aenid, because I liked what I read and was curious about him.)

Thomas Traherne
"Christian Ethics"
(For man to act)
How man is greater than even the angels, by faith and act"

Joseph Hilaire Belloc
"The Prophet lost in the hills at Evening"
Strong God which made the topmost stars
to circulate and keep their course,
Remember me..."

Going to Brewster's Dictionary of Phrase
"Hang in there, To." To stick with it, even when the going is tough. The allusion is probably to the boxing ring, where a boxer getting the worst of it may seek relief by clinging on to his opponent or to the ropes. After such a brief respite, he is better able to continue.
"No, no", said Simon. "I'll hang in there now that I've waited this long." Jeffrey Archer: First Among Equals, ch xii(1984)

Oaks, The. The "Ladies Race", one of the Classic Races of the Turf. It is for three-year-old fillies, and is run at Epsom the day before the Derby. It was instituted in 1779 and so called from an estate of the Earl of Derby near Epsom named The Oaks.

Sport. Sporting seasons in England. The lawful season for venery, which began at Midsummer and lasted until Holy Cross Day, used to be called the Time of Grace.

Displaced Persons. A phrase applied to the millions of homeless and uprooted people in Europe and Asia whose misfortunes resulted from the havoc produced by the Second World War and subsequent events. They were colloquially referred to as DPs.

I guess that's all I'll write for now, from the Unicorn book.

Then I had the idea to look up Chuck Colson, aka Charles Colson and found the devotional about "How Now Shall We Live" and something came up about "are we abolishing marriage?" but just looked around and enjoying the do-re-mi song from Sound of Music.

Looking for work and then maybe to read some old christian poetry.

I will write out what I got from scriptures last night and today.

Today I came across Jeremiah. The whole section where Zedekiah asks Jeremiah to have a private conversation with him. The prophet says okay and then Zedekiah (the king or ruler) asks him to call to God and let him know how things are going to "go down" and Jeremiah says, "Why do you want to know? You haven't listened to me in the past so why would you listen to me now? and he adds, "You'll kill me." Zedekiah said, "No, I won't kill you. I promise." So they made a pact and then after he tells him, Zedekiah tells Jeremiah to lie when people ask him what they talked about, because they both don't want anyone to know. Then just about all these things that happened, and it mainly had me thinking about respect for God. I read up the part where the remnant is taken back from Ishmael and they are trying to decide whether to stay there or go to Egypt and Jeremiah says stay where you are. But they don't listen and they leave and then Jeremiah is told to take 2 large stones and seal them in clay and then put them under the the pavement or walkway in Babylon (I think, something like that). I read up to that part. A few other random things. I read the part where James and John are asking Jesus who will sit on the left and who will be on the right and Jesus tells them this is only for the Father God to know and are they able to take the cup?

Last night, I read a lot of Elijah stories. It's what I came to. And then after all these Elijah stories, to the part where Elisha comes after him, after the cloud comes up from the water (which made me think of King Arthur stories). Elija, at some point, with all the running for his life, finally says, "Okay, I'm done now. I think this is good. You can let me die." And he fell asleep under a tree and when he woke up he found food there, given to him by an angel. Got said to him, "Get up and eat." (At that time there were 430 prophets of Baal and only 1 prophet of God. I think I read this story when I got back from getting my curlers, the part about how there was a contest and the prophets of Baal couldn't get their stones to light on fire and Elijah went so far as to mock them and then all of a sudden, he called on the name of God, and fire blazed out of nowhere, after he poured out 4 vessels of water to show how impossible it was, but that nothing was impossible with God. He said, pour out the first vessel of water. Now another, another. And then the fourth vessel of water was poured, and it spilled out, like a cup of overabundance, past the point of containment, until water was spilling out on the sides and down the altar. From this, fire blazed.)12 stones, it said, even burned.

So God tells him to eat and get up, and he got up and continued to walk, and found strength in the food and his strength came back. After all these prophet stories, and then New Testament references to children being the greatest in the kingdom of God, I found the part about Moses, where it says, "And ever since his death, never again was there a prophet like Moses, (who did not speak to him in shadows as we do, my paraphrase) but who saw God face to face and did not die but lived."

I also read from a little of the proverbs, here and there, and then this morning I was led to Ruth, not at random, but to look up Ruth. Last night, in a very different way, I had some impression of the name Esther spoken but it was different from I've ever had something come to mind (and I never "hear" or "see" things as in hallucinations or auditory ones...it's more of a "mind's eye" thing...). But I got something about kinsman-redeemer this morning after reading about Zedekiah and the remnant. So I turned to Ruth and first came upon this section (after going there intentionally, just let something stand out) where Boaz asks, "Who is that woman?" and one of his workers says, "It's Ruth," and then my eyes fell on "foreigner" but I didn't read anything, just saw it and then turned the page and pointed or looked to see what was there for me to see, and it said something about "kinsman-redeemer." Oh, it was this (just looked it up again), "Who are you?" he asked. "I am your servant Ruth," she said, "Spread your corner of your garment over me, since you are a kinsman-redeemer." The first page it was "Who is she?" and then it was "Who are you?" Which is how I came across it today.

That's what I read, pretty much, yesterday and today. More than that I guess, but that's some of it.

I was thinking too, some of the stories remind me so much of Arthur tales. Like Gideon is Sir Gallahad and L'Morte D'Arthure or whatever, reminiscent (hand rising from water with a sword) to the cloud coming up from the water ("What do you see?")
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She looks my Dad's biological mom, thought this yesterday.