Chris Loehmer Kincaid's Blog, page 29

Flashback Friday - a word from Dino

I’vebeen skimming through all my old blog posts, hunting for ones to include in mylatest book – a 40-day devotional about dealing with pain. Funny thing, when Istarted this blog, in 2010, I was dealing with a frozen shoulder. And though I’vebeen suffering with low back pain for the past twelve weeks, the back issomewhat better right now, but that right shoulder is killing me.

I’mthinking it is all arthritis, as my mother predicted I would be assailed withby the time I reached this age.

Anyway,it’s been fun and nostalgic reading through all those old blog posts. This oneticked a lot of my boxes, including that irksome back pain. Can't wait to go camping next month, though it won't be the same without our four-legged sidekick. 

My BigAdventure

Well,finally, I get to write on my own blog. Momma names the thing after me and thennever even lets me use it. She seems to think I can’t type with my big ol’puppy paws. Duh, Mom, they don’t call me the wonder dog for nothin’.

So, sinceMom is taking a break from telling her life stories (boring!), I got someinternet time and here I am to tell you about my big adventure. Mom and Dadtook me camping up north! They call it the U.P., but – hello – just call it up,like I can’t spell or something.

We stayed inthis cool campground where there were 100 other dogs, and way more people thanthat. Or that’s what it seemed like coz some dog and their people were walkingby our trailer like every five minutes. And Mom or Dad would tell me to bequiet. But it’s like, why can they say “hi” to everyone and I can’t?

Where we camped,they don’t let dogs on the beach. I don’t get why, but you know Mom and Dad –always having to follow the rules. But just a couple miles down the road therewas a really cool park, and we went to it every day. And I got to run in thewater and get chased by waves. It was so awesome. I pretended the waves were areally big mean kitty. And I let them get as close to me as I could and then Iran back to shore. But the waves still always caught me and got me all wet. Itwas awesome.

We rodearound in the truck a lot. I don’t know what Mom and Dad were so fascinatedabout, but they seemed to really like looking at the big lake. I’m kind ofthinking, if I can’t play in it, I sure don’t want to just look at it.

We also tooka couple walks in the woods every day. Mom and Dad seemed to be looking forsomething all the time. We would walk for a while and then we would have toturn around. Dad said it is because Mom’s back hurts so she can’t walk as faras she would like. Poor Mom, I wish I could make her feel better. Sometimes sheacts so old.

I was veryhappy to finally be home today. I really liked the long trip, but I like it inmy own backyard too. I can’t wait to sleep all day long tomorrow. Love,Dino.

Welcome to the World, Little Babies

Ah,the first day of summer.

Eighteenmonths ago, a power surge blew out our garage door openers, and we ended upleaving the overhead doors open the rest of that winter. By the time springcame, and we were ready to take the old openers down and put up the new ones, amother robin had built a nest on top of one of them. I thought I wrote anentire blog about it, but this is the only one I found.

Lastfall, after she had a second batch of babies, and the mother and all her offspringhad flown the nest, we took it down along with the old opener and installed thenew one.

Thenthis May, with the garage door opener going up and down twice a day to let mycar in and out, that silly bird built another nest in the same spot. I madeHubby take it down right away so we could have the garage back, but Momma came backand continued building.

Everytime I went in the garage and saw her sitting on her nest, her face as seriousas could be, I would say hi to her and tell her she was doing a good job. With myback still bothering me, I wasn’t able to climb a ladder for a better look, butHubby assured me she had eggs.

Thenmaybe a week ago, he said he saw a chick in the nest and the next day he sawtwo more.

Today,I finally managed to get out and greet the new arrivals. Aren’t all babiesadorable?

Now, we’ll see how long before Momma lays a new batch. Could be a long summer. But that’s better than a long winter. 

 

Never Quit Praying

          Giveyour burdens to the Lord. He will carry them. He will not permit the godly toslip or fall. (Psalm 55:22, Living Bible)

Every night, after going to bed and turning out thelights, I start my nightly prayers – thanking God for all He has done for me,praying for forgiveness for the many transgressions I commit every day, andasking God to grant a long list of favors. Most recently pleading with Him totake away my back pain, but also that my children figure out their lives, thatmy cat doesn’t have any more seizures, that adequate rain falls, that myhusband doesn’t get bored not working over the summer, that there is peace onearth, and that millions of non-believers turn their lives over to Jesus Christ.

So I pray all these things (and more), and I pictureGod holding out a huge silver platter, nodding and saying, “Offer up all yourprayers, place them all on this platter, turn them over to Me.”

And I put all those things on the silver platter.

The next night, in bed again, I start saying myprayers. God shows up, and He’s still carrying that giant platter.And it’s still full of all of the prayers from the night before.

So, I ask Him, “Why are all my prayers still there?Aren’t You at least working on answering them?”

He nods and tells me to just keep praying, keepputting all my requests on the platter.

And I don’t know what to say; I just give Him thislook like, “What? Why should I keep praying for this same stuff if You aren’tgoing to take care of it?”

He nods again and says, “Trust Me. I got this.”

And so it goes, night after night, until I have an epiphany. 

Yes, I keep prayingand I know that God is taking all of my requests seriously. And I also knowthat He can carry that platter no matter how full it is, how heavy all of myprayers are.

I can’t carry it; I can’t even pick it up. I need tokeep the faith and trust God in all things. He will always be stronger than me.And He knows how best to answer each and every one of my prayers and when.

Thank You, Lord, God, for always carryingevery one of my burdens. Amen

(And the picture is of the largest platter that I have,not that this post has anything to do with Thanksgiving. Except, I guess itdoes. We need to give thanks every day, not just once a year.) 

 

Been Here Before

 
Alot of the pictures from today’s post might look familiar. I visited this placelast fall and blogged about it this past February.

TheHighground Veterans Memorial Park, four miles west of Neillsville, is thelargest manned Veteran’s Park in the nation. 

It is currently a 155-acre Park that includes a museum, a gift shop, pavilions,picnic areas and four miles of hiking trails and is supported totally bydonations and grants. 

ThePark is free to the public and open 24/7/365. 

It’sa very moving place.

Be sure to stop if you are ever in the area.

Life is a Journey

Herewe go. Summer is here and I’m not waiting around any longer to get out and dostuff.

Okay,but still taking baby steps.

Sunday,I took a short ride to Spirit Falls, which is only about 20 miles away. Thefriend who rode along and I made a few other stops (at three differentcemeteries where I have family!), but I only took pictures at the Falls. And not even very many of them. 

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Manymore adventures are right around the corner, along with many more pictures.Life is a journey!

 

Prayer for Peace

Lord,make me an instrument of your peace:

wherethere is hatred, let me sow love;

wherethere is injury, pardon;

wherethere is doubt, faith;

wherethere is despair, hope;

wherethere is darkness, light;

wherethere is sadness, joy.

 

Odivine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

tobe consoled as to console,

tobe understood as to understand,

tobe loved as to love.

Forit is in giving that we receive,

itis in pardoning that we are pardoned,

andit is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Ishared this prayer here many years ago and haven’t read it probably since then.But for some reason it has been on my mind lately, so I thought I would shareit today.

Atone time it was thought to have been written by St. Francis of Assisi, but thereis no proof of that. Generally, it is considered to have been written anonymously.Thank you to whoever did write it; it is beautiful and should be written in ourhearts.

(And since St. Francis is known as the saint of animals and nature, I thought a picture of the bunny who has been living in my yard the last two years was appropriate.)

New Adventures Await

OnWednesdays, I had been posting about my travels, most recently our spring breaktrip to Kentucky. Those stories ran out three weeks and there have been notrips since.  

Wewere going to go camping the weekend of May 12 and had planned trips to Seattle,WA, next week and South Dakota the week after. We cancelled all of that becauseof my stupid back.

Iknow you’re tired of hearing about it; or you should be. I’ve become such afrustrated whiner. But the back is getting better and I’m going to stop lettingit get me down.

Ontop of that, our cat Emma has been having more seizures so we had to add a newmedication. I really didn’t want to leave her home, with our cat sitter coming inonce a day, until we knew how the new meds would work for her. So far, so good.No seizures for a week now.

Westill have two camping trips scheduled this summer and I have my big trip toCambodia in the fall. Nothing will cancel any of those plans. Nothing.

AndI’m retired from the clinic now, as you all know. I told Hubby that startingnext week, we should try to take a ride somewhere once a week, do a littleexploring, let me snap some pictures. Heavens, about the only pictures I’vetaken in the last month were of things we were trying to sell! That’s sad.

Sohere, I go. New life, new adventures, hopefully new rehabilitated back verysoon. 

Haven't had a chance to pick up anything for the garden yet either. Flowers were pretty picked over at the garden center, but I did get some pansies and got them planted yesterday. 
 

Definitely went down the rabbit hole today

 Yesterday’s Bible verse on the BibleGateway websitewas Acts chapter 20, verse 24. The version of the Bible which I had read fromthere last was the New Century Version; it’s a pretty modernized, easy to readtranslation of the Bible.

New Century Version – I don’t care about my ownlife. The most important thing is that I complete my mission, the work that theLord Jesus gave me—to tell people the Good News about God’s grace.

But saying that “I don’t care about my own life”sounded a little harsh to me, so I looked up the passage in different Bibleeditions.

New Life Version – But I am not worried about this.I do not think of my life as worth much, but I do want to finish the work theLord Jesus gave me to do. My work is to preach the Good News of God’sloving-favor.

Living Bible – But life is worth nothing unless Iuse it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of tellingothers the Good News about God’s mighty kindness and love.

New King James Version – But none of these thingsmove me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my racewith joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify tothe gospel of the grace of God.

Good News Translation – But I reckon my own life tobe worth nothing to me; I only want to complete my mission and finish the workthat the Lord Jesus gave me to do, which is to declare the Good News about thegrace of God.

Hmm? Interesting, huh? I would love to be fluent in theHebrew language and the other languages which the original manuscripts of theBible were written in. Imagine reading the words as they were first penned.

This weekend in church, we celebrate Pentecost. One ofthe things we remember during this time is that the Holy Spirit came upon the disciplesallowing them to speak in other languages. This equipped them to go out intothe world to tell all nations and people about Jesus.

They didn’t need the internet; God wanted to be surethey were prepared to spread the word of Jesus Christ without having to beassured of a WiFi connection. And I think that most of us struggle sharing the Gospel even in our own language. Something for each of us to pray about. 

Just for fun, here are some more translations:

Hawai‘i Pidgin – But den, fo me, fo stay alive,dass notting. I ony like do everyting da Boss Jesus wen tell me fo do to daend. He wen tell me fo tell everybody da Good Stuff bout how plenny good tingsGod do fo us.

Luther Bibel 1545 – Aber ich achte der keines, ichhalte mein Leben auch nicht selbst teuer, auf daß ich vollende meinen Lauf mitFreuden und das Amt, das ich empfangen habe von dem HERRN Jesus, zu bezeugendas Evangelium von der Gnade Gottes.

Biblia del Jubileo – Mas de ninguna cosa hago caso,ni estimo mi vida preciosa para mí mismo; solamente que acabe mi carrera congozo, y el ministerio que recibí del Señor Jesús, para dar testimonio delEvangelio de la gracia de Dios.

Anyway, Friday was my last day of work at the clinic. Retirement!Maybe I should learn a foreign language now that I’ll have the time.

Encouragement Needed

 

May the patience andencouragement that come from God allow you to live in harmony with each otherthe way Christ Jesus wants. Then you will all be joined together, and you willgive glory to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 15:5-6, NewCentury Version)

It wasn’t that I had a blank mind when it came towriting today’s blog post. It was more like I didn’t have the energy to write whatwas on my mind. Hopefully, next time I will write that long and somewhatoddball metaphor I have been thinking about it.

In the meantime, I pulled up the BibleGateway website,and this was the verse they listed for today. Another reminder that we need toget along with each other. And if that is a struggle in some cases, pray to Godfor the patience to deal with those people. You might not know what they aredealing with or that they really need encouragement from you.  

Ready to go Camping

Thispast weekend, we were supposed to go camping. Not one, not two, but four issueskept us from going. Maybe there were five things, I can’t remember now.

Tosay I was disappointed would be an understatement. The weather had been so nice,and I needed so badly to get away. I guess it is what it is. Life goes on.Sometimes things work out and sometimes they don’t.

Theone good thing that happened was that we brought Carlton, our camping trailer,home from storage. And Hubby even backed it into its spot on the first try. Yeah,Hubs!

Ihave only another week to work, and then the summer festivities can begin – lotsof other trips to plan and look forward to. As well as a long list of projectsto start work on, as soon as my back is better.

Anyway,also, we’ll be listing our pop-up camper for sale as soon as we can set itup, and I’m satisfied that it’s clean and everything is in working order. With my ongoing back pain, I can't do much to help Hubby put it up, so I'm not sure when that will happen. One reason for buying the traveltrailer is that I don’t have to climb under it to set it up. But let me know ifyou are interested, and we’ll figure something out.  The pictures are from a couple years ago.