Dear Hines Terrace Herald Readers,
The staff here at HTH cannot thank you enough for the support that you give us each and every day. When I open up my blog each day and look at the stats, it always happily suprises me to see that anyone is reading this thing at all. And I cannot even begin to express my joy and elation when one of you takes the time out of your busy day to leave a comment. We appreciate the time you spend reading this blog and hope you enjoy the posts more often than not. And so, we just want to wish you a very joyful and peaceful 2012. We also hope the Mayan calendar IS truly off 50 years give or take a few years like they say or this may just be the last new year's post I do. And that is fine with us, but we would rather keep this thing up and running since we will be adding a new staff member come early May.
Mel and I have a nine year history of weird New Year's Eve events and every year we promise to each other to do better, but come December 31st each year, we find ourselves back in the Twilight Zone of some sort. One year we were stuck on a youth group bus on a ski trip with a guy named Squirrel. The following year we found ourselves riding in the backseat of a crazy guy who my sister was absentmindedly dating and he took us to a redneck party in Palatka, Florida where I rescued a dog who was drowing in a river thanks to being fed some Jack Daniels and then sent into a dark, cold river until he couldn't move. The next, we found ourselves at a wedding in the Fitz,. where we witnessed most of Mel's high school teachers drinking far too much and telling us too much about ourselves, themselves, and my supposed good looks by an overly friendly female English teacher that was as old as my Granny. Our first year in Macon, a drunk lady burned a whole in my vest while I was wearing it with her cigarette. However, the last two years, we have been on an upswing. This year, several friends had us over for a low-country boil and a bonfire till about 11:30 PM and then Mel and I headed downtown Macon to watch the above Cherry Blossom Ball drop at midnight. I'm glad we went. They are getting better, but the crowd has always been a great cache of legends; much like the local fair. The way I look at it, by the time our kid turns five or six, we should be hanging with Ryan Seacrest in Times Square, but we'll see.
I want to end this post with two items, one is poem from Wendell Berry from his collection of poems titled, Given, and the other is a portion of a prayer from a collection of prayers by Puritans titled, The Valley of Vision. Each item highlights what I personally want to focus on in 2012. I want to continually focus on the truth that God is faithful and cannot not be faithful and I never want to lose focus of that no matter the financial, political, moral, etc. climate. And the other is that I don't want to lose focus on the grand impact of the Cross. Without it, I am nothing. So, I'll let the words (the better and more profound) of others speak for themselves.
Mel and I have a nine year history of weird New Year's Eve events and every year we promise to each other to do better, but come December 31st each year, we find ourselves back in the Twilight Zone of some sort. One year we were stuck on a youth group bus on a ski trip with a guy named Squirrel. The following year we found ourselves riding in the backseat of a crazy guy who my sister was absentmindedly dating and he took us to a redneck party in Palatka, Florida where I rescued a dog who was drowing in a river thanks to being fed some Jack Daniels and then sent into a dark, cold river until he couldn't move. The next, we found ourselves at a wedding in the Fitz,. where we witnessed most of Mel's high school teachers drinking far too much and telling us too much about ourselves, themselves, and my supposed good looks by an overly friendly female English teacher that was as old as my Granny. Our first year in Macon, a drunk lady burned a whole in my vest while I was wearing it with her cigarette. However, the last two years, we have been on an upswing. This year, several friends had us over for a low-country boil and a bonfire till about 11:30 PM and then Mel and I headed downtown Macon to watch the above Cherry Blossom Ball drop at midnight. I'm glad we went. They are getting better, but the crowd has always been a great cache of legends; much like the local fair. The way I look at it, by the time our kid turns five or six, we should be hanging with Ryan Seacrest in Times Square, but we'll see.
I want to end this post with two items, one is poem from Wendell Berry from his collection of poems titled, Given, and the other is a portion of a prayer from a collection of prayers by Puritans titled, The Valley of Vision. Each item highlights what I personally want to focus on in 2012. I want to continually focus on the truth that God is faithful and cannot not be faithful and I never want to lose focus of that no matter the financial, political, moral, etc. climate. And the other is that I don't want to lose focus on the grand impact of the Cross. Without it, I am nothing. So, I'll let the words (the better and more profound) of others speak for themselves.
IX
The incarnate Word is with us,
is still speaking, is present
always, yet leaves no sign
but everything that is.
-Wendell Berry, Given poems (pg. 78)
Deliverance
...May his shed blood make me
more thankful for thy mercies
more humble under thy correction,
more zealous in thy service,
more watchful against temptation,
more contented in my circumstances,
more useful to others.
-Valley of Vision (pg. 46)
Happy New Year!
Grace and Peace,
David
you were wearing your vest with her cigarette? is this a new men's fashion trend?
ReplyDeleteAhhhh, the Mayans and the calendar thing.....it is hanging in my thoughts always. Hope they are wrong.
ReplyDeleteI hope for so much this year.
Nothing in my hands I bring,
Simply to the Cross I cling.
I deeply love you.
The following year we found ourselves riding in the backseat of a crazy guy who my sister was absentmindedly dating and he took us to a redneck party in Palatka, Florida where I rescued a dog who was drowing in a river thanks to being fed some Jack Daniels and then sent into a dark, cold river until he couldn't move.
ReplyDeleteExplain please! I don't remember this so I'm assuming your other sister Amy. And who did she date that was a redneck? Eric? He was just weird/creepy.