pippi's winter

they've done something with

my grass.

i don't mind.........i'm 

flexible. 

i love

everything.


i love people 

(yes, all of them)

and places and people and places and

things.

i love food. i love the mere thought 

of food. my nose can - and does - 

twitch 

when i'm dreaming of

it.


they've done something with

my grass.


i don't mind. 

i go in the snow,

track a little back 

in

like a friend,


as we sleep 


by the fire.

the weather

nobody does anything about it. 


oh, yes they do. here's a list of what people do about the weather and none of it's good:

1. they bitch about it.
2. they bitch about it.
3. they "predict" it.
4. they send their road crews out in it and yell at folks not to go out in it.
5. they scare people with it. they tell people everyone's gonna die because of it.
6. they make you buy milk you don't need.
7. they make you buy a fan you don't need and then you don't donate the fan like you should to someone who really DOES need it.
8. they make sissies out of kids.
9. they make you think you gotta move to a better place when you retire.
10. they make you forget that the better place is right here. and it has been right here......... 

all along.

"zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance"

if you take care of your car the way you want and not the way the maker of your car wants, what happens to your car? 


same thing with your soul.

nothin' holds a candle to food!

so, jolly rancher is now in the candle business. 


a lot of things in this world don't make any sense and that, right there, is the biggest. jolly ranchers belong in your mouth, not up your nose.

cinnamon buns and apple pie and caramel apples and birthday cake, likewise, belong in your mouth. instead of burning vanilla pudding, why not make some?

the reason we don't make these things in the first place is because we're "too busy." but we're not too busy to to go to the store and buy a candle that (supposedly) smells like these things. and on the way home, since we're so busy, we go through the drive-through and get us a big ol' honkin' bag of fries.


oooooohhhhhh! a candle that smells like fries!


now......that i might buy!

the new evangelization

i spoke, by invitation, at a friend's home church a week ago about my ex-husband walking out on me and how that horribleness brought me to a deep - and meaningful- faith.

i had never been to a home church before. 

i don't know if all home churches are like this one but this one was sorta like doctors without borders. well, without doctors, too. :)

it was in a living room and everybody just sat wherever. and the kids - i believe there may have been literally 10,000 of 'em - alternately listened, played, drank juice, wandered around, played, wandered around some more, and were cute as Christmas.

there were, as my friend the minister pointed out, no stained glass windows. no candles, no hymnals, no altar, no sacraments, no liturgy. not even a Bible......which i found surprising. 

what there was, however, was glory to God, amazing music, deep testimony, and a boatload of love - for Christ and for each other. bigger hearts of gold i will never find anywhere.



pope john paul II, in several of his encyclicals, homilies, and a buncha other stuff, talked about "the new evangelization" and how all catholics - not just the priests and the deacons and the nuns - but all catholics - are commanded to participate in it. what is the new evangelization? basically, bringing people - most of whom in this day and age probably already know of Christ - to Christ. moreover, bringing them to Christ via the Catholic (capital "C") church.

as with the "first" evangelization - the one which the apostles undertook - the "new" evangelization is not easy. stepping on people's toes - especially the toes of good people -  is not fun - for the step-ee or the step-er. (and stepping on toes is the least of it.)

our world does not tolerate stepping on toes and it especially does not tolerate evangelization - unless it's the kind of stepping on toes and "evangelization" that the new mayor of new york city, bill de blasio, favors, i.e. radical left/anything goes stuff. now, that will win you some friends. (as long as part of the anything that goes stuff doesn't include......

religion.)


especially not Catholicism.


(the mormons don't fare any better.)

OH-IO!

matilda

i like that name. it's often the name of a maid or some other kind of servant. and really, what's wrong with that? Christ told us to be a servant. He didn't say don't be a servant based on the color of your skin or how much or how little you get paid. He said be a servant. the matildas of the world have done just that. 

but nobody names their kid matilda anymore.

the warmth of winter

the votes are counted (all one of 'em) and the verdict is unanimous: i have thee most amazing fireplace in the world.


it's a lie to call it a fireplace when what it is is more like a fire thingamajig. my space is small so i couldn't go with some big honkin' thing. and my fire thingamajig fits in perfectly.

it's portable, which is nice. even if i don't have any intention of taking it anywhere. like, where the heck would i take it? to the store with me or somethin'?

it's lightweight. 

it's contemporary, which i love. you might never have thought about this, but it's hard to find contemporary portable fire thingamajigs.

it's clean - no wood, no ashes, no soot. it runs on gel. true story!

it crackles! just like a "real" fireplace!

but the best part, and this is NO LIE, even though it's probly gonna sound like a lie: it is one helluva efficient heater! it is so efficient that, no lie, i turn the heat in the house OFF whenever i crank up my thingamajig. and even then, it gets up to about 78 in here. with the lowest temps in 20 years predicted up here over the next few days, i challenge anyone to a weenie roast.  

:)




(the pic below doesn't do it justice cuz it's not taken at night when my thingamjig goes all postal with the coziness. plus, the flames get really BIG! not to mention, this isn't my home - this is from an advertisement i stole online. shhh! i have pics of MY fire thingamajig on my phone but for some unfathomable reason it won't let me e-mail it to myself and then upload it here. i hate technology!....... 

but i LOVE thingamajigs!)

:)

resolution: no baloney sandwiches

what you end up with when january 1st falls on a wednesday is a new year's sandwich. lotsa bread on one side, lotsa bread on the other. and not too much whatever in between. 

first of all, the bread on the one side is everything that's happened up till now. and the bread on the other side - hopefully just as thick - is everything that's gonna happen. and the whatever it is that you put in between (in my case, cream cheese, green olives, and walnuts) is the right here, right now. and with the new year only being about 8 hours old, the whatever it is you put in between isn't much.

but, on the other hand, shouldn't the "bread" be the thinnest parts? and shouldn't the right here, right now be the biggest part? because, without all that baloney, whattya got?

ah.................... the ba.lo.ney.


keep it thin all year, folks.