Listen up! Everyone knows this week’s song. It is sung robustly by small children and men with strong voices and when the congregation begins they give their best to the final note. Hark, the Herald Angels Sing. It has a page in every denomination’s hymnbook that reveres Christmas carols. In the way of so many activities, I have sung it with gusto and auto pilot at the same time. Then our choir this year sang an arrangement by Dan Forrest, and I suddenly had to pay attention to the flight plan.

First off, the familiar title appears. Then for three full pages no hint in the music gives a clue to the song you are awaiting. Instead, you are sitting on the hillside with last week’s shepherds. On page 4, the call resounds: Hark! That word means stop what you are doing, straighten up and pay attention. This whole announcement is for YOU! Don’t miss it! The tone of voice is that used by a mother standing in front of her child and saying, “Look me in the eye!”

The music in 4/4 time moves quickly, so you may gloss over the import of the deliverers. Only one is chosen to give the obligatory, “Don’t be afraid!” This speaker delivers all the salient points of the message: what, where, who. We have no idea how many angels are in heaven, but instead of one, a host of angels flows past overhead, undulating in a forward moving stream over your blinking eyes. They are a multitude with a fixed purpose. They are Heralds, messengers sent by the king with a pronouncement. In case you slid over the words in verse 1, your part is repeated at the end of verse 2 and 3. Sing it out! Glory to the new-born King!

 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Luke 2:14 KJV (Because that’s what I first learned)

The Christmas season is always rushed. By Mid-November, one can buy a Thanksgiving turkey and Christmas decorations in the same store. Through the five years I have written, I’ve tried to focus these four Advent offerings on words or actions or Biblical passages to move the season out of the commercial realm. Be warned, this year I am traveling through Epiphany focusing on five songs that set the time for me. Feel free to substitute

Since the time of creation, God had been dropping hints that one more step needed to be taken to have a perfect man to God connection. Prophecies that were clear and some that maybe were not so understandable. Then that long time of silence. Wrapping up provided a carpenter and a teen-age bride who will be a family. Throw in a king who decides to move players like chessmen to be at the appropriate place pre-mentioned. One waits for babies to be born and eventually the waiting is over. Who gets the good news? It’s not the most well know carol, yet it’s meaningful to me for one line. While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks. Then that picture setting moment…all sitting on the ground.

They are not the most important people in town, certainly are not the high priest. I like to see them sprawled out in their costume -like brown tunics talking quietly, so they won’t upset the sheep. If they were men I grew up with they would be smoking a pipe and one maybe scratching a dog behind his ear. Then the news breaks out and all they need to know is told by a calming angel. (More about that next week) For now this is the information and they are the first to know. The babe is born in David’s town, wrapped in swaddling clothes and in a manger laid. The music never gets louder or faster, just spins out the word we hold true to this day, Good will henceforth from heav’n to men ,begin and never cease!” Pay attention, you may be given the news.

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.

Luke 2:10

This is the get ready for Thanksgiving as a designated holiday writing. Yesterday was a tangled day for me. I have a certain structure to get ready for my days, not too rushed for an elderly woman. Monday morning I had to go check, check, check to be ready to walk out of the house for an eye doctor appointment, the slowest doctor I see. I have a first time with the note taking drop lady then am sent back to the waiting area while everyone else does the same thing I did. Finally I get my turn with the expert, hear her comments, and am sent on my way, a long time past mid-morning. Lunch of sorts and off to physical therapy which moved the day onward to mid-afternoon. I already had plans with a son for supper and to an organ concert with five U of Houston students. I literally was trudging on feeling like times from a childhood when my dad would move a pump handle with no result. Then I remembered. He would pour a little water down the pipe to force out extra air so the water available could flow. The priming water added to this very bland day was the surprise of an organ teacher I knew, the chance to encourage one of the students my son knew, and the overwhelming performance of the last piece that called for flying hands and feet to send forth a triumphant ending. I went home with my whole attitude toward the day pouring out in gratitude.

I woke up this Tuesday thinking of the first line of a George Herbert poem I had copied years ago, “Thou that hast giv’n so much to me Give one thing more, a grateful heart.” Truthfully, is the water not flowing? In reality, I need to move the negativity, so an abundance of noticing good can pour out. This very week, I’ve whined for rain, and it has come. The temperature has dropped enough to turn off the a.c. and lower the electrical bill. Tomorrow even promises to be that first moment of sweater weather. I will bake my offerings for next Thursday and once again the eaters will say, “No one can touch your rolls!” May I notice what around me needs a “Thank You!”

This week pay attention to your hand on the pump handle. Getting ready for company or to be company can seem more demanding than for it to feel like a gift bestowed, yet the gathering is not a sparse blessing. After many years, I looked up the whole poem, and the last stanza brought me up short. Pair it with the last verses of Psalm 100 and move from thank you to praise!

Not thankful, when it pleases me; as if thy blessings had spare days; but such a heart, whose pulse may be Thy Praise.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Psalm 100: 4 – 5

After all it is November. In the familial world we plan for Thanksgiving. In retail we are thankful for a tip of the hat to Hollowe’en and a moment of worship for All Saints before lights go up, ornaments out, and wrapping paper is on sale. However, for some of us this moment opens time to think about a new planting season. Fall comes so we can prepare for spring. Not for everybody. Here is an eye- opening conversation I had at a PT session last week.

The therapist and I have tennis-type exchanges between stretches and weight lifts. He: What’d you do last week end? Me: I went to the nursery for flowers. He: My girlfriend likes flowers. Me: What does she plant? He: Plant? I just give them to her. Me: It’s the season for pansies, my favorite flower! He: Season for flowers? I thought that was only for fruits and vegetables! At that point I launched into my Lecture 101 on getting ready in order to have something later.

Begin with pansies. One watches the slight temperature drops for that moment their varied colored faces can brighten the landscape. I like to choose my own. The dark burnt orange are my favorite with the yellow and brown and the brown and yellow (distinctively different presentations) to help fill in with a purer orange and a total yellow for a sparkle. Maybe just two whites so they won’t feel left out. Once in, they are the consistent winter color until warming days return. I’ve even seen them erect and smiling at the world under light layers of snow.

Part of the preparation for the next season is preparing the beds. You do like fresh sheets, don’t you? Daisies and mist flowers die down and need to be pulled out. Sprawling lantana is trimmed back. Echinacea, cone flowers to the common folk, can be dug up and divided to cover more space next year along with the tall green fonds of the day lilies. Weed the whole area, add some fresh top soil. Finally, mulch for warmth and to help hold the moisture.

Depending on your desires, larkspurs can brighten the mix, marigolds clump well, and the bulbs of renuculus, amaryllis, and Easter lilies rest up for a spring showing. By early February, I read seed packets for starting times. Some can be primed indoor six weeks before the last expected frost while others have to be in ground after that nebulous date. At this point in the lecture, the poor young man was confident that a better solutions for the offered gift was the flower shop. I, though, had done the ground work to move on in the year and am confidently waiting with a cup of warm cocoa to welcome the blooms of my labors.

 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Galatians 6:9

I thought it would be easy to do some research, lay out some data, let you plug in, and have a wise and maybe humorous comment on this past week. Forget that. Outside of some scientist in a special room watching and making notes with an atomic clock, the rest of us in 2024 try to get to work on time and go to bed at a reasonable hour. Here are some scatterings to consider. One of my first time sayings was “Farmers work from sun up to sun down” which sometimes meant before sunrise because cows needed milking or lasted past dark because livestock needed bedding down. The earliest time measuring chunks were moon months, inaccurate yet noticeable with memorable names like a Full Worm Moon in the spring and the bright orange Harvest Moon in October. Types of clock began with sundials with the Romans even having a pocket-sized one. They moved on through water clocks with controlled drips to Galileo and a pendulum to a mechanical clock and the quartz that didn’t need winding

Men had vests with a special pocket for a round watch to pull out and check. Picture a train conductor. My mother never had a watch she wore. She just went into the bedroom to check the Big Bend on the dresser or noticed the town clock at the corner of the bank if downtown. I got a wrist watch for graduating from the eighth grade which lasted me well into my marriage. Now even preschools have some type of internet watch that tells digital time and the number of their steps in a day.

So, other than remembering FALL BACK is the direction in November, how did the end of DST affect you. If you lived in Arizona or were a member of the Navaho nation, it had no impact. You along with various countries around the world as well as the entire continent of Africa live all year with whatever sunlight is provided. Only 62 countries try to lessen their energy bills by stumbling through the predawn hours. Personally, I could handle the appearing to have an extra hour in the morning, but it takes a week for me to decide how to manage an early sleepy feeling in the evening.

In the beginning, the Bible says, there was light called day and dark called night. We are the ones who have filled both ends of the spectrum with illumination as needed and shades to block out the sun. Ecclesiastes 3 gives us one verse to say we have enough time and then lists 28 options for a start.

There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens. Ecclesiastes 3:1

This title is really a substitute for two other more precise words which will be revealed. In the English language, and sometimes reaching beyond our border, are groups of capital letters that may be pronounced as a specific word that identifies what is represented or another group of letters that may stand for a specific action. In the later group letters are named individually and offer no hints of meaning to the uninitiated. The groups that are a recognizable word are called acronyms. NASA is spoken with assurance that any information following will be about the space agency while to many people the word NATO brings to mind the organization that was created to instigate fairness of behavior between nations. If the capital letters are just named one at a time with no clues to meaning they are known as initialism. What you forget to write the first time may be added as a PS and your social calendar is kept in order with an RSVP. Of course, there are those sneaky letters that are used so often that they are presented in lower case and have meaning that never has to be discussed, such as scuba.

Consider the options. If you put your mind to it, you could write a whole paragraph that would be as sticky to translate as one composed with the most erudite words in the Oxford English Dictionary. We haven’t even mentioned the vastness of texting abbreviations, pure slang best known to another human generation. The only two I really know are LOL and BFF. Chaos is the result of a SNAFU. RADAR can get a driver in trouble. You use ZIP without ever thinking that it stands for for Zone Improvement Plan. The best in a variety of options is a GOAT. Employees have an IRA, emergency rooms operate on ASAP and DNR, and for you to be met at the end of an airline journey someone needs to know the ETA. All make up the universe’s alphabet soup!

We use these acronyms, initialisms, and common slang to save space in a written communication. Sometimes they terminate a conversation casually like a baby wiggling fingers and saying, “Bye-bye.” Yet if that moment is emotional, a hug is part of the process and three understandable words, ‘I love you!” After the gospels, the rest of the New Testament is letters to churches or groups that needed encouragement or correction. The recognizable words at the beginning are grace and peace along with the wish that there may be no ambiguity in the message, but that the writer may come to the recipient so what is being said may be clearly understood.

I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face. Peace to you.

3 John 1:14

Not a spinning toy on a string that some people can use to perform attention grabbing tricks. I taught with a collegue who married a man with two boys and they added two more to the family. At the end of some days, she would announce, “It’s a YOYO night.” This was translated as whatever you can find in the back of the fridge or in the pantry or in a cabinet is your supper. Have at it! Even with this as an option, four strapping men are now doing good in the world. In spite of the fact that exceptions to a rule can always be produced, my pediatrician brother-law-law said of picky eaters, “No child ever starved to death in the sight of food.”

The choices to define your eating habits vary country to country and person to person without chasing the rabbit of a true diagnosed health problem. A Mediterranean Diet can be yours even if you live in Kansas. A government plan from USDA offers daily specifics. I almost lost a proposal from the man who became my husband for 56 years because in courting days I cooked him a broiled flounder, a treat in South Louisiana and unheard of in El Paso, Texas. Most of us build our own habits: a mixture of on hand, can assuage a rumble in the tummy, the addition of a comfort food, and maybe the possibility of something sweet at the end.

At times, not getting to make a choice is the problem. God provided manna every day after the Israelites complained about starving, yet they became specific. We want meat, fish, cucumbers, melons, and different kinds of onions. OK, so they got quail, protein to round out the diet. I am reminded of the child who accused me of not cutting the peanut butter sandwich the correct way. Research says if you can have water it is 30 – 40 days before you die of no food. Being fed is a very real need and around the world that is not happening for victims of a flood, or drought, or war or economic poverty. That’s why in the middle of a prayer with instructions to praise and honor God and ask His protection is that very personal statement.

Give us this day our daily bread.

Matthew 6:11

I am a designer, maybe not like you Some look at a room and rearrange furniture. If I put a chair next to the door it stays there until I move to another location forty-two years later. However, sit me at a table with pieces of colored paper and a stack of pictures or words gathered from various sources, and creative juices begin to bubble. Newness of output is aided by some type of glue. In earliest childhood days, that glue was make your own with equal portions of flour and water stirred together and applied to Biblical based offerings from a weekly Sunday School booklet. At some point I moved on to Elmer’s clear glue. I had to remember to wipe off my fingers and clean the nose of the nozzle or reuse required opening the flow again by wiggling a pin in around the white stopper. At some point glue sticks became an option. While the purpose of attachment was accomplished, the problem existed to confine the glue to the back of the offering without running off the edge and leaving smears on the table or by pushing too strongly and tearing the paper. A glue gun gave the impression that the task would reach the ultimate attainment of professional presentations, except it also required that an electric plug be near at hand, extra sticks to melt always be close by. and a careless finger didn’t touch a hot funnel.

After years of creating Smithmark birthday cards, place mats, posters for a classroom, or noble quotes to go in a journal, I have settled on three rules of progression that are needed. First, glue to the edges. If this step is ignored, at some point in the future, those edges will start to curl and even fold back destroying any beauty intended. Second, press down and wipe up the extra.That little shine outside the edge can glue the intended object to an unintended object pulling part A away from part B leaving an unsightly unintended tear. Thirdly, view with satisfaction and then wait for it to dry. You don’t want to create a stack of one that was intended to be five unique offerings

Stick to it can retain focus beyond carrying out a decorative idea. One calls up hang on, stand firm, be determined, preserver,and don’t give up to finalize any path from conception to completion. These phrase have carried me through the demands of financial papers and the struggle of putting three children to bed at the end of a day. A slight variation of the rules still matter: organize all the pieces, be sure each step fits the process, and keep moving toward the goal. Maybe you are encouraged by “He that endureth to the end shall be saved.” Personally, I put on a smile and chant the words of the Message.

Day and night I‘ll stick with God; I’ve got a good thing going and I’m not letting go.

Psalm 16:8

A tend-to-errand gave me this week’s rumination which is the only word that will really give life to the happening. However, the title had to work its way out, so listen to two stories and one more in the last paragraph. The money earner in your household may require certain training and respect as did my brother-in-law’s being a pediatrician. However, his household ran smoothly because of his wife’s list of ‘little men.” (no gender offense) The yard man, of course, and the name she called for stopped up toilets, and Henry with his hammer and saw when a stair rail needed mending. Story 2 involves the family of a nuclear scientist. They went on vacation and gave a teen-age son $50 to buy food. I don’t remember how he ate, but he brought a car repair manual twenty -five summers ago with the cash and has been gainfully employed and an on the spot helper in restarting vehicles that have stopped. If we can’t do what is needed, aren’t we glad someone else can.

I have the gift of understanding fabric and sewing. I learned on my mother’s 1930’s machine housed in a fold down cabinet. In 1954 I was given a Featherweight Singer which served all my needs for more than 25 years. Then I bought two steps up with a few more options. This required a specific level of care. I have used a shop out in an industrial neighborhood on the west side of town. Not only do household hobby sewers come, but shops and businesses bring a variety of machines for repair. This group worked their maintenance magic on my machine in mid-July, yet when I got back to a project, the auto threader wouldn’t work. Today was the first time someone could drive me down the freeway to the galvanized building where the business is housed. I explained to the Latino lady the problem and she went in the back to bring out a small Vietnamese employee. “He doesn’t speak English. Follow him.” We wound our way between tables with machines waiting their turn. Rows of shelves had one small box next to another, each labeled with a specific number or size of a part. At his work space, he had a row of various screwdrivers, a bit of smoothing paper, a bottle of oil and a focused light of a brightness to illuminate a rock star concert. Step 1, step 2, step 3. He closed the housing, raised and lowered the jammed lever easily and gave me a smile I translated as, “All fixed now.”

Back out front, the sales lady declined pay. I gave my silent helper a tip anyway. You know the third story. A machine won’t work. A older man appears with a ball pein hammer, raps smartly, and gears move again. The charge is expensive, not for the action, but for knowing exactly where to hit. I had sat at home for almost two months, recognizing the problem, yet having no idea how to solve it. The labor required was specific and its worth to me was beyond what I offered as recompense. Paul gave the world a basis for our foundation of theology and his pay for the work of his mind and heart was a secondary expertise: the tents he made to support his life.

The laborer is worth his hire. 1 Timothy 5:18

A group gathers. The talk centers around cardiovascular, immune system, and respiratory. That’s the doctors. Engineers spew magnitude, stress factor, and even cylinders. I am at ease with principles, aptitudes, and pedagogically. We are there in the know with career vocab. Lurking in the background to trip us during the years are those contemporary for the time words grouped as jargon. Two decades ago, an eighth grade boy with a twinklier his eye interrupted a class discussion to ask, “Do you like bling?” I had no idea, so I just raised a disapproving eyebrow and continued with indirect objects. He tried again as he left class and a girl had pity on me and clarified, “He means dangling earrings and a matching necklace” Ohhh.

My early morning wake up my brain moments are the Mini Crossword Puzzle and NYT Connections. Once in a while for the puzzle I have to look up a sports hero or a 1997 top record. These answers would be known by any teen or even their parents. Connections is more tricky. On a good day I manage three of the four groups and win a Perfect by default. Then it doesn’t matter that I don’t recognize the name of four horror films. I’ve just learned a new term in a sports group that came from cricket in the 1850’s – hat trick, three positive accomplishments in one game. This counts for my daughter’s offering of three helpful errands in one morning. Hat trick has true validity now because the three panels of MUTTS comics strip had squirrels making three Bonk acorn hits on the people below and the punch line is HAT TRICK.

Since the month is October, we need to tip a hat to a word that had one meaning and has grown into another. Ghost can be the white clothed nebulous creature who gives off ghostly moaning sounds. Ignoring a text or an e-mail on purpose is now known as ghosting. The action is recognized by the name and is almost on the expected behavior list. We have thoughts for our inner feelings and ideas. Body language can express intent or reaction. Words are that attribute of humans that tie us to each other from a first mama, to communicating a skill throw the switch now, to cementing a relationship your work is amazing. Build the reserve you need for the purpose required and use as the situation demands.

“Gentle words bring life and health; a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.”

Proverbs 15:4

“Kind words are like honey – sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.”

Proverbs 16:24