the pattyo

***10:30 PM – A Quote for Today

It dawns on me more and more how trivial and short our lifespan is. It is like smoke; it is like a flower, it is like grass, it is like a butterfly–for it passes so quickly, flying away. Nobody, no one can bring back wasted years. One wishes that one would have always lived with Eternity in mind.

-Emmy Arnold

***Only One More Day

Yep. 2004 is nearly gone. Where did the time go?

***Donation Page

I’ve set up a page (look to the left of this) that includes all the donation links I have below this post; this way it will be available for as long as I maintain this site.

Karen, from Beyond.com, had written, wondering why it’s tragedies like this tsunami disaster that get people to donate money. After all, she mentioned, 30,000 children die each day from malnutrition, and so many continue to die in the Sudan from AIDS. These numbers don’t seem to bother us. Or so it often appears. I suspect it’s actually that something like the current news wakes many of us up. It causes an immediate reaction, as we see pictures and hear stories. Do ongoing horrors somehow lose their power? Is that the sad but true fact?

Anyway, since I’m leaving a donation page up I want to encourage readers to continue to donate. Shoot, give up your Starbucks coffee once a week … or a couple of movies a month. Those are a couple of possibilities. I think I could use the library more, and purchase books less, and send what I save.

Just pondering.
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***Donate Joyfully. Donate Generously. Donate Freely.

Some of these links take you directly to the donation page, some don’t. Doesn’t really matter … just donate! If a site takes a while to load just be patient — it means that you aren’t the only generous person in the world! As you can see, I’ve included a diverse group here in my attempt to include various religions as well as non-religious groups.

(If you have other sites to suggest, please email me.

Not sure who to trust? You can check out various Charities at Charity Navigator site I would like to think that all Charities are trustworthy and not wasteful, but I suppose it’s not unwise to check them out.

• Action Against Hunger
• ADRA International
• Air Serv International
• American Friends Service Committee
• American Jewish World Service
• American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
• AmeriCares
• Association for India’s Development
• Baptist World Alliance
• B’nai B’rith
• Brother’s Brother Foundation
• Catholic Relief Services
• CARE
• Christian Children’s Fund
• Christian Reformed World Relief Committee
• Church World Service
• Direct Relief International
• Doctors Without Borders
• Episcopal Relief and Development
• Food for the Hungry
• Habitat for Humanity
• International Aid
• International Medical Corps
• International Orthodox Christian Charities
• International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
• International Relief Teams
• International Rescue Committee
• Islamic Relief
• Latter Day Saints Humanitarian Services
• Lutheran World Relief
• MAP International
• Mercy Corps
• Network for Good
• Operation USA
• Operation Blessing
• Oxfam American
• Plan USA
• Project Concern International
• Project HOPE
• Red Cross
• Salvation Army
• Save the Children
• Stop Hunger Now
• UNICEF
• World Concern
• World Emergency Relief
• World Vision

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Charity Sites

Click Here To Fight Hunger
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***3:02 PM – Updates

I just added a number of places where you can donate money. See below for the very long list. (Hope it’s not so long that you are overwhelmed and don’t donate at all!)

***2:23 PM – Ten Thousand Villages

Every year my Aunt’s church hosts a fair that features beautiful handicrafts from the group Ten Thousand Villages. I’m embarrassed to say I’ve neglected the fair these past few years. I wanted to bring this group to everyone’s attention, though, in case some of you haven’t been aware of this group. It’s well worth a visit to their site.

The following is from their site:

Ten Thousand Villages provides vital, fair income to Third World people by marketing their handicrafts and telling their stories in North America.

Ten Thousand Villages works with artisans who would otherwise be unemployed or underemployed, providing sustainable income through fair trade. This income helps pay for food, education, health care and housing. Thousands of volunteers in Canada and the United States work with Ten Thousand Villages in their home communities.

Ten Thousand Villages is a nonprofit program of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), the relief and development agency of Mennonite and Brethren in Christ churches in North America. Ten Thousand Villages has been working around the world since 1946.

***12:11 PM – And Donate Direct

I’ve been informed that Amazon has a page where you can donate to the Red Cross. Hmmm. Why go through them? Donate direct! I’ve been told that World Vision does an excellent job of getting the money to where it’s needed and doesn’t waste. I’ve also been told that anything “UN” isn’t the best way to go.

***11:30 AM – Donate!

Some of these links take you directly to the donation page, some don’t. Doesn’t really matter … just donate! Some links take a long time to load; it looks as if a lot of people are donating and sites get overwhelmed. This is the good news; don’t give up … be patient. As you can see, I’ve included a diverse group here in my attempt to include various religions as well as non-religious groups.

(If you have other sites to suggest, please email me.

• Action Against Hunger
• ADRA International
• Air Serv International
• American Friends Service Committee
• American Jewish World Service
• American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
• AmeriCares
• Association for India’s Development
• Baptist World Alliance
• B’nai B’rith
• Brother’s Brother Foundation
• Catholic Relief Services
• CARE
• Christian Children’s Fund
• Christian Reformed World Relief Committee
• Church World Service
• Direct Relief International
• Doctors Without Borders
• Episcopal Relief and Development
• Food for the Hungry
• International Aid
• International Medical Corps
• International Orthodox Christian Charities
• International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
• International Relief Teams
• International Rescue Committee
• Islamic Relief
• Latter Day Saints Humanitarian Services
• Lutheran World Relief
• MAP International
• Mercy Corps
• Network for Good
• Operation USA
• Operation Blessing
• Oxfam American
• Plan USA
• Project Concern International
• Project HOPE
• Red Cross
• Salvation Army
• Save the Children
• Stop Hunger Now
• UNICEF
• World Concern
• World Emergency Relief
• World Vision

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***10:24 PM – Movies

Just saw the movie Northfork and I can’t say much right now. It was a wonderful film. I’m just sort of in the speechless place right now, though. I’ll have to let it sit with me for a good amount of time. Then I’ll have to see it again. (But, meanwhile, Kelsey is taking it with her to Irvine so she and Mel can watch it.)

Yesterday we saw The Incredibles. Talk about complete opposites! But it was a fun movie and I enjoyed the music too.

There are still some movies I want to see. Finding Neverland. Spanglish. Life Aquatic. I hope we can get to at least one before I drive Kelsey back to her other home. (Or is this “other home” and that “home” now? Maybe so.)

Of course for me to even have seen TWO movies (even though one was on DVD at home) is somewhat of a miracle.

***Tragedy

Sometimes I don’t know what to say. Or do. I donate my money, but what good does that small amount do? I pray. But what do my prayers do? (Read the post below if you wonder about me and prayer … I’m still pondering that subject.) There’s a teacher at Jameson’s school who, I hear, is in a hospital somewhere “over there” (I’m not sure just where she was) because she suffered minor injuries. It sounds like she will be fine. But the devastation … the deaths … the children … what can one do or say? I’m just not sure.
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***8:26 PM – Prayer

I’ve been thinking about prayer lately. A while back my friends at beyond.com were discussing it. I’m not sure how many there pray … I know some do; I see the “I’m praying” emails. But I also see a bunch of “thinking good thoughts” there.

For me “thinking good thoughts” is fairly pointless, unless you are letting someone know he or she is on your mind. And that’s a good thing, certainly … having someone on your mind, that is.

Prayer though … what IS it? I believe in God. And I believe in a personal God who actually knows each one of us and cares for us. So talking to someone like that it a good thing, I think. But I also believe in a God who is in total control. So praying to a God who already knows exactly what’s going to happen … well … what’s the point?

Hmmm.

I guess it’s mostly just being in contact with God. Acknowledging God’s presence … and glory … being thankful … and, I’m sure, much more.

I hate grocery list prayers and Santa prayers. Preaching prayers? Ugh. “Informational prayers” (the kind where you are telling your listeners a whole story that God already knows!). They all bug me.

I’m uncomfortable praying out loud in front of others, too. Not because I don’t really believe in prayer, but because those prayers become more about the people around me than about my relationship with God. (I spend a lot of time preparing to pray and then I realize I’ve already told God everything … so then praying out loud seems a bit of a goofy thing.) But I do, on occasion, pray out loud … because I decide it’s necessary, or I know it’s required I suppose … but sometimes I wonder: why not pray the one prayer Jesus told us to pray when we pray aloud? That way we wouldn’t be gossiping or preaching to the others around us, we’d all know the prayer and we could pray together. “The Lord’s Prayer” works pretty darn well, I think.

(Some of my readers are now wondering just how insane I really am! Those that pray a lot will probably be praying for me. Those that don’t believe in God are probably just puzzled by this silly blog.)

Anyway, this isn’t really much of a post. I’m just pondering out loud.

I’ll pray later. Silently.

***8:09 PM – Done!

Nutcrackers are over. For almost a year. This was a year of “good nuts” for me; I didn’t really care for my oboe reeds, but I managed to survive. English horn felt better than it has in a while. Whew!
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***12:26 PM – Yesterday
I said “Merry Christmas” to the checker at Safeway. I thought she seemed a wee bit surprised. I suppose maybe that could happen these days. Saying “Merry Christmas” has become a bit rare because we have so many cultures in this corner of the world — we don’t know who celebrates and who doesn’t. But I said it anyway. She looked like she’d survive.

Yesterday afternoon a colleague of mine wished me a Merry Christmas and that time it was my turn to be a bit surprised. But he looked shocked himself right after he said it: he’s Jewish. Hmmm. I guess he just got caught up in the Nutcracker or something. But he quickly smiled and said “Happy Holidays” and I wished him the same. I just thought it was kind of funny that he forgot, for a second, that he doesn’t wish a Merry Christmas to people. I could tell he thought it was funny too. I’m sorry, now, that we didn’t acknowledge the slip up. It wouldn’t have been a big deal … but I guess we were both just a bit tired after 11 Nutcrackers.

… and yesterday’s Nutcracker was a bit of an “interesting” one; one musician (a “one on a part” player) thought the show was at 7:30. It was at 1:30. So we were missing an important voice. It was odd, to be sure. I think Nutcrackers tend to drive some of us … um … nuts.

***12:19 PM – Read Chuck

Really. I always love his stuff. The blog today is no exception.

***12:12 PM – Pictures!

Dan has posted some pictures at our family site.

***8:45 AM – Christmas Blessings to One and All!

***Animal Sequence

***mouse

too small to offer
up my coat
i’ll give the baby
quiet

***from a lamb’s point of view

i heard those angels singing
and i saw my master leaving
to see the Child

i cannot help but wonder
if this little One
this Savior of the people
will save my life as well

***The Cow

His mother feeds him;
my milk is not needed.

Only my stench
Exists for them.

But I will low
and sing a song–

a moo-ing lullaby
for my Creator’s new ears.

(To those of you who don’t know what Christians believe: Jews were required to sacrifice as atonement for sin. Jesus’s death took that requirement away.)
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***5:26 – PM

What We Wish For Our Children

The malls fall silent. Streets are empty now
and restless children try to fall asleep.
The midnight service, candlelit, an hour
before is over. Silence blesses each
exhausted parent. Huddled on a couch
we whisper, wondering if the choices we
have made will satisfy: we think of how
we’ve planned and shoppped, and rest now by the tree.

But all the festive decorations, all
the gifts, cannot compare to one lone birth–
cannot replace the story of a fall,
an aching people, and a groaning earth.

And Mary gently holds an infant in her arms
and vows to keep him safe from every harm.

-Patricia Emerson Mitchell, November 2000
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This is Brandon. Again.
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The guys working on the tree. 12.15.04
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