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Merisha and me with our favorite instruments. 

Autumn

Yesterday was the first day of autumn. This makes me very happy because I’m finding that being such northerners now (we’re quite a bit north of I-10 now, you know), we have much more season differentiation than I’ve ever known.
To my surprise, we have already had several very nice cooler days! Even in August we had some that were cool! This is a strange new experience for me, but I’m finding that I will very much like having four seasons.
Our autumn and winter clothes come out of the attic…out with the white and pastels, bring on the dark and dramatic! I love season changes.

~Robin <><

Psalm 143

1 I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever. 2 Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever. 3 Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and his greatness is unsearchable. 4 One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts. 5 I will speak of the glorious honour of thy majesty, and of thy wondrous works. 6 And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts: and I will declare thy greatness. 7 They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great goodness, and shall sing of thy righteousness. 8 The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. 9 The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.
10 All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee. 11 They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power; 12 To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom. 13 Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations. 14 The LORD upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down. 15 The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season. 16 Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing. 17 The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works. 18 The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth. 19 He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their cry, and will save them. 20 The LORD preserveth all them that love him: but all the wicked will he destroy. 21 My mouth shall speak the praise of the LORD: and let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever.

I have been knitting lately

Knitting scarves, to be exact.
Now, this is quite a strange turn of events. I have always been a crochet person and found knitting quite dull. A dear friend is an avid knitter and though she couldn't talk me into liking it when we lived together, I have since tried it again and found it quite to my liking. I have found the trick is to buy fun, festive yarn.
My problem now is that I have at least 3 crochet projects going, 2 cross stitch projects and now I'm adding knitting to the mix. Hmm. Everyone will be receiving half finished Christmas gifts if I keep adding projects at this rate :)

I Remember September 11, 2001.

I remember being thirteen years old as I watched on live TV the collapse of the World Trade Centers, saw the destruction of the Pentagon and saw the field where United flight 93 was crashed.
I remember the shock, the confusion and the terror on everyone's faces.

I remember wondering if there would be more attacks.

I remember the prayer services of churches all over the country being packed out.

I remember hearing of people standing in line for 6 hours to give blood.

I remember the floods of flags hanging poudly everywhere, as far as I could see.

I remember our country standing united.

It's been five years now, but it seems like yesterday. Like yesterday when our country was attacked, when thousands of people died, when I had something in common with every single stranger I saw or talked to.

Five years, but I still found it heartwrenching to see the pictures again, to read quotes of people who called from the planes and World Trade Center to say good bye to their families, to read accounts of the families left to carry on.

Though the country is again divided and splintered, I remember the day that brought everyone together.
I remember September 11th.

I really love this story...

Joshua 22
1 Then Joshua summoned the Reubenites and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, 2 and said to them, "You have kept all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, and have listened to my voice in all that I commanded you. 3 "You have not forsaken your brothers these many days to this day, but have kept the charge of the commandment of the LORD your God. 4 "And now the LORD your God has given rest to your brothers, as He spoke to them; therefore turn now and go to your tents, to the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of the LORD gave you beyond the Jordan. 5 "Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, to love the LORD your God and walk in all His ways and keep His commandments and hold fast to Him and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul." 6 So Joshua blessed them and sent them away, and they went to their tents. 7 Now to the one half-tribe of Manasseh Moses had given {a possession} in Bashan, but to the other half Joshua gave {a possession} among their brothers westward beyond the Jordan. So when Joshua sent them away to their tents, he blessed them, 8 and said to them, "Return to your tents with great riches and with very much livestock, with silver, gold, bronze, iron, and with very many clothes; divide the spoil of your enemies with your brothers." 9 The sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh returned {home} and departed from the sons of Israel at Shiloh which is in the land of Canaan, to go to the land of Gilead, to the land of their possession which they had possessed, according to the command of the LORD through Moses.
10 When they came to the region of the Jordan which is in the land of Canaan, the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh built an altar there by the Jordan, a large altar in appearance. 11 And the sons of Israel heard {it} said, "Behold, the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh have built an altar at the frontier of the land of Canaan, in the region of the Jordan, on the side {belonging to} the sons of Israel." 12 When the sons of Israel heard {of it,} the whole congregation of the sons of Israel gathered themselves at Shiloh to go up against them in war. 13 Then the sons of Israel sent to the sons of Reuben and to the sons of Gad and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, into the land of Gilead, Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, 14 and with him ten chiefs, one chief for each father's household from each of the tribes of Israel; and each one of them {was} the head of his father's household among the thousands of Israel. 15 They came to the sons of Reuben and to the sons of Gad and to the half-tribe of Manasseh, to the land of Gilead, and they spoke with them saying, 16 "Thus says the whole congregation of the LORD, 'What is this unfaithful act which you have committed against the God of Israel, turning away from following the LORD this day, by building yourselves an altar, to rebel against the LORD this day? 17 'Is not the iniquity of Peor enough for us, from which we have not cleansed ourselves to this day, although a plague came on the congregation of the LORD, 18 that you must turn away this day from following the LORD? If you rebel against the LORD today, He will be angry with the whole congregation of Israel tomorrow. 19 'If, however, the land of your possession is unclean, then cross into the land of the possession of the LORD, where the LORD'S tabernacle stands, and take possession among us. Only do not rebel against the LORD, or rebel against us by building an altar for yourselves, besides the altar of the LORD our God. 20 'Did not Achan the son of Zerah act unfaithfully in the things under the ban, and wrath fall on all the congregation of Israel? And that man did not perish alone in his iniquity.' "
21 Then the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh answered and spoke to the heads of the families of Israel. 22 "The Mighty One, God, the LORD, the Mighty One, God, the LORD! He knows, and may Israel itself know. If {it was} in rebellion, or if in an unfaithful act against the LORD do not save us this day! 23 "If we have built us an altar to turn away from following the LORD, or if to offer a burnt offering or grain offering on it, or if to offer sacrifices of peace offerings on it, may the LORD Himself require it. 24 "But truly we have done this out of concern, for a reason, saying, 'In time to come your sons may say to our sons, "What have you to do with the LORD, the God of Israel? 25 "For the LORD has made the Jordan a border between us and you, {you} sons of Reuben and sons of Gad; you have no portion in the LORD." So your sons may make our sons stop fearing the LORD.' 26 "Therefore we said, 'Let us build an altar, not for burnt offering or for sacrifice; 27 rather it shall be a witness between us and you and between our generations after us, that we are to perform the service of the LORD before Him with our burnt offerings, and with our sacrifices and with our peace offerings, so that your sons will not say to our sons in time to come, "You have no portion in the LORD.'" 28 "Therefore we said, 'It shall also come about if they say {this} to us or to our generations in time to come, then we shall say, "See the copy of the altar of the LORD which our fathers made, not for burnt offering or for sacrifice; rather it is a witness between us and you.'" 29 "Far be it from us that we should rebel against the LORD and turn away from following the LORD this day, by building an altar for burnt offering, for grain offering or for sacrifice, besides the altar of the LORD our God which is before His tabernacle."
30 So when Phinehas the priest and the leaders of the congregation, even the heads of the families of Israel who {were} with him, heard the words which the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad and the sons of Manasseh spoke, it pleased them. 31 And Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest said to the sons of Reuben and to the sons of Gad and to the sons of Manasseh, "Today we know that the LORD is in our midst, because you have not committed this unfaithful act against the LORD; now you have delivered the sons of Israel from the hand of the LORD." 32 Then Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest and the leaders returned from the sons of Reuben and from the sons of Gad, from the land of Gilead to the land of Canaan, to the sons of Israel, and brought back word to them. 33 The word pleased the sons of Israel, and the sons of Israel blessed God; and they did not speak of going up against them in war to destroy the land in which the sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad were living. 34 The sons of Reuben and the sons of Gad called the altar {Witness;} "For," {they said,} "it is a witness between us that the LORD is God."

Thought provoking reads

I find that a strange thing happens to me when I go to the library: I always seem to leave with at least one book on the holocaust.
In fact, I just finished Schindler's List. As I finished the last page, I thought to myself that it was one of the most troubling books I've ever read in my life. The only book more troubling was Let Me Go, an account from a German woman about her mother who was in the SS and, now in her eighties, still showed absolutely no remorse about the inhumane things that she personally did to the prisoners.
I've also read several accounts from survivors of the camps.
They are all from different perspectives and very thought provoking.
I wonder how the desensitization process can go that far, to where you give barbaric treatment without even hesitating. I wonder how people can survive that kind of treatment. I am amazed at how much humans can really handle, the will to live. I was very surprised to find out that many of them did not even believe in God and I wonder how in the world anyone could go through those circumstances without Him.