On the kitchen chimney shelf
Pigweed, no joke
Every year, it seems we have a different weed or two that really takes off in the gardens. Virginia creeper nearly took out some shrubs a few years ago, the same time Jerusalem artichoke went rogue and nearly demolished a rhubarb.
Last year, a newcomer seemed to be popping up everywhere, and we kept tossing it out to the lawn for me to mow or to the driveway. Then, one afternoon, I put some in front of the rabbits … and they loved it.
Then came our quandary. Was it safe for them to eat?
In trying to identify the plant, we came across Better Homes & Garden’s online “only guide to weeds you’ll ever need,” and after scrolling past a few dozen we know all too well, we came across our suspect – pigweed.
And yes, it’s edible, even by some humans.
No wonder the bunnies were, uh, pigging out.
And our weed suddenly became a welcome crop to harvest abundantly.
Basically
do you really like me? I mean, nothing beyond some fool’s hazardous perspective up and by god safe in season, I’m whatever happens lovelier than that canopy maybe fully open lifting into play, hopefully without nonsense spreading
Some things to consider about Pentecostals
When Jaya meets Joshua and his family in my novel Nearly Canaan, she’s introduced to their Pentecostal faith. It’s not like most Christianity.
Here are some points to consider.
- It’s more emotional than most churches, for one thing. Shouting, dancing, praying out loud during the service are common, along with applause, praise songs, and a rock band.
- The term comes from the Day of Pentecost in the second chapter of Acts and its events 50 days after the Resurrection of Christ.
- Pentecostalism’s principal defining trait is speaking in tongues as “Bible evidence” for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The vocal utterances are rarely in a foreign language the speaker doesn’t know, unlike the Day of Pentecost, but in a stylized babbling known as glossolalia. The proclamations are usually translated by another into the language of the congregants – typically English, though the movement is rapidly spreading worldwide.
- In Brazil, an estimated 12 percent of the populace is Pentecostal and rising.
- The movement started at the 1906 Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles, led by African-American preacher William J. Seymour, or maybe as early as 1896 with the Apostolic Faith movement or maybe 1901 in Kansas when Agnes Ozman, a Holiness Methodist, was publicly recognized for speaking in tongues. It’s had more recent incarnations, such as the Charismatic strand among Roman Catholics and Episcopalians.
- Among Pentecostal churches, theological beliefs can vary widely. But the majority interpret the Bible literally.
- Women were ordained to leadership roles from the beginning of the movement.
- Some denominations place strict limits on personal conduct and attire, even forbidding sports and movies.
- Many Pentecostals are found as active members in non-Pentecostal congregations.
- Pentecostal denominations include Assemblies of God, Foursquare Gospel, United Pentecostal, Church of God in Christ, and Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, but there’s a raft of smaller ones, too. Congregations range from small storefronts to mega-churches.
How a novel takes shape and grows
While she thinks she’s learning about her father in my novel What’s Left, we’re really learning about her.
Let me confess, that’s not how the story started out, back in 2013. Cassia really grew up in the meantime!
All of the changes are what really matter.
~*~
He/she/it/they
I’ve been accused of being unable to understand because I’m a man. It was tempting to respond that she couldn’t understand my need to have a God the Father to relate to as a man who needs a role model and a complete positive (for the most part) male authority figure, and she couldn’t understand because she’s a woman. We are in a bind. But that cheap shot would have accomplished nothing. I still say that Biblical language is not exclusive, if rendered correctly.
The irony here arose in the case of a woman who was being criticized by a man for using Biblical language. Who should know more whether she felt excluded by its masculine nouns? As she said, it’s his problem.
~*~
Oh, my, this was all before some of my most important fictional characters were women.
Tossing out those old return-address labels
In moving, I had no more need for a folder of return-address labels to the old house, many of them sent to me as fundraisers from various sources. They were really helpful back when I was submitting work prolifically to the literary mags, but lately it’s been mostly in paying the bills.
Among the labels were those from these sources:
- The alumni association.
- Sierra Club.
- Amnesty International.
- Grassroots International.
- AAA.
- Climate action.
- Wildlife groups.
- Resist.
- Ones from a lighthouse series I had ordered. They were larger and impressive.
- Ones I designed and printed out myself.
Photography just ain’t what it used to be
In my Freakin’ Free Spirits novels, Cassia’s father is a professional photographer who views the world in a unique spirit.
Now that digital technology has made taking pictures so easy and ubiquitous, everybody always seems to be holding their cell phones up for another shot.
Does anyone else miss the sound of the clicking shutter?
How do you find capturing photographic images affects the way you see events around you?
Kinisi 60
POSTAL
PISTOL
PESTLE
Happy campers
Jnana's Red Barn 