Thanks, dude! On people being kind.

Recently i lost my phone, probably on the bus or at the bus stop.  Fortunately someone found it and returned it to the cell phone store!  Thanks!  I was able to pick it up downtown a few days later.  I asked the guy at the store if the person had left a contact so i could thank them and he just said, "No, the guy just came in and dropped it off."  So here's my digital shoutout:
Thank You! 

I really thought that was the last i'd see of this phone, and i am really thankful i was able to get it back.  Much less of a hassle!  So, note to self: take extra effort to return lost items to people!

I am still proud to be a stupid phone owner.  A flip phone, which my grandma also has--hers in in pristine condition, whereas mine has been dropped and scratched a few times...



Now i think i will print out my contacts and a few things from my SMS records so i don't lose them!

And for kicks:
http://soundofharmony.blogspot.com/2006/04/progress.html

Date - Los Gatos

CA Road Trip

Sundial Brige - Turtle Bay Museum and Gardens - Redding, CA:

My brother as a child hiding in a cupboard:

A little Richard Scarry hilarity in the kids' room at church.

Note note on bottom:

Ich bin Papabär

Hard at work in The Lab

Herr Choate

A sketch by a German 202 student, January 2012.

Collaborative Father / Daughter Art

"Collaborative" here means Sierra did most of the artistic work and I made sure she didn't smear paint, bzw markers on everything else nearby and then helped her write her name, the date, and the titles, the latter of which she picked out. Anyway, she loves to paint, and I think we may have a little artiste on our hands.

„Ein Pferd auf dem Bauernhof“
"A horse on the farm"
19 December, 2011


„Ein Land ohne Name“
"A country without a name"*
28 December, 2011





















* In a nod to our mates Dan Under: it kinda looks like Australia!

Hope and Perserverance

Here's a little ditty that surprised me in its poignancy and similarities to parts of Isaiah, Hebrews, and Romans, and I'm sure other Biblical spots:

"If you were going away somewhere--and you, and you--and the time was made ready, and the day drew near, and you knew in your heart that you would be happy--and this is an elder knowledge that has little to do with fact--wouldn't you cry out to the time of your going, and look forward toward it, with eagerness, to view the curve of the world at the place where the sky bends down?"

From Ben Hur Lampman's The Time of the Crows

It also is just one example of good things I've come across which to me prove the MO "test everything and hold on to what is good".

"Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint." (Isaiah - NLT, 2007)


"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." (Hebrews - ESV, 2001)

"We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will." (Romans - NIV, 1984)