Having just returned from summer camp, I am encouraged and invigorated. Any time an organization puts youth together for a week out in nature, good things happen. Campers all learn to get along with each other as well as learn to appreciate nature; especially when they have to live without all the comforts of home. No television or video games. Even for the adult leaders, a bond is developed as we sit around the camp fire and talk.
Collecting firewood, keeping the campfire going, cooking over a fire, setting up tents, morning flag ceremony and hiking through the woods all contribute to lessons learned in life.
Collecting enough of the right kind of firewood and covering it with a tarp to keep dry helps us to think ahead in life and be more prepared for any emergency. Making goals for what we want to accomplish keeps us on target. If we forget to cover the firewood, dew or rain will wet the wood and you have a problem. Thinking ahead is always a smart way to go.
Keeping the fires going for a campfire can help you to understand the nurturing of a relationship. Staying in a long term relationship needs emotional support during the good and the bad and it teaches you patience. Just like being patient enough to stick around to keep the fire going at night, relationships will have the same benefit and it pays off in the end.
Cooking over a fire keeps you on your toes. You watch to make sure the fire doesn’t get too hot and not burn anything. It’s the way children are by the time they are teenagers. They certainly keep you on your toes.
Securing the tent stakes can remind us that we should keep ourselves grounded in life from the wicked ways of the world. It’s too easy to be swayed by what is popular. We can see the blessings of keeping ourselves unspotted against what comes along in life. Those stakes keep us anchored to one place just like we would keep our tent.
Having flag ceremony every morning reminds us that we should be thankful for our soldiers in arms from the first gun shot during the Revolutionary war to the bombs dropping on Baghdad. We are so blessed in this country for the many men who fought to keep us free and safe from the rest of the world.
Keeping on the path during the hike can remind us to focus on what is important in life. Stopping to smell the flowers and keeping on the straight and narrow even when the path is difficult are life lessons that stay with us. Some of those hills we climbed walking through the hot sun were brutal, but we kept going. We did not give up and go back. We did not stray from off the path we were to walk on.
Yes, living out in the wilderness has its insights and we can remember what we learned from our experiences at summer camp.
Thoughts about families, homeschool, religion, the importance of the United States of America and other necessities of life.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Another Pro-Abortion Judge
With all the summer activities going on, I haven’t had much time to stop and catch all the news of the day. One story of which I was surprised I had missed was the ongoing nomination of Elena Kagan. Born in New York as a middle child to Jewish parents; her mother, a school teacher and her father, an attorney; this woman has been questioned for the past several weeks for her ability and knowledge as a Supreme Court Justice. These proceedings have been very eye opening. If Ms. Kagan does get nominated, she will be the first justice in almost four decades without any prior experience as a judge. She has never been married nor have any children which I fear will put a slant on her views about family.
Also very disturbing to know is the fact that not only has she supported the policy to bar military recruiters from Harvard where she is the Dean of the Law School there but she also supports assertions of “executive power”. A very scary idea when contemplating the delicate balance of our nations three working powers (Legislative, Executive and Judicial) to bring peace and tranquility to the people.
I suppose that is par for the course for one with such political convictions as hers, but what really bothers me about Ms. Kagan is the fact that she is pro-choice. My mother used to have a bumper sticker on her car which read: “It’s a child, not a choice”. Those citizens who are sensible enough to know that when a child has been conceived, it is the responsibility of the parents to see that the child is born and cared for.
All those pro-choice renegades who charge into the media with the idea that women who become pregnant should be the one to decide whether they should keep the life going is short sighted of the moral responsibility of bringing children to the earth . As her record has shown, Ms. Kagan has acknowledged contributing to the National Partnership for Women and Families a national pro-choice group, and has campaigned for, worked for or contributed to candidates and public officials who were supporters of abortion rights, including Elizabeth Holtzman, Michael Dukakis, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Bill Clinton and President Barack Obama.
As she has been quoted to say in 1980 (speaking to anti-abortion candidates and officials): “I found it hard to conceive of the victories of these anonymous but Moral Majority-backed candidates……these avengers of ‘innocent life’”. As it was noted by William Saunders, vice president of legal affairs and senior counsel of Americans United for Life, “Kagan seems to have little sympathy with the idea that the weakest among us deserve the equal protection of the law.”
It is absolutely necessary for us, as citizens of the United States, to recognize the moral importance of bringing children into the world. If we are to remain free, our leaders should recognize this importance as well. Only time will tell of the outcome of these proceedings and what our Supreme Court considers to be important for our nation.
Also very disturbing to know is the fact that not only has she supported the policy to bar military recruiters from Harvard where she is the Dean of the Law School there but she also supports assertions of “executive power”. A very scary idea when contemplating the delicate balance of our nations three working powers (Legislative, Executive and Judicial) to bring peace and tranquility to the people.
I suppose that is par for the course for one with such political convictions as hers, but what really bothers me about Ms. Kagan is the fact that she is pro-choice. My mother used to have a bumper sticker on her car which read: “It’s a child, not a choice”. Those citizens who are sensible enough to know that when a child has been conceived, it is the responsibility of the parents to see that the child is born and cared for.
All those pro-choice renegades who charge into the media with the idea that women who become pregnant should be the one to decide whether they should keep the life going is short sighted of the moral responsibility of bringing children to the earth . As her record has shown, Ms. Kagan has acknowledged contributing to the National Partnership for Women and Families a national pro-choice group, and has campaigned for, worked for or contributed to candidates and public officials who were supporters of abortion rights, including Elizabeth Holtzman, Michael Dukakis, John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Bill Clinton and President Barack Obama.
As she has been quoted to say in 1980 (speaking to anti-abortion candidates and officials): “I found it hard to conceive of the victories of these anonymous but Moral Majority-backed candidates……these avengers of ‘innocent life’”. As it was noted by William Saunders, vice president of legal affairs and senior counsel of Americans United for Life, “Kagan seems to have little sympathy with the idea that the weakest among us deserve the equal protection of the law.”
It is absolutely necessary for us, as citizens of the United States, to recognize the moral importance of bringing children into the world. If we are to remain free, our leaders should recognize this importance as well. Only time will tell of the outcome of these proceedings and what our Supreme Court considers to be important for our nation.
A New Adventure
Jim and I have started a process which will change our lives. As we proceed through this new adventure--I will document our progress with journal entries and picutres.
As we have started our own business, we needed to find our dream: a goal we would be determined to fulfill and the dream we want is to remodel an old hotel in Loxley. It was built in 1920 as a rest stop for people riding the train from Atmore to Foley. It looks to be somewhere between 4,000 to 5,000 square feet all together. There were two additions made on it since it was first built and we want to remodel the whole thing so we can live there.
I have included a picture of what it looks like now. It's an exciting venture and we are going to spend the next year and a half finishing all the work so we can move in by Christmas 2011.
Happy us........
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