An Arkies Musings

My favorite cartoon when I was a kid was Peanuts. I remember one comic strip in particular. It is January 1st, and Charlie Brown tells anyone who will listen, “The best way to keep New Year’s Resolutions is in a sealed envelope in a bottom desk drawer". Charlie Brown knew what every person who has ever made a resolution knows. Making and keeping resolutions is a troublesome business, usually filled with failure and shame. How have your past resolutions worked out for you? I don't even want to talk about mine. If you have often made and broken resolutions, you may feel that you might as well seal them in a bottom desk drawer and forget them. That is the experience I have had. If you ask the average person about the resolutions they made, they will tell you that they are going to cut down on their eating, they are going to exercise more, stop doing unhealthy things, and start doing healthy things, etc. While these things are good, they all focus on self and rely on se...

In just a few hours we will be saying goodbye to 2013.  2014 is just around the corner.  2013 marched by quickly, with many memorable events.  Here is a retrospective of 2013 with a link to a blog post from each month of the year.. In January we made a trip to Conroe, Texas to attend a concert by The Steel Wheels. In February my Mom underwent cryoablation treatment on her kidney tumor. In March we went to the Jonquil Festival at Historic Washington State Park .   In April we enjoyed the 3 Penny Acre CD release concert for their album, "Rag and Bone". In May we traveled to Florida and went to Disney World with our grand daughters. In June we celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary. In July we visited the Carnton Plantation in Franklin, Tennessee. In August my wife discovered that her great great grandmother hand walked across America pulling a handcart. On September 11 I wrote about a terrible mass...

Y is for Y I blog.  I know that it is cheating a bit, but the end of the alphabet gets pretty difficult.  When I ran across this cartoon, it made me think about why I blog. It is certainly not for the money. In a way blogging is kind of like a diary or journal. I guess that it feels good to leave some kind of mark; some way for people to actually know you exist and have done something. Maybe it's because my memory is so poor that I feel that blogging can help my memory. I know that I am not blogging for the money, but the benefits have been many. I have met, if you can call typing on the computer meeting, many wonderful people. With all of the ugliness we see and hear about in the world, it is nice to get to know interesting people from all parts of the world.  I like getting a personal perspective that hasn't been filtered through the media. After 5 years, over 440 posts, and over 200,000 unique visitors from over 190 different countries,  sometimes I'm st...

X is for Xmas.  I must admit that I have never liked Xmas as an abbreviation for Christmas.  It just seems a bit flippant and unnecessary. In today's culture where many Christians perceive a war against Christmas, they see the use of Xmas as an attempt to secularize the season by taking Christ out of Christmas. I must admit that I agreed with those sentiments until I actually looked into the history of the use of Xmas.  Originally, Xmas was an abbreviation where the X represents the Greek letter chi, which is the first letter of Christ's name in Greek, ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ. However, because of the modern interpretations of the letter X, many people are unaware of this and assume that this abbreviation is meant to drop Christ from Christmas. According to R. C. Sproul in his book, Now That's a Good Question, the idea of X as an abbreviation for the name of Christ came into use in our culture with no intent to show any disrespect for Jesus. The church has used the symbol of the...

I've always wanted to be a shepherd.  No I haven’t really wanted to live alone with a herd of sheep; I have always coveted the experience of the shepherds on that first Christmas night. God could have chosen to reveal this most important announcement to anyone on earth.  But instead of assigning the angels to visit some of the most important people on earth, God sent the angels to speak to humble shepherds, who most people didn't consider important. The shepherds would have been watching over their flocks while the sheep and lambs rested or grazed on grass from the hillsides. While the shepherds were prepared to deal with any danger that threatened their animals, they were shocked and scared by witnessing the angels' appearance. That’s why the angels told them, “don’t be afraid”. The angels reassured the terrified shepherds that they had good news for them. Since the shepherds raised the lambs that were sacrificed to atone for people's sins each spring on Pa...

W is for winter wonderland.  On December 5th a major ice storm hit portions of Arkansas.  My hometown of Mena, Arkansas and the surrounding areas were particularly hard hit.  Freezing rain coated the trees and power lines.  Many branches and snapped off from the weight of the ice and entire trees were uprooted and fell over.  The resulting damage to power lines caused everyone in our area to be without electricity.   We were fortunate to have our power restored in 24 hours, but many people in the area were still without power 6 days later.  There were hundreds of power company trucks in our area working long hours trying to restore electricity to those without power. Though there was widespread property damage, the ice storm created a fairy tale world.  Here are some photos that I took near my home on the day after the storm. The  ABC Wednesday Meme  is a fun way to see some great blogs.

The Heralds of Hope Romanian Choir will be performing in Mena on its 9th Anniversary Christmas Tour.  They will be in concert at 5:00 P.M. on Saturday, December 21, at the Seventh-Day Adventist Church on Fairgrounds Road.  The Heralds of Hope repertoire includes Carols and Christmas Songs from around the world.  Their concerts offer a unique opportunity to lean, hear and enjoy the best of Christmas. Pastor Florin Liga and his wife Livia are members of the Heralds of Hope and have been instrumental in bringing this world class performing group to Mena.  Pastor Liga has recently accepted a position as pastor of the Mena Seventh-Day Adventist Church. The Heralds of Hope have performed across the United States and Europe.  They have held concerts in many of the great cathedrals of Europe.  Their travels in the United States have taken them to New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Washington, D.C.  Don’t miss this...

V is for View. I really thought long and hard on the "V" post. View seemed like it was a bit weak, but couldn't think of anything else. Let's start with the view from the house I grew up in. For several years we lived in a house just outside of Erie, Colorado. Our house sat on a little rise, and we had a great view of the Front Range. A couple of years ago I visited the old place and took this picture of the view. VIEW FROM MY CHILDHOOD HOME IN ERIE, COLORADO When I was a boy, I would spend a week every summer at Glacier View Ranch. I always had a good time at summer camp. A few years ago, I made a return visit to Glacier View. I hadn't been there since I was a boy. I was surprised by how much things looked the same. The view from the parking lot was just as I remembered it. VIEW FROM GLACIER VIEW RANCH One of the most beautiful views I have ever seen is the view from my brother-in-law Duane's cabin. It is located above Leadville, Colo...