Opus 500

It is hard for me to believe that this is my 500th post on An Arkies Musings.  Blogging has become a part of my everyday life.  Just a few short years ago I had never hear of blogging and had no idea what a blog was.  Since I started writing this blog in the fall of 2008 over 246,000 people have read at least one post.  I have had visitors from 193 countries. 

One day back in 2008 my friend Laurel was visiting in our home.  She showed me her daughter's blog, Winter's Day In. Because she lived so far away from her daughter, she kept up with her through the blog. I had no idea what it was all about.

As I was reading the blog, I noticed at the top of the page that it had a link that said create blog. I had to see what it was all about, so I clicked it. In a few days I had my own blog, and I enjoyed writing and posting pictures to it. I had written a little before starting the blog, but definitely not regularly. I would occasionally write a column for the religion page of my local newspaper, and I had posted a few articles on the writing website Helium, but I had never had a "reason" to write before.

I have been asked why I call my blog, An Arkies Musings.  I have to admit that very little thought went into the name of my blog. As I was looking at the create blog page in Blogger, just trying to figure out what it was all about, one of the first things that had to be filled in was the title. I spent about thirty seconds thinking, and typed An Arkies Musings. Arkie is slang word for someone who lives in Arkansas.

We used to be officially called Arkansawyers, but now the term is Arkansan. During the Great Depression of the 1930's, Arkansas and Oklahoma were some of the hardest hit states. Many people moved to California trying to get jobs. The terms Arkie and Okie were disparaging terms used by the Californians for people from Oklahoma and Arkansas. Now the term Arkie is most often used to describe a native Arkansan and is often still a bit disparaging. It seems to indicate that someone is unlearned and backward.

I have lived here for over 30 years. Though I'm not a native, I am proud to be an Arkansan or even an Arkie. You have to admit that An Arkansan's Musings just doesn't roll off the tongue.

What I enjoy the most about blogging is the people that I have met, around the world and close to home. It helps me have a greater understanding of the world as a whole. Most of us associate with and are friends with people who are very similar to ourselves. Blogging has broadened my horizons and really made me think. Before my blog, I had never experienced internet friendships before, but reading and commenting on people's blogs does help you get to know them.

My very first post was on  September 6, 2008 and was titled Shelter From The Storm, and told the story of our experience with Hurricane Gustav.

 

My 100th post was on January 29, 2009 and was titled An Icy World Part Two.  An ice storm here in Mena, Arkansas provided the opportunity for some icy photos.

On  May 23, 2010 I uploaded post number 200, Ready To Kindle.  I was excited about purchasing a Kindle e-book reader.

Post number 300 was the story of an afternoon trip to DeGray Lake, on in October 2012.  The fall colors were beautiful and we closed the day with a sunset cruise on the lake.

During the summer of 2013 we attended my Aunt Opal's 85th birthday party.  She gave me some memoirs that she had written, and I turned them into blog posts.  Post number 400 was posted on August 1, 2013 and was titled Aunt Opal's Memories-Chapter 1-Part 2.

I have found it interesting over the years to see which post are the most popular.  Here are the top 5 An Arkies Musings posts.

The most viewed post is from May 8, 2009 and is titled I'm So Sleepy.  Over 10,300 people have viewed the post about the fatigue that set in after a tornado hit Mena in April, 2009.

With over 7,100 view, the next most popular is the January 11, 2009 post titled Christmas In Jamaica.  We took a cruise and ended up being in Jamaica on Christmas Day.

The popularity of the TV show Duck Dynasty helped make my D is for Duck Dynasty post of February 5, 2013 the third most viewed post with over 6,100 page views.

The post titled U is for Unicorn has had over 4,200 visitors putting it in fourth place.  It features the Unicorn Song by the Irish Rovers.

Over 4,100 people have read about the itsy bitsy spider and what the rhyme means in the post I Is For Itsy Bitsy Spider making it An Arkies Musings fifth most read post.

I can only wonder what the next 500 posts will bring.  Life experience brings many possible topics for An Arkies Musings.  I hope you will continue on the journey with me. I will close this Opus 500 with what I feel is the most heartfelt post of the 500.  This was written in the early morning hours a few hours after a tornado ripped through my hometown of Mena, Arkansas on April 9, 2009.



Tonight at around 7:30 the tornado sirens sounded here in Mena. Gina and I went to the safe place in our house, the downstairs hallway. About that time our electricity went out. The storm passed without damage here at the house. We were thankful that we were spared.

After the storm passed and the stars came out, I decided to drive into town to see if anyone had electricity. When I got to downtown, I started to see storm damage and saw that the authorities were not letting people proceed to the north side of Mena.

I drove to my parents house to see if they were OK, and they were fine with no damage to their house or property. I drove on to the church but saw no damage their. I thought that the storm may not have been to bad, but by the time I returned home, the phone was ringing off the hook with reports of severe damage.

The first news reports stated that the Polk County Sheriff's Department reports one person was killed after a tornado swept through the town Thursday night.

Severe storms moving through the area shortly after eight o'clock tonight spawned the twister.

As damage assessment began, KARK was told a 25 block area that included the Polk County Courthouse and Mena City Hall took a direct hit from the tornado. There are 12 minor injuries in the city.

Governor Beebe has sent 30 National Guard members to the city for help.

The Arkansas State Police tells KARK 4 there is extensive damage to homes and businesses throughout the city of Mena.

We received a call from a friend telling us that our good friend Deanna had a lot of damage to her house, and her car was totaled. Just before the storm hit, Deanna was on the phone with Gina telling her that she was in the closet and she was scared. We have not been able to talk to her since. We don't know what we will find when we are able to get into the the area. Just a couple of blocks from her house, there were 20 or more people in the Masonic Lodge when it collapsed. There is one known fatality on the street where Deanna lives.

We have had friends staying with us this evening, because they were not able to get home. The National Guard is in town and not letting anyone into the severely damaged area. There was damage at RMCC, the community college, and at Wal-Mart. There is damage at U.S. Motors where Gina operates the Credit Union. We have not been able to find out the extent of the damage.

I need to go to sleep, but probably sleep won't come. I don't know what tomorrow will bring.

Valentine

V is for Valentine.  I love history and learning.  Many things we learn about history are a bit uncertain, but it is always a little frustrating when you can't find out with any certainty the history of someone or something. The origin of St. Valentine and Valentine's Day is one of those topics.

Who was Saint Valentine?  According to the website Catholics Online, The origin of St. Valentine, and how many St. Valentines there were, remains a mystery. One opinion is that he was a Roman martyred for refusing to give up his Christian faith. Other historians hold that St. Valentine was a temple priest jailed for defiance during the reign of Claudius. Whoever he was, Valentine really existed because archaeologists have unearthed a Roman catacomb and an ancient church dedicated to Saint Valentine. In 496 AD Pope Gelasius marked February 14th as a celebration in honor of his martyrdom.

It is unclear how the modern idea of celebrating Valentine's Day by giving gifts to your romantic partner started and evolved into the commercialized holiday that it is today.  According to market research, Valentine's Day sales reached $17.6 billion last year; this year's sales are expected to total $18.6 billion.

The first time Valentine's Day is associated with romantic love is in the poem titled Parlement of Foules, written in 1382 by Geoffrey Chaucer. Chaucer wrote: "For this was on St. Valentine's Day, when every bird comes there to choose his mate."  This poem was written to honor the first anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia. When they were married they were each only 15 years old.

Valentine's Day is mentioned by William Shakespeare in the play, Hamlet:
To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day,
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valentine.

It became very popular for young men to write verses of poetry on a card and give them to their lovers.  As early as 1800, companies began mass-producing cards for those who had poor poetry skills.  In the United States, the first mass-produced valentines of embossed paper lace were produced in 1847.  The U.S. Greeting Card Association says that 190 million valentines are sent each year in the US. When you include the valentine cards exchanged by school children, the figure goes up to 1 billion.

Will you be my valentine?

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How Much Are You Worth?

In Matthew 22:37-39 Jesus said, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’”  What He meant is that a person’s love ought to reach in three directions—upward to God, outward to others, and inward to self.

Most Christians agree that loving God and others is important, but is it important to love yourself?  Self love or self esteem isn't considered a Christian attribute.  It’s often associated with pride and self-centeredness—and there are plenty of both in our world. However, that’s not what Jesus meant. He was saying we should recognize and appreciate our worth. God created us in His image so we could have a relationship with Him. Jesus died for us so we could be forgiven and reconciled to the Father.

Since God values us so highly, shouldn't we love ourselves? I’m not talking about a boastful attitude, but a quiet peace that comes from knowing we’re deeply loved by our heavenly Father.

A healthy self-love is essential. If it is missing or in some way incomplete, we can’t really love God or others as we should. A sense of unworthiness leaves us empty and prevents us from looking up to God in devotion and reaching out to others with affection.  God does not want us to have low self-esteem.

The Bible actually has many passages that tell us what God has to say about our worth and our value in His eyes. Genesis 1:27 says that “God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

You were made in the image of God.

Psalm 139:13-14 says “You made my whole being; you formed me in my mother’s body. I praise you because you made me in an amazing and wonderful way”.

You were made by God in an amazing and wonderful way.

Ephesians 1:4 says that “God chose us before the world was made so that we would be his holy people—people without blame before him.

God chose you even before the world was made.

In Romans 5:8, the Bible tells us that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”

Jesus died for you not because you were good enough, but because he loved you.

If we focus on how much God loves us and the price He paid to redeem us, we’ll come to see ourselves as God sees us, and that will help us understand just how much we’re really worth as children of God.

Our self-worth is too often based on what other people tell us about ourselves. Jesus is the true authority on our self-worth.  Since He gave His own life up for us by dying on a cross, that should tell us just how valuable we really are.

When we fully accept God’s love for us, we’ll have a healthy appreciation for ourselves, an ever-growing passion for Him, and the ability to care for others.

How much are you and I truly worth? And what value should we place upon each other?  Often we'll look at the work someone is doing, and if they're doing a poor job, making mistakes, then we view that person as of little value.  But is this the correct way of seeing value in someone?

Think about it, if we truly saw the value of people as God does, would we still treat each other the way we do?  Mathew 25:45 tells us, ‘I tell you the truth, anything you refused to do for even the least of my people here, you refused to do for me.’

The key to seeing and understanding the value of you and me and all other people in the world, is to see our value in light of what Jesus did to save us!

Are there people in our sphere of influence who are failing to thrive because we are not showing them the love that they need?

There’s no question that Christians should want to be loved and to love others. But it’s not enough to tell others that you love them – you must SHOW you love others! Love is not an abstract idea. Love must be manifested. True love is not just something you feel – it’s something you demonstrate!

We all need to grow in this area because everybody needs to know they are loved. You especially need to know how to show love if you are a follower of Jesus because He said, "All people will know that you are my followers if you love each other." John 13:35

In 1 John 3:17-18 the Bible says, “What if a person has enough money to live on and sees his brother in need of food and clothing? If he does not help him, how can the love of God be in him? My children, let us not love with words or in talk only. Let us love by what we do and in truth".

We show our love through our actions.  God has asked us to love others to help them thrive.  There are so many people in this world who are failing to thrive.  Are there those that we know who are failing to thrive because we are not loving them – by what we do?

Let’s remember how much we are of value in God's eyes! All of us! And remember to be kind and loving to all the people in this world because of what Jesus has done for us, and the great worth He has placed on each of his children.

Unread

U is for unread.  I love books and the way they feel and smell and look. I collect old books.  It is so much easier to buy books than it is to find the time to read them.



When I was a kid my favorite place was the Public Library. During the time I was in school I read just about every book in the kids section of the public library in the town of Longmont, Colorado. I still remember being disappointed that I was only allowed to check out three books at a time. I also didn't understand why I couldn't check out books from the adult section on my kids library card. I would take my three books home and have them read in a day or two and then begged my Mama to take me back to the library. I kept a flashlight handy for reading after I was supposed to be asleep. The Longmont Public Library was my access to knowledge.


My house is full of books, many of them unread.  I have resolved to stop buying books since I have so many unread books already.  Even though I have slowed down on buying books, a few years ago I bought a Kindle e-reader.

Buying the Kindle only made my unread book problem worse.  There are a huge amount of free books that are available for e-readers. There are over 6 million free books that are available to read on my Kindle. There were so many books that I have never even seen a copy of, yet are now easily available. I love history, and the amount of historical material that is available is staggering. To get an idea of what is available go here.

I'm  not sure what I can do to solve my unread book problem.  There are too many books and not enough time to read them.


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Relay and Rain

The 2014 Relay For Life of Polk County celebration was held May 30th. Because of rain we had to move Relay from our local park to the Christian Motorcycle Association Iron Mountain facilities. The 40,000 square foot facility provide an excellent place to hold an event of this size indoors. 

The event began with a Survivor Lap - our local cancer survivors circling the track while they were cheered on by the crowd.

During the evening each of the fifteen local Relay For Life teams had a booth with food and activities for everyone.  There was entertainment and a talent show.  Each of the teams had at least one walker on the track at all times.  Our team had a jail and the local sheriff deputies arrested people and placed them in the jail.  Of course someone paid to have my wife and I arrested.

Out team theme was Minions Working for a Cure.  We dressed in Yellow Minion T-shirts and Minion goggles.

As it gets dark, the attention of the Relay turns to remembering loved ones lost to cancer and honoring those battling the disease through the luminaria bags lining the track.  Relay For Life participants and donors dedicate the luminaria bags to those who are special to them. As people quietly circle the track, each of the names is read.  They are our mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, friends, coworkers, and so many others. 

After the Luminaria Ceremony, the Relay team participants are ready to stay up all night.  Relay For Life events last all night because cancer never sleeps.  Throughout the night each team had at least one participant on the track at all times.  There were many activities to keep everyone entertained through the night, including karaoke, a dance contest, 3 on 3 basketball, line dancing, Zumba and tug of war.

Relay For Life is a community event.  Every person in Polk County who has been touched by cancer benefits from the research funded through the money raised by these dedicated volunteers of Relay For Life of Polk County.  Seeing the community stand together in our fight against cancer at Relay For Life is something special. Over 6,500 dollars was raised at the event bringing the total raised so far this year to over 54,000.00

Tulip Mania

T is for Tulip Mania.  Originally cultivated in the Ottoman Empire, tulips were imported into Holland in the sixteenth century. As the Dutch Golden Age grew, so did this colorful flower. Tulips became popular in paintings and festivals. In the mid-seventeenth century, tulips were so popular that they created the first economic bubble, known as "Tulip Mania".

Everyone began to deal in bulbs, essentially speculating on the tulip market, which was believed to have no limits. The true bulb buyers began to fill up inventories for the growing season, depleting the supply further and increasing scarcity and demand. Soon, prices were rising so fast and high that people were trading their land, life savings, and anything else they could liquidate to get more tulip bulbs. Somehow, the tulips enjoyed a twenty-fold increase in value - in one month!

Needless to say, the prices were not an accurate reflection of the value of a tulip bulb. As it happens in many speculative bubbles, some prudent people decided to sell and reap their profits. A domino effect of progressively lower and lower prices took place as everyone tried to sell while not many were buying. The price began to dive, causing people to panic and sell regardless of losses.

Dealers refused to honor contracts and people began to realize they traded their homes for a tulip bulb; panic was prevalent throughout the land. The government attempted to step in and halt the crash by offering to honor contracts at 10% of the face value, but then the market plunged even lower.  No one emerged unscathed from the crash. Even the people who had locked in their profit by getting out early suffered under the depression that followed.

From 1634 to 1637, an index of Dutch tulip prices soared from approximately one guilder per bulb to a lofty sixty guilders per bulb. By the peak of tulip mania in February of 1637, a single tulip bulb was worth about ten times a craftsman’s annual income. 

Today, Holland is still known for its tulips and other flowers, often being affectionately called the "flower shop of the world." Tulips are cultivated in great fields of beautiful color, and tulip festivals abound throughout the country in the spring.  The Dutch people took their love of tulips abroad when they settled, and tulips and tulip festivals are now found in New York and Holland, Michigan, where the connection to their Dutch roots is very strong.

The photos in this blog were taken at Garvan Woodland Gardens in Hot Springs, Arkansas.  Each spring when the tulips are in bloom, the gardens are covered with over 150,000 tulips that  line the walkways of Arkansas' premier botanical garden.

The peak tulip viewing times at the gardens are March 15 through April 1. Garvan Woodland Gardens are beautiful any time of the year, but I think that the tulip season is the best.  We make sure to visit the gardens during tulip time each year.

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