Woohoo! I am so happy today. Today I hit the 100 mark for the Psalms readings with the Billy Graham Words of Wisdom Bible Reading Plan. Each day I read 5 Psalms and 1 Proverb and write my stream of consciousness, random thoughts on the phrases. Some phrases are inspirational and some thoughts I write are truly cringey or corny but hey, it’s fun.
Speaking of fun, today is Mother’s Day! Happy Mother’s Day to all the great moms and grandmoms and aunties and grand aunties and just anyone in general that has the gracious and good, generous heart to step in and support youth. Bravo! This is your special day.
My son took me to Dog Mountain today. This was my Mother’s Day gift from him and my furbaby, Sushi, my brown border collie. We wanted to take Gizmo but he’s part Chihuahua or something and woulda totally spazzed out with the big dogs.
I think he’s actually Jack Russell mixed with Italian Greyhound according to my vet. All I know is I got him at the animal shelter 7 or so years ago. He was in a little cage facing the wall, not even looking at me. He looked kinda despondent. I was playing around with all the happy, yippy, bouncy dogs. They lifted him outta the cage to change his food and water. That’s when I noticed he walked on 3 legs. The animal shelter worker said he’d been there a while. No one wanted a dog that walked on 3 legs. But my ACL ligament was tore in my knee too and I couldn’t walk well either. We were perfect for each other. We took him home.
He had surgery for 170 dollars. Mine was like 10 grand. We would hobble around together rehabbing our knees going around the neighborhood block. One day, he stopped and put his leg down to the ground gingerly. He suddenly realized in that moment it was fixed and he could run! Now he bounces all over the place. Must be the Jack Russell in him. Dog’s crazy. He loves to run everywhere.
One time I saw him running down the highway from the porch. I hollered, “Gizmo! Get back here now! You’ll get hurt!” He disappeared down the highway. I thought he was a goner. Pretty soon, I hear a semi truck honk and hear it coming and I see my dog running fast as his little legs could go hauling his butt in front of a giant semi truck honking at him. He come down the driveway with eyes as big as saucers. That was the last time he ever ventured out onto that road again. Wanderlust cured.
Anyway, Dog Mountain, it is a fantastic place and one of my favorite in Vermont! It is a mountain where dogs of all shapes and sizes and breeds and creeds (but no dogmas allowed according to the sign) can roam free all over the green fields. There also is a little dog chapel which is a real gem. Step inside with your dog if you want to and read all the little post it notes stuck on the walls for the dogs that have passed and went to heaven (all dogs go to heaven don’t you know). Here’s some special notes I found on the walls today:
“Miss you Zach! You were such a good boy! Love you! Till we meet again!”
“Inky was a black lab. She was playful and nice and a loving dog but now she’s in a better place.”
“Love you forever and ever my sweet Ginger!”
Like I said, the walls are completely full up with notes everywhere, owners leaving special notes to their dogs. Great place! I highly recommend it if you visit Vermont. They do concerts there too at Dog Mountain. I told em they need to invite Snoop Dogg to do a concert at Dog Mountain. That would be awesome!
“Snoop Doggy dawwwwwwww-u-og, Snoop Dogg!”
I would so take my dog to that concert. Ok, maybe not Gizmo. Spazzy. But Sushi for sure cause he’s pretty chill.
Ok, so today is also my birthday, another reason to be joyful. I was born on Mother’s Day.
So here are the readings for today:
Psalm 96 “Let the field be joyful and all that is therein. Then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord.”
This is dandelion week in northern Vermont. It’s gorgeous. The green fields get covered for a few weeks in bursts of yellow dandelions everywhere. If you like motorcycling, this is a good time of year to make a trip up here through the winding roads and mountains and hills. Route 5A to Lake Willoughby….I recommend that one.
I saw a black mama bear this week in my field. She was with her 2 cubs. They were there last year. I got worried for them cause after hunting season they disappeared but no, they are back and beautiful. They roll around in the field sometimes. Mama bear actually stays hidden in the woods though watching them intently. She is big and ominous looking. I love to watch them with the binoculars but she and the cubs are welcome to stay my neighbors on that side of the field though. I call her Dolly. I haven’t named the cubs yet.
Hmmm….. how about Forrest and Bubba Gump? Bubba Gump and Lt. Dan?
Wolfgang and Beethoven?
Hmmm…….how about Frank and Jesse James?
My husband likes Alabama football. I could call them Saban and Bear?
I like that. Ok, Saban and Bear it is.
Psalm 97 “A fire goeth before him and burneth up his enemies round about.”
Ok, true story I gotta tell you about a house fire. My friend lost her home. Her husband was awake at 3 am when they heard a loud pop noise in the house. Something made him get up that night, normally he would just go back to sleep. The house caught fire from some electrical damage and such and poof! It went up in flames real fast. Somehow they managed to get all their kids and themselves and a few pets out within 3 minutes. Within 5 minutes the whole thing was torched and blazing high and the fire trucks were coming.
So, they come to live with us for a bit. The next day, they go back to the house to salvage what they can. Everything was blackened and burnt except one portion of the living room wall and on that portion was a cross. Not kidding. True story.
Anyways, they took pictures of the cross and the blackened ruins and stuff. Word got around and folks at the church started a donation fund for their family and they got a brand new house due to charity and generosity of the congregation.
Cool story.
Psalm 100 “Serve the Lord with gladness…..for the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.”
I like that one. I’m not gonna add to it. That’s a good statement there. Enough said.
Proverbs 20 “Strong drink is a brawler.”
Everyone is different when they drink. I had a friend, that would throw punches when he drank. He just wanted to punch everybody and their grandma too.
Me, I’m a hugger. I hug a lot of people when I get tipsy. I won’t even know you and I’ll hug you. I’ve done a lot of crazy stuff drinking. Once I climbed outta a stuck elevator, drunk as a skunk, that was stopped between 2 floors. Maybe not the brightest idea.
There I go, by the grace of God.
Proverbs 20 “Any fool can start a quarrel.”
One of my favorite movies is Grumpy Old Men. It reminds me of where I live….all the ice fishing and snowmobiling. I love to watch the two actors interact constantly trying to one up each other and quarrel and quibble and then there’s the dad that makes all the jokes. That’s a good show there.
We took the ice shack out on the lake one weekend this year. It was a hot winter. We had to pull it off the next weekend. Bummer. My son caught a couple of Pike though and some Perch.
That ice fishin’ ain’t for the faint of heart. I was out there 2 hours on the ice and that was enough for me. I was looking at the ice hole and my little pole and looking at the water melted by the buddy heater inside the tent. I kept looking back and forth and back and forth and back and forth.
I said, “Honey, could you turn off the heater for a bit?”
My husband said, “What’s the problem? You scared?”
“Nope. I’m not scared.”
“Yeah, you are.”
“Nope.”
So I kept fishin’ but I was looking at that buddy heater the whole dang time.
Just the same, I lasted 2 hours and that was it. We even drove the Ford F150 out to the fishing spot and it dipped for a second on the ice and I threw everything off me, opened the door and got ready to jump……but it was ok. I’m certain my eyes were as big as saucers in that moment, just like Gizmo running from the Semi truck.
Phew. That was enough for me.
My husband was like, “What? You scared again?”
“Nope.”
“Nope.”
Proverbs 20 “He who goes about as a talebearer reveals secrets.”
Ok, ok, this is true.
In West Africa, they used to keep storytellers on the outskirts of town and call them griots. The griots were powerful and people loved to hear their stories told in town. But never cross a griot, for if you do, she or he might make you the buffoon in the next community gathering story.
Remember, nothing is worse to humans than shame and public embarrassment. It ranks higher on their fears list than death.
Ok, that’s all I got for today. Thanks for listening and have a good day!
Creative Content 