Before and After Death

"This somber series of portraits taken of people before and after they had died is a challenging and poignant study. The work by German photographer Walter Schels and his partner Beate Lakotta, who recorded interviews with the subjects in their final days, reveals much about dying - and living."

Before and After Death

I have spent the last 30 minutes looking at the faces in this Guardian piece. I am always drawn to this type of photography and this particular subject matter. Not because I am fascinated by death but probably because I worked (many years ago) as an Oncology nurse and have a heart for that particular work. The pictures are haunting and beautiful in their own way but the stories are so incredibly sad. Not because all of these people have died but because in not one of the little vignettes that go with the pictures did any of them express any knowledge of Christ and his saving work for them. The ending thoughts seemed, for the most part to be hopeless and frustrated at the end of a life. How heatbreaking.

Death itself is always heartbreaking for someone, family members, friends. But I can tell you with certainty, having seen the deaths of Christians and non-Christians that those who had a saving knowledge of Him and knew what awaited them went, not necessarily with joy but without fear. Those who had no hope, those who struggled to hold on even when all hope was gone, those who feared death and what might be waiting afterwards (if they even thought there was something afterwards) struggled in death as well. It was a sobering thing to witness and participate in.

Word of the Day

I am starting a new tradition (we will see if I keep it up). I love words, the stranger the better. So, I thought that it would be a good idea to have a word of the day. They may sometimes be mundane words that you see all the time, or they may be something unusual. We will see. Your word for today is:

Nomophobia: the fear of being out of mobile phone contact.

Banana Oatmeal Muffins

The internet is a beautiful thing (thanks Al Gore, even though you really had nothing to do with it much as you would like to think you did). I had bananas that were a tad past their prime - read that as they were black and squishy, perfect for baking. I love oatmeal. Where to get an appropriate recipe. Hmmmmmmm. Nothing in my rather extensive recipe collection so I turned to Google and VOILA! a recipe for Banana Oat Muffins was found at Cooks.com. Not too much in the way of fat content, moist and "toothsome". They came out great. The recipe was supposed to have sugar and cinnamon on the top of the muffins but I passed on that (she says self-righteously) so that I won't feel so bad when I put butter on them. I have to show some restraint you know.

It's Opening Day!!!!!

Yes folks it is Opening Day for baseball. A day that I look forward to from the end of October when the last pitch is thrown at the World Series. Opening Day. The Indians will be playing the Chicago White Sox beginning at 3:05p.

Of course, here in the Cleveland area the weather isn't too baseball conducive this early in the season. It is in the low 50's at the moment with a threat of rain hanging over our heads. I would very much like to talk to the people in the league who set up the schedule. Is there some reason why we can't be on the road for the first several weeks and then have a later home opener? Last year we had three games that were SNOWED out. Yes, you read correctly, snowed out. That is not my image of what baseball weather is all about.

This year, unlike in years past, we will not have season tickets. Because of the way our summer is shaping up we have decided to just go to games on a casual basis, going down town and buying tickets shhh from a scalper or at the ticket window. That way we can sit in various places in the park. Of course, that doesn't mean that I won't REALLY miss our seats from last year. They were sweet. 10 rows from the field on the 1st base side. Excellent. However, they were just our seats for one year (sigh) since we had a friend who wanted to take a break from his season tickets but didn't want to give them up entirely. So, thanks David for the wonderful seats last year.

So, today I will sit down in my nice comfy house and spend several hours with the boys of summer. I can hardly wait! This is our year, I can just feel it. Of course, I say that every year (we won't talk about 1997).

GO TRIBE!!!!!!!!!!

Six Minutes To Freedom

Six Minutes To Freedom. Muse, Kurt. This was an amazingly riveting book. I hadn't planned to spend my entire afternoon reading it but that is what happened.
In 1989 Kurt Muse was an American living in Panama and secretly working towards the overthrow of Manuel Noriega. His group, La Vos de la Libertad, was betrayed and he was arrested by the PDF (Panamanian Defense Force) and imprisoned. This is the story of his arrest, 9 month imprisonment and rescue by Delta Force. I couldn't put it down.

Road kill anyone?

What does it signal when the buzzards start hanging out in your woods? Should we, perhaps, be worried about something? Is there something in the woods that we don't know about.

I feel like I should start singing that song from "Jungle Book". You know the one where the buzzards are all hanging around singing, "We're your friends. We're your friends. We're your friends to the bitter end."

This is the third day that this lovely fellow has come to hang out in the trees next to my driveway. It is really creepy to look up and see a buzzard staring down into your window.

By the way, your factoid for the day is this. Do you know that the Lord gave buzzards a bald head for a reason. They are always eating things that are less than savory, dead and smelly actually (the more the better evidently). The bald head means that their feathers don't get fouled with all the stuff that they eat. Pretty cool eh. Now you are ready for your next round of Jeopardy!

Yum

Not bad for a morning's work. Don't you wish that you could smell these beauties! I love this bread recipe, it is so easy and I haven't had it fail me yet. It came from one of my favorite websites, A Year in Baking. Give it a try yourself and see how it turns out.