Be Still

Tuesday evening, Barb, Bear, and I were headed down our driveway for a walk. I noticed a lady walking past our yard and she was talking away on a cell phone. When we go to the gym, people move about zombie like and unaware of me saying hi, because they have headphones crammed in their ears. At the LSU campus, 75% of the peple walking down the sidewalk are pressing a cell phone to one ear.

We see this more and more. With the advent of phones, MP3 players, and podcasts, people can keep voices playing in their head no matter where they are. This is time efficient. This is sheik. This, I fear, is mind numbing and stealing away our moments of stillness.

Our minds need to shut down and rest. Our spirits need to be fed, not with electronic noise, but by the sounds of nature and stillness. We need to quiet the world around us so we can hear our own internal still, small voice.

You know this and you learn it every time you look out across the pounding surf and hear the waves thunder on the shore. When you hear the eagle's screech echoing off of mountain sides something primal awakes within your breast. When I am walking, I sometimes check my senses. I will ask myself: What do I see? What do I smell? What do I feel? What do I hear? Concentrating on the senses is one way of waking up to wonder and the miracles before us.

Like an optical illusion, we must focus before we see. Then slowly but surely, the image appears. Only when we are still and open will we be fed in this way. The iPod must be off and we must be away from traffic, telephones, and chatter.

Shhhhhh. Slow down. Be still. Peace. Relaxation and spiritual nourishment is only moments away.

Listen to the Eagles sing "Learn to be Still"

Until the next time
John Strain

Today is my 2nd Blogiversary

I'm speechless.

Until the next time
John Strain

Sweat

This time of year in Louisiana tests the body's cooling system. Mine works just fine. I sweated from Saturday morning until Sunday afternoon. Two long days of yard work and a 16-mile run kept the perspiration flowing out of me as if salty springs were beneath my skin.

Before I cut the grass, I decided to trim a few low-lying oak limbs. They had been brushing cars that dared turn in our driveway. I also had some in the alley I had to duck to mow under. I got the ladder, saw, and lopping shears and went to work. Starting in the back, I got the offending limbs, but then went to work on 6 overgrown azalea bushes. Before I knew it, I had piles of limbs and quite a clean up job looming.

I mowed a portion of the front so I could pile the limbs on cut grass. Then I cut the limb guarding the drive. It had been resting on a power line so I had been leaving it alone, until the guy across the street told me it was just a phone line; he works for the phone company so I figured he knew what he was talking about. More ladders and sawing, only one minor cut and some scrapes. The limbs always fight back.

The rest of the weekend consisted of mowing and cleaning up the mess, oh yeah, and sweating buckets. I drank gallons. It was a vicious cycle. Now, though, the yard looks great and it is time to go back to work while it slowly returns to disarray. It does not seem fair.

Bear was out there with me most of the time. He loves to be around. Most of the time, he was lying under a bush. He is always ready for a walk or a game of fetch. As a matter of fact, I need to take him out right now.

As my sister says, it's kick-ass Monday. Grab the day like one would a bull by the horns. Only don't grab it and hold on, grab it and shake the hell out of it.

Until the next time
John Strain

White Trash?

Take the White Trasy Quiz. In the spirit of full disclosure, I stole this from Sarah.

I am 28% White Trash.

The white trash in my blood will not keep me from becoming a doctor or a lawyer, but it will keep me from a good haircut and any sort of fashion sense.

Take the
White Trash Test
@ FualiDotCom

Until the next time
John Strain

The Star Spangled Banner

I was thinking about the old days again. Do you remember falling asleep in front of the TV and then waking to the strains of the Star Spangled Banner? Hearing that song signaled the end of programming for that channel that day. If you were not quick enough to switch off the TV, the static that followed the National Anthem would blast you out and wake up everyone else in the house. Of course, nowadays, TV never goes off and the Star Spangled Banner is no longer played late at night.

I have heard the Star Spangled Banner a lot of times in my life. Thinking about it conjures many pleasant memories.

One place I recall hearing the song is at, what is now, Kaughman Stadium in Kansas City before a Royals game. Out over the left field wall in the evening air, the flag waves. As the National Anthem is played, the buzzing crowd stills and with eyes fixed on the flag, caps removed, and hands over hearts, silent reverence overtakes the picnic atmosphere. I don't know about everyone else, but I almost always get a lump in my throat. I think about freedom and what my countrymen have sacrificed to provide me with it. I look around and see little kids and old men and things seem to make sense. It does not matter if we are democrats or republicans. When this song is played we are all Americans.

As a Boy Scout I have stood at attention facing the flag giving the Scout salute as the Anthem played. I was learning respect then and even if I did not understand it then the way I do now, I went through the motions. At first, I said the words, giving little thought to their meaning, but over the years, the words began to make sense. Experiences and circumstances brought the words to life.

My chest has swelled with pride, listening to the Star Spangled Banner, as our athletes have taken the top step of podiums in various competitions. The song played in the background as I peered out over a North Georgia lake watching fireworks in the night on a past Independence Day. The song played over loudspeakers at Boston in the noon sun just before the marathon. Its tune is etched into my memory and is associated with so many good times. It is an appropriate song in good times and in bad, because it tells us that no matter what our circumstances - we are free. We have been down, but even then we were a free people.

Did you know there are four verses to the Star Spangled Banner? Did you know it was originally a poem written by Francis Scott Key? Here are the words and a brief history of the song:

—Francis Scott Key, 1814
The Star Spangled Banner
O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner: O, long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O thus be it ever when free-men shall stand
Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust!”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

On Sept. 13, 1814, Francis Scott Key visited the British fleet in Chesapeake Bay to secure the release of Dr. William Beanes, who had been captured after the burning of Washington, DC. The release was secured, but Key was detained on ship overnight during the shelling of Fort McHenry, one of the forts defending Baltimore. In the morning, he was so delighted to see the American flag still flying over the fort that he began a poem to commemorate the occasion. First published under the title “Defense of Fort M'Henry,” the poem soon attained wide popularity as sung to the tune “To Anacreon in Heaven.” The origin of this tune is obscure, but it may have been written by John Stafford Smith, a British composer born in 1750. “The Star-Spangled Banner” was officially made the national anthem by Congress in 1931, although it already had been adopted as such by the army and the navy.

Information Please® Database, © 2005 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Here is another link about the Star Spangled Banner and the War of 1812. Go there for a lot more information and to see a photo of the original Star Spangled Banner.

I noticed in verse four there is a line, "And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust!'" If the ACLU finds out about this, they will try to have it removed so no one is offended.

A good reminder of what the Star Spangled Banner is about is captured in a video of a fallen Marine. See it here, but have a box of tissue as you view it.

Also check out some of my "patriotic links" I have added to my sidebar. Learn about the First Navy Jack and what it has to do with the war on terror.

So have a great day folks, you are living in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Until the next time
John Strain