4 Hours to midnight

its four hours to midnight
listening to the CD my nephew Ben gave us for Christmas.
very inspired and deeply moving
a new level of intimacy

i am crying.
tears of reflection
and tears of emotion
i am crying all the same
oh my tender heart
oh my sheltered heart
oh my breaking heart
i am crying all the same
a tough year
filled with pain and sorrow
while joy dances out side my window
with all the gifts God has given
and all the fortunes to be found
with luxury beyond imagination
i am crying all the same
its four hours to midnight
and we shall share
the ringing in of the new year
with a great friend and his daughter
and we will toast to a new year
and pray that Gods mighty hand may
protect us from ourselves
and the pain we bare
and i'm crying all the same

Thanks for the Card

Hey H
Thanks for the card! It was great to hear how things are going for you. I am excited for you playing in the worship band. That is so cool. Musicians need to play with other musicians to grow. Its also nice to play edifying music.
I'm thrilled to hear about your marks and your studies. I dropped out. I'm not proud, but I'm also not ashamed. Its a tough thing to raise a family, work full time and study. You are young and have the opportunity right now so make the best of it.
I'm glad that you are finding it a bit easier to make friendships.
I am excited to hear about your China trip. I am sure it will be a real experience. I am taking no trips, other than to northern ontario. Deb just got back from NewYorkCity. Dylan is going to Montreal in March.
Christmas was peaceful.
I miss you
Have a stellar, above average and excellent 2007
dw

Christmas Memory Lane

I was looking back at my blog, wondering what I was doing a year ago. Its fun to do that sometimes. I came across this post about our christmas tree and and related christmas festivities and of course about our saviour Jesus Christ.

Well we still have the tree. It spent the summer in the garden. Sue replanted it in a bigger pot. I think its grown. Its inside now with us for christmas. The red bows are back on and I think today it will shelter a few gifts.

We are hosting Christmas eve this year at our house. The table has been enlarged and we have been frantically cleaning. We will be having fondue.

I set my "out of office assistant" for my email at the office. I said " I am gone for 4 days to celebrate the birth of my savior Jesus Christ" I thought for a moment that it might offend someone and then I thought..tough turd, its the truth. I got a reply from a client who had been difficult and she said "I REALLY like your out of office alert! HMMM..we must talk when I return.

I grabbed my office guitar and went down to the production room. There are about 20 ladies and 6 men of oriental/mid east/indian origin. I sang a bunch of christmas songs for them. They clapped and sang along. I noticed many knew the words to Silent Night. Even the Muslims seemed joyful about the birth of my Saviour. Though we dont agree with each other, my heart was real warm because of their respect for my Lord Jesus.

Any way enough already. Here is the post from last year....

I remember when the children were small,
we would seek out Christmas Trees,
that were big, bold and tall!
We'd go to the bush with a saw and axe,
or over to Wintersingers
and pick one from the racks.
But I found as the children got older,
that need for big, tall and bolder,
seemed to get colder and colder.
My conscience about the carnage of a tree,
began to eat at me.
The thought of killing that tree
for the sake of my glee
made me see
things differently.
So for a period of time, when selecting our tree,
we'd take great pride in taking the ugliest we could find
thinking that if we didnt take it,
it would get left behind.
Well this year, we left it so long.
There it was Christmas eve afternoon
and we'd yet to find a tree for our room.
We began to worry,
where would we put the presents
I felt sorry
making my family feel like peasants
so dylan and myself, in the car we drove
to find us a tree that we could love.
We wanted a tree that would last just a little longer,
one that might speak of christmas just a little bit stronger
A tree that we could use over and over
a tree we could use again and again
a tree that we could have for this Christmas and more
a real live tree bought at a grocery store.
a tree marked down, and sitting alone
On the last day of the season
destined for teasing
as the one that wouldnt sell.
the one that didnt fair so well,
until two memory seeking gents
picked it out and for a few dollars and cents
gave it a home that will love and adore,
that will tend it season after season,
and cherish it more and more.
Well we had an awesome christmas,
tree and all
presents and love
rum and egg nog
steak and salad
shrimp and octypus
Irish cream and chocolate,
christmas cookies and plum cake
hottub and christmas music
We went to church this Chrristmas eve
and celebrated with friends who believe
that Jesus came as prince of peace
to free us os sins we could not release
to provide a way to the Lord above
full of grace and peace and love
a bridge that one can walk,
a way in which we could talk
to the living God
a way in which we could be reconcilled
with a God and appear undefiled
though our sins are great
He came to us and guaranteed our fate
that He would love us and make us whole
by filling the void,
deep in our soul
filling the gap that seems so wide
one in whom we can confide
and in who's love we can abide
to one we can dance and praise
for making us whole
the ancient of days in whom we trust
one to save us from our lust
and greed and mistrust
one who loves us just as we are
and
one who gave us the guiding star
and the book of life.
One to save us from envy and strife
Come Lord Jesus
be our guest
in you
we are happy and blessed
Come Lord Jesus come
fill our hearts with your happiness

Father God, I thank You and praise You. May You be honored and glorified in my house this Christmas, the remainder of this year, next year and years to come. Lord God would You continue to walk with me and my family and friends and brothers and sisters. Would You walk with my enemies Lord and with those who do not yet know You. Would You keep Hanni safe in Your hands. Would You be with Don, and Ron and Jan and the other Ron. Lord would You be with my pastor brother Richard and family and most of all with his mom and dad. Would You be with Henry today Lord. Lord would You be with the troubled and down trodden, with those people we neglect and forget. Lord would You bless my brothers and sisters at Crossings Community Church and would You bless the service we will have in Your name, Your honor and Your glory. Come o come Emmanuel.

How does he do that?

I found these amazing stats on Jakes Blog
They are thoughts and musings from C.S. Lewis' short story "Exmas and Christmas"

....Assuming that each child has nothing more than a medium sized Lego set (two pounds), the sleigh is carrying over 500 thousand tons, not counting St. Nicholas himself. On land, a conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that the "flying" reindeer could pull ten times the normal amount, the job can’t be done with eight or even nine of them --- St. Nicholas would need 360,000 of them. This increases the payload, not counting the weight of the sleigh, another 54,000 tons, or roughly seven times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth (the ship, not the monarch).600,000 tons travelling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance --- this would heat up the reindeer in the same fashion as a spacecraft re-entering the earth’s atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer would absorb 14.3 quintillion joules of energy per second each. In short,they would burst into flames almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them and creating deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team would be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second, or right about the time St. Nicholas reached the fifth house on his trip. Not thatit matters, however, since St. Nicholas, as a result of accelerating from a dead stop to 650 mps in .001 seconds, would be subjected to centrifugal forces of 17,500 G’s. A 250 pound St. Nicholas (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of the sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force, instantlycrushing his bones and organs and reducing him to a quivering blob of pink goo.

Funeral for a Friend

I asked my buddy to keep me informed of funeral plans for his daughter. I came to the office last Thursday from a meeting at around 12 noon, and there was a message for me. The funeral is at 1pm and the wake will be at 3pm. I freaked because Orangeville is about one hour from me and the time was already 12pm! I ran around here like a one armed paper hanger. I made a bee line for O'ville. I got there at about 2pm. Beleiving I missed the funeral I called to the house and there was no answer. I thought I'd be a good friend and buy a veggie platter, fruit tray and a bottle of Irish Cream. Getting no answer at the house, I tried my buddies cell. He answered and I said Where are you? He said "Angels Diner" I so...oh and then are you heading home? He said..No, I have to go to a dentist appointment. I said "dentist appointent? ...this is an odd time to go to the dentist." He said why? I said well uh dont you have your daughters wake? He said NO...That is on Saturday. SATURDAY!!! I told him that I got his message and came as quick as I could...problem is, I was a couple days early. He claimed that he told me Sat on the message, but this was no time to argue. I took my veggies, fruit and Irish Cream and with my tail between my legs, I went home. We had fruit, veggies and Irish Cream for dinner that night.

Well we attended the funeral and it was sad. There were a good number of youth there. They were all in shock and horror. No one saw the signs. It was a difficult funeral. After the funeral Sue and I went to the supermarket and I tried again. Veggie platter, fruit tray and Irish Cream. If at first we do not succeed, then try try again. We went to the house and visited for several hours.

When we left my buddy said......

Hey Don..do me a favour and go home and hug your children. So to all of you who have children or loved ones....please give them a hug and think of my buddy who will not have that opportunity again. He would give anything for just one more hug.

Old Man

I decided to grow a beard.

Much to my dismay

I found, I have grown grey

I have been looking at other older guys

and found them to be in disguise,

as young bucks, with hair of brown.

Upon investigation, here is what I found...

Grecian Formula my friends

Grecian Formula is the secret

Can I do it....NO WAY!

I have decided to embrace the grey

and Praise the Lord for yet another day

Someday, Lord willing,

I will be white.

Trying to Keep Perspective

Where do I begin.......
Well I've been feeling sorry for myself a bit lately. Stresses of work coupled with some interpersonal issues have left me rather disallusioned. I took an emergency day off a couple of weeks ago to try to sort out some issues......and I fell of a ladder. I hurt myself pretty bad. I could not breath for quite a while. I injured my back pretty bad and I am sure I broke a bone in my hand. I had a bruise and a welt the size of a grapefruit. I lay on the floor in a crumpled heap trying to assure my wife that everything was OK, while in the meantime I was scared that I'd have to be taken to emergency. I feel much better now. The bruise is gone but my back and hand are still quite sore. As I lay on the floor I couldnt help but feel that I would have been better off at work. You see as of the AM, I had quit my job. After the fall and a good conversation with my boss, We both apologized and I returned the following day. Suddenly, all the mental anguish I've been experiencing became overshadowed by the physical pain of the accident. Perspective.

Well last night my buddy Ron and I drove to Wanker Deluxe band practice. The weather was nasty with snow blizzards and whiteouts. As we went down the huge hill by my buddys house, Ron says "hey, we have no brakes" I said, "oh your probably just sliding" He says "no really Don, look my foot is to the matt and the brake light is on....WE HAVE NO BRAKES!" So we barralled down this big hill in the storm and Rons job was to keep the vehicle in control. So Ron says "Is there a hill ahead that can slow us down". I said, "uh Ron yes there is a hill but it goes down and its twice the size of the last hill. Plus it is hairpin and tywisted AND there is escarpment cliff on either side". I said "Ron, if we hit that hill we are in very serious trouble". I told him to ditch us. There were trees on either side of the road. This meant slamming his car into a tree in order to stop us from going over the embankement. So Ron says Hang on and puts us right into the trees on the passenger side. We were mowing down sapplings and the branches were whistling by. The big stump trees were 6 inches from my door and I was braced for impact. While mowing over all these sapplings, the car lost is momentum. Just before we came to a stop, Ron pulled on the staering wheel and bounced us back onto the road. Miraculously we came to a halt. I got out of the vehicle for inspection and there wasnt even a dent! We were scarred shitless! We managed to get the car to my friends house....its still there now. We had to abandon it.

So here is some more perspective. I come through the door of his house huffing and puffing about our "near death" experience. My buddy didnt look very impressed or engaged. I said whats wrong? He says, "I just got a call this morning. My daughter just committed suicide". Suddenly I had perspective again. Oh My Gosh. We all gathered around him. He was brave and and matter of fact at first, but after a few songs, he said "i'm sorry, I have to go to bed" He crashed as we hung out. A few of his friends heard the news and came over. I am going to see him tonight after work. I cant imagine the pain he is in. Perspective.

Buddy Ron and I bummed a ride from Oliver, our mandolin player. He drove us to Hillsburg where Sue picked us up. The tow truck refused to come and get us because of the storm. I guess we will have to deal with that today as well. So Oliver leans over to us while he is driving and says " With all the excitement of the evening, I forget to mention....... I lost my job today" Perspective. Suddenly Ron and I both fealt like our ordeal was mundane an unimportant.

I got to sleep this morning at about 3am. I feel blessed.

Please pray for my buddy Don as he comes to grips with his daughters death. PLease pray for Oliver that he will find a job soon. Please pray for Ron, that his car will be OK. Please pray for me that I may be like Christ to my friends in their time of need.