Showing posts with label joy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label joy. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

J for Joyful, a Wordless Wednesday Post


Joyful children at the Palm Sunday Picnic!


 Linking up with Wordless Wednesday.



Today is:

Big Wind Day -- anniversary of the strongest natural wind ever recorded on the earth's surfact, at Mount Washington, NH, US; the wind gusts reached 231 mph

D.E.A.R. Day (a/k/a Drop Everything And Read) -- sponsored by the ALA, on Bevery Cleary's birth anniversary

Eat All Your Snacks Before the Movie Even Starts Day  -- with all the ads before the movie, doesn't that happen anyway?

Festival of Cerealia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (seven day public and private festival for Ceres)

Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day

Halifax Day -- North Carolina, US (anniversary of the resolution adopted authorizing voting for independence in 1776)

International Day for Street Children

National Bookmobile Day -- US, on the Wednesday of National Library Week

National Licorice Day

Sinhala & Tamil New Year's Eve -- Sri Lanka

St. Sabas' Day (Patron of Lectors, torture victims)

St. Zeno's Day (Patron of anglers, children learning to speak, children learning to walk, fishermen, newborn babies; city and diocese of Verona, Italy)

Thank Your School Librarian Day -- US, on the Wednesday of National Library Week

Thingyan -- Myanmar (Burmese Water Festival; part of the New Year celebrations)

Walk on Your Wild Side Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays, a day in which to do something no one would expect from you

Yuri's Night -- International (Commemoration of first human in space, Yuri Gagarin)
     Cosmonaut's Day -- Russia
     International Day of Human Space Flight -- UN


Birthdays Today:

Saoirse Ronan, 1994
Riley Smith, 1982
Claire Danes, 1979
Sarah Jane Morris, 1977
Nicholas Brendon, 1971
Shannen Doherty, 1971
Nick Hexum, 1970
Art Alexakis, 1962
vince Gill, 1957
Andy Garcia, 1956
David Cassidy, 1950
Tom Clancy, 1947
Dan Lauria, 1947
David Letterman, 1947
Ed O'Neill, 1946
Herbie Hancock, 1940
Dennis Banks, 1937
Tiny Tim, 1930
Ann Miller, 1923
Beverly Cleary, 1916
Henry Clay, 1777
Lyman Hall, 1724
Mahavira, the 24th Tirthankara of Jainism, BC599


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"21 Jump Street"(TV), 1987
"Your Hit Parade"(Radio), 1935
Madame Bovary(Publication date), 1857
"Oberon, or The Elf King's Oath"(Weber opera), 1826
The Tatler(Journal, first edition), 1709 Note:  this original version of a publication with the name lasted only two years


Today in History:

Constantinople falls to the Fourth Crusade, temporarily ending the Byzantine Empire, 1204
The formal inquest of Galileo by the Inquisition begins, 1633
The first edition of Tatler Magazine is published in London, 1709
The American Civil War begins at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, 1861
George C Blickensderfer patents a portable typewriter, 1892
Pierre Prier makes the first nonstop flight from London to Paris, in 3h 56m, 1911
Sir Frank Whittle ground-tests the first jet engine designed to power an aircraft, at Rugby, England, 1937
The strongest surface wind gust ever measured, 231 mph, at Mount Washington, New Hampshire, 1943
The Salk vaccine is declared safe and effective, 1955
Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human to travel into outer space, 1961
Samuel Doe takes over Liberia in a coup d'etat, ending 130 years of peaceful and democratic presidential successions, 1980
The first launch of a space shuttle, the Colombia, 1981
The Euro Disney Resort officially opens (now Disneyland Paris), 1992
Canter & Siegel post the first commercial mass Usenet spam, 1994
Zimbabwe officially abandons the Zimbabwe Dollar as their currency, 2009
Following the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster, Japan raises the crisis level to 7, equal to the disaster in Chernoby, 2011

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Dilemma

The dilemma.

How to balance. Specifically, how to balance the joy of the Lord we are supposed to feel, the gratitude, with the pain in life.

The house is leaking, the kittens sneezing, my internet access limited by tech problems, the children coughing with nasty colds, Sweetie's back is out again, I am starting to have unexplained muscle pain and weakness, a friend in need shows up on the doorstep when we have just barely been able to buy groceries each month for a while now, the tendency toward depression is sucking me down, tripping me like an ankle chain as I find myself losing weight again.

I know God is victorious. I know there is joy. I know there are so many people with much worse problems than any that I could even dream of right now.

Yet.

Psalm 142, from King David:
Prayer for Help in Trouble.
Maskil of David, when he was in the cave. A Prayer.
1 I cry aloud with my voice to the LORD;
I make supplication with my voice to the LORD.
2 I pour out my complaint before Him;
I declare my trouble before Him.
3 When my spirit was overwhelmed within me,
You knew my path.
In the way where I walk
They have hidden a trap for me.
4 Look to the right and see;
For there is no one who regards me;
There is no escape for me;
No one cares for my soul.
5 I cried out to You, O LORD;
I said, “You are my refuge,
My portion in the land of the living.
6 “Give heed to my cry,
For I am brought very low;
Deliver me from my persecutors,
For they are too strong for me.
7 “Bring my soul out of prison,
So that I may give thanks to Your name;
The righteous will surround me,
For You will deal bountifully with me.”


Today is:

Christmas Card Day (I wonder what industry came up with this one?)

Fiesta of the Mother of Health, Mexico

Independence Day, Tanzania

International Anti-Corruption Day

National Pastry Day

St. Leocadia's Day

Weary Willie Day


Birthdays Today:

David Kersh, 1970
Jakob Dylan, 1969
Kurt Angle, 1968
Felicity Huffman, 1962
Donny Osmond, 1957
John Malkovich, 1953
Dick Butkus, 1942
Beau Bridges, 1941
Judy Dench, 1934
Buck Henry, 1930
Dick Van Patten, 1928
Dina Merrill, 1925
Redd Foxx, 1922
Kirk Douglas, 1916
Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., 1909
Margaret Hamilton, 1902
Emmet Kelley, Sr., 1898
John Milton, 1608


Today in History:

The Byzantine General Belisarius enters Rome while the Ostrogothic garrison peacefully leaves the city, returning the old capital to its empire, 536
The first Young Men's Christian Association in the Americas is founded, in Montreal, 1851
Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback becomes governor of Louisiana for 35 days, becoming the first black US governor, 1872
Levant Richardson patents the ball-bearing skate, 1884
The Norwegian parliament vote unanimiously for female suffrage, 1903
The first broadcast of "Coronation Street" on British ITV, 1960