In a Day’s Time

Just because we live in a good community or a nice house does not exempt us from catastrophic events. As we saw in Texas, hurricanes change lives overnight. In a day’s time, lives are lost, houses destroyed, and all we thought was important can be washed away. The rise of the human spirit above all this is encouraging to see. No one knows what will happen tomorrow, but we can make the most of each day. Love your family, help a neighbor, and be a light to the world.

In a Day’s Time

Living in our own little world of reality

Life happens when we have other plans

Changing our life redirecting our thoughts

Just when we think things are in control

Along come events beyond our control

Twisters, hurricanes, rain, and floods

Remind us the forces of nature are strong enough

To override any plans we might make

Forces within can be just as devastating

A heart attack or stroke changes life in an instant

Accidents and death bring all to a halt

Realize it or not we face these possible events daily

Focusing on these things can be depressing

Look forward to the possibilities of each new day

Keep a healthy and whole attitude and mind

Live like a rabbit in the world of the hawk

Never knowing what tomorrow brings

Living only one day at a time

Knowing it could be our last

But enjoying it to the full

Americans One and All

Americans One and All

“Forty Days and Forty Nights”

“The rains came down and

The floods came up”

Water deluge seemed endless

Twenty-trillion gallons of water fell

No Ark available for people or animals

Only Texans reaching out with mini arks

Carrying friends neighbors and strangers

To safety on dry land

No discrimination hate or bigotry here

Only concern to help one’s neighbor

Not Republican or Democrat

Politics is left for the judgmental talking heads

Not African-American or White or Latino

Just Americans helping Americans

Concern for one another’s safety

Supersedes all other strongly held labels

Except for a few smallminded newscasters

Who lost their sense of focus

Making light of the First-lady’s heels

Leaving with her husband to support the victims

The true Americans one and all

Manifested themselves in Harvey’s wake

Working tirelessly to help others in need

We must remember and learn from this

When the waters recede and dry land reappears

We are more than politics race or creed

With one heart one spirit and concern for each other

We are Americans one and all

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Bing Photo: nbcnews.com

Hats Make All Men Equal

Why do so many country singers wear hats? It’s not because they are rednecks or don’t have any manners. It’s because they are thinning on top or may be bald. They want to keep their young manly persona, so to hide the obvious they wear a hat. There are so many different hats to choose from. Hats becomes a distinguishing factor for many.

As my hair got thinner on top, I began to wear a hat. When I finally shaved the thinning fuzz off the top, I really appreciated wearing my hat, for when I had my hat on I knew no one would think about the fact that I was balding. I know some women like bald men and say that bald is beautiful, but I would guess that most men would disagree.

Hats

In the world of men

Hats make all men equal

Some men have hair

Others are not so endowed

Hair seems to be desired by many

Tiny implants planted

In the thinning bald spots

Trying to equalize past and present

Some men simply throw in the towel

Shaving it all off smooth as a bowling ball

Then there are old men

Who cannot accept the fact that it’s gone

So they let the little spiny bristles of gray

Twist and twerk all alone

On the vast desert of smooth skin

But to me it matters not

Whether one has hair

Or is thinning and gray

Simply wear a hat

For in a hat

All men are equal

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Photo: Ruth A. Roth

Tree House Fun

When I left teaching elementary school after 29 years, I decided to do building and home repair. It was a very challenging job that I really enjoyed. My favorite project that I was hired to do was make tree houses for children. It was fun taking trees and designing a little house to fit in them. This post shows four different tree houses I built.

A

Anna really enjoyed her tree house for several years.

Nathan’s tree house was two levels.  It was the first one I built. During Hurricane Floyd the tree blew over and too the tree house with it.

The new residents had enjoyed the earlier tree house so much they asked me to build them a new one on the double tree next to the garage. Amazingly insurance paid for almost all of it. It is still in use.

 

This is a free standing tree house I build for my grandchildren a few years ago.

Photos: Dwight L. Roth

Potter’s Love

 

Potter’s Love

Hands smoothing and shaping

Admiring sweet creation

Perfect in every form

No need to recreate

Feeling soft clay

Thin smooth as silk

Watching clay spin on the wheel

Hands reshaping and restoring

Feeling the rounded curves

Knowing how beautiful the finished product

As the light from the window glances off

Recreating every line in his mind

Feeling the rhythm of the spinning wheel

Slowing down speeding up

As the slip slides through his fingers

The wheel finally reaches its peak

A final smoothing of the hand

From top to bottom

The original potter really did

Know what he was doing

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Photo: downtownpottery.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blue Moon Rising

 

This painting was done on a recycled canvas from the Habitat Restore. It was originally an impressionistic painting with shades of orange and white. It was 3′ x 3′ and  had a sandy texture with raised fingerlike ridges running across it. I decided to do the blue moon, cover the texture with trees, and use the thick ridges as foreground silhouetted trees. I was very happy with the result and so was the person who purchased it.

Blue Moon

Full moon rising over the trees

Lighting up the woodland below

Reflecting my sadness now that I am not with you

Shadows linger in both mind and forest

Spectors of all that remains hidden

Casting a blue glow on my world

Highlighting all that once was bright

Warmed by the sun’s Love

Now only shadows and darkness

Blue moon why do you look so bright

As though nothing ever happened

Don’t you know your light brings me no joy

Some say you are made of green cheese

But I believe it is blue

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Painting; Dwight L. Roth

 

Thoughts on Sanitizing Society

Are we back to bonfires and book burnings in the public square. Attempts to obliterate what offends us usually do not work. Many times they backfires and creates more problems than if left alone. As I watched the Hope and Change unfold over the last eight years I realized it was not the hope and change I voted for back in 2004. It appears to he a total change of our society as we have know it over the past two hundred years. To me it seems that we are attempting to sanitize society of the things our country was founded upon. Christianity it appears is offensive to many who no longer value religion as a founding principle, therefore it needs to be systematically sanitized from society. My thoughts below are from my observation of things that have occurred and are presently occurring in our society. I am sure some of you may have a different perspective, but this is what I believe is happening. You are welcome to disagree. I welcome the discussion.

Sanitizing Society

Where will it stop

Our cleansing of things offensive

First it is religion

Anything Christian must go

Erased from the public sector

Wiped from our courthouses

Even though it was from this perspective

Our Republic was founded

Do away with Christmas in the square

It might be offensive to other faiths

No prayer to God in public meetings

It might offend someone with a different god

Attempts to take “In God We Trust” off our money

Attempts to remove “under God” from the pledge

Apparently we are not under God any longer

No books in school may discuss Christianity

Might influence little formative minds

But tolerance toward other minorities

With different moral values is no problem

Now it is Confederate Statues in the parks

Revealing a dark time in our Nation’s History

Don’t want to be reminded

No respect for countrymen who fell for a losing cause

Dark minds emerge to bring resistance and division

Fueling their ranks with even more followers

Now the dominos are falling all around

Here it is the change of street names

That might offend the offended

What will be next in our cleansing sweep

Perhaps sanitizing the Capital Dome

Of all Religious engravings there

Or perhaps Billy Graham from the parkway

History always has a dark side

Sometimes we choose to forget

Yet History does not go away

Just because we sanitize it

Religion does not die

Because it is cleansed from the public square

Perhaps we could learn from ourselves

Our bodies teach us well

When exposed to a little of everything

Immunity is built up

Sanitized from all germs or dirt

Children grow sickly and weak

The same is true of our country

We need to see and be exposed

To the dark side of our History

So when our children grow up

They will be immune to the evil

And hate practiced in the past

Sanitizing History from society

Only makes our country weaker

Forgetting our foundation principals

Makes us amoral and lacking ethics

Rise up and teach your children well

They will follow in your steps

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Photo: Dwight L. Roth

 

 

 

Imagine

I watched a PBS special on the Voyager space craft launched in 1977. It was so interesting to see the story unfold. From research, to engineering design, to launch, the men and women of NASA created two space crafts that traveled to the end of the solar system sending back photos of  the planets as it sailed by. The most interesting thing is that these folks were in their thirties when the launch took place. Now they are my age and in retirement. A question came to mind as I watched, “Is there a group of younger millennials with the imagination to continue creating and doing these amazing things ?”

Imagine

The thrill of the imagination

Takes us places we can never go

Beyond this earthly home

Out into the solar system

Wrapping our minds around the

Concept of a galaxy in a world far far away

Imagine going into the depths of the earth

All the way to China as we used to say

…Our way of saying very deep

Imagine riding with Voyager

As it continues to sail out into the universe

Beyond our solar system to worlds unknown

Having paid its dues in 2012 sailing on

Singing I’ll fly away oh glory I’ll fly away

Who are the imagineers of the present

With visions beyond this realm

Pushing the outer limits in ways yet to be

Not content to live in Earth’s isolation

Rather seeking ways to imagine

The reality of a Star Trek generation

That will stretch our imaginations even more

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Photo of the recent eclipse taken by David Yoder. David is a middle school student who lives near Concord, NC.

 

Cynical Reality

I believe that faith and proof are really contradictions and tend to get us nowhere. It is interesting to me how some people say they believe by faith and yet spend endless amounts of time trying to prove that their faith is reality based on the Bible, or on history, etc. Reality is not found anywhere in the definition of faith. In the Christian Bible Hebrews tells us that faith the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen!  In essence it is telling us that faith is a belief in something that has no tangible reality. So to try to prove it to be otherwise is contradictory. Our belief system  is based on faith. Faith is what we believe is the truth of God in our lives.  The only tangible evidence we need is that my faith works for me. I can only tell my own story. Beyond that it becomes your story to tell. What the future holds remains to be seen.

Cynical Reality

Pursuing knowledge down roads of history

Truth collections worn as halos

Crosses robes and purple hearts

Learned studies revealing questions

Drawing us into an never ending spiral

In pursuit of truth that makes

It no longer faith out of necessity

Rather truth in its actuality

What contradictions we offer

Finding faith and actuality

On the same train

Finding reality and unreality

To be identical twins

In the end finding love

To be the ultimate unending truth

And faith the ultimate unreality

How foolish we are to attempt

To prove the substance of things hoped for

And the evidence of things unseen

 

Toadstools

I saw these little toadstools growing in the grass as I took my walk. It is amazing to me that their spores lay in the ground and wait for the right conditions and then manifest themselves in this way. They are very fragile but bake harder in the sun. Thy are beautiful in their own way. Nature is awesome!

Toadstools

Little white sponges

Growing in the grass

Naturally growing fungus

Now the rain has past

Full of tiny spores

That lay there for years

Waiting for rain to pour

And sun to bring good cheer

Texture like quiche

Their umbrellas open

Will really go squish

When they are stepped on

Full of spores

They spread their tops

Ready to scatter more

On their next above ground pop

Must have conditions

All perfect and right

For their emissions

Of spores all to take flight

Photos: Dwight L. Roth