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I just opened our front door and saw the rain really coming down here in mid-Michigan with pools of water on our front sidewalk. In a few minutes, I'll make a basement water check. Temperature, according to a WILX.com is supposed to reach the 50s today. Guess I won't be using my snow blower today.
How is our mild weather affecting the usual Michigander travel to Florida? When we were there earlier this month, the weather was better than ours, but not much.
But, he was my brother. Actually, my half-brother. We shared a father who had him with another woman. As an aside, can you call a half-sibling a brother or sister? I am choosing to call my half-brother, a brother because I feel he is. I had one other half-brother and a half-sister. So, that's two brothers and a sister.
When I found the obit from the paper, my eyes were glued to the reality of family that I never really knew. There was a cautious excitement. Then I decided to ask my friends for some help. I went to Facebook and my 800 plus friends and shared a screenshot of the notice of my brother's death and asked for their suggestions to find out more.
The responses poured in within minutes. Wow! A neighbor who knows her way around the web and who has an inquiring mind poured her heart into finding more. A friend in St. Louis joined in. A family-member in Maine offered some info. More than 40 responses in a Facebook thread that took place over a couple of hours.
Where do I stand with this?
I know more than I did before. My brother became a little more real and a couple more holes in my personal identity were filled in. I will keep working at this. It's not over yet. I wish I could have known my brother before he died. He had my dad's name.
I find myself remembering what our pastor said in a sermon about identity. "Remember who you are. Remember who you are. Remember who you are." For too many years, I let my identity of my earthly father rise higher than my identity as the child of my heavenly Father.
I would still like to know more about my dad and his side of the family.
I know that our country is in trouble and my first reaction for a solution is to troll through the list of candidates for the answer and this time I'm not finding it.
I found this page at the Billy Graham website asking for people to commit to praying for country and saying that our people have veered away from God and that our problem is one that will be solved only through changed hearts.
Hearts aren't changed for the better through politics. That only happens through God. It posted this Bible verse:
"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14, NIV).
This is the answer, I know. Oh, I'll still vote, but I don't want to get distracted from the source of the real answer. It's God. That's the only way we will get real change in this country.
And I knew he's a Kindle user on his iPad and that he reads a lot particularly on his bus ride to and from work. I was sure he had heard of "Inside Apple" by Adam Lashinsky of Fortune magazine, but I knew that he probably had a stack of unread books on his iPad.
I still thought it would be a neat gift for those days when the bus is caught in traffic. So, I got him the book by purchasing a gift card where all he had to do to get the book was click on a link. It's a great way to buy somebody a gift.
Yes, he does read my blog. I knew that. And I'm happy that we have that point of contact through blogging.
Next, I have to find out about kid's books on the Kindle. My almost two-year-old grandson in Bosnia is a prime candidate. Then there's my daughter, my daughter-in-law and my son-in-law. I love buying people books.
Actually, I'm pretty sure that my son Justin, at least, checks the titles on my blog posts and reads some
I read an excerpt of a book this weekend that he would absolutely love, Inside Apple by Adam Lashinsky of Fortune magazine.
It outlines the corporate culture at Apple and gives great examples of how it works and anecdotes about the premium it puts on secrecy. Wow. It even keeps employees from different groups from talking with each other about what they are working on. The place doesn't sound like much fun. It sounds more like one big closed-up religion.
It reminds me of the first twelve episodes of Homeland with Clare Danes that I watched on Showtime. There's plenty of reason to be paranoid, apparently, if you work at Apple.
My deal for Justin: If you read this and you haven't read the book and if you are interested in reading it, can I buy it for you on Kindle. It would be a for national "You're a Great Son" day. And then you can lend it back to me when you're done. Looks like a great book to read on the beach.
With the death over the weekend of my Uncle Ralph Moll, I now have one uncle left and two aunts. My Uncle Ralph is now in heaven after passing away two days after his 89th birthday.
My mother's family left a huge imprint on my life. They have a story that would match any of the Little House on the Prairie books with drama, excitement, family, hard times, survival and love. I didn't always appreciate the sibling relationships that existed with them.
Their parents died young while they were living on a farm in the Thumb of Michigan when many were still young kids. The older ones including my mom kept the family together through a lot of tough times and going without. I know that it was slog, mixed in with some good times.
Uncle Ralph was part of the group and one of the men that I looked up to as a role model on what it meant to be a man.
He had three sons and a daughter. His son Roger was killed during the Vietnam war.
I thank God for my aunts and uncles. They weren't perfect, but they provided a framework for life.
Uncle Ralph now joins my mom and the others in the heavenly stands cheering on those of us still left here on earth.
My first stopping point on the web in the morning is usually the Radio Bible Class website where there is a feast of devotional materials about God, the Bible and daily living. I usually go first to the online version of Our Daily Bread to jumpstart my thoughts about my relationship to God.
Today, it was written by Bill Crowder, one of their regular staffers and writers who wrote today about his love of cinnamon everything and he mentioned how he never gave much thought about where it came from until he ran across the fact that most comes from Sri Lanka.
Then he talks about how quite often he fails to think about the source of all the good things in his life. He talks about his family and how they've been a gift.
This morning I'm reminded of last week when I was asked how many members were in my immediate family. It started with two and we are now at seven and if I count Latte The Pup, it's eight. They are verification of James 1:17 where God talks about the source of all good things.
Just saw Madonna's half-time show from the Super Bowl and I wonder if she gets her magnetic attraction and entertainment abilities from where she was born, Bay City, Michigan.
It's a gateway town right at the bottom of the Saginaw Bay where travelers stop on their way Up North.
It's a feisty place that gained its foothold in history as a logging town that grew into a manufacturing hub where car plants dominated along with a shipbuilder that made guided missle destroyers still in service.
Go to Wikipedia and look up Guy Lombardo, a famous band leader, and it was in Bay City that he had his race boats made.
I was born at the same hospital as Madonna. After her birth she and her family moved to the Detroit area. Her dad now has a winery in the Traverse City area.
But she got her start in a town that epitomizes true grit.
I remember when the city of Lansing was highly-regarded for it's quality of life. That has changed, according to Forbes magazine which says our city is the 13th most miserable in the country. What factors go into making a city liveable vs. miserable?
In less than twelve hours, we will join the rest of the country and much of the world in watching the New Englland Patriots and New York Giants go at it in the Super Bowl in Indianapolis. Who are these players? What makes them tick?
Tim Tebow of the Denver Broncos is not the only believer in Jesus Christ. Check these other players from both teams who talk about their faith and what it means to them. I'm impressed.
These guys spend their lives in an occupation where it's not manly to talk about your faith in God. There's the perception of wild parties with gladiators living it up. Apparently, it's not true.
What would happen if our political leaders stood up like this and confessed their faith, rather than bleating about what they do and what the other side doesn't do? That would make an impression. How would people respond?
