Rambling for Ramblings Sake

My apologies, to those who come by this blog, for my diminished frequency that i post blogs of late.  So many things in the 'real world' are going on it is distracting, but it will contribute nicely to the ramblingness of today's offering.

To start off, i had a song that i wanted to use for my Music Monday 'feature', but i am drawing a blank trying to remember the title of the song, let alone the artist that recorded it. It went along with the sermon on Jonah that our Pastor was preaching on yesterday, and again next week.  I had it all written down and everything.  but then my notes got washed in the sink, so i laid it out to dry on our deck... gone.  I will still try and post it, because i really liked the song... so my Music Monday might not get posted till tomorrow... or Thursday...

Have i mentioned recently that i am really liking MouseHunt on facebook?  So far i have been able to feed two "addictions" at once.  For every new type of mouse i catch, i add a piece of flair to my collection, which is helpful in that regard because changes in my daily routines, etc., have somewhat limited my searching for new pieces of flair of late.  Right now i am hunting in the Catacombs where i am finding a lot of mice like the Terror Knight and Spider Mouse.  There are two more area to hunt in here, but from all of the advice i have been able to find, i am going to need the ACRoNYM (Arcane Capturing Rod of Never Yielding Mystery) trap.  This puppy is expensive, but like i've said before, this is not a game where things are just handed to you.  You must be patient, you must be willing to try and figure things out, and you must be willing to seek advice from more experienced players, and sometimes you just have to be patient and put in plain ol' time to get where you need to go.  In my case i need some gold for this next trap... and i know i am going to have to revisit an "old" location to get the last component.  I share this, not because anyone really cares, but because it's of interest to me.

For the past several weeks the area in which i live has been going through a dry-spell.  Some intense heat and little rain makes it for a brownish summer.  It is looking like we might actually get some today, but then i smelled that "rain smell" last week too.  We got some, but not enough.  I am glad only because i've not had to mow my grass in near 100 degree (Fahrenheit) heat.  Still, that smell is one reason i like Thunderstorms so much.  I am one of very few of those who prefer it to rain more than not.  Maybe i need to consider a move to Seattle someday...   Nah... i love the Shenandoah too much.

I have been slowly working my way through Stonewall Jackson: The Man, the Soldier, the Legend, What is the Gospel, and The Path of the Warrior.  The first, and the last books, have been on hold as i have been focusing on just reading and meditating on the basics of my faith of late.What is the Gospel has been a very good down to Earth book for me.  As i walk out my faith in Christ i learn more and  more of just how awesome the grace of God really is.  You see, i am an addict to sin.  My flesh craves it.  Ever since i tasted my own piece of fruit from the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" i have struggled with this fight.  It would seem that i am still learning what it means that in my weakness He is strong.  When the man who came out to fix my A/C unit we had a really good conversation about the things of God.  It also refreshed my desire to seek to know, and more importantly BE known, by God.  I do not want to walk through my whole life going this way and that, doing things in Christ's name... and never be known by God.  (Matthew 7:21-23)  How is a relationship developed, how is it maintained?  By spending time with one another.  Spending time in God's Word, by spending time in prayer with God.  To my shame, i have neglected that time with Him... but i am working on improving on that.  By His grace and mercy it is possible.

One of the fruits of my (not nearly enough) increased amount of time spent with the Lord, has been movement on a project of mine.  A while back i saw a special on the life of Miyamoto Musashi. He is considered the epitome of the samurai of ancient Japan, and while he is decidedly NOT a Christian, i have found some nuggets of wisdom from him, especially in his Book of 5 Rings.  Well, in this special i first learned of the a work titled "The Way of Walking Alone", written one week before his death of stomach cancer in 1645.  It is a list of twenty one "maxims" that he worked on summarizing up what it takes to be a master of The Way.  As i aspire to be a Christian samurai (i.e. i want to walk out my service to my Lord Jesus Christ in a way very similar to that of the devotion of the feudal samurai), i have been reading over and meditating on what God's Word has to say in those areas.  To be honest, some of it has been a challenge, but as i have meditated on God's Word and the 'maxim's', God has been showing me His Word and what it has to say.  Very good stuff in my opinion.  This has both been good for me personally, but bad for my blogging because it has taken up a lot of time, and we all know men only have a very limited number of words to share in any given day...   I am hoping to have the first contribution posted to share in the next two to three weeks (i am not only trying to get my thoughts down on the subject, but to have one or two people help me proof it before i post it).  I've also noticed that it has been interfering (in a good way) with my short story writing... thus also giving me more time to read Gav Thorpe's book so i can do more "research" on my characters.

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