mountainmelody



business



lovesick, lonesome, or I love you



love and kisses

I promise to never leave you.

Will you marry me?

Yes, I will.

By now you may have stopped believing the fact that it didn't snow at ALL for the first 6 or 7 years I lived in Alabama. But it's true!

This winter has about made up for it--more snows than I have ever seen in my life! Last night we got 2.5 inches of snow. Impressive!

These pictures aren't the greatest, but they'll give you the idea. First, here is where I found deer tracks leading right up to my car door this morning. Perhaps Bambi wanted to find a warm place to sit down?

 And here are some of the gigantic icicles that were hanging from my house when I got home tonight. Brrr!!

Yesterday I attended a seminar that had speakers such as Colin Powell, Laura Bush, and Rudy Guiliani. But the speakers that got way more applause than anyone else were the football coaches from Auburn and Alabama.

I don't care what your political persuasion is--that's just wrong!

This morning I certainly would not have expected to be blogging about an ice storm today! The storm caught all the weather forecasters off guard. I think I was the first one to leave my work this afternoon, but it still took me a very long and nerve-wracking 2 hours and 15 minutes to make it home.

Here are some pictures from the drive. (Don't worry, Mom! I took these while stopped in traffic.)

Let's just say that this place is very, very close to me.

Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin. ~Mother Teresa

I am fascinated by different cultures. Today I heard a good presentation that reminded me about high context and low context cultures. Some scholars argue that the American South is an example of a traditionally high context culture in the midst of a low context nation.

A related topic is direct versus indirect communication. I definitely think that in the South, women especially are socialized to communicate more indirectly. Even today, if I want someone else to do something, I always phrase it as a question instead of a command: "Could you please make a copy for me?" And I find it difficult to strongly criticize someone I'm talking to. Instead, I would say mostly nice things and slip a kindly worded suggestion in the middle. But if they were from my context, they would understand.

I think this type of background makes direct communication seem more jarring, especially when it comes from someone with whom you do not have a strong relationship. Understanding the cultural differences is essential.

What do you all think about this--especially those of you from the South?

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature--trees, flowers, grass--grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence. . . . We need silence to be able to touch souls.
~Mother Teresa

I'm reading this book for about the third time, and I have to say it's just as good this time around as it was before. This time I've gotten smart and gotten myself a free copy by agreeing to review it! :)

I decided to change back to a black layout. See what you think.

We accidentally went to Auburn on our road trip. It was the week after their national championship--not bad. We saw the toilet paper in the trees at Toomer's Corner and everything!

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are. ~e.e. cummings

snow pictures

I went on a great road trip with a friend today. We drove all around the state, eventually making it to Eufaula. I'll post more pictures later if I get a chance!

I think it is safe to say that while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted.

~Flannery O'Connor

I finally made it home and am enjoying the snow/ice from the warmth of my house. :)

Still stuck and not sure when I can get home...blah. At least I have a warm place to stay!

My house had 4 inches of snow...but I'm stuck at Shocco with 1 inch if ice!

This is what happens at the bread aisle in the grocery story when snow is forecast for Alabama!

(photo from www.alabamawx.com)

It's going to snow again...maybe a lot!!!

This is amazing, since it didn't snow at all for at least the first five or six years I lived in Alabama!

Every good, beautiful, perfect, inspiring, moving, joyful, sustaining, edifying, unifying, loving, gracious, whimsical, happy, life-giving, soul-stirring, paradigm-shifting, kind, generous alive thing is a gift from God.

~Cathleen Falsani

(Tune: London Bridge)

Help us build a bridge of peace,
Bridge of peace,
Bridge of peace!
Help us build a bridge of peace,
Hi-ho, laddies!

Help us live in friendly ways,
Friendly ways,
Friendly ways!
Help us live in friendly ways,
Hi-ho, lassies!

Don't you wish you could come to the archives with me??

Don't look now, but Jesus is coming back in 1843. You heard it here first, folks.

Two inches of snow are on the ground at my house--the first white Christmas in almost 100 years. But I'm not there!

Baptists of the eighteenth century viewed Christmas as "worldly and popish."

Alabama was the first US state to officially recognize Christmas as a holiday. It did so in 1819.

This year I'm looking for my first white Christmas!!!

...by reading this book and watching this video.

“Birmingham with her congestion of wealth devoted to selfish and worldly purposes presents a situation that should appeal to the heart of every true Christian.”

"In another generation I believe that liquor ill have disappeared not merely from our politics, but from our memories."

Women’s gifts to charity:
$3,204.45
7 pairs shoes
1 bed
1 suit furniture
1 sewing machine
63 chickens
1 quilt

Watch out, world. I've been back in the archives again, digging up crazy old stuff like this. Okay, so this isn't technically part of my research project, but it's just too good not to share!

Don't laugh...it's real snow.

Some day I would like to go to a Christmas market in Europe. Beautiful....but freezing cold, I'm afraid. Nice to visit but not to stay!

How fat is America?

". . . The past has such magical power. The beauty of its motionless and silent pictures is like the enchanted purity of late autumn, when the leaves, though one breath would make them fall, still glow against the sky in golden glory."

~Bertrand Russell

"I wonder if followers of Christ 150 years from now will look back at Christians in America today and ask, 'How could they live in such big houses? How could they drive such nice cars and wear such nice clothes? How could they live in such affluence while thousands of children were dying because they didn't have food and water? How could they go on with their lives as though the billions of poor didn't even exist?"

~David Platt

"Tell about the South. What's it like there. What do they do there. Why do they live there. Why do they live at all . . ."
~William Faulkner

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold,
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

--Robert Frost

Not enough students signed up for my class, so it was canceled. I'll try again next semester.

Too bad! Maybe next time I'll put up posters that say "Take Me for BP!"

I'm having so much fun preparing for the class I'm teaching! I really love learning. Let's hope the students at least don't hate it!

Okay, people. Now that I'm old, I have to acknowledge something that I have learned and finally admitted:

My mother was right.

Here's just a sampling of the good advice that she gave me, and that I eventually decided to take:

• Don't put elastic in the dryer.
• Take your vitamins.
• Don't carry something by its power cord.
• Floss your teeth.
• Clip your fingernails over a garbage can.
• Always give people the benefit of the doubt.

So, all you young whippersnappers out there...listen to your mothers. :)

I'm in Atlanta with thousands of religion scholars. Yay....I think?

Here's a similar view today.

Check out the growth of the tree in the upper left corner, among other things.

When I teach a class, I am never going to do anything to make any of my students feel like this.

"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." ~Maya Angelou

Southern landscapes

96% of people in Birmingham describe themselves as Christians--the second highest of any US metropolitan area.

Birmingham has the highest rate of church attendance of any US city: 67%.

64% of people in Birmingham believe strongly in evangelism--the most of any US city.

more

My blog seems to be getting boring. Facebook and Twitter are more fun, and I do a lot more there. So I changed my blog template, so you can at least have something new to look at. :)

more

God, you have given us enough to meet our needs
and those of our neighbors.
We confess that we value accumulation more than sharing,
and that we blame those who lack for their need,
never recognizing that you wish to provide for them through us.
Forgive us our overflowing storehouses
and unhealthy appetites.

Hmm, I'm still here...nothing too exciting. I've been working and studying for the class I will be teaching. This is MUCH better than studying stuff for my dissertation. You can talk to me in person for my reflections on that experience (if you catch me in the right mood).

Anyway, now I'm the professor...strange!

living in a church