tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55651642756640693792024-03-28T20:29:33.938-07:00The Idlewood ArchivesA place for me to play with stories to my heart’s content, and ramble merrily on about history, period dramas, books, and random beautiful historical things in general.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger63125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5565164275664069379.post-6783554405864228412024-03-22T11:00:00.000-07:002024-03-22T11:38:36.117-07:00Notice<p><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do; font-size: medium;">Hello Kindreds!</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do; font-size: medium;">This isn't exactly a post... more of an excuse. Emi asked me to apologize on her behalf, since she will be unable to come on the blog for at least six weeks, due to illness. I don't understand all the details, but she is recovering from some kind of severe eye inflammation and can't look at screens at all. She just wanted everyone to know she isn't neglecting the blog on purpose, and she can't wait to be back and scribbling again! I know she misses you all. Prayers for her recovery are really appreciated, thank you! </span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5565164275664069379.post-90721709415558308642024-03-07T22:16:00.000-08:002024-03-08T08:38:37.194-08:00<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i0.pickpik.com/photos/1024/121/172/goal-door-input-old-preview.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="485" data-original-width="728" height="133" src="https://i0.pickpik.com/photos/1024/121/172/goal-door-input-old-preview.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Dear kindreds….<p></p><p>This is a post that is to consist entirely of the musings and collective thoughts that followed the discovery and diving into of a book I happened upon without trying to…. And that has been ceaselessly encouraging me ever since. I’ve lost count of the times I have opened it in tears, and found comfort…. Or opened it with question holes in my heart that were unexpectedly and perfectly filled, and found my eyes filled with another kind of tears. </p><p>That kind of a book. </p><p>Your eyes widen at this, and a not-sure-what-to-make-of-this light enters your questioning gaze. </p><p>Finally you ask it. The question begging to be posed.</p><p>What is this book, that it has had such leverage, you ask in polite curiosity. It really wants to be slightly more, but it stuck to that. </p><p>It is a book of poetry, I reply. Eloquence is my strong point, as you can well see. And sarcasm, appropriately wielded and in the hands of an expert, is an art. </p><p>But curiosity gets the better of you. </p><p>“Well, who <i>by</i> then? Wordsworth? Longfellow? Maybe Robert Service? You’re northern, after all, that would make sense. All except the tears part. Was it written on the subject of the Yukon Trail, perhaps? “</p><p>“No?”</p><p>“Well, then what is it? Modern? Historical? Antiquated? Something newly released and that is why you discovered it!”</p><p>Nope. No to all of the above. It comes with an unassuming cover, clearly from another era, yet not so old as to collectible. It is not the kind to catch your eye on the shelf, and a sweetly old fashioned and very demure watercolour graces the front.</p><p>Yet the title says it all. Heart Gifts, by Helen Steiner Rice.</p><p>You have struck gold. Anything sound familiar about that title? (Always keeping in mind that the discovery of it took place at the very least several weeks after the original HeartSong Moment was written up and posted, maybe more.)</p><p>Hidden among dozens of bright and bold covers…. Yet I found it. Or maybe…. I am rather inclined to think it was put there for me to find. I knew the moment I pulled it out that it was coming home with me, and…. It has been a Godsend. That is the long and short and yes, too the the sweetness of it.</p><p>As if the thoughts of your heart lay spread out on the page before you, a page you would never have found by yourself…. When you needed to know the Master heard and saw and loved…. Even when you could hardly find the words to pray, and your thoughts stubbornly clung to everything but what truly needed to be thought and asked…</p><div>And a gentle, quiet leading brought you to where you needed to be anyway. To see. To hear, to know…. To be refilled and strengthened for the road ahead.</div><div><br /></div><div>It has blessed me…. Far beyond what I expected when I took it off the shelf. And now…. I cannot but share it, on the grounds that mayhap ye shall find it to be exactly what you need as well🙃</div><div><br /></div><div>May your days be filled with His Light….</div><div><br /></div><div>Yours, counting her blessings….</div><div><br /></div><div>~Emi</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Ps. This went up fast-ish, and now it wants to start sprouting all over on me…. So I reserve the right to edit and add on this one😜🤪 Like lots, maybe. Just a heads up (;</div>EmilyNotStarrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18279494802645640215noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5565164275664069379.post-14780071055132646592024-01-29T06:48:00.000-08:002024-01-31T20:42:39.718-08:00One Drop At A Time<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">One by one, the raindrops fall on the “seed” that is yours truly…. Duly and deeply nicked, albeit unexpectedly and at a cost…. there is something going on at the heart of it. It swells suspiciously, and one might be forgiven for wondering if mayhap and possibly things be nearly set to sprout forth…. Nay, but already are as we speak. New and previously unexperienced things…. Glorious things, scary, frightening things, peace immeasurable, ways where no ways were…. And where the Master makes a way, it always leads to a place He has made ready.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">He goes before us, does not fail us….</span></div><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"></span> <a href="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52193985521_acdb8abede_b.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="800" height="134" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52193985521_acdb8abede_b.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: 16px;">And the raindrops fall, and the heart finds hope in the melody that is them. </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: 16px;">Yes, these garden analogies are likely to continue. Quite. This blog has temporarily turned snapshot journal, and I find myself quite alright with that…. This is a season. Y</span><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: 16px;">es, there is more to this than mere thoughts and musings…. This is Life, and the Real Life tendings of my Gardener…. And He is faithful, forever faithful.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-small;">See Philippians 2:10-11 and </span><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: small;">Philippians 4:7….</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada;">He is always faithful…. And He will show you so in a thousand ways. Wait for the Light to shine through, kindreds…. I tell you, it is worth waiting for. Not all the darkness in the world can dim the power of the true Light. Beyond your wildest dreams, it’s worth it. Surrender is not losing, it is gaining more than anyone could have imagined.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada;">Living completed, and learning to trust like a child….</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: 16px;">~Emily </span></p>EmilyNotStarrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18279494802645640215noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5565164275664069379.post-15346351474261398872024-01-27T19:30:00.000-08:002024-01-27T19:30:09.677-08:00In Times Of Darkness<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Parisienne;"> Psalm 34:18</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne;"><span class="s2" style="font-size: 16px;">The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.</span></span></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://live.staticflickr.com/5476/31312539252_8341151f68_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><br /></a></p><p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">Kindreds… I have something different for you today. I don’t know what to call it, so I’ll just say it was…. Heart-written. </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond";">One of those times when you’re just the pen…. Neither the ink nor the author. And I felt as if I needed to share it, so…. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond";">If any one of you out there is in the middle of the same kind of dark valley…. Hold on. There is hope. You may not see it, but it has not given up on you. The Light is still there…. The Light is ALWAYS there, and He cares. He’s not letting go…. Hold fast. Even when it looks hopeless. He will be your hope, and the rock on which you may stand.</span></p><p> </p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: x-large;">In Times Of Darkness, </span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GLdkAZFb-wc" target="_blank">Revive Us Again</a></span></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne;">Psalm 56:8</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Parisienne; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Parisienne; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;">Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Parisienne; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Parisienne; font-size: 16px; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><p><span style="font-family: "Nothing You Could Do";">Have you ever felt like you were drowning, and you couldn’t swim? Like all the world was dark around you, and not a peep of light shone in? How like a seed, I wonder, would this situation be?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;">The rain rolls down around it, deep in the earth it cannot see…. When all is dark and muddy, what earthly good can in this be?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;">The rain, it keeps on coming, in torrents, that, swift and unceasing, soften your shell…. Yet the hopeless becomes the cause of hope, God doeth all things well. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;">In drowning, it may sprout forth, the raindrops sweetly sink to help…. What feels a death sentence becomes a life source, a gift the seed could not give itself. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;">He knows, He knows that you’re hurting…. But He knows that you need this to grow. So wisely He permits that which breaks you, so that in time, His abundance you’ll know.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;">Loving you too much to leave you, that small seed encased in the ground…. Knowing that in you, there be blossoms…. After in His love, you shall abound. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Nothing You Could Do";">Hold fast, when you’re drowning and can’t swim, when the world around you goes dark…. When it’s cold and it’s wet, and you’re hedged in….</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;">Just hold fast the hope He provides. For He always sends hope when you need it, light for the heart, if not eyes…. Knowing this, hold fast to the light now, all the more when the fear groweth stark.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;">He goes with you, He promises warmly. And every promise He makes, He does keep. Just keep watch, ye wee seeds in the dark ground…. When the night is o’er, His faithfulness you plainly too shall see.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;">So rejoice in the grace of our Gardener…. Who protects us in the midst of each storm, nurturing in the midst of great pain…. I’ve found, and I know you will find, too, that He is faithful, and He always shall be.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;">Rejoice with me in His grace, my friends… Because this is half journal entry. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;">The darkness has no power over Him in whom we trust.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;">Yours overflowingly, having come through the valley, and been brought into a joyful place…. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;">Emi</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><span style="font-family: Parisienne; font-size: x-small;">Luke 8:24~25 </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne; font-size: x-small;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne;"><span class="s1">And they came to Him, and awoke him, saying, Master, Master, we perish. Then He arose, and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water: </span>and they ceased, and there was a calm.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne;">And He said unto them, where is your faith? And they being afraid wondered, saying to one another, what manner of man is this! For He commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey Him.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne;">Ps. I know I’ve mentioned Celtic Woman before, but this song in particular…. Rang true for me after every valley. If you need just a twinkling of encouragement wherever you are in your own path at this moment…. This song may provide you with more than that. To me, it has been a lantern of His faithfulness. </span></span><a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=rHodUyRTFms&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fca.video.search.yahoo.com%2F&embeds_referring_origin=https%3A%2F%2Fca.video.search.yahoo.com&source_ve_path=MTM5MTE3LDI4NjY2&feature=emb_logo" style="font-family: "Dancing Script";" target="_blank">You Raise Me Up</a></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne;"><br /></span></span></p>EmilyNotStarrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18279494802645640215noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5565164275664069379.post-72227500805656872372024-01-19T08:29:00.000-08:002024-01-19T08:29:32.578-08:00<div style="text-align: left;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Dancing Script; font-size: x-large;">Heart song moments.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Dancing Script; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div><p><span style="font-family: Dancing Script;">They come unexpectedly, un-sought-for, and always when you need them most. They put hope back in you, joy within you, and give an awed wonder to the eyes of the heart….</span></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Dancing Script; font-size: 16px;">Is that an odd thing to be writing about? Probably…. But they’re been on my mind lately, and so I had no choice but scribble and see where the thought led. (Ephesians 5:19 is where it originally started, btw.)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Dancing Script;">And this is where they went.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Dancing Script;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Desert_Rose%2C_Omo%2C_Ethiopia_(16862055462).jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="800" height="134" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Desert_Rose%2C_Omo%2C_Ethiopia_(16862055462).jpg" width="200" /></a></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: "Dancing Script"; font-size: 16px;"> Thought of the day~</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Dancing Script; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Dancing Script;">One raindrop in the middle of a desert—one sweet, cool, precious raindrop—May do quite as much for your heart as dancing in the rain in a summer where drought is nothing but a bad dream, a distant memory. </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: Dancing Script;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Dancing Script;">One drop of living water when you need it most….</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Dancing Script;">Will go soul-deep, and nourish the heart it falls upon.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: Dancing Script;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Dancing Script;">He is good, whether the falling rain washes over you, or that one drop falls in the desert to give you hope.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: Dancing Script;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px;"><span style="font-family: Dancing Script;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: Dancing Script; font-size: 16px;"></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Dancing Script;">You are not alone.</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Dancing Script;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Dancing Script;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Dancing Script;">And Not Alone…. Oh, what a wonderful place that is to be, to know you are.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Dancing Script;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Dancing Script;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Dancing Script;">Yes, this is a hasty post…. But it’s going up exactly the way it is, this morning!</span></p>EmilyNotStarrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18279494802645640215noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5565164275664069379.post-89353315669860458772024-01-14T22:20:00.000-08:002024-01-15T08:28:49.560-08:00<p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Sofia;">The 30 Song Tag</span></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="clear: left; float: left; font-family: EB Garamond; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="266" src="https://cdn.stocksnap.io/img-thumbs/960w/vintage-music_POMGCSYXGX.jpg" width="400" /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><br /></span></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">Hello again, kindreds!!! </span></h3><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">Haven’t we got an intriguing title up top today? I’m so excited I could spin in circles!</span></div><p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">See, this is how it came about. I was tagged for this by the lovely Lizzie Hexam, she of the blog </span><a href="https://starlightandsaucepans.org/the-30-song-tag/#comments" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">Starlight And Saucepans</span></a><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond";">…. And I have had SO much fun with this🤗 So much so that you may get winded halfway through, because I did not go by any form of word-rations at all. Not even a smidgen. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">It’s also the first tag I’ve ever done, so this feels milestone-ish and very much uncharted territory-ish. Maybe without the ishes.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><span>Now, there’s one thing you should know before we start. Remember that quote of Anne’s, the one that goes “There are such a lot of Anne’s In Me”? </span><span>It just so happens to fit me to a T. And today everything I write is wanting to come out sounding as if I’m the countriest thing to come from the provinces since Stompin’ Tom Connors. I’ll</span></span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond";"> go back to my customary whimsical self in short order, never you fear. But as for today…. Meet the Emi that climbs trees and goes snowmobiling🤷♀️</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond";">You will find ample evidence in the following😜 Everybody ready???? Yes? Splendid, I was hoping you’d say that (; Ahem. So. Let us begin!!!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;">Your favorite song</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">Oh boy. You do know that I’m absolutely terrible at pinning down just one favourite of anything, right???? Books, teas, movies…. And ESPECIALLY songs. Ask for my current Top Ten, and they’ll roll off my tongue like I’ve been waiting for you to ask…. But just one??!!</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">I’m going to echo Lizzie, and say One Of My Favourites, and not necessarily my One Favourite! </span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=924Ryk0jW7g" target="_blank">Lay Low </a>—<span>Josh Turner…. And yes, you may be seeing him a few more times before all the questions are covered, because I am kinda sorta slightly an enormous fan😜 And please oh please, take a moment and watch the music video while you listen…. It is GORGEOUS, I tell you.</span></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">Random pic of a log cabin because they’re lovely and they belong with this song….</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"> <a href="https://live.staticflickr.com/4860/44774879555_3f8a2f37dc_b.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="520" data-original-width="800" height="130" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/4860/44774879555_3f8a2f37dc_b.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;">Your least favourite song</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><span>Ooh, my least favourite!!! Well now, let us see. *props her chin in her hands and thinks very hard* Well o</span><span>kay, not going to pretend, when I dislike things, I dislike them heartily and to the great amusement of my sisters😜 And </span><span>if you asked my lil sis, she’d tell you pretty much anything by The Brothers Osborne. There would be no doubt in her mind whatsoever. </span></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">But while I don’t exactly ENJOY their music, I don’t know if I would say it’s my absolute least favourite. I’m sure somewhere there must be a song that I am not thinking of that I like even less. Like maybe by Bailey Zimmerman. Sorry, just simply not a fan. Also that is why you see no specific song here X)</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;">A song that makes you happy</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ4om3PxqjM" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">Sowin’ Love </span></a><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond";">by Paul Overstreet. It never fails to make my heart smile, and when your heart smiles…. You can’t keep the smile off your face either. It bursts through like sunshine!</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;">A song that makes you sad</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><span>Ooh…. A song that makes me sad. That’s…. A surprisingly easy one. </span><a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LT1sNrgnJZc" target="_blank">Three Wooden Crosses </a> <span>by Randy Travis and Josh Turner. (See, I told you!) I can never listen to this in the presence of other people…. Because I’ve tried, but I cannot make it through the whole thing without crying. Even though it is, in fact, an incredibly encouraging song. That fact does not make me one particle less teary.</span></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;">A song that makes you feel guilty</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wZhp-_SAdCQ" target="_blank">This Is Me</a>—Randy Travis…. I saw someone say this once, and I’ve never been able to hear the song any other way after that….. They said to listen to it, not like a love song, but as if it was God talking to you…. And yeah, there are times when that does make me feel incredibly guilty. Also like crying. Because trying to keep things from the One who knows your heart…. </span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;">A song that often gets stuck in your head</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><span>The song Shanti sings right at the end of The Jungle Book, oddly enough. You know, the one that reels Mowgli in whilst Bagheera looks on approvingly and Balloo in horror…. and it then makes him tumble head over heels in love and the river? That one. Actually, this one. “</span><a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B1-BE_ASSyA" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">My Own Home</a>.” And it goes ‘round and ‘round in my head until it bursts upon a world that was neither waiting for nor prepared for it.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;">A song that reminds you of someone</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><span> </span><a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7GzzGqT8PWI" target="_blank">Strawberry Roan</a>—<span>Wilf Carter…. My dad always used to sing it growing up, and they are now forever connected in my head (; The quintessential prairie cowboy song.</span></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><a href="https://cowboycountrymagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Trailblazers-1712-02.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="593" height="200" src="https://cowboycountrymagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Trailblazers-1712-02.jpg" width="148" /></a><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">Bonus Fun Fact I have always wanted to casually throw into a conversation: </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond";">My dad’s friend’s dad was friends with Wilf Carter. (Yes, that’s a bit of a tongue twister😆) They used to work on the same ranch, anyways. And nine yr old me was SO starstruck for a very long time after finding that out, because WILF CARTER! MONTANA SLIM!! </span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond";">Knowing someone who knows someone who knew a legend…. Starstruck may not be a big enough word for what I was😄</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><br /></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;">A song that reminds you of someplace</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><span>Now, if you were asking about Adventures In Odyssey episodes…. This would be easy. But you’re not! Sooooo…. </span><span>Hum. </span><a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gjN5oUoWaug" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">Huskies And Husqvarnas</a>, <span>by Tim Hus. It never fails to bring to mind all those long road trips from my childhood…. in which the mountain roads would go corkscrewy and lead to places of indescribable ruggedness and wonder. </span></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;">A song that reminds you of a certain event</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">I thought and thought and thought about this one…. And finally came to a conclusion. The hymns sung in my grandparents church are very, very distinctive. Dating back hundreds of years and unchanged, that kind of distinctive. And this is one that always and without fail brings back memories of it for me…. Or rather, this is something that sounds very similar, I couldn’t find the original on YouTube for the life of me. </span></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tZ72md88J28" target="_blank">Gaelic Precenting</a></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">For clarity, no, I’m not Gaelic. Not a bit of it, though I wish I </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond";">was (; But aside from the fact that our version is sung in German… This could be an un-identical twin.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;">A song you know all the words to</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7hx4gdlfamo" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">The Gambler</a>, <span>by Kenny Rogers…. And in case anyone is wondering, there is only one right version. I’m telling you. It is THIS one. I will argue all night with anyone who disagrees, so fair warning has been given😂 I’m serious, though…. Even his own previous renditions don’t quite cut it. It’s as if by this point in time, his voice had somehow gathered the necessary wisdom and a certain time-worn mellowness needed to make this song so special.</span></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;">A song you could dance to</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=64Akaz43fgY" target="_blank">Níl Sé’n Lá</a>, by Celtic Woman. Five notes in and my toes start tapping, one minute, and I can hardly sit still! Do yourself a favour and watch the music video, it’s beyond delightful (:</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;">A song that makes you fall asleep</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">Ohhhhh. Now what do I say??!! I don’t fall asleep to music, sorry😆 I happen to be a light sleeper, and so much as a light being on in the other end of the house will keep me awake. </span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">But a song that relaxes me…. </span><a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=goLv2RiOxXQ" style="font-family: "EB Garamond";" target="_blank">Your Smile</a><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond";">—Josh Turner. I don’t know why, it just gives me the warm-cozies every time, and I love it all to pieces! </span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;">A song from your favorite band</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><span>High Valley’s </span><a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xfKmvOsQ190" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">On The Combine</a>. <span>This song is nostalgic, I’m telling you. Which folks would know, if I’d actually posted the Thanksgiving scribble in October that I meant to. But yes. That is one song that quite literally does sound like home to me🤗 And so does the band…. Win-win! </span></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><a href="https://i2.pickpik.com/photos/964/687/775/claas-lexion-combine-harvester-harvest-preview.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; font-family: -webkit-standard; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="485" data-original-width="728" height="133" src="https://i2.pickpik.com/photos/964/687/775/claas-lexion-combine-harvester-harvest-preview.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">Yes, I know folks who would be greatly insulted by me using a picture of a combine that so clearly is not Case IH. See also What Colour You Drive, by the Hunter Brothers to find out why that matters to begin with😜</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><br /></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;">A song from a band you hate </span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><span>Oh brother. Is it bad if I admit I was hoping you wouldn’t ask??? Yes? But saying you hate things ain’t nice, right? So how about a song I Very Heartily Dislike instead. Brothers Osborne—It Ain’t My Fault. Not linking it. </span><span> Blame-shifting makes me boil, even in music-ish form. And yes, my sisters think me hating it so fiercely is extremely funny😆 </span></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;">A song nobody would expect you to love</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><span>Ummmmmmm…. Tweedle-Dee-Tweedle-Day-Now-What-On-Earth-Do-I-Say? I am usually pretty predictable. So that makes this much more difficult. By half. Something unexpected to SOME people, now that I can do. </span><span>How about…. <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NvhSfUHKSVY" target="_blank">Wajch Moaka</a>, by NW Aunbäden? It’s actually a Low German translation of WayMaker, but it sings to me in a way its English twin just can’t live up to! </span><span>I mean, some people will suspect this, if they know me pretty well, but I’m preeeeetty sure it would surprise everyone on here. Does that qualify it?</span></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;">A song that describes you. </span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">This is hard😳 Maybe Northern Girl, by Terri Clark…. Let me think about it and come back to it later, eh?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">Okay, this is later now! And…. I thought and thought and thought some more…. And I came up very blank. I don’t think that particular song has been written, sorry😆 Going with Northern Girl out of default. </span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;">An underrated song more people should love</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">Ummmmmm…. Huh. I’m gonna say Jerusalem’s Cry, by Randy Travis…. Or actually, make that Paul Lassey’s <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hs009w0oH10" target="_blank">Scottish Fougères - Bretagne</a>, because harmonicas are in and of themselves thoroughly underrated! Does that make sense? I’m not sure. Anyways, both songs I heartily enjoy and admire and hardly ever see anywhere, so that counts, I think.</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;">A song that you often hear on the radio</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><span>Okay, this one is easy. </span><a href="https://ca.video.search.yahoo.com/video/play%3B_ylt=AwrOuDOGbKRlzxoSuitM7olQ%3B_ylu=c2VjA3NyBHNsawN2aWQEZ3BvcwMy?p=New+Old+Trucks+by+the+James+Barker+Band.&vid=97168ec3f6ae5baa78342a976940b8ed&turl=https%3A%2F%2Ftse2.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOVP.968AYUdvZfSRtJHgJsrH6QEsDh%26pid%3DApi%26h%3D150%26w%3D250%26c%3D7%26rs%3D1&rurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DX9EaAztZ5v4&tit=James+Barker+Band+-+New+Old+Trucks+%28Audio%29+ft.+Dierks+Bentley&c=1&sigr=IpOpOIFq.F8_&sigt=1CdoySyyHp83&sigi=9r9RIiQAPXuW&fr=p%3As%2Cv%3Av&h=150&w=250&l=193&age=1633665625&fr=yhs-fc-3418&hsimp=yhsm-3418&hspart=fc&type=fc_A3C15526D66_s200_g_e_d_n_c999&param1=7&param2=eJwljUGOwjAMAL%2FiI0iojStcmnDlBXtFaGVSU6ymTURhQfv69aqnGVtjedD%2BfLx8ndC55uDovLvMNhv6FdHgvTfTYto4h4FaDj02Tbi5yMEjBc%2BuC%2BQPXRDprR0kWxzZ9MVmU%2F7VlLimysFGyz3PcoRYXrA65AWw%2FSZIOgpMHP8Xny1wKUnech31WbeOKqyQYDPen1Pare0gccxb%2BJHHonmusbUHU75qkhpJcN%2FBwjd%2BqJ3vK%2FwDY3xIwQ%3D%3D&tt=b" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">New Old Trucks</a>, <span>by the James Barker Band. Short answer among many XXL ones😜 This whole list might make more sense to people if you take into account that my area has about 3-4 radio stations to pick from, two of which are country, one is gospel, and the fourth I avoid like the plague because it is neither. </span></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;">A song you wish you heard on the radio</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">George Fox’s <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hl9ITTCy0i8" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">Billy Green</a>. Yes, I am fairly patriotic (; </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond";"> No offence whatsoever intended towards the other side of the border, this all happened a very, very long time ago, and I am delighted to be neighbours with you, truly! But I am also a Red-White-And-True patriot, and therefore must needs love this song (; </span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"> <a href="https://images.rawpixel.com/image_800/cHJpdmF0ZS9sci9pbWFnZXMvd2Vic2l0ZS8yMDIyLTA0L2ZsMzQ5OTY3MTk1NDItcHVibGljLWltYWdlLWtvbnZhcTB5LmpwZw.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="661" data-original-width="800" height="165" src="https://images.rawpixel.com/image_800/cHJpdmF0ZS9sci9pbWFnZXMvd2Vic2l0ZS8yMDIyLTA0L2ZsMzQ5OTY3MTk1NDItcHVibGljLWltYWdlLWtvbnZhcTB5LmpwZw.jpg" width="200" /></a></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;">A song you listen to when you’re happy</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">Celtic Woman, </span><a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-P1wyDW7BOQ" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">Ballroom Of Romance</a>. <span style="font-family: "EB Garamond";">Oh, but it all but makes me dance where I stand! I’m not kidding, I start bouncing on my toes and spinning where no spin is necessary and just generally being carried along with the music😜 You can’t be down in the presence of anything so merrily lilting, tis impossible!</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;">A song you listen to when you’re sad</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2rUzmjTmSBU" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">The River</a>—<span>Garth Brooks. Sometimes you just need something to flow as slow as you feel at that moment, but that’s still going to help tip your world back to rights at the same time…. And this is usually the one I go to.</span></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;">A song you listen to when you’re angry</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">Terri Clark, <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=h1ScBNkXaJk" target="_blank">Better Things To Do</a>. And I take it allllll out of context and just sing it for all kinds of reasons that have nothing to do with what the song is even about😂 But it IS pretty effective, and it lets off steam, and you come out just plain feeling better n almost a leetle bit like laughing (; </span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;">A song you want to play at your wedding</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><span>Alan Jackson, </span><a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U9bdkINQGC4&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fca.search.yahoo.com%2F&embeds_referring_origin=https%3A%2F%2Fca.video.search.yahoo.com&source_ve_path=Mjg2NjY&feature=emb_logo" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">That’s The Way</a>…. <span>No explanation on this one, that is just…. If I ever do happen to be blessed with a such an event, this—and the marriage itself—is what I want it to signify. More of a theme song than actually playing then, but it sort of counts! You could call it a Hope Chest song, I guess (:</span></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;">A song you want to play at your funeral</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">Oh😯 Now, if I must come clean, this is one subject I’ve never thought of. Not once. Allow me to set the dial to Processing. </span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">Processed. A little uncertainly, because this is a new thought, but…. I’m going with “Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)” But honestly…. I don’t know, if I was taking this very seriously, I’d probably think about it for several days (and or weeks X-) before making a decision. </span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;">A song that makes you laugh</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><span>Ooh, if I think about this too long, I will scribble down a looooong line, because this is fun!!! With </span><a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Co1IgSMjA2w" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">Cattlerack Cadillac </a><span>and </span><a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc8Q6mXBYaA" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">Master Caster</a> <span>and <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=K3C2fI6223M" target="_blank">Talkin’ Saskatoon Blues</a> heading the list. Because Tim Hus does not get the attention he so richly deserves, and he is priceless. Okay, next question before this one runs away with me!!</span></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;">A song that you can play</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">Uhhhhhh… Half of Für Elise and likewise half of Swan Lake… Front and foremost halves😜 Accomplished, aren’t I?</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;">A song you wish you could play</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">Slight confession? I can’t actually read music. Not a bit. I always refused to learn it on account of it felt so confining, and I couldn’t “find music” in the written notes. (Yeah, smart move, Emi x) I’d rather just play around and let the music go where it wanted. So… I wish I could play everything!!! </span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;">A song from your childhood</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw9wq8qUNg0" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">Bud The Spud</a>—<span>Stompin’ Tom Connors. Yes, that’s a real song! By an even realer Canadian legend (;</span></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;">Your favorite duet</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">Anything Randy Travis and Josh Turner have done together. I told you I’m an enormous fan! I have not stopped to count up how many times I mentioned them so far, but I think I’m unintentionally beginning and ending with them😆</span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><br /></span></p><p style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.25em auto; max-width: 700px;"><span style="font-family: Cinzel;">Your favorite song at this time of year</span></p><p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">Hmmmm🤔 The <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MIF0SpOxKkc" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">Snowmobile</a> Song, Stomping Tom Connors? Or maybe <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8RYNUqrFM_Q" style="text-align: center;" target="_blank">Skate</a>, by Tim And The Glory Boys…. There really aren’t that many January songs, are there? ‘Kay, I really do not know which one to go with. Just pick whichever one of those fits best to you personally, because Philippa forget to lend me her hatpin today😆</span></p><p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">And that, my dearies, was 30 songs. (Well actually, the count mayyyy be higher than that, the list got Emi-ed ;) And I actually surprised myself, I thought I’d have all the answers right off…. Because generally speaking, they overflow for all they are worth, these thoughts of mine! But this actually did take me a wee bit😜 Why is it that songs flee the moment you need them, and flit about your head willy-nilly the rest of the time? I’ll play Davy and say “I wanna know.” ;)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">Ahhhhh…. *insert contented sigh here* </span></p><p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">Okay, that was fun. That was a lot of fun. I even reminded myself of some favourites that had slipped my mind recently, and have been very busily getting reacquainted with them…. And remembering hundreds more that don’t fit here, but must be dug out of storage posthaste, because I miss them! </span></p><p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">But they won’t all fit in tonight, because it is getting LATE and tomorrow is Monday. And no, Ms. Lorrie Morgan, I disagree. Mondays can too be good days! </span></p><p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">Ahem. Distracted. And the next line in my head is “But it’s Sunday now and everything’s alright.” And what d’you know, so it is! But I do believe I was about to say Goodnight when I got song-ambushed. Is that what I was going to do? Well anyway, I am now…. All good things must come to their right and befitting end, even days. The delightfulest (yes, sleepily permitting myself to make up words) variety seeming to come to the most hastened of ending points…. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">Which is not fair. It really isn’t. B</span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond";">ut farewells…. *sniff* must still be said…. It is inescapable. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond";">So “G</span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond";">oodbye, And May You Always See A Happy Face In Your Looking Glass”, ye kindreds dear….</span></p><p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">Yours meanderingly,</span></p><p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">~Emily</span></p><p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">Ps. Now, this being my first tag ever, I think I’m just going to leave it at this. For one thing, I have not the foggiest notion whom to tag😜 </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond";">So if you read this, and you fancy a go at the list your own self…. Please, please do take it up, and let me know how it goes on your end! </span></p><p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">I should perhaps post a clean list of questions here just in case…. That would be smart. But it’s already so long, this post…. Soooo, if you click on the link right up at the top, where it says Starlight And Saucepans, you will find it waiting for you there! </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div><br /></div></div><p><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><br /></span></p><div class="sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); clear: both; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 1.25rem auto; max-width: 700px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"></div>EmilyNotStarrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18279494802645640215noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5565164275664069379.post-68217883258807346942024-01-12T21:05:00.000-08:002024-01-14T16:12:06.433-08:00To Sow A Seed<div class="separator"><div class="separator" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="727" data-original-width="800" height="182" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/6122/5944231215_1cbf974199_b.jpg" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 238); color: #0000ee; text-decoration: underline;" width="200" /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="std-text" style="box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 0px;"><div class="poetry top-05" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 1em; min-width: 0px; padding-left: 2.6em; position: relative;"><p class="line" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span class="text Isa-61-11" id="en-NIV-18855" style="position: relative;"><span class="versenum" face="system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;"><br /></span><span class="versenum" face="system-ui, -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, Arial" style="display: inline; font-size: 1.2rem; font-weight: 700; left: -4.4em; line-height: normal; position: absolute; top: auto; vertical-align: text-top;">11 </span><span style="font-family: Sofia; font-size: x-small;"> For as the soil makes the sprout come up</span></span><span style="font-family: Sofia; font-size: x-small;"><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Isa-61-11" style="position: relative;">and a garden causes seeds to grow,</span></span><br /><span class="text Isa-61-11" style="position: relative;"> so the Sovereign <span style="font-variant-caps: small-caps;"> LORD</span> will make righteousness</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks" style="line-height: 0;"> </span><span class="text Isa-61-11" style="position: relative;">and praise spring up before all nations.</span></span></span></p><p class="line" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Sofia;"><span> </span></span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: none; font-family: Sofia;"><span>Isaiah 61:11</span></span></span></p><p class="line" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span style="text-align: center;"> ~*~,~*~,~*~,~*~,~*~,~*~,~*~,~*~,~*~,~*~,~*~</span></p><p class="line" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 2.4rem; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-width: 0px;"><span style="text-align: center;"><br /></span></p></div></div><p><span style="font-family: "Nothing You Could Do";"><span style="font-size: large;"> Hullo again, my lovelies! </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Nothing You Could Do";"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p><a href="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49321497273_f61097938f_b.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><br /></a></p><p><span style="font-family: "Nothing You Could Do";">Yup, you guessed it…. Another scribble has come, and taken over the controls very deftly indeed. It also stubbornly wanted to be about gardens, in the dead of winter. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;">Here I sit shivering (well, not really :P it’s warm inside, if not out!) in temperatures that would make most folks stare goggle-eyed, and ask in faint voices whether perhaps the thermometer was malfunctioning…. And flowers sprout up in my scribbles. Highly irregular, wouldn’t you say? But one cannot overrule the ideas of scribbles, especially the ones that come with a grain of solemnity infused therein… Without you necessarily having meant them to. </span><span style="font-family: "Nothing You Could Do";">Forgive me if I wax a bit philosophical in with the flowers, it wanted to come out that way!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;"><span class="s1">I </span><span class="s1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 16px; text-size-adjust: auto;">have a feeling I may yet be continuing with the garden analogies quite a lot this year, they are popping up all over like earthworms after a rain….</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;">In fact, a quaint little story I read once keeps coming to mind…. The story of a moonflower.</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;">I can’t for the life of me remember the title, but I’m fairly certain it was Jan Karon who wrote it….</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;">And it was so sweet that little-me went straight away and wrote what I thought was poetry on the subject of moonflowers that were in the habit of flooding the moonlit world with perfume.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;">And now I’m awfully glad to say I have no idea where that scrap of paper went, because I’m quite sure it would not sound half so much like poetry to me now as it did then X-)</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;">Anyway. What brought on this streak of reminiscing is the moonflower, once again.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;">Now, I was thoroughly enamoured with the idea of them for quite a long time afterwards, and when I finally found an actual packet of moonflower seeds…. I thought I’d been handed a diamond mine. I’m quite certain I dreamed about them that night, and maybe even on successive nights. (Why no, I have never been ezackly quite normal, however did you guess??)</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;">And upon opening that packet on planting day, I found some of the biggest seeds I’d ever seen. So big you could almost call them kernels. </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;">But just planting them wasn’t enough. First, the packet said, they had to be nicked. Deeply nicked. </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;">It was either that, or filing a small hole neatly past their defences, exposing the heart of the seed.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;">Now, this seemed like unnecessary cruelty to a helpless and innocent flower-that-was-not-yet to me. </span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;">But the truth of the matter was, their outer shell was so thick, that unless it was penetrated, the water you must needs soak them in before you could plant them, took a very, very long time to get to the heart of the seed. And if it doesn’t get to the heart…. It cannot germinate, and that seed may as well be thrown away. It doesn’t have a chance.</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;">I wonder…. How often the Gardener has to do that with us? </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;">Yours musingly….</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;">-Emily</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;">Ps. I have NO idea where that 11 snuck in, it does not even exist until I hit publish. And I tried fixing it soooo many times, but it is stubborn. So it is there still. Excuse it…..</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-size-adjust: auto;"></p>EmilyNotStarrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18279494802645640215noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5565164275664069379.post-66850244996892896502023-12-31T17:34:00.000-08:002023-12-31T17:36:09.777-08:00In With The New<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Xanh Mono; font-size: medium;">Hullo, kindreds! It is I, once again….</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Xanh Mono;"><span style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/watercolor-illustration-old-paper-sheets-600nw-2117833877.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><br /></a></div></span></span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: Xanh Mono;">I seem to be making a habit of these Just-Because posts, don’t I? They just creep up on me, I’m afraid. And scribblers cannot help but scribble, that is a widely known and understood fact. But getting on with the original reason for this post, which would be, after a fashion and one book-ramble, the New Year.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Xanh Mono"; text-align: justify;">Don’t you just love when a passage of some book you have read jumps out when you’re looking for the right words, and fits the situation so perfectly it might have been written especially for that precise moment?</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Xanh Mono;">I do, anyway. Especially when it has been some time since I read it, and I am then presented with the pleasure of being delighted by it all over again. </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Xanh Mono;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Xanh Mono;">Such was the case with this. </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Xanh Mono"; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Xanh Mono;">The New Year, naturally enough, keeps coming to mind, and with it, a passage out of on</span><span style="font-family: Xanh Mono;">e of my favourite books in the whole world… </span><span style="font-family: "Xanh Mono";">(Yes, I have a very great lot of Favourite Books, but that does not make them individually any less so ;)</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Xanh Mono";"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Xanh Mono";">And if you have not read it, you must remedy it at once, because this is one of the loveliest things that ever was written! So much so that I may start a wee corner just especially for book reviews to live in, because this is making me want somewhere to wax long-winded about it…</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Xanh Mono";"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Xanh Mono";">Seriously, you guys, this book is gold. </span><span style="font-family: "Xanh Mono";">And to tempt you into tasting and seeing for yourselves… Also because it fits today so well… </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Xanh Mono"; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Xanh Mono"; font-size: 16px;">I present you with a wee excerpt of:</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Xanh Mono"; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Xanh Mono"; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><b style="font-family: Cinzel;">Pixie O’ Shaughnessy, by George De Horne Vaizy.</b></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Nanum Myeongjo;">“Prithee, silence!” he said. That was all—“Prithee, silence!” and at the sound there was another flutter of excitement among the guests. </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Nanum Myeongjo;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Nanum Myeongjo;">The hands of the clock pointed to four minutes to twelve, and it was evident that the last item in the charming programme was about to take place. Ladies moved about on tiptoe, mounting the first steps of the staircase, or standing on stools to ensure a better view. Men moved politely to the rear. There was a minute’s preoccupation, and when the general gaze was once more turned to the doorway, it was seen that a significant change had taken place in the scene.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Nanum Myeongjo;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Nanum Myeongjo;">Against a background of screens stood the figure of an old man—a very old man, it would appear, since his back was bowed and his head and beard white as the snow on the ground outside. His brown cloak hung in tatters, and he leant heavily upon his staff. A deep-toned “Ah–h!” sounded through the assembly, and showed that the onlookers were at no loss to understand the character which he was intended to represent. “The Old Year,” murmured one voice after another.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Nanum Myeongjo;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Nanum Myeongjo;">Then a solemn hush fell over all as the clock ticked out the last minutes, and through the opened door came a blast of icy air and a few flakes of snow, blown inwards by the wind. Only another minute, and then there it came—the slow, solemn chiming of the clock on the tower. One, two, three. Good-bye, Old Year! What if you have brought troubles in your wake, you have brought blessings too, and sunny summer hours! Four, five, six—Dear old friend, we are sorrier to part with thee than we knew! We have not appreciated thee enough, made enough of thy opportunities. If we have ever reproached thee, thou hast cause to reproach us now. Seven, eight, nine. Going so soon? We were used to thee, and had been long companions, and of the new and untried there is always a dread. Good-bye, Old Year! Take with thee our blessings and our thanks, our sorrowful regrets for all wherein we have been amiss. Ten, eleven, twelve. </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Nanum Myeongjo;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Nanum Myeongjo";">It is here! The New Year has come, and to greet its arrival such a clashing of bells, such an outburst of strange and jangling sounds as fairly deafened the listening ears. Molly, grinning from ear to ear, was running the broom-handle up and down the row of bells outside the servants’ hall. Mike was belabouring the gong as if his life depended on his exertions. The stable-boy was blowing shrilly through a tin whistle, and the fat old cook was dashing trays of empty mustard-tins on the stone floor, and going off into peals of laughter between each movement.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Nanum Myeongjo;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Nanum Myeongjo;">Perhaps it was owing to the stunning effect of this sudden noise that what had happened at the doorway seemed to have something of the quickness of magic to the astonished onlookers, but a good deal of the credit was still due to the castors on which the screens had been mounted, to an ingenious arrangement of strings, and to many and careful rehearsals. Certain it is that, whereas at one moment the figure of the Old Year was visible to all, at the next he had disappeared, and the sound of that last long chime had hardly died away before another figure stood in his place. No need to ask the name of the visitor. It was once more patent to the most obtuse beholder. A small, girlish figure with dark locks falling loosely over the shoulders, with a straight white gown reaching midway between the knees and the ankles, and showing little bare feet encased in sandals. A few white blossoms were held loosely in one hand, and in the other a long white scroll—the page on which was to be inscribed the history of an untried path.”</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Nanum Myeongjo;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Nanum Myeongjo;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/antique-pen-feather-design-watercolor-260nw-2309838647.jpg" style="font-family: -webkit-standard; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="271" data-original-width="800" height="68" src="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/antique-pen-feather-design-watercolor-260nw-2309838647.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Nanum Myeongjo;"></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Nanum Myeongjo;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Xanh Mono;">If you are familiar with the book… You may remember a certain line that comes in very shortly after the wee miss of a “New Year” turns back into the main character, albeit still in costume. </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br /><span style="font-family: Nothing You Could Do;"><span><span>“</span><span>Be careful, it </span></span><span><span>won’t </span></span><span>rub out.”</span><span> </span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Xanh Mono";"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Xanh Mono";"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Xanh Mono";">Pixie, of course, meant </span><span style="font-family: Xanh Mono;">the scroll itself, because someone was about to write on it. </span><span style="font-family: "Xanh Mono";">But it holds equal significance with the real New Year, I think! </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Xanh Mono;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Xanh Mono;">I don’t usually do resolutions, I’m much too apt to make a thousand wholeheartedly, </span><span style="font-family: "Xanh Mono";">and drop them by Day Three. I do better with outlines to grow inside, paths instead of walls. And I think… This year’s may look a bit like those words.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Xanh Mono;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Xanh Mono;">Be careful. Make everything matter, think twice and you won’t need that eraser nearly so much, Emi. Listen more than you talk, see openly instead of getting stuck in your own head… And be deliberate about life. There is a difference between an impossible stain and a dye that won’t run, (I know, I’m terrible about using word pictures to mean things X-) and that’s deliberation.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Xanh Mono;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Xanh Mono;">So here’s to the New Year, and everything it holds. M</span><span style="font-family: "Xanh Mono";">ay it be one of dyes, and not stains…. Patchwork pieces, and not just patched holes. Weeds that turn out to be beauties that just happen not to grow in neat rows… An </span><span style="font-family: Xanh Mono;">unseen thread of purpose running through the midst of the chaos, and the quiet peace of knowing it’s there, especially in the silent times. </span><span style="font-family: "Xanh Mono";"> </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Xanh Mono;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Xanh Mono;">Because, to quote Paul Overstreet…</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Xanh Mono;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Xanh Mono;">“God Is Good, All The Time! He Puts A Song Of Praise In This Heart Of Mine…”</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Xanh Mono;">He really does.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Xanh Mono;">A blessed year to you, kindreds.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Xanh Mono;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;">~<span style="font-family: Xanh Mono;">Emily</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Xanh Mono;"><br /></span></p>EmilyNotStarrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18279494802645640215noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5565164275664069379.post-79118713093229360462023-12-29T20:44:00.000-08:002023-12-29T20:58:39.458-08:00The End Of An Era<p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Xanh Mono;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: Parisienne; font-size: large;"><div style="text-align: left;">Dearest of kindred spirits.</div></span><p></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne;">I have come to a small-ish in a big way conclusion… And a corresponding decision.</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne; font-size: 16px;">It’s going to be a bit misleading and disappointing to anyone who visits this blog to find that it no longer contains any such person as Juliette Deroulede… And that’s just not fair to people. And so… I’m going to be changing both the title of the blog, and the address itself to better reflect its new state. </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne; font-size: 16px;">And the new year being as close as it is, it only makes sense to make necessary changes now, and start 2024 afresh!</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne;">And so… Henceforth and from here on out… (Well, starting in January ;) You’ll find this wee corner of the kindred kingdom dwelling under the newfound title of The Idlewood Archives… And furthermore, as emilyofidlewood.blogspot.com!</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne;">Starting this new year… It feels a bit like planting a packet of unlabelled seeds just as the rain is beginning to patter all around you.</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne;">It can’t help but grow something, but you have no way of imagining what they’re going to be by the end of summer!</span></span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 21px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"></span><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne;">Here’s hoping 2024 turns out to be the kind that winds it’s way up a trellis, and blossoms in the ways we least expect… Be they big and grand, or the kind you need to pull out your “Blessings-scope” to spot!</span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne;">Treasuring the last scrap of the old-about-to-be-made-new year…</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne;">Yours truly,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne;"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Parisienne;">~Emily </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-size: 16px;"><span style="font-family: Xanh Mono;"><br /></span></span></p>EmilyNotStarrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18279494802645640215noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5565164275664069379.post-50761816736356818082023-12-23T22:43:00.000-08:002024-01-01T09:23:13.908-08:00A Time To Laugh<p></p><blockquote style="border: medium; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div><a href="https://juliettederouledewrites.blogspot.com/p/continued-muffled-shrieks-of-laughter.html?m=1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="266" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Sunshine-fog-trees-3_-_West_Virginia_-_ForestWander.jpg" width="400" /></a></div></div></blockquote><br /> <p></p><p><span style="font-family: "Architects Daughter"; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Architects Daughter"; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Architects Daughter"; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Architects Daughter"; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Architects Daughter"; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: "Architects Daughter"; font-size: medium; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Architects Daughter"; font-size: medium; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Architects Daughter"; font-size: large; text-align: justify;">Hullo again, kindreds!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Architects Daughter"; text-align: justify;">Well, as you can see from the title…. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Architects Daughter"; text-align: justify;">I came across a stray bit of sunshine in some of my old scribbles, going through them on a whim…. And somehow the thought of spreading it a little struck my fancy! Time to open the curtains and let the sun come flooding in…. It’s been much too dreary-with-a-chill around here lately!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Architects Daughter"; text-align: justify;">Also this is exactly the sort of trivial fluff that gets inside me and tickles my fancy into a good humour. So I thought, why not fish it out and share? Oh, it’s a rough draft, got scribbled down and never really played with any farther than that…. So regard it as such, but do enjoy if it happens to be up your alley (;</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Architects Daughter;">But to clarify just a little…. In case this helps it make more sense…. This scribble stands on its own two feet, but at the same time, is a part of a larger picture. So if there are a few things left unexplained, well, that would be why. I paint with a bit of a broad brush sometimes, when I know all the little intricacies of that world my own self, and am writing for someone who knows just as many of them as I do… (That would be Julie, who is the sole reason this exists :P)</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Architects Daughter;">And so…. May I introduce you to me ain wee bit of a world?</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Architects Daughter;">Because you never know what will happen when you come along on an adventure in——Well okay, so it doesn’t exactly have a name, but the adventure part is still accurate😜 Moving on to the actual scribble!</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: large;">Tarzan Of The Northwoods</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">There was silence in the forest, a strange kind of a silence.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">Something was not normal, something was not right…. And therefore, the birds kept their beaks firmly shut, the deer played at being trees and held so still that their antlers melded into the camouflage that was the forest…. And even the chipmunk paused, spruce cone in hand, like a minuscule statue poised precariously on a limb.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">The chipmunk in particular paid close attention to the mysterious proceedings going on below him, his curiosity piqued, and vantage point unexcelled. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">There were two Things down below, two Things making strange sounds. Like a ruffed grouse, only one that got oiled and whirred more smoothly than ever any grouse, ruffed or otherwise, had done before in these woods! He had nearly convinced himself that they were oversized specimens, when that sound stopped, and a new one began, like the wind whispering through the trees at night.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">It rustled, it began murmuringly and got louder very suddenly, and then was smothered with a hiccuping little gasp…. Like a duck that took too big a bite of mud by accident. He sat there for a long time, scratching his ears and cocking his head from side to side to see if that made things make more sense…. Which it didn’t, but was worth a try anyways.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">And out of a clear blue sky, a Something came sailing up at him, like a whole den of garter snakes tied up end to end. He squawked indignantly, scrambling for safety as fast as his legs could carry him…. Only to stop in utter confusion when it not only did not give chase, but sailed right back down opposite the side of accension. Now he was confused. And moreover, he was befuddled. What was it with all these strange creatures that sounded like one thing and were not, that looked like nothing he’d ever seen, yet took over the woods like they owned the place?</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">He was just in the business of deciding to go RIGHT down there and giving them a good piece of his mind, whatever and whoever they might be, when the Things swept a pile of leaves over the coils of the long snake that did not bite, and as quickly as they had come, vanished from those woods.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">He gave a little shrug and went in search of more spruce cones. Too much thinking on an empty stomach always gave him indigestion, and he wasn’t about to risk it!</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"> ~*~</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">And if your curiosity has, along with that of the chipmunk, been piqued…. You can always dive down this button and find out what happens (;</span> <a href="https://juliettederouledewrites.blogspot.com/p/continued-muffled-shrieks-of-laughter.html?m=1" style="font-family: Sofia;" target="_blank">The Rest Of The Story</a> <span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">lives here….</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Architects Daughter;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Architects Daughter;">There, now that feels better! Words always do that. Cheer me up, I mean. And scribbles all but give me wings :P</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Architects Daughter;">I think that means this post did its job😄 So if you’ve read all the way down here…. And gotten past all the ridiculous stunts and Exasperated Boots and blue eyes and everything else…. And the un-Falien\Annie Oakley did not scare you too far off…. (Poor guy, wasn’t I just horrible to him???) </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Architects Daughter;">Kudos to you, Patient Reader! </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Architects Daughter;">And moreover, I wish you a splendiferous rest of your day, with only right-side-up adventures and sunshiney things therein🤗</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Architects Daughter;">‘Til next we meet, which is about as predictable as the flight patterns of dandelion fluff…. (Yes, it’s a phase. I will snap out of the sillies soon, I promise!)</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Architects Daughter;">Yours scribblingly, </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Architects Daughter;">~Emily</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>EmilyNotStarrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18279494802645640215noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5565164275664069379.post-27681523231623436012023-12-16T14:56:00.000-08:002023-12-16T14:57:57.476-08:00Grey Days<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://img.rawpixel.com/s3fs-private/rawpixel_images/website_content/px985071-image-kwvupzm3.jpg?w=800&dpr=1&fit=default&crop=default&q=65&vib=3&con=3&usm=15&bg=F4F4F3&ixlib=js-2.2.1&s=4b0e0e1cabd0734fe8ec5971ee7f90ec" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="clear: left; float: left; font-family: trebuchet; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="531" data-original-width="800" height="266" src="https://img.rawpixel.com/s3fs-private/rawpixel_images/website_content/px985071-image-kwvupzm3.jpg?w=800&dpr=1&fit=default&crop=default&q=65&vib=3&con=3&usm=15&bg=F4F4F3&ixlib=js-2.2.1&s=4b0e0e1cabd0734fe8ec5971ee7f90ec" width="400" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /> </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Kindreds….</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">I don’t know how to say this. So…. the only thing to do is put it out there point blank. I…. I guess it’s just me now. Emily. The now-sole author of this blog. See the girl in black in the picture just above?? You could not ask for a better portrait of Yours Truly at this very moment. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Due to big things going on in her life right now, Julie won’t be able to continue writing here anymore…. And while I do understand why this has to be, (and I sincerely hope you all will too, the best you can. The reasons behind this are personal, and all I can say is that it was unavoidable) she will be terribly and dreadfully missed. There are holes and shoes that just can’t be filled by anyone but THE one…. And this is one of those places. But life doesn’t ask whether you want it to happen before it does, and you just have to roll with the waves😬 </span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">And speaking of waves….. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">You guys…. I don’t know how to run a blog, I’ve amply proven that. I haven’t even put my own part of the page up yet, despite having written it months ago, and now I wish had. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Stuff is no fun by yourself, y’know? Even writing. Make that Especially writing. And writing is one of the most excessively diverting pastimes known to the entirety of The Race That Knows Joseph, not to mention the slightly more exclusive Band Of Kindred Spirits. I honestly haven’t written all by myself for ages…. Now I suppose we shall find out whether or not I still know how!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">And so it is that I try my hand at blogging. Completely lacking experience and armed only with the fact that she entrusted me with blog-authorhood. I write comments, people, that’s what I do. That’s as far as my expertise goes! So please…. Bear with me while I find my land legs? </span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">I won’t be Julie, obviously. Nobody can do that but her, and I wouldn’t have it any other way…. She wouldn’t be One In A Million if just anyone could fill her shoes! </span><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">But I will do my very best to carry on and do her proud, Scribblers Honour. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Whether or not the stiff upper lip may tremble, and the knees under it do likewise…. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Although I may take some getting used to. I’m warning you right now, I take to wild flights of fancy, and it takes many anchors to brings me back down out of the clouds! </span><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Also I need Philippa Gordon and her trusty hatpin very badly here, because I am of two minds…. About more than hats.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Because no delicate azure blue am I, more like a proper solid indigo. Which makes absolutely no sense in any way, unless of course it does…. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">Yours, mixed up and w</span><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">aiting for the sun to come back out….</span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">~Emily</span></p><div><br /></div>EmilyNotStarrhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18279494802645640215noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5565164275664069379.post-65610638021370480682023-08-13T21:08:00.004-07:002023-08-13T21:09:12.975-07:00One Year of Being Friends!!<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Marck Script; font-size: large;">"Friendship is not about who you've known the longest. It's about who walked into your life, said 'I'm here for you', and proved it."</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZiqAplWWo9OIqvYInwQDmA5_xkdQJtbuhc15hkGFFzLFMNhUa_4Q1TYlYTlZWi_c8FfBifoKFsOThB3nXlNrtoY4wf9CAuk6Q8XpDOs3SKA3EFkiTgFq3lJpzF4h-qeib37A80gR4ww-uQAkeu30hjlZqSn-hEDV5zloMIgHkbQi1hUkSwPqSDdz3Faf4/s800/26f5bdb844409bf3d23071cb8cae8ccc.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="610" data-original-width="800" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZiqAplWWo9OIqvYInwQDmA5_xkdQJtbuhc15hkGFFzLFMNhUa_4Q1TYlYTlZWi_c8FfBifoKFsOThB3nXlNrtoY4wf9CAuk6Q8XpDOs3SKA3EFkiTgFq3lJpzF4h-qeib37A80gR4ww-uQAkeu30hjlZqSn-hEDV5zloMIgHkbQi1hUkSwPqSDdz3Faf4/s320/26f5bdb844409bf3d23071cb8cae8ccc.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">Hello, Kindreds! Julie here!</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">If you've been around this blog a while, you've most likely noticed extremely long discussion threads, some hundreds of comments long. And you've probably met the co-author of this blog, (being the one halfway responsible for aforementioned enormous comment threads) EmilyNotStarr, better known as Emi. It feels like it's been forever now that we've known each other... Crazy to think it hasn't really been that long at all.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">It all started last summer, with an anonymous person leaving comments all over the blog. Particularly on an Adventures in Odyssey fanfiction that has still not been finished. After a few weeks, I published a (historic) post entitled "To My Anonymous Friend" in which I "formally" met Emi.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">So... Lots has happened since then. As in LOOOTS. We've exchanged well over hundreds of thousands of words by now, I'll bet... Only a month or so ago graduating to real phone calls and letters and my email inbox is overflowing. (Once we were on the phone for four hours and only stopped because we had to...) I guess you might say we just clicked. Truth is, I met the kindred spirit I'd been hoping for all my life and never believed I'd really find. An actual, real-life, honest-to-goodness Anne and Diana style friendship. Except without PEI and pretty Victorian dresses and all that. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">Also, I want to say that my book, The Duty That Lies Before Us, would absolutely, beyond the shadow of a doubt, not exist without Emi. Neither would Mac Scott, who was completely invented by her. Just so you all know that it's kinda as much her book as it is mine 😏</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">So the reason for this post. Well, I tried to go back and find the date we first met. But the comments are all over the place and I have absolutely no clue which one was the first. And anyway, I'm pretty sure the Anonymous Friend post is just about the real beginning of our friendship. Thus I declare today, August 14th, 2023, to be the official first year anniversary of our friendship. 😁</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: EB Garamond;">And thanks, Emi, for being such a wonderful friend. For always being there for me. Means an awful lot more than you'll ever know. ☺️</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Marck Script; font-size: large;">"To discover a kindred </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Marck Script;">spirit is to find your heart </span><span style="font-family: "Marck Script";">in the heart of a friend."</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Marck Script; font-size: large;">-Ann Parrish</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHl3icUQZdWG5gDiT9HOACodKYwvJy4rd6PwSLg8D-PFsCI0iY_fDZeUmY5hRsQ5VZfkzmJadQ0PO5MFDwVCamsd8dPRWKFEsd3okKTi-Zt2h7hzubRlhIPL0XV4Y9K2ov0aYd4nMqXAE-8IndRQx78VmiB0NsttyXfOtzLrBzt9ysVvUnbadn1DwHazUS/s800/2c1d3d8f4eb4a04c15be4f42d3ebe60e.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="800" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHl3icUQZdWG5gDiT9HOACodKYwvJy4rd6PwSLg8D-PFsCI0iY_fDZeUmY5hRsQ5VZfkzmJadQ0PO5MFDwVCamsd8dPRWKFEsd3okKTi-Zt2h7hzubRlhIPL0XV4Y9K2ov0aYd4nMqXAE-8IndRQx78VmiB0NsttyXfOtzLrBzt9ysVvUnbadn1DwHazUS/s320/2c1d3d8f4eb4a04c15be4f42d3ebe60e.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Marck Script; font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5565164275664069379.post-1544860771682606272023-07-03T20:53:00.009-07:002023-07-04T04:59:49.357-07:00Independence Day<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Marck Script;"> <span style="font-size: x-large;">We hold these truths to be self-evident, </span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Marck Script;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">that all men are created equal, </span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Marck Script;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">that they are endowed by their Creator with</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Marck Script;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> certain unalienable rights, </span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Marck Script;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">that among these are </span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Marck Script;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Life, </span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Marck Script;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Liberty, </span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Marck Script;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">and the Pursuit of Happiness. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Marck Script;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Marck Script;"><a href="https://assets.editorial.aetnd.com/uploads/2009/10/by-john-trumbull-3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="527" data-original-width="800" height="211" src="https://assets.editorial.aetnd.com/uploads/2009/10/by-john-trumbull-3.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Marck Script; font-size: medium;">246 years ago today, these words were read before fifty-six of the bravest and wisest men the world has ever known. The Declaration of Independence was signed and The United States of America was born. The result... a land where men and women and children could freely live and be happy and worship God as they chose. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.nrm.org/wp2016/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Freedom-from-Want_3_5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="629" height="320" src="https://www.nrm.org/wp2016/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Freedom-from-Want_3_5.jpg" width="252" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Marck Script; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Marck Script; font-size: medium;">And America went on to become a shining light of freedom for the world. This is why we celebrate Independence Day. Not because of the barbeques and the swimming and the parades. Because of freedom. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #202122;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://s.abcnews.com/images/Politics/immigrant-children-statue-liberty-gty-jt-190813_hpMain_16x9_992.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="180" src="https://s.abcnews.com/images/Politics/immigrant-children-statue-liberty-gty-jt-190813_hpMain_16x9_992.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: Marck Script; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><span style="font-family: Marck Script;"><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #202122; font-size: large; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;">"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she</div></span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #202122; font-size: large; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;">With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,</div></span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #202122; font-size: large; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;">Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,</div></span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #202122; font-size: large; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;">The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.</div></span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #202122; font-size: large; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;">Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,</div></span><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #202122; text-align: left;"><div style="font-size: large; text-align: center;">I lift my lamp beside the golden door!</div><div style="font-size: large; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2019/12/09/21/14/statue-of-liberty-4684437_1280.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="213" src="https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2019/12/09/21/14/statue-of-liberty-4684437_1280.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="font-size: large; text-align: center;">The most important thing to remember on Independence Day is that </div><div style="font-size: large; text-align: center;">Freedom is not Free.</div><div style="font-size: large; text-align: center;">Remember those who gave their lives for this country.</div><div style="font-size: large; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blog.dar.org/sites/default/files/styles/blog/public/The_Battle_of_Lexington_header.jpg?itok=JHTCnCob" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="421" data-original-width="800" height="168" src="https://blog.dar.org/sites/default/files/styles/blog/public/The_Battle_of_Lexington_header.jpg?itok=JHTCnCob" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.familyhandyman.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/shutterstock_239399308-1200x1200.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://www.familyhandyman.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/shutterstock_239399308-1200x1200.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.onthisday.com/images/photos/battle-of-the-alamo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="800" height="214" src="https://www.onthisday.com/images/photos/battle-of-the-alamo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://aaregistry.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/American-Civil-War-Battle-300x213.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="213" data-original-width="300" height="227" src="https://aaregistry.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/American-Civil-War-Battle-300x213.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://sharetngov.tnsosfiles.com/tsla/exhibits/veterans/images/WWI/OverTheTop01.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="647" data-original-width="800" height="259" src="https://sharetngov.tnsosfiles.com/tsla/exhibits/veterans/images/WWI/OverTheTop01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/museums/nmusn/explore/photography/wwii/wwii-europe/operation-overlord/invasion-normandy/omaha-beach/_jcr_content/textheader.img.jpg/1676551524529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="800" height="140" src="https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/museums/nmusn/explore/photography/wwii/wwii-europe/operation-overlord/invasion-normandy/omaha-beach/_jcr_content/textheader.img.jpg/1676551524529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Q1B3vMfML._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="626" data-original-width="800" height="250" src="https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41Q1B3vMfML._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://patch.com/img/cdn20/users/23011035/20180917/031359/styles/raw/public/processed_images/arlington-national-cemetery-750x350-1537211509-5283.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="300" src="https://patch.com/img/cdn20/users/23011035/20180917/031359/styles/raw/public/processed_images/arlington-national-cemetery-750x350-1537211509-5283.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/U7d2qy6yEHk" width="320" youtube-src-id="U7d2qy6yEHk"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: justify;">The other most important thing to remember on this day is that our freedom is in danger. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><h1 class="quoteText" style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-weight: normal; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”</span></h1><div><span style="font-size: large;">~President Ronald Reagan</span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/z4nUXhEOiwY" width="320" youtube-src-id="z4nUXhEOiwY"></iframe></div><br /></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: left;"><br /></div>You know me... the history rambler... I could go on for pages. But sometimes brevity is best. And so I leave you with this. </span></span><div><span style="font-family: Marck Script;"><span left=""><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Marck Script;"><span style="background-color: #f9f9f9; color: #202122; text-align: left;">Happy Fourth of July to all my fellow Yankees and to the rest of you...</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Marck Script;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Marck Script;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsKsCnbL_SDwDSBb2sCtcZB2fPRQKNNUEi9FPkRF3AGAge8kjI7TI_1rDHv_zac00YqjSFM-Exi-8IqxFpfq3sbPOmeklM9V5iaiLXfSw4zbSTrJb8iMLo4p5it_YgRadcxdWa6PalEzmCYwOuZ7y-kjg7rUh0LPodXattyQpk717o7CZoth5hw1HE0n_T/s862/357692168_818184913226550_6580379979333440435_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="862" data-original-width="639" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsKsCnbL_SDwDSBb2sCtcZB2fPRQKNNUEi9FPkRF3AGAge8kjI7TI_1rDHv_zac00YqjSFM-Exi-8IqxFpfq3sbPOmeklM9V5iaiLXfSw4zbSTrJb8iMLo4p5it_YgRadcxdWa6PalEzmCYwOuZ7y-kjg7rUh0LPodXattyQpk717o7CZoth5hw1HE0n_T/s320/357692168_818184913226550_6580379979333440435_n.jpg" width="237" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">That goes for everybody, not just England 😁</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span left="">No offense to my international friends, of course. After all, my best friend in the whole world isn't even a Yankee. Pardon my sense of humor 😜</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Marck Script;"><span left=""><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Marck Script;"><span left="">Till Next Time! </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Marck Script;"><span left=""><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Marck Script;"><span left="">Juliette<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pwEcz9nABNg" width="320" youtube-src-id="pwEcz9nABNg"></iframe></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="font-size: large; text-align: center;"><br /></div></span></span><p></p></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5565164275664069379.post-19140468269840930222023-06-14T19:42:00.005-07:002023-06-14T19:42:59.020-07:00Flag Day<p>Hello Kindreds!</p><p><br /></p><p>Short post here... Just because it's Flag Day, here in the good ol' USA. May we never forget those who died for that flag. Since our country began, 1,220,596 US heroes have paid the ultimate sacrifice. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN8LibR2sNobsMO48SlpZPTpcHw8DwRfGsRW0aKkD5H--tluYa0byHMuA-9QLYE2aweSrZYAPmzr_wVoRmEUvHs9Opb_EKfWMzThdsjLUvJSwrqyy0meoEI_q6PXroETL8g4URpHeWpsob3AlvWrUXwyzkKNBmiruyDkzoFmyquJxK7WXQuglY9TWccQ/s962/DkGkvOoWsAgUsaG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="962" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN8LibR2sNobsMO48SlpZPTpcHw8DwRfGsRW0aKkD5H--tluYa0byHMuA-9QLYE2aweSrZYAPmzr_wVoRmEUvHs9Opb_EKfWMzThdsjLUvJSwrqyy0meoEI_q6PXroETL8g4URpHeWpsob3AlvWrUXwyzkKNBmiruyDkzoFmyquJxK7WXQuglY9TWccQ/w400-h266/DkGkvOoWsAgUsaG.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>Till Next Time,</p><p>Juliette</p>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5565164275664069379.post-47164064813225161532023-06-06T20:27:00.005-07:002023-06-06T20:43:51.470-07:00June 6th <p>Hello, Kindreds!</p><p>I apologize for not posting much lately, the book has been taking up all of my free time. And I am pleased to announce that The Duty That Lies Before Us (linked at the top of the blog) is progressing better than I had dared to hope and has been updated completely through the end of Part Two. (There are currently five parts, might be subject to change... we'll see.)</p><p>But the reason I post today is because it is June 6th. Does that date sound familiar? </p><p>I hope it does...</p><p>I'm surprised I haven't seen anything at all on social media or anywhere else around the internet to do with June 6th today. Strange, because it was one of the biggest, most famous, most tragic victories for freedom to take place in the history of the world.</p><p style="text-align: center;">That's right, friends. June 6th is none other than D-Day.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Into_the_Jaws_of_Death_23-0455M_edit.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="644" data-original-width="800" height="323" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Into_the_Jaws_of_Death_23-0455M_edit.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">On this day in history, 1944, nearly 133,000 Allied soldiers stormed five beaches in Normandy, France as part of Operation Overlord. It was the largest amphibious invasion in history. 4,415 Allied men gave their lives and 153,000 men were wounded.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://media.iwm.org.uk/ciim5/36/72/large_000000.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="617" data-original-width="800" height="309" src="https://media.iwm.org.uk/ciim5/36/72/large_000000.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p>It was one of the boldest moves for the freedom of the world that humanity has ever seen. May their sacrifices never be forgotten. For it is when we forget that we lose our freedom. </p><p><br /></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.army.mil/e2/images/rv7/d-day/slideshow/13/620.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="417" data-original-width="620" height="269" src="https://www.army.mil/e2/images/rv7/d-day/slideshow/13/620.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>My great grandpa landed on Omaha beach on D-Day... I've always regretted not being able to hear more of his story. I wasn't interested in this era in history until it was too late to ask him. But Josh and Mac and Ronnie were all there that day... And I've worked for months on writing D-Day into my book. It was the first thing I wrote when I decided to pick up this book idea back in December of last year. It started out as about half a page of scribbled phrases, not even full sentences. And now, it's 18,000 words... approximately eight chapters... and counting!! </p><p>I'm posting a few excerpts below, in honor of the day. Spoilers have been removed 😉</p><p>I apologize for the terrible formatting!! Copy and paste does odd things in the blog here, I've been struggling with it for months 😜</p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 20px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">✯✯✯</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Within the week, our troops will be landing in France. We have received orders to depart immediately. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Finish </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">the necessary preparations. The ship will be leaving at 1300 hours this afternoon.”</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">You could have heard a pin drop in the silence that followed the announcement. The nurses and </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">doctors of the </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">17th Evacuation Hospital stood gathered in the center of the camp, each silently </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">calculating the overwhelming </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">amount of work that would need done in the days to follow. They </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">had been preparing for the invasion of </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">France for months. But now that it had come, they could </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">hardly begin to fathom what they would be facing. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Well, I suppose there isn't much else to do now but grab our things and board the ship," Marci </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">grinned half</span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">heartedly as they were dismissed to prepare for leaving. A few short weeks ago they </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">had packed </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">up their camp </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">in England and made the trip to the coast by train. The past several </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">days had been filled with last-minute </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">preparations and stocking the ship full to overflowing </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">with medical supplies.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Thank goodness all the tents and equipment are loaded already," Sue came up between Marci </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">and Emma, </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">hooking her arms through theirs. "We've had so many false alarms, what with the </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">storms and all."</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Girls, can you believe it's finally here?" Emma spoke incredulously. "I feel like I'm walking in </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">a dream… well, a </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">nightmare, I mean. It's just that…"</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"That we've been waiting so long," Marci said softly. "I know. Waiting and training and…"</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"And planning and hoping and praying and dreading," Emma finished for her, pulling away from </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Sue as they </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">reached the bunkhouse. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Well girls," Sue threw up her hands in resignation. "It's off with the dresses and on with the </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">battle uniforms. </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">We can do this."</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Yes," Emma lifted her head proudly, her eyes glinting with determination. "We can do this."</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">But as the transport ship sailed away from England, headed towards Normandy and uncertainty, </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">a feeling of </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">dread settled over the young nurses. They had seen combat before… had served for </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">months in North Africa. </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">But this felt different. And so they did what they did best… hid their </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">fear beneath cheerful smiles, teasing </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">banter</span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">, and words of hope. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 15pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">✯✯✯</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 15pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Never had they heard such intense, pressing quiet. All was still… no sound but the lapping of </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">the waves against </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">the sides of the ship. Even the seagulls had ceased to fly. Silence so dead and still </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">it was roaring in his ears… the </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">sounds of the waves amplified until it was deafening. The deck was </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">packed with men, standing so close together </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">they could barely breathe. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 15pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b id="docs-internal-guid-1d4227e3-7fff-ee72-81f8-ed6b0b9003c8" style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Omaha beach loomed before them… stark and bare and gray. A two-hundred foot stretch of sand </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">ended at the </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">rough rock walls of the cliffs. The only shelter in sight was at the foot of those cliffs. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">Josh pinned his eyes there, </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">determined to reach the seawall at all costs. Once the gates on the landing</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">craft dropped, it would be a mad, </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">wild, hell-bent-for-leather race for their lives.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 15pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The naval bombardment began immediately as the troop ships halted farther behind. The sky turned</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">nearly </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">black with smoke and the paratroopers landing from the aircraft overhead. The noise from </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">enormous ships </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">guns trained on German machine gun nests combined with the sound of plane </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">engines and falling bombs </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">became a deafening roar. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 15pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">As the US Navy rained hellfire on the German army, Josh turned to see the men around him. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">They were still </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">standing silent and motionless as statues. Jimmy was gripping onto the deck railing </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">with both hands, his face a </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">mask of terror. Mac's eyes blazed and the scar on his forehead stood out, </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">a jagged white line against skin tanned </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">by the desert sun. Ronnie held his head high, his gaze </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">unwavering as he stared out to shore. He didn’t even seem </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">to be</span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;"> afraid. Sam had a rosary </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">wound </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">through his fingers and his lips moved almost </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">imperceptibly. It was then </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">Josh became aware of </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">the quiet murmurs all around him… so faint they could scarcely be heard individually, </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">but </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">combined, they sounded like the wind. Prayers. All around him, men were praying. Jewish </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">prayers to </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">Yaweh, Protestant prayers in Christ's Name, Catholic prayers to the Holy Virgin. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">Those who could not pray </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">were suddenly wishing they knew how. Many of them tried, repeating </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">in rough, broken words the near-</span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">forgotten prayers of childhood or breathing desperate </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">pleas </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">to heaven. [Spoiler Removed]</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 15pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“And the Lord, He it is that doth go before thee;” Ronnie whispered behind him, clapping a </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">hand on Josh’s </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">shoulder with a reassuring nod and a grim smile. Josh didn't have to look at him </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">to know his blue eyes were gray</span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;"> now… cold, hard, steely gray with flashes of fire. </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">He pitied the man </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">who got on Ronnie's bad side when his eyes</span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;"> were gray. “He will be with thee, </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">He will not fail thee, </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.”</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 15pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">[Spoiler Removed] The shelling had stopped, the signal was being given. The landing crafts were </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">lining up </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">before the ships. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">This is it. It's time.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 15pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Rope ladders were extended down the side of the ship, leading to the smaller craft below. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Determination </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">masking the fear in their eyes, the first men began to descend. They did so </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">without faltering or even hesitating. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">This was not a time for thinking, but for doing. They </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">simply had to go ahead and </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">go, </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">before fear ate them alive.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 15pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Josh stepped into the landing craft, following Ken, Jim just behind him and the rest of the </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">squad climbing on in</span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;"> order. Mac and Ronnie had boarded closer </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">to the front. Josh </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">had barely </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">caught Ronnie's muttered words </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">as he passed…</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 15pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">"Be strong, soldier. We will win this war."</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 15pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Josh crouched on the damp metal floor of the boat, leaning heavily against the side. He was shaking, </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">trembling</span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">all over and he couldn’t force himself to hold still. The steel helmet </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">suddenly seemed such a </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">heavy </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">weight that </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">he could hardly lift his head and so he rested his cheek against the cold metal of his </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">rifle. His throat was so dry </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">he couldn't swallow… he raised his canteen to his lips, his hands shaking so </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">hard that it clattered against his </span><span style="color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">teeth</span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 15pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Dear God… be with me now. If I ever needed Thee, it's now. Now more than ever.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 15pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">They could already feel the impact as machine gun bullets sprayed across the closed gate of the </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">landing craft. </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">Not a single man among them dared to lift his head above the side. The boat was </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">their only protection… the </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">only thing standing between them and eternity. Those gates were the </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">gates of hell.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">✯✯✯</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 15pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Major Donahue noted all that took place in his sector that day. Watched with approval as a </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">mismatched group </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">of men crawled along toward the foot of the cliffs, armed and organized </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">and returning fire on the enemy. One </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">soldier moved out ahead of the others, in full view of the </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">enemy overhead. He pinned his eyes on that single </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">soldier, watching as he climbed.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 15pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“That man’s a fool,” [a lieutenant] yelled. “A damn, crazy fool!” </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 15pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Major Donahue smiled. The lone soldier was making slow progress. He reached out for a foothold </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">and slipped, </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">nearly falling, but he was climbing again. Other men were following him now. Some fell </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">as they were shot down,</span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;"> tumbling back to the foot of the cliffs. Others took their places. </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">The first man </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">had somehow… </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">miraculously… </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">made it nearly to the top. It was simple then. A few grenades was all </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">it took. An entire nest of machine gunners </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">disappeared into a cloud of smoke and ash. A few minutes </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">and the one next to it was destroyed. An opening </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">was made. The soldier beckoned to those beneath </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">him and they rushed the cliffs wildly. Dozens at first and </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">then hundreds, once they realized there was </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">a way up. Just another one of many small victories achieved to </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">contribute towards the great victory.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 15pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">“A fool, you say?” the Major called back to the Lieutenant. “You mean a hero.” He made a mental </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">note to find </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">the soldier, if he had survived. Here was a man worthy of a silver star. He had seen many </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">such brave and </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">foolhardy actions today. This bloody hell was turning ordinary men into extraordinary </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">heroes.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 15pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">The victory didn’t happen at once. Bit by bit, piece by piece, the battered, broken army surged forward. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">Fueled </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">by determination, eyes sparked with rage, the men who had seen their brothers die at their sides </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">fought fiercely. </span><span style="font-family: "EB Garamond", serif; font-size: 12pt; white-space: pre;">Not one would die in vain. It was the unspoken rallying cry of the survivors. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 15pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 15pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;">✯✯✯</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 15pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><b style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">That's all you get for now, and it's way more than I actually intended to share, but unfortunately, once I get going, I can hardly stop... 😏</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">Till Next Time!!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">~Juliette</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'EB Garamond',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></p>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5565164275664069379.post-77436491708111978072023-05-03T15:11:00.005-07:002023-05-03T15:12:22.574-07:00The Passing of A Kindred Spirit<p>Hello, Kindreds</p><p>I just heard sad news... Today, Patricia Hamilton, who brought our beloved Rachel Lynde to life in the Sullivan films, passed away. I feel like I've lost a kindred spirit. I've always believed Rachel to be like Katherine... "Under all your prickles,you truly are a kindred spirit." Rest in peace, dear friend.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qK-Sk0AHcuM" width="320" youtube-src-id="qK-Sk0AHcuM"></iframe></div><br /><p>-Juliette</p>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5565164275664069379.post-4453645642376318492023-04-29T22:06:00.002-07:002023-04-29T22:06:18.386-07:00Home<p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Marck Script; font-size: large;">In honor of those who left home and loved ones to defend them against the threat of communism and despotism. </span></p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3z4Ryawlhsg" width="320" youtube-src-id="3z4Ryawlhsg"></iframe></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Marck Script; font-size: large;">~Juliette</span></p>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5565164275664069379.post-40962097252644967292023-04-17T19:08:00.002-07:002023-04-17T20:24:14.399-07:00Meanwhile in Canada...<p>Proof that Joshes and Macs are also in Canada 😆</p><p>I guess it's an inside-joke...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gOPEpsGJyCs" width="320" youtube-src-id="gOPEpsGJyCs"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">~Julie</div><br /><p><br /></p>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5565164275664069379.post-86875310141936803192023-04-13T18:05:00.004-07:002023-04-13T18:05:17.589-07:00Seon's Random Tidbit #1<p> This is pretty awesome!! Historically accurate Disney princesses...</p><p>Warning: Pocahontas is not dressed very decently... 🤨</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/c3Fr5wUZL2A" width="320" youtube-src-id="c3Fr5wUZL2A"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">~Seon</div><br /><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5565164275664069379.post-11643783502857098772023-04-09T04:59:00.002-07:002023-04-09T05:00:08.232-07:00Happy Easter!<p style="text-align: center;"> <span style="font-family: Marck Script; font-size: x-large;">Rejoice! For He is risen!</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw4_Qge9zMbhg-rQU-PREOEUxoAOdTx0BZESFOnF5MQMk0yUTNK3K9OAVBr2ZzD4EParathgkm1_59ONLNLrpdCzk8RhjPgZwK9lm63Sbbgjt8O2fZce0JYQ-lUOBWdyodMtYfu-KiIlTxxazyljyngnspyDa7giWJ0-pIFhL2IhF7duO7WIaHDeTXDw/s302/images.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="167" data-original-width="302" height="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhw4_Qge9zMbhg-rQU-PREOEUxoAOdTx0BZESFOnF5MQMk0yUTNK3K9OAVBr2ZzD4EParathgkm1_59ONLNLrpdCzk8RhjPgZwK9lm63Sbbgjt8O2fZce0JYQ-lUOBWdyodMtYfu-KiIlTxxazyljyngnspyDa7giWJ0-pIFhL2IhF7duO7WIaHDeTXDw/w400-h221/images.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "Marck Script"; font-size: xx-large;">Happy Easter!</span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Marck Script; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Marck Script; font-size: x-large;">-Julie, Emi, and Seon</span></p>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5565164275664069379.post-70597228016254174432023-04-04T20:38:00.002-07:002023-04-04T20:38:33.970-07:00Snapshot of History #1<p style="text-align: center;"> This has got to be one of the most heart-breaking pictures I've ever seen. This is the aftermath of one of the battles in the North African Campaign of World War II. A dead soldier, holding a photograph of his baby. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c4/Dead_Italian_soldier_holding_a_photograph_of_his_child%2C_north_Africa%2C_WWII%2C_c._1940's.jpg/330px-Dead_Italian_soldier_holding_a_photograph_of_his_child%2C_north_Africa%2C_WWII%2C_c._1940's.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="332" data-original-width="330" height="332" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c4/Dead_Italian_soldier_holding_a_photograph_of_his_child%2C_north_Africa%2C_WWII%2C_c._1940's.jpg/330px-Dead_Italian_soldier_holding_a_photograph_of_his_child%2C_north_Africa%2C_WWII%2C_c._1940's.jpg" width="330" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;">May we never forget what those of yesterday suffered and sacrificed so that we of today can live in peace and freedom.</p><p style="text-align: center;">~Juliette</p>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5565164275664069379.post-85573215327021543812023-04-02T16:48:00.008-07:002023-04-02T16:49:53.602-07:00Introducing New Authors!!<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"><span style="font-family: Marck Script; font-size: large;">“In imagination she sailed over storied seas that wash the distant shining shores of "faëry lands forlorn," where lost Atlantis and Elysium lie, with the evening star for pilot, to the land of Heart's Desire. And she was richer in those dreams than in realities; for things seen pass away, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"><span style="font-family: Marck Script; font-size: large;">~Lucy Maud Montgomery</span></span></p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Hello, Kindreds!!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">My little blog world is slowly but surely growing and that is something to celebrate indeed!! First to announce a few changes around here. I'm going from solo to trio... I've invited my two besties onto the blog to co-write with me. Emily Not Starr (Emi) and Seonaid (Seon), both of whom are delightful friends and firm members of the Race That Knows Joseph. They have both introduced themselves below, so please, get to know them and I hope you find them as much fun as I do!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">Also, from now on, we will be posting triple movie reviews on a regular basis. Most of these will be period dramas, but we may sneak a few other genres in from time to time, if Seon has anything to do with it. 😁 Anyway. I shall now stop talking and turn this post over to the new writers.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOo-v-S_co0VbcQ_XmfXOrDWsa84hSsFo5GHNsyjjxAb77oB9wE3j9ReyKWKVKLNpqYZlOp-nHJnNXdB5QMHV-3iB47gxnn4Hu64OEHUrpsvMz9hOniiAEFdPVDwsquWdFQ1-cGO0uzhRFTHVc-oXRsMUWHwAt2G4kuuoyxWeBhs8MvIA9gCP5OFQiNQ/s372/a.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="372" data-original-width="327" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOo-v-S_co0VbcQ_XmfXOrDWsa84hSsFo5GHNsyjjxAb77oB9wE3j9ReyKWKVKLNpqYZlOp-nHJnNXdB5QMHV-3iB47gxnn4Hu64OEHUrpsvMz9hOniiAEFdPVDwsquWdFQ1-cGO0uzhRFTHVc-oXRsMUWHwAt2G4kuuoyxWeBhs8MvIA9gCP5OFQiNQ/s320/a.jpg" width="281" /></a></div><p></p><p>Hullo, all you lovely people!!</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The time has come, so they tell me, for introductions to be conducted. More specifically, for Blog Authors to be made known to the faithful readers thereof.... And so here I am, fledgling though I be🙃 I'm Emily, by the way. Well, technically I’m Emily Not Starr, but seeing as that's mainly to prevent my being mistaken for the Original, most folks call me Emi (: Feel free to uphold the custom, we're rather fond of nicknames 'round here!</p><p style="text-align: justify;">So. Some of you mayyy possibly already have a slight bit of an inkling of who I am/what I'm like already, especially if you've been following Juliette for awhile.... Because, whilst this is officially my first time in this side of things, (This fact brings with it both great anticipation n a wee small bit of trepidation😄) I've been delightedly keeping up with her blog journey for quite some time now, and the words do tend to flow in the comments! </p><p style="text-align: justify;">But if, on the other hand, (and this is far more likely😜) you haven't the foggiest notion of who I might be, or what I'm talking about.... I am hereby writing myself up, especially for your benefit! Only it <i>is </i>such a pity that all interesting facts about me tend to flee in terror the instant I need them.... I hereby give you fair warning, the following may not be exactly Murray-ish! That can happen, you know, when a person is Not.... </p><p style="text-align: justify;">Essentially, basically, and foremostly, I suppose I’m an Anneite! Although Montgomerian may be more accurate, come to think of it, and all-around-bookworm more accurate still.... Prone to attacks of whimsy and rambling-fever in the pen-and-ink department, I happen to be a decidedly old-fashioned kind of a girl. You know, the type that insists they were born in the wrong century, goes around being fascinatedly enamoured with the ways of past days, and has read everything L. M. Montgomery ever wrote at least a dozen times.... You'll find me blithely meandering down Yesterday Road every chance I get, merrily scribbling nonsense in my Jimmy-Book all the while! Only unlike Julie and Seon, my scribbles result in neither novels nor fan fiction, but rather independent, miscellaneous creatures that insist on being their own selves, and nothing but. Why I'm hoping that "As iron sharpens iron" also applies to the art of word-weavery (; </p><p style="text-align: justify;">See, I told you I ramble! And I'm not entirely sure what else to say here, so if there's something of extreme importance I have left out, you shall simply have to come look me up in my corner of the kingdom and tell me! I mean, on my page. Which does not presently exist, because I'm being a colossal slowpoke getting it up.... So don't go looking for it just yet! But soon, hopefully. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">On a different note, Julie asked that we each choose a period-drama/classical literature quote and character that we relate to.... And I expected that to be a fairly easy thing to do, seeing as I'm forever finding aspects of myself in the inhabitants of the land o' literature. Turns out it wasn’t after all! But nevertheless, I've finally decided, and settled on none other than Jane Stuart. Jane Of Lantern Hill, that is. Adding definite traces of Emily to the picture, of course.... And as for the quote;</p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Sacramento; font-size: x-large;">"Lovely thoughts came flying to meet me like birds. They weren't <i>my</i> thoughts-I couldn't think anything half so exquisite. They came from somewhere." </span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Sacramento; font-size: x-large;">~Emily Byrd Starr</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Now, I had every intention of making this a nice, chummy little "do let's be friends" note of an introduction. Preferably summed neatly up in two or three Montgomerian paragraphs. But my notes have such a habit of turning into full fledged letters when I'm not looking.... (I'm trying to cure them of it, but it seems to be very uphill work!) So here we are. And here too shall I bid thee adieu, lest this grow longer still😜</p><p>"Goodbye, and may you always see a happy face in your looking-glass!"</p><p><span style="font-family: Sacramento; font-size: x-large;">~Emi</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Sacramento; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/20/590x/secondary/Little-Women-Maya-Hawke-1173463.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="753" data-original-width="590" height="320" src="https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/20/590x/secondary/Little-Women-Maya-Hawke-1173463.jpg" width="251" /></a></div><p></p><p>Hello, friends and followers of Juliette!</p><p style="text-align: justify;">It is me. Seonaid. But you can call me Seon. Perhaps you remember me (from the few random Atlantis posts I put on Julie's main blog or otherwise from the Official Spider-Man Page, which is owned by me.) The Spider-Man page is the only thing I truly own on here. The rest I just steal. 😁</p><p style="text-align: justify;">So. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm the oddball here... the quirky Spidey-fangirl who dabbles in sci-fi, whose favorite period-drama genre is war films, and who writes pretty much nothing but fanfiction. Spidey fanfiction, that is. And let me just say here that Tobey Maguire is the one true Spider-Man. Andrew Garfield is Desmond Doss and Tom Holland is... what can I say? Tom is adorable. But not the real Spider-Man. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">All that aside, I must say that I do love period drama, just enough for Julie to allow me on the blog. Anne of Green Gables is lovely. (Sullivan films, of course, people!! Other versions we shall not discuss. They are not worthy of Anne.) So I am a true Anne-fan and, I believe, of the Race That Knows Joseph. Next to Spider-Man, I have to label AOGG and its sequel as my favorite films. I also adore Hacksaw Ridge and Unbroken (and sequel) among my favorites. Jane Austen is... well, it's good, but I could do without, I guess. Don't kill me people, it's just not really my cup of tea. Yes, pun intended 😁</p><p style="text-align: justify;">And oh boy, do I love to read!! I've always thrilled to this quote from Beauty and the Beast (no, this isn't my main quote, Julie) but isn't this just the definition of a dream come to life???</p><p style="text-align: justify;">"Scads of books. Mountains of books. Forests of books. Cascades. Cloudbursts. Swamps of books. More books than you'll ever be able to read in a lifetime."</p><p style="text-align: justify;">When it comes to reading, my tastes are as diverse as in everything. Classic-wise, my favorites are Robert Louis Stevenson, Baroness Orczy, and Arthur Conan Doyle. Oh yes, I can be very sophisticated when I want to be 😁 But anything with drama, action, adventure, mystery, conflict, near-tragedy at times, romance that sweeps you off your feet (and with Spider-Man, that's literal!) But yeah. That's me 😁</p><p style="text-align: justify;">Julie asked us to compare ourselves to a period drama/classical literature character. And at first I desperately wanted to compare myself to the incredible Mary Jane Watson, one of my all-time favorite characters ever. But... what can I do? I simply do not compare. I am not fabulous, nor do I have red hair (sadly), nor *sobs quietly* am I married to Peter Parker. *sobs audibly* In light of that fact (and also the fact that MJ is not truly period drama/classic literature, I must compare myself to the indomitable Jo March.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">What can I say?? I love drama and the sensational. That's just me. I'm also a bit of a tomboy and pretty crazy to boot. Very Jo-like. Julie and Emi can definitely testify to that fact. I'd be surprised if I didn't get on their nerves from time to time. Or maybe all the time. I don't know. And as for my quote...</p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"><span style="font-family: Architects Daughter; font-size: large;">"A quick temper, sharp tongue, and restless spirit were always getting her into scrapes, and her life was a series of ups and downs, which were both comic and pathetic.”</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"><span style="font-family: Architects Daughter; font-size: medium;">~Louisa May Alcott</span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #181818;"><span style="font-family: Architects Daughter; font-size: x-small;">(Speaking of Jo, of course)</span></span></p><p>Welp. That's pretty much all. So. Check out my Spidey page. And read the fanfiction. It's pretty fun, if I do say so myself, but prepare yourself for plenty of drama and sensation and whump. </p><p>Adios Amigos!!</p><p>And never forget *assumes deep, serious voice* With great power, comes great responsibility!</p><p><span style="font-family: Sacramento; font-size: large;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Architects Daughter; font-size: large;">~Seon</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Architects Daughter; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d8/fc/58/d8fc58afa93ce47c763a5936ad9d2904.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="458" data-original-width="600" height="244" src="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/d8/fc/58/d8fc58afa93ce47c763a5936ad9d2904.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;">And it's back to me again! I had intended to do a full-blown introduction all over again, but I shall spare you the redundancy 😁 Suffice it to say that I am, as you probably already know, a long-time fanatic where history, classic literature, and period dramas are involved. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">As I often introduce myself, "I'm a teacher. No, a writer. Actually, I write books." And I shall here and now say that the characters I most identify with are Anne Shirley and Emily Starr. With splashes of both Jo and Meg March. And here I go copying the others 😆 But we are all Montgomery (and Alcott) fans here and those of The Race That Knows Joseph must also identify with those of The Race That Knows Joseph.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: x-large;">"Even when I'm alone I have real good company--dreams and imaginations and pretendings. I like to be alone, now and then, just to think over things and taste them. But I love friendships--and nice, jolly little times with people."</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: x-large;">~Anne Shirley</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;">Hope you enjoyed meeting our new writers!! And we are all enthusiastically looking forward to an awful lot of good fun... just reading and writing and watching and discussing our favorite things. Have lovely days, all of you, and don't forget to take time to spend with everything you love!!</p><p style="text-align: center;">Till The Next Adventure!!</p><p style="text-align: center;">~Juliette, Emi, and Seon</p>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5565164275664069379.post-54740253676229645982023-03-20T16:54:00.002-07:002023-03-20T16:54:10.220-07:00Candle on the Water<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VGbsrrkZm1s" width="320" youtube-src-id="VGbsrrkZm1s"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: large;">I'll be your candle on the water,</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: large;">My love for you will always burn.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: large;">I know you're lost and drifting</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: large;">But the clouds are lifting.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: large;">Don't give up, you have somewhere to turn.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: large;">I'll be your candle on the water,</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: large;">'Till every wave is warm and bright.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: large;">My soul is there beside you,</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: large;">Let this candle guide you.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: large;">Soon you'll see a golden stream of light.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: large;">A cold and friendless tide has found you,</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: large;">Don't let the stormy darkness pull you down.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: large;">I'll paint a ray of hope around you.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: large;">Circling in the air,</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: large;">Lighted by a prayer.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: large;">I'll be your candle on the water,</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: large;">This flame inside of me will grow.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: large;">Keep holding on, you'll make it.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: large;">Here's my hand, so take it.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: large;">Look for me, reaching out to show,</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: large;">As sure as rivers flow,</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: large;">I'll never let you go.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: large;">I'll never let you go.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: large;">I'll never let you go...</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: large;">Never stop praying for those you love. Be the light in someone's life. 😊💕</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Zeyada; font-size: large;">Juliette</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5565164275664069379.post-41133647386249902822023-03-13T17:58:00.004-07:002023-03-13T17:58:33.043-07:00Random Tidbit #3<p>Hello, Kindreds!!</p><p>This is beautiful. Just... absolutely beyond gorgeous. </p><p>And also has some moments of comedic value 😆</p><p>I've listened to this song probably a hundred times... I just can't get enough of it!! Emi, I have a feeling you'll love this one 😁 If you haven't already heard it, that is.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pFSCVfDpdZQ" width="320" youtube-src-id="pFSCVfDpdZQ"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Till Next Time!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Juliette</div><br /><p><br /></p>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5565164275664069379.post-42730100642235080242023-03-10T18:35:00.003-08:002023-03-10T18:35:37.829-08:00The Horrors of Mole<p> Hey, people!</p><p>Seon here. Just posting this for the benefit of a friend who finds this weird little creature detestable. I, for one, think he's hysterical. And yes, I am mostly just spamming the blog. It's fun 😁</p><p>In my defense, this is historical fiction, of a sort. It's set during WWI!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IcLaXiFNXp4" width="320" youtube-src-id="IcLaXiFNXp4"></iframe></div><br /><p>See ya!</p><p>~Seonaid</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1