Thanksgiving Day in New Mexico was bright, sunny and, for late November, warm - about 60 degrees. We enjoyed a traditional Thanksgiving turkey and dressing dinner (no tofurkey for us) with Wade, Marie and the girls and Marie's parents, Gary and Nancy Jo.
Wade and the girls enjoyed the hot tub after lunch...
And we also spent some time with the horses just hanging out with them...
It was a good day. I hope your Thanksgiving was good as well.
This seems appropriate for the day after Thanksgiving for those not out for Black Friday.
Betty and I are blessed beyond measure. We have a relationship with God through Christ. We have Wade, Marie, Juliet and Leah, along with Marie's parents, Gary and Nancy Jo coming down from Fort Collins, Colorado to share Thanksgiving with us. We have wonderful families. We have Morgunn and Sugar in our lives and they are a pleasure. We have a good church. We have good neighbors. We have good friends such as you who faithfully read this blog.
We are very, very thankful.
We hope you and all your loved ones have a blessed day of good fellowship and great food.
Happy Thanksgiving!
The Sunday afternoon before Thanksgiving is always the Christmas de Caballos (Christmas of Horses) parade in Corrales, New Mexico. Normally, the weather is pretty good. However, this year we had rain and snow for the two and half days before the parade, including this past Sunday morning.
We usually have anywhere between 75 to 100 riders and a dozen or so wagons, carriages, carts, etc. However, with wet dirty horses and unsafe roads, the participation was much smaller, but that didn't dampen the enthusiasm of those who rode and those who watched.
Here's a short video of the parade and after-parade gathering for sugar doughnuts.
Ever wondered what those NFL guys really say during a game? Thanks to Bad Lip Reading we now know.
I was given a book for my birthday by Betty's sister Margie - "Code Talker" by Chester Nez, one of the original 29 code talkers who developed the code that was used in the Pacific War. The code was never broken by the Japanese and was credited for saving countless lives.
The code talkers served in almost all of the Pacific campaigns with little time for rest and recreation between campaigns. Their service as code talkers were deemed too important. When their Marine buddies in their division were sent to R&R areas, they were reassigned to other divisions and prepared for another campaign.
After the war, Chester came back to his home of Chichiltah, New Mexico. Like many combat veterans he was troubled by all the violence and death he witnessed. Today we would call it post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
In the Navajo way he was not walking in the way of beauty. To help Chester return to the way of beauty a ceremony, a sing, was conducted by his family and friends.
Part of this ceremony was a Navajo prayer:
In beauty I walk.
With beauty before me I walk.
With beauty behind me I walk.
With beauty around me I walk.
With beauty above me I walk.
With beauty below me I walk.
In beauty all is made whole.
In beauty all is restored.
In my youth I am aware of it, and
In old age I shall walk quietly the beautiful trail.
In beauty it is begun
in beauty it is ended.
When I read this I remembered a portion of a Christian prayer called St. Patrick's Breastplate:
Christ be with me, Christ within me.
Christ behind me, Christ before me.
Christ beside me, Christ to win me.
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me.
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger.
Christ in hearts of all that love me.
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
I believe that God works in many similar ways in many different cultures. And the way of Christ is the way of beauty.
Betty and I are in that part of life where we are walking the beautiful trail. May you walk in beauty all the days of your life.
PS: I was privileged to sit next to one of the original code talkers, not Mr. Nez, at a New Mexico rodeo and I was able to thank him for his service. Also, the book mentions Chester Nez's son Mike and there are several pictures of him. It turns out that I know Mike Nez. I bought a silver feather ring that he made several years ago. I have seen him several times since then at various craft fairs before I read the book about his father. I hope to see him again so I can talk to him about Chester.
Three public figures died on November 22, 1963. One of them is a hero to me. A hero is someone whose lives match their words. They are people of integrity. They are people who inspire others to be heroes in their own lives.
Aldous Huxley was an author who wrote the book "Brave New World" about what the world would look like in the distant future. Other than that I really don't know much about him.
He might be a hero to others, but to me he's just a historical figure.
The most prominent of the three who died that day, President John F. Kennedy, is probably a hero to many. I give him credit for four things. One, the record indicates he was a World War II hero. As the skipper of the PT-109 he did many heroic things, at least according to the chronicles of his life. Two, he was economically conservative. He understood that high taxes were detriments to the success of our country and to individuals who were trying to succeed. He pushed through tax decreases that enabled our economy to grow exponentially which resulted in increased governmental revenues (when will people learn this is the only way to grow our country). Three, he understood that government was not the answer nor a crutch to an honest life. Remember his words, "Ask not what your government can do for you, but what you can do for your government." Fourth, he stood up to Russia in the Cuban missile crisis, but only after he knew that Nikita Khruschev had eaten his lunch in an earlier meeting in Russia. Yet, he did what was necessary to keep nuclear missiles out of Cuba.
Many people referred to his life with Jackie as Camelot (and many still do today). But, Camelot was a fantasy and so was his public life.
I don't consider Kennedy a hero even with those four things about him that I admire. He abandoned the brave Cuban soldiers at the Bay of Pigs after promising his support. Many times he was unfaithful to his wife Jackie, to the promises he made to her in their wedding vows and to his children. He was addicted to pain killers because of the severe, chronic pain in his back.
No, I don't consider him a hero. His life didn't match his words and I want my life to be much different from his.
My hero who died that same day is Clive Stapleton Lewis, known as Jack to his family and friends. At the time I didn't know who C. S. Lewis was, but 21 years later he became a hero to me when I read "Mere Christianity." That book was one of the puzzle pieces that ultimately led to my decision to become a follower of Christ.
Over the years I read almost all of his books and at least two of his biographies. C. S. Lewis was a man whose life matched his words. I'm sure he wasn't perfect, but it was hard to find anything in his life that wasn't common to every man's life, including mine. He recognized his weaknesses and found strength in his faith in Christ.
His words encouraged the people of England during the darkest days of World War II. His book, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," was perhaps the first book that Betty read to our boys and was instrumental in building their love of reading. His books on all aspects of life from the highest points in his life to his lowest point (the loss of his wife Joy to cancer) and how his faith affected all aspects of his life were significant to my growth as as man, husband, father and Christian.
Finally, he deeply loved his wife Joy and his two stepsons and he walked faithfully with them through Joy's battle with cancer and her final embrace of death.
This is a man who still influences me and many others. This is a man whose life still inspires me to live my life in similar ways.
My hero, C. S. Lewis, died 50 years ago, but there is much about his life that still lives today.
We are in the midst of some winter like weather with cold rain and snow showers forecasted for this weekend. Just before the rain started we were visited by one of winged friends - our neighborhood hawk. When he/she visits all the other birds head for the hills.
A couple of folks asked for Betty's recipe for Oatmeal Bread. So, here it is:
BETTY'S OATMEAL BREAD
Ingredients:
1 cup - oats (quick or regular, not instant)
2 cups - boiling water
2 pkg - rapid rise yeast
1/2 cup - warm water
2 tbsp - butter
1/2 cup - honey or molasses (molasses will make a dark, heavier bread)
2 1/2 tsp - salt
5-6 cups - flour
Procedure:
1. Pour boiling water over oats in a large bowl. Let stand for about 30 minutes or until cooled down, but still warm enough to melt the butter
2. Let yeast build in warm water for about 5 minutes.
3. Add salt, butter and honey to oats. Stir to melt butter.
4. Add yeast to oats and stir.
5. Add 2 cups of flour and mix well. (If making whole wheat oatmeal bread use whole wheat flour for half in each part of this step) Add 2 more cups of flour and mix well. Knead in the last two cups of flour into the bowl about half a cup at a time. In NM's high elevation and low humidity I've found I use much less flour. "Kneading" really means working in as much flour as you can with your hand until it isn't sticky anymore.
6. Shape dough into a mound and place in a greased (oil works well) bowl. Turn it over so that the top of the dough mound is also greased . Cover with a cloth and let rise in a warm place for at least 1 hour until doubled. (Timing really depends on your own place - humidity, temp). Once risen, punch down.
7. Divide dough in half and shape for bread loaf pans. Place in 2 greased (Pam spray) loaf pans, cover with cloth and let rise at least 1/2 hour until just mounding over the edge of the loaf pan.
8. Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes or until browned. Remove loaves from pans and cool on wire rack.
9. To make whole wheat bread just substitute whole wheat flour for half the regular flour. It may not rise as much.
10. Because you don't really knead this dough like traditional bread recipes it does not have the perfect rounded top. It still tastes great.
11 Enjoy.
Betty is an awesome cook. She creates good old fashioned meat and potatoes meals and she can also fix things that are more complicated and require a lot of finese. I'm a lucky and blessed man.
One thing she makes that I love is her oatmeal bread. She makes both regular and whole wheat and they both are delicious. She's the only person I know that still makes this wonderful bread.
I told her that if anything happened to her I didn't want her bread recipe to disappear. So, yesterday, Sunday, I asked her to teach me how to make her bread - and we did - two loaves of whole wheat oatmeal bread.
Here's one of the loaves I made - I had a good teacher. As you can tell from the picture I had to have a piece - not bad if I do say so myself.
"It is always darkest just before the day dawneth." - Thomas Fuller (1608-1661)
In our day and age we usually say, "It's always darkest just before dawn." The truth is it's actually darkest at midnight, but it's still a good saying.
When I was in the Navy and our ship was deployed to the waters off North Vietnam, I always stood the 4:00 AM to 8:00 AM deck watch as Officer of the Deck. This was because as Navigator I had to be up early to take an early celestial sun fix so I might as well stand that watch.
I saw a lot of beautiful sunrises as the sun rose over the Chinese island of Hainan. However, that last hour before sunrise always seemed the darkest and was the hardest time to stay awake. During our deployments most of us were happy to get three to four hours of sleep at any one time. We caught sleep as we could throughout the day and night. I actually learned that I could sleep standing up - much like a horse does - but that's another story.
There are plenty of times in our lives when we go through dark hours before our dawns. Betty and I have had our share.
Perhaps our lives are like our days. We go through days, nights, dark hours and then dawn again - over and over.
The good news is God has designed it so the sun rises each morning no matter how dark the night has been. After every dark hour there is a sunrise - and, if you're lucky, there may also be balloons!
Christmas is coming, ready or not. If you like to have a fresh cut tree as your Christmas tree then consider going out to the Galloping Grace Youth Ranch Christmas Corral which will open the weekend after Thanksgiving.
The Corral will be at the same location as the Pumpkin Patch - the upper parking lot of the Santa Ana Star Center in Rio Rancho, NM.
I went out this past weekend and, along with volunteers from Sagebrush church and Chi Omega Sorority and Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity, both from the University of New Mexico, we started the conversion of the Pumpkin Patch into the Christmas Corral.
The USS WILLIAM H. STANDLEY (DLG-32) was my home away from home from 1969 through 1972. I served initially as Gunnery Officer and then became the Navigator for my last two and a half years. She was a fine ship with a great crew.
We experienced many different things with two tours to Vietnam, an assignment searching for a Soviet submarine in the Caribbean, an assignment patrolling off North Korea, being targeted by Chinese MIGs in the Tonkin Gulf, searching for a sinking freighter in the Philippine Sea and on and on.
During this time both of my sons were born and I missed both of their births. Betty had the assignment of keeping our growing family together and flourishing in my absences and she did a magnificent job.
In those days we didn't think too much about what we had to do - we just did it.
I don't recall these events to suggest I am anything special. There are countless numbers of men and women who have sacrificed as much and far more than I did.
There's a saying from the Vietnam era that sums up Veteran's Day for me:
Thank you to those who went before me and have succeeded me in the years since.
For all who served, here's a 21st century version of the Star-Spangled Banner. It may not be traditional, but there is an honesty and passion to the performance that touched this old veteran's heart.
Have a blessed Veteran's Day.
During my Bible study this week I worked my way through Psalm 119 - the longest psalm - that focuses on God's word. One of my favorite verses Psalm 119:103 - "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path."
Since I accepted Christ 29 years ago at age 39 God's word has come alive for me. As I have mentioned before my method of Bible study is to read the Bible through from Genesis to Revelation. Once I am done I start all over again.
This verse didn't have that much meaning to me until I understood what lamps looked like in Old Testament times. In our culture we think of lamps as having 100 watt light bulbs or being flashlights with LED light emitters. Both bring a significant amount of light into our lives and I am grateful for that.
However, Old Testament lamps (and those in Jesus' time) were small, clay lamps filled with oil derived from animal fat. They were usually small enough to fit in the hand. The light they put out was a warm, smoky, small circle of light that was probably a foot to a foot and a half in diameter at most - definitely not 100 watts.
In this context the "lamp unto my feet and light unto my path" is pretty small and doesn't dispel much of the darkness around the holder.
What I came to realize is the significance of this verse is more likely the concept that God's word shines a light for our next step.
That's all the light we have for darkness is still beyond the small glow of the oil lamp.
I believe God wants us to live and walk by faith which means trusting him for just our next step while our future steps are still in the darkness around us.
I know that my ultimate future is to live with Christ in God's kingdom because of what Jesus did on the cross. In the meantime I look to just the next step and trust God in the midst of the darkness around me.
You hear so many sad and bad stories about young people these days. Here's a story that brings a little hope for the coming generation.
Betty and I love Golden Retrievers. When our kids were young, we had a wonderful female Golden, Missy. She lived with us for 14 years and she was really special.
Some day we may get another Golden when we slow down on our travel. So, until then we make do with pictures like this one I ran across the other day to get our 'Golden fix.'
I know that I have put far more photos and videos about the Balloon Fiesta than most want to see. However, I ran across this time lapse video that gives a great overview of the whole show from the Dawn Patrol in the morning before the sun comes up all the way to the fireworks show in the evening.
Hopefully, this may encourage some of you to come visit us during a future Fiesta (we're booked for 2014).
On Sunday we told Betty's sister Margie that her life would not be complete unless she met Frankie and Pickles. Now her life is complete.
Plus, she got to feed half a carrot to Sugar - life is good!
New Mexico has a commuter train called the New Mexico RailRunner that runs from South of Albuquerque (Belen) up to Santa Fe with several stops in between. One of those stops is in Bernalillo which is the closest station to us.
Betty and I have talked for years about taking the train to Santa Fe, but we never got around to it. Margie, who is visiting with us, said she wanted to ride the train so we said now's the time to do it. So we took the Saturday RailRunner to Santa Fe.
The Saturday schedule has a train that leaves the Bernalillo station at 9:37 AM and that worked for us.
We rode all the way to the Santa Fe Depot which is the Northern end of the line.
There is a great shuttle system that runs every 15-20 minutes from the Depot to the Plaza. We visited most of the shops around the Plaza and several of the shops down the side streets. The first stop was the Portales where the Indian vendors show their wares.
We had lunch at a quirky little restaurant called Pasquales which is a block off the plaza.
After lunch and some more shopping we caught the 3:28 PM train to return home in time to feed the horses and see the Breeder's Cup Classic horse race.
It was a tiring but good day.
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