Category: Uncategorized

Springtime . . .

by tkbrown
Spring is rejuvenation and rebirth,
life and color revisits drab and dead
in the world round about, o'er all the earth.
As the sun warms the soil, giving earth's bed
the urge to burst forth with abundant life
to welcome beasts of the earth with fodder,
fowl of the air with delight as they strive
for nesting place and food found in nature.
Bursting forth with abundance fur nurture
as seeds lain dormant for winter now sprout,
hill and vale beckon with life and color.
Tiny yellow-green leaves seem to pop out
overnight on the limbs -- drab through winter --
and dots from the rainbow fill hooded green
hips as all floral reach for sunlight banter
upon petals reflecting healthy sheen.
Beauty splashed from God's colorful palette
brings a feast to appreciative eye
midst the sweet balance and lush complement
of the surrounding backdrop -- earth and sky.
Rounding a bend in the lush path ahead
a different view the senses observe
where lush green grasses carpet the land
with patches of brown accenting the verve.
The sun shines brightly as it warms the soil;
gardens are tilled, soil readied for planting.
Beds raised and prepared where families toil
setting and seeding their salad fixings --
onions, radishes, spinach and lettuce,
with tomatoes and cukes off to the side.
When oak leaves are the size of a squirrel's
ear, potato plantings can temps abide.
They don't grow well when temperatures soar;
so, always be sure to plant by the moon.
For corn and beans, squash and okra galore
the waxing and waning should be in tune.
Bumper crops grown by the old-time folklore
will fill cupboards, freezers and cellars too.
Springtime yearnings will fill tables and more,
and harvesting produce saves money too.

Stay Home, Obey the Mandates

~~ a Devotional ~~

 ~~ by tkbrown

There is something about ‘having to stay inside’ that gives us the ‘itch’ to go outside. We are creatures of habit! We are bored staying inside. We feel like we are being punished, but in reality, we are not being punished. We are being protected, but only if we adhere to the stringent lifestyle that must be our abode for a time.

You ask, “How long a time?” “Isn’t a week or two enough?” Probably not. As President Trump has said, it may be months before ‘this lifestyle’ ends. We must protect ourselves, or others will never be able to assist in our protection. We must stay inside unless we absolutely have to get out.

We all have certain, necessary things for which we must leave the home — but, really, those are few. Plan your meals for the week ahead, then have one person get the supplies needed for those meals. Have fun preparing food at home instead of eating out or buying take-home.

If you must go to the doctor, do not drag others along with you. Go, get it over with, and go home. If you have symptoms of COVID-19, please go be tested — do not delay in this. If you infect others, and one of those ‘others’ dies, what will that mean to you?

If you must leave your home to pay a bill, go — pay the bill — then go back home. Do not drive around to see how many people are not staying home.

We must be pro-active in this situation. The people who have pulled together to help us through this are large in number. Be thankful for what they are doing! Listen to what they are saying They have been tasked with a monumental responsibility.

Before COVID-19 erupted, tests to confirm it in a person were non-existent. Those have been created since the virus began. This takes time.  Sometimes, it takes months to create an accurate test. Those tests are now available to those cases doctors deem to exhibit symptoms of COVID-19.

The vaccine to immunize against a new virus cannot be developed until it erupts. Those usually take twelve to eighteen months. They are already being tested, but it will still be several months before they become available to the general public. It must be stringently tested to ensure it does not add to the new cases.

Do what those tasked with protecting you tell us to do! Keep track of the speed of spread with this contagion. and it will help you to see how much danger you are in if you leave your home.

Yesterday, the United States had 1,000 cases of COVID-19. Today, it is 6,000 cases. That means it has multiplied five-fold since yesterday. Think of that! FIVE TIMES MORE than yesterday. How can you protect yourself with people not even knowing (or caring, in some instances) they have been exposed? How can the officials protect you, if you do not keep up with what they are saying? This is really serious!

My mother was born in 1918 — when the Spanish Flue pandemic killed so many people. She was too young to remember the quarantines put into place by governing officials, but her parents and other relatives remembered. She did remember what they said, and she relayed that to us.

Many are going to die, but that number can be greatly reduced by doing what the authorities say. Don’t hold animosity toward them. They have your best interests at heart.

No, I am not panicked. I just know that I must do my part too. I must stay inside — away from other people — unless I absolutely have to go take care of business.

Matthew 22:17-22 (NKJV) relates a situation when the Pharisees tried to trip Jesus up regarding the law and what must be obeyed.

  • 17 — “Tell us, therefore, what do you think? Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?”
  • 18 — “But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, ‘Why do you test me, you hypocrites?'”
  • 19 — “‘Show Me the tax money.’ So, they brought Him a denarius.”
  • 20 — “And He said to them, ‘Whose image and inscription is this?'”
  • 21 — “They said to Him, ‘Caesar’s’ And He said to them, ‘Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.'”
  • 22 — “When they had heard these words, they marveled and left Him and went their way.”

Romans 13:1 and 2 addresses the importance of submitting to the directives of those in positions of power in your country.

  • 1 — “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.”
  • 2 — “Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgement on themselves.”

So, do your part by doing what our Governing Officials have said we must do. Stay home unless you absolutely must go and do something of importance.

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The ‘Ides of March’

     ~~  a quindecim
by tkbrown

The ‘Ides of March’ bring tales of woe
in days of old and days of fro’.
Be it debt or death, thought awry . . .
blizzards or bombs, looks in the eye,
a knife in the back, just a glance
with crooked smile, deceit perchance.
One is jailed for an unpaid debt;
another assailed with an illness yet.
Disaster o’ercomes effort spent,
destroys all that this life hath lent.
Frailty brings one down to earth,
and forges diff’rent points of view.
In counting what this life is worth,
the ‘Ides of March’ cast sight askew . . .
O’ercome bad plight with hope anew!

          (Written 15 March 2019.)

To whom can you turn . . .

~~  a quindecim triad  ~~
by tkbrown
To whom can you turn when life loses luster,
'cause the world all around tilts off kilter.
All reason collapses, worries cluster,
as vision blurs midst the twirling clutter.
It's each to his own, and one must attend
to business from home where the factors blend
a bit of this, a touch of that, just when
everything seemed to be soothing the skin.
Nothing is ever as presently seems
when the germ beacons with alluring beams
targeting those with the armor fading,
giving way to weakness, illness, aging.
The virus is bringing the world to its knees
as others bring germs home from overseas --
no one is immune, and yet no one flees.
Everyone points to another in blame
seeking a scapegoat to put in the frame
designed for someone of a diff'rent name
with home fires striving to achieve the same.
Blaming one another no problem solves,
creating smokescreens no one absolves
as this germ around everyone revolves,
no respecter of riches it dissolves.
Like a plague it strikes the strong and the weak
blurring defenses, making them oblique
due to lack of remedy all will seek
when symptoms ravage, weaken at their peak.
There is no cure and no treatment per se
except to ease discomfort, wielding way
to live through the virus, muddle the fray.
The factions ignore large factors looming
as the germs thrive and are ever blooming
'til too many lives are lost, assuming
another will see to life resuming.
Then when recovering is out of our hand
the factions attempt to find methods grand
with a view to protecting all who stand
together against the germ in our land.
In the end it comes down to the dawning --
an age coronavirus is spawning --
in a world caught midst nonchalant yawning
as the germ ripped through sheltering awning.
It ne'er is good to become too secure
in a pattern designed to gray and obscure
attractions that lure into unsafe moor.

Image above: From CDC Image Libraries.

The Top . . .

~~ a quindecim
by tkbrown
Spinning! Spinning! Still, but Spinning!
The contents are naught but a blur . . . 
open windows appear opaque.
Seemingly still, but moving fast
on triangular pedestal
perched tall, straight above the tip.
Bulbous body -- visual blip --
spinning, spinning while standing tall.
How long can such sweet posture last?
Not one jiggle the spin doth make --
spinning, spinning -- faster, faster.
Then just a slight wobble is seen,
then one more if your eyes are keen --
then the top can be seen again.
Old Fashioned Toy Top

https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/79388113/posts/2615740875

Daylight

     ~~ a quindecim
               by tkbrown
Do Save Time, rising sooner by one hour,
utilize daylight as you limit night.
"Rise and Shine in the early morning" light,
as temperament gets a wee bit sour.
Forfeit one hour in the early springtime,
take it back at night with early dark-fall.
"Rise with the chickens," hear early birdcall;
roost with the night owl, hear the midnight chime.
Some insist it saves the blooming daylight,
increases an all-productive instinct,
making one's worth just a bit more succinct
and reduces crime that occurs at night.
Do not complain 'bout a sore lack of rest.
Just change your mood to reflect at its best --
and put your inner system to the test.

~~ 29 February 2020 ~~ Leap Day and Leap Year

by tkbrown

What is Leap Year, Leap Day? Why do we have them?

Prior to the establishment of the Julian Calendar in 45 B.C., there were no Leap Days or Leap Years. When Julius Caesar implemented the current calendar, he added ten days to the 355-day year in the Roman Calendar. He also changed the date of New Year’s Day from March 1 to January 1 and added a leap day every four years.

The Roman Calendar embraced a ten-month, 355-day year based on the lunar cycle. Each month had three phases: Kalends, or the ‘new moon’ coincided with the first of the month; Nones, defined by the first quarter-moon occurred on the fifth or seventh day of the month; Ides, the first full moon designated either the 13th or the 15th day of the month. Then, with the next Kalends, a new month began.

New Year’s Day in the Roman Calendar occurred on March 1 instead of the Julian Calendar’s January 1. The New Year’s Day Celebration, however, occurred on March 15th (during the first full moon) instead of March 1st (the actual New Year’s beginning day). The full moon probably made partying more enjoyable by increasing visibility. Celebrations included food, music and other festivities.

Then came the Gregorian Calendar with skipped days and relived days to really confuse things. First introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII — for whom it is named. According to http://www.timeanddate.com, it is the most widely used Calendar around the world. Catholic countries adopted the calendar quickly with Spain, Portugal and Italy Leading the Group. It has been adopted by the international standard for Representation of date and times, (Hocken, 2017).

Protestant countries were leery of adopting the new calendar, fearing it to be a way of silencing the Protestant movement. Two hundred years after it was introduced, an Act of Parliament declared it to be the new Calendar for England and the (then) colonies, and the date immediately changed from September 2 to September 14, 1752, (Hocken, 2017).

Hocken on http://www.timeanddate.com quotes Benjamin Franklin, who “famously wrote about the switch in his almanac. ‘ . . . And what an indulgence is here, for those who love their pillow to lie down in Peace on the second of this month and not perhaps awake till the morning of the fourteenth.'” (Quoted by timeanddate.com from Cowan, 29; Irwin, 98).

“Orthodox countries followed the Julian calendar even longer, and their national churches have still not adopted Pope Gregory XIII’s calendar,” (Hoken, 2017).

Leap Year and Leap Day come with heaps of folk-lore attached. Leap Year, commonly known as an open opportunity for the woman to propose marriage to her love, does not encourage marriage that same year. It is supposedly unlucky for couples to marry during Leap Year.

Tell me what YOU think!

Sources:

Hocken, Vigdis. (14 November 2017). “Leap Day Customs & Traditions.” Time and Date AS. (28 February 2020). https://www.timeanddate.com/date/leap-day-february-29,html.

Hocken, Vigdis. (14 November 2017). “The Gregorian Calendar.” Time and Date AS. (28 February 2020). https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/gregorian-calendar.html.

Calendar Quindecims March

by tkbrown
March winds arrive with blustery sunshine chill
marching through forests, over hill and dale.
Through plains lands, swamplands, farmlands and cities,
o'er countryside filled with dogs and kitties,
she makes her presence known as birds chirp songs
heralding springtime's parading entrance:
bright yellow greens in variegating dance
with blazing white dazzle in royal throngs.
Colors of the rainbow fill ground and tree
as yards, orchards, forests call to the bee --
whilst a jubilant melody exudes
from the wren, robin and goldfinch etudes.
Home garden plantings, wheat land plantings too,
fill a hustling, bustling nonchalant hue
with lists of tasks and fun yet left to do!

Image by Jill Wellington of Pixabay

Calendar Quindecims February

~~ by tkbrown
February slides into place, the chilly air takes on ice;
what was new, fun to explore -- now, not so nice.
The urge to get out and about, feel sunshine's sway
set into motion -- builds up need -- by one really nice day.
Thoughts linger on the garden a bit, the taste of fresh produce
on the tip of the tongue excites the taste buds, begins to induce
a yearning, a longing, for the freshness -- the sweetness -- of spring,
new leaves on trees, red and white flow'ring and new songs to sing.
Days yet cloudy make that fireplace hearth a nice place to stand
as we dream about sunshine, start tilling that land in our mind.
Sometimes in winter, a brief break is nice -- time to rekindle the fire,
rejuvenating those coals from that early, dark morning hour.
Starting those beans with some onion, garlic, hock of holiday ham --
making sourdough bread for some sweet butter and jam,
and the comforting savor of an enticing entre made with a yam.