Sunday Snow Wisdom

     Hello loyal readers! I haven't posted for a while, so I thought I might do a bit about snow, which is falling as I write.
     Snow can be a beautiful thing. Earlier this week, in my area, we got a lot of snow and freezing rain, and let me tell you, the trees in my backyard were beautiful. Each tiny twig was encased in frosty ice, and the branches were blanketed by snow. When the light shined on it just so, everything gleamed. But something else happened, too. All that snow and ice weighed down the branches of the trees, and the branches cracked and fell. Even whole trees, with the snap of a gunshot, toppled to the ground. Ice chunkes rained down all everywhere. And we lost power, for a day. Many others lost power, too, and some lost power for several days. How could something as beautiful as snow or ice be so harmful, so deceptive? Don't get me wrong, I don't think snow is evil. Far from It! It is a wonderful creation of God. But it reminds me of something else; Sin.
     Sin is like snow; beautiful, dazzeling, and deceptive. Sin "looks good" to our warped senses, but leads to certain death. Like snow, it lures us out to it, live in it, take pictures of it. (Well, ok, maybe thats just snow. And, by the way, I did not get skewed by falling icicles while taking pictures, although it was close ;D) And then, Sin destroys you. It takes you over with its numbing grip, and you are powerless to resist. Be wary of sin. Instead, follow the Way of God.

"There is a way that seems right to a man,

but its end is the way to death"

Proverbs 16:25 (ESV)



Merry Christmas!

(By Raphael)

And now, just for fun, a Christmas poem:

Christmas Bells

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old, familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet

The words repeat

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,

The belfries of all Christendom

Had rolled along

The unbroken song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Till ringing, singing on its way,

The world revolved from night to day,

A voice, a chime,

A chant sublime

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

Then from each black, accursed mouth

The cannon thundered in the South,

And with the sound

The carols drowned

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

It was as if an earthquake rent

The hearth-stones of a continent,

And made forlorn

The households born

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;

"There is no peace on earth," I said;

"For hate is strong,

And mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;

The Wrong shall fail,

The Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men."

Mexico, Continued

Hi again, everybody! Just a reminder from last time: posting about my family vacation to Mexico.

The same day that we went to Villadolid, after a delicious lunch of pork slow-cooked in achiote and bitter orange juice, our tour guide took us to the Mayan ruins of Coba'.

Okay, hold on for a second as I give a quick history lesson.

In Mexico, the only part of the country inhabited by Mayans is the Yucatan peninsula, which is where we were. The other major ethnic groups/civilizations were located in northern/central Mexico were the Olmecs and Aztecs. The Olmecs were more like the mother of all Mexican civilizations, so they were the oldest. The Mayan golden age came next, then the Aztec golden age. However, as the Mayans declined, the Aztecs were flourishing and expanding. So, many later Mayan ruins show strong evidence of Aztec influence, including human sacrifice (or, at least more human sacrifice than previously, if I understood the guide correctly) and temlples built in platformed pyramids rather than towers.

Coba', the ruins we visited, had its peak rather earlier than other ruins, such as Chichen Itza, Coba's rival, so It exhibited more destinctly Mayan flavor. It is also huge!

This is the first temple/plaza that we visited.

Inside one of the passages into the temple. Unfortunately they had blocked the path into the heart, otherwise we could have done some more exploring.

A wall from one of the local Pok-a-Tok ball courts. These were probably practice facilities, the big games being played in Chichen Itza.

These are some images of the large temple that we got to climb.

(Note tower shape)

Looking down on the top of the Jungle and all those ants, er, people down below.

A funny little relief sculpture on the crown building of the temple.

My family (minus Mom, who was taking the picture) climbing down the temple. It's steep, so I held on to the rope (Explaining my awkward position in this photo :D)

Okay, once back on the ground, we peddled (did I mention that we got around the site on bike?) over to another ball court, were this smily stone skull was sitting right in the middle of the court. I can see why its a skull, the players would trip over it and kill themselves! But seriously, what it really represents is the fact that in the real ball games played at religious ceremonies either the winning or the losing team (they haven't decided which one, yet) was sacrificed. I guess this is something like a Mayan motevational poster ;).

These are Mayan glyphs carved into the side of the ball court. What they mean I don't remember (They probably weren't another motevational poster, though. Not many Mayans could read).

With this I shall conlude, because I got photo-tired and didn't take any more pictures.

Bye, all!

Mexico

Hello everyone! I know I haven't posted in a while, but life gets busy. My family got home from vacation in Cancun, Mexico three weeks ago or so. I thought maybe you'd like to hear a bit about it, so, whithout further ado, here we go!

Flying over the Ocean...

Land Ho!

Over the Jungle...

A piece of coral we found washed up on the beach!

What we think are fossils stuck in coral/rock eroded on the beach.

Water rushing in to the palm trees...

Me, being goofy...what can I say?

While there, my family visited a Spanish colonial town dated back as far as the 1500's called Villadolid.

An old convent that we visited.

Inside, It was decorated with the most beautiful frescoes!

A view of the bell tower.

Next, we went to see a large church in the same town.

Only in Mexico!

The outside...

...and a small part of the inside!

We saw much more in Mexico, but, you'll have to wait untill next time for more!

A Poem

A Covered Bridge

I stroll along a bubbling brook,

Exploring every crevice and crook,

Until at last I hap upon,

What you will learn here anon.

A swift step over hill and dale,

Will quickly take me there,

And, like a pigeon flut’ring home,

To the end soon will I roam.

A squatting toad athwart the creek,

Now have I found the thing I seek.

‘Tis white and russet and quite long,

A bridge for me to march along.

With peaking roof and creaking bed,

With beams, so that I bump my head,

And windows, out of which I look,

And spot bellow the bubbling brook.

Book Review: Northanger Abbey

Hello everyone! I've decided to begin doing book reviews, perhaps once a week. You will probably see many classics, or books that you might not be interested in at first glance. I would like to encourage you to branch out!

Title: Nortanger Abbey

Author: Jane Austen

Quote:

" 'You think me foolish to call instruction a torment; but if you had been as much used as myself to hear poor little children first learning their letters, and then learning to spell, if you had ever seen how stupid they can be for a whole morning together, and how tired my poor mother is at the end of it, as I am in the habit of seeing almost every day of my life at home, you would allow that to torment and to instruct might sometimes be used as synonymous words.' "

Plot Summary/Discription: This book is one of Jane Austen's earlier novels, so it is perhaps a little less refined then her later works. That aside, it positively oveflows with wit and humor. A heart-warming coming of age story, it tells the tale of 17-year-old Catherine Morland. Catherine is a young, nieve, girl, who is just barely pretty. The first exciting thing that happens in her life is a trip to Bath that she goes on with some family friends. While there, Catherine meets new friends, such as the coquettish Isabelle and her brother and the Tilneys, a rich family of a father, two sons, and a daughter not much older than Catherine. This unusual number of single young people causes love affairs to explode left and right, to all of which Catherine remains blissfully oblivious for most of the story.

Eventually, Catherine is invited to accompany the Tilney's to their country estate, where Catherine, a great reader of horror mystries, thinks she has uncovered a gruesome murder. The series of events leading to this discovery--and eventually to its refution--are full of tongue-in-cheek satire. Haven learned a lesson from this misadventure, Catherine is perfectly ready to enjoy the rest of her stay when something unexpected happens.

Objectionable content: As with all Jane Austen novels, this is pretty mild. However, their are some suggested  cursewords desognated by the first letter of the word followed by a dash.

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