PRAIRIE SPRING

Passions ignite in the warmth of rays

     Passing through on earth's radiant days

Ideals of freedom so tangibly clear

     Vast horizons don't hear our limiting fears

Unlocked to feel and dream and dance

    Where crocus petals emerge from deadened grass

Breathing unhindered; deep and wildly pure    

    Controlling voices for now rendered obscure

Humanity locked in winter's relentless grip

     Reeling from rigid imposed unmoving cliffs

Needs to rise; must surely insist

    That the kisses of spring are not to be missed

November Fire

Photos in the rain...

Love these photos just outside

on an otherwise gray cloudy day.

Blessed...

We were desperate for rain.  Now it seems the taps have been opened and the days can get long with the dreariness of the days.  I can't wait to see the sun and enjoy the freshness that rain always brings;  hope and life carrying within every drop the seed of promise. It is so very welcome but it also brings a heavy coolness, a drenching wetness and a somber dampening of spirit.  I admit that I'm looking forward to the sunshine.

Everything Waits for the Lilacs

I am working on a piece written by a Canadian, John Burge called "Everything Waits for the Lilacs". The lilacs are just finishing their season and I couldn't resist compiling photos and video clips to go along with it. Most of these photos are from my yard this spring.  We have a large yard with a lilac hedge bordering three sides.  It smells heavenly in spring and it's always a sad day when the lilacs stop blooming!

Relaunching Blog after 10 Years

A good friend got me into blogging years ago and I really loved it.  But I think time got away on me and I've haven't been posting for ten years.  But I miss it.  So this summer I think I'll start up again and see where it takes me....

Maybe there's something about working out in the yard, planting, weeding and watering that makes me long to share it or at least record it.

Life doesn't stay the same and who knows when mine will start looking much differently than it does now.

In ten years, my boys have grown up.

My oldest is now turning 19 in fall. For now, he's working with Ladger.  This morning, he's out driving a water truck.  I'm glad it's not me.  Last year, I did some of that driving.  I tend to be nervous driving big trucks anyway but the water truck is extra special.  If I lurch, (and I can do that really well), the water starts moving in the tank and the momentum of it is a scary thing! So I'm very happy to have been replaced.

He really loves Vinnie and we let him name him after a drummer in one of the rock groups he likes.  I'm not sure I love the name but we sure like our beautiful Golden Retriever.









My youngest has just about finished grade 10.  He could go for his license now but he's in no hurry. I guess he thinks he has better things to do.  He is always full of surprises. His latest project is designing and creating men's rings and pendants.   He enjoys craftmanship and has set up a shop in our basement with lathe and press and starting to collect more tools.  He's hoping to set up his website this summer.

Here's the wood and titanium ring he made for his dad.

I'll link to his website when he gets it going.











For me I'm about a year or two away from a big goal...achieving my ARCT level in the Royal Conservatory of Music in piano performance.  Sometimes I think I'm crazy because I freeze up when I'm performing such challenging work!  I have a recital on Friday and I plan to start video recording some of my work to share.  It would be a good practice for me to try and play it perfectly for a camera before I try to perform in public!

CAT

Part 2 - Is Faith actually a form of Knowledge?

One of the ideas that has been ingrained in us is the idea that faith happens in the absence of knowledge. Alvin Plantinga quotes Mark Twain "faith is believing what you know ain't true". We talk of a 'leap of faith' and easily accept that faith is the opposite of reason.

And what has been the result? A contempt from the intellectual and scientific community towards those who have faith in God. If I understood that faith walks hand in hand with ignorance and was divorced from reason, I wouldn't want it either. But what if the opposite is true?

Certainly Alvin Plantinga argues the point.

He contends that "if naturalism were true, ....there would be no such thing as knowledge. That's bad enough, but there's worse to follow...(I'm going to put it in my own words here)...He (the naturalist - the atheist, the evolutionist, etc) can't trust his brain and thinking ability to actually hold true beliefs." (BTW, if you want the actual quote - I'll put it as a footnote)

I love it. Basically he's saying that whether or not theism actually is true, at least it allows for belief, for knowledge, for truth itself and warrants faith. One might say it doesn't disprove itself...but is reasonable.

And by contrast, explaining things like belief, knowledge, and truth without God is actually unreasonable and does not warrant faith - really in anything at all!

from page 1 - "I'll argue that the naturalist is committed to the sort of deep and debilitating skepticism according to which he can't trust his cognitive faculties to furnish him with mainly true beliefs; he has a defeator for whatever he believes, including naturalism itself. And I'll argue that naturalism, insofar as it implies materialism about human beings, has no room for the essential features of our mental life, including in particular belief." - Alvin Plantinga, Knowledge of God

Part 1 - discussion from "Knowlege of God"

Really, there are very few systems of thought out there... but lots of variations on them. And it seems we cannot move past the question of origin in forming the basis of how we look at life. The prevailing intellectual thought in our day is that there is no God and that our origin is a chance happening - we might call this naturalism. It involves explanations like evolution to explain our origin but the basic premise is that all can be explained by science or empirical evidence.

So what happens if we leave God out of the equation? What happens to our view of human life...to our view of ourselves?

One of Alvin Plantinga's first arguments is this: "if naturalism were true, there would be no such thing as proper function, and therefore also no such thing as malfunction or dysfunction." (pg.1)

I can look around this office and see many things that have a proper function - telephone, computer, my guitar, coffee mug, pens. And there is something common to all of these things...they were designed for a purpose. And inherent in that is the possiblity that they could break, or become unusable for the purpose they were intended for. But if my pen were not designed as a tool to write, who is to say that when it runs out of ink, that it is malfunctioning.

That is the start of our discussion...if we were not designed by God...the alternative is that we were not designed at all and with that goes any expectation of what we could be or what we ought to be, etc. If I take this a step further, than anyone who says there is no God, really should not be talking about disasters, sickness or any other kind of 'malfunction' or 'dysfunction' in our natural world.

That's a very interesting thought because some of those most vocal about things like "global warming", "social injustice", and "world poverty" are those who also do not believe in God. What is it then that gives them the idea that things should be (or even could be) any different?!!

Are you up for a little philosophy?

If anyone thinks people of faith aren't thinking people, they ought to try reading someone like Alvin Plantinga. I enjoy the challenge of trying to understand his philosophical arguments.

One thing is for sure: Understanding the different philosophies are important because they are what shapes whole generations of thinking. And we've got a whole generation of young people who have a hard time reconciling faith to their philosophy and the world views so prevelant today...and many time it's faith that seems to get booted to the curb.

So I thought I'd share a few things I'm learning along the way. Any maybe by sharing it with you, it'll clarify my own understanding.

The book I'm reading is actually a written debate between Alvin Plantinga and Michael Tooley titled "Knowledge of God".

So, I'll post as I go along and see how it goes.

My Page - Worship The Rock

My Page - Worship The Rock

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Wonky day!

Today was wonky! I couldn't get into the homeschooling mode because I started a good book when I woke up and didn't feel like putting it down. So I decided that I'd better get the blood flowing and decided to get the boys to help me put in all my bedding plants. So we spent a few hours doing that. After we worked so hard, it was time for dinner, right? But Ladger didn't make it home from town until close to 2 pm. It's amazing how that throws things out of wack.

And then it hailed. The boys and I looked out the window at all our newly planted plants. I think I held my breath until it cleared up and...we were really lucky this time - nothing damaged too badly. The boys collected a potful and put it in the fridge - P5 was genuinely surprised that it all melted to water in there :-). And it reminded the boys that a snowcone would make a nice treat. And now, R8 wants me to play Age of Empires - he likes to watch - twist my rubber arm :-)