"The Divine does not like to be shut up in a building. The Divine likes to be out in the open. It is right here in this very body. Each one of us is a miniature universe, a living shrine."
from Art of Peace

Once again I have trouble with people or dogmas that limits what God is likely to do. God will do as God does.


I got a Christmas card today from the sexiest woman in the world. My aunt Jackie included a letter she was sending to a newspaper. She is fiercely liberal and I am fiercely conservative. She was liberal back in the days when she frightened 3 preteenaged boys with her beauty. And she is still liberal while she still frightens one of those boys grown old.

But in these days we agree on at least one point. The Republican party is engaged in a fire sale to sell the American middle class into corporate and moneyed slavery. I lived in times of much higher taxation on the "rich" and have never seen that high taxation reduced their level of innovation or job creation. Upon consideration we should all know that there is a level of wealth beyond what any one person or family can spend in a year. That is the money that should be taxed higher. My Congressional district is represented by Sheila Jackson Lee who is IMHO a screaming liberal. Yet she more nearly embodies my ideals than either of the Republican Texas Senators. The US Constitution which all members of congress swear and vow to defend calls for promotion of the general welfare, NOT THE WELFARE OF BILLIONAIRES. Read the Constitution someday and then prove to me that Congress deserves more respect. I want every one of them turned out of office after 1 term until they return to promoting general welfare.

BTW The letter is perfect and I pray it is published.

I have been following the progress of a tiny girl baby born in August. Melinda Star fit in the palm of her delivery doctor and weighed just 9 and a half ounces at birth. That is less than a can of Coke. Despite the fact that about 360,000 babies are born each year each birth is a miracle. How can something so complicated as a human be created in such a way yet turn our right so often. The first picture was made shortly. The next picture was 14 weeks later. Actually December 14, 2011. More of the story is HERE

Consider that as tiny and fragile as she looks in the first photo we all passed through that stage. Of course we were perfected within the womb.

How perfect the womb that forms us. Or as Psalm 139 says "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb."

Roomie's new stove was delivered that afternoon. Tomorrow I will post a picture of the cooking machine.

When NASA was preparing for the Apollo Project, it took the astronauts to a Navajo reservation in Arizona for training. One day, a Navajo Elder and his son came across the space crew walking among the rocks. The Elder, who spoke only Navajo, asked a question. His son translated for the NASA people. "What are these guys in the big suits doing?"

One of the astronauts said that they were practicing for a trip to the moon. When his son relayed this comment the Navajo Elder got all excited and asked if it would be possible to give to the astronauts a message to deliver to the moon.

Recognizing a promotional opportunity when he saw one, a NASA official accompanying the astronauts said, "Why certainly!" and told an underling to get a tape recorder . The Navajo Elder's comments into the microphone were brief.

The NASA official asked the son if he would translate what his father had said. The son listened to the recording and laughed uproariously. But he refused to translate. So the NASA people took the tape to a nearby Navajo village and played it for other members of the tribe. They too laughed long and loudly but also refused to translate the elder's message to the moon.

Finally, an official government translator was summoned. After he finally stopped laughing the translator relayed the message: "Watch out for these pricks. They have come to steal your land."

12/16: Lord God, as we celebrate this Christmas, may we show others what you have done in sending your son to save us and to bring us peace. Amen. The prayers are from the Upper Room. For your own free E-Mail Devotional visit : http://upperroom.org/devotional/email/ and click on the link "Other Ways to Receive the Daily Devotional"

Anthony's Catfish Stew

4 celery stalks, chopped fine
2 large onions, chopped
2 sm. bell peppers, chopped
5 pods of garlic, chopped fine
Salt & Chinese red pepper to taste
3-4 lb. fresh catfish, cut in sm. strips
Flour
5 T. tomato paste
Cooking oil

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Season catfish.

Add cooking oil to cover bottom of heavy black pot. Add 1 layer of chopped onion, bell pepper, garlic, and celery and then another layer of catfish.

Sprinkle with a little flour, add another layer of onions, bell pepper, garlic and celery, and then another layer of catfish. Catfish should end up on top.

Sprinkle with a little flour, and add about 5 T. tomato paste over the mixture. Cover with tight lid and let cook over low fire until onions and other seasonings and fish are done.


Do not stir. This will break up the fish. Just shake pot now and then so mixture does not stick to bottom.

Serve with rice

Serves 6

I have been craving catfish for weeks. The fried catfish at "Potato Patch" for lunch with my brother did not break the craving. I know this will not be made in "shattered manor" but I can enjoy the cerebral flavor. This recipe from Durene's web recipes.
"We are all alike, on the inside."
Mark Twain

SGGP

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