The Burnt-Over Blog: October 2009

Friday, October 30, 2009

Geese Fest

We went to a local park and pond and fed some of the geese and ducks there. The kids had fun but the geese seemed to enjoy it even more. They were fearless.

The ducks hung back as the geese were so big and mean.

Those geese would take it right out of Bekah's hands.

The horde followed us for awhile until it realized we had no more bread.

We then went to play at the park which has the biggest slide ever! Linc loves this slide and just goes down it over and over again until we tell him we have to go. He doesn't even seem to tire climbing up all those stairs!

Bekah went down the big slide once but preferred this one instead. I don't blame her.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Fall Creek Falls

We drove to Fall Creek Falls last weekend and had a great time driving through the beautiful winding, fall colored roads. Nothing says fall like Tennessee!

Fall Creek Falls.

We hiked down the very rocky trail to the bottom of the falls. Linc did so well walking down the trail. He only needed to be carried about half the time. That is good for him!

Bekah required more holding.

Here you can see how steep and rocky the trail was.

Finally made it to the bottom.

Looking up the falls.

There was a lot of mist in the air from the water so we found Linc like this.

And here is his Alex the Lion impression. Up happy, down sad.

Hiking back up.

And a good rest at the top.

As we left a fine fog was seeping over the forest. So pretty.

Bekah likes to wear her glasses upside down for some reason.

I found Linc the other day like this!!! He had gotten into a box of princess dress-up clothes a friend from church had given Bekah! So cute Linc! I love that he still maintains some of his manliness by having his shirt off!

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Bryant Grove

We found a great little beach on J. Percy Priest Lake here in Nashville that the kids love to play at and it is even called Bryant Grove. How appropriate!

We didn't know there was a beach there until we showed up so I didn't bring swimsuits for the kids, but that didn't stop them. They got their clothes soaking wet and rode home in just a diaper!

Here is Linc sitting in the chair.

Here is Linc falling out of the chair!

Seth even got to get some good fishing in.

Bekah found a nice little hole to play in full of water.

The lakes here are just beautiful and the great thing is there are a lot of lakes in Tennessee.

Doctrine and Covenants 163:10a-b

Del Gue's Parting Words

I ain't never seen 'em, but my common sense tells me the Andes is foothills, and the Alps is for children to climb! Keep good care of your hair! These here is God's finest sculpturings! And there ain't no laws for the brave ones! And there ain't no asylums for the crazy ones! And there ain't no churches, except for this right here! And there ain't no priests excepting the birds. By God, I are a mountain man, and I'll live 'til an arrow or a bullet finds me. And then I'll leave my bones on this great map of the magnificent...

The Meaning of Christ on the Cross

At the heart of divine love is sacrifice-the willingness to be diminished so that another may be increased. This is the meaning of Christ on the cross. God, who could have insulated himself from pain, descended to earth, assumed the aspect of his children, and bore the greatest pain in his own person. Rather than hoard the heavenly feast for himself, he invites beggars to his table. He breaks bread with us and drinks from the cup our lips have touched. When he speaks to us, it is no longer from a great white throne, centered in a vortex of light, surrounded by celestial griffins, warding off the unwashed. He speaks to us eye to eye, from a traitor’s gibbet, with his blood and sweat and shame upon him for all to see, and with his wounds forever open. He comes not as king, but as slave. He comes not as judge, but as accused. He comes not as patriarch, but as bastard. He comes not to punish us, but to let us punish him. He does not ask us to love him until we are first certain that he loves us. He is the great failure who saves us from our success. He is the great fool who spares us from our wisdom. He is the rejected lover who will not, in turn, reject his love. He is a prophet without honor, a citizen of a despised nation, a poor relation, an unwanted guest. He is the voice of one crying in the wilderness of every human heart. He is the God of grief and sorrow who is the joy of our desiring. He is utterly good because he loves us in our sins and imperfections, because he freely made himself equal to us, and because he freely opened the way whereby we may be made equal to him.

--Paul Toscano's "Priesthood Concepts in the Book of Mormon," Sunstone (Dec. 1989): 17.

True Conversion

Conversion is a permanent process in which very often the obstacles we meet make us lose all we had gained and start anew. The fruitfulness of our conversion depends on our openness to doing this, our spiritual childhood. All conversion implies a break. To wish to accomplish it without conflict is to deceive oneself and others: "No one is worthy of me who cares more for father or mother than for me." But it is not a question of a withdrawn and pious attitude. Our conversion process is affected by the socio-economic, political, cultural, and human environment in which it occurs. Without a change in these structures, there is no authentic conversion. We have to break with our mental categories, with the way we relate to others, with our way of identifying with the Lord, with our cultural milieu, with our social class, in other words, with all that can stand in the way of a real, profound solidarity with those who suffer, in the first place, from misery and injustice. Only thus, and not through purely interior and spiritual attitudes, will the 'new person' arise from the ashes of the 'old.'"
--Gustavo Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation, 118

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