M. Kathleen Crews

About me -- I am at the twilight of my life; after dinnertime, with my appetite sated, and a long, sweet, evening ahead of me. I have passed through this world leaving impressions on hearts and minds which have all gone to their own tasks and their own homes. This page is to collect those parts of me together in one place; for me, and for those who care about me be they near or far away.

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my prayer

Dear Maker of the World, Father of Creation,

I thank You for this day.

I thank You for the miracle of my

being able to see and to hear this evening.

I thank you for the air which

expands my lungs and sustains my body,

and the clean water which

soothes parched lips and burning thirst.

I thank You for my thoughts,

which cannot be measured or proven,

explained, controlled or denied,

but which I surely know exist.

Keep reading

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Puck’s Glen, Scotland

Photographer - Tom Randle

(All submissions of photographs of Scotland get extra points)

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Wow!  I can smell the earthiness  .. !

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頂石桌 by Vincent Ting

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Worth a thousand words, yet leaves me speechless with its beauty.  

Congratulations on the lovely capture.

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♥

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Fabulous! 

If only my cats were this useful.

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Joyeux Noël!

Merry Christmas! 

Jan 4, 2014, will be 5 years to the day since I was laid of from my manufacturing job at Caterpillar, Inc. 

The collapse of the housing market made my job disappear five years ago, and I am so very proud, and relieved, and grateful to announce to you all that on that 5th anniversary, I will be starting my new job with the State of North Carolina. 

It has been a long hard road to get to this point, and the new job will not be a cure-all for the troubles of the last five years (that will take another year or two at least), but it's a beginning.  And an ending.  And, like Christmas, a time to take stock. 

For all the uncertainty I've struggled with these last few years, I always had friends by my side. Old, faithful ones.  New ones.  Unexpected ones.  Friends I haven't even met yet, and you all know who you are.

To you, my friends, and to you, my family, all my love and thanks this Christmas.  Christmas is a time of beginnings, and you've made my new beginning possible. 

Joyeux Noël!

Kat

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(via Volcanic Smoke Rings - Even Volcanoes Like To Chill • Lazer Horse)

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She's fascinating to watch.  BTW, loving my camera phone.

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… There…now I won’t bother you for a while.  <3

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Another Stowaway capture. .. and yet one more ...

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M. Kathleen Crews, Consumer Services: The authoritative source of M. Kathleen Crews' personal information, links, and social activity.

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Temp's gonna be 105 today and feel like 115 with the humidity.  

(Tragic irony:  This was the Far Side calendar the day before the Twin Towers came down!  Wow ..)    

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Thanks to this video, you’ll actually understand what fire is

Science may be able to explain many things about how our world works, but communicating such things in a way that can be understood by 11 year olds (or the rest of us) is not easy to do. Take a flame, for example: just what the heck is going on there? This video, winner of Alan Alda’s Flame Challenge, explains it in an easy and fun way.

So, what is the Flame Challenge? Back when Alan Alda was 11 years old (this, for the record, was a little bit before M*A*S*H or Scientific American Frontiers or The West Wing), he asked one of his teachers what a flame was and was told “oxidation,” which is more or less meaningless to an 11 year old kid.

After being frustrated by this for 65 years, Alda came up with the Flame Challenge, which asked scientists (or anyone else) to come up with a fun (but scientifically complete) way of explaining the science behind how a flame works to kids. Here’s the winning entry, from quantum physics grad student Ben Ames.

Personally, I don’t think I really understood what flame was until I watched that video. Nice job, Ben, but now that you’ve proven that it’s possible to explain complex concepts in a simple manner, we’re going to start expecting all scientists to be able to do this. In fact, I for one think that from now on, scientists receiving government funding for their research should be required to make videos like these every time they publish.

DVICE

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Rinser Toothbrush with Power Fountain.  Saw this here.  See more here.  

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Half a tank -- oh no!

I noticed my gas gauge was sitting below half a tank while I was driving home from work tonight. Oh, hell .. gonna have to fill up sometime in the next two weeks. ♥ing my xA and my 1.5mi commute! :PPPPP

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Chrome extensions for blogs! .. Whaaat!??  ♥

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This is what Faith looks like

She’s there on the coffee table in my living room; a little ceramic kitten.  See her?  She’s small, maybe 4” tall, barely noticeable next to the flower arrangement.  There, on the left, her neck stretched out and nose reaching up like she’s checking the scent of the flower hanging above her.  She’s nearly invisible, overwhelmed by the arrangement, but she’s there if you know to look for her. 

I found her in a thrift shop a few years back.  On closer examination I could see her ears were chipped (knocked over a time or two) but she had these lovely, delicate flowers decorating her little body.  She was sculpted with her feet tucked in, giving her a compact, even serene, profile.  This little piece is actually one half of a common, kind-of kitzchy, ceramic duet – a mother cat reaching down to check on her kitten and the kitten reaching up to touch her mother.  The mother piece was not in the thrift shop; probably broken.  Just the damaged little kitten, her face still uplifted to reach her mom. 

She was designed to be reaching up, nearly touching something, but that something or someone was gone.  A little, motherless, ceramic kitten.  So serene.  So patient.  So ... hopeful, perhaps.  Forever reaching for something to complete it and restore the balance in it's design.  I understood it, if that makes sense.  She was a kindred soul. 

So I, maybe, rescued her.  Who knows?  Maybe she rescued me. 

Alright, I know what you're thinking:  I’m reading entirely too much into my little ceramic kitten.  And, honestly, I've asked myself if I’m over-sentimentalizing her.  I’m prone to do that, I suppose. But consider this before you judge me too harshly:  

Something about the little damaged kitten was appealing enough that the original owner could not just throw it away when the companion piece broke.  Instead it changed hands, and the new owner also decided it had worth.  No telling how many hands it went through before it ended up in a thrift shop already overflowing with little knick-knacks of all sorts.  And still it made the cut – and was placed on a shelf, a modest price hopefully placed on it, until it caught my eye with its quiet, enduring faith. 

I don’t point my little ceramic Faith out to visitors.  Most don’t even notice she’s there, tucked up under the buds and greenery.  And even if they do, they don’t notice her chipped ears or the little smile on her uplifted face.  And that’s okay.  She’s not meant to be a display piece.  This joyful, hopeful, damaged little kitten is meant for someone .. like me.  A little daily reminder of the power in an enduring Faith.

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Everyday Use

There was a parcel in my mailbox when I got home from work one Saturday.  My baby brother had called to ask my address a few days earlier saying he had something to send me, so I eagerly gathered my package and headed into the house.

The box was rather small, about 10” x 8” x 4.5”, and surprisingly hefty, and I opened it with care.  Inside I pulled back the thin foam protective layer to find a beautifully finished piece of cedar glowing back at me.  I removed the contents to find a set of six nesting Shaker Boxes, exquisitely rendered in cedar and maple, shaped by my brother’s loving hands.   

He called the pieces “New England Tupperware.”  And they could almost be used like tupperware, except that he wryly advised his ditzy older sis not to ‘store wet things in there,’ lol.  He additionally informed me that the cedar tops are traditional - and unfinished on the inside of the box - because cedar keeps the bugs out.  The fit of the tops is comfortably snug, and the boxes are well made enough that they are surely adequate for storing dry goods.  The largest box measures 8.5” x 6” x 4.25” and the smallest is an amazing 2.75” x 1.5” x 1”.   They are, simply put, stunning examples of the woodcrafter’s art. 

And I am ridiculously torn about what to do with them! 

·        I want to keep them in their original cardboard box and squirrel them away in a dresser drawer as a family treasure, but I have no family to pass them on to. 

·        I want to send them back and say I am not worthy of such a gift:  They should be an heirloom piece for HIS family. 

·        I want to take them out and proudly display them on a mantle as a reminder of my family roots and how we’ve applied those skills learned at my father’s knee, and of which the youngest of our family has now become a master. 

·        I want to honor the gift so lovingly given by putting them to the everyday use for which they were intended – honoring the gift by filling them exotic spices and savories, but risking damage to them by subjecting them to the rigors of kitchen use.

They are still in the box he placed them in to send them to me, but I have so far resisted squirreling them away in the dresser drawer reserved for personal treasures.  They shouldn’t spend their life in a drawer.  And I have no mantle, or a fine, dignified place to openly display them with the reverence they deserve. 

I probably will succumb to putting them to everyday use – but I will find the most fine, exotic spices I can first!