I Am the Thinker of Bright Ideas! Read Herein!

I am the dreamer of dreams. I am the inventor of things. Just click here if you don't believe so! (You will need to scroll downward for this post itself will be the first on the page...just scroll downward to see all the rest of my inventions...none of which are patented...you are free to do so and make zillions of $$$).

This week I dreamed up a movie scenario for Hollywood! Some Hollywood writer needs to take this idea and run with it!

Scenario...an apocalyptic movie (as if we need more of those!) in which the entire human race except for a handful of people is destroyed...and in their frantic desire to keep humanity from becoming extinct they realize that there are 396,526 frozen embryos still safe within facilities (whose power has not shut down).

Think about it.

And remember that I said it first.

Oh! And another! Why don't they design wood decks with floor boards that can be flipped over like a venetian blind? After 6 inches of snow has accumulated, a self-monitor just flips the boards and dumps the snow underneath! If another 6 inches arrives, they flip again! Go ahead, patent it! But I want 10 percent on this one!

Deadly Advice From a Deluded Young Woman

A couple years ago I joined a members-only online forum with hundreds of other ovarian cancer patients (and a few caretakers or family members).

This past week I got really angry. Really, really angry. (I don't think it is grammatically correct to use two "really" words, but you get the picture.)

A young woman posted on our board as well as eight other forums (eight other diseases) that food is the "only" remedy for our health problems. She insisted that if we all ate raw fruits and raw vegetables only (organic, of course) that we could be "cured" of our ailments.

She insisted that to remove the cancerous tumors was to remove our body's defense against the cancer...that the body had deposited the cancer into our ovaries instead of into the heart for instance. The "logic" behind this was that the heart is more vital to the life of the body and hence, the body had taken toxins that might damage the heart, so to speak, and deposited them in the ovaries without which the body can still survive.

As I mentioned already, she advocated this "raw fruit, raw veggie" diet as a "cure-all".

Regardless of the numerous replies disputing her "unscientific" or even "unsensible" idea, she is still insistent today, some two weeks after her original posting.

Generally, I limit my responses to the topic at hand...ovarian cancer...and all the subtopics involved...side-effects, surgeries, personal experiences, new ovca drugs, new trial drugs, etc. Those are the things we ovarians discuss. We sometimes digress to humor or personal anecdotes of life itself. While we mention faith (of whatever kind), we do not use the forum as a "preaching platform".

But this particular discussion was so false and had such a false concept of how we can be "cured". This deluded young woman is .... well...she's deluded. What more can I say. Today she accused us of "fearing death". And I could not let that pass.

Today I responded thusly:

She wrote this:
"May not the 'FEAR' of death guide you into short-sighted decisions to remove your organs or take dangerous drugs under the 'myth' that you will be cured and live 'happily ever after '."

I responded with the following: (I changed the name to protect the "not-so-innocent".)

First of all, SallyAnn, there is NO MYTH that we ovarian cancer patients are believing. Those of us diagnosed at stage III and IV are under NO ILLUSION that we will live, as you say, "HAPPILY EVER AFTER" if we faithfully do our chemo or any other regimen other than YOUR "food only" policy.

And, personally, SallyAnn, I do not FEAR DEATH.

You see, as a Christian, a follower of Christ, a believer of the Bible, I believe that Jesus was telling the truth when he promised eternal life to those who hear and believe. John 5:24. Here are his words....“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life."

The verb tense of "has" is present tense. Our eternal life begins "right now". And the verb tense of "has passed" is past tense. We have already passed out of death. Into eternal life. It begins right now, here and now, not at some "point of death" when our souls leave our bodies.

He also said such words as "I go to prepare a place for you" and "I will come again". And in the last two chapters of the Bible, in the book of Revelation, we hear his promise, "He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”

And again in verse 6 Jesus told John, "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost."

I do not live in fear. Yes, I love this life here on earth. Life here is (can be) very, very good. We love our families, we love the beauty of nature, we love the goodness of common blessings with which God blesses the earth. But we also hate death. Death is the common enemy of all mankind. Thanks be to God, He has provided life beyond our physical death.

I seldom discuss my faith here on this forum. But I figure it is fair to do so, considering how you have shared your "non-medical advice" to those of us ovarian cancer patients who will die soon if we follow your "food only" advice.

Bottom line? We are born. We live. We die. But in Christ we have eternal life. He promises that in John 5:24. No ifs, ands, or buts. No special diet necessary. Simply believe that God is who He says He is, and that He has done what He says He has done, and that He WILL do what He says He will do. And then live what you believe.

If you want to eat raw fruits/veggies only, go for it.
If I want to, or anyone else here wants to do the same, go for it.
But don't believe the LIE that we ovarians can discontinue all medical care and that raw foods will CURE you.
It won't happen.

But eternity? Yeah. It's there. And I am not afraid to die.

End of discussion.

Disclaimer: This is not a denial on my part that a healthy diet is a good diet.

When There Are Only Two for Dinner

When there are only two of you for dinner...

And when appetites are non-existent in regards to tomorrow's leftovers...

One must think "small".

Today's culinary experience is this poor tiny creature. Small enough to sit in my hand. Not much larger than a baked potato.

It's been a long time since I cooked a Cornish game hen, but it seemed it would be much easier than roasting a turkey. Smaller, ya know. It was a simple procedure to rinse it in a stainless steel bowl instead of wrestling a turkey in the kitchen sink...a sink which must be cleaned properly before and after.

When I first unwrapped this little hen I almost had second thoughts. I mean, look at the size of this poor little fowl. Surely when it still proudly wore feathers it must have been the cutest little thing! And here it was, simply a carcass, and a tiny one at that, ready to be placed in the oven.

I grew up on the farm. I know how to catch a chicken, stretch its neck over the chopping block, chop off the head, dip the fowl in boiling water (loosens the feathers), pluck, singe the pin feathers, gut, cut, soak, dip, and fry.

But looking at this poor little critter I thought once again how once upon a time I enjoyed eating vegetarian. Those days are long past. And even if we decided to go back to being vegetarians, it's simply not possible. Hubby has renal failure and one of his dietary necessities is lots and lots of protein. Meat protein.

So little Miss Cornish Game Hen was stuffed with a piece of lemon and onion, glazed with a pineapple, butter and maple syrup, and roasted to perfection.

I can tell you it took much, much less time in the kitchen than any turkey you'll ever cook.

And twice as delicious. So next time you're cooking small? Try this simple dish. Recipes abound online, so find one you like and enjoy a treat.

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In Which I Encourage You to Celebrate a Birthday

Today is Jack's birthday. That's what his family and friends called him...Jack. If he were alive, he would be 113 years old today.

Jack's real name was Clive Staples Lewis, better known to the public as C. S. Lewis. Aha! Now you recognize him, don't you!

Lewis was a writer, a Christian apologist, and was on the English faculty at Oxford University. He wrote this in regards to his coming to Christ...

"You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England."

Most people do not know that Lewis was a close friend of J. R. R. Tolkien, author of the Lord of the Rings and others. G. K. Chesterton was also a close friend.

I encourage you to view the 1993 movie, "Shadowlands", wherein Lewis meets and marries his wife, Joy Gresham. Their marriage lasted a short 3 years, ending when Joy succumbed to cancer. You will weep. If you did not before, you will then, have a huge heart for C. S. Lewis, the man.

Happy Birthday, C.S. (I don't think I'm close enough to call him, Jack, although I'm sure he would beg to differ. He was that kinda guy.)

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My Friend Debbie is Tossing Lotsa Stuff!

My friend Debbie has decided to pare down the "stuff" in her house. In a simple one hundred (100) days. One hundred days of tossing out "stuff". Lotsa stuff. Weird kinds of stuff. Perfectly good stuff. Brave soul, that Debbie.

Debbie is currently on Day 23. And today's "stuff" includes linens. Lotsa linens.

Read more at her blog here. Be sure to tell her what "stuff" you are cleaning out of YOUR house these days.

And, hey! Tell her I sent ya.

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Do Ya Suppose It Would It Be a Sin............

We have lotsa trees on our street. Green ash, American linden, maples of every sort. We love our shady street.

However, there is one fly in the ointment. I mean, there is one pin oak amongst the trees. It stands tall, wide, and proud. It's a lovely tree. (The tree is much larger than it appears in the photo! Much! Larger!)

But in spite of its loveliness everyone on our street (except the owner) hates that tree with a ferocity that defies description.

This oak does not drop its leaves at the appropriate time as does every other tree. No, indeedy! It takes all winter for them to drop. They begin dropping at the top and gradually move downward. In the middle of the fiercest February blizzard the bottom third of the tree will still be in full leaf. The final release will be in the spring when the tree begins nudging out new leaf tips.

So you see....all winter long there is a steady influx of leaves from across the street. Leaves made of steel that never decompose! Never! Ever!

So I'm thinking....remember the Biblical story where Jesus cursed the fig tree and the tree died?

Do ya suppose it would be a sin to curse that tree? Do ya suppose? Because I'm praying that tree will die.

P.S. The neighbor has numerous other trees that provide summer shade. It would not be a terrible loss to lose ONE tree!

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It's An Ill Wind That Blows No Good

We've had at least two hail storms this past spring and summer that might be considered "ill winds that blow no good".

That's an old saying, "It's an ill wind that blows no good." Meaning, of course, that even bad things sometimes bring about good. In this case, eleven out of twelve homes on our two-block street have new roofs. Homeowners are happy...new roofs paid for by insurance. Insurance companies are probably not so happy. Not just on our street, but all over town, new roofs have been going up all summer. (Our own roof was only a year old and did not sustain damage.)

Life itself is like that. We see the storms of life and often fail to see the "good" that come of it. Cancer could surely be called an "ill wind". But whether it be cancer, or stroke, or heart, or simply the vagaries of old age, we are all tested with some "storm of life" before we leave this world.

This morning I was reading in Romans 5 where Paul writes that we, as Christians, "exult in hope of the glory of God." He adds something that seems confounding to us, and something that we would rather not hear. He says that we should be exulting in the the difficulties life brings, but who wants to exult in difficulties? Let's go back to Paul's words...."we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us." (Romans 5:3-5).

Often, when reading these verses, we might think Paul, in speaking of tribulations, is speaking of those trials and persecutions experienced by Christians at the hands of unbelievers. But tribulations are tribulations, and age and ill health are part of the tribulations of this earthly life.
It is good to remember to "exult", knowing that tribulations will bring good things to us, regardless of initial appearance.

Paul continues with a third exultation in Romans 5:11, "...we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconcilation (to God)." Through the work of Christ on the cross, we have been reconciled to God. We who were once alienated are brought back into right relationship to God. (You can read more about this reconciliation in 2 Cor. 5:17-19).

The storms of life hit everyone sooner or later. It is good to know that in the midst of the storm, God is working good on our behalf. Thanks be to God.

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