Tybee Island, Georgia with a Ring-billed Gull Flying over the beach
Photography and Poem by Norma Beaird
Tybee Island, Georgia with a Ring-billed Gull Flying over the beach
Photography and Poem by Norma Beaird
Article by Curtis Beaird
Photography by Norma Beaird
We know at first light, God has given us another day, win, lose or draw. The day that the Lord has made has arrived. And, right before our eyes, “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” opens before us.
We pray. Read our Bible. Drink coffee. Then it happens.
We turn on an electronic device. In the blink of an eye, the tedium of the ever-present chaos greets us. The world rushes in, claiming that there is never enough; and, if there was enough, it wouldn’t be right.
Things must change, but stay the same. The promise is a lie and it is “their” fault. Turn the volume down, and even mute the sound, but you know the voice of demand continues to grate on your nerves, even if all you see is a plastic smile with moving lips.
What will see us through?
We know that determination, strength of will, and fortitude can move us forward.
They have before, and will again.
We know that patience is an asset; as in, “This too shall pass.”
We know that hope is a necessity and faith is a gift.
But, what will see us through? Of everything that we try, and the last thing we expect to hear, Paul says — “the greatest is love.”
“Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. “
I Corinthians 13
Grace and peace
Copyright 2020, Curtis and Norma Beaird. All rights reserved.
Article and Photography by Curtis Beaird
Every Day is Valentine’s Day at our House.....
My bride and I celebrate Valentine’s Day every day of the year. No, that is not a dodge for me to get out of "something special". For us, it is a way of life that refuses to be reduced to a box of chocolates in the context of faux romance….....he says confidently as he wipes a smudge of Russell Stover from the corner of his mouth.
For us, the 13th day following Valentine’s Day.......today, right this minute, as I write this, is a special day. We are together. Together is how we see life. Together is how we decide what comes next. Together is how we sail on when the wind starts to blow. Together we laugh and talk and wonder…... and laugh some more. Together..
Together we fell in love. Together we stay that way.
(I Corinthians 13)
Together we decide, act and follow a different drummer. We love birds, photography, and each other (please reverse the order). We love to explore, discover and wander in places that the crowd has an uncanny ability to miss. You would be amazed at what the crowd misses.
Yes, the 13th day following Valentines Day........today, right this minute, as I write this, is a special day. Without a doubt, it is possible to have more than one special day in a row. Actually, this is our 2,518th special day in a row.
On this particular special day we are planning to....... But, that would be telling, wouldn't it? I forgot to mention........ People who love and celebrate Valentine's Day everyday have secrets. Beautiful secrets. They celebrate their secrets. Whisper their secrets to each other. Share their secrets, even in the silence that is never a void between them. They just don't tell anyone their secrets.
I hope Valentines Day was a good day at your house.
......I think the peanut butter covered in chocolate is the best.
Copyright 2013, Curtis Beaird. All rights reserved.
Posted at 06:48 PM in Commitment, Love, Marriage, Valentine's Day | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Poem by Norma W. Beaird
Photography by Curtis and Norma Beaird
The road that leads to Heaven is a road that’s long and steep,
Sometimes it’s full of rocks and mud
and cracks within the street.
Sometimes the road is winding
and the stops to rest are few,
We go around in circles and
we don’t know what to do.
And then sometimes the narrow road
reveals no end in sight,
You travel long and travel hard
and deep into the night.
You look for signs to light the path
and signs cannot be found,
In fear you steer off course again
and you must turn around.
is a road that’s hard indeed,
But on this road you won’t be lost
for Christ will take the lead.
He’ll guide you on the dusty road
and through the wind and rain,
He’ll take the wheel when all you see
is hurt, despair and pain.
For God has sent a Road Map
that will safely lead you home,
To where the Lord will meet us
at His bright and shining throne.
The road to Heaven is a road that’s sure and yours to find,
For on this road are paths that lead to love and peace of mind.
The road may bend and curve a while
until the journey’s end,
Just know that God was steering you
for He’s your dearest Friend.
The Lord may take you down
some roads
that you don’t understand,
But don’t turn back or be afraid
of God’s unchanging Hand.
to a cool and peaceful shore,
Where sorrows are forgotten
when we call His name once more.
The trip may leave you battle-scarred by burdens you will bear,
But as you turn the curves of life,
the Lord is standing there.
So don’t despair my friend when life is not as you had planned,
You won’t get lost for God will lead you to the Promised Land.
Don’t exit off, just hang on to the Road Map you’ve been given,
For this my friend will guide you on the road that leads to Heaven.
The audio version of The Road that Leads to Heaven
Windows Media File
from our "Because of You, I'm Free" CD
Copyright 2006, Norma W. Beaird. All rights reserved.
"Because of You, I'm Free" CD project produced by Jerry Richardson
Poems on the CD by Norma W. Beaird
Poem recitation by Curtis Beaird
Article by: Curtis Beaird
Photography by: Norma W. Beaird
I Timothy 1:7
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear;
but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
Fear Arrives
Regardless of Paul’s list of spiritual gifts …..…"love, power and a sound mind,” an ugly fear was visited on us on September 11, 2001. It hasn’t been the same since. Fear and its cousin anxiety are at all times just below the surface.
But wait, there is more. The economic meltdown of 2008 pushed us to a new edge. If the threat of them over there coming over here wasn’t enough, now we have the economic threat of the disappearing 401k, brought to us by a financial system we built and believed in.
Oh no! What to do? Where to turn?
Fear Grows
Today, fear is the emotion of choice. We continue to choose fear and its primary expression of anger as the engine that moves us. We prefer emotional spasms to informed decisions. Paul’s gift of a “sound mind” seems way too passive in the face of the hurricane of anxiety that faces us every day. Given the choice of thought or feeling, all we need is a word or two, and we can start ourselves a flash fire. Say “Communism” or “Communist” out loud in a mixed group and check the level of tension.
The Problem of a Sound Mind
Thought takes time. Developing the capacity to consider and decide requires a steady effort that an anxiety-driven anger can’t wait for. Patience may be a virtue. Today, it is considered a weakness, if not a liability. Quick, something has to be done! Panic, oddly enough, competes with boredom for the upper hand. Boredom in itself is a low-grade anger.
The little train that could now wears, not the face of courage, but the mask of grim determination. Shrill voices dominate. Rage, not reason, is offered as a guide. The power, love and sound mind that Paul thought were gifts of God have been driven underground by a fear that he implied was not sourced in God.
The Threat to a Sound Mind
Like it or not, and we don’t, there is no way back to the days of our pre 9-11 innocence. The days when we believed the illusion that we were safe and secure from all alarms are gone. Those were the good ‘ole days. Now, it’s a daily struggle over gun rights and the TSA. The burning question whispered here and there, “Whose house did the drone fly over today?” Conspiracy theories once laughed at as political fiction have fallen into the “where there is smoke, there is fire” category.
Jesus’ statement, “there shall be wars and rumors of wars” has become more than a statement of reality, it is a business model. By the way, not all drones are snoops. The one built by Kratos Defense and Security is described with some wonderful abstract and cool language. They state that these unmanned fliers are “…utilized as high fidelity enemy threat surrogates.” Yeah baby.
And, who wouldn’t want to cut a winged “surrogate” out of the sky with a 50 Cal. For a picture with substance, imagine shooting down a model airplane. Dirty Hairy never had it so good.
The High Cost of a Fear-Driven Anger
When rage replaces reason, it is easy to demonize would-be leaders. Romney and Obama have been demonized, and as long as fear and anger remain the emotion of choice, they will continue to be. We the angry believe that power lies in the strength of that emotion. Its heat generates such a sense of self, that for a fleeting moment, it dominates our feelings of helplessness. Never mind that it blinds us to the forward look.
We never realized that living on the outskirts of rage is debilitating. It robs us of thought. It reduces choice to what is put before us. Read that again. Anger reduces our choices to what is put before us. Like it or not, and we don’t, our fear-driven anger blinds us to possibilities that we could otherwise see if we settled, blinked twice and thought past the chaos that surrounds us….. and that is manufactured for us. Paul again…...
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear;
but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
The Final Loss
All of the above said to say this.......anticipation is buried. God’s gift of power is eclipsed.
Being a baby boomer, born in 1945, I knew the experience as a teenager of working construction alongside men who won their war. They were different animals. I was thirteen. They, to include my father, were in their early to mid thirties. Do you get the picture? There was nothing they thought they couldn’t do. I grew up in that atmosphere.
Super-charged anticipation is the best way to describe it. The Cold War? The Russian Missile Crisis? The hinky little bomb shelter built in front of the fire station a few blocks from our home? None of that applied. Today was what it was, good, bad or indifferent…… but we were on the way to tomorrow. Tomorrow was always on the way to better.
A friend of mine in his forties said to me a couple days ago, “I hope I can keep my job so I can retire. Maybe we can get the country headed in the right direction.” If you saw him, you would think you were seeing a professional in mid-career. He sees himself as a tired man with a job he hopes to keep. A man looking for a way out of the fray. At forty-something? The spirit of the line, “I am the master of my fate, the captain of my soul,” has long departed the building.
As for me and my house, we trust God and His Word.
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear;
but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
Bring it on. The best is yet to be.
Copyright 2012, Curtis Beaird. All rights reserved.
Posted at 01:19 AM in Anger, Anxiety, Apostle Paul, Fear, Love, Power, Sound Mind | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Article by: Curtis Beaird
Photography by:
Curtis and Norma Beaird
The first thing I heard this morning was Blue Jays announcing their arrival at the feeder. They are big birds. They are loud birds. They are birds that love peanuts. As soon as we feed them, they fall silent.
I guess it is difficult to screech, screech, screech, with a beak full of your favorite food. Those big blues never fail to bring a smile.
Manna from heaven is fresh every morning.
Now, it is assault time. Turn on the TV. The manna offered by the antics of the Jays is replaced by another loud pair. This time, a couple of talking heads doing voiceovers while outdated file footage documents what went wrong while I slept. If something didn’t slip, break or get blown up in the world, someone somewhere did something wrong. That too is eagerly reported.
There is nothing quite like the quick trip from heavenly manna to an emotional mauling served up by news outlets specializing in commercialized chaos. If sex sells, these folks have discovered that human tragedy is equally as lucrative. What would the evening news be without at least one tight shot of yellow crime tape? Cashing sorrow has become a business strategy.
Other than flipping the off button and risking the guilt of not caring, what can we do to manage the constant barrage of “it went wrong,” “it’s going wrong”, or “they did it wrong”? This message keeps us off balance and weighed down with a low-grade fatigue and a not-so-low-grade anger.
You are right; I would not have raised the question if I didn’t have a proposed answer ready. Well actually, I don’t, but the Apostle Paul does. In the face of the wrangling chaos at Ephesus, Paul allows Timothy in on the secret of how to handle it with what I call the Big Six.
I Timothy 6:11
“…follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.”
Whew. O.K. Let’s go ahead and say it. Of those Big Six that Paul listed, to think of godliness as a goal, much less a strategy for living, seems borderline impossible, if not absurd. My guess, when we hear the word godliness, we imagine a life pure as the driven snow, one zipped up so tight that we can’t breath…....or both. We give up even before we start. While that conclusion is natural, it will leave us vulnerable to the insanity that surrounds us. So, stay with me through a few more words.
For Paul, godliness is a way to a productive future. It is a conscious choice we can make to avoid the downward pull we feel each time that we are assaulted by a media bent on exhausting us with perpetual and contrived tension. Yelling the news at me is counterproductive. I refuse to listen.
I’ve figured it out. They have no interest in me being informed; they want me angry. They will gladly fake their anger in order to give me an excuse to express and experience mine. Angry people are easier to manipulate. Godliness offers the way to see beyond and seek the better way. Stewing in our own aggravation is a waste of the spiritual energy that God gives to us.
Godliness invigorates, energizes and generates possibilities. Godliness puts us in touch with a power that speaks worlds into existence. "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light."
Let there be bird houses we build. Let there be children we love. Let there be vision and dreams of tomorrow when tomorrow means next Thursday. Think about it, Paul did tell Timothy to “lay hold on eternal life….”
I believe that taking hold begins in the here and now with the choices we make today. I believe that taking hold begins with imagining something other than the destruction of my presumed enemies. I believe that taking hold means there is more in this moment than the pathetic view that the narrow minded media offers me.
Godliness, which is the pulling of eternal life toward us, has other benefits. It recreates our fear as healthy caution and converts anger into creative energy. Godliness means we are not alone with the mess.
Maybe the best news about godliness is that it enables us to think. If we suspend our minds and use only the emotions of fear and anger to feel our way along, problems are neither defined nor solved; they are only complained about and railed against. With our head and hearts engaged, we are free to invest ourselves in the purpose of our lives.
The first thing I heard this morning was Blue Jays announcing their arrival at the feeder. The second thing I heard was the Apostle Paul giving me a choice between the lead subject of the Big Six or the channel changer.
What should I do?
Posted at 04:55 PM in Anger, Apostle Paul, Birds, Blue Jays, Faith, Godliness, Love, Manipulation, Meekness, Patience, Righteousness | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Article By: Curtis Beaird
Photography By: Norma W. Beaird
Ponderings. Short pieces designed to raise questions rather than generate answers.
Three reflections intended to nudge us past the boundaries of the self. Who knows, maybe our preoccupation with a self-centered inward focus could be our fatal flaw.
“Know thyself” says Socrates. Why not “Forget thyself”? When we turn loose of ourselves, give up trying to please ourselves, do we not find what we are looking for? Why not “Invest thyself”? It has been written and long ago forgotten,
John 15:13
"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."
It is not that the sacrificial life has failed. It has yet to be tried.
Words
Words fall from the mind like rain.
Words guide us, direct us, define us.
One word can stand for them all
.......Hope
Faith
Security is an illusion,
if not an idol.
Certainty is a fantasy,
if not a lie.
To live at risk
is to chance the discovery
of faith.
I Can't Fix It
I can't fix it. But, I will listen.
I can't fix it. But, I will refuse the darkness.
I can't fix it. But, I will embrace the light.
I can't fix it. But, I will be a neighbor.
I can't fix it. But, I will respect the stranger.
I can't fix it. But, I will be a friend.
I can't fix it. But, I will do no harm to the earth.
I can't fix it. But, I will not let fear rule.
I can't fix it. But, I will not let anger dominate.
I can't fix it. But, I will speak a word of kindness.
I can't fix it. But, I will offer a cup of cold water.
".......Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee....." Acts 3:6
Copyright 2011, Curtis Beaird. All rights reserved.
Posted at 01:24 AM in Faith, Hope, Love, Ponderings, Risk, Security, Words | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
© 2006 - 2023 Curtis and Norma Beaird. All rights reserved.