betrayal & bread

Does anyone else feel bad for Judas Iscariot?...  Probably not.  I mean he is named the one who betrays Jesus.  But, is Judas really worse than the other disciples?  Gosh, there’s doubting Thomas.  And what about Peter, the rock?  He has a chance to stand with Jesus, yet denies him not once, but three times.

And just after we learn that Judas is the betrayer, the disciples are arguing between themselves who will end up the greatest.  Even in the last moments of Jesus’ life, he still has to take a moment to teach the disciples about humility and servanthood.  In the end Judas hangs himself.  With all the sorrow of teenage suicides today, I’m not sure why we don’t find the story of Judas more saddening.

All the disciples have a story after Jesus’ resurrection.  I wonder what Judas’ life could have been. In the midst of breaking bread for the first time, one of the holiest acts of Christians, the betrayer is marked.  The disciple Judas is no more.

for the birds: greater yellowlegs

The Nasketucket Bird Club does a bird count once a month at the Bay Club in Mattapoisett.  I did the count back in January.  It was my first time birding with the club.  For a cold January day we saw quite a few birds.  In anticipation for the bird count this past weekend I expected to see even more birds for the bird this time.  Saturday ended up being one of the coldest days of the month, and definitely colder than then the day we went birding in January.  My fingers were cold, but the birds were plenty.

After the bird count, we headed to Mattapoisett Harbor to find some shore birds.  We parked our cars and walked the beach, crossed a river using a not so common footbridge, and meandered through the marsh where we spotted four greater yellowlegs.  It being the first time I have ever lived in an area with shore birds, and never seeing greater yellowlegs before, was excited about the sighting.  We also saw the first osprey for the year. And had the chance to see the osprey in action as it dove and came up with a fish from a local river. Those weren’t the only birds we saw that day:

American Robin, Downy Woodpecker, American Goldfinch, Brown-headed Cowbird, Tufted Titmouse, Red-winged Blackbird, Dark-eyed Junco, Northern Flicker, Blue Jay, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Herring Gull, Northern Cardinal, Black-capped Chickadee, Canada Goose, White-breasted Nuthatch, Osprey, Common Grackle, Mallard, Bufflehead, Tree Swallow, Red-tailed Hawk,Carolina Wren, Mute Swan, Black Duck, Double-Crested Cormorant, Red-breasted Merganser, Greater Yellowlegs, Great Black-backed Gull, Song Sparrow, Mourning Dove, House Sparrow,Turkey Vulture, and an Eastern Bluebird.

Bird of the week: Greater Yellowlegs.  A bird often found in April and May, this bird was a great find for a cold March day.

First sightings for the year: osprey, greater yellowlegs, and turkey vulture 

Life birds: Greater yellowlegs

(Life) Birds I want to see this year:   
American Kestrel (seen on 2/27/2010) 
Horned Lark 
Eastern Meadowlark
An owl 

garden blog: weeds out onions in

The garden?  It wasn’t in the best condition when we started; full of weeds and covered in leaves.  The soil probably hasn’t been turned in a few years.  We had to first rake out the leaves and pine cones that had collected over the garden area.  After that, well, we weeded of course.  The dirt needed to be hoed, and then we finished up by smoothing out and distributing the dirt evenly in the garden.

It is really still to early to start planting anything.  But, green onions were on our list to be planted, and apparently they can be planted in the early spring season even with potential frosts.  They are tough seeds.  We planted a week ago.  In a couple weeks – we’ll see if the little seeds are indeed tough and can breakthrough the dirt and start sprouting.  

The Garden Before

The Garden After

Jess raking the garden

Me - tilling the garden

Our first planting, green onions

so i took the donkey out

Lent, for some reason is a clash between being legalistic and well… looking like I never gave anything up for Lent.  It’s a microcosm of my life I suppose.  Trying to live a life like Jesus, but knowing full well sometimes it is okay to take a donkey out of a hole on the Sabbath (Luke 4:15).   
 

This year?  Giving up television for lent has been one thing, doing it is completely another.  Depending on how I look at it, I am doing really good or not so good.  Or maybe in the midst of the struggle I am living just how I am supposed to be.  The television has definitely been on during Lent.  I am not even going to try to lie about that.  It was on during the Olympics; in fact more than it was before Lent.  After that, it was Netflix and more Netflix.  And then in the in-between days it might be the one episode of Lost or The Office that we didn’t get to watch on Sunday.  Well, that’s the struggle.   


But, there has been much less television, especially during the early evening hours.  There has been more talking and more reading.  There has been more game playing and more music in the house.  There is still the occasional Netflix watching as I knew there would be, but since Lent has started there hasn’t been any Friends or The Office (besides watching the latest episodes as I said above).  All-in-all someone might give me a “D” for effort, but everyone is graded on a different scale, and I feel good at where I’m at during this Lenten season.  It’s not perfect, but my focus and deliberation has been in the right place.  

for the birds: osprey hunt

For whatever reason I have decided to record my bird sighting and experiences on the blog.  Last Saturday, the local bird club went osprey hunting.  The osprey usually arrive on the south coast of Massachusetts toward the end of March.  We traveled around the towns of Fairhaven, Mattapoisett, Marion, and Wareham (map) and checked the local osprey platforms for any activity.  It was a beautiful sunny day and we were hoping to see the first glimpses of the osprey for the year.  Unfortunately, we didn’t see any osprey.

We did however see lots of other birds.  We listed for the day:
 Common Loon (in breeding plumage), Double-crested Cormorant, Mute Swan, Canada Goose, Mallard, Bufflehead, Common Merganser, Red-tailed Hawk, Killdeer, Herring Gull, Gull, Great Blacked-Back Gull, Mourning Dove, Northern Flicker, Tree Swallow, Carolina Wren, American Robin, Blue Jay, American Crow, Northern Cardinal, American Goldfinch (in basic or winter plumage), House finch, Song Sparrow, Common Grackle, Red-winged Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, and the very common House Sparrow.  27 Species in all.  

Bird of the week: Double-crested Cormorant.  It was the first one of the year for me.  And I spotted its head near the shoreline before anyone else.

First sighting for the year:  Double-crested Cormorant, Common Merganser, and Tree Swallow

Life Birds: None 


(Life) Birds I want to see this year:   
American Kestrel (seen on 2/27/2010) 
Horned Lark 
Eastern Meadowlark
An owl 

the american woodcock

The American Woodcock.  It’s not a normal or common bird.  It’s not a bird that someone is going to see in their backyard or while going for a walk around the block.  It’s an unusual looking bird.  It’s kind of stubby looking with a long bill.  It’s a bird that hangs out in bushes in marshy areas.  Most birding books write that it is a secretive bird.  In spring though, at dusk – if you can find it – the woodcock gives a nasal beezp, just before he flutters to the air for an aerial display. He lands in the same area and goes through the routine continuously while trying to find a mate.  
On Thursday, the local bird club went searching for this unusual bird and display.  And let me tell you this is one of the coolest little birds and unique bird displays I have ever seen.  It’s also a life birdfor me.  If you haven’t seen one of these birds, it’s a must see.  It’s a cute bird that looks shy (that is if a bird can look shy).  And in the spring, it has an amazing courtship display that you usually only see on the television.

documenting spring

So, I’ve decided to document Spring.  Well, two parts of Spring - my garden and birding.  I will be documenting my garden from the beginning: from raking the dirt to planting the seeds.  It will document the progress of my garden as I try to grow vegetables for the first time.  Birding?  Well, that will just be me documenting the birds I see as I go out birding and the experiences I have.  

rainy day video

It's been raining here in the Northeast.  So, what do you do on a rainy day?  You make a Rube Goldberg machine of course!  And what's one of the best examples of it today?  A music video by OkGo.

swingvote

Yes, it’s only a little over a year in to President Obama’s presidency, but things aren’t looking too good for him for reelection.  He might be taking down democratic colleagues with him as well.  It’s odd that the president before can completely make up a reason to go to war with a country and gain popularity and be reelected.  For Obama, who is trying to hammer down universal healthcare for everyone in the United States, the issues are just as divided as the divisions between the people who have healthcare and who cannot afford it.

Unfortunately for Obama, he overestimated the American public in thinking that they would want to pay for healthcare for the truly disadvantaged.  Only four years after the democrats took power in the house and senate, and two years after Palin single-handedly brought down Republican credibility, it looks like Republicans are back on the upswing and with the Democrats’ help.

The bad publicity and longevity of trying to pass the healthcare bill, whether it passes or not, does not look good for Democrats or the President.  In the end, I think, this could once again swing power on the capital.

What’s with all my negativity?  Simply put: talk radio.  And, it’s all Republicans doing the talking.  “Down with wind energy.”  “Down with taxes.”  “Too many taxes.”  And on and on.  Just the other night I heard a lady complaining about a city raising its parking meter costs to $10.  Except she wasn’t complaining about the outrageous price increase, but rather how the city is just doing it to get taxes.  I’m scared of all this outrageous slander, but more scared that people believe all of it.

Last week, during Sunday School, the scriptural focus was on the story of the woman at the well (John 4).  Afterwards as the pastor was speaking during the service, my mind wandered back to this character.  Take a minute to read the passage if you have never read it before, or if you haven't in a while.

I think we often see ourselves as the disciples in this passage.  Or at least I do.  I think it is the typical place a Christian poses him or herself in the passage.  As followers of Christ wouldn't we put ourselves in the story as followers of Christ?  But really though, shouldn't we be seeing ourselves as the woman at the well? 

The woman, as it is stated in verse six, is at the well at mid-day.  And she is by herself.  There is a reason for that.  All the other women were already at the well in the early morning to avoid the mid-day heat.  The woman is a Samaritan, and according to this passage she has been around the block a few times and is avoiding the other women.  And as Jesus so poignantly demonstrates, that is indeed the reason the woman is so late in going to the well.

We're the woman at the well.  Whether churchgoer or not, we're all sinners.  We don't all have it together.  We're struggling everyday, searching for the living water Jesus offers to the woman at the well – and to all of us.  In this season of Lent I can't help but to think of myself, the church, and all of us, as the woman at the well – a woman who no longer has to get her water at midday, but with all the other women in the morning.