Photography – Page 79 – Poetry, Short Prose and Walking

From an Unusual Angle

Dale offers us the prompt “from an unusual angle” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge. The top photo views roses from below. The bottom photo is a view from about the eye-level of a pigeon.

Sunday Walk 48 – Independence Day

Happy Fourth of July! I am in the process of moving away from big tech. Here’s what I’ve done so far.

For browser and search engine, I switched from Google Chrome to Brave with DuckDuckGo.

For email, I purchased a subscription to ProtonMail. My Gmail account is nearly inactive.

For cloud services, I canceled my subscription to Google One’s storage plan using instead my own solid state drives.

For office tools, I switched from Google Docs and Sheets to Apache Open Office.

For those interested in doing something similar, Sven Taylor provides a list of alternatives for Google products at the Restore Privacy site. There are more alternatives than I initially realized.

For social media, although I am currently inactive on Facebook and Twitter, my accounts remain open. I think it is worthwhile to interact with others in such environments. The same goes for places like Stack Exchange and Quora where I also have open, but inactive accounts. At the moment my social media focus is on MeWe and this WordPress blog.

Part of alt tech is to learn how to wear the whole armor of God (Ephesians 6). It is not just using open source software to protect one’s privacy or new platforms to avoid censorship. The user needs to get his act together. Without that armor I could still become corrupted and unwittingly corrupt others in turn.

By the next Fourth of July, God willing, I hope to be on Linux and know better how to wear that armor.

Weekly Bible Reading: Numbers (Audio) Deuteronomy (Audio)
Commentary: David Pawson, Numbers, Part 2 of 2, Deuteronomy, Part 1 of 2, Unlocking the Bible

Alternative – Six Sentence Story

Brian was self-reliant enough to do whatever was good in his own eyes. Eventually he’d have to repent of much of this goodness, but right now the mountain he expected would hold the weight of his imaginings began sliding due to an avalanche of truth.

Down he went clutching onto one esoteric branch of conjectures after the other discovering that every alternative he grabbed onto failed to stop his fall. He could see the smiling mouth of nihilism lick its lips and open its jaws below him.

It was as he absent-mindedly looked into this dread that he was hit by a bus and rushed to an emergency room where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Whether the expert opinion was wrong or whether hell didn’t want him, Brian’s heart began beating with no desire to climb fantasy mountain again.

Denise offers the word “alternative” to be used in this week’s Six Sentence Stories. This story continues with Bowl – Six Sentence Story.

GirlieOnTheEdge Denise Farley's six-sentence-stories icon — GirlieOnTheEdge Denise Farley’s six-sentence-stories icon

Midsummer

Dale offers the theme “midsummer” for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge. These photos were taken at the Skokie Lagoons where I often walk.

Sunday Walk 47

Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.
Mark 16:9 King James Bible 1769

I found the following oratorio by Kathie Lee Gifford and Nicole C. Mullen on the The Marshall Report. It is about Hagar, Ruth, and David and then wondrously about Mary Magdalene (John 20:1-18). They all experienced crises. God saw them and answered them. He sees us as well.

Kathie Lee Gifford & Nicole C. Mullen, The God Who Sees

Weekly Bible Reading: Leviticus (Audio: King James Version read by Alexander Scourby) Numbers (Audio: King James Version read by Alexander Scourby)
Commentary: David Pawson, Leviticus, Part 2 of 2, Numbers, Part 1 of 2, Unlocking the Bible

Happiness

Holy? Happy? Take your pick.
“Give me both!” That was quick.

Eugenia offers the word “happiness” for this week’s Thursday Prompt.

I was listening to David Pawson’s second lecture on Leviticus this morning where he made the comment at about 8:20 in the video, “The only way to be really happy is to be really holy.” So that’s what I was thinking of when writing this poem.

Zip – Décima

To give in once may seem OK.
It’s not like we’re addicted so
around the carousel we go.
“Hey, you could leave, but why today?”
Around again we go. We stay
to win the prize, a precious rag.
Our anxious minds want more. They nag
us with new offers: “Want a sip?”
“OK.” “OK?” They now can zip
us tightly in the body bag.

Ronovan Hester offers the rhyme word “zip” to be used in a D line of a décima having rhyme pattern ABBAACCDDC for this week’s Décima Poetry Challenge.

I was thinking of C.S. Lewis’s Pilgrim’s Regress where the pilgrim almost at the end of his journey sees a witch offer a deformed creature a brief sip of pleasure which the creature knows would only increase its deformation. After it agrees to drink she turns to the pilgrim and offers him a sip as well.

Ronovan's Decima Poetry Challenge Image — Ronovan’s Decima Poetry Challenge Image

Inversion

Dale offers “inversions” as the prompt for this week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge. I’m not sure what inversions are so I merely rotated two photos 180 degrees. This is what I’d see if I stood on my head.

Sunday Walk 46 – Salt and Light

I am grateful to Cassa Bassa for a reference to a lecture by David Pawson on salt and light as mentioned in Matthew 5:13-16. I found a version of it which I am linking below.

As Pawson says, we live in “a world of dirt and disease and darkness” without salt and without light (about 21:20).

We are the salt that fertilizes the dirt. We are the salt that prevents disease from spreading. We are the light showing the way through the darkness. We are the light pointing out the ways of the world to avoid.

If the salt becomes contaminated with the ways of the world, of what use is it? If the lamp refuses to shine for those who have lost their way, why light it?

Weekly Bible Reading: Exodus (Audio: King James Version read by Alexander Scourby) Leviticus (Audio: King James Version read by Alexander Scourby)
Commentary: David Pawson, Exodus, Part 2 of 2, Leviticus, Part 1 of 2, Unlocking the Bible

Celebration

In faded denim, rosy blush,
he offers her a polished stone
from water where the rivers rush.
She knows that she is not alone.
In greens and yellow, alpine light,
Today the festive way is bright.

Eugenia offers the word “celebration” for this week’s Thursday Prompt. Linda Kruschke offers these paint chip phrases, “mystical, faded denim, lipstick, halo, blush, polished stone, and alpine“. At least four should be used in a sixain stanza.