Monday, June 29, 2009

Anthony's Musings on Face to Face and Facebook


In the past couple of years I have had the delight to make contact with many new friends who are distantly and not so distantly related to us. Just the other day we ran into a cousin I had not seen in at least a dozen years, and we connected via email. We now have contact with a first cousin Earnie had never met till now. Email and the net, again, made this possible. The Facebook friends connections are growing and I have had several occasions where an update on their site registered with me and I find the issues arising at prayer time. One of my best friends just started a substantial blog of his own and I am excited about reading his thoughts there.

All in all the social networking phenomenon has begun to touch our lives in a bigger way, and there is no turning back, I think. Not to say that the face-to-face contact it can lead to is replaceable. Some of the greatest memories IN recent memory have come from cousins who drop by to visit or renewed acquaintances when we drop in to see my grandmother. It's become a both/and world as we get most of our news from the net these days and I am looking into how I can replace cable with Netflix and streaming video.

Wonder what things will be like in my lifetime? I sometimes wonder if the ratio of continuity to change we experience will surpass that which my mother in law saw in her 97 years on earth?

I also hope to have some time to write a bit on the sacredness of place and how that translates to a virtual world...

Anthony muses: Society on and offline...

Anthony sez: Musings on Online and Offline Society

In the past couple of years I have had the delight to make contact with many new friends who are distantly and not so distantly related to us. Just the other day we ran into a cousin I had not seen in at least a dozen years, and we connected via email. We now have contact with a first cousin Earnie had never met till now. Email and the net , again made this possible. the Facebook friends connections are growing and I have had several occasions where an update on their site registered with me and I find the issues arising at prayer time. One of my best friends just started a substantial blog of his own and I am excited about reading his thoughts there.

All in all the social networking phenomenon has begun to touch our lives and there is no turning back, I think. Not to say that the face to face contact it can lead to is replaceable. Some of the greatest memories IN recent memory have come from cousins who drop by to visit or renewed acquaintances when we drop in to see my grandmother. It's become a both/and world as we get most of our news from the net these days and I am looking into how I can replace cable with Netflix and streaming video.

Wonder what things will be like in my lifetime? I sometimes wonder if the ratio of continuity to change we experience will surpass that which my mother in law saw in her 97 years on earth?




Saturday, June 27, 2009

The Effects

I went back and quantified a feeling...I sense that my creative energies these days are consumed with filling out matrices for curriculum design and inputting data for research and solving cognitive problems to the point I fear my brain is getting rewired in the process. I note as evidence of this that my output of music has dried up to a trickle and I have to ask myself if this is die to living in a broken cistern, as it were.

Three lyrics this year, and no music to accompany the words.

In the past I have been able to track my spiritual well- being by the journalling effect of the songs i write. They are evidence of what is going on internally-

Set Me To Singing


Lord set my heart to singing
In this barren wilderness
I have so much Lord to praise you for
I have so much to confess

When I bare my soul to the one who sees
With my unpure offering you’re pleased
And I’m lifted as I fall on my knees
And I sing my song to you

Lord set my soul to singing
Change the rhythm of my heart’s beat
Purify my store of wickedness
And remove all the deceit

For my weeping eyes I turn to you
Give me back my sight and my joy renew
When I’m drowning show me what to do
Let me sing a song to you.

Lord set my mind to singing
Bring new order to the strife
Let me set my mind on things above
Renew my fragmented life

In the stillness of the deepening night
In the clamor of the morning light
In the fever of the daily fight
I would sing a song to you

Anthony Foster
June 27, 2009

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

A Poem from the Past: 1990


It's about the vanity of presuming to be creative of your own accord...

Pastor Fred Winters Honored at Convention


Our former pastor, Fred Winters was honored posthumously at the SBC Convention in Louisville. Cindy and the girls were there to accept the award from Thom Rainer.

Our sources tell us that nothing is coming out about the killer- I won't use the silly word "alleged" here- but I am hopeful FBCM will have an interim to lead them through that difficult time when any resolution concerning the killer breaks forth.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Tis the Season...


Here we are on the third day of Summer and I have seen the light. Or at least the lightening bugs, as we knew them. Some people prefer fireflies, so I will grant you that... I was listening to the evening song of the mockingbirds at the time....quite a reverie...

Us-Now



Here we are in Red and White together...

Fragrances and Flowers


See the Slideshow here...
We love our flowers and the advent of blooms is an annual celebration- we have a long way to go to get to the stage we had reached at our Illinois home, but we are on the way....

Sunday, June 21, 2009

May He Keep You Close


May He keep you close in times of trouble
In green pastures may you feed
May He be your shepherd when you lose your way
And your provision in time of need

And may He keep you close to His holy heart
For he promised to n’ere forsake
So enter in to his perfect rest
As in His presence now you wake.

May God keep you close as day by day
You fight the holy fight
May He keep you close to righteousness
And give you songs in the deepest night
For the closeness that we seek to know
Is ours as in Him we hide
Till he returns to take us home
And he draws us to His side
He dwells in us and we in Him
So in obedient faith abide

May he keep you close in time of blessing
In times that draw our hearts away
May He do all that a loving Father
Would do to keep you from going astray

And may he keep you close to one another
Bound in the fellowship of peace
That comes from living in His light
Where the lonely find release

Anthony Foster
June 21, 2009

And looking backwards...Old Timers Religion


It's good enough for me, to a point. As long as it makes me love everybody anyways.

I am hoping to further explore my religious heritage on the other side to the degree I am doing now, which takes up way too much time to be healthy right now. Living back in the place where I grew up has been instructive in many ways and as I move into the future and dwell in the present i would seek to know those times as well.

Looking to the future, as well as the past will help us better live in the present. May we become better "men of Issachar" (1 Chr 12:32) in the process. They possessed three exceptional and essential qualities. They "understood the times" - they were men of accurate perception and penetrating analysis. We need that today. As a result "They knew what Israel should do" and they had a passion that was driven by this accurate perception... I look forward to what unfolds!

Regrets and Looking Forward to the Future!

I've been neglecting this blog. After blogging for nigh on seven years, the posts have dwindled here, and for that I am sorry. I hope to make up for it in the future by adding interesting stuff that doesn't take so long and pointing to other resources I enjoy. Case in point, go check out The Future History and see it as this knowledgeable and astute brother delimits some of the mystery about events that are on the horizon.