ahoy, ye maties

(This be a re-post from last year.)
Arrr, it be International Talk Like a Pirate Day! That be a rollickin good holiday me thinks!

I be including a list of piratory terms. But first there be a quote from the addled scallywags what started this happy hearty holiday:

Before we go any further, there's something we need to be clear about. Pirates were and are bad people. Really reprehensible. Even the most casual exploration of the history of pirates (and believe us, casual is an accurate description of our research) leaves you hip deep in blood and barbarity. We recognize this, all right? We aren't for one minute suggesting that real, honest-to-God pirates were in any way, shape or form worth emulating.

So what is it exactly that we're celebrating here, if not pirates? What, you're wondering, is the point?

We're going to be painfully honest here, perhaps fatally so.

The point is, there is no point.

And if ye would like to spy the original site for Talk Like a Pirate Day go right ahead with ye. They have a translator and such for the landlubbers among ye. But keep ye in mind that the language be not altogether upstandin.

Ye can also spy the official British HQ site.

Now a wee bit o vocabulary to help ye be piratin on this fine day.

Addled – Insane or Foolish

Ahoy – hello

Avast – hey, or hold fast or stop

Barker – pistol

Belay – stop that or shut up

Bilge – foolish talk

Booty – any form of loot

Brethren of the Coast – The name Pirates used for themselves

Buccaneer – A general term for Caribbean pirates

Cackle fruit – chicken eggs

Cat-o’-nine-tails – a whip with many lashes and used for flogging

Corsair – French name for Pirate

Dance the hempen jig – to hang or be hanged

Davy Jones’ Locker – a place at the bottom of the sea reserved for pirates (dead)

Dead man’s chest – coffin

Feed the fish – to be thrown into the sea dead or alive

Freebooter – another name for pirate

Grog – rum or any other kind of alcohol

Gully – a knife or dagger

Handsomely – quickly or hurry it up

Jack Ketch – the hangman, to “dance the Jack Ketch” meant “to hang”

Jolly Roger – the pirates’ skull and crossbones flag

Kiss the gunners daughter – to be bent over one of the ships cannons and flogged

Oggin – the sea

On the account – the pirate life

Poxy, Poxed – diseased

Rope’s end – another term for flogging

Sea Dog – an experienced seaman

Sea Rat – another name for pirate

Shiver me timbers – an expression of surprise, deriving from a sudden blow to the ship’s planking, probably from a cannonball

Swab – an ordinary seaman who mopped the deck

Sweet trade – another name for piracy

Walk the plank – The short walk to a watery grave

Kim lives in extreme joy

Kayla Woodhouse has a rare neurological disorder. She can't sweat. Her body temperature must be constantly maintained in order to keep her from over-heating. She also can't feel pain, so she can't determine if she is inured or sick.
The process of getting the diagnosis for Kayla has been re-enacted on Discovery Channel's Mystery ER.

Montel Williams also had them on his show.

And ABC chose the Woodhouse family for an Extreme Home Makeover.

Kimberly, Kayla's mom, wrote a book chronicling the trials and joys of their lives. Kim has weathered many storms, even beyond Kayla's health issues. And through it all she has learned the meaning of "counting it all joy."

The book is called Welcome Home: Our Family's Journey to Extreme Joy. It is the story of an amazing family going through a trying journey. But I've spent time with Kim. She radiates joy. She has indeed learned the secret of joyful living.

Reading this book is like sitting down and sharing a Dr. Pepper with Kim. Hearing her story. Laughing. Shedding some tears. Learning and gleaning from the wisdom she's been given over the years. And most of all, it made me think that if she can be joyful in light of all she's been through, I have no excuses.

This book is flying off the shelves. Lives are being touched with the story of what God can do in one family. Go here and get your own copy!

a story

I have another short story published in Christian Fiction Online Magazine!

still looking at looking

I get a Christian quote in my inbox every day. This one has shown up twice and both times it bothered me a little. Since this came right on the heals of my last post, I wanted to talk about it.

Stop trying to compete with others. Give yourself to God and then be who you are without regard to what others think. Reduce your interests to a few. Don't try to know what will be of no service to you. Avoid the digest type of mind. Learn to pray inwardly every moment. Practice candor, childlike honesty, humility. Pray for a single eye. Read less, but more of what is important to your inner life. Call home your roving thoughts. Gaze on Christ with the eyes of your soul. Practice spiritual concentration.
--A. W. Tozer

"Stop trying to compete with others. Give yourself to God and then be who you are without regard to what others think."
This parts good. I've really been working on this. I'm not very competitive, but I am very comparative. And I definitely worry way too much about what others think. But not as much as before.

"Reduce your interests to a few. Don't try to know what will be of no service to you. Avoid the digest type of mind." I have trouble with this one. I am interested in a wide variety of things and I think that is part of who I am. So if I reduced those interests I would no longer be who I am without regard to what others think. I would be changing because of what A.W. thinks. And wise and godly as he may be, he's not necessarily always right.
At the same time that this troubles me, it appeals to me. Simplification always resonates with something in me.

"Learn to pray inwardly every moment." Yes. I would love to learn this--to live it. My mind is frequently in prayer, but certainly not every moment.

"Practice candor, childlike honesty, humility." Candor is good, if it's enveloped in love. Childlike honesty from an adult wouldn't go over very well, I think. But humility. Yes, humility needs a lot of practice.

"Pray for a single eye." I do. As mentioned in my last post, I want to have eyes only for God. I want to have a singleness of passion and devotion.

"Read less, but more of what is important to your inner life." Read less? This one definitely bothers me. I love to read. But I get his point. I think it's probably a good point. I'm just not sure I can do it. I do try to read things that are important for my inner life, though. Even the novels I read should touch me and stir some change in me. Not all of course, but most.

"Call home your roving thoughts." Is this possible? It would be nice, wouldn't it? "Come home! Come on you wandering little stinkers."

"Gaze on Christ with the eyes of your soul." What a beautiful line. That captures my desire. To gaze on Him and never be distracted.

"Practice spiritual concentration." The point of the whole thing. Bring it in. Sharpen. Concentrate. And practice. It takes intentional effort. We won't just focus on the right things by accident. And that's what all the other suggestions are about. Intention.

what are you looking at?

This verse has been coming up a lot lately.

Isaiah 26:3

"You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You. "

Then, Sunday at church the pastor talked about keeping our eyes on Christ. Our hearts set on things above. The verse was in Hebrews 12 where it says to "fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith."

We all congratulate Peter for stepping out of the boat and walking on water. But Jesus didn't. Jesus chided him for sinking; for his lack of faith. We cheer because Peter looked at Christ, Jesus was disappointed because he looked away.

I think that maybe that's what faith is. Keeping our minds, hearts, and eyes focused on God. Maybe it doesn't have as much to do with what we are thinking as with where we are looking.

And I'm thinking God is trying to tell me something.

I want to have that kind of focus. I asked God to show me what I'm looking at instead of Him. He told me - me. I don't look at my accomplishments, etc. I look at my inadequacies, failures, fears, inabilities... All the time. That's what I'm focused on instead of Him. And it may seem humble, I can almost rationalize it, but self-centered is self-centered, no matter what it looks like.

Here's lookin' at You.