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In our language, the meaning of 'hag' has been distorted. Among the Kells (my mother was Irish), it is the final stage in the life of a woman. There are three: The Maiden/Virgin, untaken, untamed, wild and free. She's full of fire, dreams, visions and kinetic energy. She is the Waxing Moon. The Matron, in the full maturity of her child-bearing years. She is the great earth mother, the lover, the comforter, the healer. She is the Full Moon. The Hag. Seasoned and wise in the ways of the world, she holds her blood and sometimes her tongue. She enjoys honor and respect among those who hold her favor, and fear/caution among those who have earned her ire. She is the Waning Moon. I take The Hag for Hag Struan, a character in James Clavell's novel Tai-Pan, my favorite of his works. The Hag was born a Brock, which made her marriage into the Struan clan a Hatfield-McCoy heresy. The Brocks and Struans were rival shipping magnates in Scotland during the early days of China trade. The Hag was widowed young and stepped to the helm of Struan shipping, to keep them on top of her birth family. She was a tough, clear-minded, straight from the shoulder kind of lady. I admired her strength, her dignity and her dedication to her family against all odds. I'd have a very long way to go, indeed, before I could be in her league, but the name inspires me and I aim to do her proud. *************** For God sent NOT his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. [JOHN 3:17] Peace to All. The Hag ......................................  .......................................... |
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Bright, Bright Sunshiny Day
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Jul 14, 2007 12:11 pm
Mood: content,
471 Views
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UPDATE ON LISA'S CONDITION HAS BEEN POSTED ON JULY PRAYER CIRCLE. Marie is still too exhausted and has too many irons in the fire to post on her own blog, so it's not yet been made current.
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I've been sitting outside enjoying a light morning breeze, sipping...swigging coffee and making 'cloud pictures', thinking of the kids when they were little ~ Anna, her brothers and sisters, my nieces (2) and nephews (4), all now middle-aged adults with their own families. I so appreciate how blessed we are to live in such peace and freedom. These thoughts are echoes from a long conversation Paul and I enjoyed last night as we were preparing, then eating dinner.
Paul's brother, Nathan, has taken Lola, our adored Siamese 'Queen of Cool', to live with him in the family's house across town. Lola already knows and loves Nathan, so it should be a fairly comfortable adjustment. She didn't put up too much of a fuss as she was put into the carrier and taken to the car. Sure is quiet around here today, though. Strange how empty the kitchen looks with her feeder and water bowl gone.
The women in this outfit (Anna, myself, Paul's Mom and Aunt) are headed out for lunch and an afternoon of shopping, while Paul and his brothers get down with a 'metal' music jam. Sherrie's husband says he's just gonna 'go hide' ~ now, there's a thought, but nah! Anna would come find me. Then we're all to meet at Nathan's for dinner ~ cold cut trays for sandwiches, a monster Greek salad bowl, assorted beverages and ice cream (We bought cones!) for dessert.
"Y'all Come!"
Giggles and Grins!
Hagitha
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Somniloquy
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Jul 13, 2007 9:07 am
Mood: calm,
465 Views
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UPDATE ON LISA'S CONDITION POSTED at JULY PRAYER CIRCLE. Marie has not had the energy to post on her blog. Thank you for your concern and support.
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CONDITION: Sound Asleep!
Since my cyberworld runnin' buddy, LizzyLoo ~ see her blog LizzyLoo ~ has been cavorting about Victoria Falls for the past two weeks and is now bogged down in script grading that must be completed before she returns to teaching on Monday morning, I've been completely alone in adding posts to our Strength in Numbers JULY PRAYER CIRCLE. All of this month's posts pertain to Marie/Lisa and their crisis. See cheyennewolf1939 for full details.
All of my updates res this sensitive and urgent situation will be posted there. I'm hoping Marie's SFF friends will regularly check the Discussion Group for new information (I recommend entering a 'watch post' notice to flag new developments) about Marie, Lisa and ANEWcuite, who is the donor candidate. Everyone can read the posts and comments but to add your own good wishes, you'll have to 'join' the discussion group ~ it requires one click of the mouse and an 'nth' of a second of your time. Unashamedly, I confess two reasons for choosing this approach: it provides a central 'meeting' point for sharing our support for Marie and for including other concerns and I selfishly hope that this will build group membership, since this 'group' is partly 'my baby'.
I've not talked with Marie today, so the new post won't be made until after our conversation this evening.
Wednesday morning I arranged to extend my leave of absence from work through the end of this month, on an 'as needed' basis. I don't think it will take the entire two and a half weeks, but I've been 'not thinking' that for a couple of months now. Further, I arranged to resume work from here on an 'on call' basis, until we know what we're going to do, if anything. So, everyone take a deep breath and just 'f'get about it' for the time being. We're stayin' put awhile. I'm just as glad to postpone returning to the heat and humidity, truth be told. I really wouldn't mind holding off until the weather breaks in the fall.
Following that meeting, I called my housemates in Tennessee and brought them up to date on the changes here. They're anxious to have me back but support my decision to 'hold off' for now.
Anna has recovered from the flu and is taking advantage of her unfettered schedule to catch up with some friends here in town that she hadn't been able to spend any real time with since the winter holidays, due to their ever-conflicting work schedules. So we're doing a lot of 'brunching' and late afternoon 'ice water sit arounds'. Cool fun.
The coffee has brewed and Buddy, who has been neglected this morning, is prancing in anticipation of our walk to the park. That means I need to fill the travel mug and put on 'outside' shoes.
Have a great day, my friends! I'm so happy you stopped by.
Hagitha
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I Talked With Marie Tonight
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Jul 11, 2007 11:52 pm
532 Views
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MOOD: supportive
I spoke with Marie for about a half hour this evening. She is very moved and thankful for our prayers and concern for Lisa and her family.
Tonight, Lisa is much improved. She woke up hungry and ate the chicken and vegetables from her hospital tray. Her mind is clear at present, also. She knows herself and the family and her speech is coherent.
A donor candidate has been found and the matching process has begun. Prayers are requested that this will be a successful match and that Lisa's strength can be rebuilt to the level where she can survive the surgery and aftercare in time to give her the best chance for a good recovery.
Marie mentioned that their financial situation is severely compromised and asked us to pray for relief in this area also.
Marie had just come home from the hospital, was tired and feeling overwhelmed by things that need to be done around the house, as they have company coming in just a few days. I encouraged her to rest tonight. She said that she would and that she'll post a new blog as soon as she has the energy. She hopes we will visit her blog soon.
cheyennewolf1939
"There are thoughts which are prayers. There are moments when, whatever the posture of the body, the soul is on its knees." ~ Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French poet, dramatist and novelist.
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In a Blind Fury!
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Jul 10, 2007 8:07 pm
Mood: mad,
515 Views
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I had a blog, a very nice blog I thought, nearly ready to copy and post. I moved the cursor to check one more tiny little thing ~ and this blasted gizmo destroyed it all. No way to retrieve. Nothing to do but fume. I'm now going to go soak in a tepid tub with a sleep mask, an ice pack filled with cold water for a pillow and Pachelbel in the CD player adjusted to nearly maximum volume, the tallest, coldest G&T I've ever made in a 24 oz travel mug at tubside.
Then, I need to call and check on Marie.
 Thank You, UNIVAC!
TYVM! 
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HBD, KismetTouch
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Jul 9, 2007 10:48 am
Mood: cheerful,
437 Views
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KISMET TOUCH!
Happy birthday to you,
Oh, happy birthday to you,
Every day of the year
May you feel Jesus near,
Happy birthday to you,
Oh, happy birthday to you,
And the best year you've ever had!
~ Lyricist Unknown
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! KISMET TOUCH! Have a great week of celebration!
Hagitha
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Exhaustion, Sadness and Fear
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Jul 8, 2007 12:24 am
675 Views
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MOOD: Concerned
Just before dinner this evening, a very close friend in SFF called. Sitting in the car in her driveway, she was exhausted and in tears. Marie (cheyennewolf1939) had just come from the hospital where her daughter, LISA, has spent most of this year and is once more an inpatient. For the full backstory, please see Marie's blog, cheyennewolf1939 ~ it won't take much of your time.
Over the past month, Lisa's condition has deteriorated rapidly. She's becomes disoriented for longer and longer amounts of time, when she doesn't know who she is or recognize her husband and family members. She suffers from severe insomnia, agitation, with lack of appetite or thirst. The Doctors have given Marie only sketchy information, saying they are unsure what is the major cause of the current problems but they're concerned that LISA's heart will not withstand this stress much longer.
Marie rang off with me to call LISA's sisters and brother to come home, so that they may be able to spend some time with their sister before she becomes completely unable to recognize them. Greg, LISA's husband is an independent OTR truck driver. He has taken a short run but will be home soon.
LISA and her family need our prayers and support in the strongest possible way. Please remember them in your prayer lists and add their names to any prayer circles to which you have access.
Thanks on behalf of my friend, Marie (cheyennewolf1939).
§§§ §§§ §§§ §§§ §§§ §§§
A Prayer for A Friend
Lord,
Someone is hurting, who is very dear to me,
Coping with a silent pain that only You can see,
My friend needs understanding and the strength
..........to trust in You,
Because no human heart is deep enough to know
..........what she must endure.
I can see what's on the surface, the bright pain in
..........her eyes,
As, with shoulders back, she smiles and talks through
..........the old, well-worn disguise ~
But You, O Lord, You see the truth!
The sorrow she feels inside, that this dread illness
..........should strike down her beloved child ~ her pride!
No words of mine can comfort her in this hour dark
..........with confusion and fear,
No human hand can take away the doubt and cold despair.
But through Your Holy Spirit, Lord, You can provide both
..........courage and hope;
Please speak to her heart and let her know that she has
..........my prayers, my love ~ my support.
The Hag (c) 1988
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Curmudgeon
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Jul 7, 2007 4:48 am
Mood: contemplative,
604 Views
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From the SFF Relationship Magazine, Advice Line Question posted by Destiny823: "Do You Have One On Your Family Tree? ... I was musing today about a cantankerous ole curmudgeon, an "old codger" with so many fixed and unchangeable ideas that I came to understand the real meaning of "cast in concrete".
I started a reply to her question, then realized that I wanted to offer tribute here instead.
The men on both sides of my family were warm, affable and gregarious. Get any two of them together and the party was on! Good fun, good food and great conversations ~ not 'academic' but thoughtful and deep ~ would run well into the evenings.
The closest I come to being related to a 'curmudgeon' would be my grandfather-in-law. In his late 70's when I met him, 'Papa Bell' was taciturn bordering on surly. A flat-land delta farmer who had survived the Great Depression, pulling his family's living from the acreage he'd tilled with his father since he was a boy, he saw the land at her best and her worse, but she had never beaten him, ever.
Each autumn for more than 50 years, he'd driven a local school bus for their winter income. At the end of that half-century, the Governor sent him a beautifully embossed and calligraphied certificate of recognition for having driven one million miles without even a scraped mailbox along his route, and never one single complaint lodged against him by student, parent or observing motorist. In spite of his churlishness, that speaks for something.
Having left his education in order to work the fields before reaching the middle grades, he had no certificates or diplomas attesting to the excellent self-education he'd acquired. He framed the Governor's certificate and hung it on his bedroom wall. First thing he saw in the morning. Last thing he saw at night. A lifetime's accomplishment for a humble, hard-working soul.
I did not come to know him well but I loved that man dearly, though I fear he never knew it.
"Now I'm tired and I'm old
and I haven't much gold
Maybe things ain't been all that I planned
Lord above hear my plea when it's time to judge me
Take a look at these hard working hands..."
~ These Hands Recorded by Johnny Cash
Have a great weekend, Friends!
GOD BLESS AMERICA!
The Hag
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You Stand For Me
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Jul 4, 2007 4:16 am
600 Views
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MOOD: Patriotic
You stand for me on foreign soil,
Drawn weapon in your hand,
With quick-held breath and sharp-tuned ear,
It's my rights that you defend.
The life you live no longer yours,
Nor the loved ones left at home,
You've sworn at need your all to give,
Mind and heart, flesh and bone.
There are no words, there is no gift,
Nor tribute great enough
To bestow upon the brave, true souls
Who, daily, fight for us.
The Hag (c) 07/03/2007
God bless all those in uniform who fight for dignity, decency, human rights and peace, the world over. God bless our troops and bring them home safely.
"God bless America, land that I love!"
~ Irving Berlin, 1918 and revised by him in 1938
Have a safe and very HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY weekend, All!
The Hag
(This is a work in progress. I plan to refine and expand upon it at a later date.)
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You're SURE James Herriot Did It This Way?
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Jun 30, 2007 11:39 pm
Mood: amused,
624 Views
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Conclusion of Praying to the Water Pipe
....Getting to that opening meant moving flats of cat food, bins of litter and some storage boxes. That done, I had to wedge my bulk into that same corner, leaving room for the rescue. "MEOWWW-OWWWWW!" How can this tiny, hours-old darling make such a noise?
Kneeling, braced on my elbows like an ancient patriarch upon his prayer rug (I had brought over the mat from in front of the sink), I aimed the light beam at the base of the pipe: a black hole. The light went nowhere. It simply disappeared. No help for it. I had to stand up, get bodily into the pantry, lie down (breathing a prayer that my knees wouldn't lock and I'd be able to get up and out again, unaided. These were the days before cell phones.) and, half-turned away from the aperture, force my hand down into that narrow space. With longing, I thought of the thick rubber gloves on the drain board, which I had foregone for fear that I wouldn't be able to sense the difference between the newborn kitten and a dust ball. "MEOWWW-OWWWWW!" Miranda now is scratching on the bathroom door, yowling, too! "MEOWWW-OWWWWW!"
Vivid images of spiders, rats' nests, cockroach dens, even snakes, not to mention all manner of dead things (!) danced in my brain. I began to 'call' the baby, "pssst, pssst, pssst", as I wriggled my hand past the rough-edged boards, rotating the wrist, struggling to touch that delicate fur. At least nothing was scuttling or scurrying around my hand. And then, I had it! Lying contorted now, my shoulder half-dislocated by body weight, gravity and the awkward position, I'm facing the outer wall, opposite the pipe, hand jammed through the floor up to the mid-forearm. I made tactile contact with the kitten curled into the corner, behind the pipe. Maneuvering my hand around the pipe, up through the floorboards once more ~ Voila! Mission accomplished! I had a bruised arm and skinned knuckles, but my kitten was free!
She was behind my back so I couldn't see her, but she was quiet. Of course, being rescued by a groaning, huffing, struggling giant, rather than her mother, may have been more than she'd bargained for. It was more than I'd bargained for, as I strained against the door jamb to push-pull myself over onto my side without crushing her, then to wriggle us out onto the kitchen floor, so that I had room to kneel, then stand, cradling her against my neck.
We went into the bedroom where I pulled down the largest suitcase from the closet and flopped it open on the bed. Into this went the linens from the dry bar. I folded a bath towel to fit the bottom of the cabinet and laid the kitten inside. "MEOWW-OWWWWW!" "MEOWWWWWWWW!", from baby and mother in unison. They'll serve me with eviction papers as soon as I get to work!
I closed the sliding doors of the bar, leaving about a four-inch opening and turned off the lights, except for the one in the range hood. Opening the bathroom door, I stood blocking the way to the pantry and quietly watched as Miranda moved her other five children to join the one we'd saved. Should've
listened to her in the first place.
As the thin, grey light pearled my windows, I pulled on jeans, a tee and headed to the corner coffee shop for a paper and a Paul Bunyan breakfast.
"A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel." ~
Proverbs 12 : 10 (NIV)
Giggles and Grins!
The Hag
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10
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Praying to the Water Pipe
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Jun 30, 2007 12:57 am
Mood: amused,
683 Views
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Dedicated to Leah!
The weeks of Freshman Orientation were the most hectic of the year when I worked at the University. They fell during the hottest dog days of summer, all the students were new, lost, confused and uncertain. Days would go by with no one in the office having time for a lunch break. Of course, it was right in the middle of this fortnight that Miranda decided to have her kittens. I had made a comfortable nest for her in a box under the bathroom sink, soft, dark and private. I was concerned about keeping her and the kittens out of Toby's territory. Toby was my big, cuddly, yellow tomcat. I didn't think he was a danger but best to be certain.
During the week before I confined her to the bathroom, Miranda had tried to convince me that the place for her and the kittens was the dry bar that served as my linen storage and dressing table. Every time I retrieved a fresh towel there was Miranda, making her way in among the sheets. Then I started putting her into the bathroom before I went to work. The afternoon that I came home to find a tired but contented Momcat nursing six adorable babies, I sat for awhile gently stroking and praising her, then left her to the 'mothering.'
Weary from my workday, I was more than ready to eat. Dinner, purchased from Garibaldi's on the way home, was a monster hot Italian sandwich, crisp-cold killer salad and two bottles of darkest Guinness' stout (corrected per Lothringa. TYVM, Sir). Freshly showered, clad in garments my mother would have used for cleaning rags, I sprawled in front of the TV to consume my feast, then made myself stay awake another two hours before diving into the unmade bed. I was asleep three inches above the pillow.
"MEOWWWWWW!" "MEOWWWWWW!" "MEOWWWWWW!"
It sounded like a mating bobcat had gotten into the house! Waked instantly from a dead sleep, confused and disoriented, I tried to focus: what could be going on? Then I remembered! The kittens! Was that Toby? Miranda? Stumbling up, flipping light switches as I lurched, I began calling Toby. In the kitchen, I found that Miranda had managed to open the bathroom door and was making her way, kitten in mouth, toward the pantry. "MEOWWWWWWWW!" again rang out with insistent fear. Toby, I realized, was sitting on a kitchen chair, calmly watching with great interest. Miranda had a mouthful.
"MEOWWWWWWWW!" The tiny apartment reverberated with it ~ but from where ??? Gently scooping up Miranda and the kitten, I took them back to the bathroom. As I put them into the nest, I stroked each of the five silky heads. Five?! Quickly throwing cold water onto my face and neck, stabbing my glasses onto my nose, I securely closed the bathroom door and padded back into the kitchen. She was headed toward the pantry with that kitten.
"MEOWWW-OWWWWW!" Any minute irate neighbors with accompanying police will be pounding on my door. It's three o'clock in the morning! Taking the flashlight from its hook beside the door, I walked over to the 'pantry' ~ a deep, open, multi-shelved closet that ran the length of the back of the kitchen. In the dark, dusty corner of that pantry was a water pipe running through the three stories of the building. The hole around the pipe allowed no more than a half-inch clearance on the two sides that were away from the wall. From out that darkness proceeded these anxious wails, "MEOWWW-OWWWWW!" She wanted to move her babies into the space between the floors.
(More to come.)
The Hag
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To link to this blog (TheHag) use [blog TheHag] in your messages.
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