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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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Oh, My Hectic Life
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Jun 9, 2007 3:12 pm
Mood: happy,
533 Views
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...It's been a silvery, slithery, shivery misty morning here in Portland, beginning to warm up just a little now that we're edging toward mid afternoon.
When Paul came home at 8:30, we sat watching the rain on the roses through the steam from our coffee cups. I was only semi-conscious and he'd just come from a 12-hour shift, so it was rather a desultory conversation.
Anna is on a business trip, her final duty before cleaning out the office and turning in her keys. Paul has opted to work right up to the day we leave, converting to on-call status and taking on extra shifts to beef up the war chest.
I've worked my way through the laundry, packing as I completed each load. What doesn't get packed doesn't get taken. I left out items that can be given to the Clothes Closet at church, or discarded when we go. We were hoping a housemate, who was interested in keeping this place, might be able to sign the new lease, but alas, his application wasn't approved. The friends comprising our loosely-organized weekly Pot Luck Party Club are going to give the house an final run-through and turn in the keys for us.
I'm glad there's time to attend another couple of church services, taking gentle leave of my friends there. Last week, we talked about possibly having a big lunch together before I go. I hope that can be worked out with everyone's schedules. Makes this feel a lot less like 'fly by night', although I've done that and it can be fun.
I'll be able to keep in touch with our Pastor by email, but most of my Sunday School and Bible Study friends don't use the computer at all. I've given them my Tennessee snailmail address and the phone number. I look forward to the phone calls but, you know, I just about can't do (!) snail mail any more.
When she gets home, Anna and I will finish the packing, cleaning and get the vehicle serviced for the road. So this is a light-duty weekend for me, just puttering around, making sure my own ducks are all in a row. It's all shaping up nicely now and by the time we leave, I'll be ready to go, so I'm feeling mighty blessed today.
Love, laughter, peace and joy, ALL!
Hagitha
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Bling-Bling
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Jun 8, 2007 2:18 am
Mood: silly,
578 Views
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I like bling, truly I do,
Those artful squares of vivid hue,
I know the place that I can go
To design my own with ambient glow,
So I can mark my posts and blogs
With gem-like magic...
..... but it's too much of a job!
Giggles and Grins!
Hagitha
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Extreme Cricumstances
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Jun 6, 2007 8:04 pm
953 Views
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MOOD: Cautious
...call for extreme measures.
When I was living in Memphis, a peculiar robbery took place one holiday season in one of the up-scale suburbs. The weather was nasty, with sleet, freezing rain and a 'winter storm watch' in effect for the next 36 hours or so.
An older gentleman answered his door to find two young women, wearing light-weight jackets standing in the doorway, one of whom was holding an infant, only a few weeks old, wrapped in a thin receiving blanket. One of them, hardly more than a girl, explained that their car had broken down just around the corner. She had a phone number already written down and she handed the rough-torn piece of paper to Mr. Jones, and asked whether he would call her brother, give him their location and ask him to come for them. They would take the baby and wait in the car.
Naturally, this activated all of a loving Grandpa's protective instincts. Nothing would serve but that they bring the baby and wait inside, where it was warm. Would they like some coffee?
Once in the house, these two overpowered the old couple, gagged and bound them to dining room chairs with duct tape, then proceeded to carry out their mission. One of them ran back to get the van while the other stripped the house of valuables ~ jewelry, silver, etc. Upon her partner's return, they loaded the larger items (TVs, sound system) into the van. They took everything they could find, including the wrapped Christmas presents. Picked up the sleeping child, exited the back door and were gone, never having been seen by anyone in the neighborhood. The couple who were robbed never even saw the vehicle.
He knocked his chair over trying to move close enough to her so that they might be able to free each other. There he lay until mid morning the next day. A friend always came for coffee at 11am. She called the police when no one answered the door or the phone, although both their cars were there.
The husband had a mild concussion. They were treated for shock and dehydration, and were traumatized, of course, but no violent injuries were suffered. Nonetheless, we can be sure that their gentle, genteel lives were never the same.
To my knowledge, the thieves never were caught.
We live in dangerous times and need to be prepared, but developing and maintaining that attitude is so hard to do!
NINE TIPS
1. Tip from Tae Kwon Do: The elbow is the strongest point on your body. If you are close enough to use it, do!
2. Learned this from a tourist guide in New Orleans. If a robber asks for your wallet and/or purse, DO NOT HAND IT TO HIM .
Toss it away from you.... chances are that he is more interested in your wallet and/or purse than you, and he will go for the wallet/purse. RUN LIKE MAD IN THE OTHER DIRECTION!
3. If you are ever thrown into the trunk of a car, kick out the back tail lights and stick your arm out the hole and start waving like crazy. The driver won't see you, but everybody else will.
This has saved lives.
4. Women have a tendency to get into their cars after shopping, eating, working, etc., and just sit (doing their checkbook, or making a list, etc.) DON'T DO THIS!
The predator will be watching you, and this is the perfect opportunity for him to get in on the passenger side, put a gun to your head, and tell you where to go. AS SOON AS YOU GET INTO YOUR CAR, LOCK THE DOORS AND LEAVE.
If someone is in the car with a gun to your head DO NOT DRIVE OFF, repeat: DO NOT DRIVE OFF!
Instead gun the engine and speed into anything, wrecking the car. Your Air Bag will save you. If the person is in the back seat they will get the worst of it. As soon as the car crashes bail out and run. It is better than having them find your body
in a remote location.
5. A few notes about getting into your car in a parking lot, or parking garage:
a) Be aware: look around you, look into your car, at the passenger side floor, and in the back seat
b) If you are parked next to a big van, enter your car from the passenger door. Most serial killers attack their victims by pulling them into their vans while the women are attempting to get into their cars.
c) Look at the car parked on the driver's side Of your vehicle, and the passenger side. If a male is sitting alone in the seat nearest your car, you may want to walk back into the mall, or work, and get a guard/policeman to walk you back out.
IT IS ALWAYS BETTER TO BE SAFE THAN SORRY and better paranoid than dead.
6. ALWAYS take the elevator instead of the stairs. Stairwells are horrible places to be alone and the perfect crime spot.
This is especially true at NIGHT!
7. If the predator has a gun and you are not under his control,
ALWAYS RUN! The predator will only hit a running target 4 in 100 times and even then, it most likely WILL NOT be a vital organ. RUN, Preferably ! in a zig-zag pattern!
8. As women, we are always trying to be sympathetic: STOP.
It may get you raped, or killed. Ted Bundy, the serial killer, was a good-looking, well educated man, who ALWAYS played on the sympathies of unsuspecting women. He walked with a cane, or a limp, and often asked "for help" into his vehicle or with his vehicle, which is when he abducted his next victim.
9. Someone heard a crying baby on her porch and she called the police because it was late and she thought it was weird.
The police told her "Whatever you do, DO NOT open the door."
The lady then said that it sounded like the baby had crawled near a window, and she was worried that it would crawl to the street and get run over.
The policeman said, "We already have a unit on the way, whatever you do, DO NOT open the door." He told her that they think a serial killer has a baby's cry recorded and uses it to coax
women out of their homes thinking that someone dropped off a baby He said they have not verified it, but have had several calls by women saying that they hear baby's cries outside their doors
when they're home alone at night.
Then the Crying Baby theory was mentioned on America's Most Wanted, when they profiled a serial killer in Louisiana. (Elsie, sotto voce: Of course every sob who lacked the brains to think this one up himself knows about it now. Oh, the double-edged sword of media power!)
So there you have it: the word to the wise. I know I'll never be able to develop this pseudo-military mindset, however. I must continue to rely on the best use of good common sense, reasonable caution and always letting someone know where I plan to be when and to check in if I'm going to be delayed any more than one hour.
'Perilous times' aren't 'coming', my friends, they're here!
I'm glad you came to visit. More soon.
The Hag
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White Balloons
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May 29, 2007 10:19 pm
Mood: sympathetic,
807 Views
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I'll never see a white balloon
..........again my whole life through,
That I don't catch my breath and sigh,
..........then smile, as I think of you;
O, light, elusive, floating form
..........rising on the wind,
The symbol you chose to mark the time
..........that your new life began.
And though we mourn the mighty loss
..........of your sweet presence here,
We celebrate the joys we shared
..........and thank you, through our tears.
The Hag
05/29/2007
Dearest Venus, you'll always be our Queen Mum of Badd Gurlz and we'll miss the great joie de vivre in your wonderful blogs so very much!
Namaste.
Elsie
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Arlington Twilight
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May 27, 2007 10:31 pm
Mood: melancholy,
497 Views
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let me sit in gentle silence, acknowledging the pain
that has no words, nor even voice, but falls like holy rain
upon the souls of all who mourn, who seek to find that peace
the path of hope that winds its way to rest and tears' surcease
there is no logic that can shield us from this sword of burning truth
and no man's wisdom can heal the void left by a beloved youth
we know we must accept the loss, stand strong beside the grave
give their families and children support, for them we must be brave
but just for now I'll sit alone at the sacred twilight hour
and trust what I cannot understand ~ the purpose of His power
The Hag
05/27/07
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I'M TENNESSEE BOUND
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May 26, 2007 7:30 pm
Mood: confused,
629 Views
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...in just two weeks! My lovely sabbatical in the Great Northwest will draw to a close and by June 10, I'll be on my way, if not already there.
The Tennessee housemates are planning a celebration. I've told them that's fine, as long as it coincides with the Fourth of July. I'm going to need time to readjust, especially to the heat and humidity of the Southern climate. (Not really looking forward to that at all.) I'm excited about 'getting home and catching up' with everybody though. As to the rest, I'll be drinking lots of good green tea, smart water with electrolytes and gradually rebuilding my tolerance for the heat. I noticed this morning that there's a 20-degree difference in the high temp in Knoxville and that here in Portland  .
I'll be online in SFF as much as possible between now and then and will make a special effort to get into chat (even if it is hard for me to keep up!) several times before we pull the plug on our system here. After that, it will be a few weeks before I can check in again, but you know that will be very high on the priority list!
I've got laundry running as I post and the bags lying open on the sofa so that I can get the packing started. There's such an itchy-twitchy thrill to it all that I don't know how I feel.
Anna and Paul are moving also, but their plans are in flux. One day they want to go in one direction, the next, in another. They'll work it out and are pleased just to be making a change. Paul is talking about another degree and Anna is looking into options to work as a consultant 'somewhere'.
Keep all of us in your prayers, my friends, as we are quite 'lost' at present!
Praise the Lord Anyway!
Elsie
Remember, I AM NOT GONE, YET! and your comments are solicited! 
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LADY OF GRACE
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May 20, 2007 10:27 pm
Mood: thankful,
615 Views
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.... and courage, you touch so many lives
.... with your light, your humor and wonderful,
.... cheering smile.
.... I see so much faith and joy
.... in all you say and do ~
.... in the blogs you write, the tales you share
.... your life
.... each day so bold and true.
.... I cannot think
.... that anyone
.... who's met you on the way
.... has failed to find their heart
.... is blessed
.... by your gentle, joyful,
.... loving way!
God bless you, dear Sister Venus! He has greatly blessed each of us through you!
Joy and love in Jesus!
Elsie
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I Gotta Buy Stock...
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May 17, 2007 7:32 am
Mood: happy,
531 Views
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...in Procter & Gamble! to get some kind of return on the money I'm spending for laundry products!
Making my way into the kitchen to put coffee on, the house is very cool, so I pull on sweats and sneakers for my and Buddy's morning walk. When we get back, I enjoy my first cup(s) on the back patio, while he meanders around the yard. Midway through the morning, sleeves get traded for a t-shirt while I attend to household chores. The sun tops the roof as work time approaches, turning all these nice, large windows into very efficient solar heating panels ~ now, I'm wearing shorts! By the time my dinner break rolls around, the process is beginning to reverse itself. I must don sweatpants and socks again.
I feel as if the ghosts of Loretta Young and Dinah Shore are fighting over me !!!
 and  , my friends!
More soon!
Hagitha
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Obverse~Converse
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May 13, 2007 2:23 pm
Mood: happy,
544 Views
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Millions of words about mothers and our relationships to/with them have been written. Millions more will be. My mother has been gone for a quarter of a century now, and still I wrestle with understanding, appreciating and coping with her legacy. I owe her the struggle.
Obverse
Thank You, Mama
For making time to play with me, when I was very little ~
.......... Thank you, Mama!
For taking care of me when I was sick, and sometimes when I wasn't ~
.......... Thank you, Mama!
For showing me how to make long, miserable winter days fun inside ~
.......... Thank you, Mama!
For the best home-cooking in all the world; for teaching me to be a good cook ~
.......... Thank you, Mama!
For all the things you wanted and needed, but got along without, so that I could have new clothes when school started ~
.......... Thank you, Mama!
For staying up past midnight to help me study, even after you'd been up and working hard since dawn ~
.......... Thank you, Mama!
For sharing all my plans, hopes and dreams; for helping me through all my disappointments, failures and mistakes ~
.......... Thank you, Mama!
For all the shopping trips, movies and Woolworth's counter lunches; for beautiful hours spent just talking together ~
.......... Thank you, Mama!
For always making my friends feel welcome ~
.......... Thank you, Mama!
For always taking time to listen ~
.......... Thank you, Mama!
For every time you've helped me when I really needed it ~
.......... Thank you, Mama! For always doing the best you could for me whether or not I wanted it, appreciated it, or understood it ~
.......... Thank you, Mama!
For loving me enough to forgive me for all the times I have been, and continue to be, wrong ~
.......... Thank you, Mama!
For never letting me forget how much you love me ~
.......... Thank you, Mama!
I love you.
The Hag (c) 1963
...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...
Converse
Decade
(Written on the tenth anniversary of her passing.)
I spell 'mother' P-A-I-N
.....And think of the good times, and try to explain
...............to myself
.....Why some scars still hurt, like a phantom limb,
.....Or the roots of a rotten tooth ~
.....Why some memories won't dim,
.....But continue to burn with a harsh, gory light,
.....Like a Stephen King flick on a bleak, cloudy night.
.....I come up with answers
.....But the questions are lost,
.....And to try to revive them?
.....Just ain't worth the cost.
.....So, rest in peace. You've earned it.
.....Your way was sad and hard.
.....You never knew a moment's ease,
.....And your soul, too, was scarred.
.....So, 'Rest In Peace', Sad Pilgrim,
.....Safe beyond the love you could never 'feel',
.....While I continue my journey,
.....And work ~ that my wounds may heal.
The Hag (1992)
...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...
Finale
To Childless Mothers Everywhere
'Tis true, I have no children, but into my simple life,
God sent many precious little ones,
.....with troubled hearts and minds.
He's given me a tremendous love; an understanding
clear, of all their emptiness and pain, their hopes, their dreams,
their fears.
.....He's let me hold them, O, so close, in my arms, my heart,
my prayers,
.....And He gave to me a place of honor in their memories, strong and clear.
So oft they've come and told me, how much I've meant
to them ~
.....And that's when we together, holding hands,
.....Give praise to Him.
The Hag (c) 2005
...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo...oOo..
Wishing you joy and thanks, always, for your visit!
Hagitha
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6
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Tramp for the Lord
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May 12, 2007 2:28 am
Mood: thankful,
772 Views
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One morning in late December, 1944, forty-eight hours after she'd turned her back on her beloved sister Betsie's body, bare as the day she was born, lying atop the pile at the back of the 'hospital', awaiting pick-up, as she endured the interminable hours standing on line for roll call, in the pre-dawn cold, the booming public-address system thundered a name: ten Boom, Cornelia.
"For an instant I stood stupidly where I was. I had been Prisoner Number 66730 for so long that I almost failed to react to my name. I walked forward.
'STAND TO THE SIDE.'
The siren blew for dismissal; the guard signaled me to follow her. ... My legs and feet were still painfully swollen from the long count the day before...I hobbled behind the guard into the administration barracks. ...Several prisoners were standing in line at a large desk. An officer seated behind it stamped a paper and handed it to the woman in front of him.
..........At last, 'ten Boom, Cornelia' was called. I stepped to the desk, steadying myself against it. He wrote. Brought down the stamp. 'Entlassen!', he said.
..........'Entlassen?' Released? Was ~ was this ~ were we all ~ and then I was holding it in my hand: a piece of paper with my name and birth date on it, and across the top in large, black letters: CERTIFICATE OF DISCHARGE.
,,,,,,,,,,Dazed, I followed the others through a door at our left. There at another desk, I was handed a railway pass entitling me to transportation through Germany to the Dutch border.*"
It proved a difficult, exhausting and terrifying journey but on New Year's Day of 1945, Betsie's vision was a reality. Dazed, traumatized, confused and hungry, clothed in garments belonging to the dead, Corrie arrived at the bomb-gutted train terminal in Berlin. She was headed home to Holland. Both she and Betsie were out of prison.
..........The Return to the Beje: "I was out of the car, almost before it stopped, running down the alley, through the side door and into Nollie's embrace. Over Nollie's shoulder, I saw Toos standing in the rear door to the shop, laughing and sobbing both at once. Laughing because I was home; crying because Father and Betsie, the only two people she had ever allowed herself to love, would never be. ....All of our Jews were safe, except Mary Itallie, who had been sent to Poland following her arrest in the street. Our group was still operating, although many of our young men were in hiding.
..........Even before the Beje was unsealed, loyal Toos had returned from Scheveningen and reopened the watch business. Mr. Beukers, the optician next door, had given her space in his shop from which she had taken orders to give our repairmen in their homes.
.........."We mustn't let (Father's) clock run down." I opened the glass face, moved the hands to agree with my wristwatch, and slowly drew up the weights. I was home. Life, like the clock started again: mornings repairing watches in the workshop, noons most often bumping on my tireless bicycle out to Bos en Hooven Straat (Willem's 'nursing home' ).
..........And yet, in a strange way, I was not home. I was still waiting, still looking for something. ~ It was (good) news that people (were needing) to hear that cheerless spring of 1945. No tulips turned the fields into carpets of color: the bulbs all had been eaten. In churches and club rooms, in private homes during those desperate days, I told the truths Betsie and I had learned in Ravensbruck.
..........And always at these meetings, I spoke of Betsie's first vision: of a Home in Holland where those who had been so hurt could learn to live again unafraid*"
In 1959, Corrie was part of a group that revisited Ravensbruck, then in East Germany, to honor Betsie and the 96,000 other women who died there. Corrie then learned that her release had been the result of a clerical error: one week later all women her age were taken to the gas chambers.
..........Corrie maintained an active ministry into her eighties, continually traveling to carry out Betsie's dying injunction that they must "tell people what (they) had seen, suffered and experienced." Corrie worked and taught in sixty-one countries on both sides of the 'Iron Curtain'. Whether speaking to Victoria farmers in a Cuban sugar field, prisoners in San Quentin, factory workers in Uzbekistan, or the affluent, decadent, church-goers in the United States, she always taught the truth they had learned in the death camps: He can turn loss into glory. (*All material quoted above is taken from The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom)
..........In 1977, then 85 years old, Corrie moved to Orange, California. Successive strokes in 1978 took her powers of speech and communication and left her an invalid. She died on April 15, 1983, on her ninety-first birthday. She was said to have been happy about dying on her birthday because she could "celebrate it with the Lord". Her young assistant and beloved friend, Pam Roswell was at her bedside. "When the end came, there were no heavenly revelations. The room was quiet and peaceful just before she left us. It was quiet and peaceful after she left us. I turned and looked at the little brown clock. It was three minutes to eleven in the evening of her birth day, ninety-one years to the day of her birth and exactly on time." (Pam Roswell)
Corrie never married. As a young woman, she was rejected by the one true love of her life, after they had been friends for some time. A college friend of her brother, Willem, he explained that, "Corrie is a lovely girl, but I could never marry her. It would kill my mother." She never had children, but she knew that she was never alone.
..........Somewhere in your life there is a woman who has lived and labored alone. She has no children, but she has selflessly nurtured the souls around her with kindness and wisdom. Find this woman and remember her on Sunday. Tell her that she is recognized, loved and appreciated for what she has poured into the lives of others. If you happen to be the first person who has ever done this for her, be prepared for some intense responses.
............... "Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord." ~ Isaiah 54 : 1 KJV
Joy in Jesus!
The Hag
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To link to this blog (TheHag) use [blog TheHag] in your messages.
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