All summer I have battled the bunnies in the backyard. Now they are gone. And sadly, I must admit, I miss them. I miss the cat and mouse game we played, my trying to keep them away from the flowers and discovering they liked red pepper flakes, them chopping away on the leaves and petals with little regard for the wild, ranting woman who was banging on the window and yelling something they could not make out.

I miss the little snake that used to come sun on the porch step. Confession time, I don't miss him at all.

Reminds me of the one time I walked through my grand parents' backyard past the forked tree that held the wooden stage on which my cousins and I performed our one-act plays and musical reviews. I walked down a narrow, rutted pathway, tall weeds on both sides, past the new-born chicken coop with the incubator on the left and the noisy full grown layers in their coop on the right. The path led between these two shed-like buildings right into the corn field. One day I got as far as the space between the tree and the first coop when peripherally I sensed movement. My keen eye was drawn to what must have seemed like a full-grown boa constrictor crossing the rutted path. It was most likely a five-inch garden snake but regardless...I ran, screaming into the house never, ever to venture down that pathway again.

Oh that the dangerous paths of life could be so dramatic that once scared silly, one would be cured forever of even taking one step toward a pathway of danger.

But back to what I am already missing about summer. Our three hanging baskets of flowers, and the pot of pink things on the porch, did not make it through the summer drought. Yes, I could have watered them with more regularity...let's just leave it at that.

Ah but the Knock-out roses. I've cut them back three times this summer. Blooming and growing, they are making nice little buffets for aphids and other bug-like creatures, but still they bloom on and on, the insects loving the leaves but not the buds.

But nothing beats the morning glories. Killing a morning glory is like trying to kill a silk arrangement. They are the neophyte gardener's delight.

I suppose I miss the bunnies because I know that they have not moved on to greener pastures, but in a sense they have. That greener pasture in the sky. Seeing their little body parts all over the street on the one hand gave me great morbid pleasure and on the other hand....no, let's just leave it at the morbid pleasure.

And that's what I think about it.

Keeper

Received this from a friend. Liked it. Thought my readers would too.

Keeper

Their marriage was good, their dreams focused.. Their best friends lived barely a wave away. I can see them now, Dad in trousers, tee shirt and a hat and Mom in a house dress; lawn mower in his hand, and dish-towel in hers.. It was the time for fixing things. A curtain rod, the kitchen radio, screen door, the oven door, the hem in a dress. Things we keep.

It was a way of life, and sometimes it made me crazy. All that re-fixing, eating, renewing, I wanted just once to be wasteful. Waste meant affluence. Throwing things away meant you knew there'd always be more.

But then my mother died, and on that clear summer's night, in the warmth of the hospital room, I was struck with the pain of learning that sometimes there isn't any more. Sometimes, what we care about most gets all used up and goes away ...never to return. So ..While we have it ...its best we love it ... And care for it .... And fix it when it's broken ... And heal it when it's sick.

This is true ...For marriage ... And old cars ..... And children with bad report cards .... Dogs and cats with bad hips ... And aging parents .... And grandparents, brothers and sisters,aunts,uncles and friends. We keep them because they are worth it, because we are worth it.

Some things we keep. Like a best friend who moved away or a classmate we grew up with. There are just some things that make life important, like people we know who are special ... And so, we keep them close in heart and mind and spirit.

I received this from someone who thinks I am a 'keeper', so I've sent it to the people I think of in the same way.

Zookeeper is a cute little movie if you need a hour or so of pure escape and fantasy. I like the idea of animals talking and saving the day for the clueless main character, lovable but needy though he is. Or at least he is at the beginning of the movie.

One part of the enjoyment of this type of film is that one does not have to think hard about the plot. From the first minute the viewer understands where the story line is going. Predictably, and with great comfort, the tale unfolds.

Girl dumps boy; boy gets help getting her back from talking animals; girl turns out to be a gold-digger; better girl is secondary role throughout the movie and gets the guy. Happily ever after. Animals orchestrate the whole thing.

Sharp dialogue, laugh out loud funny in parts, I enjoyed this short time of escape. Three hundred seats in the theater; I was the only patron.

Here's my rule-breaking secret: I left my cell phone ring tone on ignoring the warning about being asked to leave if the phone rings. I'm such a rebel.

And that's what I think about it.

Often people just do not know what they are talking about.

Opinions are often based on second- and third-hand information from the Internet, TV or other media. Sometimes a casual chat overheard between friends is taken as truth and judgments formed based on that.

Case in point.

Rob Bell's newest book Love Wins.

Pilloried in the Christian media an unbelieving world thinks, "What's the big deal?" or worse, "If that's how Christians treat each other, then I'll take my hedonistic life surrounded by people who affirm and encourage me." Cautiously some have defended Bell or at least if not his position, which is nebulous at best, at least his right to have an opinion.

Criticism began before the book was published. Piquing my interest I could not wait to get my hands on a copy, before bonfires roared up with Love Wins as kindling.

It concerns me that many who spoke out about the book, mostly against what they thought was it's premise, had not read the book. Perhaps they had heard or read an interview with Bell and formed their opinion based on that.

.....(this is part of the blog that I deleted because my feet got tired of standing and stomping around my soapbox)

Love Wins is not great literature; Love Wins does not answer the questions one would expect from the title; Love Wins is quintessential Rob Bell. Ponderings on paper from a faithful follower of Christ who realizes that there is much to be discovered and uncovered about what is believed.

And that's what I think about it.