“The RoseBouquet”

I don’t discuss politics too quickly as it tends to divide even friends. However, you might be interested in our level of involvement in our Canadian federal elections.

In the previous election I had agreed to have a lawn sign, and act as a scrutineer at our local polling station, on behalf of our conservative candidate, Maurice Vellacott. (I used to go to the same country Sunday School years ago, as his wife, Mary).
So when their campaign office called and asked about taking a sign again, I agreed. When it was delivered I was surprised to find it was about 4 times the size of the previous one. I guess everyone who has gone by on our street in the last 5-6 weeks knows where we stand.

That is not so hard to take though, for I learned when I was the scrutineer the other time, that our town and rural voters are almost 100% for this same candidate too. The ones who are not would stand out if they let it be known which side they are on.

I declined the request to be scrutineer as I knew I had a commitment to the mission, for work that had a deadline.

Monday morning Dad went for his walk and made sure to go vote. I voted as part of my after-lunch walk to the post office.

The woman just ahead of me turned around and said, “You’re lucky to be alive. They have me marked down as dead.” Fortunately, she’d brought her voter registration card, so the clerk was able to resurrect her in a hurry.

I did get the impression though, things were not as confusing as last time when the electral boundaries had been changed, and people were frustrated to discover they had to go vote in another town. Some had to bring proof of their land location, etc.

Monday night, Dad, who normally doesn’t care for TV, hinted several times that they might be showing the results soon, so about 7:30 I turned it on, and glanced over my shoulder at it fairly often while I did my work on the computer. It didn’t take long to see that our Conservatives were winning more seats than the Liberals. Dad caught on that if he kept his eye on the number in that one blue spot, compared to the red spot beside it, he could tell who was ahead.

Well, they are not far enough ahead to have what is called a majority government. If the other parties join together to out-vote the Conservatives on any issue in parliament, this new government crashes and we have to go through all this again.

Personally, I believe that any party that gets into power can easily let it go to their heads and they can get arrogant and foolish, however, I sincerely hope that this one will be wise and sensible, and bring good solid ethics back into how things are done. I hope some stupid decisions promoting immorality will be overturned, and real justice done.

Our whole province of Saskatchewan is mostly conservative, and I got the impression on the radio yesterday that there is a collective sigh happening here, as people begin to hope once again!

Just more renovational work on all three of my sites.

As I indicated last week, I’m going to do a total revamp of the old RoseBouquet section. I’m also putting all the book reviews into the new template or “look.” In fact, yesterday I finished the first introductory article, and you’ll find it in Ruthe’s Roses below.

On the business site, I fussed and fiddled with designing a new top of the page look, and voila, I managed to teach myself how to create nice looking raised, or shadowed text. That GIMP program is really wonderful, the more I figure out how to use it to do my graphics.

On the genealogy site on Saturday night, I hunted and tried to find a better fill-in-form program since the old one was not working. At one point of discouragement I prayed, and moments later noticed the forum program that I could install from the admin area in a matter of a couple of clicks. I spent the rest of the evening learning how to set it up to look nice, but I haven’t linked to it yet from the web pages, so nobody can find it. I’ll be doing that this weekend, and will renovate those pages while I’m at it.

Usually I’ve put off thoughts of installing a forum to dialogue with my visitors, because I’ve been afraid it would be very time-consuming. Since AGodlyInheritance.com is my smallest site that’s a good place to experiment. If it works out well, then it would be no problem to install forums on the other sites too.

I’ve heard the word POD and POD-casting, but usually brush off things that sound like they will cost a heap. However, this morning I followed a link that led to a site with POD creating little movies that broke down the parts, and explained as much as I wanted to take in at one time. I don’t have the right equipment yet, but now I can start dreaming about the day I can create little PODs or movies to use online. Maybe our computers and the internet don’t have to stay at the comparison to a world library of books - flat, one dimensional. Maybe our computers can be TVs besides. Ha! Who’d'a thunk it up?
POD Survival Guide (Note: your computer will need some software to “SEE” this animated guide).

Dear Readers/Friends,
On the surface, I think there are two kinds of you, and with some over-lapping. As I ponder on this I see coming out of the blurring, a general profile - and yet– yes, with different individual faces. No matter how anyone type-casts us, there are always special details that make us each unique, right? As a rule, I tend to look for the unique details, but just now I’m doing this exercise, and looking for the most common traits in the kinds of friends I attract.

Amazing. A lot of you look and behave like me! At least in traits that I tend to notice.

Chances are quite high that you are also from a dysfunctional family. That just means it wasn’t perfect. It may have broken up before you grew up, or there was death and sickness and all kinds of factors, which you now discover as an adult, have messed with how you relate to others.

Your parents may not have fulfilled their roles as well as they should have. I wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve come to a place where you feel hurt and short-changed over that. Bitterness may be creeping into your heart, because somehow that explains why you are imperfect too.

How? Well, you probably feel unloved, lonely, and spiritually oh-so thirsty and hungry for healing and wholeness. Maybe you got angry enough to rebel, and leave home, and look for love - but it seems so far, only in the wrong places.

If you were abused, or deeply bereaved, you may feel like you are continually dying inside. Yes, even if you have already received salvation by faith in Christ. This emotional and spiritual baggage slows us down. It hinders us from being all that we ought to be. You know it, but don’t know how to get out of that state.

It is possible that either you have, or you still are living a life of rebellion against all the wrongs done you. This might include being sexually promiscuous, or angry at the world, or clinging to anyone who is friendly towards you, the hopes that they will finally make a princess out of you.

Whether or not you have experienced the dysfunctional family, or have grown up in a loving, complete, and healthy Christian home, there is a good chance you are a Christian. You love the Lord, and have a desire to pray more effectively. You are basically compassionate and tender-hearted, and easily burdened for the lost souls around us. In fact you probably have unsaved relatives and are at a loss to know how to persuade them to try the Lord Jesus.

You love to hear or read of dramatic conversions, just like I do. It just makes you believe in miracles all over again, right? Yes! We’re idealistic and would like to see peace on earth and Jesus as King in every heart and mind!

That is exactly why I think you will identify so well with Ruthe, the heroine of my novel, Ruthe’s Secret Roses. Ruthe Veer;
prays a lot,
has a bleeding heart for the hurting,
is a big sister,
rescues friends and strangers,
has creative ideas,
loves to give surprise gifts,
is loyal to friends,
dreams of love and marriage,
dreams of writing a book
goes the extra mile

Ruthe comes from a dysfunctional family of sorts. It has made her into a mature older sister, who feels responsible for the rest of the family, and for strangers when she meets them in crisis. She goes the extra mile for friends in need, and experiences real pain in her heart when they are hurting. Ruthe comes up with creative solutions to their problems which bring dramatic changes in to those new friends - and to her own life.

Even though she is convinced her family doesn’t understand her, Ruthe is terribly loyal to them, and works hard at preparing a surprise new home for them, and at giving fine gifts at Christmas. Being a good big sister to Suzanne and Sharri is very important, even if they are as night and day, and one does not warm to her at all.

Just like you and me, this Ruthe dreams of true tender love and a perfect marriage, and of writing books, and continually helping people and saving some from death and destruction.

There’s another facet to her; Ruthe has a super close friendship with Jesus, and talks to Him all the time about everyone and everything. When she’s nervous or stuck about something, or worried about someone else’s situation, she immediately switches her running conversations with the Lord to those matters, and in the course of all that - gets bright ideas for what to do next.

Not everybody does that, but they could!

You could. I know this because it is my own most precious friendship, and I gave this heroine, Ruthe, the joy of living that way too. Not always rosy, but full of good answers to problems.

Yes, I admit it. She’s my alter ego. The person I’ve wished from my teens that I could be like. Just how much I have become like the Ruthe I admire, or how much she has become like the Ruth I am has become blurry in my mind. No sharp borders any more.

Ah, but you see, Ruthe and I are not the only ones. The friends I make often have these traits too. That’s why, the more I try to draw up a profile of my friends, the more I find myself looking at Ruthe, and even myself. The old proverb must be true; “Birds of a feather flock together.” Applied to us it simply means girls and woman of a certain type are attracted to one another. (Well, okay, I think there are some exceptions).

Still, now that I can visualize better who you are, it is easier to talk to you on this web site and in my articles and blogs. If you want to introduce yourself and help me to see another side of you, or what makes you unique and different from this character profile, then please do. Use the Get Acquainted forms on this site to talk to me.

To read sample chapters of my book online, start at Sample Chapters

To order the e-book to download and read on your computer; Order Page
(or if you email me, we can make a deal and I’ll send it to you on CD).

To order the softcover paperback from Booklocker use; Booklocker.com

Last year they disappointed us altogether, but when I called Aunt Margaret she advised to put them out in the cold for a few weeks to give them a shock; then they would bloom. We did, and we had fine, beautiful pink blossoms on all of them for Easter week.

I put them out in the cold sunroom again at the beginning of December, and noticed about a week before Christmas that two of the seven pots (or cans) of cacti had tiny pink points at the tips. I was sick then, so I asked Dad to bring them in. He brought in the whole bunch and we spread them through several rooms. - But no pretty flowers for Christmas.

Now, almost a month later, all but one are in glorious pinks! I took some photos last night with a tiny mini-digital I received as a gift, but it is a toy, and the colours are not very true. Still, just to give you a peek, I’ve put up a photo-story page on them.
Check it out with Cacti-mitts (Dad also finished knitting himself a pair of alpaca yarn mitts yesterday. You can see them there too).

In my hurry last week, I forgot to tell you about the new daily devotional page that is up.
daily Devotionals. In preparing to produce some of my own devotional books, and or blog or web site, I found that there are a number of great online daily devotionals for Christians. Quite a while ago I had put two of them on my site as “feeds.” (That means they originate on other sites, but show up on my page, fresh and new every day). One is the Bible Minute from Back to The Bible’s Woodrow Kroll, and the other is by Elizabeth Elliott, a former missionary, and a writer whose works I have long admired. But when I found others I decided to prepare a page with links to them, so that you can explore them as you have time. You could always bookmark them and visit them daily, or subscribe to their newsletters to get them by email too. At least for some of them.

For several weeks now I’ve been brainstorming on a new slant to my articles.

For years I have dashed of something quick and inspirational for this ezine/blog, and also made those articles available in my Sharing Library for others to use in their ezines, or on their web sites. However, those articles have not been very effective in selling my novel. In refining my goals I’ve decided that I must write articles that key into the themes in my novel, and I must write them in a way that wins people over to check out my book.

Well! My list of keywords and topics is several pages long! It may be a bit of wishful thinking to believe I can pull off writing one new article/webpage a day but there’s enough ideas to do that. So, I’m going to start plugging away at it, and hopefully after some weeks or months have passed, it will come easier and easier. Some of those will of course, appear here in the RoseBouquet. Naturally.

Meantime, I’m also reviewing my old articles and discovering some that shine. I’ll share one with you today, called Aiding Angry Allies.

My renovations continue too. Right now I’m deep into my book reviews section.

I do! It’s always inspiring to see how someone has overcome some obstacles in their life, and found a way to turn their lemons into lemonade, or somehow find a good way to make a living. Very often using a passion or a problem they had to deal with on the way. Recently I’ve read several pages full of these success stories of people who needed to make a living for their family, and they somehow got connected to SiteBuildIt (SBI), and because of their due diligence, and the excellent help they got, they now have a successful web business. Some of them make very handsome incomes! You can read them too at Case-Studies.

You have to be an affiliate to get into the forums, but there are four long, l-o-n-g pages of stories of how people found SBI and what a difference it is making in their lives. I wish you could read those too! Makes me grin with hope.

(c)2001 Ruth Marlene Friesen

You may have seen this in the Bible; “Do not make friends with a hot-tempered man, do not associate with one easily angered…” *

Fairly obvious advice, since we all know that an angry person can become violent and hurt us. We have learned over the last decade or two that an abuser or criminal has often a submerged anger.

But how many of us can recognize latent or hidden anger in an individual? Is it possible to spot the signs and avoid becoming too close to an angry friend?

Lets skip backwards, spin around three times and see if we don’t land back at the beginning where anyone first picks up a deep, unresolved anger.

Isn’t it when someone disappoints us so hard, or doesn’t measure up to promises or expectation, that we get that first gash to our spirit? If it happened to us as a child, we somehow don’t sense permission to get angry over our disappointment,
so we submerge it. Or we may be old enough to reason why the promise really wasn’t coming to us, or the other person had every right to hurt us.

But that gash has been made, It doesn’t follow that reasoning. Untreated, it festers and grows maggots.

Time passes, we grow older and we go on to other things. That gash eventually grows a scab over it. However, it is forever touchy, and if anything or anyone resembling the original weapon which axed it comes near, all our spiritual nerves tingle,
ready to take flight or to fight.

Those people who turn into physical hulks, or are confident in some other aspect of life, are likely to fight. It is the old wound lashing back, and we call it an angry outburst.

Those who wilt and turn inward usually punish themselves, whether or not anyone else suffers.

Let’s spin ourselves three times and skip-to-my-Lou forwards. Even if we understand how the angry person got angry, is it wise to form a partnership or marriage with such a one? That person needs help, but isn’t going to take it from you, and for sure
not until she or he wants to look at the ugly sore again.

So don’t date, don’t marry, don’t even get close to an angry person unless you are a glutton for pain, or else you have the strength to wrestle an angry animal down until it’s healed.

What it takes to heal an old wound is;

1. a good close, curious look at it,

2. confront the person who caused it originally, and express the hurt, the pain suffered,

3. whether the Cause repents or not, the woundee must forgive, set aside that event by giving it to God to redeem, and believe that good will now come out of it.

But old habits of quickly lashing out or self-beating will die hard, and if you are the friend that is going to stick it out for a woundee’s sake, don’t expect to coast just yet.

Brace yourself. You’ll get scratched and wounded too, but if you are braced and remember to deal with each wound while fresh, you are a strong and noble character, and God called you a Blessed Peacemaker.

May your tribe increase!

*(Proverbs 22:14 NIV).

To read sample chapters of my book online, start at the index

To order the e-book to download and read on your computer; Order page
(or if you email me, we can make a deal and I’ll send it to you on CD).

To order the softcover paperback from Booklocker use; Booklocker.com

We’re interrupting my business schedule again for a couple of days. This afternoon Dad and I are going to see the doctor.

Yesterday we were in Saskatoon for the afternoon and evening. I had a Board meeting at the mission to attend, which happens every other month. When it does, because Dad does NOT like to stay home alone, we go early enough to take a supper over to my brother Tom’s and enjoy a little visit with him.

Since he is in a wheelchair and can’t do certain housecleaning tasks, I usually clean his apartment floors while our supper casserole warms in his oven.

However, Dad and I have this attitude that if we’re going to the city anyway for these other reasons, let’s go a bit earlier and stop in here or there to shop for this or that. So yesterday I worked in an appointment at the chiropractor, who adjusted my ribs and spine but suggested I see a regular doctor for another problem he could tell I had. We also stopped at the two stores which carry Dad’s cross necklaces and he got paid for the ones they have sold so far. That cheered him up a lot!

We got a few groceries too, spending pretty well all the extra money Dad had just earned, and I had some photos developed.

See? We really pack a lot into a “city trip.”

Then while I was at the Board meeting, Dad got to visit with Wendell at a restaurant, and with others who dropped by there.

It had snowed during the evening, so I had to drive with extra care coming home late at night, but as people keep point out to each other around these parts, - “We can be thankful for a milder winter this year!” Temperatures are only -2 to -5 or -10 most of the time; not the -30 and -40 C we had last January.

When our day doesn’t get interrupted with city trips, or trips to the doctor (in a small town the other direction), I have been back at the renovation of my web sites. I’m up to the Library now on Ruthes-SecretRoses.com, starting over practically on BouquetofEnterprises.biz, and I’m moaning over the discovery that no forms are working on the genealogy site, AGodlyInheritance.com. I only get to that one on Saturday nights though!

Did you know that if you put Google Ads on your site, you can make money just because visitors click on them? I have spent some time reviewing my AdSense ads, and updating the codes. Now I’ll have to replace the old codes on all my pages, but at least I can now work that into the ones I renovate as I go.

Furthermore, I have an idea now for how I’ll redo the old RoseBouquet section of the site (not the blog section), and turn it into a theme park on friendship. It will likely take much of the year to do that, but it’ll grow.

I’m still weighing the pros and cons of a daily devotional blog or web page. There’s that time factor again. Maybe just e-books?

For sure I don’t have time for health problems!