Category: Uncategorized

SAILING….

Pushing the Edge of the Envelope…

It is part of who I have always been.

Christmas of 1954 at age ten my present was a large bag under the tree.  In the bag was a sail to a ‘Moth Class Sailboat’.  The boat was in the garage.  It was beautiful. It had a mahogany veneered hull hand built by Fenton who was about to beginning medical school at Emory ironically more than a decade before I went.  Fent had just won the Florida State Title for the Moth Class.  It was fast as the sailing students at Rollins College would attest.  They sailed ‘Lightening Class Sailboats’ which were about five feet longer.  My friends and I sailed Lake Virginia regularly.  

Sailing reflects life.  There are times running with the wind that are peaceful and serene.  Then there is the thrill of sailing ‘close hauled’ when the sails are vibrating, the metal stays are humming and water is lapping over the edge of the decks.  Like most sailors I love that feeling when everything is taut and humming.  

A few years later when Jan and I got married we honeymooned in the Bahamas.  We had the use of a Hobie Sailboat.  That is when I taught Jan to sail.  I dropped a secured line off the stern.  “Jan I want you to drag me,” I said.  “If I drop off just let go of everything: the rudder and the sheet (which controls the sail).  The boat will stop.”  She hauled me around until I had enough.  JAN WAS A SPORT.

When we moved back to Florida, I bought a 24 foot San Juan Sloop.  Amy and Erin both sailed on Lake Harris when they were toddlers.  We even sailed in the Atlantic  Ocean at New Smyrna Beach.  I realized that sailing was not going to be a family hobby. Eventually we owned ‘power boats’.  Which to a ‘sailor’ was almost an apostasy.  About the same time I was into soaring (sailplanes).  They ultimately would join me snow skiing.  That pushed the edge of ‘their envelopes.’ 

The Canvas Can Do Miracles….

Recently I quit bicycling on Wednesdays and Sundays as I approach eighty years old. Daily exercise is a lifelong ritual dating back to my childhood.  For years Rush Limbaugh was my entertainment and education while riding.  I remember recording Rush on cassette tapes while I was at work.  Then when I got home listening to those tapes as I rode.  That went on for decades.  Rush gave me a lot of HOPE.  He told the TRUTH.

Until recently no one could replace Rush.  Then Jan’s cousin up here in the Carolinas told me about X22.  It is a daily podcast.  Their website allows you to listen to all their offerings past and present.  There are many.  Now my biking rides and inspired with positive TRUTH.  There is an app for X22.  So you can listen on your iPhone, iPad or watch it on TV. 

With all the corruption in Washington and the deep state It is my source for HOPE and TRUTH.

Below is a link to the website:

https://watch.x22report.tv/?fbclid=IwAR2Go_1mHqNrClHkNdXCUro3xWnPrmt4bqsRkkxiRXCp9pZKHoH9jHa76JU

Or there is a Apple App called:

X22 Report

For more on my exercise habits see my other posts….

Those who have had near death experiences (NDEs) know that this is not the TRUE reality.  This life in time and space  is transitory. 

Since my childhood physics, which is the science of how things work, has been an on going fascination.  I am beginning to believe that the near death experience in my infancy gave me an ‘inkling’ or glimpse of the true reality…

Albert Einstein’s fascination with ‘time’ lead him to discover the ‘Theory of Relativity’ which was subsequently proven to be true.  This gave us a new perspective on our universe from the distant galaxies to subatomic particles.  So when we look into the night sky we understand a little more than our ancestors did when they studied the stars.  Yet our universe remains an awe inspiring mystery. 

Modern physics shows us that the ’Time Space Continuum’ that is our living reality is like fabric.  A fabric that stretches out from the ‘beginning to the end.’  It is revealed to us in our senses not only in the three dimensions that we see but others that we don’t see.  (How many dimensions there are is still speculation.)  So ‘time and space’ is all that we understand.  It is our limited reality!

Unless you are an atheist who believes that our universe (time and space) just happened ‘by accident’, we wonder how it all came about?  Of course the TRUTH is that in the beginning there was God and nothing else.  HE spoke then ‘the Big Bang’ (which was so name by the Christian Physicist, Georges Lemaître). So the great MYSTERY of our universe was born.  God is not within ‘time and space’ but is the Creator of time and  space.  

 I read this (again) this morning which caused this  reoccurring fascination about ‘TIME’: 

“We tend to assume that the whole universe and God Himself are always moving on from past to future just as we do. . . .

Almost certainly God is not in time. His life does not consist of moments following one another. If a million people are praying to Him at ten-thirty tonight, He need not listen to them all in that one little snippet which we call ten-thirty. Ten-thirty—and every other moment from the beginning of the world—is always the Present for Him.  If you like to put it that way, He has all eternity in which to listen to the split second of prayer put up by a pilot as his plane crashes in flames….

Additional thoughts-

(added 11.9.18)

God is not hurried along in the time stream of this universe any more than an author is hurried along in the imaginary time of his own novel. He has infinite attention to spare for each one of us. He does not have to deal with us in the mass. You are as much alone with Him as if you were the only being He had ever created. When Christ died, He died for you individually just as much as if you had been the only man in the world.

The way in which my illustration breaks down is this. In it the author gets out of one time series (that of the novel) only by going into another time series (the real one). But God, I believe, does not live in a time series at all. His life is not dribbled out moment by moment like ours: with Him it is, so to speak, still 1920 and already 1960. For His life is Himself.

If you picture time as a straight line along which we have to travel, then you must picture God as the whole page on which the line is drawn. We come to the parts of the line one by one: we have to leave A behind before we get to B, and cannot reach C until we leave B behind. God, from above or outside or all round, contains the whole line, and sees it all…

(Added 11.10.18)

You cannot fit Christ’s earthly life in Palestine into any time-relations with His life as God beyond all space and time…God has no history. He is too completely and utterly real to have one. For, of course, to have a history means losing part of your reality (because it had already slipped away into the past) and not yet having another part (because it is still in the future): in fact having nothing but the tiny little present, which has gone before you can speak about it. God forbid we should think God was like that. Even we may hope not to be always rationed in that way…

“Mere Christianity” by CS Lewis 

O God…“The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun.”  Psalm 74:16 KJVA

The Good Lord Blessed us with hindsight so we may learn from our choices both the good and bad.  He spared us the ability to see the future…

Some are blessed with the Gift of Prophecy.  Thankfully that is not my gift.  That would seem to be a heavy cross to bare.  Imagine even to foresee good things that will happen.  The future good fortunes would be weighed with anticipation and anxiety.  At least with me.  Patience is not a virtue of many of us.  Not foreseeing the bad things is obviously a blessing.

So the gift of patience must accompany the gift of prophecy, at least for most of us.  There is a time for everything as the Bible says: “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”  Ecclesiastes 3:1.  Our Blessings must wait until the proper time for His purposes.  

My life is filled with Blessed happenings that needed to ripen to the fruitful time.  A major blessing happened  at age fifty three.  At the end of that year my damaged left leg, that was two inches shorter than the right leg, was lengthened.  The short wait from that summer to that fall was hard enough.  Imagine if the time had  been longer, say years.  My anxiety and anticipation would have been emotionally crippling…

Grateful for God’s timing…     

“Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.”  John 3:7 KJV

So we surrender?  Now what?

JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis have been my spiritual resources for this most elemental question.  I admit that Tolkien’s ‘Gollum’ is the ‘self image’ that most portrays my small ‘self’.  That self is obsessed with self-will.  That is ‘my precious’.  My self-will can run riot!

So after surrendering we must be remade or as Jesus said, “We must be born again.”  Then: Who am I?  When the Good Lord created each of us, He envisioned our true Self which contained His spark or light.  Yet He allowed us ‘free will’ to make our own choices.  My rebel heart can make wrong decisions by choosing to follow my will not His Will for my life.  

The remaking is a daily process.  As simple as doing the next right thing.  Letting His Spirit be our guide.  The Bible is the true source that nurtures this daily process.  Ultimately it  is doubtful that in this life we will ever achieve our true Selves.  For we do live in the Shadowlands. This life prepares us for the Life to come…

Each Day Lord show me The Way…

I humbly ask in Jesus’ Name….   

Who I am…

We are called to be God’s hand and feet…

Here is some personal WPHS TRIVIA.  Dr. David Price, a Winter Park general surgeon, had two sons that followed me from WPHS to Emory University.  I graduated from Winter Park High School (WPHS) in 1961. Alan graduated from WPHS in the class of ’62.  Alan went on to become a dentist like I did.  Then Chad came to Emory a year later.  He went on to become an orthopedic surgeon.  In the summer of 1997 I called Chad after seeing a program about ‘leg lengthening’ on the Discovery Channel.  Chad told me that his partner who he called a ‘medical genius’ had developed a way to lengthen bones from the ‘inside of the bone.’  

My left leg had been badly burned as an infant.  The resulting scar tissue made that leg smaller and shorter than the right leg.  Many childhood surgeries (11) had been able to make the leg only two inches shorter than the other.  The last was at the end of the summer before our junior year.  I was fifteen.

In the summer of ninety seven Dr. Chad Price referred me to Dr. J. Dean Cole.  Dr. Cole miraculously lengthened my leg ‘from the inside’ over period of three months.  There was little pain.  I was able to practice dentistry for about 5 hours a day during the lengthening process.  From October of ninety seven until January of ninety eight Dr. Cole worked his miracle on my leg.  For the first time in my life my legs were the same length.  Forever Grateful to all who were part of the process…

I have so much to be Grateful for. This however is the culmination of a life story of healing hands, God’s guidance and prayers answered. For details please see the link below:

“The Accident: God is with me”

It was Lord Acton, the British historian, who said: “All power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

These are indeed Epoch Times.  Individual freedom is being taken away by those in power.  Just last night the ‘powers that be’ shut down social media platforms that did not fit their narrative.  This is a historically reoccurring tendency.  In order to maintain control those in power endlessly extinguish the flames of freedom ignited by those who resist being controlled.  

The ‘spark of freedom’ has always been in each individual human’s heart. It is God’s Gift to each of us. There are times, often during natural disasters or manmade crisis, when it is easier for those in power to exert more control over this love of freedom than usual.  If the individual is not free then no ‘social good’ is healthy.  Fascism and communism make these demands.  In every example whether it is nazi Germany or communist Russia failure is the result.  Let me explain this conflict.

The ‘social democrat’ will demand that, “What is good for the group or groups in society is therefore good for the individual.”  This is false.  This call for ‘the good of society’ eventually proves to be destructive. I can give you an example which has personal significance.  The example is how America’s governments both federal and states chose and still choose to educate Deaf Children with ‘Sign Language’.  

Woodrow Wilson was our first social democrat (socialist) president.  It was during his terms of office that nationally and statewide schools for the deaf were established.  During this time Alexander Graham Bell was promoting and establishing ‘Oral Education for The Deaf’ programs.  Like it so often is Wilson in his ’ignorance’ pushed forward with the ‘Sign Language’ method for educating children born ‘hearing impaired.’  Wilson in his stupidity was blind to the fact that Bell’s wife, Mabel Hubbard Bell, was deaf.  Mable Bell may have been deaf but she was a gifted individual.  Mabel Bell was the business mind behind the Bell Corporation which became American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T).  Because she was an Oral Deaf Person she fit into society and contributed immensely! 

The Bells became so frustrated with America’s resistance to the ‘Oral Method’ that they moved to Canada which was more accepting of their more modern method.

Wilson in his self inflated wisdom promoted a system of education for Deaf Children that sadly still exist today.  Why is that sad?  Sad because the fact is that signing children achieve on average an eighth grade education.  While Orally Educated Deaf Children become college educated, some going on to achieve doctorate degrees even in medicine and dentistry.  So what may seem ‘Good For All’ may in the end be damaging to many.  As George MacDonald would remind us, “Institutions and social movements are temporary but the individual (God’s Child) last for eternity!” (Paraphrased)

In the end ‘Those in Power’ in their delusion may think they have a ‘good solution’ but it is just Warped Thinking…

The Good Lord has all Power…

So Show me your Glory…

This video is several years old but speak to reminds us that our Power comes from God. It is up to us to take it upon ourselves…

Let the Good Lord’s Power in…With it comes the Ultimate Peace…

For more from Lord Acton see this website:

https://www.acton.org/pub/religion-liberty/volume-2-number-6/power-corrupts

Hard Times are when the best lessons are learned, I believe.  All of us have been through ‘hard times.’  Some people’s hard times are more obvious than others. The Good Lord never gives us more than we can bear. That is His Promise. It is up to us to allow the Lord to show the way through the hard times.  He will show us which path to take. 

Life seems to be a series of decisions.  Choosing the next right path at each intersection is the answer to the journey through craggy dark places.  

Here are some deeper clearer insights to what I am trying to say:

This by American writer, Max Ehrmann, sums it up nicely…

Being Refined…

My first thought about ‘being refine’ was that of purifying gold.  In dentistry gold was use to restore teeth because it is a precious metal that will not corrode.  Yet gold can become dirty shall we say.  So before it can be used to cast a crown which will restore a tooth, it needs to be refined.  To do that the gold is placed in a crucible heated with a very hot flame.  Flux has been added to help remove any impurities.  Before being cast by centrifugal force into a ‘gold crown’, the gold is heated with the flux to become as pure as possible. So to purify gold you need heat and flux which is an agent used to remove impureness.  

The video below shows how this is done.

I need constant refining.  I don’t know about anyone else?  To be refined means to remove impurities.  Speaking from personal experience impurities are part of my human nature.  We are all fallen and imperfect.

This refining process is a life long happening through suffering and tribulations. Or as CS Lewis writes in The Problem of Pain:

“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

“Thus the terrible necessity of tribulation is only too clear. God has had me for but forty-eight hours and then only by dint of taking everything else away from me. Let Him but sheathe that sword for a moment and I behave like a puppy when the hated bath is over—I shake myself as dry as I can and race off to reacquire my comfortable dirtiness, if not in the nearest manure heap, at least in the nearest flower bed. And that is why tribulations cannot cease until God either sees us remade or sees that our remaking is now hopeless.”

“I am only trying to show that the old Christian doctrine of being made ‘perfect through suffering’ [Hebrews 2:10] is not incredible.” 

Dramatically at two months old I was nearly burned to death which left me with lifelong pain.  That pain still comes and goes.  (For more on my accident see: https://www.dksmith918.com/?page_id=1205) However it was later in life that it became evident that we ALL undergo refining by ‘pain.’  Whether that pain is physical, mental or spiritual, we all suffer.  Those who say they never suffer must be deluded.  It is through suffering that we overcome and are being refined:

“But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man. For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.”

Hebrews 2:9-10 KJV

So we are to take up our cross and follow Him in the valleys, climbing to the peaks as well as on those mountain top times…

George MacDonald offers this on HOW we are to refine ourselves…Through repentance …

“What does repent mean? To weep that you have done something wrong? No; that is all very well, but that is not repentance. Is repentance to be vexed with yourself that you have fallen away from your own idea…? No; that is not repentance. What is repentance? Turning your back upon the evil thing; pressing on to lay hold of that for which Christ laid hold upon you. To repent is to think better of it, to turn away from the evil. No man is ever condemned for the wicked things that he has done; he is condemned because he won’t leave them.”

George MacDonald has been a source of comfort and inspirations for the last few years.  Thank the Good Lord that he was a prolific writer which means he has much more for me to read and digest.  I read this last night.  It brought comfort…enJOY! 

   WRITTEN FOR ONE IN SORE PAIN

  Shepherd, on before thy sheep,

      Hear thy lamb that bleats behind!

  Scarce the track I stumbling keep!

      Through my thin fleece blows the wind!

  Turn and see me, Son of Man!

      Turn and lift thy Father’s child;

  Scarce I walk where once I ran:

      Carry me—the wind is wild!

  Thou art strong—thy strength wilt share;

      My poor weight thou wilt not feel;

  Weakness made thee strong to bear,

      Suffering made thee strong to heal!

  I were still a wandering sheep

      But for thee, O Shepherd-man!

  Following now, I faint, I weep,

      Yet I follow as I can!

  Shepherd, if I fall and lie

      Moaning in the frosty wind,

  Yet, I know, I shall not die—

      Thou wilt miss me—and wilt find!

Excerpt From

The Complete Poetry of George MacDonald

George MacDonald

We are all touched by special people throughout our lives.  Here are some thoughts about that.

A special friend from the sixties…

Looking over our lives we remember those who have touched us in powerful ways.  As a student at Emory College I was fortunate enough to befriend Ronnie Milsap.  I was living in the Sigma Chi house which was the second house at the top of fraternity row.  Ronnie lived in the dorm at the top of the row.  That was half a block away.  While a student Ronnie created a band with other students.  One of his band members was Gus who was a Sig pledge.  Gus was a polio surviver.  Gus was partially paralyzed on his right side.  Despite that handicap Gus was a drummer in Ronnie group.  

For a while Ronnie hung out regularly at the Sig House.  Our house had a Grand Piano in the ‘Music Room.’  Ronnie would often sit at the baby grand to play for us.  We Sigs love to sing!  He could sing anything and could imitate any of the popular artists of the time.  Ronnie was a pre-law student.  Visiting his room many times, you noticed that his music collection was incredible and occupied on whole wall of his dorm room.  Ronnie was special.  Surely he must have had his trials being blind but his smile was infectious.  He was a happy soul to be near.  

Ronnie often performed for the Sigma Chi parties.  I became the Sig’s social chairman.  So if Ronnie wasn’t our ‘band’ for a party he was usually able to direct me to some other great bands.  Atlanta in the early sixties was the ‘hotbed’ for rhythm and blues bands.  We Sigs had some great parties as a result.  Mostly in hindsight thanks to Ronnie.  

Soon I heard that Ronnie was performing at some of the ‘hotspots’ in Hotlanta.  He was performing at both country venues and rock venues.  As he broadened his musical career his pre-law ambitions must have given way to his musical talents.  That was a blessing to the rest of us.  He touched my life in the warmest way.  For that I am Grateful.

This morning Ronnie’s memory came to me watching YouTube performers.  Others have touched my life from infancy to old age.  Too many to thanks individually…For them all I am GRATEFUL…

Let us Celebrate all who have touched us.  Ronnie was Blessed and this video seems to express the belief that Ronnie knows the the Good Lord was the source of his Blessing…enJOY!

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”  Psalms 27:1 KJV

Added September 2021…

The best Christian Wordsmith expresses God’s Gift of Strength  like this:

“He is coming to know the fact that he was never his own strength, had never the smallest power in himself at his strongest. But he is learning also that he is as safe as ever in the time when he gloried in his might—yea, as safe as then he imagined himself on his false foundation. He lays hold of the true strength, makes it his by laying hold of it. He trusts in the unchangeable thing at the root of all his strength, which gave it all the truth it had—a truth far deeper than he knew, a reality unfathomable, though not of the nature he then fancied. Strength has ever to be made perfect in weakness, and old age is one of the weaknesses in which it is perfected.”

From Weighed and Wanting by George MacDonald

It was later in life that the revelation became clear to me that my strength would never be sufficient.  Slowly I realized that it was always His Strength that helped me through the dark and painful times.  The burden was lifted.  Learning to let go and let Him lead me would take time.  It has become a Daily Ritual! 

Mom and Dad never talked about the accident or burn that happened when I was two months old.  They sought the best medical care that could be found in America at the time.  We traveled from Montana to the Mayo Clinic and to the Cleveland Clinic and finally sought the care of the only orthopedic surgeon in Florida.  That was Dr. John Lovejoy of Hope Haven Hospital in Jacksonville.

Dad built my first ‘exercise bike’ when at five years old I had my first of many surgeries.  Each day my therapy was to ride on that bike which had only a left pedal.  That was designed to strengthen my left leg that was the most badly burned part of me. It probably was not an exercise that I would have chosen.  Those long ago daily rides in the garage must have instilled in me a desire for the chemicals my body released during those work outs.  Anyway that is how bike riding was implanted deep in my spirit. Other forms of exercise also appealed to me or anything that released those soaring chemicals. 

Mom and Dad never talked about the ‘Burn Accident’.  We just did what ever came next.  When I was about forty or fifty Dad gave me a detailed record of what happened including all the surgeries.  Those records remained unread until after Mom and Dad had died.  They knew how GRATEFUL I was.  There was no need to talk.

After Mom had died toward the end of his life Dad finally asked me, “ How did you do it?”  I knew he was asking how I dealt with the burn, the surgeries and a life of pain.  I answered, “God made me tough.”  That was enough to satisfy him.  Nothing more was said.

Nothing more needed to be said because he too knew that was true.  He knew that the prayers of Drs. McGregor, the Sisters of Providence at Columbus Hospital, family and all who touched our lives had been answered.  Their and other hands of touch and healing had worked miracles…

I knew that it was He who gave me Strength. It was His Gift. Let me continue to lean on Him!

Added on April 10, 2021…

Forever GRATEFUL to the Sisters of Providence and Drs. McGregor for laying their Healing Hands on my badly burned body 77 years ago in Montana…

So let me continue to seek His strength Daily…

It is almost a daily ritual….

…enJOY the Video at the bottom of the page!

It is almost a daily ritual.  It begins in the bedroom.  When Lexi sees me get my hiking shoes, then as I lay them on the bed, her eyes brighten.  She gets that smile on her face and watches me carefully.  Her ears perk up and her tail begins to wag slowly.  By the time I have my shoes on she is in motion with her tail wagging and her rear end is swaying. As I pick up the car keys she is dancing beside me.  Usually she is leaping up and down as we go to the garage.  Jumping in the car she is ready for adventure.

Driving to the dog park at ASCG (Anne Springs Close Greenway), she used to whine the whole way there but lately she is more subdued.  It is about a five minute drive.  She is in hyper-excited mode.  As we turn into the park she will begin to bark at other people and dogs.  There are usually crowds of bicyclists, riding, parked or loading and unloading as we pull in.  This is also an area where cyclists park.  She is so ready now.  As her leash is attached in the back seat, she is salivating and whining.

Walking to the gate of the dog park and trail, it is a tug of war.  She may pause to greet an occasion canine friend who maybe coming or going but the steady pull is her desire to get there!  Once inside the park she is unleashed.  Usually this means she needs to ‘mark’ her arrival leaving a deposit for me to pick up.  She will continue to spot mark all around the park and trail so her canine friends will know she has been here.  We may stop and visit a little while with some of her new and old friends before we walk the trail through the woods.  

The park and the trails through the woods are ‘off leash’ areas so she has her freedom.  Boy does she love that.  Lexi may look like Golden Retriever but she is a Australian Shepherd and Golden mix.  Personality wise the Shepherd in her won.  As a result she is the leader and I am to follow.  She may veer off course to check out interesting places and smells but not for long.  Then duty calls her back to lead me onward.  

The trails generally all lead from the top of a hill down to a lake which would be call a pond in Florida.  When you reach the lake, dogs will be enjoying the water.  Not Lexi however.  She doesn’t like to swim.  She has been know to occasionally wade in the water but only if there are no other options.  She may pause, look and wonder why are they in the water?  She will look back at me as if to say, “Don’t dawdle.  We need to keep moving.”

So back up the hill we go.  Now she is less likely to want to explore.  He motivation now is let’s ‘get this done.’  As we reenter the park area she is intent on finishing the task which is to ‘go home.’  She nearly runs to the exit hardly noticing the other dogs now.  

As we drive home I open all the car’s window if it is not too hot, to let her cool down.  She has just been to ‘Nirvana’… 

 Isn’t Avalon simply an Arthurian allusion to heaven?  It may have arisen from Celtic legends.  The Celts believed that there are thin places in this our present home, earth.  It’s not hard for me to believe in ‘thin places’.

Heaven…

What will Heaven be like?

Those of us who have had near death experiences have had a glimpse.  You can read of others who have had similar touches with the True Reality.  They basically describe the same things: about Light, warmth, peace and indescribable completeness. 

This present reality here on earth is described as a ‘Fabric’ of ‘Time and Space’.  There are ‘thin places’ in that fabric where some get a glimpse of the ‘True Reality’.  Near death experiences are such thin places. (That is what the ‘Inklings’ tried to capture in their writings…IMHO)

Jesus called it ‘Paradise’ when the convicted men who were crucified with him spoke to Jesus:

   “And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.”

Luke 23:39-43 KJV

Long ago I quit believing that life is just a series of unrelated ‘accidental events’.  There is no such thing as coincidences. There is a purpose to everything.  That I do believe and so did Jan.  In the years leading up to her death, she found and read several books written by authors who had die and come back to life.  Several of those authors were physicians.  Their descriptions were of ‘Paradise.’  After Jan read those books, I did.  This was not an accidental coincidence.  We were meant to read those books. For that I am thankful.  In her final days, maybe as long as two weeks before, Jan was ready to ‘Go Home.’  She was ready to have ‘the stone to be rolled away.’  In hind sight she stayed long enough to say good bye to those she loved…I wept hard and bitterly when I told her she was going to be with the Lord…My weeping was selfish. It was for myself and my loss not her death!

In those last days Jan and I talked of what Heaven would be like.  At one point I asked if she thought that it would be like Scotland where some of our ancestors came from. We both had loved our trip to Scotland.  She thought then said, “It will be more like Montana.”  Sighing we both agreed that ‘Heaven’ would be beyond our most vividly wonderful ‘Imaginings.’ This video of Avalon may be an Arthurian vision of ‘Paradise.’

Amended on August 21, 2020….

It amazes me sometimes the way life unfolds…On July 29th the song ‘Shores of Avalon’ was playing on Celtic Spirit Radio during my daily biking on my Schwinn Airdyne.  The song took my mind and imagination to a peaceful solitary place.  CS Lewis, Chesterton and MacDonald believe in our imagination that we are closest to the Spirit of the Lord.  Maybe it is His Spirit that leads us to those special places?

Discovering a YouTube video the thought came that maybe this is not just about the Legend of King Arthur but maybe there is a deeper significance to this place called Avalon.  Maybe it was an allusion to Paradise or Heaven.

Last night reading “The Seaboard Parish” apparently George MacDonald imagined the same ‘mystical presence’ of Avalon.  For here is a scene in the novel when Rev. Walton and their artist friend, Mr. Percivale, carried his invalid daughter, Connie, on a litter to an overlook of Tintagel Island with its castle and chapel ruins:

“For the next ten minutes we stood in absolute silence. We had set Connie down on the grass again, but propped up so that she could see through the doorway. And she lay in still ecstasy. But there was more to be seen ere we descended. There was the rest of the little islet with its crop of down-grass, on which the horses of all the knights of King Arthur’s round table might have fed for a week—yes, for a fortnight, without, by any means, encountering the short commons of war. There were the ruins of the castle so built of plates of the laminated stone of the rocks on which they stood, and so woven in or more properly incorporated with the outstanding rocks themselves, that in some parts I found it impossible to tell which was building and which was rock—the walls themselves seeming like a growth out of the island itself, so perfectly were they in harmony with, and in kind the same as, the natural ground upon which and of which they had been constructed. And this would seem to me to be the perfection of architecture. The work of man’s hands[…]”…

“Over all the surface of the islet we carried Connie, and from three sides of this sea-fortress she looked abroad over “the Atlantic’s level powers.” It blew a gentle ethereal breeze on the top; but had there been such a wind as I have since stood against on that fearful citadel of nature, I should have been in terror lest we should all be blown, into the deep. Over the edge she peeped at the strange fantastic needle-rock, and round the corner she peeped to see Wynnie and her mother seated in what they call Arthur’s chair—a canopied hollow wrought in the plated rock by the mightiest of all solvents—air and water; till at length it was time that we should take our leave of the few sheep that fed over the place, and issuing by the gothic door, wind away down the dangerous path to the safe ground below.”

Here is a video of Tintagel Island an its ruins…Truly a ‘Thin Place”…

My Grandma Smith was from Cornwall…

Saint Mary Magdalen…… I can identify with St. Mary.  She was a rich party girl and I was a rich arrogant party boy.  She was under the control of seven demons, demigods that rendered her powerless.  I too was powerless over small gods that were destroying me.  My story is long but I remember when I was broken and cried out ‘Lord Help me’….

CS Lewis wrote in “Membership” (in the Body of Christ) this tribute to St. Mary Magdalen:

“It is nice to be still under the care of St. Mary Magdalen…The allegorical sense of her great action dawned on me the other day.  The precious alabaster box which one must break over the Holy Feet is one’s heart.  Easier said than done.  And contents become perfume only when broken.  While they are safe inside they are like sewage.  All very alarming.”

Earlier I posted:

St. Mary Magdalen has always been a favorite biblical character of mine.  She was one of Jesus’ inner circle and the first to see the Risen Lord.  Her redemption from a ‘rich party woman’ (some say worse) with seven demon possessions to one closest to Christ gives hope to us all…I enjoy the group‘Cry Cry Cry’ so I share this….

(This I first saw during Lent.  I reviewed it today and will soon be reading about the other Mary.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0OH4pIvXBQ

Hearing this song (below) in August (2019) I am reminded how St. Mary Magdalene knew this Holy Essence better than any of Jesus’ followers…enJOY!

(MacDonald like CS Lewis and myself see her like ourselves as a sinner. Mary upon being healed dedicates her life to serving her Lord!)

“We hear next, from St Luke, of certain women who followed him, having been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, amongst whom is mentioned “Mary, called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils.” No wonder a woman thus delivered should devote her restored self to the service of him who had recreated her. We hear nothing of the circumstances of the cure, only the result in her constant ministration. Hers is a curious instance of the worthlessness of what some think it a mark of high-mindedness to regard alone—the opinion, namely, of posterity. Without a fragment of evidence, this woman has been all but universally regarded as impure. But what a trifle to her! Down in this squabbling nursery of the race, the name of Mary Magdalene may be degraded even to a subject for pictorial sentimentalities; but the woman herself is with that Jesus who set her free. To the end of time they may call her what they please: to her it is worth but a smile of holy amusement. And just as worthy is the applause of posterity associated with a name. To God alone we live or die.  “Let us fall, as, thank him, we must, into his hands. Let him judge us. Posterity may be wiser than we; but posterity is not our judge.”

Excerpt From Miracles of Our Lord by George MacDonald

Started Young…

…enJOY the Video at the bottom of this page!

Fishing…

To me fishing is a ‘spiritual experience.’  The water and fishing take me to places that can only be dreamed of.  Ever since I could walk, which was a Blessing in itself, a love of fishing has been imbedded deep in my soul. 

One time in particular stands out in my memory of such a spiritual moment.  I stood about a quarter mile up stream from Miller Falls on the Horsepasture River in Sapphire, North Carolina. It had been an unsuccessful morning of fly-fishing for trout.  This part of the river was wide, deep and slow moving.  A canopy of large trees shaded this stretch of the river.  Standing thigh deep on the southern side of the river I stopped fishing, listened to the river especially to the rush of water over a short waterfall just a few yards down stream.  Listening, feeling and looking down at my feet in the water, I saw that trout were holding themselves at my feet in the flow of the water waiting for their time to begin feeding again.  That was enough for that morning.  After enjoying the scene for a while carefully I left the river waiting for another time.  Fishing effects all my senses sight, sound, smell and touch.  It touches my whole being.  

It must have started in Canada. That was the first place that I fished apparently as old photos suggest.  On Lake Chandos in Ontario, Canada was where my fish were caught.  That was where my Grandpa Kirck had fished for years.  Grandpa and Grandma regularly vacationed in that part of Canada from their Buffalo home.  Later when we visited from Florida, they would takes us into Canada north of Algonquin Park to Paugh Lake.  We stayed in a rustic log cabin on the lake.  Grandpa taught me to fish the lake and the streams entering the lake.  That is where I caught my first trout in those small streams.  

Meanwhile back in Jacksonville hours, days and weeks were spent fishing for bream and bass in the small lake close to our house in Lakewood.  Our friends the Colemans had a house in Mandarin on a large creek that emptied into the St. Johns.  Hours were spent on their dock fishing for bass.  The memory of that dock and those times are still with me.  Then we moved to Winter Park.

Our first house in Winter Park was on a creek that connected Lake Sue to Lake Virginia.  Now fishing was just steps away. To enhance the fishing adventures my friend, Nat, and I bought a sunken cypress row boat from Mr. Baldwin who own the local hardware store.  We paid him two dollars.  Dad helped us haul the large old boat out of the canal so we could ‘tar’ the bottom.  That was our fishing vessel for a couple of years.  Then Nat got a sailboat and soon after so did I.  We fished Lake Virigina often with much success.  Then we moved to our own house on Lake Sue Avenue.

In high school Coach Dean Grove hired me as a camp counselor at his summer day camp, Camp Heronwood.  The camp has continued to flourish to this day.  So for the next three summers I was blessed to work there.  It was a joy to teach swimming, boating and fishing.  One memory in particular is written on all my senses.  A creek leaves Lake Maitland in the Winter Park chain of lakes meanders through what was then mostly woods but is now neighborhoods.  When Howell Creek reaches Lake Howell it forms a crescent shaped sandbar as the water enters the lake.  I would take the campers by boat to the sand bar.  Wading in their swimsuits they would fish from the bar.  We would bring bait but often with our bare feet we would feel for mussels buried just beneath the sand.  Then reaching down we would dig them up and use the mussels for bait.  After high school it was time to get an education so fishing took a bit of a break.

Not much fishing happened during college.  In dental school during summer school when the class load was light, trips to the Chattahoochee River happened as often as possible.  This was when fly-fishing was germinated.  It was a self-taught process.  I suppose that I read about how to do it.  Being a total novice how I learned is still a mystery.  From then on I was hooked on fly-fishing!

In the United States Air Force we were blessed to be stationed in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  It was fly-fishing nirvana for me.  From May through October almost every weekend was spent camping, exploring and fishing the southern Rocky Mountain streams and rivers.  Most everyone else used salmon eggs or live bait.  I rarely did.  Fly-fishing was now my chosen method.  As a result I caught more native trout, cutthroat, than other people did.  We also travel throughout the western states and fished their rivers and streams too. Leaving the USAF we came back to Florida.  

Mostly lake and saltwater fishing filled those early year back in Florida until Mom and Dad sold their beach condominium, bought one house and  then built another house in the North Carolina mountains.  Before the mountain house our off-shore boat brought us years of grouper fishing, scolloping, lobster diving, spearfishing and some inshore fishing.  At the end of our Florida years a ‘flats boat’ blessed us with memorable days scolloping and flats fishing.  We also travelled to the Florida Keys with our smaller boat.  At this point in time the Keys trips were mostly just the guys since our daughters had moved away and married.  I can still taste the salt air!

During our last year in Florida Jan and I decide to celebrate our fiftieth wedding anniversary by taking our family to Montana.  Jan and I went a week before everyone else to visit Great Falls (where I was born) and other parts of the state.  The whole family loved the trip and one day was dedicated to fly-fishing.  It was a huge success.   The younger Kids learned to cast a fly and catch trout in the ponds behind Glacier Outfitters.  While the older folks fished the Flathead River. The South Fork of the Flathead was gorgeous. It was a spectacular day!  Wonderful memories of ‘God’s Country’ as well as of fly-fishing!   

Our move to the Charlotte area was done to be near family.  Since most everyone on both sides of your families had end up here.  The Good Lord knew our future.  He knew we needed to move.  We didn’t know why He wanted us to move and that is a blessing.  Not to know! As the year two thousand eighteen began I sold my flats boat.  Sold our house in one day.  We packed our belonging and moved to the Charlotte area. Before Jan’s cancer returned we planned a trip to Georgetown, South Carolina, a historic town for sight-seeing, antiquing and shopping for Jan, Erin and Grace.  While Danny, David and I would go ‘red-fishing’.  Jan’s melanoma had metastasized to her lung.  Her treatment was to begin right after the Georgetown Trip.  She decided that we should go any way.  At the time we expected her treatment to be successful.  Jan was a master at planning trips.  It was like one of her final gifts to us all. Our trip was in October. Then Jan left us to be with the Lord in December.

The next year (2019) was mostly a year spent grieving. It was truly one day at a time.  Then early this year (2020) I heard of incredible trout fishing in the mountains of eastern Tennessee just a few hours away.  I scheduled a float trip with High Country Anglers on the Watauga River in February.  The trip was so successful that I lost count of the number of trout that I caught.  It was more than fifty. Fly-fishing paradise!  

Next trip was for David’s birthday.  Like the solo February trip the return trip with Danny and David will leave life long memories.  The Adventures continue!  The Good Lord Willing! 

Interesting that Jesus choose for his inner circle the Fishermen: Peter and his Brother Andrew then He choose John and his Brother James…

As June began doves built a nest on the transom above my front door.  Soon there were two small eggs in the nest.  They were left undisturbed as much as possible.  After three weeks it was time to see whether or not the eggs had hatched.  There were now two growing chicks in the nest.  Fun to watch… 

Remembering wonderful times at the Mountain House with family and friends…

July 2013
We SOLD the house in North Carolina.
March 1 marked the end of an era for the Smith family. It all began with the New Smyrna Beach condominium. Many wonderful years were spent on that beach, in that pool, on those golf courses, fishing, boating and sailing those waters. Then Mom and Dad sold the beach place and bought a house in Holly Forrest near Cashiers, North Carolina. Within a year they decided to build a house up there. They got an architect (Allen Brown) who helped to design a home that would accommodate the whole family. It had four bathrooms and bedrooms with essentially five sleeping areas if you include the basement that had two sleeping sofas. They had already found a lot. The lot had it’s own creek and it overlooked the second green of Sapphire Country Club. Several of the friends from The Country Club of Orlando had purchased lots. Some were building homes. They loved the place. Soon their home was under construction.

They had found their place. It would evolve into spending seven or eight months in North Carolina and three or four in Florida. There were a few occasions when both Debbie’s family and ours came to see them at the same time. Having visitors was their ultimate pleasure. Mom especially looked forward to ‘having company.’ Eventually Mom and Dad were entertaining their Great Grandchildren. In 2006 they both passed away here in Florida. Both sides of the family continued to use the house which I am sure would have made them happy.

Our family began to make regular trips to the house from the beginning. For us it was a welcome change from sub tropical Florida to the cool mountains. After Mom and Dad’s passing and our retirements, Jan and I began to spend more time between April and November up there. Amy and Erin’s families met us there as often as they could. Debbie’s kids also made good use of the house. Here are some of our highlights over the years.

The Fourth of July celebration at Lake Fairfield on the grassy banks of the lake watching spectacular fireworks with a symphony orchestra playing patriotic music. We brought our blankets, snacks and drinks, found a spot and waited for sundown. Then there were countless hikes to waterfalls that are so numerous in this part of North Carolina (supposedly more waterfall here than anywhere in the eastern US). These hikes were rock throwing opportunities for the kids. There were annual golf trips with David’s buddies which began with Mom and Dad as hosts and continued after they were gone. Then there were trips to the Cashiers Playground with the grandkids, lunches at the Cornucopia with family and friends. Of course there was antiquing in Highlands, Cashiers and Brevard. Back at the house there were fires in the fireplace which was a real treat for Floridians. Down at our creek the kids searched for rubies, sapphires and other gems. Golf cart rides all around the development was a hit with the kids. Skye (our golden retriever) loved to get in the cart and go to the river to fetch the ball from the cool water. Of course each year ended with a “leafing trip” in October to enjoy the spectacular colors which we Floridians don’t otherwise see. Then we closed the house for the winter to be taken care of by our friend Bruce Hutchinson.

For me it was an opportunity to fly fish which I had begun when we lived in Atlanta while I attended Emory. My love of fly fishing intensified when we lived in New Mexico where I had the opportunity to fish most of our western states. At the house on Staircase Falls Road I was a short five minute golf cart ride to be fishing the Horsepasture River. Or in just a few minutes in the car I could be fishing other western North Caroline creeks and rivers. I was hooked. Danny soon was hooked also. By the end most of the grandkids got a taste of the joys of fishing.

It became a place for reunions, visits and even a wedding since Erin and Danny were married there. SO many wonderful memories. It is a bitter sweet passing of an era. We were Blessed. I am Grateful.

WaterFalls…

There were so many waterfalls close to the House.  That part of North Carolina is where the Blue Ridge Escarpment creates tremendous numbers of waterfalls as the mountain terrain drops into South Carolina.  In a few minutes drive with a short hike you can see some spectacular falls.  We visited most of them over the years…enJOY this video I made a few years ago!

(About a dozen years ago Iris DeMent became a favorite.  She has a unique special appeal!)

In the higher regions of our minds and spirits there exist truths that can only be glimpsed. The place where mysteries reside.  George MacDonald writes about these places.  He has been called a modern mystic.  That is why he intrigues us so.  Those places are mysteries to our rational consciousness.  Fantasy worlds that are just another dimension beyond the four senses of our present reality.  

Are those regions fantasy worlds? Or are they where the real Truths lay?  Albert Einstein said that ‘Time is an Illusion’ implying that this fabric of space-time may not be the whole reality.  He obviously saw this reality more completely than we do.  MacDonald, Lewis, Chesterton and other writers transport us into these mystical regions in their fantasies and other works.  These writers believed that in our imaginations can lay profound truths. Their fantasies take us to these places  boldly giving us snippets or a sneak peek of our total reality.  Exploring these regions can be exhilarating.  

There are more dimensions and realities that can be known solely by our senses.  Places exist beyond our touch, sight and hearing.  I believe that mystery.  I suppose that we will let the mystery be not because we lack the desire to know those Truths but because in our present state we are incapable of little more than ‘glimpses.’

Iris believes, “In Love and lives her life accordingly.” It’s as simple as that…So let the mystery be! 

A few days after this post I read this, which says better what have written:

“All the things that have ever deeply possessed your soul have been but hints of it—tantalising glimpses, promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that died away just as they caught your ear. But if it should really become manifest—if there ever came an echo that did not die away but swelled into the sound itself—you would know it. Beyond all possibility of doubt you would say ‘Here at last is the thing I was made for.’ We cannot tell each other about it. It is the secret signature of each soul, the incommunicable and unappeasable want, the thing we desired before we met our wives or made our friends or chose our work, and which we shall still desire on our deathbeds, when the mind no longer knows wife or friend or work. While we are, this is. If we lose this, we lose all.”  CS Lewis

I write this on the open back porch with Lexi as squirrels and birds gather in the herb bed just a few paces away to feed …

So that we don’t take ourselves TOO SERIOUSLY…enJOY!

More from Doc!

This young man is Blessed with the Gift of Joy!

“Joy is the Serious Business of Heaven.”  CSLewis

Life keep coming with all its brutal realities, like the Wuhan Virus.  We as Christians are called to CELEBRATION, not just in this Easter season but every day…

I believe that this life is like a Dance an ongoing Celebration.  See my previous thoughts about the “Divine Dance.”

Here are some of my latest thoughts about the Wuhan Virus…

Added on April 17, 2021...

This is REALLY informative and scary….

Added July 11, 2020…

According to todays Wuhan Virus numbers of total deaths per reported cases, the death rate is 1% but experts say there are 10 time as many unreported cases.  So the real number is 0.1% or less.  This is consistent with what other countries report.  Japan and Sweden who had NO lockdowns have much better numbers.

Added on July 8, 2020…

This is great! Makes total sense! This Texas physician has a great treatment for COVID19. This treatment suppresses the immune systems’ response to the Wuhan Virus! This type of treatment has been used in Japan, Taiwan and Scandinavian countries with much success…

I have believed from the beginning that the Wuhan Virus can be treated by suppressing the immune. This is further proof that it WORKS… This video is worth watching to the end…

This video was removed by so called ‘Censors’…

Added on May 26, 2020…

This video reaffirms the damage done by the ‘lock down’ not only economically but health wise. The love down was an over reaction that continues to cause more harm than good…Another of Stanford Medical School experts sums it up in this video…

Added on May 19, 2020…

There is a difference between research medical scientists and clinical medical scientists.  Researchers grant a treatments approval after usually doing ‘double blind studies’ which prove to them that the treatment works.  That is a true test.  Those studies take time and do without a doubt prove that the studied treatment works.  Clinical scientists, those who treat actual patients, rely on their observations.  If a treatment works they continue to use it and more than likely share their successes with others.  If it works they use it.  I remember a dental school professor, Dr. Al Williams, told us in a group conversation once that if there is a ‘new treatment or therapy’ we should not be the first to try it but then we should not be the last to use it.  This seems to apply to the current treatment of the Wuhan Virus with Plaquenil or hydroxychloroquine.

Hydroxycchloroquine has shown to be an effective treatment for the Wuhan Virus.  Some studies and physicians who use it say that it is 90-100% effective.  It must be started early.  I have not read of a single physician who has used hydroxychloroquine to treat covid19 that has not said that it is 100% effective.  It is safe and effective since it has been used and is still used to treat malaria.

Yesterday President Trump announced that he is taking Plaquenil as a preventive measure.  I took it for about a year to treat my rheumatoid arthritis.  The side effects which I studied thoroughly are minimal and rare.  The worst being eye damage but that was after years of use.   

It’s immune suppressing properties to me are why it works so well…IMHO

PS Hydoxychloroquine is rarely use any more to treat RA, lupus or other autoimmune disease since the advent of biologics about 20 years ago. Hydoxychloroquine is an ‘old treatment’ for RA…

Added on May 3rd…

This was discovered on THEBLAZE.COM…Here a Nobel Prize winning scientist discusses the damage done by ‘over-reaction’ to the Wuhan Virus.  That is ‘lock down.’…

The video below is about half an hour but well worth the time! He makes a good argument for quarantining the ‘sick’ and ‘elderly’ (susceptible), not doing a generalized ‘lock down’….Makes sense to me.

We have had time to evaluate the ‘reality’ of the virus not just theoretical predictions of the course the disease will take.  It is becoming evident that the morbidity (deaths) does match the predictions.  Thank God!

Stanford and Yale medical school epidemiologists have been saying that the morbidity for the Wuhan Virus is NOWHERE near what was predicted. Here is Stanford’s head of epidemiology. Basically that the truth about this disease is nowhere close to the dire predictions…

As a ‘clinical scientist’ like these young doctors, we are driven by ‘results’ not theories.  We observe so we know what works best…

These two physicians in the video below some up what is true to this point…

This video is being censored but you can still watch it on Vimeo…Very Informative!

This interview was removed from YouTube because it did not fit their narrative.  Thankfully you can still view it on Vimeo…

Now This has been deleted from Vimeo…

It is time to OPEN UP!

Time to do appropriate quarantine measures not draconian inappropriate measures!

Wuhan Virus: Some Thoughts…

…patients with Lupus do not get infected with the Wuhan Virus. 

I heard an interesting theory concerning the Wuhan Virus.   A pulmonologist from LA (whose name I missed) has been treating many patients with the virus.  He used immune suppressing drugs to treat the patients with the virus.  That seems counterintuitive.  His theory was that it is our immune systems ‘overreaction’ that causes the lung damage.  That it is the immune system that destroys the lung and not the virus itself.  Interestingly patients with Lupus do not get infected with the Wuhan Virus.  Lupus is an immune system disease! Hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil) is often used to treat Lupus. Hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil) is an IMMUNOSUPPRESSANT. So are all the other drugs used to treat Lupus!

That same theory may apply to our economy.  It may not be the disease itself that does the damage to the economy but our response to it.

I wonder if those of us with other immune system diseases like rheumatoid arthritis who take immune suppressing medications are also less likely to be infected the Wuhan Virus?  That’s probably a false hope!

This is a thorough video of the origins of the Wuhan Virus that disputes the Official Chinese Communist Party’s Version…Concluding that the virus is Lab Derived…

This is of course is…IMHO

I have chosen to ‘Own the Pain’ rather than letting the pain own me!

This mental attitude began when I was boy.  Probably because I have always dealt with physical pain.  I tell that story in detail in “The Accident: God is with me.”  This attitude is also reflected in my post “My Good Addictions” …

Part of this exercise story involved running short course triathlons.  I was a distance swimmer at Emory.  After leaving the United States Air Force I became a daily bicyclist because it was good for my bad knee.  Running was not good for my damaged left leg.  So after a short period all three, Swimming, Running and Biking, it became clear that running was not a wise thing for me to be doing.  So my time as a triathlete was short lived. However, I still to this day bike daily!  I swim when it is convenient…

Here is a story about Triathlons… 

I participated in short course triathlons in the early 80s.  Dr. James Gills of the ‘St. Lukes Cataract & Laser Institute’ won the true ‘Ironman’ so often that he purchased the name.  He had the same femur lengthening surgery that I had in 1997.  He had fractured his femur either training or participating in a race. His femur was improperly set resulting in that leg being shorter than the other.  Dr. J. Dean Cole performed Dr. Gills’ surgery one month before my leg lengthening surgery.   When Dr. Cole inserted the healing nail (more like a rod) in my femur, I asked him, “What could I do and how strong was the titanium rod?”  He replied that I could jump off the roof and I might break my right leg but not the left one with the healing nail.  He said that Dr. Gills who was just one month ahead of me in recovery from his similar surgery was already training again.  A few years later Jan had Dr. Gills perform her cataract surgery right before he retired…Dr. Gills is/was a devout CHRISTIAN! He, Jan and I shared that with each other!

Here is the link to Drs. Gills website:  https://www.stlukeseye.com 

Also see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironman_Triathlon

“In 1990, with the help of Lew Friedland, Dr. James P. Gills acquired and purchased the Hawaii Triathlon Corporation, owner of the Ironman brand, for $3 million from Silk. With the Ironman brand, Gills established the World Triathlon Corporation with the intention of furthering the sport of triathlon and increasing prize money for triathletes…”From Wikipedia

Amended….

I heard this song while riding my bike.  This sounds like what I felt that evening in the twilight as surgery awaits me in the morning…I can still feel Him near especially when I Breathe in His Spirit…

GRATEFUL… 

“It is always shocking to meet Life where we thought we were alone.” George MacDonald

This is a very short story about a vivid memory from decades ago…

There are some memories so imbedded in our core that they shape who we are.  Those may be memories of people who have touched us in the deepest ways or like in this case a moment when the Truth was more evident than the physical surroundings and happenings.  This particular moment is as real now as it was decades ago. 

Alone in a private room in the Hope Haven Children’s Hospital without food or water awaiting surgery in the morning.  Fear was there of course but it the aloneness that brought on the despair.  In those days visiting hours were strictly enforced so Mom and Dad had left.  At age 8 to 12 years old there is not much history to fall back on for support.  It was a desperately lonesome place as the sun began to set.  Waiting like this is difficult.  Waiting will always be difficult.

This could have been the fifth or it could have been the eighth surgery.  I am not sure which one of my surgeries this was since the memory of them all merge together. It was I believe the first in a private room.  The year before in this same hospital just down the hall in the boy’s ward something happened that in hindsight so affected my Mom that all future surgeries would put me in a private or semi-private room.  The previous year the night before my surgery a little boy was brought to the boy’s ward who was burned from head to toe.  Apparently a large cardboard box that was being burned as trash in a new housing development was lifted by the wind.  Then the flaming box landed on top of the little boy catching his clothes on fire too.  He was burned beyond hope.  While his parents who must have been devastated  left for a while, my Mom held the boy and sang to him as the McGuire Sisters performed on the Ed Sullivan Show.  The song they sang was ‘Sugartime’.  What a vivid image it was of Mom holding the boy in her lap in front of the television. I will never forget my mom loving on that poor boy! It must have brought back painful memories of my being burned.

Hospital wards were a fraternal society filled with others who faced the same fears and challenges.  The boys and girls wards were separated in Hope Haven Hospital by a wall with the nurses’ station at the head of the partition.  While at Duke University Hospital the two wards where at opposite ends of a hall.  After surgery visiting the girl’s ward was a great wheelchair adventure.   The nurses frowned on such adventures but the lure was compelling.  So this was the first night by myself awaiting surgery.  Earlier that day I had been prepped for surgery. Now was the time of waiting. Alone.

As usual before all surgeries that afternoon my leg was prepared for surgery.  The leg was first shaved from groin to toes.  Then disinfected with various solutions the last of which was iodine based which left the leg a red color.  After the disinfecting a sterile stocking covered the leg from hip to foot.  This was not uncomfortable but gave a feeling of making the leg seem almost separate from the body.  So now the duty was to stay still, leave the leg alone then just wait.  Soon the nurse would bring a medicine that would put me to sleep.  Mom and Dad had bought a radio to place on the nightstand beside the bed to help fill the time of waiting.  That night an opera program was on so that helped take my mind to a different place.  Music can do that for us. 

Lying there waiting at some point before being sedated, looking out the window into the pine trees several yard away, my eyes were drawn to the white wall that was adjacent to the window.  Straight out the wall reached almost to the pine trees.  Whether it was my prayer or someone else’s the wall with it’s whiteness, brightness and heat engulfed the room where I lay.  The Light with its pleasant warmth gave me a peace and serenity that is beyond description.  The Lord was there.  The fear and loneliness had left.  That is the last that I remember of that night and that surgery.  

That moment of total Peace and Comfort was indelibly written on my heart and soul.  It was decades later that the reality of that moment became clear to me.  The Lord was present so I was not afraid.  I was not alone… 

This photo is from the internet and not mine…

For more on ‘my burn’ see: https://www.dksmith918.com/?page_id=1205

“The Accident: God is with me”

Don’t be deceived by the ‘global warming hoax’…

Earth’s climate is determined by solar activity especially solar storms or sunspots…

Having been an excellent science student, particularly in physics, this global warming ‘theory’ has seemed almost comical to me from its beginning.  It is based on the theory that increases in atmospheric CO2 levels are warming our planet.  Facts show otherwise.  Remember that CO2 is less than 0.04% of our atmosphere.  There is more than twenty times as much Argon in ‘our air’ than carbon dioxide.  To attribute ‘warming’ (which is not happening) to this tiny amount of CO2 defies common sense.

The liberal left made a grievous error when they choose ‘global warming’ instead of ‘climate change.’  To say that the climate is changing of course cannot be debated.  Climate has always changed and will continue to cycle.  It was better when liberals vacillated back and forth between ‘warming and cooling.’   Once locked into the ‘CO2 Greenhouse Model’ their true agenda was exposed.  Liberals want control! That is their aim and goal. 

They refused to be bothered by historical evidence of solar cycles being the primary determinant of our climate.  Those cycles occur and reoccur in 11 year waves.  We are currently in a prolonged ‘solar minimum’ which can be the beginning of a cooler than normal period. Liberals prefer to allow ‘political’ scientist formulate their flimsy climate theory instead of scientist, namely physicists…IMHO

Added on January 28, 2021…

The United States has been the leader in carbon emissions reduction for decades.  America strives to clean up our environment.  We are the worlds leader.  Meanwhile Communist China is the world’s worst polluter.  India is almost as bad.  So before the liberal left lectures us about our carbon emissions they need to get their facts straight. 

As a native (almost) Floridian the antidotal fact is the because of ‘climate cooling’ citrus is no longer grown north of Orlando.  Before the late eighties more citrus was grown in Lake County Florida than the whole state of California.  DON’T BE DECEIVED BY THE ‘GLOBAL WARMING HOAX’… 

Added on February 19, 2021…

The brutally cold weather recently has caused the liberal left’s radical views on climate to change back to ‘Climate Change’ instead of ‘Global Warming’. Ignoring the FACT that climate historically ALWAYS cycles…

The facts on the Grand Solar Minimum have been known for some time but are suppressed because it does not fit the narrative (global warming) that authorizes the government to dictate your actions, rules, and taxes.The present “Minimum” was named for one of the scientists studying it and is called the “Eddy” minimum.  You can look up the previous minimums:  the “Dalton” and the “Maunder”.  The present cold spell in the US and elsewhere is not an accident, further, it exposes the global warming farce and underscores the futility of trying to change the climate with carbon related restrictions.Changes in the sun’s radiation cause 99% of the climate changes—just so you know.The are mountains of supporting data on this—but ignored for reasons you can imagine.Plus it has been very lucrative for those willing to lie for money.I’ve described this in the past, but current weather patterns make it a timely repeat….B Global Cooling? NOAA Confirms ‘Full-blown’ Grand Solar MinimumSeptember 5, 2020 By NEWS WIRE16 Comments

Added on May 30, 2021...

Power plants

Due to the complex nature of the electric vehicle batteries, it reportedly takes twice as much energy to produce an electric car than compared to a petrol or diesel car, and so the risk of emissions and pollution is twice as much too….

I am not easily deceived… 

This has been a difficult year.  The death of anyone close to us is hard to deal with.  Jan’s death was unexpected, brutally painful to watch and left a large void in my life and soul.  All the stages of grief have come.  Some still and will always revisit.  

Through all the days, weeks and months of grieving George MacDonald’s powerful spiritual insights offered strength.  Each night readings from his books or meditations have brought me peace before sleeping.  That kind of peace is hard to have and hold especially when confronted with the questions: What now, what do I have to offer, or of what use can I be?

My ego wants some grandiose plan for my now altered future.  But I have come to realize that is not how this whole thing works.  As so many have said, “The past is gone, let it go.  The future hasn’t arrived yet.  All we have is now.  One now following by all the other nows.”  It is that simple.  To breathe in each moment is all we can do.  

Trusting that the Good Lord shall reveal our next steps on His Path for us…Or as MacDonald wrote:

“Doing the next right thing” from George MacDonald:

“No man can order his life, for it comes flowing over him from behind…. The one secret of life and development is not to devise and plan but to fall in with the forces at work—to do every moment’s duty aright—that being the part in the process allotted to us: and let come—not what will, for there is no such thing—but what the eternal thought wills for each of us, has intended in each of us from the first.”

So many Christian writers endlessly discuss the True Self verses the small self.  To me it congeals into the simple concept of ‘The will not mine be done.’  Implying that as we follow or attempt to follow God’s Will for our lives, we begin to glimpse of what our God given image looks like.  We will of course repeatedly fall and fail to live up to our Creators version of our Self. 

MacDonald’s writings have inspired so many great writers, Christian mostly but some who were not.  Those writers include:  Lewis Carroll, W.H. Auden, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Walter de la Mare, E. Nesbit, Madeleine L’Engle, G. K. Chesterton, Elizabeth Yates, Oswald Chambers, Mark Twain and others. 

Ironically it is in our vain attempt to ‘discover who we are’ that leads to our eventual surrender.  Below is a quote from George MacDonald that sums up what I am trying to say.  

“Self

“Vain were the fancy, by treatise, or sermon, or poem, or tale, to persuade a man to forget himself. He cannot if he would. Sooner will he forget the presence of a raging tooth (I love the dental allusion). There is no forgetting of ourselves but in the finding of our deeper, our true self—God’s idea of us when He devised us—the Christ in us. Nothing but that self can displace the false, greedy, whining self, of which most of us are so fond and proud. And that self no man can find for himself…“but as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God.” 

Excerpt From George MacDonald by C. S. Lewis

From what I have read, learned and gathered over the years, the Good Lord has a plan for each of our lives.  He has a path He has chosen for us.  Yet He gave us the freewill to choose to go our own way.  That freewill makes us not robots but creatures who can choose to follow Him or veer off on our own.  When I stray from His Path I am lost as in a wilderness full of fears.  Eventually the pains of those strayings bring back to His Way.  His Way is the path of Love.

Those who cross our paths in this earthly life can also force us off His chosen Path.  That is the result of their freewill.  Those two women who were responsible for my care as an infant choose to be careless.  The result was my being burned.  That accident changed the course of  my life almost from the start.  Then moments after their carelessness Sister Barke heard my screams.  She lifted me to safety.  The Good Lord knew that scene before eternity.  

He knows when I wander off His Way.  He is there with me even in my wandering. He loves us in spite of our faults. He allows us to decide to love Him. He commands us to, ‘Love Him and to love our neighbors as ourselves.’ He counts on us to help each other stay on the path He has chosen for each of us.  With each choice we make it is either His Will or our will.  If we Love one another enough help carry one another’s burdens, the Path appears clear.  Or as Jesus told us, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” (Matthew 11:29-30)  

Keeping it simple:  it is choosing that His Will be done not mine…

I continue to add to “The Accident” page, although this year has been difficult with the lose of Jan!

For more on the story of my Accident see the link below:

https://www.dksmith918.com/?page_id=1205

Last night this below from George Mac Donald reassured my belief that a person appreciates charity most when it gives him self-worth that is when he feels loved.  It is best for each of us to earn our keep.  Or as scripture tells us rather than giving giving a man a fish, we should teach the man to fish. When we earn a wage we then have to opportunity to be charitable ourselves. 

This became evident to me in my dental practice.  For a short period of time my office accepted medicaid patients.  They paid nothing. Their dental treatment was free, a gift. It soon became evident to me that they didn’t appreciate their free dental care.  They routinely missed appointments.  It was a waste of our time and theirs too.  Charity was best dispensed by doing procedures for nothing or charging less than normal.  Usually without them knowing it. 

It is after all about compassion and love.

On social welfare:

“When compassion itself is precious to a man,” she answered, “it must be because he loves you, and believes you love him. When that is the case, you may give him any thing you like, and it will do neither you nor him harm. But the man of independent feeling, except he be thus your friend, will not unlikely resent your compassion, while the beggar will accept it chiefly as a pledge for something more to be got from you; and so it will tend to keep him in beggary.”

“Would you never, then, give money, or any of the necessaries of life, except in extreme, and, on the part of the receiver, unavoidable necessity?” I asked.

“I would not,” she answered; “but in the case where a man cannot help himself, the very suffering makes a way for the love which is more than compassion to manifest itself. In every other case, the true way is to provide them with work, which is itself a good thing, besides what they gain by it. If a man will not work, neither should he eat. It must be work with an object in it, however: it must not be mere labor, such as digging a hole and filling it up again, of which I have heard.  Would you never, then, give money, or any of the necessaries of life, except in extreme, and, on the part of the receiver, unavoidable necessity?” I asked.

“I would not,” she answered; “but in the case where a man cannot help himself, the very suffering makes a way for the love which is more than compassion to manifest itself. In every other case, the true way is to provide them with work, which is itself a good thing, besides what they gain by it. If a man will not work, neither should he eat. It must be work with an object in it, however: it must not be mere labor, such as digging a hole and filling it up again, of which I have heard.”

Excerpt From

The Vicar’s Daughter

by George MacDonald

Exercise and Music have been my good addictions since childhood…

Today my burned leg and my rheumatoid arthritis were bitching loader than usual.  Rest seemed to be a good idea but music and exercise won the day again…Here is my exercise and music history…

When my leg pain got bad or when I was just mentally down, music and exercise have been my primary coping mechanisms since childhood.  If the pain was physical, I like to take ownership of the pain.  Vigorous exercise did that for me.  The pain from my workouts was mine.  I owned it.  In studying human physiology, anatomy, biochemistry and etc. the chemistry of that relief is simple.  Strenuous aerobic exercise releases endorphins and other natural chemicals creating euphoria plus natural analgesics.  As a child how it worked didn’t matter.  It just worked!  Dad had built me an exercise bike about the age of five which I rode regularly in our garage both in Jacksonville and Winter Park.  In addition sitting still was not in my make up.     

Later in college my routine became daily treks to the gym’s indoor heated pool.  To the point that the swimming coach watched me swim a mile daily.  He asked me to swim for Emory.  I did but only at my convenience.  Not much of a team player!  Aerobic workouts were becoming a healthy addition. 

Dental School was so demanding that fitting in daily exercise was not always possible.  We did play flag football, racketball, and golf regularly.  Remember that a round of golf is on average a six mile walk.  My Air Force years were similar but also included snow skiing, back packing, fly fishing and almost daily something physical. I continued to own my pain.

During my USAF years I had ongoing problems with my knee of my burned leg.  It kept me from being deployed to Vietnam for which I am grateful.  A famous French snow skier of that time, Jean-Claude Killy, had knee problems too and resorted to bicycle riding to rehab his knee.  So when I was discharged from the USAF I bought a bike.  Ever since I pretty much ride my bike every day.  I kept a record.  Rarely did I not ride: sick or not I rode.  I still do!

I am addicted to bicycling!

Music has been just as much a passion.  Awaiting surgeries the night before as a boy usually alone in a room, music was an escape from the fear.  I remember even listening to opera early on in those hospital rooms as opera was common on the 1950’s radios.  Eventually I got a transistor radio that I secretly listened to at home by putting it under my pillow.  Music does the same biochemical thing to our system that exercise does.  Good positive chemicals are released.  

So bicycling while listening to music has been a habit for decades now… 

I have come to believe that it was by GOD’S GRACE that I became addicted to exercise and music…For that I am Eternally Grateful…

For the story of my ‘Burned Leg’ see:

In the late 1980s our family began traveling to the Florida’s Keys.  The trips purpose was to dive for lobster.  The Gals also enjoyed shopping, the beaches, God’s especially beautiful skies and water.  Our boat was an offshore Wellcraft with a cuddy cabin that had a potty.  

Those early trip were with Winter Park friends, the Mullers and Kirkconnells who had kids of similar ages. The first adventures were to Key West.  We limited out daily.  The limit on lobster was 5 per person. Often limiting in the morning then returning in the afternoon to limit out again.  Returning home from those early days with our hundred quarter cooler filled with lobster tails.  God was good to us as we enJOYed His tropical waters!

Eventually our Key’s group included both Winter Park and Leesburg friends.  Marathon instead of Key West became our destination.  Cameron Kirkconnell one of the ‘Kids’ on the trips eventually took his diving skills to the ultimate when he became a Champion Free Diving Spearfisherman. (See his video below where he recently set a new world’s record.)  

The blessings of those trips continued to this year.  The Kids are grown, married and have their own lives but us old men continue the annual trek.  We could be called, “Gray heads chasing tails.”   That is not to be taken in the wrong way!  Still Blessed…

Highlights from this years’ trip…

Cameron Kirkconnell World’s Champion Free-diving Spearfisherman…

Remember Cameron is FREE DIVING (No Tanks)…

Here is an extended video of another trip to Big Pine Key featuring ‘Key Deer’…