The Story of Two Wolves

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.

He said, “My son, the battle is between two “wolves” inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather:
“Which wolf wins?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”

And the following is a longer version which provides an application of the message:

A Grandfather’s Story

There was Grandfather, his little grandson often came in the evenings to sit at his knee and ask the many questions that children ask. One day the grandson came to his Grandfather with a look of anger on his face.

Grandfather said, ” Come, sit, tell me what has happened today.”

The child sat and leaned his chin on his Grandfather's knee.Looking up into the wrinkled, nut brown face and the kind dark eyes; the child's anger turned to tears.

The boy said, “I went to the town today with my father, to trade the furs he has collected over the past several months. I was happy to go, because father said that since I had helped him with the trapping, I could get something for me. Something that I wanted.

I was so excited to be in the trading post, I have not been there before. I looked at many things and finally found a metal knife! It was small, but a good size for me. So father got it for me.”

Here the boy laid his head against his Grandfather's knee and became silent. The Grandfather, softly placed his hand on the boys raven hair and said, “and then what happened?”. Without lifting his head, the boy said, “I went outside to wait for father, and to admire my new knife in the sunlight. Some town boys came by and saw me, they got all around me and started saying bad things.

They call me dirty and stupid and said that I should not have such a fine knife. The largest of these boys, pushed me back and I fell over one of the other boys. I dropped my knife and one of them snatched it up and they all ran away laughing.”

Here the boy's anger returned, “I hate them, I hate them all !!!”

The Grandfather, with eyes that have seen too much, lifted his grandson's face so his eyes looked into the boys. Grandfather said, “Let me tell you a story. I too, at times have felt a great hate for those that have taken so much, with no sorrow for what they do. But hate wears you down, and does not hurt your enemy. It is like taking poison and wishing your enemy would die. I have struggled with these feelings many times. It is as if there are two wolves inside me, one is white and one is black. The white wolf is good and does no harm. He lives in harmony with all around him and does not take offense when no offense was intended. But will only fight when it is right to do so, and in the right way.

But, the black wolf is full of anger. The littlest thing will set him off into a fit of temper. He fights everyone, all the time, for no reason. He cannot think because his anger and hate are so great. It is helpless anger, for his anger will change nothing. Sometimes it is hard to live with these two wolves inside me, for both of them try to dominate my spirit.”

The boy looked into his Grandfather's eyes, and asked, “Which one wins Grandfather?”

The Grandfather, smiled and said, “The one I feed.”

Proverbs 25:
21 If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink: 22 For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the LORD shall reward thee.

Romans 12:
20 Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. 21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

Words from a friend…

When we forgive someone we excuse them from just condemnation of the law because there is no forgiveness that does not come from above. When someone offends us, the truth in our forgiveness is shown when we not only forgive them ourselves, we ask God to forgive them too. This brings grace into the equation between us and the offender just as it does between God and ourselves through Jesus Christ.

Through grace one learns of the attributes of Christ and when we do for others as Christ did for us we become more like him. Forgiving is not human in nature, it is divine. The person doing the forgiving has moved forward along the path toward righteousness and the person being forgiven is introduced to it.

One of the reasons for the existence of Judah’s Journal is to provide true information on the subject of Islam, helping to dispell some of the many myths that people believe about it, and to highlight the dangers it poses for our western civilization.

You might like to see how you go on answering the following questions.

The correct answers can be found by researching the resources on the page “Just what is it about Islam?” (see left-hand sidebar) or else in the first comment made to this post.

There are no prizes for gaining 100% other than your own inward glow of satisfaction, but you are very welcome to boast of your success (or confess your failings - for kindly commiseration, of course) in the comments section below.

1. What does the word “Islam” mean?

2. What is the name given to the principle of abrogation by which contradictory surahs are correctly interpreted?

3. Is it true that Islam normally separates state and religion?

4. What is the word for “holy hypocrisy” which allows Muslims to deceive and give a false rendition of truth - or simply not tell the truth when it suits their cause not to do so?

5. There is a simple Islamic proverb that says: “If you can't cut your enemies' hand, - - - - it.” What is the missing word?

6. In which century was Muhammad born?

7. What is Muhammad’s full name?

8. Is it true or false that the pre-Islamic Allah was the pantheistic Moon god with three daughters?

9. Is it true or false that Muhammad could neither read nor write?

10. Who became Islam’s Caliph on the death of Muhammad?

11. Islam has divided into numerous sects. What are the three largest ones?

12. What is the name of the unseen beings (not angels) that Muslims believe exist?

13. Name the five pillars of Islam.

14. What are the words of the Shahada?

15. What is Jannah?

16. What is the Ka’aba?

17. What is the Jizya?

18. What is the name given to the legal verdict given based on the Qur’an and the Sunnah (the recorded sayings and deeds of Muhammad)?

19. Muslims divide the world into two sectors: Dar-al-Islam and Dar-al-Harb. What do these two terms translate to in English?

20. Islam may be the fastest growing religion today, but are there more Muslims, Christians or Hindus in the world?

There are two sites out there on the Internet that I would like to make special mention of here, one a new forum to highlight the activities and concerns of Christian missionaries everywhere and anywhere, and the other a cartoon blog which I feel deserves a plug because of the way it uses humour as the medium for the message. There are links to both of these websites over to the left on the sidebar.

Missions ConneXion was launched last week after John got himself “slapped upside the head” (as he tells the story) during a recent church missions adventure and was told to get on with it. The site looks good and has had a great first few days in terms of traffic and number of countries represented by the hits it has had. Do pay a visit and see what you think.

The Cartoon Blog of Dave Walker (whose self-portrait you see here) uses his own art work to illustrate his comments on a number of things, some of them church related, others of them just basically “life itself” related. He has a great appreciation of the mundane, ordinary and simple, and a great way of highlighting those things just as they are but with a touch of humour and tinge of poignancy thrown in for good measure. Sometimes he reminds me of the words of Ecclesiastes 3, the sense that everything is meaningless unless God is in it.
Dave, I think you do a great job and I certainly enjoy your work.

And now Dave has just launched his new website called We Blog Cartoons which offers some free cartoons for your blog. Here are three of them:

An item in today’s newspaper reads as follows:

An Afghan man is being prosecuted in a Kabul court and could be charged with converting from Islam to Christianity, a crime under the country’s Islamic sharia laws.

The defendant, Abdul Rahman, 41, was arrested last month after his family accused him of becoming a Christian, Judge Ansarullah Mawlavezada said. Rahman was charged with rejecting Islam.

During the one-day trial last week, Rahman allegedly confessed that he converted from Islam to Christianity 16 years ago while working as an aid worker for a Christian group helping Afghan refugees in Pakistan.

This is a very serious charge. The prosecution is going for the death penalty unless Abdul Rahman converts back to Islam.

But wait a moment… aren’t we still being told by the Islamic apologists that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance? That is the story that Mr Javed Khan, the president of the Federation of Islamic Associations of NZ, was trying to tell us a couple of weeks ago. He also said that Islam does not preach violence. Killing someone for choosing a different religion is not violence? Refusing to allow someone to choose their own faith is showing tolerance?

Judge Ansarullah Mawlavezada clarifies this for us as follows:

“We are not against any particular religion in the world. But in Afghanistan, this sort of thing is against the law. It is an attack on Islam.”

Outlawing any other religion is not the same as being against any other religion?
Someone converting to Christianity is an attack on Islam?

Yes, it is very much clearer now.
Why didn’t Mr Javed Khan say it like that in the first place?

And a message to all other Christians who are free to choose their own faith…
Please remember Abdul Rahman in your prayers, that he stays faithful to the end, and that the end is not that which his captors have planned for him.
The rest of us may have difficulties thrust upon us by critics of Christianity within our own free cultures, but they do not come anywhere near the kind of persecution that many suffer daily and hourly elsewhere on this planet. The price for some is far greater than many of the rest of us will ever have to pay. Let us never forget the persecuted church, nor forget that we have been told to pray for our enemies also.

The weekend was a parent’s nightmare… and the youngster still does not comprehend. All I can think is that one day he might, one day when he has a teenager or two of his own.

Friday evening went according to plan. The young lad dressed up in his fashionable best to go “clubbing” in town with a friend, the other youngster picking him up in one of those vehicles that you hear coming from several hundred metres away. It misfires on most of it’s cylinders, it backfires quite rudely as well, and the boombox inside booms loudly outside - there is really no need for a horn. There is no need to get out and knock on the door. We know he’s arrived at the gate. And kiddo emerges fresh and clean from his shower, dressed spiffingly smart for the date. “Bye Mom” he shouts, flinging open the door, “I’ll stay over somewhere, I’m bound to be late” he calls out as he heads down the path. A car door slams shut, the engine is revved, and with a bang and a splutter departs. The roar up the hill is the last that I hear with the beat from the boombox left to repeat in my ear.

Saturday dawns and is peaceful all day - no teenager din, no mess left around, no fast food demands, no anything else untoward. But the day wears on and I do need to know if he’ll be gracing us with his presence for dinner. Talking to kids is best done by phone - they hear with their eyes, not their ears, and read acronyms rather than words. I text him a message and one comes straight back, deciphered to say not really but to keep him a meal anyway, later.

The hands of the clock move steadily round, and soon it is half past eleven. I know its a while since it was my turn as a teen, but 11.30 pm still strikes me as “later” enough. Time for a text ’cause I do want to know - are you going to sleep here tonight? And again at two in the morning, but his phone is turned off. And at 3.30 am - I am quite unable to sleep. The youngster is known for his brave encounters with danger, for silly stuff that wise folk avoid. He will walk lonely streets where others plan not to be, except those who are out for no good. Memories of the incident where he hid terrified for several hours in a bush while being hunted down by a knife weilding manaical meth-head did not help me at all.

The sunrise on Sunday gave a golden red glow to a sky saying farewell to the night, and the birds in the trees woke up singing their praises for a new day full of promise and grace. No response to my messages, nothing at all - and definitely not like him one bit. I call some of his friends but they haven’t a clue - they’ve not seen him nor know where he is. If only teenagers knew why their parents grow old, what makes them so anxious and weary… What was he doing? Just having fun, or lying robbed, beaten and bleeding or worse somewhere out there on his own?

By late afternoon we have a plan. First hubby goes searching the track. From the end of it’s length he calls me to say at least there is no sign of him there. I print off some photos. We are about to call the Police when my cell phone gives one of it’s beeps. “Im cumin hom Mum”

The youngster turns up and comes through the door, amazed that anything’s wrong. What’s all the fuss, he wonders non-plussed - of course he is fine, and has had a good time, and it was just that his phone battery went flat. So what’s wrong with a land line, a friend’s battery, a friend’s cell phone? I never did get an answer. I’m just a silly old moo of a Mom and it has really been a great weekend.

But not for me.

A message of encouragement for parents…

The behaviour of our children is not necessarily a judgement of our abilities as parents. We can do the best we possibly can with the resources that are available to us, and still not everything works out as we would wish. It is not an ideal world and people are not perfect.
It is a good thing to remember that God our Father, who can hardly be faulted in any respect, has a whole worldful of children - namely, ourselves.
And we all know that many of them can be quite badly behaved, by their own doing, over and over again.

The other evening I met a very spunky person. We were at a dinner occasion where I knew most people, but this was someone I had not met before. When the opportunity arose, I went and sat down next to her. I could tell there was something a little odd, a little different, about her but whatever that was it wasn’t immediately obvious. We got talking and I asked about her hobbies. That is usually a good thing to explore when looking for some common ground. She had a cat (oh yes, I do too) and she wasn’t very well. She tired easily, and needed lots of rest. But then I learnt that she worked 5 hours a day with some special children, those with learning difficulties and who needed extra assistance in the classroom. As she was talking, I watched what she was doing with her hands. She was using her fingers, positioning them on the table in front of her in a sequence as though marking her place in the conversation we were having. Now that was something different and it intrigued me to know what she was doing.

Curious type that I am, I watched for a while longer and then placed my own finger in the next position. Her eyes met mine and she smiled, and I saw a tear form in the corner of her eyes. I put my hand on hers and squeezed it, with a kind of silly grin. Then she told me that she was in a car accident two years ago and had a brain injury. Her work with the children was hard for her as it involved a lot of concentration and memory skills, but it was good for her also. It was a part of her own recovery, making her brain work again in ways that it did once but now was struggling to do so. She had been a fully qualified teacher, but now she was a teacher’s aide. In a way she was starting all over again.

The accident had robbed her of much of her short term memory and she had to learn to associate the sequence of things. If she was ironing and the telephone rang, she might answer the phone but not know what she was doing before it had rung. At home she had a blackboard where she wrote down each activity as a part of performing it. Otherwise she might leave the iron on, or a pot boiling on the stove, and many other things left unfinished and possibly unsafely so. She was teaching herself to make connections between events. And she was teaching her special children to do that as well. If it seemed like the blind leading the blind, at least it was clear to me that she knew in great detail the difficulties and the strategies for getting around them. Teaching the children was teaching herself, and both were learning together.

As we spoke, she was practising her conversation skills. Everything was a learning opportunity. She was a dedicated listener although it was me asking more about herself than the other way around. I was fascinated by her strategies, and humbled by the story of her slow and steady recovery. She still had a long way to go yet, especially when having to deal with the fatigue caused by such effort. But she was determined to recover, and her attitude was positive and full of hope.

I wondered how I would deal with that kind of disability. And how would others deal with me? The world is not always too kind to those who are not perfect, and yet none of us are perfect anyway. Knowing my new friend’s struggle helped me to understand and appreciate her. She was learning to be brave and tell people what was wrong with her, risking the rejection of some but the greater tolerance and caring of others. I have heard it boasted proudly by some that they do not tolerate fools, and those words make me shudder. Not all of us have super wonderful brains, great intellects, the benefits of superior education, fast processing speeds, and witty wordsmithing skills. Some of us start much further back than others, are challenged to think clearly, put ideas together and express the results coherently. I am often reminded of the words of that lovely piece of writing, Desiderata, especially this part…

Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Yes, we all have our story, no matter who we are - even the most humble and otherwise forgotten ones. We all matter, and we should all be valued for our worth is not measured by the world’s standards, but by the One who is our Creator. In His eyes, as undeserving though we may see ourselves (and others) to be, we most definitely matter to Him.

This is just sickening!

The only heartening thing was that the folks I spoke with about it today all said it was *that rude word pertaining to excrement* and asked who did they think they were kidding?
The trouble is, they were trying to kid everyone. They… I really mean him; the president of the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand, Mr Javed Khan.

The Dominion Post newspaper yesterday morning did a large full-page feature “Debunking the Myths” regarding Islam. Now if any Kiwis reading this Journal have also just read this feature, please be warned that most of it is a spin-doctoring account that debunks the truth and perpetuates the dangerous myth that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance. The article is peppered with outright lies. To someone who does know the truth about Islam, I was utterly dismayed that this piece of writing was published. Doesn’t our newspaper’s editor know anything - anything? This piece of writing flies right in the face of hard factual evidence quite to the contrary. I will mention some of the lies that it told…

1. “The most negative and damaging stereotype that some people hold is that Muslims are terrorists and a security threat to the countries in which they live… These atrocities have absolutely no sanction in Islam, and there is never a justification in our religion for taking innocent lives.
It is galling that militant extremists have hijacked the name of Islam and used it as a cover for their grotesque actions. They have exploited a twisted notion of religion to recruit those who are victims of oppression, inequality and exploitation.”

Yes, it is a very negative and damaging “stereotype” but it is absolutely true that it is Muslims who have perpetrated terrorist acts in the name of Islam, Allah, and jihad following the instructions that are found very clearly written in the Qur’an. There is no “interpretation” required of the verses in the Qur’an which set out in no uncertain terms how Muslims are to behave towards non-Muslims in the name of Islam, Allah and jihad. This is no “hijacking” of Islam - this is what the real Islam is about, as defined by the Qur’an. The Qur’an absolutely does sanction these atrocities and how one defines “innocent” has to be in accordance with Islam - the infidel are not innocent until they submit to Allah.

2. “Let me be clear about this: Islam does not preach violence.”

There are no less than 149 overt surahs in the Qur’an that unequivocally preach violence toward the infidel. To claim that Islam does not preach violence is an absolute denial of fact. It is an out-and-out lie. Please see my page “Just what is it about Islam?” for references and links to credible supporting evidence of this fact.

3. “Islam is a religion that espouses peace.”

Islam defines “peace” as being that state when universal submission to Allah has been achieved. This is the kind of “peace” that Islam espouses. It is not peace as most of the rest of us understand it. There will be no peace until this Islamic agenda has been achieved. Quoting my friend, Mark Alexander… “Muslims believe that Islam is the perfection of religion for man for all time. They call it ad deen al kamal, the perfect religion. People, in their eyes, who have not yet submitted to the will of Allah, are in a state of pre-Islamic chaos, a state known to them as Jahiliyyah! To Muslims, all Muslims, the whole world is classified in two parts: that part of the world which has submitted, and is therefore in the Islamic state, known as Dar al Islam, and that part of the world which has yet to submit, and is therefore in a pre-Islamic, chaotic, jahiliyyic state, known as Dar al Harb, or the House of War!”
Peace comes about only when the entire world has submitted to Allah.
The Islamic concept of peace.

4. “Another common stereotype is that Muslims don’t integrate into NZ society, and that we are opposed to Western values.”

In 1980 the Islamic Council of Europe issued guidelines for Muslims living in predominantly non-Muslim countries and made clear statements of how they were to conduct themselves. To read a copy of this statement please refer to my dedicated page on Islam as mentioned above. The extent to which Muslims in NZ have integrated may be variable, and it is true that they are behaving peaceably and contributing skills and labour in a way that does not set them apart from the rest of the population. However, it cannot be forgotten that Islam proposes a strategy based on the principle of taqiyya - or holy hypocrisy - which keeps agendas well hidden and has it’s people living in such a way that does not arouse suspicion. This entire feature article may well be an example of that! Western values include government by democracy. Islam is a totalitarian ideology that does not separate politics and religion, and it rules as a theocracy - from the word of Allah (the Qur’an) down to the people. This major fundamental difference immediately puts it at variance with Western values that include the freedoms we value so dearly.

The rest of the article gave answers to ten most commonly asked questions about Islam. Again, the answers showed evidence of taqiyya, an effort to make the truth palatable to Westerners.

1. Muslims believe in God - they call Him by the Arabic name “Allah”.

They call him Allah but his resemblance to the Creator Father God of the Jews and Christians is seriously deficient. There is a list of attributes where many are seen to reflect “the God of Abraham” who revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, but in terms of character, Allah is a totally different being to God as we know our deity. In pre-Islamic times, Allah was the moon god who had three daughters, a supreme god but one of a pantheistic bunch of them. Muhammad cleverly used “Allah” to convince the Arabs that they were still worshipping one of their own gods, but he spruced him up (removing the three daughters and elevating him to Creator status) as an attempt to convince the Jews and Christians that he was talking about their God, the God of Moses and Abraham, also. The Jews saw through this, as did the Christians, and refused to be taken in by this con. Allah is not a personal god, and he is definitely not (in his Islamic form) a father. To call him such is, to Muslims, nothing short of blasphemy. Therefore many Christians would call him a false god and an idol, some even say the anti-Christ. At very least, Allah is a serious misrepresentation of God, a skewed perception, one distorted by the errant fantasies of Muhammad.

2. Muslims believe in the prophets - Moses, Abraham, John the Baptist, and Jesus.

But what they believe about them is something quite else. There are a number of significant discrepencies between the Qur’anic version of the lives of these people, and that recorded in the Judeo-Christian scriptures. They believe that it was Ishmael, not Isaac, whom Abraham went to sacrifice. They do not believe that Jesus is the Son of God (Allah not being a father), nor that He was crucified on the cross, nor that He was resurrected - the all-important fundamental beliefs of Christianity. They claim that someone who just looked like Jesus was crucified instead. Muslims also believe that the Jews and Christians distorted and rewrote the Scriptures, and that God changed Jews into pigs and apes.

3. Muslims see Muhammad as their role model for how they are to live their own lives.

But the behaviour of Muhammad towards others, as described in the aHadith and as indicated in the Qur’an, is absolutely terrifying to most people - this is nightmare territory.

4. The Qur’an was reported not to condone terrorism - that terrorism is a perversion of Islam.

As mentioned earlier, this could not be further from the truth and besides the 149 overt surahs commanding torture and slaughter of the infidel - submission to Allah by way of the sword - this is not a perversion of Islam but the only possible meaning that can be derived from the words of the Qur’an.

5. Within Islam equal rights are given to all human beings, both male and female.

Completely untrue. Women are considered deficient in intelligence and it takes the witness of two of them to equal the witness of one man. Allah has instructed men to abuse their wives verbally, emotionally and physically if they do not obey them. A female inherits only half of a male's portion. For more examples of how Islam regards women: The Veil of Equality and Justice. Islam regards all non-Muslims as “dhimmies” or second-class citizens and they must pay an extra tax intended to subjugate them, and they are not afforded any rights and privileges that Muslims will have in an Islamic society. This is intended to humiliate them. Muslims are instructed in the Qur’an not to befriend an infidel.

The information that Mr Javed Khan has provided about Islam is either a classic example of taqiyya (holy hypocrisy) or is a “secular Islam” that is not true to form. It is true that secular Muslims may not be particularly literate in their own faith and so do not practice it according to the Qur’an. These Muslims will be called apostates by those who do practice true Islam, and they will not be regarded as true Muslims. They will also be slayed by the sword if they resist the call to practice fully.

When the NZ census figures were collected back in 1901, there was only one Muslim recorded as living in this country. Today there are about 40,000. Our total population is just over 4 million. Muslims are still proportionately a very small number, and therefore it is required that they live peaceably here. Only when the ratio changes in future to a much higher percentage will there be a call to assert more influence on the government towards elements of sharia-facilitating legislation. It is critically important that we know the real threat of Islam - the real Islam - and take all measures possible to minimize the risk of it developing to the situations now presenting in Britain and Europe.

Well, I think now I must have heard it all. This morning’s newspaper reports that a nursery school in Britain is teaching the kiddies to sing a new song. To avoid causing offence to anyone of darker skin tones, the old nursery rhyme has been re-worded to “Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep, have you any wool?…”

The Sure Start centre near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, said: “We have taken the equal opportunities approach to everything we do. No one should feel pointed out because of their race, gender or anything else.”

Er yes, but what happens when a child looking at a black sheep now believes it is a rainbow sheep, then looks at a rainbow in the sky and wonders why it is not black? And is that child being taught there is something wrong with the colour black that it must be coloured everything in the paintbox except what it is? This is becoming totally confusing. Oh wait a moment, this is the beginnings of colour theory… that black is the sum of every colour in the rainbow. Now I get it. How very clever. Of course these children must also be taught that what’s in their paintbox is only half the story and in fact, if you mix all those colours of that rainbow in the sky by feeding them back through a prism, the result is not black at all. It kinda makes black really be white afterall. All very interesting stuff, of course.

But the truth of the matter comes back to calling a spade, a spade. I had it said to me recently that Political Correctness is just the Christian’s “Golden Rule” in practice - doing unto others as one would want done to oneself. If I don’t like my toes trodden on, then I must apply the same principle to other people’s toes. What is good for the goose is good for the gander. If I believe I am right, then you must be allowed to believe you are right also. Well of course you can - that really goes without saying. But it goes beyond belief (er, literally!) as the implication is that we are both believing the truth even although we may totally contradict each other and one of us logically and rationally clearly has to be wrong. Oops, my inbuilt bullshit alert has just sounded. That has to be an essentially PC definition of itself. It is not how I would define Political Correctness which I believe to be just plain dishonesty. And it is worse than just plain dishonesty since it distorts and controls thought processes to suit a particular socio-political agenda. Through it we are moulded to the thinking of the current age, to that of the masses, to that of all the other rainbow or otherwise sheep in the paddock.

Do Rainbow Sheep actually exist?
If in doubt, ask Google. I did, and Google came up with an answer.
Here it is: Rainbow Sheep

Now, off to do something worthwhile with the rest of my day…

I have not written before about quilting and quilts, but since I am a passionate quilter (some will have known this but maybe not most who visit my Journal) it seemed well past time that I wrote something on this subject as well.

The image to the left is that of a quilt book published in 2005 by Martingale & Company, USA, and is my latest quilt book acquisition, one full of wonderful projects. This book describes a new way of using an old method of piecing a quilt, that of covering each paper hexagon with a piece of fabric which is basted into place, then hand sewing the hexagons together through the fabric only using tiny stitches that are practically invisible afterwards. The paper hexagons are removed from the back of the work, then with the same tiny stitches the hexagon piecework is hand-sewn on to the larger background fabric. Sewing one piece of fabric on top of another piece of fabric is called appliqué work and is one of my favourite ways of making a quilt. The rest of the design - the flower pot with vines, leaves and hexagon pieced flowers - is constructed and appliquéd on to the background in the same way.

(Permission to use this image on my site has been granted by the publisher - to use it without permission violates copyright. )

This is my latest quilt project. I am making a quilt following this design - more or less - using a darker green, burgundy reds, a junior navy instead of brown (just to be different) and all rich, deep, saturated jewel colours. Whereas the quilt in the book is a minature, mine will be proportionally the same but full size. There is a lot of hand sewing required. Indeed, all of the quilt top, except for adding the green border to the cream background, is hand sewn. Would you like to guess how many paper hexagons I will need to cover with fabric? I can tell you now that this will keep me going all through the forthcoming winter evenings. There are no less than 750 hexagons involved in that quilt. Just as well I actually like English paper piecing. Yep, I sure am a pretty patient type.

March is the first month of Autumn “down under” and already the temperatures have cooled. The winds have picked up, blustery and strong, blowing the leaves from the exotics while the evergreen natives come to life as great Tolkien-like monsters, whole bodies waving, bending and swaying, but feet firmly grounded. They will keep the flesh on their bones - green leaves on their branches - while the imports are fast turning to skeletons, littering the lawn in crunchy carpets of gold, red and brown.

There are still many flowers in my garden, some sheltered places for sitting out in the sun, and the fun of watching clouds scudding in ever-distorting shapes while surprised birds fly unwittingly backwards. The last of the Monarch caterpillars are “J”-ing on the swanplants - the late ones who will now take longer than their older siblings to re-birth into butterflies as the warmth disappears from the sunlight. I have pulled most of the weeds, and trimmed and pruned. Now it is time to tend to my Grandmother’s Garden, the one made to provide warmth for the winter. Already 63 hexagons covered - only another 687 to go!

Ecclesiastes 3:

1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

9 What does the worker gain from his toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on men. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. 13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.

The first day of March is the first day of Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. We have had no cause to complain about our summer this year - it has been warm, sunny and for the most part, fine. When I have been missing from my computer, I have mostly been out in the garden, encouraging things to grow. So now I have lots of flowers with which to decorate my Journal.

There is something deeply satisfying about digging with one’s hands in the soil, crumbling the earth between the fingers, sifting it to pick out the tiny weeds that would soon grow humongous if left there to do so, and making it ready to nourish the new seedlings about to be planted. It is more natural than sitting at a keyboard, risking Overuse Syndrome, a stiff back and sore shoulders, and reading all the woes of the world. It has been my much-needed respite from the frustration of questioning how it can possibly be that still, yes, even still, so many people have not yet comprehended the agenda of a certain aggressive and imperialistic ideology that slaughters and slanders but insists on appeasement on threat of more persecution and carnage to come. How can people not see it? Are they blind? Are they deaf? Are they scared? Are they cowards?

There are so many voices out there now, telling how it is, pointing to the signs and asking our leaders to stop and to notice, to think and remember. History forgotten is bound to repeat. Appeasement does not bring about peace. Oh where is Churchill just when we need him? Is there a Churchill anywhere out there? Or are all our leaders just modern-day Chamberlain clones instead?

A Roman Catholic Archbishop had something realistic to say. Yes, we could be a little more sensitive and try to avoid treading on the toes of others - but they must stop destroying us! The idea of reciprocity must not be ignored. If the intention is to destroy us, then considering such sensitivities as trodden-on toes has very low priority in the light of a far greater issue, surely that of our very survival. Is a blasphemous bruise as bad as a bomb and brutal beheadings? I guess a touch of perspective tells that it depends on whose toes versus whose headless torso.

But if the reader who came calling from a certain cartoon site is the same one who claimed I know nothing of this subject, and that this ideology is good, then please look to the left-hand sidebar and visit my page on Islam. Hiding one’s head in the sand will not make anything go away. It is simply premature burial, leading to death whatever the order of things. Or look to the words of wisdom below and weigh up the witness of world events. Yes reader, I am sad too - just like you. I am sad that so many have been deceived by this devilish doctrine that pushes domination and death.

I think that one of the most horrifying images that has caught in my mind is that of the mother who dressed the third of her sons to follow his two other brothers on a murder-suicide mission, and jubilant in his death she told how she has five more she is grooming for the same end. I am a mother. I have a son. What a horrendous distortion of maternal instinct to so joyfully commit your own child to such an end.