One of my hobbies is working with images in Adobe Photoshop, especially repairing and restoring old photographs, but also creating something special from those which I take with my Olympus C-5060 wide zoom digital camera. Here I have combined several interests together ~ growing flowers in my garden, digital photography, image manipulation, Biblical Christianity, and Judah’s Journal. The result is presented here: one of my favourite verses combined with a beautiful rose from my garden.

There is much that is ugly and unpleasant in this life. It is there first thing every morning when I pick up the newspaper tossed on the driveway, a quick glance at the headlines confirming that I am still on this planet. It doesn’t stop at the front page, unfortunately, as after the entire first section explores the criminal element and their activities, or some other unpleasant thing, the next section moves on to international news - soldiers with guns, threats, deaths, wars, and more. Well, that is reality; that is what our world is like.

I am glad that I stopped outside and spoke to the two Tuis chattering away in the big tree by the front door. Mr and Mrs Tui (one presumes they are heterosexual mates although anything is possible these days, it seems) are often breakfasting there in the mornings at newspaper time, two of our handsome “King of the Forest” natives gaining more confidence to take up residence in the more leafy suburbs. They are some of the nicer things in this world, along with my garden and the advice of this verse which knows the real benefit of spending time with such things.

There is a saying: “you are what you eat”. I also think it is true that you are what you feed yourself in the way of experiences - what you read, look at, think about, and do. The poet describes this well in his poem where he writes:

There was a child went forth every day,
And the first object he looked upon,
that object he became,
And that object became part of him
for the day or a certain part of the day,
Or for many years or stretching cycle of years.

Walt Whitman ~ “There Was a Child Went Forth”

Psychologists warn us how youngsters may become more aggressive from spending long hours playing certain X-box games or watching a lot of movies of a certain kind. I think that watching TV News these days may also contribute to that effect - or perhaps precipitate depression! Those who seek out internet pornography find it becomes addictive, inflaming the passions and enticing them to look for more of it more often. Then these things begin to drive one’s life, influencing, steering, directing, etc. Most of us know for ourselves that we have different kinds of reactions to what we read, watch and use to entertain ourselves, or whose company we keep. We can excite ourselves or calm ourselves, scare ourselves or enlighten ourselves, and over time will grow ourselves depending upon what it is, in this way, we feed ourselves. How far more worthy it is to feed on what is best in this world, not that which is unsanitary and seamy.

Matthew 5:

6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.

8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.

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