As for those dastardly squirrels…oooooooooh….I’ve got one that chatters and screeches at me every morning! He’s a little bugger. I wish he’d just hush. And, now he’s taking to throwing things at me. I think I’m like my grandfather where they’re concerned. He loathed them, but he didn’t have the heart to harm them. Funny that he grew up on a farm.

Are the chickadees in your state already singing the “cheeseburger” song–the springtime call? It’s been so warm here that all the song birds are confused. Thank you as always for stopping by. I appreciate your presence more than I can say…

I like the photo of the island in your post, and I too have been blessed having grown up surrounded by nature and having witnesses some amazing scenes. Many of them involve Eagles, they are not exactly rare in this neck of the woods, and Peregrine Falcon who return here every year to mate. My Boy loves to watch the birds on the feeder on our back porch. This time of year it is mostly chickadees and other small song birds. Of course there are also the “tirls” (squirrels) which my son also enjoys so I make no effort to get rid of them. I hear you on the language of nature and spirituality. Not from scripture at all, but from a life surrounded by it. Wishing you well.

Leave it to Jagger to speak the truth. Birds and the Stones…I so love that God loves music, too. Even the Stones…xoxo

Much of this legalism is enacted, it seems, to prevent men from being tempted. When I was living in France, the N. African men accosted me on a regular basis particularly if they were new to the country. I couldn’t walk anywhere without a male escort. I was groped, grabbed, fondled on public transportation. Why? What was their reason? They were not responsible for their reactions, they said. In their country, women covered up. In the “decadent West”, women were on display, and were, therefore, advertising their bodies. They wanted to be accosted. What’s more, their definition of “advertising” was simply NOT wearing a burqa. I don’t show cleavage (I don’t have any), short skirts, or “flaunt” myself. At that time, my uniform was jeans, Doc Martins, and some form of vintage jacket. There was no form of flaunting. They told me I was a “slut” because I had blonde hair. So, here we are…isn’t “modesty” a subjective notion though?

To be totally frank, I know women who could seduce a man in a turtleneck and full-length skirt. And, I know women who could walk into Starbucks in a bikini and no more successfully take home a phone number than my pet rock. As I’ve said, “modesty” or “self-control” or “self-respect” that extends to respecting others starts in the mind and heart. And, I’ll also say with fair certainty, and not as an apologist, that Christians don’t have the market cornered on misogyny. For some reason though, we just tend to be the more vocal group in this country. I don’t know why. Is it because we come off as prudish and anti-sex? Maybe…it’s something to ponder. Hmmm….

i believe that saying, “The woman tempted me!” has long been used as a convenient out for men who choose to behave badly. It is so much easier to point a finger at someone else than to look at oneself and say, “I chose to do the wrong thing.”

I sincerely hope that I am instilling in my daughters a respect for themselves that will transcend the barrage of sexually degrading messages in the wider world. I do not want them to be ashamed of their bodies, and I definitely don’t want them to feel that they need to dress provocatively to get attention they lack.