Best Friend...

Aside from my family, I have been blessed to have a "best friend" in Martha Lynch. She has been mentor, confidante, friend, buddy, travel partner, theatre companion....words could go on and on. I captured this photo over the weekend "in her element" - just using one of her many, many talents of flower arranging.

A question that's been on so many minds this past week...."why do they die"?

Sometime between 9am and noon today a little bit of "spring" at our house died. About 2 weeks ago a pair of morning doves returned to our front porch to build a nest where they had successfully raised a baby last year. We watched in great awe and anticipation as the parents brought twigs and grass a built a beautiful nest. A pristine white egg was laid, and for the past 10 days it was never unguarded or left alone. I was amazed at the mother's patience and resilience - through cold, wind, rain, heat....she never seemed to move - or if she did change places with the father - it was a smooth process.

We all tiptoed around the porch until proving to her that we were no threat to her baby. Every morning, including today, we looked on in wonder at what must be growing and developing inside that egg - nestled safely under her belly.

However, at noon today, Matt came in, quietly as ever....but then announced that they were gone....yes, GONE! No sign of mother or egg.

I had noticed some noisy activity in our back yard this morning with a huge black crow irritating our robins (who, also have nests in our trees)...and I wondered if they had somehow caused this dove to lose her chick.

I finally found the egg, crushed and broken under a bush near the nest....and will wonder... did a predator attack? or did the mother accidently knock it out of the nest??? Will never know....we often don't know why or how someone/something dies. It just does.

Explaining this to a 3year old grandson was a trip....he was upset at the same time curious. We talked about the flowers he had just picked in the yard - about how beautiful they were now - but that they would die today because they were picked....about the birds who live so shortly and then die...about all God's creatures and living things that are born, live and die - only to go on and enjoy Heaven with him. To me that makes sense...to my 3 year old....it doesn't. He simply wants things to stay the same....and he cried.

....from a prayer I read this morning...." Therefore will I trust You always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for You are ever with me and You will never leave me to face my perils alone."

A topic close to my heart! I read constantly - can hardly go a couple of hours without reading something! I have a library (a whole room!), as well as bookshelves in my bedroom. In my "special" bedside cabinet I have the following favorites....

Pillars of the Earth
The Kent Family Chronicles (John Jakes' - just finished reading the entire
8 book series for the SECOND time!)
American Dreams - again, John Jakes' series
Wicked & Son of a Witch - two extremely interesting and VERY different
types from my regular genre - "outside the box"
Morgan's Run by Colleen McCoullough
Davinci Code
assorted Nora Roberts, Tom Clancy
My Jihad
at least 5 translations of the Bible
and last, but not least - my all time favorite "story" - Thorn Birds - I have
both the book AND the miniseries on tape...watch or read it every year.


Look at the list of books below. Bold the ones you’ve read, italicize the ones you want to read, cross out the ones you won’t touch with a 10 foot pole, put a cross (+) in front of the ones on your book shelf, and asterisk (*) the ones you’ve never heard of. (note: I never say never to reading a book - but sometimes (rarely) simply don't finish one if it's too boring).



+1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
+4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
5. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (Tolkien)
6. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (Tolkien)
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (Tolkien)
8. Anne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery)
9.* Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)
* 10. *A Fine Balance (Rohinton Mistry)
+11.Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
+12. Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
+13. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Rowling)
* 14. A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving) Thanks Cole. It was amazing
+15. Memoirs of a Geisha (Arthur Golden) Excellent.
+16. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Rowling)
*17. Fall on Your Knees(Ann-Marie MacDonald)
+18. The Stand (Stephen King)
+19. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban(Rowling)
20. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
21. The Hobbit (Tolkien)
+ 22. The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger)
+23. Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
*24. The Lovely Bones (Alice Sebold)
25. Life of Pi (Yann Martel)
26. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
27. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
28. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (C. S. Lewis)
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
+30. Tuesdays with Morrie(Mitch Albom)
*31. Dune (Frank Herbert)
+32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks)
*33. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand) Have it on the shelf, haven't read it.
34. 1984 (Orwell)
*35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
+36 . The Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follett)
37. The Power of One (Bryce Courtenay)
*38. I Know This Much is True(Wally Lamb)
*39. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho)
*41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel)
* 42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
* 43. Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella)
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)
+45. Bible+ Well, this is actually my favorite book.
46. Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)
47. The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
+49. The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
*50. She’s Come Undone (Wally Lamb)
*51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
*53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Great Expectations (Dickens)
+55. The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)
*56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
+57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling)
+58. The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough)
59. The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)
63. War and Peace (Tolstoy)
+64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice)
*65. Fifth Business (Robertson Davis)
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants (Ann Brashares)
+68. Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
+69. Les Miserables (Hugo)
+70. The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
* 72. Love in the Time of Cholera (Marquez) -
+73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75. The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
*76. The Summer Tree (Guy Gavriel Kay
77. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
78. The World According To Garp (John Irving)
*79. The Diviners (Margaret Laurence)
80. Charlotte’s Web (E.B. White)
*81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)
+ 82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)
*83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier)
*84.Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85. Emma (Jane Austen)
*86. Watership Down(Richard Adams)
87. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
88. *The Stone Diaries (Carol Shields)
89. *Blindness (Jose Saramago)
90. * Kane and Abel (Jeffrey Archer)
91. *In The Skin Of A Lion (Ondaatje)
92. Lord of the Flies (Golding)
93. The Good Earth(Pearl S. Buck)
*94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. The Bourne Identity (Robert Ludlum)
96. The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)
97. White Oleander (Janet Fitch)
98. A Woman of Substance (Barbara Taylor Bradford)
99. The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield)
+100. Ulysses (James Joyce)