look unto me!...so I looked until...

The whole weekend has gone by too fast. I mentioned already our trip to Jelico, and the frightening prospect of change. But the Sabbath was a day of peace and joy. A lovely and lively SS for an hour with a most entertaining and attractive teacher in recent memory. A professor of History, no less! Then lunch with our Polish friends the Jesiaks, they have come a long way to assimilate to the new culture and social setting in America. Delicious food and superb atmosphere. Then the trip to our Russian "church" in the chapel at the big church. Since I do not hear well, it seems that the speakers are talking to themselves and not to the audience. So after "nodding" for several minutes we left and ...went to play racketball. Magdalena, Daniele, and I...as the only "expert" on the game. Magda got whacked solidly in the side by the ball and would have died, were it not for the fact that the game was not over yet, and she had to keep on playing. Wally, spent some time in sauna and then went to bed with his...computer! We had a little bit of rain, but it was light and steady, and promissed to go away by the time I am scheduled to play tennis. Today I was invited to go to lunch with a friend, but in stead I had to go to see a "toothpick" that is a doctor of dentistry. She did the filling of the "tooth hole" and fixed not the tooth I thought needed filling but the one that actually had a hole in it. Surprice! Fortunately I did not tell her which tooth and she fixed the right one. While recovering from the dentist event, I got a letter from Cieszyn [town in Poland] with the news that they are enjoying -25 C cold spell. Got an e-mail from my ET in Washington and he told me that Alienware computers are ok, but a bit expensive. Then I got an e-mail from ITA, we try to communicate any way we can and often, honest. But the most interesting was the e-mail from Catherine the Beautiful...from Poland! The picture was superb and it warmed my heart. Maybe one of these days she will come and see us. This brings me to the beautiful passage in Isa.45:22. The phrase that cought my eye was :"look unto me and be ye saved." Immediately I thought of the Israelites in the dessert looking at the brazen snake etc. But the verse actually says, turn to me [in LXX the Septuagint, and in Hebrew]. Turn to me and be saved [rescued]. Turning implies going toward a thing or a person, with a specific purpose in mind. The basic meaning implies turning the face toward...We were taught by our parents to always look in the eyes of the person that is speaking with us or to us. This implies attentiveness, interest, and respect. When we communicate with someone we expect some kind of reaction. Today I received a comment from Patty-Lynn with a phone number and an invitation to call her. Not to react would be very insulting. I will call! Daniel the prophet relates that when he was given a vision he...looked until he saw what was important to him. He wrote: I looked until a stone was sent hurtling toward the statue and, I looked until I saw a judgment scene! To turn our face toward, to look, implies an expectation on our part. To look to someone means to expect some kind of action. We look to our parents to feed us when we are children. We look to our teachers to teach us reliable facts in a most appealing manner. But most of all we always look to a person who can satisfy our most urgent need. What is your need today? Who can come and succor you in your moment of need? Turn to me; look to me and you will be saved, from small things, from big things, from anything that threatens our life, our comfort, our peace. My friends when you turn and face...I hope your expectations will be fulfilled. Look until you are satisfied, until your peace [welfare] is complete. Don Pedro a pleasant day to you and yours. ET love you. Patty when are you not at work?

shalom shabbat...pearl of great price

There is no day like Sabbath, and peace of that day is unequalled. Tonight, we as a family went to the vespers and heard the conversion story of Cliff Goldstein. What a moving story indeed. This came right after our return from the trip to Jelico. It is on again, this time in a calmer mood. We also visited the Williamsburg Offices [Kentucky] where they want Ita to work. I drove and the traffic was moving fast all the way there and back. 155 miles one way. From Clifford's story I took one phrase with me. If you want God in your heart [mind, life...] you must be willing to give up anything you value more than Him. God is the pearl of great prize, mentioned by Jesus in a parable. Jesus gave everything he had, to "buy" us back from sin. He knew what it costs, now he asks for nothing else but our whole mind to become his. I missed "talking" with my Polish friends, but there will be another day I am sure. In November there is a meeting for the ATS, ETS, SBL, AAR etc in Washington DC, and I found a place to stay while attending, November 18-21. Ita's birthday is the 19th but we will celebrate either earlier or later. I want to attend to visit with my old and former friends...to see which one is still alive, or well enough to come. Selfish? Yes, I miss my friends no matter how old they are. I hear some good knews from Podkowa School in Poland, the "kadry" as they call the teaching staff are upgrading their education and thus hopefully raising the academic level of instruction. I am sure the Lord will continue to bless the school. Again it is almost midnight here and I had a long 300+ miles day. Sabbath School is the one place in the whole week when and where I meet with those that are my friends. What is the most cherished possession of your life? Are you willing to make it less important and replace it with the Messiah? Do it. Of course there are still some lesser "gods" that make our lives miserable, but like the Vulgate reads: omniam posses mecum. With me you can do everything. Good night my friends. Thank you D for sharing you aspirations and plans. May this weekend bring joy to your heart. Love you ET [come home] says my emotional heart, and stay and do your best for Him says my [father's] heart.

tharseite me phobeiste

Just a short one tonight. It is almost midnight here. We live with fears, delicately called phobias, and we loathe to admit it. We fear even the fears themselves. We worry, in other words, about the consequences of our decisions. We imagine what evil things could happen to us and then [sometimes] we persuade ourselves that they will happen for sure. At every stage of our life we have specific fears, specific to our age, or to our situation. These phobias cause us to react instead of act. We often allow the circumstances to decide for us what we will do, or should do. This gives us the feeling of uncertainty, and creates an atmosphere of panic, suspicion, and fears. One of the signs of maturity is the ability to put aside these fears and make decisions based on the reality of life. Onother sign is the willingness to be "pro-active" rather than "re-active." Phobias are often in our everyday speach,called worries. We begin to think [not a bad habit in itself] in terms of "what would happen if..." And here we can divide humans into two opposite categories: the optimists and the pessimists. My favorite saying is: do not worry...it will get worse! If my saying is true, then we should spend our time enjoying the now and here rather than worry about the future imaginary sorrows and trials. Thus the optimist is the one that makes the best of the present and prepares for the deteriorating future. Be bold and fear not! May this be your motto for today [tomorrow]. Good morning my friends in Europe! Till tomorrow pm. Love you ET.


















rather than re-active

agapete me mimou to kakon alla to agaton

Love the good not the evil! What happens when the evil is more attractive than the good? Here you have the theory and the praxis of life. It is so much easier to sit with a good book and read than to do the chores around the house. How much more pleasant to eat chocolates than beens! Last night I found 6 lost poems that I wrote 50 years ago. This took me back to my teens, and the memories flooded my mind. Those years and experiences of friendship and love are unforgettable. Even the struggles of then daily life, seem today full of mystery and pleasure. The rides on the bus! on the outside of the bus...on the bumper! across the Poniatowski bridge. The grape clusters of students hanging by a toe on the step of the over-crouded tramway.Or the foot walk through the streets to get to the cheapest milkbar for the same meal, for two years. But also the sessions in company of friends in a caffe, arguing the values of ancient Egypt as compared to the Greeks or Babylonians. Sneaking in to a "cellar" where there was the most delicious "Spanish cream" and sipping the delicious nectar of young love. The "boys" all 4 or sometimes 5 of us... three are dead and two are heading that way, frequented the hounts always together. That is why I like to keep in touch with Poland: Warsaw,Poznań,Cieszyn,Bielsko,Kraków,Łódź and Gdynia! Like the song reminds me: "those were the days my friend, I thought they'd never end, and we will live forever and a day." Must admit we loved the good, though we flirted with the evil also. But those "evils" when seen from the perspective of 50 years, were mere pranks. There was no viciousness in any and all our activities. We were rich beyond compare! While we were begging for food ...from the less poor [the Łozowski clan, the Siemionowicze, the Rollas with beautiful Ann;the Bulli arystocrats with Elizabeth...] we enjoyed the fellowship, the togetherness. We lived and loved and laughed. We helped, honored, and defended one another. We slipped from time to time, there were some misunderstandings, some broken [temporarily] hearts, some tears and disappointments, to be sure. Then! the "atomic bomb of freedom" exploded and scattered us into the distant corners of the world. There is a song that summarizes the present sentiments of life, "The Birdman from Tyrol." Seventy years had the old mand when he returned home from his life's peregrinations, and from his wanderings he brought back sorrow in his heart and gray hair, then in a distance he heard a plaintive song of a friend...Once more, once more little bird sing me a song, and bring back the moments of happiness and youth....! Nothing is new under the sun, what is...was, what was, will be...! What a joy it is for me to touch bases with my friends in Russia, the Ukraine, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, England and Spain in Europe and some more in Africa, Asia and Australia, to mention only some of them. My greatest joy nowadays is to see young people experiencing the joys of youth, the joy of life full of friendship, love, and commitments. Good night for now.

blepete pos peripateitos

Watch how you walk! I love sitting at the airport terminal..when I have to wait for the connecting flight, and watch people walking. The way they walk shows their state of mind. Some walk leasurely, some run, some gallop, some saunter, others are disoriented coming and going then coming back.... How do I walk? Depends on the time of the day and the activity I just finished. Depends on the company I am with. Depends on the goal I am trying to reach. So many variables in life. I start my journey when I get up in the morning. The way I dress and the way I "fix" myself will tell on what kind of a journey I am embarking. When you look at me you may discover my attitude toward the people that will see me and talk with me and interact with me today. Do I dress to appear to them as a pleasant person? Do I dress for my own comfort [or safety or advertising plan]and do not care what other people will observe when they meet me? When I am a salesman, how do I groom myself? Am I trying to tell the customer that they are important to me, that my product is what they need? Or am I careless and treat them as necessary but not too important objects of my attention. We are rich beyond description, in goods that are priceless, so priceless that they can only be given away free. The smile, the wink, the slant of my head, the twinkle in my eye, the handshake, the hug, the sound of joy in my voice...all these are the things we are required to "sell" to others without money. How many of us long for a friendly gesture from...anyone. How many of us are walking with a heart full of ache, agony, longing? When I get up in the morning I plan to look around me and see all the opportunities to sell something to others. Part of my "dressing" is reading some advice from friends long gone: Oswald Chambers, Ellen White, Moses, David...etc. One of those old friends wrote to me and said: Owe no man anything except to lowe them.
How simple is the formula, how easily fulfilled and yet how seldom followed. The best of my friends once said: use yourself to give to others what they need instead of using others to achieve what you want. When the day is done, the honey do's are finished and the pillow is most inviting, what then? Are you happy to have lived that day? What do you see? what do you remember of that day? Do you see the thorns in the crown on your head? the spikes in your hands and feet? the split side? the torn flesh on your back, and the spitle on your face? Or do you see the joy of a blind man whose sight you restored, the lame man leaping and dancing and praising God, the sick lady whom you healed, the little children whom you blessed, the tax collector whom you did not despise but befriended, the homeless prodigal whom you returned to his family, and to his father's home? have you raised someone from the dead? and seen the tears of Mary? My friend Paul wrote: watch how you walk, not as unwise but as wise. It is an art and science to know how to walk everyday. May you enjoy your life-walk today.

'hoti 'hai 'hemerai....it is Greek to me

Days are chunks of time in which we run around and do our best to accomplish something. Sometimes it is worth remembering other times we wish for selective amnesia. Yesterday was a loaded day. Tennis in the morning 11:30-1:30, and the pressure to squeeze all my appointments into the schedule. Then trip to psyd! then with G-ma to a conference 150 miles away, where they will tell her that he who does not over eat and exercises regularly will not get fat. All that for meer $600, and 6 hrs. of my driving. But the evening ...the crown od the day... the time for dreams come true! I got my screen for my laptop that burned out it's lights. It is perfect...even better than the one I had before...the original. The battery for Igor's laptop is here and my other computer is on it's way....and a hard drive for Igor also. Tired and happy...I did not even do the "girly" things that D is trying out in Podkowa. Today we had rain....rain....rain! The evening is beautiful and not as cold as it is in Poland. My "puellas lindas" are going to a meeting at the convention center downtown Chattanooga. I am going to sack out...for the needed 6 hrs of sleep somebody suggested to D. I miss talking to D, and P, and I, and A...in Podkowa and Warsaw, and few other places. Wlodek J. came over this pm and we changed the oil in our cars...a bit messy but needed. We need a car for a Ukrainian refugee: Alina, so she can drive to work. To find out about D, I have to, outside of reading her blog, talk to the local B! I know it is my fault that I miss you and wish you all were here. So, for tonight! sweet dreams, Happy Sabbath, good rest and pleasant company. Till Sunday then.

A Win-Win Day

What an interesting day it was, or still is. First, I finally mastered my new tennis partner. He used to beat me everytime and of course lecture me on tennis all the time. Then last Thursday I won my first set. Well, today I had my first chance. The first set was close...I lost 4-6. Then I told myself to relax since I have played very close every game. Then it happened. I won the last two sets with 6:2, and 6:2 scores. He still lectures me on tennis but not so loud. Next match on Thursday. Then we swopped cars. Ann took, mine and I am taking hers. Untill I figure out what makes the terrible noice while driving. Then she will get it back...or get a new one. Today also I declined officially an invitation to teach at Podkowa this semester. Who knows maybe next Fall? But only when I am convinced that they really need me. So far, I am convinced they do not want me and invite me only "przez grzeczność" which means you may come but only if you really really want to. Now I will come to Poland as an independent tourist. Maybe in June and stay about two months. I wish my best to the students at Podkowa, they deserve the best. I will still support my friends everyway I can. I am really encouraged with the progress in academic studies shown by Adam G.in spite the fact that he took the instructions in the Garden of Eden literally and started to "multiply." Another exciting news is about another graduate Grzesio! the Great. Ask him for detailes.It is men like those mentioned that make the teaching worthwhile. But I miss also being in Poland. I miss seeing the smiles the joys and the happiness and the beauty of my friends. Friends are the Flowers in the garden of Life! But enough "modlyn" as the Brits say. Time will come and I will visit Poland again. Good night for now and till the next blog, remember even if you promissed not to forget. Do you know the song: you promissed to forget me not but you forgot to remember!

The Humming Birds

What a happy day we are having today! The Humming Birds came home from California, and the air is a buzz with their presence. The soup is delicious and the "hungry wolf" is satisfied. Tennis today was superb. The wind was making playing interesting since one did not know where the ball would land. Good exercise. Then the excitement of bidding for a screen for my laptop. I made it and now I am waiting for it to come. A month of struggling with a desktop screen, that does not even belong to me. But like they say: in a desert even a crab looks like a fish. So I was happy and still am.The chatting with my Polish friends brings in a lot of pleasant information, you may call it gossip but it helps me to now how to relate to their situation. Tomorrow I will have to officially notify the Graduate School of Theology in Podkowa that I will not be teaching there this coming semester. They wanted me to teach "piggyback" with a friend of mine of all topics or subjects the "exegesis" of the Hebrew and Greek texts. The professor that teaches it is very knowledgeable and does it well. Why should I teach in the same classroom and at the same time the same subject? It does not make sense thus as my friend Dr. Butler says: if it does not make sense then it is ...nonsense! Will I miss visiting with my friends in Poland...you can bet your boots that I will. There is however a chance that maybe this summer I will find some frequent flier flight that will make it possible for me to be in Poland and visit. At home I am still working on the Prophecies of Daniel and hope to finish it all before my funeral. Also I have finally published a pocket eddition of all or most of my poems, some in Polish some in English and when I will have time to eddit them again the I will print them. For me this is quite an accomplishment, since I speak better and write better in English than in Polish, but I write my poems mostly in Polish. Makes it difficult for Ann to understand the workings of my soul [the emotional part of it]. This year will be the year of major changes in our lives, economically and socially. We decided we will not close any doors that open before us and when all is said and done we will do what seems to us the best choice. So cheers till tomorrow.

Solitude?

It is almost midnight, I am still up, searching for a screen for my Dell 1150 and falling asleep by the computer. The bright spots of this day were the safe landing of my 2 Girls in Loma Linda and taking care of Uncle Bill. He is in bed now and I will be asleep in a few minutes. I neglected my reading and writing but before I sleep I will read a Psalm. I have an agreement with Katiusha that we will read one Psalm a day. Call it telepathy...we will communicate while contemplating the text of the Psalm. When I am alone I begin to write poems in my head...remembering my friends, my loves, my disappointments and my joys. I am a good cook [soups mainly] and baker [I have a bread machine] and a butler [my teas and coffies]and a taylor [I shorten or lengthen my clothes]and a park-ranger [I feed the birds and squirels], and few other things....All these things keep me busy so I do not feel alone.My next project [ among others] will be to write a poem about "tęsknota" for it is one of the feelings that can bring you up emotionally or gring you down.What might-have-been and what may-be!I miss you my Ukrainians and Polaks and Germans and Russians, and even Czechs. When I come to Poland I will make sure I get to visit with my friends. Now, sleep well all you dear to my heart, cuddled by snow outside the window and snug in your blankets.Good night till tomorrow. ta ta...pa pa.

Cheer Up

Thank you for your comments DP and DP. Today I will feel like the heroe of Słowacki's play: Ojciec Zadżumionych. The Eagle is in the North and today I will be berieved of my two "girls" as they are flying West for a week. Nevertheless, this day will be beautiful and filled with all sorts of excitements. Last night I started reading a book by a man I ridiculed for the last 10 years! on Daniel. I still do not agree with his interpretation, but he often makes more sense than the "biggies" so popular on the market. I will finish the book today and then comment on it some more. Then Uncle Bill is coming to stay with us for a while. He's been in the Hosp. for a week and is now feeling better. Then I will say bye bye to my Girls at 2pm....wipe my tear stained glasses and head for the Tennis Club. There I met a man who, to survive Hitler spent 5 years in Siberia. A pharmacist. The only drawback is that he plays singles and I am too old to keep up with him. At last I will have a steady tennis partner. Then? I will go swimming at the Y....and if I do not drown....home at last. It is clowdy here but warm. 50F in the morning, not bad for a winter. I am torn inside, half of me wants to go to Poland to be with my friends there and the other half has to stay here and take care of the family needs. The last semester for Zosia in her studies, and Ann's year of making adjustment in her work.Maybe we will move the practice to some place closer, reduce the hours of work from 70 to 40 a week, and maybe do some travelling later.So! [not the king of Egypt but his twin brother]I hope to visit Poland in the first week of May. While there I will have time to disrupt your daily schedules...my friends. I wish you a pleasant snow covered day, with plenty of snowballs and laughter and joy. And! do not worry...it will get worse. I can say so since I am an inveterate optimist!Greetings to all the lovely ones in Poland....my friends.

The Eagle departed

Today I said good bye to the ET of my life. He went back to his school where he has been teaching for the past 5 or 6 years. But I have been comforted by a phone call from one of my true friends Jack and Jean Sequeira. They live and work in Oregon and I just found out that they have a website [jacksequeira.org] and quckly read through some of his many publications. Most interesting and also timely and important to our spiritual life.His books are even translated and published in Polish.I thing contact with them was and is a special gift from the Lord for me for this year. I enjoyed reading the seasonal escapades of my friends in Poland...the traditional eating exercises over each holiday.The snow feast was probably the best. I am looking for another computer that will be the same as Ann's so we can help each other when need be. We all are staying healthy and happy. I manage to walk or play tennis two or three times a week. Soon I will add the swimming at a nearby YMCA.To all my friends I wish a Happy and Blessed year full of joy and happiness. It is nice to hear that among the friends I have are accomplished opera singers in Denmark and Iceland. For myself ....I am working of a very brief commentary or short study on the four visions of Daniel. Hopefully I will get some responses in a form of critique. It is now almost the end of the New Year's day one. Hope to post some more and more often.Till tomorrow then.