After a few minutes, I looked over at my husband and noticed a tear running down his cheek. I asked him what was wrong. This time he told me, "I was just thinking about Pop and a story he had once told me." Of course, because it had to do with his Pop, I wanted to know the story, so I asked him to share it with me.
He said, "When I was about 8 years old, Pop and I were out fishing and that's when he told me that the Pine trees know when it is Easter."
I had no idea what he meant by that, so I pressed him for more information.
He continued on... "The Pine trees start their new growth in the weeks before Easter... If you look at the tops of the Pine trees two weeks before, you will see the yellow shoots. As the days get closer to Easter Sunday, the tallest shoot will branch off and form a cross. By the time Easter Sunday comes around, you will see that most of the Pine trees will have small yellow crosses on all of the tallest shoots."
I turned to look out the window and I couldn't believe my eyes. It was a week before Easter, and you could see all of the trees with the tall yellow shoots stretching to Heaven.
The tallest ones shone in the sunlight like rows of tiny golden crosses.
Another fascinating legend is one that was told to me by a minister friend in Alabama who is a storyteller for the Cherokee. It centers around the staurolite crosses that are found in greatest abundance in a 50-acre tract at the top of Bull Mountain in Virginia.
Luke 19:37-40 (King James Version)
37And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen;
38Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.
39And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples.
40And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.
Some may wonder why we merrily celebrate at a time when we’re remembering Christ’s crucifixion on the cross. And there is something to that. Good Friday is, after all, about God who became Man, dying on the cross for our sins. And yet we celebrate Easter Sunday, and we are right to do so.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). This one verse sums up the miracle that is the Easter season and helps explain the celebration. Yes, Christ died for us, but in the end Easter isn’t a season of sadness. Ultimately, the story of Christ’s rising from the dead three days after the crucifixion is the story of the triumph of hope over despair.
En Español:
한국어 (Korean)
עִברִית (Hebrew)
繁體中文 (Traditional Chinese)
Todd and I would like to offer our best wishes to the Jewish community as they celebrate the High Holy Days. With the celebration of the Jewish New Year this week and the observance of the Day of Atonement next week, we are reminded of the hopeful commitment to renewal and peace exemplified by the Jewish tradition and the Jewish people throughout history.
Yom Kippur, the most solemn and important of the Jewish holy days, is a time of reflection and supplication for forgiveness. The timeless human struggle to promote justice, harmony, and peace is seen here in this process of atonement – in humbly seeking pardon for past wrongs in the hope of a new beginning. It reminds us that if we wish to co-exist globally, we must all strive for forgiveness and tolerance.
A speech was given at the United Nations General Assembly yesterday that was full of hateful anti-Semitic rhetoric. It was a shameful display before a body whose very charter is premised on the need for co-operation and harmony in pursuit of peaceful co-existence between nations. Such talk was especially abhorrent coming as it did during the Jewish High Holidays. The world community must speak with one voice in declaring anti-Semitism and all forms of intolerance and racism utterly unacceptable. There is no place in the community of peace-loving nations for those who traffic in hate or deny the terrible atrocity of the Nazi Holocaust.
In this holy season, we join the Jewish people in the struggle to promote justice, harmony, and peace. May God bless them.
- Sarah Palin
From Shane Vander Hart, Caffeinated Thoughts
Many of us join Secretary Gates in condemning the Associated Press for its heartless and selfish decision to turn its back on the wishes of a grieving family in order to exploit the tragic death of a true American hero.
Lance Corporal Joshua 'Bernie' Bernard was a selfless young American who sacrificed everything for our freedom.
Shame on the AP for purposely adding to the grieving family's pain. Ignoring the family's wishes by publishing a sacred image of their loved one proved a despicable and heartless act by the AP. The family said they didn't want the photo published. AP, you did it anyway, and you know it was an evil thing to do.Our thoughts and prayers are with the Bernard family. Words can not adequately express our sorrow and appreciation for your sacrifice. We will never forget your Marine or his fallen comrades.
May God bless the Bernard family.-Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin’s status as a superstar is undeniable. She is incredibly popular nationwide. According to the latest report from Mike Allen, over at Politico, Sarah Has almost 1100 invitations to speak at events nationwide.
This week Sarah will begin accepting invitations to those speaking engagements.
As we all know, unscrupulous promoters have been inviting Sarah to events for months, and advertising this, boosting ticket sales, without having any commitment from Sarah whatsoever.
As an old drag racing promoter, I know if we pulled stunts like this, the fans (and the racers themselves) would’ve skinned us alive! Evidently though, this sort of thing is common in the political world.
What is aggravating though, is the fact that these promoters get all kinds of publicity, because of Sarah Palin, and even though they never had any commitment from the Arctic Fox, their ticket sales soar, and when Sarah doesn’t show up they try and blame it on her.
Our policy is to never even talk about speaking gigs unless Sarah herself, or her spokeswoman Meg Stapleton issues a press release about it.
OK, enough of that!
Basically, if Sarah herself doesn’t promote it, it probably isn’t true, and ain’t happening!
Sarah has over 950 offers for paid speaking engagements, many of them are six figure deals. And over 120 politicians have asked her to come and speak on their behalf. I’m sure they all understand the incredible effect she had on Senator Saxby Chambliss’ re-election bid, which went from a dead heat race before Palin came to visit, and turned into a 16 point blowout after Sarah spent one single day addressing huge crowds on his behalf.
Sarah had offers from twenty speaker’s bureaus to represent her and chose the Washington’s Speakers Bureau. This is the group that represents a variety of folks from George and Laura Bush to Bob Woodward and Katie Couric to Alan Greenspan, Colin Powell and Rudy Giuliani.
Sarah will be doing both paid speaking engagements as well as unpaid speeches to political and charitable organizations, including groups that support families with special needs children and those who support the military and their families.
I must stress that Sarah has made no commitments whatsoever to any speaking engagements. My best advice to folks who hear that she is speaking somewhere, is to check out her Facebook page. Sarah uses Facebook extensively to communicate with the nation.
It’s also said that Sarah is about 85 percent finished with her book that will be published by HarperCollins and available in the spring of 2010.
Sarah’s lawyer, Robert Bennett, has also compiled a workbook about an inch and a half thick filled with offers for TV and radio shows, and other interesting business opportunities. Sarah will begin going through this, as well.
Sarah Palin has some serious jazz. Since she has been so busy behind the scenes, she has taken to using her Facebook page as a highly effective communications tool. We all know what she was able to do by typing two short paragraphs a few weeks ago!
The growth of supporters on her page has been nothing short of phenomenal.
As I write this Sarah has almost 850,000 people listed as friends on her page. And thousands are joining daily. To put this into perspective, here is what the numbers on Facebook look like for those who as touted as other important Republican politicians:
Mike Huckabee 106,636
Mitt Romney 69,332
Bobby Jindal 67,773
Tim Pawlenty 6,735
>Jeb Bush 2,670
In the last few weeks Sarah has had more new supporters join her, than all of the above, combined, have supporters on their pages.
Sarah is the one Republican who has really mastered using the internet to gain an audience. And what she says gets results. As we have already mentioned, she totally changed the debate on national health care when she spoke of death panels. And when Barack Obama and the state run media attacked her, she calmly retorted with tons of information about those involved with Obama, like Dr Death, Dr Ezekiel Emanuel, and others who would indeed create death panels.
She also encouraged millions to actually read H.R. 3200, the House bill that most represents Obamacare, a 1017 page monstrosity that amounts to the total usurpation of the United States Constitution. And folks have indeed read this bill by the millions. America is not pleased by what they read!
We’ve written a bit about Glenn Beck’s efforts to expose Obama and all of the illegal and unconstitutional Czars Obama has appointed to powerful posts. Sarah noted this as well, and on Wednesday of last week asked all of her Facebook friends to join her in watching Glenn Beck’s Fox News program.
The result? Beck’s show gained over one million new viewers over the previous day, making it the number one news show on cable, beating out ratings giant Bill O’Reilly. And those viewers stayed with Beck throughout the rest of the week.
With the power Sarah Palin has just by posting short notes on Facebook, one can only imagine the effect she will have on the national debate once she hits the road and starts really speaking out against Obama and his tyrannical government!
By God, I almost feel sorry for Obama and his democrat/communist party!
An Invitation
Today at 11:34am
FOX News' Glenn Beck is doing an extraordinary job this week walking America behind the scenes of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and outlining who is actually running the White House.
Monday night he asked us to invite one friend to watch; tonight I invite all my friends to watch.
-Sarah Palin
Planning inauguration w/LtGov in 10 days, Frbanks. W/same cabinet, same positive pro-AK agenda it's all good, consistent success bc everyone elected is replaceable;Ak WILL progress! + side benefit=10 dys til less politically correct twitters fly frm my fingertps outside State site. [emphasis added]
En Español:
한국어 (Korean)
עִברִית (Hebrew)
繁體中文 (Traditional Chinese)
Going Rogue: An American Life
by Sarah Palin
America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag by Sarah Palin
Posts
All Comments
