I'm Back!

< Galway Bay

After a much-needed half year hiatus from blogging, I am back with the blogging-as-spiritual-practice-meme and I'm ready to go. One thing that I wish for and hope for is more readers and more input from the readers I have, so don't be shy ~ express yourself. I do need to moderate comments before I publish, however, a few jerks and spammers made that necessary. So if you don't see it up, just wait a half day or so and return, it should be there by then.

Themes for this season are Celtic and Native American art and spirituality, towards unity through peace and peace through unity.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Namaste ~

Deborah (also known in some circles as annieokra)

below: Cross at Saint Kevin's in Glendalough, County Wicklow

I'm Baaack!

I've been a shrewd observer of the scene these past few weeks ~ I apologize if anyone has missed the eclectic and random musings presented here. I'm back!

The Rosemary Tree Mission Statement

Blog owner Deborah Yost

One of the feedburners has asked for an author's description of the blog, so here it is. And please tell your friends about our little corner of the Web. Thank You!

The Rosemary Tree is a Melkite (Byzantine Rite Catholic) blog which examines eclectic subject matter including politics, finance, peak oil/climate change, film and music in the light of a Catholic worldview. Unlike some "religous blogs", however, we write for a broad audience, not only for those who think like us. Comment is invited and welcomed. Associate bloggers ExRanger and Stanford Espedal give different facets to this little gem.

At The Rosemary Tree we strive for a rest in the shade, some cool water and a little civility, if not chivalry. This blog is dedicated to Our Lord Jesus Christ, Mother Mary, Saint Joseph, Saint Patrick, Saint Deborah and the glorious St. Bridget of Kildare. People who visit should feel as though they've had a moment of respite from the chaos of modern life. I very much like the line in the poem on my right-hand sidebar about the ancient knight - "His helmet now shall make a hive for bees;" It's reminiscent of " beating swords into ploughshares" a sentiment I also heartily approve of.

Weddings and Company and Dinners, Oh My!

Blogging from me will be sparse for a few days, since we have our daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter in town for a family wedding and attendant festivities, side trips, extended large meals and smorgasbords, all lubricated by a lot of coffee and tasty beer and wine. ExRanger and Stanford Gabriel will keep things going in the meantime, so be sure and leave some comments for 'em!
~~~

Welcome, ExRanger!

Please join me in extending a very hearty WELCOME to our new author here at The Rosemary Tree, Rod Alton, also known as ExRanger, who has his own fine blog over at WTF! This is not the lifestyle I was planning on.

(Dear Readers, please feel free to welcome Rod and also put in your 2 cents worth on any of the posts here any time. )

Dance Party Saturday

Hot on the heels of Funny Friday comes Dance Party Saturday. Gabe is under the weather and I am overbooked ~ I guess the more amusing posts at TRT come when we are without health or leisure!

OK all you computer-bound inertia-saddled geeky boys and geeky grrls out here ~ push back from the keyboard, stand up, and get ready to shake that thing!! It's dance party time!!

The Rosemary Tree Ground Rules

It seems to be time to make a little "public service announcement" regarding The Rosemary Tree, what it is and what the ground rules are. If you have looked over the site much at all,you will have found the little "mission statement" paragraph at the very bottom of the page, the one entitled "Welcome to the Rosemary Tree". Here it is for those who are lazy about scrolling to the bottom of the page:

Welcome to The Rosemary Tree
I am hopeful of providing a little respite from the junk-food of politics, finance, doom & gloom, peak oil/climate change and celebrity hoohah. Here we strive for a rest in the shade, some cool water and a little civility, if not chivalry. This blog is dedicated to Our Lord Jesus Christ, Mother Mary, Saint Joseph, Saint Patrick, Saint Deborah and the glorious Bridget of Kildare.

I very much like the line about the ancient knight - "His helmet now shall make a hive for bees;"probably because my name Deborah means "the bee" in Hebrew, so I have always enjoyed references to them. It's also reminiscent of " beating swords into plough shares" a sentiment I also approve of.Thank you for visiting the site, hope you return!
~ Pax Christi, Deborah

You will note that nowhere is mentioned anything about guns, or hatred, or violence, or racism or anything that I have recently had to reject some comments for promoting. This site is about love, and peace, and a truly Catholic worldview which understands that the incarnate God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, loves humanity, that He is a kind and merciful God whose very breath is love.

God Almighty, the Creator of Heaven and Earth and of all that is visible and invisible, isn't concerned with "ethnic groups" and doesn't condone genocide, the stealing of lands from the innocent, and re-instituting human sacrifices (wars)after His Son gave us the ultimate Sacrifice. All are welcome to the Father through the Son -- "red and yellow, black and white" as the song goes, Hebrews or Italians, Arabs or Koreans, Africans or Native Americans.

God loves us all. If you are here to promote something different than this, kindly please leave.

Note: Serious discussion, if conducted in a civil and respectful manner, is always welcome.
~~~

Like A Fox

I have come to the conclusion that my inner scribe is crazy ~ but with the caveat ~ crazy like a fox. My muse definately knows more about blogging than I do.

I have made peace with being a blogger who has thus far attracted a limited amount of interest from the worldwide scrum of bloggers both large and small, paid and volunteer. I have come to the realization that blogging is itself the reward, not attention, certainly not income and not any sort of warm fuzzies or compliments from the great readership which lurks, like a mother ship in a sci-fi movie, slightly above and out of sight but always there, you just know it is.

Anyhow today's salute to the great hovering scintillating breathing living blogosphere, and to blogging as a spiritual tool for those on a spiritual journey (basically all of us whether we know it or not IMO) is my attempt at freeing my muse, making an end run around my inner censor and my rational mind and just letting it roll. It has been said that blogging as an attempt at both transparency and inclusion, and that it makes the world a more honest and warmer place.

Maybe this web log will get more interesting, I think it shall. Oh, and btw, and fellow-blogger, Gabriel: Gabriel, where art thou, my friend? Come out and play on The Rosemary Tree.

art credit: Juliett5548

~~~

A Very Happy New Year To You & Yours

In 2008 The Rosemary Tree has gone from being a one-person blog with a readership of, say, three or so (yep, basically my hubby and some guys in Mongolia and Ireland) to a two-writer blog with a few hundred hits from across the big blue marble. The knowledgeable and talented Stanford Espedal joined the tiny crew, providing authoritative spritual knowledge. My attempts to provide a bit of income from TRT to justify the time spent here have thus far proven unfruitful (please buy your coffee and garden stuff through the ads!)

Anyhow, our main mission being not be be gainfully employed so much as to minister to the online flock of Our Lord Jesus Christ, lost sheep or found ones, we wish you a blessed and wonderful New Year. May you and yours fulfill your destiny, grow in peace joy and love, and draw closer to the numinous mystery of the Incarnate Word.



St. John 1:1-14
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 This man came for a witness, to give testimony of the light, that all men might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but was to give testimony of the light. 9 That was the true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12 But as many as received him, he gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in his name. 13 Who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we saw his glory, the glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

~ Deborah Yost
Gabriel Stanford Espedal
The Rosemary Tree

Introducing Gabriel Stanford Espedal

Getting ready for Christmas has us all busy, so I am tardy in posting our new blogger's biography, my apologies. Introducing my friend Stanford, in his own words:

QUOTE I am from Honolulu, Hawaii (born November 1, 1951). I grew up in a non-churchgoing family. My parents were of protestant background but did not practice.

I began exploring the mysteries of life as a hippie in late 1966. LSD became my sacrament and marijuana my food for meditation. Thinking myself on the fast track to Buddhahood, I realized this path led to the deadest of dead ends. I quit drugs and was initiated into Transcendental Meditation. From TM I graduated to Zen Buddhism and became a member of the Diamond Sangha of Hawaii.
I first became a Christian on June 3, 1972. I met an evangelist named Cleo at a Jesus People coffeehouse in Waikiki, and after a four-hour conversation decided to receive Christ and be baptized. The baptism took place in the Pacific Ocean.After a study of different churches and their doctrines I decided to become a Lutheran. I also decided to study for the ministry (I was then 21). After finishing a pre-theology course at Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato, Minnesota, I went to Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in Mequon, Wisconsin, graduating with a Masters in Divinity in 1982.

In July of that year I was ordained a pastor in Wichita Falls, Texas, and served as a Circuit Rider for two missions and several preaching stations.I met my wife Dawn after graduation from seminary; I was home for a month and she was on vacation in Hawaii, and we met in church. We were married on May 11, 1983, and have six children.

I was a Lutheran pastor for nine years. Six of those years were spent in an independent mission in El Cajon, California. But as I continued to study theology and church history from outside of a Lutheran confessional perspective it became clear that there was a major discontinuity between ancient Christianity and the Reformation.

I had long been interested in Eastern Orthodoxy. After several years of reading and discussion with an Orthodox priest friend, I was ready to convert. I was chrismated in the Orthodox Church in July 1991.In 1997 I came to see that the full reality of apostolic Christianity could only be where PETER is, and became a Catholic of the Byzantine Rite.

I expect that some of my writing on the Rosemary Tree will be on the relations of the Orthodox Churches and the Catholic Church. UNQUOTE
~~~~

A Shameless Plug!!

Dear Readers of The Rosemary Tree,

Christmas is just around the corner and gardening gifts, seeds,trees & bulbs and the very best coffee make great gifts! The Rosemary Tree needs to be watered occasionally, since this little site takes quite a bit of time & work. Imagine, you could cross at least 4 items off your "to do list" at once by purchasing a gift of coffee, gardening goodies and/or trees-seeds-bulbs through the links at the bottom or side of the page.

x Cross the coffee and garden equipment off your own list
x Cross at least one or two (or more) people off your Christmas gift list
x Cross off having contributed to the Carmelite Monks (I've heard that when you so much as give a priest a drink of water, you are storing up treasure in heaven!)
x Cross off having contributed to the ability to keep this site running and properly maintained.

The advertisers we have selected are secure and I have received good reports on service so far. Having ads is fairly new for us, so please help us make it a success.

Our advertisers are:
Mystic Monk Coffee
Accents In the Garden
Nature Hills Nursery
NOTE - Please buy through the picture ads on the page though, not these links, for Rosemary Tree to receive benefit. Thank you!!

(Note: we don't receive any payment for clicks, only if you actually buy something.)

Rosemary

ROSEMARY
Folk Names: Compess Weed, Dew of the Sea, Elf Leaf, Guardrobe, Incensier, Polar Plant, Sea Dew. * Gender: Masculine * Planet: Sun * Element: Fire * Powers: Protection, Love, Lust, Mental Powers, Exorcism, Purification, Healing, Sleep, Youth *

Folk Uses: Rosemary, when burned, emits powerful cleansing and purifying vibrations, and so is smouldered to rid a place of negativity, especially prior to prayer and meditation. It is one of the oldest incenses. A chaplet of rosemary, worn, aids the memory, while the wood, smelled often, preserves youthfullness. Rosemary infusion is used to wash the hands before healing work, and the leaves mixed with juniper berries are burned in sickrooms to promote healing. Rosemary is grown to attract elves, according to legend, and the powered leaves wrapped in linen cloth and bound to the right arm dispel depression and make the emotions light and merry.

A Brief Lull in the Bloggage...

Dear Readers,

Sorry, but I have been swamped and now I'm headed for a family wedding, to return late Sunday. Regular blogging will resume Monday 9/29/08.

Deb

!!!!!!!!!!!!

Busy Day Here

I was called in to work this morning and did both the morning bakery doula's job and also managed to slice & package quite a few trays of granola bars, my usual afternoon gig. The Co-op was a-buzz as is usual on a Saturday. But it put a monkeywrench in to the day I had planned so blogging is sparse. I know there's no lack of bloggables out there. Tomorrow is another day. I'll post a couple of items of interest and call it a day.

I do hope you all are having a wonderful day, in spite of inclement weathers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~