a couple of middle aged jw sisters dropped round unannounced the other day, they were only being kind i suppose, after some awkward silences i voiced a couple of my issues with the religion, (the safe ones), sort of an explanation as to why i'm no longer attending, namely: everyone else will die, lack of support for young ones, mistreatment/judgementalism by prominent ones who get away with it because 'they're imperfect and we have to wait on jehovah' etc.
well, after sympathizing and telling me horror stories about awful elders and their own kids' issues in the past (how some left the truth, had bitter divorces from fellow witnesses etc) they then begged me to 'come back to jehovah', 'he misses me' apparently.
finally, the more pushy one summed it up with 'you're thinking too much, it's not good for you', 'some issues you just have to put in a drawer and forget about....'.. hmm nice reasoning sisters, theocratic school training at its finest!
If I had a dollar for everytime I was told that I am thinking too much... My usual response is Proverbs 3: 21 and 22:
My son, may they not get away from your eyes. Safeguard practical wisdom and thinking ability, and they will prove to be life to your soul and charm to you throat.
Not sure what the 'charm to your throat' thing is all about, but I follow up with - so what is wrong with thinking again?
i was out with my 4 dogs last night around 10:30 under a bright moon.
it was frosty (-4 c).
i heard some noise in the field behind my house (my backyard is a national forest).
Thanks for all the interesting critter stories. Several people mentioned wild turkeys and it brought back fond memories of some places I have been at when I lived stateside.
Here in Poland, an amazing time of the year is when the storks return in the spring from Africa. They come back to the same enormous nest, clean it up a bit, and produce the next generation (normally 2). One thing I found interesting about how they behave is that once the farmers start plowing the fields, you can always see the storks following behind the tractors, cleaning up on all the dug up unfortunate critters that got plowed up (one reason I am not a big fan of plowing with heavy equipment - but that is another story).
i was out with my 4 dogs last night around 10:30 under a bright moon.
it was frosty (-4 c).
i heard some noise in the field behind my house (my backyard is a national forest).
@kaik: I don't know what kind of snake it was. It was not a 'czarna zmija' but there seem to be several different types of zmija here in Poland. We also have another black snake that is harmless, but I can recognize that because it has large yellow markings on the back of its head. In general, I treat snakes and spiders the same - with respect.
If the spider is in my house and it is not too scary looking, I'll capture it and put it outside. If it falls into the scary category, I call my wife and she takes care of it.
Our yard is actually getting fairly sterile at this point, but it is because of the dogs. I try to leave piles of branches and stuff around to give the lizards a chance. My smallest dog takes care of all the mice, moles, etc. If I happen to see something before they do, I'll put it outside the fence (with a kind warning not to come back) so it has some chance.
here is something that i don't get, the wtbts bangs on bout the value of life & how we shouldn't take chances with it cause it would be disrespectful to jah.
g. yeah, like parachuting/sky diving/speeding & all that.
however, they say naf all about surfing do they.
i was out with my 4 dogs last night around 10:30 under a bright moon.
it was frosty (-4 c).
i heard some noise in the field behind my house (my backyard is a national forest).
I am not a snake person. I always show then respect even though we only have one type of venemous (but non-lethal) snake here in Poland. My dogs however have a different opinion. I heard some commotion out in the yard one day and saw one dog flinging a snake into the air. It was about 2 meters long.
To avoid a big fight among the dogs over who was going to have the snake, I went out and put them in a separate area. The snake was missing part of its tail, and had a puncture wound in its side. I took it down to another part of our yard outside the fenced area by my compost pile.
A month later, I was making a deposit at the compost pile and as I approached, I saw a snake sunning itself nearby.
It was the same snake. Puncture wound had healed, no tail, but, otherwise fine.
i was out with my 4 dogs last night around 10:30 under a bright moon.
it was frosty (-4 c).
i heard some noise in the field behind my house (my backyard is a national forest).
i was out with my 4 dogs last night around 10:30 under a bright moon.
it was frosty (-4 c).
i heard some noise in the field behind my house (my backyard is a national forest).
i was out with my 4 dogs last night around 10:30 under a bright moon.
it was frosty (-4 c).
i heard some noise in the field behind my house (my backyard is a national forest).
Agree about the moose Simon. I have seen fully-antlered males just outside my fence (2-3 m) . I was shocked how big they are. He just looked up (not worried) and went about his way. They only have one problem here, autos.
I have seen about everything possible here, except lynx. They are still being reintroduced - probablly to reduce deer population.
i was out with my 4 dogs last night around 10:30 under a bright moon.
it was frosty (-4 c).
i heard some noise in the field behind my house (my backyard is a national forest).
I love it too possum. Last spring we had a fox den across the street (30m away). It was so pleasant to watch the 4-6 young kits play outside the den. On the down side, I hate hearing the hares get eaten alive. Horrible sound, but part of nature.
i was out with my 4 dogs last night around 10:30 under a bright moon.
it was frosty (-4 c).
i heard some noise in the field behind my house (my backyard is a national forest).
I was out with my 4 dogs last night around 10:30 under a bright moon. It was frosty (-4 C). I heard some noise in the field behind my house (my backyard is a national forest). It sounded like giants fighting with wooden swords. Turns out it was just 2 adult male moose. Nobody got hurt and they went their separate ways, just some pushing and shoving . Moose are non-territorial.
