Share Your World With Harry Potter 9-2-20

It is time to SHARE MY WORLD WITH HARRY POTTER, SPARKS FROM A COMBUSTIBLE MIND, AND ROGER SHIPP.

OR WITH ROGER SHIPP, SPARKS FROM A COMBUSTIBLE MIND AND HARRY POTTER.

Now either of those links will get you to the sites that brainstormed this marvelous challenge. But before you go to see how they thought of this great idea and how others have used it for their writing, check out the questions below and my answers.

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Roger’s Magical, Mystical Questions:

  1. Many local regions, especially rural areas where I live, have haunted houses. Have you ever spent the night in a house that was supposedly haunted? Anything ‘strange” happen? My own house was haunted by a demon creature I let in as a youngster before I became a Christian. I have been “connected” with the spirit realm since I was a little child and I began to try being a channel at about the age of ten. I was twelve or thirteen. I had been channeling in my sister’s room one day (because that was where I felt the greatest connection). There was a loud bang on the wall which scared me so I stopped. Later that night my sister had just finished her bath and went into her room to change. She came running downstairs screaming bloody murder. “There’s a man in my room! He’s in my closet holding my teddy bear!” She was hysterical. Both my parents were out at meetings, We called and my father was home in less than 5 minutes. A check of the house yielded nothing, but my sister was able to describe the man in vivid detail right down to his tattered old coat, his wire rimmed glasses and fishnet stockings. My father who remembered the owner of our house from back in the 1940’s and 50’s knew at once who my sister had seen.
  2. The Quidditch Cup (riding broomsticks while chasing a small ball) was a huge sporting event in the land of Hogwarts. What is the largest sporting event (or concert, etc.) that you have ever attended? I attended A Country Music Festival at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro MA back in the early 1990’s. That has to be the biggest event…..Although I also attended The Creation Festival around the same time and that was a week long event attended by about 30,000 people.
  3. When you go for a swim, do you prefer an ocean, the seaside lakes, or a pool? I do not swim in the ocean. I will wade but that is it. I will swim in lakes but I prefer pools to swim in.
  4. Ron Weasley received a horrid robe to wear as formal wear to the Christmas dance at Hogwarts. Tell about the most ‘ghastly’ fashion statement that you have ever made. I am a walking fashion faux pas and I am proud of it. I most generally wear white socks with suit pants. I am also a big socks with sandals wearer. That said some of my outfits growing up were absolutely horrendous. My mother, who was a nurse once brought me some operating scrubs from her hospital to wear as pajamas. I loved hem so much I regularly wore them to school

Muggle Questions (from Melanie):

What is the last song you sang along to?

What was your scariest nightmare about?

I don’t generally get nightmares. Many of my dreams though are very disturbing. My most recent disturbing dream was a bout a white stag with red and blue flnaks being hunted in a misty forest by a red orange and yellow lion.

What food do you crave most often?

Italian food. I could eat it almost every night.

What’s your grossest bug story?

The grossest bug experience I ever went through was the gypsy moth infestation back in the 1980’s. There were so many of the bugs they were falling out of the trees. It sounded like it was raining. But you couldn’t walk under the trees without getting them in your hair or on your clothes.

Share Your World With Harry Potter Week Three

Well it is that time again. For the last several weeks and continuing on through this week and on for a few more, Melanie From “Sparks From A Combustible Mind” will be teaming up with Roger Shipp of “It’s All In Finding the Right Words”, to produce SHARE YOUR WORLD MEETS HARRY POTTER OR HARRY POTTER MEETS SHARE YOUR WORLD depending on which blog you are reading. My suggestion is to read them both when you have finished reading my responses to them.

HERE ARE THIS WEEK’S QUESTIONS AND MY ANSWERS:

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Share Your World Meets Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

  1. One of my favorite gifts that Harry Potter received came from the Weasley Twins; and was “Mrs. Mooney’s Marauder’s Map”. This magical document showed every classroom, hallway and secret corner in all of Hogwarts. It also showed you the location- by name- of every person in Hogwarts.  If you had such a magical map of your town, what would you use it for? If you would not use it, is there another person to whom you would gift it? I love knowing things so I would definitely use this map, but most likely I would just keep the knowledge to myself until the time came when knowing something would help someone else out of a jam.
  1. When was the last time you made a snowball? Were in a snowball fight? Oh my! In my world snow is for shoveling and than avoiding. I am not much for snowballs anymore. Now snowmen…. I think it will be fun to build one with the grandkids.
  2. Many cultures set great value in each child of the family having godparents. Did you have godparents? Are you a godparent yourself? I did have god parents, though they were not really active in my life. I think I met them each a few times, but we were not close. I am not a god parent to anyone.
  3. You have found a secret tunnel under your house. Where does it go? To the Sage’s Cave.

Muggle Questions (of a more philosophical bent this week):

Is intelligence or wisdom more useful?  Intelligence without wisdom is pretty darn useless.

How important is play in living a healthy and fulfilling life? For most people play is absolutely essential to leading a healthy life. It is part of the great balance. That said, play means different things to different people. What is play to me is not much fun for other people and I find what most other people call play a lot of work.

Is happiness just chemicals flowing through your brain or something more? Happiness is chemicals. Joy is a spiritual quality that goes far beyond happy.


GRATITUDE SECTION (Always optional)

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Feel free to share some photos, an image, a meme, a story or incident or a poem that helps you feel grateful.  

I heard my second grand daughter’s heart beat for the first time yesterday!

Share Your World Potter Style Week 2 8-17-20

This is week two of the SHARE YOUR WORLD and ROGER SHIPP mash up which we are calling SHARE YOUR WORLD MEETS HARRY POTTER…OR …HARRY POTTER SHARES HIS WORLD…OR HARRY POTTER’S SHARED WORLD…OR…well I guess you can call it whatever you want.

Here are this week’s questions from Roger and Melanie respectively. Use the underlined portkeys above to get to their sites after you have read my answers.

Share Your World Meets Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

  1. Harry Potter can speak to snakes. If you were able to have conversations with any one animal, what animal would you like to speak to? What would be the topic of your first conversation? I would really like to be able to speak to the bigger animals like bears and lions and wolves and what not. I would talk with them about life in the forest
  2. The portraits in Hogwart’s dormitories can talk. If your graduation portrait could speak to people passing it by, what would it tell them? I really wish he had done something different with his hair. The eighties were not good to anyone’s hair. We all looked like Hermes, Elvira or like someone had fried us in an electric light socket.
  3. Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger use the Pollyjuice Potion for finding new clues for the happenings at Hogwarts. (The Pollyjuice Potion is a magic potion that allows your body to form into that of another and live their life for a few hours.) If you could transform into another being, who would you chose to be? What would you hope to learn? I would like to transform into some lowly worker in the President’s surround but whose job took them into Congressional offices as well. I would want to be someone beneath everyone’s notice, someone invited in and then treated like I was invisible so that I could hear the truth….something I am sure none of us is hearing from the powers on high.
  4. There was a flooding in the girl’s bathroom where Moaning Myrtle resides. What has been the most dangerous (or comical) ‘flooding’ where you reside? Our cellar routinely floods in the Sprinter (that season between winter and spring). It’s neither dangerous nor comical just a pain. I am going to have to do something about it this winter.

Mundane or “Muggle” Questions:

(Serious one which is rather creepy):  How do you think you’ll die?  IF you do think about it? I really have no idea. Maybe I won’t. Maybe Jesus will come and “rapture” me home before I drop.

What’s the best on-line screen name you’ve seen? “Best might mean the oddest. I really like SPARKS FROM A COMBUSTIBLE MIND.

What’s invisible that you wish people could see?

GOD. I do believe this will happen eventually.

If over time you replace parts on a car, at what point does it stop being the same car you bought? How many parts do you need to replace to make it a new car?

This is like that tootsie roll question right? The answer of course is the same…Three.

….errr I mean 9,000.

A Share Your World Twister 8-10-20

So it is time for SHARE YOUR WORLD again. This week and for the next few Melanie is joining forces with Roger Shipp and helping us share our world’s HARRY POTTER STYLE.

Each week for the next few Roger will ask questions 1-4 and then Melanie will ask us questions 4- through 8ish. In answering them we will Share Our Worlds Harry Potter Style.

Each week I will link this whole post to both Melanie and Roger’s posts. When you have finished here. Go to their respective posts to see how their other contributors have answered.

Here are the questions and my answers:

ROGER’S QUESTIONS:

  1. Because of the state-wide quarantines many of the local SPCA’s are having an influx of animals. You have decided that you would love to have a new pet. Would you go the normal wizardry route and pick an owl, a cat, or a toad? Or would you become a more eccentric wizard (like Hagrid, the games keeper) and seek out a three-headed dog, a dragon, or a unicorn? Please explain your answer. I am definitely going to adopt a hippogriff.
Hippogriff | Harry Potter Wiki | Fandom

Or maybe a hippocampus

alchetron.com/cdn/hippocampus-mythology-fa47d5f...
  1. Neville Longbottom was gifted a Remembrall. This was a glass ball that would assist you in maintaining memories of things that you often forget. What would you want your Remembrall to help you remember? Birthdays and anniversaries for sure. That would be very handy.
  2. Professor Dumbledore gave Harry Potter an invisibility cloak that Dumbledore said was from Harry’s father. Now, you have inherited a cloak with similar powers. Would you use it? When? Every day for three hours. That seems like a perfect amount of time to vanish.
  3. While cleaning your attic, you have discovered the Mirror of Erised. (“Erised” is “desire” spelled backwards, as if reflected in a mirror) The Mirror of Erised is a magical mirror, which, according to Professor Dumbledore, when you gaze into it, it shows the “deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts.” You have chosen to look in the mirror. What do you see? Heaven.

AND NOW MELANIE’S QUESTIONS:

Would You Rather Live 120 Years That Are Comfortable But Boring, Or Live Half As Long, But Have An Exciting Adventure Packed Life?

I choose eternal life with the perfect mix of both. Sorry I had to cheat.

What’s Something That Overwhelms You?

People. I love them but have found I to be careful to pray real good between doses.

What Do or DID You Take For Granted?

Oh! So many things and it cost me quite a lot. It’s what comes from trying to please everyone. You end up pleasing no one. It’s better to put your energy into the ones who should be most important in your life and putting everyone else in a box that says “If I have the time.” That might sound horrible, but I wish I had chosen that path when I was twenty five….but then if I had done that I would not be who I am today…..there is this thing about needing our pain to be fully formed, but that’s another post.

Gratitude:   Please feel free to share some gratitude moments or thoughts you’ve had recently.  This section is entirely optional.

Tis week I am very grateful for focus music. This stuff has been keeping me centered all week.

SHARE YOUR WORKLD FROM 8-3-20

It is time to SHARE MY WORLD AGAIN!

This is the challenge where the hostess, Melanie, asks 5 questions and in answering them we all get to share our worlds.

Here are Melanie’s weekly questions and my answers. When you have finished reading my responses, please click on the underlined link above to see how Melanie’s other contributors answered.

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What will finally break the Internet?  Do you believe it can be broken at all?

I do believe the internet can and will be broken. The final nail in the internet’s coffin will be the lack of need for it. This will bring the internet to an end. A deeper more effective connection created between the people of the human race will be forged.

we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. 1 Cor. 13: 9-12

What are some ‘red flags’ to watch out for in daily life?  (take it as you want)

The red flags I watch for in my life are when I begin to fill my schedule back to back with meetings and group or people events leaving no time for prayer or solitude in my life. Such a schedule almost always leads to a melt down of one sort or another.

What’s the silliest thing someone has argued with you about?

The position of the communion table in the sanctuary ( they actually listed it as one of their reasons for leaving the church).

What’s the strangest thing you’ve found lying on the ground / side of the road?

A person. Actually it was my daughter whom found him. Our neighbor had been out raking leaves and had a heart attack. It was horrible.

Gratitude Section (optional as always)

Please feel free to share your photos, stories, poetry, or memes that promote gratitude! 

I am so grateful I got to see this little lady and her Mom last night. We had pizza or as she says “pizzi”.

Share Your World From July 27th

This post is created in response to MELANIE’S SHARE YOUR WORLD CHALLENGE FOR JULY 27TH 2020. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CHALLENGE OR TO READ MELANIE’S CONTRIBUTOR’S WORK.

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Are you a clean or messy person?

I am a fairly well ordered slob who is trying to clean up his act. I am learning to be at peace with any progress in this arena at all.

If I asked you to describe yourself in five words – what would they be?

Christ-follower. Father. Pastor. Prophetic.Artistic.

Do you enjoy being out in nature?

Yes. This pandemic has given me an opportunity to spend a lot more time enjoying things like gardening and bird watching. These are activities I have not participated in, in many years. I did not realize until I started doing them again how much I missed them.

What could you spend all day talking about?

The Bible…. Art. …..The Coming Kingdom Of God. Actually through my blogs I am doing that. Thank you all for reading and giving a guy an outlet for his voice.

Attitude of Gratitude:(OPTIONAL)

I am grateful for the final word.

Share Your World 7-20-20

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It’s time for SHARE YOUR WORLD AGAIN! This is the weekly challenge where Melanie from “Sparks From A Combustible Mind” posts five questions and in answering them, we her contributors all share our worlds…at least a little bit.

The weekly questions and my answers are below. Please check out Melanie’s blog (by clicking the capitalized link above) when you have finished here. See how her other contributors have answered.

THE QUESTIONS:

Where Do You Not Mind Waiting?

I generally don’t mind waiting as long as I have a comfortable place to sit and something to occupy my mind. I do struggle waiting sometimes when the wait interferes with a busy schedule. That said, I try to leave plenty of space in my life now for the waiting which is becoming more and more common in our culture.

Drive through workers checking for impaired drivers

What Is In Your Fridge Right Now?  (you’re not required to give a comprehensive list)

We are two days from grocery shopping so not much. Macaroni salad…kool aid…milk…soda. And eggs we have plenty of eggs.

If You Could Only Speak One Word Today, What Would It Be?

Jesus.

Would You Rather Be Trapped In An Elevator Full Of Men With BO Or Three Soaked Dogs?  (this is with the codicil that C-19 doesn’t exist)

Am I one of the men with BO?…..The dogs definitely.

Please feel free to share something good about last week.   This is NOT mandatory, it is just if you’d like to.

The berries are coming in now. I picked a pint of currants today and I have about a quart of black rasberries. I also harvested seven purple turnips and two tomatoes.

Share Your World From 7-6-20

It is that time of the week again where I SHARE MY WORLD!

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This is the challenge where Melanie from “Sparks From A Combustible Mind” asks questions and in answering them we all share our worlds. Let me encourage you to jump on over to Melanie’s site to read her posts. Yoiu can get there by clicking the underlined link above.

Now here are here weekly questions and my answers:

In your opinion, what’s the closest thing to real magic?

The closest thing to real magic is….real magic of course. I am a firm believer that magic is a thing. It’s not a good thing…we are told to stay away from it…but it’s a thing. Now on the opposite side of that and even more powerful than magic is the miraculous power of God. It is also a real thing…we are encouraged to be channels of this blessing in Mark chapter 16, Luke 24 and Act 1.

Where is the worst smelling place you’ve been?

A meat locker where all the meat had gone rancid. Worst smell ever.

What are some things that you’ve heard in your own life, which sounded like compliments but were actually insults?

“Oh my your house looks like Grey Gardens!” On the surface it seemed like a lovely compliment unless of course you know what Grey Gardens was.And she was talking about the before not the after.

Grey Gardens Original Documentary Trailer - YouTube

What incredibly common thing have you never done?

Hmm…..Hmmm……I think I have done all the common things. I am exceedingly common.

Gratitude Section (Optional, as always)

Please feel free to share some gratitude that you experienced during the past week!  🙂

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We got to have the Franklins in this week.

My daughter Melanie is going to bring another little Franklin into the world!

Daniella with great grandma LIllie.
Daniella in the gardens….not Grey Gardens

Share Your World From 6-29-20

It is time to SHARE MY WORLD AGAIN!

This is the weekly challenge where our hostess, Melanie, asks five questions from her blog, SPARKS FROM A COMBUSTIBLE MIND, In answering them we all share our worlds.

This week Melanie’s questions are super deep (mostly). I hope I can do them justice. When you have finished reading my answers, take a jaunt over to Melanie’s place, using the underlined links, and see how her other contributors answered the same questions.

SHAREYOURWORLDSTARHANDS

Here are the questions:

Must we have evidence to know the truth?

I would say yes. Truth always become evident eventually, even when the world conspires to keep it submerged beneath oceans of lies. The first evidence of truth is faith according to Hebrews 11:1. That said, even faith needs something to stand on. The Apostle Paul said it this way in Romans Chapter 10….that message is the very message about faith that we preach: If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved. 11 As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.”[e]But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? 15 And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”[h]……….Even faith needs the evidence of a testimony to get it started.

How much control does a person have over their life?

Romans 8:28 says this. “And we know that God causes everything to work together[m] for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”

We have precious little control over the events of our lives. Our decisions do have some bearing, but I believe the river called life dictates much of what actually happens to us.

Still, that decision to love God and put Him first, puts us in the hands of someone who can mitigate the outcomes life throws at us to turn even the darkest moments into blessings eventually. I have ridden some very deep and dark water. Yet God has brought me through it and made me blessed as I held on to Him.

What is gravity and how does it work?

I think gravity is the Earth’s version of a flannel graph. The Earth is the flannel board, and we are the felt characters who stay stuck to it. Yeah ….I don’t know how flannel graph boards work either.

flannelgraph | Following Footprints

Can a person be happy if they have never experienced sadness?  How about vice versa?

This is the greatest question of the day. In our current context the answer to this question is “no”.

That answer is an indicator of how much we lost in the fall from Eden. It is also an indicator of how much we will regain at the return of Christ.

Right now we live in a world where conflict is not only inescapable, the lack of it is undesirable. Think about it. Would you watch a TV show that didn’t have a conflict of some kind? We humans crave and seem to need our anger, our sadness, our conflict, and our enemies to help us define our forgiveness, our happiness, our peace, and our friends. This is why man by himself has never succeeded at creating a utopia. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil destroyed our ability to live without evil.

But, what will the world be like when evil is no more? When war is not needed for peace? When sadness is not needed to help us know joy? What will the world be like when there is no more conflict and the lack of it no longer bores us?

Please feel free to share a song, a poem, a quote or an image or photo to show what you were grateful for during this past week.    (Optional as always).

This photo brought me great peace this week. When I came upon this end of day sun, I just needed to photograph it.

Share Your World 6-22-20

Well, I was last to post last week; So this week I am trying to be the first SHARE YOUR WORLD PARTICIPANT.

When you have finished reading my answers click the link above to jaunt over to Melanie’s place and see if I succeeded.

Here are the questions for the week and my answers:

ahandcuffSYW

Questions:

Have you ever ‘dined and dashed” (i.e. eaten the meal and then run out the restaurant door without paying)?

My grandad and father were in business together as restaurant owners. This happened at our place too often. The restaurant business is hard enough so no I never followed suit.

Have you ever been in a car accident and either left the scene of the accident (providing it was a fender bender and not serious) or denied culpability for causing it when you did, (if it were minor or serious)?

Nope. All my accidents were too big to miss.

(Oldie which has been asked many times before)   Have you ever found a wallet or purse or some money (over $20) in the street and just taken it, thinking ‘finders keepers, losers weepers?   Or would you be ‘good’ and hand it in?  

This has never happened to me, but I would turn it in if it did.

What was the last thing you stole or shoplifted?   If you never ever considered doing that, tell us your secret!   🙂

Actually this just happened last week…purely by accident. I was at Walmart in the self check line and I left one of my bags at the register. When I got to the car I realized I didn’t have all my stuff so I went back in. My sister was using the register I had just come from and so I asked her if she saw my stuff. She said “no”, and then the man overseeing the kiosks told me to check with customer service. I did and no one had turned in my bag so the guy told me to just go get new merch and let me go after checking my receipt. When we got home my sister found my stuff in her bag of towels. So I took the stuff back and paid for it again to make up for the duplicates I had unwittingly stolen in the first place.

Gratitude.

I am so grateful that the garden is growing and the flowers are blooming. I love this time of year.