2 Chronicles and Solomon

 The recitation of the history continues and Solomon is now King and he builds the temple to the Lord God. The flow is very much of a story line keeping people interested as they listen or read but primarily this is probably being read to the people of Israel to remind them of their history. It is the grandchildren or great grandchildren of the Israelis who were carried off to Assyria or Babylon and life has not been easy for them in captivity.

Yesterday was a busy day with the dogs going in and out. They love the yard but I do not let the younger one stay out if she barks. There is a sort of normal setting here with dogs in various yards and having newcomers in is always upsetting for this sort of standard neighbourhood give and take where the dogs are concerned so I try to fit into it as fast as possible. The older dog does not bark which is handy but she is a really big dog and if seen can over excite some of the dogs. But she does her careful walks around the yard to strengthen her leg before surgery. She is doing a great job but sometimes forgets and runs a little. But I can see that the leg is strengthening even daily. She will be ready for her surgery in a couple of weeks with lots of muscle tissue well exercised to help her get back up on her feet quickly. 

Continued with the matches and there are now  sixteen left to enter into the databases. Filling in those tiny little nitches that needed just a supporting match or a match where there was some portion not covered earlier. Amazing really DNA and how it fits one into the picture of Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens is the most successful  of the Homo genus thus far. One wonders if we are starting to undergo a new phase of Homo sapiens not a distinct species but rather a change in the modern human. Have we yet reached the limits from this species as the length of life declines; not really recovering from the effects of COVID-19 on human life span. What sorts of development could we see that we could conclude is an update on Homo sapiens or an emerging species? 

Church today and online in just under two hours. The services in July were quite lovely; it was nice to see the Dean back (retired Bishop of Ontario after being our Dean). He has a special edge with sermons that I always appreciated when he was Dean. They are very didactic and well done. You find your interest never wavers from beginning to end. He preached in a way that I find very informative without being patronizing. His tone of speaking is soothing rather than jarring. He remains one of my favourite people giving sermons. It is nice to see him well in his retirement. 

The priest who helped me with setting up my husband's funeral is the main priest for the month of August. I find his sermons to be most informative as well although I still prefer strictly religious sermons without reference to the present times but rather reminding us of the history of the Church which goes so far back in the time of Homo sapiens. The Bible reveals so much to us it is writings. Now part way into 2 Chronicles one can feel the rhythm of the passage of time from ancient ancient happenings namely the formation of the earth to the time of Solomon where I am now reading the recitation of the history of his reign as King of Israel. 

Solitaire puzzles to do.  

Something I missed as a young child right through adulthood and now I am seeing it

1 Chronicles is describing in the last chapters the perfect society in King David's kingdom where individuals are placed in their skill slot sort of and create all that is needed for a beautiful life; a Utopia. I do not know a great deal about a  kibbutz but it strikes me that this is the perfect life where everyone works together and creates the world that God wanted us to have at this time. He was first trying to show us how to live in a way that benefited everyone in the world. But first and primarily we needed to love only God the Creator not all these strange gods that people created mostly because of their greedy desires. Interesting that I would see this in my old age; I never did as a child. It is the perfect life. A Utopia on earth was the idea but moving away from all those rules of the Torah to meld with modern technology and industry. Perhaps one of these days I will see an explanation of all of that written up. Myself I prefer modern technology and all that industry can produce but living within the laws that God sent to us when He sent Jesus, His only Son to be with us for that short time over two thousand years ago (the Christian faith is born from that happening). It is all a mystery and I do believe that some happenings are God's work. God the Creator is part of so many societal stories particularly in the Western Hemisphere where I live but also in the Eastern Hemisphere. We always think of the Eastern Hemisphere as the ancient world but gradually we are discovering that the Western Hemisphere also has an ancient past not yet fully opened to us through archaeological digs. The time moves on though and more and more discoveries are revealed to us. At 81 my time on earth ahead of me is short compared to the time I have already spent. Thank you God for all these memories of Your goodness giving me strength during the times that were not so very pleasant. Doing God's work is always good and the requirements so tiny - love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbour as yourself. 

 

 

 

The luxury of time on your own

I do love the huge luxury of time on my own because I did not have it for such a very huge part of my life. As a child I was the middle child of seven children although moving to the attic gave me a certain amount of quiet and time on my own. Then I married at 20 (I was going to take a job in criminology with the RCMP in Regina but Edward persuaded me to marry him instead). No regrets on marrying; we had fantastic times together especially in the Northern woods of Ontario. It was beautiful. Then raising our children together was wonderful. But Edward was a people person and I definitely not but somehow we managed to compromise all of that and I would go places that he wanted to be at as a member of this and that and that worked; I just didn't get involved in all the projects except when he needed my help or volunteered me. Now I love being with my children but then I can not get any work done so the compromise works well. I work a lot and then have breaks and that is fun. It is the change between having everyone and not having anyone that I adjust to in between but it doesn't take long actually although I love their company. But at 81 I no longer want to spend time with people that I am not related to; that is just it.  

Continuing to read 1 Chronicles and I am into the last set of chapters of the book this morning. I find myself running over in my mind my father's thoughts on tribalism. Tribalism and what is it; it gives many people a sense of belonging of which perhaps they feel a need. It gives people a purpose but what is tribalism really; a thought that everyone in a group is related and shares common ancestry for a long time. In reality there are not that many people so intertwined these days; most countries have experienced the ebb and flow of populations around the world and few are of the exact same groups of people who once dominated the areas now occupied. Being European isn't really tribalism and especially not purely Caucasian as Europe is a mixture (a huge group of all kinds of different people; over 743,630,003 of them); even being from England/British Isles as I am ancestrally speaking (my father was born in England and my mother in Canada) and probably 95% of my ancestry or more way back in time since I must reach back into the 1500s for my Huguenot (French) ancestry (Question/Cuestion, Millet) and the 1400s for my Scot (British Isles) ancestry (Routledge (many lines), Tweddle, Storye, Armstrong,  Robson, Bushby) doesn't make me 100% from even the British Isles. The population of the world is constantly moving from one place to another seeking a better life for their family. The world is indeed a stronger place for being able to manage this ebb and flow of people. Why do people flee their country of birth; weather change I think is the biggest driver - their lands are dried up and they cannot grow food. I think it comes down to that or the other driver is war. Why do we have war? People are greedy and want what someone else has. That is what we have to move past more than anything. I am thinking now on my father's thoughts about tribalism being the biggest problem in the world. I think it is greed really. 

When the United Nations was formed in 1945 it had an aim; to bring peace to the world and to let people be heard. We must give more power to the General Assembly to control actions that cause war but first the realization of the source of the problem needs to be understood; the action that caused the reaction - Russia invading a country they called Nazi and then the threat of nuclear war if anyone interferes is just such an ignorant action, Iran creating and backing armed militants like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis to try to destroy Israel is another such ignorant action; it is a coercive manipulative tactic trying to take over something that does not belong to them. You just have to  pile on the sanctions until they stop. There is  enough nuclear power to blow the world into pieces and there is no return from that. That is called Armageddon and it is in the Bible. The Bible is a fascinating book with its history of time and predictions of time to come. The word of God was given to us - Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbour as yourself. That is how we survived what looked like Armageddon during the Second World War.  

Down to twenty two matches to enter into my databases. I did not think I would accomplish this much with all the coming and going in my household. The dogs keep me very busy. The one is a barker so I am constantly on alert when she is outside but the other doesn't normally bark. She is older now though and needs to not run whilst her leg continues to heal.  

Solitaire games to do. Another research day and it is a beautiful day. Out several times already with the dogs, singly most times although Zoey was too fast for me first thing. I am getting old.  

 

A new ancient ancestor

 Interesting work being done mentioned in a study published in Science. Unlike Neanderthal and Denisovan this particular "ghost" ancestor appears in both African and non-African populations which takes the date of entry of this particular genus into the evolution of Homo sapiens further back prior to the time that modern humans spread into Europe and Asia. Unlike Denisovan which can be up to 5% of genetic inheritance although in Europeans closer to 3% or less or Neanderthal which tends to be in the 2% or less in modern humans of European descent, this earlier ancestor makes up about 0.5 to 1% of the Homo sapiens genome today for all carriers. The timeline then is at least 800,000 years ago as opposed to Neanderthal about 50,000 years ago as a European event and Denisovan also about 50,000 years ago but more of an Asian/Oceania event. The science is picking up all of these ideas with the test for my brother showing 2% Neanderthal and 3% Denisovan with ancient ancestry in the British Isles but that area was under a kilometre of ice until 12,000 years ago but the yDNA tells us that this was a group that wintered in the Balkans coming north early and probably crossing via Doggerland to the now British Isles 8,000 to 12,000 years ago. This was something that rather intrigued my brother who consented to have his samples done (I paid for it all but convinced him that I should do that by saying I would publish it although I was just wanting to save him any costs). I suppose in a way I have published it to a certain extent and far more in the Blake book. 

Dogs up early as was I and breakfast is all done and they are just waiting for the ground to dry up a little and their breakfast to be settled before a good run again outside. Walk for the older dog as she is still strengthening your leg. 

Continuing to read 1 Chronicles and the history of the people of Israel continues to be reviewed by the authors of this particular book of the Bible. David especially receives a great deal of study in these chapters. David spent some time preparing for the House of the Lord to be built (Solomon his son would build it the Lord said). Taking my time somewhat although a lot of it is the chronological descent of the various families. There is always this temptation to make tables but I am not sure that was the actual plan for people reading the text but rather to record the names as Israeli names for future naming of children. A thought on my part as forenames were very important in families through the generations and given very often for a reason. 

Yesterday a little more work on the matches with just thirty left to do. Once they are done then I move back to phasing the great grandparents and continuing to create the genealogical tree of the Blake family at Andover. Here and there in the records and in the literature I do get some help with that. 

Myself I am just moving along day by day doing the work that I would like to accomplish and thankful to God for all that He has given to us as a people of the world. We need to follow God's words in our daily lives and the world is a better place when we do. Love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind and love our neighbour as ourself. 

Out twice already with the dogs and it is another beautiful day in God's world. We are blessed to have such a beautiful planet to live on. 

Solitaire puzzles are next. I must get to the Kipp newsletter and perhaps today is that day and then I can send them all off to the Chilliwack Archives. They are available to Kipp family members on FT DNA who are in the Kipp family study there. They were not something Edward ever planned or wanted to do. He preferred just to share his work in his blog. But I decided blogs can disappear and that I would put that work into newsletters that he had spent hours on and communicated with other researchers in The Netherlands and Germany to have their opinions as well. I always find when the dogs are with me I love the time with them and the work has more trouble getting accomplished. I also need to write a letter to my sister as I am trying to keep up a weekly letter to her.  

Well sort of, still working on that change is as good as a rest

 A bit tired today and will try for a nap in a couple of hours. Being 81 is hard work and need to prioritize the necessities for a couple of weeks. This is a fine adjustment period for me and I just have to work my way through it. 

Yesterday more work on the matches and down to just  thirty five to do. They are all interesting and that slows me down just a little bit. I chose most of them because they were unique as I have a lot of matches already. Some of them are fairly large for a person without first cousins and not too many second cousins but six siblings!

I did continue my reading of 1 Chronicles and I am up to Chapter 18. I can see that my time  is not quite so plentiful these days but I will always try to read at least one chapter. Before I started on this quest I was reading the Daily Bible Readings and so at least a chapter a day will fulfill that piece of my life. I am always grateful for the Israeli scholars who were the initial keepers of the word and this passage of so much historical material is a gift to mankind. God is in all the pages as one reads chapter after chapter. The Creator God who desired that all mankind would know Him and love Him as He loves us. Another beautiful day in God's world although last night the thunderstorm was something else. The older dog opened the curtains so that she could watch. I thought she was frightened at first but not actually she was curious about all the lights as was the younger dog. The younger dog has had a very lucky older sister who cuddled her close as an infant and guided her to the adult dog she has now become. God's words in the Bible always remind me that we were asked to take care of the world and all that is in it. Dominion over simply, to me, means being responsible for all the creatures of the world, all the plant life and take the best possible care of the world. 

Today all the cleaning has been accomplished for the week and generally this is my slow day whilst I relax and enjoy the clean house for a couple of days or maybe just one since the dogs are here although I do follow them about and pick up after them. They are very loving dogs to people they know and I am comfortable around them. 

Time to do my Bible Readings before I start my day of work. 

Solitaire puzzles to do. The dogs will soon be asking me to let them out for a bit. Mostly they are indoor dogs or porch dogs although they love a good run.