Bible Reading Isaiah 40: 1-17

 The Bible Reading for today from Isaiah 40: 1-17 and I quote just the last part of this reading:

Has anyone told the Lord
what he must do
   or given him advice?
Did the Lord ask anyone
to teach him wisdom
   and justice?
Who gave him knowledge
   and understanding?
To the Lord, all nations
are merely a drop in a bucket
   or dust on balance scales;
all of the islands
   are but a handful of sand.
The cattle on the mountains
   of Lebanon
would not be enough to offer
   as a sacrifice to God,
and the trees would not
   be enough for the fire.
God thinks of the nations
   as far less than nothing.

In these days of nationalistic frenzy that is happening in some countries this Bible Reading today was most interesting. It is true that when we look at history in the long term - nations/empires have risen and fallen all in what in retrospect seems like a short period of time. The more violent the rising the less stable the empire and collapse soon followed as the generations passed. Greed is such a dreadful thing. Greed for land is perhaps the worst and we are seeing that play out in Ukraine today as Russia continues to invade its neighbour; kill civilians (over seven hundred children are dead because of Russia) and steal their property. 

Yesterday good accomplishment on the Kipp Newsletter. I am working on the second son of Hendrick Hendricksen Kip and this is the line that Edward believed he descended from because of the yDNA matches that he has with people who do descend from this son with a good paper trail. Finding Isaac Kipp (his Isaac Kipp) was the challenge he put before himself even before I knew him as he talked about it when we were dating. He had a strong desire to learn more about his father's family. That desire fueled his leisure time and occupied him when he wasn't doing one of his other quests like astronomy, bird watching, wild flower discovery and the list is endless. He had an absolute desire to learn everything about everything in his spare time. As his illness slowly stole his health from him the last ten years of his life (at first silent and unknown until the need for a pacemaker made its presence known) he continued his quest for knowledge not giving up until COVID locked the door and kept him home 24/7. For him that was really hard as he loved to go out the door - shop, study, learn. So this foray into the Kipp Newsletter has been good therapy for me as I learn again to be just me. Newsletters are something I have been doing the last ten plus years - writing my family story, producing newsletters for my Blake and Pincombe family as well as my H11 mtDNA study. Taking on the Kipp Newsletter was easy in that way but harder because it was his study and he knew it very well. I must take his notes and use them but it does lack his insight and deep knowledge of this family. 

As a child growing up my mother used to teach us about the world around us; she had a love of nature and shared it with us. Edward had never traveled very much and I do love to see new things although not really good at repeating trips I did learn to do that with Edward because he liked to go back again and again to see all the things that we saw in our travels. But we shared a common love of the natural world and explored it to the full in Ontario particularly. Our cedar strip canvas covered canoe took us for miles and miles back into the deep woods of northern Ontario. I loved to feel the boat moving beneath us as we followed the treks of many who had used these waterways before. In one Provincial Park, we asked which was the best route to take to reach a particular island and the park ranger pointed out a clear path for us. We asked if there were any concerns as we knew there had been a canoe accident a couple of days earlier. His quote was "Don't stand up in the canoe!" and that pretty much said it all. The waters of Northern Ontario are beautiful and a canoe is still the best way to see everything as you move quietly along the waterway. 

Yesterday lots of rain but today so far it is a fresh 16 degrees celsius morning and I am about to air out all of Edward's clothing. There is so much but will take it all to the Salvation Army once it is ready to go. He wore a lot of the same type of clothing so perhaps not as obvious that he had so many clothes but it will take me many trips to get them downstairs to air outside for a bit. I was going to take them to Shepherds of Good Hope as he donated to them but they are recommending the Salvation Army so will take them there.