There has always been a challenge in my mind at Daniel's Vision of the Four Beasts; what does it mean? Babylonia was so very very long ago in the history of mankind. It was always that fourth beast as it arose from the sea that tantalized my mind - arrogant, huge, smashing everything around it, destroying and all the while the words from the mouth so arrogant, so uncaring for where those words fell or what they trampled on. Then suddenly it was gone, destroyed by its own vanity and in Daniel's vision the son of man came to view and the world moved on. That is how I see those verses. Horrible horrible people dwell for a while and then they pass and once again peace and tranquility come to us and we always pray that this peace will last. That the days will be full of joy in God's world and the children will dance and play and be happy instead of being murdered by bombs and carelessness by greedy people.
The Bible Readings are a product of thousands of years of writings put together into our Bible. The Bible has been our mainstay as greed, envy, desire for power all aspects of nazism descend on our world. We must find a way to rid ourselves of such ignorance. The United Nations has proven to be the best way; we must vote and decide and we have as a world. Ignoring nazism is always to our peril as they respect no borders, no treaties - all they want is power, riches and the rest of the world to be slaves at their feet.
Again I worked away on the Siderfin book yesterday continuing with the eleventh generation. It is slow methodical formatting and the page numbers are finally decreasing now less than 300 pages and I am on page 150 of formatted text. The number of pages that require footnoting is minimal compared to what is done. November/December as the end date now seems very doable. Although I have enjoyed this foray into the Siderfin family I look forward to its completion and moving on to the Pencombe family which is much closer to me as my mother was a Pincombe. She was happy the last years of her life as I can tell that by her letters With most of her grandchildren around her, there was a comfort to her in that child pratter I rather think. She did not expect to be on her own so long in her old age (my father was in a nursing home the last seven years of his life) and luckily my brother moved in with her with his daughters. She had a new lightness in her written letters enjoying the young people around her once again.
Today we work on the last five boxes of Edward's research. We have made great gains the last couple of weeks separating the work into various lines, the original images for the Kipp and the Allen lines being our greatest concern at the moment and they will be handled next summer. The Link and the Schultz material having homes to go to has been something that Edward would have liked very much. He knew there wasn't anyone to take on the entire project as he was doing it. But it was his constant companion in life all that research on his family lines becoming the absolute mainstay in his retirement years. He loved it. These last five boxes are primarily Kipp and Schultz we think by the labels and we need to separate that material although the Kipp and Schultz intermarried so that some of it can be part of the Schultz collection. Hard to believe there are just five boxes that we haven't worked on yet; it has been a long 2.5 years since we started down this road. A long time since our morning/afternoon breaks when we chatted about his research. I no longer have a grasp on the paths that he was taking with some of that work and it will be to other descendants to pick up the slack and carry it forward.
Another beautiful day in God's world. I looked out the window first thing and the rabbits were in the yard and then they suddenly left and a skunk slid under the fence and wandered through the garden area that we had un-fenced yesterday. Possibly wanting to enjoy that forbidden vegetation along with the rest of the furry world! Fall is definitely coming and lovely winter. Didn't stay long, boring yard I guess!
Sunday and Church on my own with my bulletin saying and singing the service. That too will come to a close in September and the treat of a religious scholar doing sermons is greatly anticipated by me. I do so love sermons that bring forward all the thoughts of the religious greats and taint them with their thoughts. It will be a lovely fall for sure.
On to breakfast shortly.
The Church Service was lovely as always but the last hymn particularly well chosen - Hymn 444. The refrain - one church, one faith, one Lord - perhaps the most important words in the Anglican Church for we are all one before God. For those who worship God but outside the Catholic faith He is the same God but has come to people in different ways; His wisdom, His reason unknown to us. There was also something in that hymn that rather reached into my heart in the first verse "Your hand, O God has guided your flock from age to age, the wondrous tale is written full clear, on every page. Our forebears owned your goodness and we their deeds record, and both of this bear witness: one church, one faith, one Lord." It is this need to have available in every generation the words of our forebearers that continue to keep me searching, transcribing, recording the life of my myriad families in the past. For it was in their wills that you know what was most important in their lives - their God always. I am so honoured to have so many wills which have survived the times from those early days of members of my family recording for all time their devotions to God and Jesus. Thank you to my relatives who have given great meaning and a worthwhile purpose to my life this last nearly twenty years since my cousin George DeKay set me on the path of recording my family (in that case it was my Pincombe family Profile for the book he was editing - Westminster Township and Delaware Township History Books). During that twenty years life changed so much as I retired, my children moved into their careers and my husband and I traveled the world of our ancestors the magic of grandchildren and now widowhood without my partner in life but time is now there for me to work on my projects as I tended to put them on the back burner to help Edward. I will continue to write throughout my life to help this world to be the kind of place it was for me and for those before me - the adults of tomorrow have a right to a world that is not burdened with greedy wars, not burdened with climate change also caused by greed - the need to have everything without measuring the cost to our environment. That should be the first concern whenever any project is considered.
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