Random Discoveries and observations

I knew I had put my grandmother's Bible in a safe place; after all, it was the one I carried down the aisle with me when I got married.

And indeed I had; it was in the back corner of my roll top desk, just waiting to be found again while I was packing.
Grandma Fay got it when she went to Israel years ago.
I thought the mother of pearl covers (both sides!) was a beautiful way to carry God's Word in my hands as a bride on my wedding day.
(At the time I didn't know I would become a librarian; carrying a book while getting married should have been a major clue!)

My other grandmother left me a pair of crystal candles sticks. Around the edge of the candle stick were dangling crystals about the size of my baby finger. One of them was chipped. I found a replacement for the chipped one, and then hung the old dangle out in the garden to catch the sun and make rainbows.

Apparently it got blown free of the bush I had hung it on. It came to rest against the side of the house. I saw it the other day and was reaching for it when I realized someone else now had claimed it.
The tiniest of little garter snakes was peering at me, amazingly nestled down in the cracks between the bricks.

I think a fantasy story could be written based on just the idea of a tiny snake who cherishes an antique crystal.

As much as I like fantasy, I find that right now (as usual) I am drawn to non-fiction. So far this summer I have read "Dying at Home" by Andrea Sankar. Laura is now working as a Hospital to Hospice Care Coordinator and I am reading a lot about Hospice to become familiar with her position.

I have also read a book about a Medical missionary to China who served in China from 1880 until the 1930's. Dr. Bliss had an amazing story!

The center book in the above picture is fascinating me right now. I am interested in exploring physical ailments that have brain resolution. An example of this is the condition where a woman (or a man!) begins to believe they are pregnant, and the body does everything that a pregnant body usually does, including going into labor. Everything is in place except a baby.

Then there is the interesting fact that people who are under hypnotic trance can be told that their warts are cured, and the next day the warts disappear. The author is a medical doctor in my hometown which makes the book even more interesting to me. He wonders if hypnotism can address warts on hands, then would the same idea work on genital warts or other body tumors.
Little by little medical doctors are realizing that a lot of medical conditions might actually be addressed by belief or mental mapping.
He has solved some of the ways brains allow people with amputation to continue to feel their limbs, and why some people with strokes are freaked out and worried about it, while others act like it is no big deal at all, and consider themselves ready to go home even when half their body no longer functions.
It is all about what part of the brain is working or not working, and this has only recently been demonstrated scientifically because of our modern tools to map brain stimulation and electrical signals.
I'm about half way through the book right now.
It, and the other book "The New Brain" has me astonished.
Interestingly, it also affirms my belief in faith as the basis of miracles.

It is nice to have a bit of leisure time now that the house is all tidy.
It just saddens me slightly to realize that I won't be able to have friends come visit me here from afar.
I have made it a policy in this home to always have a guest room ready for visitors and to provide for my guest's every need.
For instance, this brass pot. It is such a perfect spittoon!

Every time I look at it, I sigh, and am so sorry that my friend Lovella won't be coming to visit me here before I move.
I think she would have really loved to have been able to be here.