shouting stones

The shrub palm of my barrier island is called the saw palmetto. Sharp saw spikes arm her stem of the fronds. I have had their spines slice my leather gloves!

Saw palmettos grow as dense scrub growth, especially in swales between sand dunes, in the open air of Florida maritime scrub pine weeds, and beneath our live oak hammocks.

Fronds make a fan shape. The fans can span 2 foot in diameter, tho unlike those from a Palmetto, cabbage or sabal palm the saw palm leaves radiate out from the base of the leafstalk.
The root is the reason saw palmettos are shrubby. It spreads laterally under ground, sending fresh green fronds upward every few inches.

I've had his hairy rhizome root ripple our pool's cement pad! So now we have overlad the concrete with pavers. The palms are so hardy they are even fire resistant. They rebound quickly to recolonize, when everything else has been burned out. They are the roaches of the swamp. You can't kill them.

The blossom here is what attracts my bees.

Take a deep breath...
Can you drink in that nectar?
The girls can and have.
A hive out in the woods these blooms help the bees get a honey that is more herbal and smoky tasting then the hives in the citrus grove.

I like to mix it in with fresh squeezed lemon juice...makes the best lemonade

From these blooms come fruits that are dark blue. The fruits are food for Chipper our squirrel, my coons, robins making their way north, and our mockingbirds.

I tried drying some of the fruits to aid Bman's digestion, they make him kinda sleepy.
The old timers here use the inner root bark as a poultice for snakes <~~~never reach under a dead frond without looking... )and skeeter bites....
speaking of an itch

ooo did I tell ya I got poison ivy on the tops of my feet again?

Woke up to this feeling like the sheet was too much for my foot...

itchy scratcy feelings I knew the IVY was back without even looking.... sooo as not to infect any more of my shoes, I'm wearing my flips to church for Palm Sunday once again.


28After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29When he had come near Bethpage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, 30saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 31If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’” 32So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. 33As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” 34They said, “The Lord needs it.” 35Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. 37As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, 38saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” 39Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” 40He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.” , Luke 19: 28-40

We entered the nave, this morning singing all-glory-laud-and-honor ," and find a man assembling a cross in the center aisle. He hammers nails into the cross through out the service....

bang bang bang

The hammer pounding pierces my itchy feet, liturgical calm, and stirs my soul.

I still sense The Jeez's passion. I connect with the Word.
I allow The Jeez to speak to my heart. I'm thinking I've come a long way this Lent.

The reading is long and we always stand for the Gospel. I like that we stand. Standing keeps my attention. I don't drift off like when I am seated. My whole focus is brought up through my toes to my soul into the contemplation in the events which unfold before me.Is this the stones calling out the itch to my feet? Not a scratching the surface, digging deeper than the top layer for something to believe in, some word that obviously moves me, stirs my soul to insight over my personal experiences.
An itch to be pierced, a stone to be stirred, and drawn into The Jeez's sacrifice.
It is difficult learning to accept The Jeez's suffering as a pathway.


I asked my Sunday school class of 1st graders "if someone came and said they had to take your father's colt, what would you do?"
Two answered simultaneously "I'd get my father's gun and shoot them!"


Made me think of BobDyaln's 115th Dream song

The man says, "Get out of here
I'll tear you limb from limb"
I said, "You know they refused Jesus, too"
He said, "You're not Him"

so I simply wade in.

How many of us want to be Pilates?
How many of us are interested in doing good work with and for the poor or prisoners or lesser of us?

Do you find, like me, too many others who “lord” it over those underneath them?
How many do we see who seem to see human structures in hierarchical terms in which power is used to control and manipulate to varying degrees?

Do I take the path of least resistance, the easy Palm-strewn one?

Do I follow the still small voice, even when it isn't lucrative, or popular, or well-lit, or comfortable?

Am I exhorted to use power not just to my own advantage and to my family's?

Aren't I exhorted to empower others?

Imagine if all us who call ourselves Jesus followers took this seriously?

Is this the human cost of fear?


The neighboring town is looking to inject reclaimed sewage water into the Florida aquifer. They call it a well storage but really they just don't want to spend the money to do this properly. It isn't a well I would want to have to drink from. They don't believe that the sewage polluatants in this water will end up effecting the Indian River lagoon or the whole east coast of Florida's water supply. Is the palm sunday chicken twirling and rabbit foot rubbing and hammer banging going to work?
This is a moneychanger table that needs to be overturned.

Stay standing and at attention.
What happens this week changes the world, and the most surprising reversal of all is on its way.