Ding Dong The Frogs Are Dead

   Call it the teacher in me, but I have this need for people to be educated in divers topics. I don't even pretend to know why, that's just the way that I'm made. I've taught dance since 1972 and I've been teaching children in dance or homeschooling or raising/teaching children since 19forever&ever. If there is ever a conversation that comes up and I have information pertinent to the topic I begin to transmit, because a mind is a terrible thing to waste. Carpe Minutam 'seize the minute', I say, for I may never have the opportunity to give out these nuggets of useless or valuable wisdom again.

   People might call me a Cliff Claven, a know-it-all, or opinionated...I think of myself as an informer. A  know-it-all or Claven is full of and a disperser of useless trivia and I DO have my O's but the informer is one who believes they are accurate concerning truth. For me, the only truth I use as a guide comes from the Handbook of Living Life, the Manual for Life Junkies. If there's an answer in there for the thing you're talking to me about...out it comes...just like gum from the gumball machine. I do what I do. No apologies.

   When you mention that you're not sleeping, or your back is in constant pain or you cry all the time, my data bank kicks into high gear searching for the truth to help you change your situation. Why stay one more night among the frogs like Pharaoh, when he told Moses to ask God to remove the plague of frogs and when Moses asked when do you want them removed Pharaoh said, "tomorrow" (Exodus 8:10).

   Tomorrow? Really? So you need more time to part with your miserableness? I feel the informer taking over...must...say...it...let's knock your plague in the head right now. Is now a good time for you? I feel like David when Goliath was terrorizing Israel and he comes on the scene and hears what's going on and while everyone else was in 'let's-pretend-it's-not-that-bad' mode, David is yelling, "oh no you d'ent" to the enemy. While you make plans to take your pet plague home with you I'm looking in my vaults for inform-a-tion for us to use to get rid of it.

   Here's my O...I think everyone should be an informer. Everyone should have a safety deposit box of important, vital help to shed abroad to others that are standing in front of you and saying that their lives are being shaken or that they're at a crossroad or that their faith has gone mushy. But many are afraid of coming across as a judge. Informing someone is not judging someone. Saying, "I have information that will help you get over this", is not a judgment. Especially if they are sharing their hurts or pain, it sorta opens the door for you to speak into their lives.  

   In my car, I have in the glove compartment, my car manual, my tag receipt, my insurance card, a flash light, and other important paperwork that I might need when there is a need for it...my spirit also has a glove compartment that when someone needs that inform-a-tion, bam, there it is. Ready to do the thing that it is there to do. Inform.

   I work for the DKB, I'm an informer for the DKB. Department of Kingdom Business. Agent Jeanna reported for duty when she got born again. Part of the kingdom business I'm responsible for, my informer manual tells me, is telling others of this good news. The good news is...you don't have to live with the frogs! The town crier was the town informer, "Hear ye, hear ye,we're having frog legs tonight!". "Ding dong the frogs are dead!".

   If you went to the mechanic because your car was out of sorts and he told you that you had a dirty carburetor from sludge or if your doctor told you that your arteries were clogged from bad cholesterol or a professional organizer said that your collecting of stuff was out of hand, would you think that they were judging you? or simply stating the facts from the evidence in front of them? That's what an informer does, states facts of truth, not so they can show off their informant skills but to further Kingdom Business.
 
   Because of my teacher tendencies I would not have you ignorant. Here is some info. for you to put into your spiritual glove compartment for upcoming life exams...
RE-DE-IN 
God is the REformer
satan is a DEformer
and you are an INformer!
A reformer adjust, changes, and makes a difference. A deformer kills, steals, and destroys. An informer tells you what I just told you.

   So, when you and I meet and you tell me that life has been crappy, or you've had the crud, or you worry all the time or that it's always been this way and will always be this way...watch my eyes...you'll see a tiny hourglass with sand trickling to the other end while I retrieve, in prayer, the truth for the minute. And then, with great speed and determination I'm gonna serve up some frog stew! Ka-pow! Not another night among the frogs. Class dismissed.

Drop the Apostrophe and Put Your Hands Up

   When was the last time you gave the apostrophe props? Yeah...me too, never. I use it all the time to shorten words that we call contractions. Without it I couldn't tell the difference between shell and she'll, hell and he'll, were and we're, well and we'll. I couldn't be witty and informal and write he'd've without it...so I want to give a shout out to the '. It makes writing and speaking have more of a quick route feel...'cause (because), 'twas (it was), o'er (over), 'twernt (it wern't not, a hillybilly contraction).

   Did you know that the word alone is a contraction where the ' has been dropped off? Who knew'd? Yeah, the word used to be al'one, all one, which originated around the 1250s to the 1300s the ' over a period of time began to get left out. If you think about it, just like the ' changes the word ill into I'll, which means two different things, so does the ' change the meaning from alone to all one.

   The first time the word alone was used in the Bible was very soon, in Genesis 2:18: "And the Lord God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone (all one); I will make him an help meet for him'." So God said out of His very own mouth that all one was not good. In this verse He means a mate was needed to stop the all one situation, but the principle of it all is the all one, of any situation, is not good...except when you need to be all one in the restroom, that's good.

   In Luke 4:4 Jesus is reminding satan what God had already told Moses in Deuteronomy 8, that..."man shall not live by bread alone (al'one), but by every word of God". Again, all one was not a positive place. Lone is another way we use alone, it's more poetic, The Lone Ranger, one lone soul, lone wolf. I know lots of people that are uncomfortable with being 'lone or all 'lone, by oneself or solitary... alone or lone is being without association. Their identity is found with others which my O is that God knew He made mankind with a desire to not be all one. Joining together is a spiritual concept.

   The opposite or extreme of alone is never alone even if it's the TV or computer or M & M Blizzards or a new boat as the companion...there's always a need of a balancer. Good things have been sent into my life that caused all one to balance out. Cupcakes and coffee brought my sister and I to a beyond the 'related' status, to the 'friends we never were before' status. We were always passing each other in our everyday lives not taking the value of each other as a gift. After all we were family, there wasn't a need to try to go beyond that, was there? But, we were all one as sisters. Not anymore, thanks to baking and drinking!

   Baseball brought me and my grandchildren's mother from being unassociated to a deeper love and appreciation for one another. A ballgame...gathering together to cheer on our favorite people, that we both love, brought us to a new place of respect and acceptance. All one could not ever possibly accomplish that. Why do we marry? Why do we join car clubs? Why do we eat out with others? Why do we go to church? Why are there Trekkie conventions? We don't want to be all one and those things bring us all together and away from the al'one principle. We like it, it's our nature. We want pets or chat rooms or facebook or parties. The opposite would be cave dwelling. That's why I know that depression is an al'one disease. It takes you to the desert and you get lost there. All one.

   God sends things like German Shepherds to un-traumatize you 'cause another dog that you should'nt've 
ever brought home made you want to be forever without another dog. I love you Suki. Or He sends people like children to grow you up and wake you up and they help you become who you are because of their lives and influence. I love you, Tangae, Stacey, and Ramey. Or He sends dance (or fill in the blank) to you to connect you to the world around you and enjoy life because of it and share it with others. The first thing you want to do is tell someone about whatever it is. If you're all one, you can't. You don't. You won't.

   So the idea is for us not to be 'all one' as in al'one or alone, but to be 'all one' as in all together, in association with others, whatever brings that. Sorry apostrophe, I don't mean to dis you, you have you're place, but when it comes to whether I want to be 'all for one', me-all one, I have to choose 'one for all'
all-all one. When I drop the apostrophe and the philosophy with it I'm securing that I'll never again be "Alone Again, Naturally".

Just like noses, we all have them ....opinions. These are my O's.