My favorite Christmas song this year

I’ve never been clear on why this song gets sung only at Christmas, but it’s one of my favorites. Words are below.

The tree of life my soul hath seen,

Laden with fruit and always green:

The tree of life my soul hath seen,

Laden with fruit and always green:

The trees of nature fruitless be

Compared with Christ the apple tree.

His beauty doth all things excel:

By faith I know, but ne’er can tell,

His beauty doth all things excel:

By faith I know, but ne’er can tell

The glory which I now can see

In Jesus Christ the apple tree.

For happiness I long have sought,

And pleasure dearly I have bought:

For happiness I long have sought,

And pleasure dearly I have bought:

I missed of all; but now I see

‘Tis found in Christ the apple tree.

I’m weary with my former toil,

Here I will sit and rest a while:

I’m weary with my former toil,

Here I will sit and rest a while:

Under the shadow I will be,

Of Jesus Christ the apple tree.

This fruit doth make my soul to thrive,

It keeps my dying faith alive:

This fruit doth make my soul to thrive,

It keeps my dying faith alive:

Which makes my soul in haste to be

With Jesus Christ the apple tree.

The Paul Johnson Guide to Effective Decision-Making

HT: Mark Bradley of the AJC. I heart PJ.

My favorite drug

In full disclosure, it’s impossible for me to say I’m totally against mood-altering drugs. I love the way caffeine makes me feel. Today I had a full-caf latte (from my perfectly-sized Bialetti Moka), my first full-caf coffee in several weeks, if not months.

Anything is possible … Maybe I’ll paint that still-blank canvas. I may write a book today. I ought to redesign this website from scratch. I could drive my new car to Orlando to watch the shuttle launch. Or I could probably run there. Who knows? I can do anything!

Harmonize with me

Have I already said 30 Rock is the best show on television right now? I even look forward to reruns (I’m approaching that age where things on TV sometimes move too fast for me so I have to “run it back,” which makes reruns particularly enjoyable as I pick up things I missed the first time).

In the “Hard Ball” episode, Tracy awards Kenneth a spot in his entourage. Kenneth’s job is to harmonize with Tracy. Whenever Tracy breaks out in song, Kenneth is there to add a little alto. It’s a fun picture of marriage; almost nothing makes me happier than to erupt in song with Mike Nelson bringing in the countermelody. Our bathroom is often not unlike the Barry Gibb Talk Show.

What’s already His

Take my will, and make it Thine;
It shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart, it is Thine own;
It shall be Thy royal throne.
- Frances R. Havergal, 1873

I have a thing for hymns. The words (which were at one time somebody’s “contemporary worship”) transcend cultures. I sang these this past weekend at church and have been pondering them ever since.

My will is voluntarily submitted – I decide that it shall be no longer mine.

My heart, on the other hand, was already His to begin with. It is Thine own. It’s His home. It’s where He lives and works and does things. It’s where He moves.

Forty years

Forty years ago today, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first humans to plant their feet firmly on the surface of the moon.

That is frickin’ unbelievable.

Alaska had been a state for ten years.
You could still spend a halfpenny in England.
The Beatles were still together.
Sesame Street was a fresh new kids’ show.

For millennia, people had been standing on earth, looking at the moon. It may as well have been a trillion miles away for how accessible it was. And yet on that day, people watched on television as two guys walked around on it. I can’t imagine witnessing anything in my life as world-changing as that. I need to go talk to Aunt Pearl about it …

My new favorite picture

My friend Kristen made this picture of Mikey and me when we were in Savannah earlier this year. When she first sent it to me several weeks ago, I flipped through it because it was blurry, but it’s now one of my favorites.

Amazing

Look at this.

Click on it and look at it bigger.

The yellow ball is the sun. The two specks in the bottom left quadrant are the space shuttle Atlantis and the Hubble Telescope. They were in front of the sun for 0.8 seconds and this guy snapped it. Unbelievable photograph.

See more of this guy’s work here. I want to be friends with him.

Friday List of my favorite kitchen gadgets

Inspired by a tasty dinner prepared in Jon & Amanda’s kitchen and the ensuing conversation. Thanks, friends.

• Wustof 8″ chef’s knife (makes a ping-y sound when you pull it out of the knife block)
• Pasta roller (one day I’ll have the extruder, too)
• Mandoline slicer (you’d be surprised)
• French press coffee maker (one of the only two ways to make coffee)
• Bialetti Moka stovetop espresso maker (the other way)
• Pizza peel and stone (yes, you do need both)

My favorite gadgets I don’t own yet:

• Pasta extruder (the aforementioned)
• Burr grinder (if I could find one that was reasonably priced and smaller than a breadbox)
• Citrus juicer (I’m tired of picking out the seeds)

Time is running out

If you watch the NASA channel as intently as I do, you know that the shuttle Atlantis is about to dock with the Hubble telescope. The astronauts are making final repairs on Hubble that will allow it to function for a few more years, after which point it will fall out of orbit and most likely burn up in the earth’s atmosphere.

Spend some time on the Hubble image gallery. Sure, the colors are digitally enhanced, but it’s just beautiful.