The Glory of God in everyday life

The day to day life that we know is filled with the Glories of God. We can see them in a small child's eyes all the way up to the miracles that happen everyday that we might or might not know about. This week I have seen things that just can not be passed off as anything but God Working in people's lives for a positive outcome to the troubles that they face.

"I was hungry and He fed me"

Twice this week I was hungry and I just stepped outside and food was there. The first time happened Saturday when I was at Gusano's. I was waiting on a friend to show up to play pool, all I had on me was pool money and nothing else. I was just going outside to look at the sudden down pour when I noticed cigarette smoke and asked to borrow one from the guy holding his under the awning. He said "Borrow, I'll never see you again, I won't get it back." I replied that I was a regular and sure he would. He then told me they were from out of town one of the Carolina's. I asked for one, and he gave it to me. I lit it and started smoking it like I normally do in a method called "Hot Boxing" where you smoke it fast. It was a menthol and I was breathing in with my mouth and exhaling with my nose and the head rush was fast and very loud bang, which totally surprised me and shocked them. All the while his friend is complaining about the Pizza they had gotten, and I am surprised because the pizza has never been bad tasting for me. The guy with the pizza asks me if I want a pizza. I can't believe they are going to give me what is in the box but say yes. It turns out to be 6 slices of a Pepperoni pizza. They run off into the rain never to be heard from again I am sure. I was without money for food and my friends that were going to show up were penniless. God knew I was hungry and food showed up for me.

The next time was Monday. I walked outside leaving Gusano's and saw a friend, I was just going over to chat with him when I noticed he was carrying a bag, I figured it was left over pizza as he is the chef at a local Pizza shop in the River Market food court. I asked if I might have a slice and he gave me my choice I took the first one on top not wanting to dig in the pile, It was a very good Pepperoni, about 1/6th of a 18 inch pizza. Lewis makes them starting about 10 am and when he leaves at somewhere around 3 pm he takes what is left home with him.

Now you might think that these are just happenstance chance encounters but I see them from the stand point of me having a need and God answering my need when I would have been willing to have gone hungry till I got home later from these visits to Gusano's. But I know that God is working for the good of those who love Him and I see the first one as a clear Miracle and the second as a clear gift.

Then of course there is Monday and the pool ball that moved between tables without anyone touching it. I was playing on the back table at Gusano's and we had sank every ball out of the 15. Then someone asks to play pool with us and I set up the front table only to find the 6 ball from the back table inside among the balls released. I just can't wrap my head around how the ball moved between the tables. And ever since Sunday when I went somewhere while playing on the front table the cue ball has gone missing, but either the table ate the ball which is possible, it has done that in the past, or the kids that finished my game and started using my short front half of my cue stick as a "Bapper" for shuffleboard took the cue ball and hid it somewhere. The kids were under 6 years old so there is no telling what happened to it really.

All in all I have been finding some pretty strange things happening to me these last few days, some have been prefect timing when needing to talk to friends and there they just show up, to getting fed when I was hungry and having thought about food but not expected it to show up right there in front of me.

On a side note soon I will be sampling some Handmade Chocolate from Cocoa Belle a small Chocolate candy store which is new in the River Market food court. The lady that is the owner and chef is nice and friendly, she is working on her website and was happy when I mentioned I was going to buy some and do a review of the product as soon as I get spending cash. I'll add the link when her site is up and running, but do the review the day after tasting the candy.

Your brother is Christ,
Charles

Thoughts on a hot august day, a poem

Skyscrapers half built ruins
Trash floating on the updrafts
Friends talking and laughing in the heat waves
Pool playing as if practiced all the time
Window shopping the office buildings
While hair flies in the wind over bridge railings
Where does the day go when you are having fun
How slow does it travel when you are alone
Chatting up friends then getting smokes
First drag of the day head rushes
Waking early wishing for time to fly
Waking late wondering where time went
Boys always trying to date single girls
Old lovers walking hand in hand
While no one looks they privately smile at each other
Bright sunshiny newly built buildings
Seeming to grow as you blink the day awake
Seeing someone only to miss another friend gone away
Wishing to stand time still and live in the glories
Holding onto the simple times and letting worries go
Two old friends embrace as one cries
Gentle times and special people sitting in a park
Road weary shoe shopping finding the first pair prefect
Wakeful day dreamer telling his line online
Posting the options telling the tale

Thoughts from a hot August day, 26 August 2008
Charles E. Owens Jr.

Tea Coffee and Sundays

I go play Pool about as many times a week as I can swing the cash. I mostly practice by myself but I do on occasion get to play with other people who are more skilled than I am or less skilled, either way it is practice with or without partners. As my circle of friends grows so does those days when I am just shooting pool with them rather than being by myself.

I set the table and play the difficult shots, or play 15 ball, starting either at 1 or 15 and working my way up or down the scale. I try for shots that I know I don't think I can make, or bumper shots, or combos anything to increase the knowledge of where and when I can make a shot, building my confidence and skill level bit by bit.

So far this week I have played Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and will be there again in the early afternoon on Monday. This will be my longest stretch ever playing pool at Gusano's. Where I now get introduced to other people as the Local pool shark, even though I never play for money, at least not yet anyways.

I told a friend of mine in the River Market that I'd mention her and her store again so here goes. Andina Cafe, Nita is the owner and works most everyday of the week at least for a little while. If you need to know what is going on in the area hit her up for knowledge, people of all makes and models come though and pass off the latest information and facts and who's who in the area. Even though she'd tell you I am wrong in this, that she just does not know all that much, but I know different. If you want to know about coffee anything about it, she is the source you should seek, she has her own roastery, roasting her own lines of coffee beans. Her shop is located at the west end of the River Market building and Like I said open 7 days a week just like Gusano's.

One Last thought and "This Should Have Been Sooner" But here goes now better late than never. Tom Fm Magic 106.7 The greatest station in central Arkansas if not the world. A full blown mixture of music from all over the genres all over the ages and piled up into almost 45 to 50 minutes per hour of music. Call the station and leave a voice mail and they put it on the air if it meets FCC standards, ( sell a cat, hunt for a cat, a car and other things seem to be going on too ). I have called in 3 times, and heard myself once, and a friend heard me once, so I know they play the voicemails they get. Call 433-1067 and get your voice heard. I have added a Link over on the right side links section, Enjoy!

Happy shopping and God bless you all,
Charles

Two Links added

Two new links added today from my friends Over at the River Market in Little Rock.

Judd Mann is a Local Glass artist who has taught himself totally new things in glass working. He uses a 1,400 Degree oven to heat glass into new designs and makes all his own glass for these designs. He has his art in several Central Arkansas businesses and institutions. His stained glass designs can use new and old glass. His E.mail address is Juddmann@email.com, and Local phone number is 501-413-7277. He is a good friend and his works of art are very good to boot.

The Arkansas Soap company makes handcrafted soaps and lotions using Goats Milk. It is a family run operation and If you like artistian soaps this is a good one to add to your list. They are located in Houston Arkansas.

Best wishes,
Charles.

Peopled Places,, A Poem

Peopled places, crowds of faces
Rooms filled, belly to back to hip to knee
Playing pool in a crowd dense as salmon in a stream
Landing shots tricked with shots gloried
Yelling at top of lungs just to be heard
Patterns ebb and flow tending to glow
Wondering where they all come from
Mobbed scenes Sound scapes bubbling
When do you stop seeing the pretty faces
When do you stop hearing the stories
When will the crowded streets die back down
Market row or Pub floor filled with feet
Peopled places, crowds of faces.

Friday night pub, Saturday Market day
Charles E. Owens Jr. 24 August 2008

Night on the town

I love to play pool. I practice all the time mostly over the river in Little Rock at a place called Gusano's They are on the row of the River Market on the section of Markham renamed for that Prez we had called Clinton, Homeboy and all that. I went there Friday night to play pool with a friend and ended up making a handful of new friends most of whom I played pool with, my original pool partner never did show up. Talk about standing room only, man trying to play pool in a crowd is its own kind of game, you just can't make shots unless you know how to do trick shots, or break your pool stick in half. I have my own pool stick, it unscrews in the middle and I practice playing with a short stick. Which in itself has a story around it, as to why I do practice with a short stick. I bought the stick about 18 years ago, and never really used it much until recently.

One day a few months ago, while at Gusano's someone from Little Rock's Homeless community who knows me by sight but was not really a friend of mine challenged me to a game but said I'd have to use a house pool stick. I really wanted to play with mine so I told him I'd play with the shorter front half and play him at a disadvantage. I could see by how he had played his female friend that he was pretty good, most likely better than me. But he was bragging That yeah he knew he was better than me because he saw me missing to many shots in my game. I was not taking the easy shots, I was making my game last, taking hard shots, teaching myself what I could or could not do. So in his observing me he had miscalculated my abilities by what he thought he saw. I tend to be as good natured as I possibly can be, so I played with my short stick for what he wanted to play for; Bragging Rights.

With just a few balls left on the table he realized that I was very close to beating him with a short stick, it is after all not the length of the stick but how you use it that matters, even in pool the soft touches work wonders. For his sake I let him sink the 8 ball as it was the last ball left on the table after I could have won. I though taught myself a lesson, Practice with the short stick and learn more control, so when you have the power of the weight of the long stick, you can harness it, or choke it down and still get the job done. Last night with the crowd the way it was I showed my new friend Scott that using a short stick makes it great for crowded places or the trick shots. He was a much better player than myself, he showed me new things I want to try when I am out practicing again next time.

Gusano's is Chicago Style pizza and Arkansas Owned, they have 4 stores around the state and if you ever get into town go there and check out the place, the wait staff and managers are friendly and very good at their jobs.

While I am talking about great places to eat in and around my haunts of central Arkansas there is a little place I went to today called The Circle. They are located in downtown North Little Rock on Main street, the 300 block, The whole place is barely 20 feet wide, they seat about 24. We had 20 in our group from Trinity Lutheran Church which left one table of 4 chairs, they did have tables set outside, but only 4 more seats out there. They have lots of things to offer, wraps or sandwiches, salads, daily soups, even chili dogs. Water to wine, coffee and sodas, beer and shakes. A nicely tightly run shop, we were seated, orders taken and food was out in less than 15 minutes and our whole crowd was out of there in an hour. They knew we were coming so there is that, but even then we filled their cafe to its limits and it takes a good team to get that many people served and it all done in a timely manner. So Check them out all you Local readers, and anyone who is out there not from these parts on your next visit look them up for a nice place to have a good meal. Their Tomato and Roasted Garlic soup is very good and so is the Lox.

Have a Blessed day,
Charles.

Jesus Walked on Air

Dear Readers,

Happy Friday.

I went to a Concert last night, Kenny Loggins at the Little Rock River Market Amphitheatre. We were unable to see the whole concert because Barbara Kay, my 3rd ex-wive, was having breathing problems and so we left, no big deal. He walked into the crowd during a song and touched his audience.

Jesus was so needed by people that when he went anywhere, they stayed back, but they wanted to touch him, knowing some of them that just touching him would heal them.

Love is that way, walking down the street some people just ooze love vibes, people will walk up to them and act like friends. The Love Vibe guy or gal, will just keep on doing what they do and you notice they don't mind the people just trying to get a buck off them, or a smoke, or some other freebie, they ooze love so much that nothing seems to bother them.

I told you yesterday that I Pray for Trust and Faith. I Prayed for no rain last night. It rained, but only enough to soak, not drench, cool not chill, and made for good fun watching others panic and leave the concert which really turned into a great one, if they had only stayed a little longer, had a little more faith that the rain was going away like I did, I looked west, seeing the sun I knew sooner or later, no rain, just wait it out.

I also Pray to show Love to everyone; a kind word, knowing someones name even though you might not be their friend you know their name, speaking to as many people as I can, waving to my neighbors or people driving into or out of my neighborhood regulars or not, giving extra tips to waiter people even if the service was underpar ( the tips they live on, and they might be having a rushed or bad day back in the kitchen, no reason to be mean to them, service is a hard job), I thank as many Church workers as I can find, thanking them for their service, and I smile at everyone I meet and make eye contact with just about anyone that is looking my way.

It is the little things that grow into big things. We usually are not given the faith to move a mountain right off the bat, but we are given faith to believe that Jesus is Lord, then asking for more faith and more trust does surprising things, you see the changes that take place, you can actually see where you have changed over time. I don't worry about much, when I do I pray and let it go, Matthew chapter 6 verses 25 to 34 and this whole area of the bible is Jesus talking and telling us what we need to do to be better at Loving him and Loving others. In the verses we are told not to worry, and though it has taken me years to get to where I am, others do notice a carefree attitude that I have, even when they don't meet me the first time. Next time or later as they get to know me at my regular haunts they tell me about it.

Worry about Nothing, and Pray about Everything.

Your Brother in Christ,
Charles.

The XYZ gene and where you are today

Dear Readers,

As some of you know I have talked in the past about the XYZ gene, this is further thoughts on it.

I believe in the Glory of Christ the Risen Savior. Everyone has GOD in him, but not everyone fully understands that they do. There will be people in your life that you will observe to be totally clueless about things that you will wonder where in the heck they got what they have and how in the world are they keeping it still. They just seem so neglectful of the blessings that they could have while they go about their lives that you want to scream at them to sit down and listen to how you understand Jesus Christ and how knowing him will help them be less clueless.

Pray for them, that they get the help they need to be made mindful that Jesus of long ago and today is The Christ, and with him all things are possible. Pray also that the next time you meet them the Lord will use you to influence them, but also that you will be mindful of keeping your witness on a level that they can use.

I believe that life is a Great Tapestry with a Predetermined Outcome. The Glory of GOD will be seen by everyone. There will be a Final Last Day for all the world, but there will be lesser last day for anyone not there on the Final Last Day. We would call that death of our human body, when our fellows put our body to rest in a grave, while our Soul goes on to see whatever God has planned for us after that fact. While we live though we are all threads being sown together by God, he is giving you Free Will, but in the End it does not matter you will still see HIM. Going through life like you do and having the free will to do just about anything you can think possible is great freedom. You still have to conform to the Laws of your fellow man, but even there you can if you want to do anything at all, just check the newspaper for people doing just that. Free Will means that you have your own mind there to help you decide what to do next. But do try to understand that no matter what you do go about and do, you will one day die and Meet GOD. The Mysteries of God as we are told in the Bible are beyond our understanding, God is there sowing the threads together, but letting you be your own guide and though it seems to totally be random chance that things happen, if you look close enough you can see a pattern showing up if you look backward.

I try to look at the leading edge of this great Tapestry and see the Event Horizon. The XYZ gene in full play, God working in past lives and the present and how he might work in the future for some people, though I don't worry about that future.

That is where the XYZ gene comes into play you can't scope it out with anything modern, there is the simple knowledge that everyone has that they are a part of something, even if they don't know what that something is but it is so ingrained in them that no matter how hard they try to cut it out of their lives they just can't. No matter how many times we work on gene splicing and cut out the genes causing Cancer and other things that kill us, we'd never be able to even find the XYZ gene and get rid of it in a fetus.

God is in everyone. Not everyone knows that He is there. They might never know Him, might hear all about that guy from long ago called Jesus, but never know Him as the Savior. Christians see this as a sad event, something we would pray that would not happen, knowing that God our Father does not want this to happen either, but none the less there will be some people that just never make it to the point of Trusting Jesus.

In the end You have to have decided whom do you trust, whom do you follow, and whom will you go to in your times of need.

My Prayer usually starts this way; Dear Father, Forgive me for I have sinned Greatly. Increase my Faith, and Increase my Trust. ....... Then whatever else is said, mostly with a lot of thanks for the wonderful day I have had enjoying the surfing I have done on the Event Horizon of my life.

Your Brother in Christ,
Charles

Plays on words part 2

Having talked to several of my friends about my play Mr. S. Clause today I am starting to get the good vibes that most of us writers would love to get from our readers, but because we are so tied to our stories we at times don't tell anyone about them we don't get the vibes till after the work is completed.

I got more sleep than I thought I would last night, which helps the creative juices flow a bit faster than normal, unless I am on a hyper roll, when I really need to download my mind into a mental recorder and just play that back later for everyone to see.

.....

Scene, Satan and Santa fighting over who gets the hammock.


Yelling in a loud voice Satan says, MINE!
You hear a loud thump
Nothing moves on stage, the hammock is still, the form lying in it just lays there.

Click of a lighter,
Flame
Loud muttering and then a soft voice says.
" Do you have to smoke so much?"
"YES!"
" Ok, but make sure you don't burn my shirt when you smoke like that."
"What do you care? I smoke my own way, and I don't really care if you like it or not."

Seconds later there is another click of a lighter and a Flame.

Loud howling ensues, then singing off key, and few swear words, and then a Loud OUCH.

The hammock rocks for a second or two then goes still again, just about as you hear the lighter click open and see a flame.

........

I am still wanting to add a few add lib comments to the discussion, or at least write out a few of the more colorful ones that I think of along the way.

3 acts, and Scene names written out so that the readers in the Theatre can see the puns, even if you don't see them in the play as much as you would in the written script.

More later.
Charles.

Cloud Lit Sky

Clouds streaming cross the vision
Sky sways from hammock bed
Where the bats fly never to see
House edges block sighted sounds
Fire glow where Sun streams true
Fire edged the cloud banks umber orange
Where do water wisps go,
When the vapor trail dies.
Over the edge of reason my mind plays
Checked the images on old
Where have you gone summer moon
Thoughts struck hammer tink low
When and Where do we go,
When the summer clouds die.

Thoughts on a summer night August 19 2008.
Charles E. Owens Jr.

The play on words

I talked to my brother about the Play I am composing, Writing, hashing out with my mind or whatever a PlayWright does when he has something he thinks others will think about as entertaining. Now my brother he is a stage actor with a side job working for NASA, Stage actors in his group do it mostly for the fun of getting up on stage and being seen act after act doing crazy, or sensible things, or whatever they were drilled to do hoping they don't forget to many of their marks, or lines, all for the glory of the stage nothing for the pocket book.

I don't know I think I would like to get some money for my play if I can get it written and staged, I don't want a big stage show just me and a few people getting together to put on a little ditty of a play about a man going crazy.

3 Acts, Mr. S. Clause, his Therapist, His assistant, a bathroom mirror, his stool on a stage in a small nightclub, various people to see him, friends and the crowd which due to stage space is the people out in the Real Theatre. Oh and let us not forget, Santa Claus, and Satan Claws the guys living inside his head.

Because of my very nature I Ad-Lib a lot of the speaking parts of Santa and Satan when they show up to torment Mr. S. Clause poor guy can't get a word in edge wise when they are off on one of their little rants as the days and weeks grow further along we might even find Mr. S. as his assistant calls him, going into a pit of a hospital ranting and raving but I have not decided if I want to go that far, maybe just mention it as something that happened off screen after the first act. I tend to write as I go, fleshing out the scene in my mind then letting my Ad-Lib nature take hold and just fly with what comes out of it and then if it works it works if it don't OH WELL you are stuck with it, deal with it and get on to the next few lines or days.

So that dear Readers is where you will find me, relaxing outside in my hammock taking in the summer nights in our cooler August weather ranting and raving and trying to remember where I put my glow in the dark chalk for my next artistic outing in the driveway.

If you hear a howling I Swear it is not me but it might be Santa running loose in my backyard not wanting to sit down and remember his lines for the play.

Charles,