Old Clocks and Easter
We have an old German wall clock in our dining room now. It’s old, dating back to the 1880’s (so says an appraiser). Some would call its idiosyncrasies “character” – a dent in the broad pendulum, timid gongs marking every hour, and an unsteady tick-tock that plods along somehow managing to keep time. It’s amazing really, having somehow defied all odds.
When Lisa inherited it from her Great Aunt Elizabeth Sisson, it didn’t work. It was, well, dead. But we noticed its intrinsic beauty – a large porcelain face with Roman numbers, a well-preserved wooden case with subtle floral inlays, and all the large original antique glass panes. No matter its superficial loveliness, it was still incapable of carrying out its intended purpose: to tell time.
Enter the clockmaker. He, too, appreciated the clock’s outer beauty and uniqueness. But, the clockmaker knew more. He was the master of his trade – carefully and lovingly reconditioning and restoring the clock to its original operating condition. Now the clock is alive and brings a special feeling in our home.
The clock’s story reminds me of our story. Though we have intrinsic value, we are broken and unable to carry out our intended purpose without the touch of the Master’s hand. Through the loving restoration of our Father, we have new life and renewed purpose. The new life the Father grants us is the same power provided in Jesus’ resurrection.
Happy Easter!
– D
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A Song For Good Friday
Good Friday. To Christians like our family it is “good,” but utterly solemn. It is a time we remember the misery and death of Jesus. It was for my shortcomings, my failings and my selfish ways. It was for yours, too. Without the death of Christ, we would have no hope for forgiveness or relationship with our Pure, Holy and Perfect Creator. Our sin could be paid only by death – both yours and mine, or by one Jesus.
This evening we witness and remember, before the coming of His glorious resurrection, the truly ultimate act of love – an act that makes forgiveness sure and our faith relationship with our Heavenly Father certain.
For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
– John 3:16 (NLT)
Below is a Good Friday song I wrote and recorded about three years ago, titled “Star Light.” In the last few weeks as Good Friday approached, I remembered the song, pulled the cobwebs off and finished the mix. Sonically, it’s somewhere between Sting and Cold Play, but is still not quite finished. The vocals are still “scratch”, laid down when I had a head-cold, and the track is not mastered.
My apologies – the track had to be broken into two pieces to upload to the site, so I broke the song at a point of silence in the music. So, please listen to both parts. Feel free to share your thoughts by leaving a comment.
I pray this song touches you and deepens your love for our Lord Jesus.
– D
There are two ways to listen to these mp3 files. (1) By simply left-clicking on the files, the audio will stream automatically using Apple’s Quicktime. NOTE: Quicktime must be installed on your computer. (2) Alternately, by right-clicking on the files, selecting “Save Target As”, and saving to your harddrive, you can play them from your favorite media player. -Enjoy.
Star Light (part a) — David M Hyde.mp3
Star Light (part b) — David M Hyde.mp3
If your computer does not have Apple Quicktime, for a free download go to:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/
Lyrics to, “Star Light”
VERSE 1:
He spoke with solitary voice
Piercing words into the void
And darkness
Sanctum in the Living Word
Succumbed to flesh and dwelt to serve
In humbleness
VERSE 2:
Drawing souls from all around
The Tree of Life they all had found
A mystery
Healing broken hearts and wounds
A ruler comes in the light of moon
To understand
CHORUS:
Star Light, Star Bright
Star of the Morning
Mourning
Star Light, Star Bright
A lone star tonight
VERSE 3:
Intimidated traders fall
Foraging silver in temple halls
On hands and knees
Disenchanted crowds increase
With banished hopes for a king
An insurrection
CHANNEL:
Once with twelve at his side
The crowds once hanging by his every word
He ran towards death and found
The joyful throng profoundly silent
Alone, alone
VERSE 4:
Grieving tears and sweating blood
On his knees the terror struck
In the garden
He bared my cross
He bared my sin, my sin
He hung in darkness, rain and wind
And said goodbye
CHANNEL:
Once with twelve at his side
The crowds once hanging by his every word
He ran towards death and found
The joyful throng profoundly silent
Alone, alone
(c) 2005 Lyrics and music by David M. Hyde, intrepidproductions.com
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Justus 10th Birthday with Friends
We celebrated Justus’ birthday with some of his friends from gymnastics, school and church. First we ate at Cici’s Pizza and then we went bowling. Next, we came back and ate cake and ice cream, opened gifts, played flashlight tag, watched a movie and had a slumber party. Whew!
The boys had a great time. Here are some pictures of the major event!
-D
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Justus Goes To State
This year was Justus’ first season to compete against boys of his age across the entire state at the 2009 Texas State Meet, held on the Texas Woman’s University campus in Denton, Texas. From Houston, it takes about five hours to drive to Denton, which is 45 minutes north of Dallas. Amy and the girls, Sarah and Emily, drove up from Austin and spent Friday night and Saturday with us. It was great fun!
As for Justus, he improved once again by pummeling his season-high all-around score by 1.5 points (87.3), placing him 10th of 52. This score qualifies him to compete for regionals in two weeks (in Dallas… again!). His region includes the best from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana. He broke his season-high scores in Rings (4th of 52) and Vault (9th of 52), and tied his season high on Parallel Bars. These personal records were made after falling on his dismount from High-Bar and falling from handstand on Floor. For him to perform this well after his falls proves his growth in character and grit in adverse situations. For that, we are most proud.
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Bogging in the blog – revisited
Well, we’ve been at it for a year now: blogging on our opinions, travels, family parties and our kid’s events. We’ve discussed everything from baseball to theology, and energy policy to foreign policy. We’ve shown videos of Justus’ compulsory gymnastics, Rebecca’s musical theatre, and vignettes of boys chasing dogs.
Looking back at our first entry, we shared,
It seems a bit odd, really, that we would resort to electronically journaling our lives to you rather than visiting in person. ’Blog’ is short for web-log (I just learned that…) This undertaking is not some sort of vice to excuse ourselves from seeing and talking to each other, but rather a tool to share our everyday lives, our musings and simple happenstances with those of you who can’t see or hear us nearly often enough.
We will vow to continue to bring our experiences, funny walks and silly photos to family and friends. The kids are starting to get into the action by offering up there own photos from their own cameras and videos from Rebecca’s cell phone. A family friend put it best – it’s like a digital scrapbook, so take a look around, exploring the picture gallery and kids pages.
Really there is only one difference between a digital scrapbook and the blog: we can interact with your comments. It sure would be fun, especially for the kids, to receive comments from you. So, give us a, “shout out” when you read something that gets you stirred up, or when you see something that’s enjoyable. For us, that’s the best part.
-D
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The 2009 Houston National Invitational was held at the George R. Brown Convention Center – by far the largest venue for the season. Because the venue is so large, we were quite a distance away from the event floor, forcing me to take video with considerable zoom. This explains why the video is unusually shaky (sorry!). Justus performed well, making his highest all-around score for the season (85.8, 11th of 50), despite falling off the high-bar (ouch!). Special guest Olympian Jonathon Horton spoke to the boys and Olympian Shawn Townsend presented Justus with some of his medals. A great day for Justus!
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Dad Hyde Celebrates 65
This weekend, we celebrated Dad Hyde’s 65th birthday. We all enjoyed great food, including prime rib, and hanging out with family and some close friends, Dean and Sheila McIntire. Sunday, we just relaxed, visited, ate even more, and enjoyed the fabulous weather. Below are a few pics and fun video.
-D
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Justus at the Gymmasters Invitational
The 2009 Houston Gymmasters Invitational Meet was held at the Houston Gymnastics Academy in Houston, Texas. This academy is home to Olympians Sean Townsend (2000) and Raj Bhavsar (2008). Justus did well, scoring 9th out of 27 in the all-around. The day culminated with Raj Bhavsar hanging a couple of medals around Justus’ neck. Thanks go out to Ford Pratt for filming Justus for us this weekend since our camera died the evening before.
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The 2009 Ricky Deci Memorial Invitational Meet was held at the Katy ISD Merrell Center in Katy, Texas. This meet was actually Justus’ second meet of the season already. (His first meet was in Frisco, Texas at olympian Valeri Liukin’s gymnastics center. You may recognize Valeri as the father of recent USA-olympian Nastia Liukin.) For the Ricky Deci meet, Justus improved in every event by almost a full point from the Liukin meet. He competed with 29 boys and scored seventh in the all-around. His level-6 team also placed first – a strong start to the 2009 season!
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Funny walks and lisping
Well, occasionally there are those joyful moments just before settling down and going to bed. At the end of a day, when your family can cut-up and laugh together, you know that everything’s goin’ to be alright.
-D
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Happy New Year
On New Years Day, our family spent the day just hanging out. While we took down our Christmas tree, we shared our disappointments, confessed our shortcomings and counted our blessings of 2008. The disappointments were authentic, the confessions were heartfelt, and the blessings were abounding.
Here are some just some of the blessings that we counted:
* For my cell phone. –R
* For my loving family. –J
* For Daddy working on our computers and keeping them running. –R
* For Daddy and I having 16+ years of a healthy and strong marriage. –L
* For all the time that Mommy got my school work prepared even though she had other things to do. –R
* That we get to home-school. –L
* For KVPAC and Hits theatres. –R
* For the time Daddy spent with me to prepare for Peter Pan. –R
* For Daddy’s time remodeling the kitchen. –L
* For friends. –J
* For the musical, Wicked. –R
* For our health. –D
* For my continued freedom from cancer. -L
* For my email – it helps me stay in touch with my friends and get through life. –R
* For video games. -J
* For Harvey (our dog). –R
* For my youth group and Profession of Faith class. –R
* For my gymnastics. –J
* For Ms. Steel, Ms. Lauren, Ms. Lynsey (dance instructors) and ballet, tap and jazz. –R
* For Josie, a friend the same age just down the street. –R
* For our home. –L
* For all my BFF (Best Friends Forever) and their encouragement and help. –R
* For God’s faithful and sanctifying work in our lives. -D
We then set personal and family goals for 2009. Each of us thought of a Spiritual, Physical, Mental, Community Service, and Family Service goal. We will be coming up with action plans for each of these goals to insure that each has a roadmap for success. We also spoke the following declaration (credit to e-columnist Kevin Nuber):
In agreement with God’s Word that says God intends to give me ‘a future and a hope,’ I offer these goals and plans to Him as a gift from my heart. I challenge myself to see exploits done for His Kingdom through my life. I will ‘redeem the time’ during this next year. I fully understand that all goals are subject to change and to the perfect will of God. By His help these dreams of my heart shall become reality!”
Lisa and I closed out our day by cooking together an old fashioned meal that included black-eyed peas, sautéed cabbage with bacon and grilled pork chops (pictured above).
An Historical Perspective
New Year’s Day, as we know it, was first celebrated in 46BC when Julius Caesar introduced the Julian calendar. The month January was named for the Roman mythological god Janus, who has two heads, one looking forward, the other looking behind. The image was placed commonly at doorways to guard those coming and going. This “looking” is essentially where the tradition of new year resolutions comes from – the looking back at what has past and the looking forward to what is to come.
Happy New Year!
-D
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Christmas Cataclysm
The Christmas holiday was an adventure, stretched across ten days and celebrated between four trees, three churches, and even one wedding. This is normal for us.
We were blessed by the family experiences like Samantha Wilson’s beautiful wedding, and my brother Johnny’s presence at the family festivities (being a fire officer, his days off are solely dictated by his rotation schedule, even through the holidays).
We enjoyed the Lord’s abundance of food and gifts. We ate and ate, and then ate some more… and when we took breaks between the meals, we grazed. Sickening really.
The cataclysm was a set of four distinguished blasts of wrapping paper. These explosions were premeditated and carried out with severe enthusiasm. Christmas gifts were thoughtful and generous. Highlights include: Justus was Wii-ed, Rebecca can now call home from anywhere, Lisa can now slow-cook and cook on short-order, and I can sit down to Wii with Justus and pump-up my muscles.
Here’s hoping that your Christmas was a blessing, too!
-D
