Featured image: Ancient cross on Church Lane, between Carbis Bay and Lelant. Cogitation 8 Saturday 24 February 2018 It was a pleasant surprise to find our Christmas letter published in the New Contact magazine of St Anta and All Saints Church, Carbis Bay, Cornwall, UK. We wrote: "For seven winter/spring seasons we've hopped across …
Author: John Bender
Hi, my name is John Bender, retired and loving it. I'm writing to help interested people cross bridges to and from the past. Stories from the past can shed light on life in the present and illuminate the future. We've got a lot of living to do. Let's do it!
Facets of Cornwall’s call
Featured image: The ubiquitous primrose, growing in cultivated flower beds or wild in drystone walls. Cogitation 7.2018 Saturday 17 February Look right. Clear? Cross to the refuge in the middle of the road. Look left. Proceed when clear. The absolute importance of first looking right, then left to cross a street in the UK …
Minding, what else, the weather
Featured image: Here's where geraniums will bloom. Cogitation 6.132 Saturday 10 February 2018 The buzz on Friday was mostly about the weather. On Saturday snowplows were buzzing all about town. This morning we attended a memorial service for Brent Eash (1959-2018) at church. It was such a fitting time of worship and fellowship for …
In the moment
Featured image: Marty poses with Simon Gingerich at Simon's 95th birthday open house at Greencroft Goshen Continuing Care Living Community. Cogitation 5:131 Saturday 3 February 2018 Ever been between times? Such as in that space between an old and a new normal? The never, never land of time almost standing still? A moment that's …
As I was going to . . .
Featured image: Wildlife preening in Ox Bow Park. Cogitation 4.130 Saturday 27 January 2018 Reader Mary K. Mishler responded to a photo of St Ives in last week's post: "I'm reminded of my childhood riddle, 'AS I WAS GOING TO ST IVES,'" she wrote. Not everyone we know has heard that nursery rhyme. Here …
Tea please
Cogitation 3.129 Saturday 20 January 2018 Home on the farm growing up we had an English hired hand whose capacity for drinking tea never ceased to amaze us youngsters. Featured image: Snuggles, whose domain is sister-in-law Doris Mast's home, knows her way around a lap, sunny spots, and contemplation of mysteries unknown. "Tea …
From mustard musings to winter’s certain slowness
Cogitation 2.2018.128 Saturday 13 January It's a game character, an idiom, a biblical parable, a home remedy for chest congestion, and a condiment. It all relates to mustard. Colonel Mustard appears in the mystery game, Clue. As an idiom, the modern sense of the word is to succeed, as in, "He cuts the mustard." …
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What’s new?
Cogitation Saturday 6 January #1.2018.127 I've made a small change in nameplate or masthead, most notably selecting Cogitation as the standard name henceforth for each post. While not earthshakingly new or newsworthy, it's my way of simplifying and organizing my blog for the new year. I've posted 126 blogs. This, then, is number 127. …
From the old to the new: Yippee!
Cornwall Cogitation (North America) #14 Saturday 30 December 2017 Yippee! I say Yippee! to the transition from the old to the new year, Yippee! I lean on the words of Isaac Watts in the hymn, O God, our help in ages past (1719). "O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years …
Advent’s promise: Love breaking into our world of chaos
Cornwall Cogitation (North America) #13 Saturday 23 December 2017 Big chaos skitters about the world, that's certain, but there's a bigger cosmos that was, that is, that will be. Featured image: The Advent banner at Prairie Street Mennonite Church, Elkhart, Indiana, shows the promise of Love breaking into our world of chaos. The darkness …
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It's About Now 