A Morning Walk

Darling Dog and I went for a walk this morning.

The air smelled like maple syrup and the squirrels strutted around the dirt embankments up the hill, taunting DD. An ambulence siren sounded, followed by the bellows of a hound at home by himself. Barooooo... A sad, sad song. Prayers for the man on the stretcher, gentle words for the dogs.

Playing with camera settings...

A self portrait and two conversions...pink flower and yellow rounds into sepia madness.

Listening to Glee to my heart's content and working on spreadsheets does not poem or prose make. But I garuntee at least 15 minutes of solid dancing around the office.

Blessings Manifold

There is nothing quite like a pink flower, no matter what time of year. He makes these for weary eyes and souls...

Our Father, by whose servants

Our house was built of old,

Whose hand hath crowned her children

With blessings manifold,

For Thine unfailing mercies

Far-strewn along our way,

With all who passed before us,

We praise Thy name to-day.

~Old School Hymn

This Crippled Bloom

I stumbled accross this lone, ruddy orange flower and it held my attention for many snaps. It just looks so sad and tattered poor child.

Psalm 38:7-9

For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh.
I am feeble and sore broken: I have roared by reason of the disquietness of my heart.
Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee.

King Arthur Started Crowing

"Sometimes the moon is so brightit is nearly like day and casts shadows among the rocks. One time I fell asleep on my rock and slept there all night long until King Arthur started crowing in the dawn. THEN I had to skedaddle. Liddy and Old Bess both saw me from teh kitchen door but they did not tell, they gave me a corn pone and sent me on my way."

~ Agate Hill by Lee Smith

A collection of blossoms

As I was talking darling dog for a walk today we chanced upon some late blooms on the side of the road...a Washingtonian incarnation of the Texas wildflower planned phenomena. There were various clusters of flowers, but these bright pink bursts of life liked my amateur camera-woman skills more than the rest. They nearly look like orchids, don't they?

Always a Good Reminder

The Ten Commandments

Thou shalt have none other gods before me.

Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters beneath the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.

Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain: for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Keep the sabbath day to sanctify it, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee. Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.

And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm: therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath day.

Honour thy father and thy mother, as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee; that thy days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with thee, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

Thou shalt not kill.

Neither shalt thou commit adultery.

Neither shalt thou steal.

Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbour. Neither shalt thou desire thy neighbour's wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is thy neighbour's.

Tinted Summer Walks

"It was really such a charming spot. that smooth grey stone between the two dear young firs all greened over with their new spring tips..."

Can We Trust Bible Prophesy?

If you think Bible prophesy is an allegory...think again! :)

2 Peter 1:16-19 (KJV)
For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.
We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:

The Color of Summer

All the flowers are blooming pink and red and yellow, just like the balloons. I took a bit of liberty enhancing the balloon photo because they were so vibrant anyhow...oomph galore!

This morning I drove down the road (Lake Washington Blvd.) to Starbucks for a Caramel Capuccino & the Times (NY, not Seattle) and was bowled over by the incandescent glow of sunlight bouncing off of the the blooms, baloons, and bicycle riders. Anyone who has visited the Seattle area will know that we have a hard core bicycle culture here. I will avoid going on a rant about how they blatently ignore the rules of the road and put us all at risk...err, perhaps I didn't make it past that point as I had hoped. In any case, the bicyclists are usually be-garbed in jewel toned spandex numbers that stick out like a sore thumb in the grey, Northwestern haze, but under the summer sun, they look a part of the scenery.

What Will You Become?

Philippians 3: 14 - 21

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.

Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)

For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

Dreams are funny things...

The color orange reminds me of an old coworker of mine from college who I called my black momma (seeing as I already have a white one :) She was my surrogate mom, keeping her eye on me while I was away from home. She was such a strong Christian influence for me and taught me a lot about looking at things through scripture, using verses as a measuring stick for decision making. I dreamed about her last night...

She was teaching a women's Bible study on Biblical femininity at a Lutheran church (she's a Baptist) and I ran into her...she gave me a grip of Nancy Leigh DeMoss's little pamphlets on the subject and I helped her put some chairs and tables in place for the fellowship. I remember so vividly, holding her hands in mine and swinging our arms back and forth.

Donna, I pray the Lord is keeping you safe in his loving arms today and always. You are in my heart, prayers and I guess...DREAMS too. Ha! May you and Steve be living out the life you wanted for the rest of your days; happy, healthy, and full joy!

x's and o's

We are Love

1 John 4:8
He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

God is love.

We are made in His image.

We are love.

Therefore, it is his will for us to act in love.

As it is oft' said...Love is a verb.

Butterflowers

Churn, churn flowers of butter.

Smooth upon the lilting leaves

Mark-ed sky, oh plate of blueb'ry syrup

Swirly dipped that butter, "oooh"

A morsel to bite with the desirous eye

Cool Muslin Morning

She wore a cool muslin that morning - white, with a waving vertical line of brown running through it; also a white linen collar and big straw hat which she had taken from the peg outside the door. The hat rested any way on her yellow brown hair, that waved a little, was heavy, and hung close to her head.
Madame Ratignolle, more careful of her complexion, had twined a gauze veil about her head. She wore dogskin gloves, with gauntlets that protected her wrists. She was dressed in pure white, with a fluffiness of ruffles that became her. The draperies and fluttering things which she wore, suited her rich, luxuriant beauty as a greater severity of line could not have done.

~ from The Awakening by Kate Chopin

A Different Kind of Flower

In the evening, Alice sat on her Grandfather's knee and listened to his stories of faraway places. When he had finished, Alice would say, "When I grow up, I too will go to faraway places, and when I grow old, I too will live beside the sea."

"That is all very well, little Alice," said her Grandfather, "but there is a third thing you must do."

"What is that?" asked Alice.

"You must do something to make the world more beautiful," said her grandfather.

"All right," said Alice. But she did not know what that could be.

In the meantime Alice got up and washed her face and ate porridge for breakfast. She went to school and came home and did her homework.

And pretty soon she was grown up.

From Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney

Nature speaks in it's own language, free!

Vowels...

A Black, E white, I red, U green, O blue : vowels,
I shall tell, one day, of your mysterious origins:
A, black velvety jacket of brilliant flies
Which buzz around cruel smells,
Gulfs of shadow; E, whiteness of vapours and of tents,
Lances of proud glaciers, white kings, shivers of cow-parsley;
I, purples, spat blood, smile of beautiful lips
In anger or in the raptures of penitence;
U, waves, divine shudderings of viridian seas,
The peace of pastures dotted with animals, the peace of the furrows
Which alchemy prints on broad studious foreheads;
O, sublime Trumpet full of strange piercing sounds,
Silences crossed by Worlds and by Angels:
O the Omega, the violet ray of Her Eyes!

~ by Arthur Rimbaud

Thy morn and evening breath...

TO SPRING
by: William Blake (1757-1827)

~*~
THOU with dewy locks, who lookest down
Through the clear windows of the morning, turn
Thine angel eyes upon our western isle,
Which in full choir hails thy approach, O Spring!

The hills tell one another, and the listening
Valleys hear; all our longing eyes are turn'd
Up to thy bright pavilions: issue forth
And let thy holy feet visit our clime!

Come o'er the eastern hills, and let our winds
Kiss thy perfumèd garments; let us taste
Thy morn and evening breath; scatter thy pearls
Upon our lovesick land that mourns for thee.

O deck her forth with thy fair fingers; pour
Thy soft kisses on her bosom; and put
Thy golden crown upon her languish'd head,
Whose modest tresses are bound up for thee.

Blessed in Christ

. . . Who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing. Ephesians 1:3

Christ bestows all the goodness of the past, the present, and the future upon His people. In the mysterious ages of the past the Lord Jesus was His Father's first elect, and in His election He gave us an interest, for we were chosen in Him from before the foundation of the world. He had from all eternity the prerogatives of Sonship, as His Father's only-begotten and well-beloved Son; and He has, in the riches of His grace, by adoption and regeneration, elevated us to sonship also, so that to us He has given "the right to become children of God."- John 1:12

www.truthforlife.org

God Paints My World

God wants to be a part of all that you do! That includes the music you listen to...if you do not already listen to praise and/or gospel music check out this awesome radio station. It is the only Christian Music radio programming in San Diego and one of the best Christ centered networks I've found. Also, it's listener supported so there are no advertisements other than for the station itself. They play a lot of favorites: Cutless, Third Day, Chris Tomlin, Natalie Grant, etc... but they also feature up and coming artists that you might not otherwise hear about. So...GO CHECK IT OUT!

2 Kings 3: 15

"But now bring me a musician." Then it happened, when the musician played, that the hand of the LORD came upon him.