The Fruits from a Spiritual Garden

I've always loved the passage about the fruits of the spirit Galatians 5:22-23: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control."

Also from Matthew 5:16 Where Jesus was talking about false prophets: "By their fruit you will recognize them," and from
Matthew 7:17 "Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit."

When I was growing up, the lessons about spiritual fruit tended to be talking about whether or not we were bringing other people to Christ with baptism and new Christians being our "fruits." And there was the fear that if we weren't producing fruit we would be pruned - not a pleasant thought! I've learned over time that the fruit that God is looking for is manifested in our lives. Are we loving? Joyful? Patient? When people look at us and our lives, do they see Christ living in us? Do they see His love, His Patience, his kindness, his faithfulness, his gentle touch?

A fiction or fantasy book that I read many many years ago had the concept that people lived on by how long their products lasted. The spirit of a carpenter that built a house would live on as long as the house still stood. The spirit of a lady who made a quilt would linger as long as her quilt lasted, etc. In some ways that is true - humans are visual and tactile creatures. When we see and touch things it can bring back memories of the person who was responsible for its existence.

When I was at Cade's Cove in Great Smoky Mountain National Park, the Primitive Baptist church still has handprints on the ceiling from the workmen:



The wood was still green and the sap created lasting handprints where the workmen used their hands to hold the wood in place to hammer the ceiling panels in place.



The produce from my garden will be consumed. The pickles, frozen squash, and jam will only last for a year or so. Hopefully we will eat it all and enjoy it throughout the winter. It is possible that some of my photographs will be a lasting legacy to provide enjoyment for people beyond my lifetime. I have vintage photographs of my ancestors some taken over 100 years ago - they are precious to me as part of my family history. But new technologies can easily render my photos obsolete as it becomes possible to take photos with higher technology equipment or even three dimensional images. And there are many things that can damage or destroy photographs - fire, flood, hard drive failures, etc.

But the fruit of my spiritual garden will be long lasting - the people whose lives I've touched (for good or bad), the children I've worked with, the women I've taught, people who read my blog or my books . . . I can only live my life each day and trust that God will produce long lasting fruits or even eternal fruits from my simple, earthly endeavors.

The Weeds in my Garden - Part 2

My friend, David who gardens in Zambia wanted to see photos of my garden. I have to confess that my first thought was: "I don't want anyone to see my garden - it is not a showcase, it is not "neat & tidy." Several things made me change my mind. I HAVE worked at weeding my garden. Trust me, without weeding, the entire garden would filled with three or four feet tall Johnson grass. A busy schedule resulted in my first real weeding happening after the Johnson grass had staked its claim on my garden. Over several days, I weeded separate sections and used the hoe to further break up the soil. This gave my garden plants the opportunity to get ahead of the Johnson grass. There were a few areas around the peppers and onions that did not get well weeded and are still somewhat choked, but I worked around the peppers this week. And while I planted onions, spring is not the best time to grow onions in Central Texas. I've harvested a few and I need to check better and get whatever ones actually made onions.

Make no mistake, even though my garden is productive weeds and all, weeds are not a good thing for a garden. Weeds can choke out or shade your valuable vegetables and fruits. Weeds steal water from the ground that your good plants need. Weeds are easier to pull when they are small and the ground is still soft from tilling.

Practical things that I am not good at:

My friend, Debbie Rivas, had a life motto: Do a task while it is still "little." In the best of all worlds, one should spend 30 minutes a day weeding parts of the garden. I confess I get busy doing other things and don't allocate that daily time. And, you have to realize, I have the "hare personality." I work very, very hard at one time on a project and then I rest or go on to another project. "Tortoise personalities" are better at doing a little bit of work every day and keeping tasks small on all their projects. But I've learned that there are advantages to being both the tortoise or the hare. I have learned to accept that I am a hare and to work to make the most of my personality type.

Weeding regularly also helps keep the ground around your valuable plants cultivated and loose so that weeds are easier to pull.

The Spiritual Lesson:


I talked in my last blog about how my life was productive even with the weeds that are part of my life. I also believe that because I am human that my life will always have some weeds in it. My garden can survive with some weeds, but it can't survive if it becomes overrun with weeds. Likewise, I can function in life with some of the weeds, but I must actively pull weeds from my life to keep both my spiritual life and my daily life from being taken over by unprofitable habits and weaknesses. The weeds in my life can fill my time and prevent me from getting the important tasks done. The weeds in my spiritual life can choke out the positive things in life, steal the living water from my heart, and shade me from the Creator's light.

Each era of life has a different set of weeds to deal with. When I was raising my kids, there was the weed of activity. We all want our kids to be involved - church, scouts, sports, music, drama, etc. The needs for each of these good activities are great and the volunteers are few. So one of the weeds for me was saying yes to too many volunteer responsibilities. Possibly, my kids should have been involved in fewer activities, but that is SUCH a hard call when you want them exposed to so many of the good organizations and a positive things for kids.

Another weed in today's society is video games. In and of themselves, they are not bad. Taking time for relaxation and recreation is important. Video games can provide an outlet from our mundane and tiresome tasks. But many games have addictive elements and many people find themselves or their children spending far too much time playing video games instead of exercising their minds, bodies and souls. Time spent on video games robs time from productive daily tasks, time spent growing spiritually, and time doing godly work. If you are a game player, keep a time log for a week. I think you'll be surprised. Or do a video game "fast."

The internet is a wonderful thing. We can keep up with our far away friends, read the latest news, pursue hobbies, educate ourselves or read/write uplifting blogs. There is so much good information to be found on the internet, it is a very useful tool. But . . . we can become news junkies, Facebook junkies, Facebook game junkies, etc. Going through the book, "The Artist's Way," I recently did a week where I did a reading "fast." While I didn't completely abandon the internet, I limited the surfing I usually do each day - news reading, forum reading, blog reading, Facebook, Twitter, etc. It was amazing how much time that freed up to do other creative and productive things.

Conclusions:

I want my life to be productive. I don't want to become a "perfectionist" in any part of my life. I want to accept my own weaknesses and human limitations. But, I also do not want weeds to take over my life and to choke out the good things I can do and should be doing.

Here are some of the products that came from my "weedy" garden. They can survive some of the weeds, but without weeding I would not have:

Yellow Squash:



Bell Pepper


Tomatoes


Watermelon


Green canteloups


Almost ripe canteloup



What are the "weeds" in your life? What are the productive and spiritual things that you want to cultivate?

The Weeds in my Garden

It has been a long time since I've had a garden, but for several reasons I am doing a garden this year. I planted radishes, peppers, tomatoes, onions, yellow squash, green beans, cucumbers, honey dew melons, canteloup, and watermelon. I usually do a pretty thorough job preparing the soil - this year adding a lot of "Back to the Earth" compost when we tilled under the grass. I put in simple furrows and got everything planted. I was blessed with a wet spring and I found a way to automate the watering (which is going to have to be modified now that we are under stage 2 water rationing.)

When I gardened years ago, I remember having great production from my garden plants inspite of the ever present weeds. I always seem to have many projects going on at once, so my time is never completely dedicated to the garden. And we have Johnson grass which can be a royal pain to get rid of. Tilling the soil does not get rid of Johnson grass and the rich watered soil provides a perfect environment for each root segment to sprout grass stems that can get up to 3 or 4 feet tall.

I have done some weeding this year, but the edge around my garden is marked with a tall Johnson grass fence that I kept hoping I would get mowed down. Problem is I have vining plants, so now it is probably impossible to mow without damaging them. The inside of the garden has the weeds a little better under control, but they are still there. A perfectionist gardener would be appalled. After all, weeds take nourishment from the good plants. And, there is an inner voice speaking not so softly into my mind: "A good gardener would have a weed free garden."

Saturday evening I picked 20 yellow squash - some pretty big. Tonight I picked another 11 squash. I'm blanching them and putting them in the freezer because those plants are making squash faster than we can eat them or share them with Jonathan and Debra. I'm getting into the rhythm of preserving - pickling, freezing, making jam (I bought the fruit.) The tomatoes are just beginning to start turning red and we get just enough green beans to either eat or put up a few bags in the freezer. The cucumbers are also going gang busters - I've working on my 3rd batch of sweet pickles. I've made 1 gallon of refrigerator bread and butter pickles and 4 quarts of "hot" dill pickles. I'm hoping to do one batch of the red cinnamon pickles and at least one or two more batches of bread and butter pickles. I'm also hoping to get enough tomatoes to do a bunch of jars of canned tomatoes. The peppers have been slow, but they are beginning to make green bell peppers. The melons all have fruit, but none are ripe yet.

My weedy garden is actually producing quite well. I've been thinking that there are probably several object lessons with this weedy garden. I'm a human being and my spirit has weeds as well - those areas of my life where I'm not perfect, areas of my life where sin is lurking, areas of my life where my habits and routines are poor, and areas of my life that need improvement. And, I believe that no matter how hard I try this will always be the case, because I am a human living in a fallen world.

The weeds in my garden give me hope. God is my master gardener. He knows which weeds really need to come out to keep from choking my spiritual growth and which ones can be removed later. He can fertilize my spiritual soil, loosen the dirt for my roots to grow deeper, and rejoice over the productive things that I am able to accomplish in spite of those pesky, weedy weaknesses. I am an imperfect creature with probably as many internal weeds as my garden has. But I know that God has used me in special ways sometimes because of some of those weeds. I need to use an encouraging voice to myself pointing out those good, successful things that do bear bountiful fruit.

How long????

In my morning scripture readings this week, Psalms 13 resonated.

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
"How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?"

At different points in our lives, we deal with the "how longs."

How long will it be before I can make a living from my photography?
How long before my Christian book is published?
How long will it be before we can travel extensively again?
How long will it be before I can go back to Africa - both for photography and for missions?
How long will it be before I lose the weight I need to lose?
How long will it take me to get back "in shape?"
How long until Henry's book sales take off?

What are your "how longs?" How long until my baby sleeps through the night? How long until the baby is out of diapers? How long until all my children are in school? How long until my next vacation? How long until all my children are grown and out of the house? (I always enjoyed my children - I was in no hurry for them to grow up.) How long until the next promotion or raise? How long until I can retire? How long do I have to endure this miserable boss?

We all have things that we are "waiting" for. It can become: "I will be happy when . . . "

But our goals are constantly in transition. If we wait to be happy "when," often when that event occurs we are already waiting for the next "when." If we are not careful, we can spend out entire lives waiting for an elusive moment to be "happy."

In Psalm 13, David is dealing with real enemies who want to kill him. David had many trials in his life - a king who feared him and wanted him dead, a son who led a rebellion, a son who died from illness . . . He expressed that sorrow and grief: "How long?????"

But as in many psalms, grief, sorrow, and worry end with words of hope:

"But I trust in your unfailing love,
my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord,
for He has been good to me."

Sometimes we miss out on joyful moments because of worries. When I look back on Mother's Day 2007, I have good memories. It was truly a special Mother's Day, Evelyn and Gene were still living at home. We had a wonderful celebration on both Saturday and Sunday. But it was bittersweet at the time because we knew that Gene was not very healthy - and in many ways that cast a shadow. A year later, I appreciate that Mother's Day probably more than I did at the time, because Evelyn was very ill this Mother's Day. She is healthier now (thank you God!), but Mother's Day this year was painful. Looking back, I don't think I fully appreciated Mother's Day 2007 - and now I appreciate it so much more.

So this Psalm reminded me to look at the things in my life that I am grateful for RIGHT NOW! It is so easy to focus on the things that you need to improve or that you "wish" would happen and be blind to the good things going on in your life right now.

We can't live in the past, we can't live in the future . . . we live in the present. I have wonderful memories of my past - so wonderful that it is easy to grieve that I am not living in those times now. In watching the generation above me age and endure the discomforts of old age, it is easy to worry about the future. But I have little control over that. I may age into a "healthy" senior citizen, or I may have dozens of age related diseases - there is no way to know right now. But when I worry about an unknown future, it robs me of the joys of today. And Jesus taught in Matthew 6: " Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

I think that sometimes "happiness" sneaks up on us, a byproduct of daily living. I think it helps to take time for regularly for reflection. Psalm 18 helped remind me to look at my life right now and appreciate the good things. I have a loving family, I enjoy watching the birds almost every morning, we have pets that show us unconditional love every day. I have just had two photos published! I can get up every morning, I can walk through my house, I can see the sunrise, I can hear the birds sing . . . I need to be careful and not take these simple blessings for granted.

Psalm 118:24 reminds me: "This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."

The Zambian Christians have a saying that is a mantra in both good times and bad: "God is good all the time. All the time God is good."

May God help me experience this joy in Him every day!

Lessons from Assisted Living - Sassy

We've watched two different groups of senior citizens recently. One group is much physically healthier than the other. But we've seen human dynamics or "politics" in both groups.

I've noticed one lady these last couple of days. The first day I met her, I had bumped her chair without realizing it. I did not even feel it, but to her it was a sudden jolt. And . . . she let me know that I had bumped her. Now the distance between chairs in the dining room is not very much - you're going to get bumped every now and then. But I moved to a different position at the table so I would not bump her again.

I noticed her again today. She was coming down the hall. Another lady walking her dog was coming down the hall in the opposite direction. Now, I did not see the beginning of the altercation. But all of a sudden one lady says, "Well, YOU could have moved to the other side." And of course, at that point the other lady said: "WELL, YOU could have moved to the other side." As I passed the lady I'd been noticing, I asked her how she was. She gave me a quick smile and said, "I'm sassy today."

I looked up the word, "sassy" this evening. Webster's says: impudent, vigorous, lively, distinctively smart and stylish. So, I checked out "impudent:" marked by contemptuous or cocky boldness or disregard of others : insolent."

I've been friends with Bettye Baldwin, (Secrets of a Lazy Trainer) for eight or nine years now. She has taught me the importance of having a "bubble" around you when you are working with horses. The horse needs to know where you bubble ends and it is extremely important to continually reinforce that boundary. A horse who knows that boundary won't run you down (and I have it on good authority that it HURTS when a horse runs over you!)

That bubble is actually a boundary that you teach the horses you are around. I know that I was not raised with good boundaries, but as an adult I have learned the importance of both establishing boundaries in my human relationships and respecting other people's boundaries. One of the difficulties in human relationships is that each one of us has a different set of boundaries. Some people have tight boundaries - they don't want people standing too close, they are friendly but sometimes in a standoffish way. Some people have tight boundaries with strangers, but looser boundaries with their friends and family. I am someone with loose boundaries. I may not realize I have blundered into someone's space (as I did when I bumped the lady's chair.)

When watching wildlife, I have watched many species "defend their territories." Usually, the battles are simply skirmishes where one animal "tests" the boundary of another one and quickly backs down. But sometimes, these turf wars can become fights that lead to death.

When we're dealing with people, we need to pay attention to the signs that indicate boundaries. We need to watch body language and tone of voice. Humans are social critters - we need each other. But when you have a lot of people living in fairly close quarters, it is doubly important to respect those human boundaries.

Lessons from Assisted Living

We will be meeting new people for a few days as my mother-in-law gets settled in her new assisted living apartment.

Lesson 1. I am SO greatful for the cheerful staff. It is amazing how much a friendly, cheerful voice and a helping attitude mean when you are working with elderly people. Patience is a much needed virtue as well.

Lesson 2. One of the ladies we met had this to say: "This place may not be everything I want it to be or everything you want it to be, but it a pretty good place!" I thought that was a good attitude - recognizing that while everything is not "perfect" things are still pretty good.

Lesson 3. From my mother in law, in reflecting on her day - she got to go to church, a little different, but still very nice. She had friends from her church bring her communion. She actually felt like eating and seemed to enjoy it. She marvelled and was so pleased that she felt like eating. We sat out in the courtyard and listened to the birds and watched them. At the end of the day, she decided that she had had a pretty good day.

Lesson 4. When I was sitting out on the courtyard, she said something about other things I could be doing. I could truthfully say that there was nothing more important for me to do right then than sit in the courtyard with her. Priorities . . . spending time with her is top on the list right now.

Appreciating Today

I think it is partly my age . . . several of my friends have cancer, one was hospitalized (and released, thank God) for possible heart issues. Some of my friends have died. The generation just ahead of me is making that transition from independent living to assisted living or have already passed on into their heavenly home. I've had my share of injuries, from a fall through the ceiling, to sledding accidents, falls on ice, etc that leave me with joints that are sometimes cranky with me.

The fall through the ceiling from the attic to the ground floor was the most serious. I injured my back and spent most of the summer sitting in a chair. But that fall could have been fatal . . . I will always believe that if I had been turned differently when I fell that I would have hit my head on the stone hearth. When I first landed, the thought went through my head that I could end up paralyzed. The next thought that went through my head was that whatever had occurred, God was with me and that it WOULD be OK. During the first week, each day I could do something that I was unable to do the day before. When I went in for the office visit a week later, I envied the people that could walk normally across the room. As I continued my recovery, life had a joy because I was able to do something, or be somewhere. By the end of the summer, I was able to travel. I had tears in my eyes when we were at the Wolf Creek Ski area. During the fall, I was so glad to be able to go to the football games and watch my son play his first season of football. I was grateful for so many things. Life itself was joyful . . . I was so glad to be alive and able to walk and able to do things with my family. It is hard to describe that special feeling when you've had something major, something life threatening happen and you have lived through it.

I have a photoshop student who has been fighting cancer for a number of years. When I first met him, he was weak and in need of a bone marrow transplant. Without the transplant, his days were numbered. I've been following his progress on Caring Bridge. The bone marrow transplant has been successful, his energy and vitality are returning. His posts have been very encouraging to me because they are reminders to treasure life each day. It is so easy to get stuck in a rut . . . going about our daily routines, maybe wishing we were doing something else. But, life is precious, life is fragile, and life is transient. We are human, we forget.

When I read Joel's posts, the memory of how precious life felt that summer after the fall rises to the surface. I want to rediscover that joy and wonder and appreciation of how good it really is to be alive and relatively healthy.

Taking Down Christmas - Late

I really like to have my Christmas decorations up for about a month. This year I was late getting them up (actually my daughter, Debra did the honors this year of decorating my house.) So for several reasons, I've been reluctant to take them down. For one thing, I had a lot of photographic projects due right at the beginning of January. They are especially important to me this year - one of my goals is to get this submission process down and get my submissions out there. So that had to take first priority. And then I had a portrait session - lots of fun.

By the middle of January though . . . it is time for Christmas to come down. But there was still a reluctance on my part . . . analyzing it brought several things to mind that might be worth passing on . . .

This year, the decorations had an added meaning . . . my daughter did them - she did a great job. And they were different - a different mix of ornaments and decorations on the tree - different arrangements of my Christmas items . . . Very creative, very pretty. But it also meant a lot to me that Debra put them up. December was busy for me . . . at my age my energy is sometimes limited - and December had a lot of productive work that took my energy. And yet, I wanted Christmas to be special for my family. It meant a lot to me that Debra took her time and helped me have my house where we all as a family enjoyed time in a festive but homey place.

Taking down Christmas also is a form of good-bye. I felt rushed and harried during the "season." We have unrealistic expectations for our Christmas experience. We want time, reflective time spent enjoying the tree - yes, I did have that this year. We want to sip hot chocolate or apple cider in front of the fire with candles glowing . . . And some years, I get enough of that experience that I'm "ready" to take down Christmas on time. Other years like this one, I did not get as much of that quiet, peaceful time . . . so I kept hoping I'd have one more night to sit in the living room to peacefully enjoy the tree, but it never quite happened.

In my mind, I can hope that I get my tree and decorations up at Thanksgiving next year, that I have done all my Christmas gift preparations throughout the year to avoid that last minute hurry-burry stress. But whether that happens or not . . . whether Christmas is peaceful and restful or busy, I can say truthfully that this year we had a blessed Christmas with a wonderful bounty of time spent together as a family. Keeping the decorations up does not really keep those wonderful memories alive . . . but I think in my mind, somewhere back there, I wanted to keep the specialness of this Christmas alive . . . And . . . I don't really have to have decorations up past their time for this Christmas to remain in my heart as special.

The Art of Sending Cards

I will confess I'm not good at sending cards. Well - not totally true, I am VERY good at sending Christmas cards. I've only missed one year out of 36 years of marriage. And I have a long list. But Christmas is just once a year. It is one big effort and then it's over.

But this post is about cards that you send to people year round. Sympathy cards, get well cards, encouragement cards . . . And yes, I send out a few. But my style is more email and phone calls. And those are important - no doubt. And a phone call allows two way communication. I am good at phone calls.

Recently I was asked to display the cards that my friend, Debbie received while she was ill. My daughter helped set up a display at her funeral. I filled a box with them - a conservation, acid free box. These cards are a testimony to how many lives my friend touched. And she kept them to encourage her as the illness ate away at her life.

Cards - the kind you mail - can be a lasting encouragement. A long time ago in a Bible class, probably one for women, someone said to keep the cards that have special words of encouragement or appreciation . . . the ones that tell you that you are special and why. Then when you are down in the dumps or have had something discouraging happen, you can pull them out and remember that you are loved and appreciated.

A card or short note is something that someone can touch and reread, it is something tangible, something that can be enjoyed and appreciated over and over.

Not long ago, I read these thoughts in Alexandra Stoddard's Grace Notes:

A letter always seemed to me like Immortality (Emily Dickinson)

The advantage of the telephone is that it lets us hear someone's voice, but it leaves nothing for history or posterity. Pick up your pen, not the telephone, and write your son at college.

A note on a postcard can be savored and remain on someone's desk for months. Stack a collection of postcards on your desk and start using them to send grace notes to friends - a joke or a thought for the day.

Email is also a good way to encourage people. I'm a person who saves things rather than throws things away as a rule. So I save cards and emails. But for those of you that are the people that throw things away . . . keep a few of those encouraging cards and emails - to read later when you need an emotional pick me up.

I need to send more cards and short notes letting people know I'm thinking about them when I know they are going through difficult times or to let them know how special they are to me, or to thank them for things they do.

Getting back into the swing

The last two weeks have been pretty hard. Two deaths so close together . . . Neither one was a surprise . . .

When an older person dies, one is greatful for a long life, well lived. When a younger person dies, there is the feeling of unfinished business. My father-in-law had seen all of his children married, enjoyed time with all of his grandchildren and had a bunch of great grandchildren. My friend, Debbie will miss all of that.

Both lives were beautiful Christian lives - both of them are in the beautiful mansion prepared for them.

This week I'm trying to get back into routine things. First task was to get my photos ready for submission to the Hubbard Museum of the American West for their annual Fall Exhibition. Originally I'd planned to get started on that three weeks ago when we first got back from Africa. Life got in the way. But I settled down (more or less) and I got all 12 photos printed by yesterday evening. Today I cut foam board and mats, did the center cuts and put them together. Amazingly I only messed up one mat this time, the first one. Since I only do this once a year, I usually mess up several before I get all the skill set put back together.




Here is one of the photos I've entered.



As always, my main goal is for some of the photos to make the exhibit. But last year I got spoiled, I had one win first place in its category.




Next major competition for me is the Toronto International Salon. The deadline is next month.





My goal for tomorrow is to create some order out of the chaos at my house. I also have another African blog ready - I just need to add the photos.

I have much more to say about Africa . . .

Taking things for granted

We go through our days - there is a rhythm, a routine. Get up, eat breakfast, read the email, read the news, to do lists, lunch, supper, go to bed. But we tend to do these normal things running on "automatic." We get up, walk around the house, eat, sleep - all without thinking a lot about it.

I've got two friends in the hospital right now. These normal routine things I do take on more meaning and significance after visiting the hospital. One friend has had a lot of pain and has had a lot of problems with her digestive system. She was able to eat and enjoy a small supper last night. When I sat down to eat my supper, I was grateful that I still have an appetite (yes . . . an overactive one, but I can still eat and enjoy my food).

We take for granted some basic things that are really the simple pleasures of life - being able to walk around, go outside, watch the birds, smell the roses. Two friends, two different medical situations, two small hospital rooms, IV's, monitors, oxygen, walkers, ambulance rides. For one, it was a gradual decline in health, the other a matter of days from feeling healthy to being kept alive on machines under sedation. But both have been taken out of the mainstream of life. Both families have new routines that include getting to know the hospitals intimately - the best place to park, the best route through the hospital, where the popsicles are, the "senior discount" for parking. But there is joy in small things - being able to breathe unassisted, being able to get out of bed for a short trip to the bathroom, small slices of bread with jelly, having a room where the sunshine can come in, having friends who care.

I am lucky - I can go home, I can eat a tasty meal, I can walk unassisted, I am relatively healthy. And . . . I'm getting ready to go on a big adventure. I am blessed.

But do I remember to thank God for these every day blessings?

Life Lessons from the Harlequins

When I observe the wonders in God's creation, sometimes I see things that I think I can apply to humans. With the Harlequin ducks several ideas popped into my head. When I first looked for them, I looked in the smoother more tranquil waters. I've been watching a lot of water fowl over the last few years and I generally find them either in lakes or ponds or the smoother waters of the river. Of course, I've also observed the ocean birds swimming right where the waves crash along the rocks and wondered why they weren't pounded to death.

Discovering the Harlequins in some of the most turbulent white water in Yellowstone, I thought about people whose lives are marked by turbulence. Everyone goes through rough periods in their lives. A few people seem to go from one crisis to the next. But these Harlequin ducks not only choose the most turbulent water, they thrive there. They can swim in the rapids, their food source is found at the bottom of this fast flowing water, and the rocks provide a resting place for them. God has equipped them to live in this turbulent environment.

When we go through those turbulent, trying times in our lives, we forget that God has equipped us as well. We see the difficulties, we want to wring our hands, we may see our situation as impossible. Harlequin ducks are small, the water is powerful. How do they have enough strength to fight the force of the water to get their food? God has designed them to live in this environment. Psalms 139 tells us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made-that God's work is wonderful. Whatever situation we find ourselves in, God has equipped us to handle it. Some of our turbulent times are part of a temptation. In 1 Corinthians 10:13 we are told: "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."

Watching the Harlequins as they swam in the strong current and flew upstream, so well equipped for their environment reminded me that God has equipped me for the challenges that I face in life. While most of us prefer to dwell in the calmer, more tranquil streams, there is beauty and power in the turbulent waters. When life is its most difficult, we realize how much we need God and His strength. We also learn the special strengths God has given us to enable us to thrive in our unique environment. And just as he provided large rocks where the harlequins rest, he will provide resting places for us when life tries to wear us down.

Important Dates

I don't know about you, but I'm always missing birthdays. They sneak up on me. I realize I've missed them a couple of days after the fact.

I've tried several systems. I had a calendar program once that was supposed to give me an "alert." It worked the first year, but it did not repeat. I had a Franklin Covey yearly planner. I wrote down all the birthdays on it. But that has to be repeated every year.

My mother-in-law has a special birthday book with a lot of important family dates as well as birthdays in it. It has birthdays, anniversaries, and even date of death recorded. I'd gone through that book before and entered the information into my planner. But then when I'd replace the planner pages for the next year, I would forget or not have time to enter all the dates again.

We're in Amarillo right now and I decided to try my ICal. I spent a couple of hours entering all the data. Marking the birthdays and anniversaries to repeat yearly. I have not yet gone back in to set the alarms for all of the living people's birthdays. Plus I need to go in and add some of my friends to this calendar.

I found out that I can export the ICal in a format to set up a Google calendar. I then set it up to share this calendar with other family members. I'll be adding the events that we will be going to.

I have not figured out how to synchronize the ICal and the Google calendars - so I guess for now I'll just post in both places. But I also found out that I can "publish" my ICal.

Thought for the Day

While I don't do it everyday, I like to start my morning on my porch with a cup of coffee or hot tea (when I'm on the road in the RV, I do it looking out the front window). I have a One Year Bible and I usually have one or two more contemporary books or flip calendars to feed my spirit while I'm eating breakfast to feed my physical body.

Today's reading from Alexandra Stoddard's Grace notes seems worth sharing:

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is a beauty, admire it.
Life is bliss, taste it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is costly, care for it.
Life is wealth, keep it.
Life is love, enjoy it.
Life is mystery, know it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.
--- Mother Teresa