Sunday, February 27, 2011

Climbing Mountains

Have you ever found yourself in a season of life, where you thought you were fairly proficient, only to realize you knew absolutely nothing? I've been having one of those seasons. It's been challenging and uncomfortable. Yet at the same time I have a hope that lives within during these times, for I know that my God is more concerned with my character than He is with my comfort. If I am uncomfortable... I am certain I must be gaining character. And that is my highest goal. To love, and to love well.





Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Mrs. Squirrel

I just love animals. Could God have made them any more interesting and full of personality? This squirrel was so friendly that she came up to my camera, kissed the lens, and then modeled for me.
"Well hello little squirrel. I like you too!"

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Heaven on Earth


I love when God drives earth through the carwash. It makes everything so clean and crisp. After a good stretch of cloudy skies suddenly the haze cleared and the rain was no more. Ahhh what a freshness there was over the earth today. I spent hours cooped up with the heater blasting and my kitties tucked up against me this past week. But alas the rain and hail receded and the sun's love glistened and shimmered across the hills once again. So, I decided to get out and get in it. I love the smell of the land after a good shower and the softness of the grass that emerges beneath my feet. I like the feel of cold drops of water beneath my toes. :)

If you look very closely at a blade of grass as it cradles a drop of water, you can enter an entirely new world. A world of peace and calm. There is a presence in that place that is unlike anything in all the world. It is the very presence of God. He is alive and living. He is interactive, and for me at least, I seem to find Him in the simplest of things.







Thursday, February 17, 2011

The Circle of Life

I've been thinking lately about how we were created for connection. To be plugged into a cycle, a network that gives and takes, moves and breathes. We draw physical life from the earth around us. Look at gardening for instance. We place our unused food into the soil, which makes it richer. That soil then returns the favor by producing more food for us to eat making us richer. The more food we have the richer we are. I mean come on... people used to think you were poor if you were skinny right? Whatever happened to those days? But anyway, I digress.

Sometimes I wonder what God uses as His educational tools. How He speaks and teaches His people. And I figure since most of the world is unable to read or write, maybe He uses something very simple, but that we all can understand. Like eating. Or gardening. Maybe He says profound things to us, in a very un-intellectual way. We can learn so much about ourselves in the simple daily tasks of life.

We are like the very plants that we eat from. We too need to be rooted and grounded in order to sustain health and personal growth. You mean all those times my mother told me, "You reap what you sow," it was true? Yes Mam. And true not just of the poor decisions in life, but more importantly of the good ones. Choose right now what you want to come back to you, what kind of fruit you want in your life, and go plant it.

If we constantly move, we avoid the benefits of roots. We miss the healthy conflicts that naturally occur in relationships as they grow deeper. In order to produce a depth of character, you MUST be submitted to authority in your life, and be plugged in to a community. Oh. I just stumbled across a get rich plan. (Without the quick.) There is nothing quick about growth, but the fastest way I can think to become rich??? Plug yourself into a community of people and let all their little quirks and differences-of-opinion rub you the wrong way, and poke and prod the soil of your heart until you are just the richest little plot of land around. I promise you... God will plant some rich relationships in that kind of soil.






Saturday, February 12, 2011

The Woodlands

No Boundaries

We ran, breathless to the forests'
full shadowed beauty.
Reached trancelike lips toward lips
no trace of breath to break the magic.
Pungent crackling leaves encircled
lingering little limbs discovered
heartbeats soaring towards each other.

There beneath tall timber
we melted, merged, meandered
with no particular destination
and treetops brushed our hair.

When I was growing up, I wanted
to marry the trees.
but I forgot how.


-Judith Pordon






Friday, February 11, 2011

Let's Bee Friends

I had the day off today so I decided to spend it with my friends. And boy were they some busy bees.










Sunday, February 6, 2011

Dreams Really Do Come True

This is my cousin Victoria. She is the big sister that I never had. You know one of the things I love most about family.... You get to share in everybody's joy. It multiplies the joys in life and divides the sorrows.

Doesn't she look happy?
Well that's what happens when you find the man of your dreams. :D I couldn't be happier for her. She's waited a long time for you Cameron. Congratulations soon-to-be Mrs. Torkay.

P.S. I know... she should be a model. She gets that all the time. Don't give her a big head.

Friday, February 4, 2011

Bakin' Brownies

I just pulled 'em out of the oven. Whoooeee... do these smell good.
I'm making a double batch of brownies for our family time tomorrow. Al and I have been looking forward to my nephew's last basketball game and lunch with the family on Saturday, all week.