Friday Finds - The Late Edition

Squeezing this in...linking up with Kim's Friday Finds!

A walk in the Springfield Bog yesterday awarded me handsomely.

This Northern Bobwhite is a rare sighting in northern Ohio...and when one is suspected, they can be very elusive!  They have a very distinct call, "Bob-bob-white!"  You can hear it here:



Unfortunately their numbers have drastically declined due to loss of habitat.  I'm so thankful that someone did not allow this bog to be developed and it was purchased by our metro park system.

I feel even more blessed to have had such amazing, close ups of this little gem and hearing it call back and forth to a female!

HIGHLIGHT OF MY WEEK!

Enough Said for Friday Finds!

Spring is definitely here...and yesterday I spied a favorite whose color is brilliant but whose bloom is all too fleeting.  No words today...just enjoy their show.

Enjoy this fleeting season...

The Solace of Flowers

I have started a new class called Start to Finish...more about the creative process and inspiration than about specific how to's...

I put together a still for the challenge provided on Day 1.

My Edster bought me several cut hydrangeas at the Acme...and it got me to thinking (which is always scary)...

I've truly enjoyed my garden this year...planted a lot of new perennials and some different annuals.

But what is the purpose of flowers?  Yes, I know the botanical theories and that they are needed to pollinate for procreation of ongoing offspring year after year.

But God is beyond genius.  His wisdom and ability cannot be contained.  He could have accomplished this same objective in a variety of ways.

I like to think He chose flowers as a special gift  to us...that He knew their beauty would bring us comfort, inspiration, and solace.

He always gets it right...

For each perfect gift of thine

to our race so freely given,

graces human and divine,

flowers of earth and buds of heaven

Lord of all, to Thee we raise,

this our sacrifice of praise.

- words from Folliott S. Pierpont, c. 1864   

Sleeping Place

Day 83 of Kim Klassen's Beyond Layers e-course was a challenge to make a random mosaic using images, brushes and fonts.

I went through my archives wanting to use photos from earlier in the year...don't ask me why...probably to make it even more random.

I was drawn to these photos I had taken this past Easter weekend...

So a voice in me said, "Go for it!"

Do you know where the word cemetery comes from?  Some random trivia here ~ from the Greek word koimeterion meaning sleeping place.  How nice compared to "boneyard" or "burial ground."

This is Glendale Cemetery...in Downtown Akron.  It is home to Akron's old money...and American history...

such as:

F. A. and Gertrude Seiberling - Founder of the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company...

whose daughter-in-law, Henrietta, introduced an Akron surgeon and an unemployed stockbroker from New York visiting Akron, on Mother's Day, 1935.  Both drunks.  The surgeon agreed to give 15 minutes to the New Yorker...which resulted in 6 hours.  Alcoholics Anonymous was born.  This story from her own words is nothing more than amazing.

F. A.'s grandson, Henrietta's son, John...was an 8-term Congressman for Akron...a staunch environmentalist who was the catalyst to the government establishing Ohio's only national park.

One of  the approximately 1,200 Teddy Roosevelt's Rought Riders is buried here.

And Jason Brown, son of abolitionist John Brown is also buried here.  Present with his father at the Potawatomie massacre in Kansas, the first blood shed in the war against slavery in the United States.  Jason wrote his account in the Akron newspaper in 1880, 20 years after his father was hanged after the raid at Harper's Ferry.

And...moving on to the 21st century... the funeral scene in the movie based on James Patterson's novel, I, Alex Cross, (currnetly in theaters) was filmed here!

Yes...that's Ed Burns! (movie photos courtesy of Akron Beacoun Journal) where you can also read their story.)

Wow...I had no idea where I was going when I started this Mosaic this morning...wasn't expecting to end up with a rather violent Hollywood movie...

But I do have a point...

Cemeteries are amazing places!  You never know what you will find, what stories are there, plus the beauty, serenity, and natural oasis they provide.  Not convinced?  This wonderful 56 minute documentary, A Cemetery Special, available on Netflix, will change your mind.

And yes, even though it reminds us of our own mortality...doesn't  that cause us to embrace and relish each moment that remains?

It does me!

Homebound Today But Had Visitors!!!!

No church or any activities today outside the house that would keep me too far from the bathroom...prep work for a procedure tomorrow afternoon.  (Sorry for the TMI! )

But God is so good...look at all the visitors He brought my way today at our feeders!!!!

There were more, but photo ops weren't as great.

Those who know me well, know how important birds are to me and how God has used them over and over again in my life.  So I know these were directly from His hand.

What amazing gifts...with feathers EVEN!  By the way, the greatest prize was the Carolina Wren. (tea-kettle, tea-kettle, tea-kettle)  Do you know which one that is????

Days 22 ~ A Gift Silent, Still and Strong

Can you believe it is the last full week of October?  It is...

And the mild weather we're enjoying this week will turn into highs into the 40s this weekend...

But that won't make me back down from wearing my flip flops...that takes snow!

So Day 22 ~ A Gift Silent, A Gift Still, and A Gift Strong

I am so grateful for the gift of silent solitude. 

I used to think myself "strange" because I do have a need for solitude...quiet time...time to remove myself from the clammer and yammer of our society.  It's not just something I like...I need it.

Jesus also found the need to be alone...alone in nature, alone with His Father, alone with His disciples.  And yet it was always a retreat from His ministry, His mission -- to be able to continue to do the work His Father game Him to do.

Such is the way with what I do...day in and day out...without the gift of silent solitude (especially spending it with Him) to which I can retreat ~ I would be faced with chronic burnout and be ineffective in all my efforts.

There were several nights when we were when on, vacation a strange thing would occur...the clouds would lower as we were high in the mountains...the stillness of the mist rolling in transformed the appearance and aviance of the landscape into a different kind of beautiful wonder...a site not seen where I live in Ohio.  What a gift!

And a gift strong ~ it can best be expressed by quoting Psalm 18:1-2:

I love you, God ~
   you make me strong.
God is bedrock under my feet.
   the castle in which I live,
   my rescuing knight.
My God ~ the high crag
   where I run for dear life,
   hiding behind the boulders,
   safe in the granite hideout.  (The Message)
 

If God is for me...who can ever be against me?

 

 

 

Three Gifts Redeemed ~ Day 6

I'm a little behind due to technical difficulties with my blog...but hopefully you have found me!

SO...three gifts redeemed...from the October Joy Dare challenged by Ann Voskamp.

I must admit that this one stretched me a little...less concrete...but I just needed to look...pay attention...see!

• My blog - redeemed!  I am so thankful that, despite the technical challenges I was having with it hosted on another site, God provided a successful transfer to a new location, losing very little of my past posts, links, and other goodies. 

• A rainy day redeemed.  It is hard when you have awaited for months for a much needed vacation, for a cold, rainy day to be the weather forecast and plans are altered.  Edster and I laid low today...I gave him extra time to lay down to get his chronic pain under control...then around 3:30 p.m., we wandered on one-lane backcountry roads throughout Tucker and Randolph counties.  Because it had rained and it was cloudy, the color was astoundingly brilliant with saturation.  An ideal alignment of details for a photographer wanting to capture Fall color.

• The redemption of a broken life.  Because of a mostly-inside day, Edster and I watched the movie, Amazing Grace ~ the story of William Wilberforce and his impact on the end of slavery in the British empire.  In the story, a man, John Newton, a former slave trader, who came to know Christ, and influenced Wilberforce in his long battle to abolish slavery in England, is featured.  John Newton wrote the words to the well known hymn, Amazing Grace.  And while the composer of the tune is named as "unknown," many believe that it was an African tune Newton had heard his slave cargo hauntingly sing in the bowels of the ships that carried them ~ the scale is consistent with African music of that time.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost but now I'm found;

'Twas blind, but now I see.

 

This is my story as well...to be redeemed, salvaged, healed, restored, found, saved, renewed, a new creation...though still imperfect and sometimes a mess...God's amazing grace continues to redeem me!







Day 4 ~ Three Gifts Reaped

As I sit here in our vacation rental somewhat under the weather...I started working on my challenge from Days 73 and 74 from Kim Klassen's Beyond Layers course.

Working on my image...it occurred to me that it was one year ago, while vacationing here, I branched out took a leap into an e-course by Kim Klassen:  the Skinny Mini e-Course.  What an adventure it has been the past 12 months, investing time, brain cells, and yes, money, that has reaped multiple gifts this past year.

 

• This image a year ago would not have been possible for me to create.  The gifts of being able to read, learn, synthesize, create and produce into some tangible expression are truly from the Lord, as I've been willing to invest my time, talent, and treasures, as a possible way to share my faith and encourage others.

• Through my coursework I have connected with some amazing women...many like me...many who "get me"...who continue to enrich my life daily as we interact regularaly...supporting and encouraging one another.

• This simple, unassuming blog is the third gift reaped from my Kim Klassen creative journey.  I took her Behind the Scenes course, which she co-taught with Xanthe Berkeley...and look...I'm doing it!  God has allowed me this venue to share in simple ways the multiple ways He bestows His mercies on me every day.

And thank you, Lord, for my "under the weather" that shows me that sometimes stopping and slowing down and dealing with changes in plans often reap wonderful gifts...like extra time to spend with Him.

Tomorrow...3 Gifts Returned.

 

Caught...Let Go...Mid-Way

Another day trip with Edster, me, and Bruno in wild, wonderful West Virginia...

 

 

Ed was behind the wheel and we had our iced teas...and off we went to the high country of Pocahontas County.

And faithfully, God showed me abundant gifts, including 3 - 1 caught, 1 let go, 1 mid-way.

 

• I read out loud to Edster as he drove...returning back to Ann Voskamp's book we read last year, One Thousand Gifts.  As I opened the book, I was caught by surprise by a memorial leaflet from the calling hours I had attended for a 2-year-old that had been accidentally hit by a vehicle backing out of her driveway.  Ann's story begins the same way about her 2-year-old sister.  I remembered the gift I caught one night while on call to be a healing presence to this family and gift to know this loving family.  It was not a gift I expected to think about today...and therefore, it was also a gift that caught me by surprise!

• Throughout the day, I was lavishly surrounded by all of this incredible beauty of God's creative artistry making the mountains appear blanketed with patchwork quilts of red, gold, orange, yellow, and green.  The trees were on fire!  And while I embraced every moment indulging in God's gift of autumn glory, I also knew I would have to let go.  There was no way I could take it home.  Photograph it, as I may, I could not clone what my eyes were seeing...the brilliance, the dimensions, the richness.

• Though many gifts I opened today will have to remain behind, what a gift it is to realize that it is only Wednesday...not even mid-way through my vacation.  And what a time of renewal and wonder it has been, thus far.

What were yours today?  Tomorrow...3 Gifts Reaped!  Keep your eyes open...God's gifts are waiting!

 

Three New Mercies ~ Day 2

Starting this challenge yesterday, I will confess to you that finding the abundant gifts of God are almost second nature when you are away from the dailyness of life on vacation in a beautiful sanctuary that is "almost heaven."

Not so easy with chores, to do's, clocking-in and clocking-out, have-to's, and the tedium breathing down your neck.

But the gifts are there...

Three gifts falling today...

 

1. The pages of God's Word falling open on my lap in the morning.

 

2.  The crashing sound of falling water in one of my favorite places on earth...just being here is a gift.

 

3.  The fog that came rolling in as the clouds fell upon us in the upper elevations at Dolly Sods.  The mood in the photos I captured were unattainable any other way...without God's gift of fog.

What gifts of falling do you see today?  Repy...I'd love to know!

 

Taking the Joy Dare ~ Day 1

I'm taking on Ann Voskamp's challenge this month...

If we are to live differently, then we must see differently...

As October so beautifully escorts in a calmer, reflective, more deliberate season...I'm going to purposefully look for the three gifts (mercies) listed for each day on this beautiful printable.  Care to join me?  You can find it in the October 1, 2012 post at www.aholyexperience.com (Go down to the bottom and click the picture to get to the .pdf...) I do apologize but my links are not working tonight for some odd reason...

So...three gifts orange!

 

1. The orange leaf on the gray deck of the vacation home where we are staying.

 

2. The orange glow of the  morning waking up in Canaan Valley...and God waking me up to capture it!

3.  The fluffy orange face and tail of the frisky red fox in our driveway as we pulled in from a day's outing.

It was a year ago, while on our Fall vacation, that I picked up and read One Thousand Gifts for the first time, after a dark couple of years.  It has been transforming!  And I re-read it on this trip for renewal and to celebrate a year filled with seeking and finding the new merciful gifts of God that continue to blow my mind!

See you tomorrow for 3 Gifts Falling!

 

Fall Frolic Full of Remembering ~ Part 2

The weather is changing fast...summer has almost closed the door on 2012, except for its Indian sister...

Earlier I began this story about my Fall walk with my Edster this week...

 

Our walk took us over to Brandywine Falls, part of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park...a place with much meaning for both of us.

 

When Edster first came to Akron, he had just had his 14th surgery on his knee...and his 2nd knee replacement...grateful that his leg had been spared despite ongoing neuropathic pain.  With Brandywine Falls close by, we made his therapy goal to be able to go down and up the boardwalk stairs to and from Brandywine Falls.  As Bruno shows you here...that's a LOT of stairs.

 

High stairs...

 

But he did it...and so we had our engagement setting taken at Brandywine Falls.

 

We had not visited there for such a long time since those days...despite it being nearby.

The night before my wedding, I slept at The Inn at Brandywine Falls...a 19th century farmhouse at the top of falls.   We had reserved several rooms over two nights for out-of-town guests in the wedding party.

 

That morning, a phone call at 5:30 a.m. from my brother told me that my father had died.  That night, alone in the room at the Inn, I received a very meaningful phone call at 11:30 p.m., from my boss.

I had not walked the grounds of the Inn since then, and our walk brought many memories...joy mingled with sorrow.

 

Our first night together as man and wife, we spent at the Inn, but in The Granary...formerly a chicken coop...it was now a suite apart from the main house.  It was beautiful and enchanting.  And historic...right up my alley.  But I had calling hours and a funeral to go through, before we could move on to Maine for our honeymoon.

 

It was wonderful this week to take the time out to slow down and walk...

 

to remember...

 

my miracle marriage to my husband...

 

and how much I miss my dad...

 

and how such mixed emotions come from the same place...

 

the heart...

for you cannot open yourself to love without also opening yourself up to grief.

I am truly blessed.