Month: July 2019

Just One More

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Just one more moment of quiet as light fills the sky
One more to feel Your Presence, to know that You have never left
Never will.

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One more moment of Gratitude in this place not only feel Your peace
But know it.
Every “thank you” we breathe reaches you as Praise.

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In the quiet of the morning.
Piano hymns softly round out sharp edges to the harshness of life
Before it fully arrives.

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I step gingerly so as not to disturb the pond of worries that never quite
Go away.

One more cup of coffee, Oh to make it last.
Ready for the day.

Blessed beyond measure.

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These Dreams…….

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The Bible talks a lot about dreams. Joseph, Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar, Solomon, Moses, The Magi and Pilate’s wife to name a few. All these and many more had dreams in which they were directed themselves or told by God to direct or warn someone else. Joseph’s dreams got him thrown into a pit by his brothers. Pilate’s wife had a nightmare concerning Jesus and when she awoke she told her husband that Jesus was innocent. I have read many accounts of Muslims having dreams where Jesus appears to them.

I have always dreamed a lot. I have talked about my dreams many times on this blog.  I am a worrier and a normally anxious person. I appear calm on the outside, but my insides churn and that spills over into nighttime. All my life I have had dreams where my teeth get loose and begin to fall out. And I think most of us have these kinds of normal dreams where we go to school or work without clothes on, or we forget where we are supposed to be. Or that we have missed the last month of assignments.

One time I had a healing dream and I awoke healed from Anorexia. I say healed because I knew the second I got up that God had healed my mind. That morning I ate scrambled eggs, maybe even toast. Then the tough work of healing my body. That took a lot longer.

Some dreams linger throughout the day and are much more powerful than others. When I get these, I always pay attention and open my heart to the Holy Spirit to see what it might mean or what God is trying to speak to me about. This time I believe it was to convey an attitude of remembrance and gratitude for what He has done for me, for all of us as believers.

The dream itself was vague and I was in a group of people and activity and nobody I know was in the dream, all strangers. But there was a crime and I was somehow responsible. And I was shunned by the group and I remember the shame, and hiding under a table so they couldn’t find me. This next part is what I struggle to find words for, for I was subjected to the most powerful feeling of forgiveness, mercy and healing from that same group.

I remember how fully they embraced me, how incredibly loved they made me feel. Almost as if I could feel God’s touch through them. I am basking in the afterglow of that feeling now and I thank God for reminding me of just how deep His love and mercy for me really is.

I think most of us are extremely hard on ourselves. Yes, God wants us to look into our hearts and evaluate our lives, but He also doesn’t want us to be so hard on ourselves that we chain ourselves to guilt. The great freedom of the Christian life is that we……are…….forgiven! Sealed for the day of redemption.

And that’s my message for today friends. Embrace life, embrace forgiveness, embrace a new start. The world’s message is believe in yourself. The Bible tells us to believe in the “Him” in yourself.

My dear children, you come from God and belong to God. You have already won a big victory over those false teachers, for the Spirit in you is far stronger than anything in the world. 1 John 4:4 MSG

 

I Choose Happy

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That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying: A farmer went out to sow his seed……” Matt. 13: 1-3

There is a little kitchen towel I have. It used to be very bright orange and sunny yellow. Because of my old bug yellow will always be a happy color for me. On it are printed the words, “Choose Happy.” Lately there have been things pressing in on me. School starting again, the future, the transitory nature of where we are living, Mom’s illness.

And currently we are facing a homeless/drug element in our town. Transients are camping by the river and there are pictures of feces and you name it on the shore. They clean it up periodically and then they all come back. That has made me extremely upset and restricted my activities on the river this summer. I’ve been wondering why the environmentalists so prevalent in our state are not coming out of the woodwork on this issue. I feel robbed. Cheated.

The thief (Satan) comes only in order to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they (we) may have life and have it in abundance. John 10:10

Everything in this world was set in motion and created by God. Perfectly in balance. The effects of sin have tarnished it. The evidence is all around us. Jesus came to counteract the eternal result of that destruction.  He also makes it possible to supersede all the negativity around us and still embrace life, and beauty, and hope and joy. We don’t have to let the world steal it. It is a choice we have.

It was with that attitude I awoke yesterday morning with a defiant stubbornness to  “Choose Happy.” I shook out the towel from the cabinet, hung it up and claimed Jesus promise. I took it into my heart and prayed it as a mantra all day. And you know what? My attitude changed.

This morning I walked down to the river and saw the magnificent beauty that was there all along. A gift of joy returned. I choose life. I choose gratitude for where we are now. I choose thankfulness for the beautiful message my Mom left me on the phone. That she loves me and glad that I am her daughter.

You see, when I read the parable of the sower and the soil today I realized that while the seed started out good, it was the conditions of the ground it fell into that varied. Each day we are given a choice and each day we live for Christ the choice can only be life. Because He died and rose again to give it to us.

It’s an old old story, but one I never get tired of telling.

Be at peace with your life my friends. He’s got this. He’s got you.

Summer 2019

 

It’s been awhile…….words continue to be elusive, just out of reach. I try to relax and realize that this is just another season and to let it go. And yet, I miss the release that comes with letting words and feelings go and maybe send a little healing out to you readers, if any of you are still there. If you are, thank you for your tenacity in believing I still might have something to say. 

Briggs is still with us. We enjoyed a trip to the beach not long after summer vacation started and he had a rough go of it on the way. He was fine after we got the Motorhome settled and brought him some shrimp from Phil’s which he loves.

Moss Landing was a blessing as always. I went on my usual quest for sea glass and was not disappointed. I was breathing out a prayer of thanks for the treasure I was finding one morning and shortly after that He rewarded me with a very special piece. A color I’d never found before.

Not long ago I did something I have wanted to do ever since we moved here. I bought myself a little one person tent from Amazon and dragged it and the mattress down by the river. The inflatable mattress was a little too fat and that didn’t leave much breathing room for me but I was very comfortable all night. I left the door flap open and a whisper of air came in. I even got a little chilly which was wonderful. I was serenaded by an owl which was like a dream. It held magic, that night. 

I want to do it again, but poor Elaine hardly slept. Briggs didn’t know where I was and he yowled and was up and down all night. Poor guy. He has slept on my bed for 18 years and he didn’t know what was going on.

Lately I have been treasuring my time with Mom. She is lost in her own life and not doing really well. We have entered yet another phase with the memory loss. Dad is her anchor right now and she wants to be wherever he is which is extremely hard on him being the solitary person he is. She asks me questions now like “Why aren’t you at work?” “Where do you live now?” But it is easy to do things for her because she is so very sweet.

Dear readers, hopefully someday the tap will be turned on once again and words will flow freely as they once did. I try and think why it was so different in Arizona and I can’t come up with anything. Maybe I felt freer there. Maybe it was because I felt more secure. Maybe I miss our home. Maybe it’s all of the above.

Books continue to be a joy and for that I am grateful. I look for excuses to go the library. I mingle with the homeless and the other odd library people and I feel at home in between the shelves. I remember when they built that library and when I close my eyes I can still hear the wooden card catalog draws slide in and out.

There is something to be said for having a history with a place. I wish you grace, mercy and peace from our Lord Jesus my friends.