Hello to you. How are you today? Todays prompt calls to mind a story. It was the early morning of my husbands 35th birthday and I was awake. My spirit was moving faster than my body. I went in the garage looking for something and found a huge black cockroach on the wall. This startled me! Then it suddenly flew at me and I grabbed an old purse and threw it to try and stop it from flying on me. In doing this I lost my balance and fell. All the weight of the fall went to my left wrist. Thank God Kyle was home to take me to the emergency room! The people that helped me were kind of scary and I didn’t trust them, they put my wrist in a cast. All the while this was going on, I felt so bad to have ruined Kyles birthday!
The healing process was frustrating – I rebelled against wearing an immobilizing cast. I liked a Velcro brace best. You can tell my wrist has been broken but it healed pretty good.
You can tell my wrist was broken.
Jeremiah 17:14 NIV
14 Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.
This was a birthday gift from my Auntie. She likes to find things with my middle name!
Hello to you. How are you? Today my thoughts turn to Joy. Not only because it’s my middle name but because it is indeed a choice we can make in this life. I have to remind myself! I get so set in my ways – grumpy even. I feel like as I get older I have developed an armor to try and shield myself from getting hurt. Dr. Wilhelm Reich talked about such an armor in his work. Our bodies get rigid and we get almost frozen. When I was in love I was my least rigid. When I chose to approach life with joy my body was fluid and free.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Hello to you. How are you? I’m doing alright. Just home from a prayer meeting. I was going to stop and get a breakfast burrito but changed my mind. I am glad as I ran into three dogs on the way back. Their owner lets them out unattended.
My neighbor has his flowers out – so cheerful to seeI was surprised to see this rose already in bloom! Like I said yesterday- it’s like everything in nature is in fast forward mode
Jeremiah 17:14New International Version
14 Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.
A lot of people around me are struggling with health issues to include myself. I think part of it is age related but I am starting to wonder if some of it is from so many having Covid. We don’t really know to what extent our health and immune systems have been compromised by having it and also side effects from the vaccines. We did become sort of Guinea pigs for the pharmaceutical industry with everything that happened!
Hello to you. I hope this finds you well. My thoughts turn to being seen by God. There have been times in my life that I have felt so close to God – that we were connected. These past couple of years- since my medication change by getting off Lithium, my creativity and spirituality doors have been almost completely shut. Thank goodness for my cell phone camera! I have an eye for beauty and just because I’m no longer creative in the ways I used to be, I can capture images of God and Mother Earths creativity. I have to practice what I preach “it’s not what you can’t do in this life! What can you do – focus on that!” Seeing and being seen by God is a two way street.
A pink Columbine These little beauties remind me of pencil shavings Another Iris in the neighborhood My little reminder of Gods love for me
Genesis 16:13New International Version
13 She gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen[a] the One who sees me.”
Hello to you – how are you doing? It’s a sunny, blue sky day here. I went and got groceries a little while ago. Found some new chews by Blue dog food for Link. He gobbled it down!
Today my thoughts turn toward how we are connected in this world. Being my age, I have gone through so many phases of what it means to be connected to family, friends and the world. I know what it was like to not have computers and the internet! We used the telephone and letters. We used to actually go and visit friends and loved ones. Now days it’s so easy to just rely on the internet – texts messages. I am guilty of this. I am blessed to have my mom who still writes to me on occasion! It’s nice to now live near family – we will be getting together for Mothers Day on Sunday which will be really nice. To me being together is one of the best ways to be connected. What does it mean to you to be connected in this modern world?
Link makes doggy connections with other dogs via the yards in the neighborhood
1 Thessalonians 5:11New International Version
11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
What’s a job you would like to do for just one day?
Hello there! How are you? Hopefully we’ll. Todays prompt is a thought provoking one – there are so many jobs I’m interested in that I would just want to try out for a day if I had more energy. In the course of my life I’ve done the military personnel thing (basically a secretary) and a lot of creative things like painting and drawing- photography, tried energy healing, tried local politics, so something else would be trying out being a spiritual leader for a day – like a pastor or something. It would have to be for just one day as I look at our church and how much our Pastor and his family have to be involved with and it’s exhausting to even contemplate! There is so much involved with being a spiritual leader I think. You are always in the lime light and expected to be a certain way which might be hard to live up to. You are like a doctor I imagine – never off duty. Always on call. I would probably only last a day but better a minister than a politician! I tried politics and didn’t like it.
Colossians 3:12-17New International Version
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love,which binds them all together in perfect unity.
15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Drawing I did about what it must be like to be God or a Guardian Angel – so many doors open with people crying out for help. This drawing could apply to being a man or woman of the cloth too – always being called on by so many. Who to answer first?!! How to prioritize?!
Hello to you. How are you today? I’m just back from church – wasn’t sure if I was going but I did go. There are so many nice people that go and as I get regular with my attendance, the more people I get to know. The next event the ladies are having is a Ladies Tea on the 20th. My Aunt and I are planning on attending.
Todays message was more about the life of Abraham. The part we went over was when Abraham’s wife didn’t want to wait any longer for the God promised baby and she suggested Abraham conceive with Hagar the slave. The message about that was when we push our will instead of waiting can cause heart ache. The other message, and this has come up before, is how our hearts can’t be trusted. I wanted to put up my hand and disagree! One of my favorite sayings is from a 1920’s movie called Metropolis “the mediator between the head and hands must be the heart.” That silent movie was about how ruthless a business person can be without using their heart. As a woman and an empath I use my heart a lot! Sadly that’s probably why I have so many labels and mental health issues.! So much inner conflict between my brain and my heart.
I understand the intent of the message is to encourage us to get closer to God and not lean completely on our understanding but as I’m experiencing lately – God has been really quiet and without using my heart, I wouldn’t keep going to church and try to find a way to serve God and the community.
The world can be a heartless place – all you have to do is look at a news feed or talk to someone. It’s hard to find and achieve balance between using my heart and leaning on God. How can you love others as you should love God and yourself without using and trusting your heart?!
There is so much conflict for me with how we are taught to operate in this world. On the one hand we are taught to turn inward and find God and wisdom. There is emphasis on prayer and meditation which comes from within and then flows out. On the other hand we are taught that our inner selves are unreliable and inherently bad . We are taught to look outside ourselves for guidance and wisdom. This was what I learned in AA and all the church’s I’ve been to. I was taught I’m not trustworthy on my own. How can be turning inward to where the Holy Spirit is supposed to be bad? Where does the Holy Spirit within us reside? Where does our souls energy reside?
I am still learning and have to trust God will show me his truth.
I guess I don’t like to hear that on my own I’m not a good person. I have spent a lot of my life in therapy to deal with low self esteem issues! That’s probably not what is intentioned in todays message but that’s what I heard and keep hearing. That’s the tough job of a Pastor I guess – sometimes to tell us not what we want to hear but need to hear? Pastor Jason said it was a hard sermon for him to write and I can see why!
One of my drawings – this was during one of my more creative phases
Acts 2 : 2-4
The Holy Spirit Comes at Pentecost
2 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues[a] as the Spirit enabled them.
What is your favorite holiday? Why is it your favorite?
Hello to you – how is your day going? I’m doing ok. Todays prompt is a tricky one to talk about. My favorite holiday used to be Halloween but with all the controversy around it I decided Thanksgiving is my favorite instead. Really there isn’t a holiday we celebrate that doesn’t have some conflict about it. Most if not all holidays have pagan origins! I like Thanksgiving because it’s about food and family – being grateful for everything we have.
Halloween got ruined for my ex and I living in Texas. The churches would do trunk or treat which meant less trick or treaters in the neighborhood. A lot of the families that took their kids to the trunk or treat would then come to the neighborhoods anyways! It felt hypocritical to us that towns that forbid trick or treating came to our town. When the new houses went in, the kids mostly went there and we hardly had any kids come through our neighborhood. Halloween is kind of a holiday like Easter and Christmas. There are double meanings. Is Easter about bunnies and Easter egg hunts or about Jesus rising from the dead? Is Christmas about Santa Claus and presents or about celebrating Jesus being born? A lot of Christians do pagan things with their children – they do both as a right of passage. The holidays have been for so long about how much money can be made – so materialistic!
I have a lot of happy memories of Thanksgiving. It was a time of getting together with family and sharing food. My favorites have always been the desserts – pumpkin pie. Sadly as our country has become more aware, there are some not so happy things about the history of Thanksgiving from a First People perspective:
A columbine in my neighbors yardLots more tulips now!
Philippians 4:6-7 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Hello to you. How are you doing? I’m just waking up. I had problems getting to and staying asleep last night. My Aunt is coming over in a bit to do a fitting on the dress I bought for the wedding this month. She’s taking it in a little bit. They didn’t have a 2x size so it’s a little big on me.
Todays prompt makes me think of good childhood memories of camping. I used to go with my grandparents Schmidt and can remember going with my babysitter Mary Tennessen one time. With my grandparents there was fishing and swimming. Sitting out at night and there being tons of frogs. I can remember my Grandpa scaring me through the window with a fish he caught! One of my favorite memories was of Grandma taking me swimming and there being little fish nibbling my toes. With the Tennessens I remember a May fly hatching and thousands of them were attracted to the inside lights of the camper! I haven’t been camping since those days.
As I’ve gotten older I have become a creature of comforts. Not really a camping girl! I like watching videos of people living out of their vans and RVs – having the comforts of home while traveling and visiting nature. It’s pretty amazing to see how creative people are!
This came out after my drawing Teacher – drawing I did of Jesus
When I came home from church this turkey was running down our road! What were they running from?
Hello to you. Hope this finds you doing well. I’m a bit frustrated. The ants found Links food and water bowl and swarmed it. I managed to take care of it- Monday can’t get here soon enough! SO annoying!
Church was good today. We are going over the covenant between God and Abraham. There were a lot of “its” involved lol. The only thing that bothered me was the sacrificing of animals. The way things were done in the Old Testament was pretty gory. I don’t understand why things have to be so bloody to be holy for God. When I think of animal sacrifice in our modern time I think of the turkeys that die in the millions for Thanksgiving. Think of all the places that sell meat – lots of living sacrifices that we might live. Most people don’t think like I do about that and still eat meat. I am extremely grateful for the lives, the sources of energy, that die so I can live. In some cases there is so much needless suffering beforehand.
Romans 12:1 (NIV)”Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”
To be 