And the tree said "hello"

It's a toss up between this one and the other one of the same subject matter for my favorite pic of the weekend (that I took because my friend B took some nice shots too). For the rest of the mountain pics go to Feathers Photos Women's Retreat 06

Women's Retreat 2006

Things I learned last weekend:

1-Driving a van-load of women is a great deal quieter than a van-load of children
2-Your friends make up songs about you when you disappear without telling them
3-Allowing yourself to be ministered to isn't so bad (it also means you are not stealing someone else's opportunity to serve)
4-Oh the things you learn when you sit and observe
5-A misty morning is just as wonderful as one where you see the sunrise
6-Forgetting all your projects, plans and work assignments for a few days is very relaxing
7-God is still more awesome than I know

Wooly Worm

Even in the worm that crawls in the earth there glows a divine spark. Whenyou slaughter a creature, you slaughter God. -Isaac Bashevis Singer,Writer, Nobel laureate (1904-1991)

I read the first half and thought about how each thing God creates truly reflects who he is. I don't know who this Isaac Bashevis is and quite honestly if we were to take him literally from this singular quote then I would have to say that he didn't believe in God or he was sure we as human beings could destroy God altogether. Honestly, the slaughter part wasn't my focus..... Although I believe the senseless killing of God's creation causes God sadness in the very least.

It's hard with quotes sometimes to know the true intent of the words... because they are extracted from a larger picture. Be it a conversation, a book, thoughts in a journal....The quote from LM Montgomery I posted about the new day with no mistakes... if you read the story or watch the movie, you see all the negative that was surrounding it... means more.

I nearly flipped out this past weekend over a bug that was on the ceiling above my head. I was lying in my bunk and there was this critter. The other people in the room told me to kill it and I wouldn't.... I'm sure they don't understand why because I haven't explained it. I won't kill anything that isn't harming me or someone else. Scaring is a story altogether different, afterall it was just a bug.

Why won't I? Because God made it, that's why.

The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change;the realist adjusts the sails. -William Arthur Ward, college administrator,writer (1921-1994)

Tomorrow is always fresh with no mistakes in it. ~Anne Shirley

road kill

In the last year I have almost hit several animals. Two nights ago it was a doe, she was headed across my road when she paused and then bounded off into the field to the right.

There've been at least two racoons, one oppossum, four or so cats, three dogs, four deer, five squirrels and a whole host of little froggies (in the rain--which of course is when they choose to cross the road).

Why do they do that?! What's so wonderful about the other side of the road?! And if that's where home is, why in the world can't they stay on that SIDE!?

Good grief is it that great that they'd risk their lives?

Christ in us, Christ through us...

Just a thought on my mind--its common sense really--I guess it just became very real to me Sunday.

Chaplain McCarty was preaching on Luke 9, where the woman with the issue of blood touches Jesus and is healed. She sought Him with determination knowing that if she but touched the hem of His garment, she would be healed.

I noticed for the first time how when she touched Him, Jesus said that he felt virtue flow out of Him. What would happen if we would but seek Him with determination, knowing already that by faith when we would touch Him we will be spiritually healed. I wonder if He still says that He feels virtue leaving His body.

How awesome is it Christ flows through us?!

(this is a modified version of an email I got yesterday from a friend)

The Librarian

For most of my life the word "mine" was important, and what a fine and magical word it seemed to be. Signifying something I could cherish and control. But now I know that life is really a lending library, and everything I thought was mine is really on loan. God's the librarian and keeps the due date a sercret.

This was on the wall at work, written by someone who came to the library often, I imagine... thoughts to ponder.