Who Knows?

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Who Knows?

Buttes of Utah’s Zion National Park appeared as I turned the calendar to August.  Such majesty in the rugged cliffs, vibrancy in the blue sky, and hushed quietness in the stream wending its way down the page.    How old are those cliffs?  In contrast, how new are the leafy trees dotting the slopes near the stream? How frequently is this particular spot observed by human eyes?  Who knows exactly?  And yet, there they are in all their grandeur and quiet beauty beckoning, “Come, rest a while here.”

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Musings

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Musings

We have recently returned from a three-day vacation to Lassen Volcanic National Park in northern California. The first day we stopped at the Sundial Bridge in Redding and saw the mighty Sacramento River.  It was still carrying a lot of water and flowing rapidly, and we tried to imagine what it was like before it got dammed up at Lake Shasta. How much more power it must have had! How it must have periodically overflowed onto its floodplain, creating the fertile soil in the valley. 

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Swimming for Life

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Swimming for Life

I recently began swimming, actually treading water, on a daily basis.  I did this to try to increase my mobility and, frankly, to make Jackie happy.  Honestly, I did it more to make Jackie happy than anything else.

How often do we make decisions because we think they will make someone else happy, meet someone else’s expectations, or so that somebody doesn’t get upset? If you are like me, human, it is more often than we like to admit to.

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Stuck

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Stuck

Deserts seem to come and go as you journey along. Deserts can be defined as those places where you feel “stuck”, bewildered, firmly positioned in place, blocked, angry, envious, discontented, not seeming to progress, or simply “Blah!” You long for an oasis, a place of cooling shade, a refreshing taste of water on your parched tongue, a resting place for your weary heart. What to do?

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Holy Spirit Doves, Chicks, and Parakeets

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Holy Spirit Doves, Chicks, and Parakeets

In recent weeks we have been raising baby chicks at Clivie’s school. It has been a community endeavor. We all watched with breath held and eyes wide open as the little cracks appeared in the eggs, and the chicks wriggled out one by one. We have carefully adjusted the temperature, fed them, and watched them grow. For me, the chicks were the perfect embodiment of the new life of the season of Easter.

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How Cool Is That!

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How Cool Is That!

“How cool is it that the same God who created Mountains & Oceans,& Galaxies, looked at you & thought the world needed One of You TOO!”

 I don’t know whose quote that is, but it certainly made me stop and smile. It also made me think about that concept for a while. Imagine a world where we all believed that God thought that the world needed each one of us. Imagine if we all believed that. Imagine that this same concept applies to every single molecule of creation as we know it.

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She Was Beautiful

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She Was Beautiful

"She was beautiful, but not like those girls in the magazines. She was beautiful for the way she thought. She was beautiful for the sparkle in her eyes when she talked about something she loved. She was beautiful for her ability to make other people smile, even if she was sad. No, she wasn't beautiful for something as temporary as her looks. She was beautiful deep down to her soul." F. Scott Fitzgerald

I saw this quote, and it drew me in. I wondered how many of us really look at each other. Do I even take the time, when I look people in the eye, to see who they are, how they are, or even gather them into my heart? We human beings are a strange people. Somehow we get into worrying so much about ourselves that we forgot that we came to be who we are by caring, communicating, meeting, playing, working, believing, and being with each other. Then, I look at the city, county, state, country, and world, and I think to myself, why am I surprised that peace seems all but impossible?

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Women of Integrity

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Women of Integrity

On the International Day of Women, I reflected on the women who have gone before me and helped make me who I am. I don’t want to write about the women who were famous “first” women or those who fought for and won rights for women. I know I owe them gratitude for a multitude of rights that I take for granted. I won’t even write about my mother and my grandmothers, or this article would get much too long. Instead, I would like to remember those “other” women who touched my life and formed me.

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