where there is a will, there IS a way

I am in the season of learning "not my will but yours, Lord." However in the matter of installing and enjoying a fountain in my garden, I am in the throws of finding a way to make this happen for it is a perfect illustration of "where there is a will, there is a way."
I truly think it delights God for me to have a little fountain, so 2 rounds of Advil later, I am only one half of the way down the hole I must dig to place the liner under it. One of my dear friends, a garden and fountain diva, assures me this seemingly family size thing looking more like a hot tub with every few inches I dig, is exactly the right size for the bang I want for my buck. It hasn't helped much to find a family of gnarly roots and an old fence post still stuck in the concrete footing in the middle of my hole!
Moving the fountain location will mess up the design I have envisioned for a year, so I'm counting on that great big ol' man of mine to dynamite the post out if necessary. I'm not going that far, just because he probably won't let me, but it is going to come out! I've got the will, I'll find a way.

Spring is here. Is it there where you are? I cannot imagine a spring moment much richer than feasting my eyes on the new fresh green that wraps itself around the yellows, purples and pinks in my garden, while listening to the splash and gurgle of water running over the sides of my new fountain urn. I fully expect the birds to bathe and drink there while tending to their important bird business (making homes and children, you know). I am very close to the completion of that dream--I'll just lie down for a while with icy hot on my back, then dig a while more then look up the number of "jaws of life" if the big guns need to be called in. I read somewhere that Archimedes said "with a long enough lever and a solid enough place to stand you could move the world." I hope he learned that from moving a fence post in concrete.
My next little blog will feature a photo of my new fountain, Lord willing.
ever grateful for that

"A picture is worth a thousand words", but not in this case!

Dear blog fans, (fans might be an exaggerated term)
I love to write, I love to put into words things that swirl around in my head and heart, but I have been frustrated with the fact that when I write about things that have no picture to enhance the text, the blog lines up with some totally unrelated picture...for example, lets say I have spilled my guts over some tragic experience that totally changed my world view and beside it is a picture of our 5 year old grand daughter standing on her head smiling upside down in the swimming pool! Or even more confusing, a blog about the unexpected joy of discovering purple hyacinths emerging in my garden, aligned directly across from a snapshot of the biggest fish I ever caught!

I don't like things out of order, but like many other things in my life, I don't seem to have any control. Someone who is familiar with how settings, layouts, and all the other options work could enlighten me, of course, but for now, you will have to ignore the picture to left of the blog, knowing it has no bearing on the subject. Or, you could just make up an amazing reason how it might somehow illustrate the point--that might work when I'm writing and not making much sense to anyone but myself.

So, Lord willing, I'll be writing more and more. I find life's circumstances a daily teacher of enormous truths just emerging, like my hyacinths, to ponder and to make my own. Why do you have to be 63 to begin to understand what God has been saying to you for 40 years?

I'll close with this enormous question that holds great truth:
"Do you judge God in light of your circumstances? Or do you judge your circumstances in the light of God's character?"

ever grateful for the question, and ever grateful to God who is revealing His true character to me

new friends and family

I have been away from home a month. Actually, I didn't realize I could write on my little blog from anywhere but home, that shows you how technically savy I am. As I write I am tucked into my (actually Joseph's) little bed that has been a comfy haven for me at night. Because I have made several long-term visits here, I have made new and wonderful friends whom I treasure because of their servant's hearts and their tender care of Clare, Barry, Sam and Joseph.

I have seen wonderful meals brought to the back door, rides galore for the children to fun places and play dates, cards, letters, gifts, visits, prayers and every imaginable kindness.
God's people are unique in all the world. The New England branch of His family have astonished me with never-failing love and service. I thought the Southern bunch had a corner on the casserole bringin' and the lending of a hand when you needed it, but I've got to say, this bunch of folks puts us Southerners to shame.
There is really no good time to leave this precious family, but I am so grateful to God that He has placed this little family in the center of a circle of true and trustworthy brothers and sisters who will be here when I cannot be and do for them things that I could never do. I go home seeing Isaiah 41:10 lived out for my daughter, my son-in-law, and my darling grandsons.

"Fear not, for I am with you. I will strengthen you, I will hold you with my righteous right hand, I will help you."

There really isn't any way to thank these precious souls, we just will have to pass it on.
ever grateful for that, e.

Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:8

As I was making Valentine cards for those I am privileged to love, my heart filled to overflowing with the blessing of having ones to love. It really comes down to seeing the giving of love as thrilling as the getting of it. As I put aside thoughts that try to trouble me, 'what-if's' that want to distract me, let us look at what some others have said about this amazing grace, a thing called love.

"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." -Jesus
"Without love, the poor and rich man live in the same house."-unknown
"Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit." Ustinov
"Love is the condition in which the happiness of the other person is essential to your own. -Moore
"Loving people live in a loving world. Hostile people live in a hostile world. Same world."-Dyer
"Love makes your soul crawl out of its hiding place."-unknown
Love doesn't make the world go around. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile."

"A bell is no bell 'til you ring it,
A song is no song 'til you sing it.
Love in your heart wasn't put there to stay,

Love isn't love 'til you give it away." -Oscar Hammerstein

"Love is not love which alters when if alteration finds." -Shakespeare
"There is no greater spectacle than a beautiful woman cooking dinner for someone
she loves."
"I never knew how to worship until I learned how to love." Henry Ward Beecham
"Love is the greatest touch up artist of all." -Braun (ever grateful for that!)
"I love you not only for what you are, but what I am when I am with you." -Browning
"To illustrate the power of love is to set a candle in the sun."
"Hell is to no longer love."
"Love, like death, levels all ranks and lays the shepherd's crook beside the king's scepter."

My advice for the day? Fall in love with love, it never fails!
ever grateful for that!

When your hands are tied

"How reasonable to trust ourselves, our children, to infinite love, infinite wisdom and infinite power."
Have your hands ever been tied by total inability to change something that your heart screams to change? As I seek the Lord for comfort and assurance that HIS hands are never unable to move in behalf of those I love, I am prompted to remember....remember how He has never failed us. Like David, I cry "why are you cast down, oh my soul?" I know the answer. I am cast down today because my child walks around with a broken heart and I have a "fix-it" idol that has met its match. I cannot fix it. I cannot make her circumstances go away. I cannot even tell her they will go away.
We find ourselves in that place we have never wanted to find ourselves in. The place is called "helplessness." It is amazing how seldom I have visited this dreaded place. In my self-centered world where I can tweek most everything a bit to make it more comfortable for me, God, in His love and wisdom, has brought me to a place of complete and utter dependence upon Him.
I have no answers. I have no advice. I have no power. He reminded me today thru a dear friend to never look upon anything without looking at it through the filter of the cross. The cross is the final and ultimate proof of God's love. So, I remember His love. I remember His unfailing love and wait upon Him. He will do for me and my beloved family what we cannot do for ourselves.

Enter like a little child

Oh, precious carefree childhood! When Jesus said you enter the Kingdom of Heaven like a little child, I am just beginning to understand what He means. Children believe, children trust, children accept, children play, children don't hold grudges, children don't worry about tomorrow.

While on a retreat last weekend, a mother told the story about her little boy in his car seat asking when he was going to Heaven. "Not anytime soon," the mother explained. "Jesus is in Heaven making a wonderful home just for you, and when it is ready He will come and get you."
Her son replied, "Do you know what I'm gonna do until Jesus comes and gets me? I'm just gonna play."

Wow! Could we believe like that, entrusting all our cares to Him, and just be? Do we dare try to enjoy this journey down here, leaving all the big stuff to Him ? Could we, like little children, do whatever He asks without having to know all the why's of it all, go wherever He leads without always having to know ahead of time every step of the journey, how long it will take, and what the final destination is? Could we, with child-like faith, put our heads on our pillows tonight not fretting over what tomorrow will hold, how we might hurt, how much faith we will need, how we might fail? The answer is yes, we can. It takes deeply knowing who our Father is and how dearly He loves us.
That is the gospel, trusting God to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves and believing HE WILL!
Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children." Matthew 11:25
ever grateful for that!

The Saturday you've always wanted

Here at last! A snowy Saturday, everything, I mean everything cancelled because of the snow (with the just right amount of ice on top). No wedding shower to attend, no appointment to keep, no ballgame to cheer, no groceries to get, no NOTHING but the building of a fire, studying the Word, listening to music, eating taco soup and cornbread, watching the birds and writing in my little blog!
By the way, 2 comments on yesterday's blog broke my comment record -you know who you are so give yourselves a little squeeze from me.

Let's close with some lovely and true quotes about snow:

"Kindness is like snow-it beautifies everything it covers." -unknown
"Getting an inch of snow is like winning 10 cents in the lottery."
"Advice is like snow-the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind. Samuel Taylor Coleridge