Footprints
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” Psalm 119:105
Fabric, Fido, and Fruit
“By their fruit you will recognize them.” Matthew 7:16
A couple of weeks ago a man I’d never seen before walked up to me at a party and asked me a strange question. “You’ve spent time in the Bahamas, haven’t you?”
I couldn’t imagine where the question came from. It’s been many years since I lived aboard a sailboat and cruised the Bahamas, and this young man was much too young to have known me then. “How did you know?” I asked. Continue reading
Perspective
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6
While living at the Happy Holler Campground here in Cordova, Alabama, we’ve been dogged by a little beagle pup–a rascal of a pooch. He has chewed through our dog leashes, rummaged through the trailer cellar where the dogfood is stored, and worst of all, he stole my favorite lobster flip flops. He keeps a safe people-distance of about 25 feet; his doggie-distance, however, is friendlier, allowing for mutual sniffing and playing with Daisy. Continue reading
Knitted Prayers
“For you have created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” Psalm 139:13-14 (NIV)
I’m knitting a Christmas stocking for Elijah. He’s not been born yet, but it won’t be long now. Continue reading
Chasing the Ultimate Music
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8 (NIV)
Like many people, I grew up going to church, Continue reading
Heart Transplants
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you. . .” Ezekiel 36:26-28
I’m so glad God is in the business of performing heart transplant surgery! Every so often He has to change my heart. He warms up my indifferent heart of stone and tunes me in to the work He has for me to do. Being a natural introvert, my life can easily become all about me, self-absorbed, and centered on what I feel like doing. I can so easily forget about what I am called to do, God’s purpose for my life. Staying warm and cozy in my own little cocoon always feels so good to me. Continue reading
New Digs!
After spending a few days living in our Casita travel trailer, we realized it would only be a temporary solution for our full time traveling. It just didn’t provide any separate living space for the three of us. It was all for one and one for all! When I was cooking, we were ALL cooking; if Alan was sleeping, we were ALL sleeping; if Daisy was lying in the middle of the floor. . .well, you get the picture. The solution? Our new Visa travel trailer. Continue reading
When Puzzle Pieces Fall into Place
“You’re a piece of the puzzle,
You’re a part of the plan.
All the little things you do come together
When you put ‘em in His hand.”
I was never very good at putting together large puzzles. I’d look at that heap of puzzle pieces dumped out on the table and feel overwhelmed. It was difficult for me to focus on each little part, finding the corners for reference, then looking at the picture on the box in order to gather together each of the matching colors. My best friend always insisted that there was a system to putting together puzzles, but I had no patience for it. Continue reading
Seasons for Change
“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven. . .a time to keep and a time to cast away. . .” Ecclesiastes 3:1,6b
Patterns. . .the repeated designs that make up our lives. When we disrupt those patterns we encounter change.
Change can be exciting, challenging, fraught with fear. Leaving the familiar behind and moving into the unknown. . .simple things like not knowing where our front yard will be next week!
As we fervently pack and prepare for leaving our house in the capable hands of a renter by the weekend, we both are deeply affected by the changes to our familiar patterns of living. We are in the last throes of throwing away and dispersing possessions, some accumulated over a lifetime. We’re both weary and ready to be done with this part of it.
Right now I am heavily into thoughts of how important it is to change our lives around every now and then, and how exciting and scary and promising it all is. Those familiar words from Ecclesiastes (and the Byrds) are singing through my brain and giving me comfort regarding the rightness of what we’re doing. To everything there IS a season. . .
Hiking and Highways
“The way of the sluggard is blocked with thorns, but the path of the upright is a highway.” Proverbs 15:19 (NIV)
As a kid I was always intrigued with the well-trodden foot paths and Jeep trails through the woods where we used to camp. Back then Central Florida was pretty undeveloped, having a frontier feel to it. Those paths always beckoned to me and still do. Especially the new ones I’ve not walked before. This past weekend Daisy and I discovered a new-to-us path at Lake Griffin State Park. Continue reading
Cutting the Losses/ Creating Life Music
Cutting THE LOSSES
One year I lost my father, my husband, my home, and my financial security, all in one big harrumph! And I thought I would lose my mind. But I didn’t.
If I was to survive though, I had no choice but to look at life differently. That was the year I began chasing the music. That was the time I began making intentional choices to refine my life: to purposefully remove the impurities and reveal the beauty and value of my life. I started to see my time on earth as a work of art, a potential thing of beauty. My life took on an importance as something I needed and wanted to craft, to cultivate, and to care for. I walked away from who I had been, cut my losses, and never looked back (well, maybe just a peek every now and then!)
The TRANSITION
I think the hardest times in life are the transitions. Transitions feel like you’re straddling a fence with one foot on each side. You know you can’t stay in the old place, but you not sure what lies on the other side.
With an overwhelming need to make my personal losses into something positive, I sought out people who could help me see the music of my life. I needed to change my own perception of my life, and I needed to learn to devalue my sometimes faulty perception of how others saw me.
Slowly I began viewing the changes that had occurred as a “moving forward” to better and more secure horizons rather than as a slipping backward. As incremental as the first light appears in the sky before sunrise, a new and bodacious idea crept into my head: in losing everything, I had actually gained everything.