Month: December 2016

Fall

Holy Friday

shadowleavesonlakeann

Good morning from the lakeside deck ~ we have rain!
Christmas is coming in two days~ Stocking gifts of apples, oranges, pecans and candy canes filled my childhood. Yes ~ they were truly special and treasured gifts for us. Would they still be treasured today? We take so much for granted!

Merry Christmas during this Holy Week ~ Holy Friday 

When we were growing up on Christmas Eve, my Dad would take Katy and I to downtown Seminole so we could Christmas shop. 

Dad would give each of us cash to buy Maude a special Christmas gift ~ (I don’t remember the exact amount, but we each held a hand-full of green back dollars). However, what I do remember is the magical and special time we had with my dad!

My father shared his time & love with us and in honor of our mother. Kindness to others was taught to us. Dad and Mom always helped train “jumpers” or travelers, gypsies, immigrants and people who were were in-between jobs ~ strangers. People came from all over to Maude’s back yard where she fed them. Our house was known as a safe stop on people’s way through town. 

As the holy family, was looking for a place to stay, it was only by the kindness of a stranger that they found shelter! ~ 

May homeless families also find help this Christmas ~ a warm meal, clothing, shelter or a place to stay if needed through the help of others around them.  

May we reach out to the strangers in our communities to show them the love and kindness that was shown by Christ ~ such as we are called to show to others. 

May you have a blessed Christmas! 

I hope you can gather with others around you and come together in this Christmas tradition of celebrating our hope and love ~ the birth of Jesus. 

Fall

Holy Thursday #2

shadowleavesonlakeann

Merry Christmas my friends!Holy Christmas Week

Good morning from the lakeside deck ~

You can look at the same sky day after day 
And see beauty that you have never seen before

Jesus asks us to pray ~ Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

—1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Many times we need to stop and pause during our day and take time to observe the world around us. We simply never know what we might see here in the now in the very moments of our living. 

Many times it’s is only by our close seeing and listening that we find what we might have not seen or considered ~ except in quiet reflections. 

Fall

Be Still . . . 

shadowleavesonlakeann


Good morning from the lakeside deck ~

Merry Christmas Holy Week ~ Wednesday 

My morning writing ~

In morning’s winter cold

I sit surrounded by a changing sky

Seeing a blue solstice sunrise 

Rising over Lake Ann’s Bear Point ~

I know ~

It’s the edge point of growing longer days

Arriving on another new year’s cusp

With a waning crescent moon ascending 

I find an eternal promise of hope 

Reflections ~

Prayer is so personal, sought inside the heart. Sometimes we need to “be still” in quiet places.  
Jesus prayed alone. Luke 5:16 reads, “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.” As much as Jesus understood the value of praying with and for others, He also understood the need to pray alone. Psalm 46:10 reads, “Be still, and know that I am God.”

Fall

My Days

shadowleavesonlakeann

 

 

I linger here for awhile ~

Even though these late Fall days are held

Hell-bound in a blast of frozen Artic air.

The last of the Pinnaquin Oak leaves

Are still falling swiftly in a downward cascade

Fully seen by a bright blue sky as it waits

And a Red-tailed Hawk eyes the knee-deep covered woodland forest floor.

I once held onto each autumn day ~

Now I hold onto even the coldest of days.

Have you really looked through the winter greys and walked side-by-side their barness?

In winter the earth rests in brilliance of variance and form

Scenes unseen in autumn, spring or summer!