Beauty of the Ocean…in Iowa

I currently live in Iowa on the Mississippi River. When I was a kid, when trying to learn the state locations, the center of the country was always easy because of the man in the middle. For those not familiar with that teaching, I will explain. The foot or boot(purple) of the man is Louisiana, his pants(green) is Arkansas, his shirt(blue) is Missouri, his head(green) is Iowa and his hat(tan) is Minnesota. Now the face of the man is carved by the Mississippi River and where I live, the river comes across sideways forming the nose. I tease my grandchildren saying I live in the nose of the man in the center, so you know what that makes me. The point I am trying to make is the location of this state. Iowa is one state down from Canada, 4 states from the Pacific ocean, 5 states from the Atlantic Ocean and 3 states from the Gulf of Mexico, so basically we are land locked with the river being our main water attraction, several lakes scatter about. We are one state away from Lake Michigan which acts like and ocean but what ocean freezes over hard enough to drive a truck on in the winter. Oh, and just to throw this out there, I am 4 states away from my home state of Georgia which borders on the Atlantic. I do miss the ocean.

But this area seems to be fascinated with the ocean life, I guess because they don’t get to see it unless they go on vacation.(there are even Christmas tree ornaments) I posted some pictures in an earlier blog about the ocean street art on the railroad bridge in the center if the city. If you missed it, it is here. But last week when coming back through a section of town I don’t go in often I found several buildings of street art, one dedicated to ocean life, real and imaginary. So I though I would share those with you today. I find street art very fascinating due to the image painted and the enormous size.

IMG_20181018_131046 — The building and the artist, 2010

IMG_20181018_131120 — Turtle, shark and giant squid

Then you have the whale, porpoises and the mermaids. Architecturally speaking, I find it interesting how the windows are at angles and protected from the weather.

Below are wonderful pictures, thank you internet, that give a glimpse of true ocean life, an area of life on this planet we have only begun to understand. Enjoy.

And as a daily reminder to myself and anyone else, always try to be kind. You would be amazed how it makes you feel as well as those you are kind to. And staying with the ocean theme, I show you that even ocean animals understand the process of being kind.

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Kindness, the Sugar of God’s Love

cubes

Yes, I am from the south where the oozy sweetness in tone, comment and action can easily be misused to be a sour experience and possibly filled with unkindness. That is not what Paul meant in Galatians when he explained the fruits of the spirit. He listed 8 attributes which over lap and reflect the love of God. Many times in scripture there are attributes listed with Love being the key one, after all God is love with all of the other attributes reflecting love in a different way. And with the different types of love, the ways of showing love grow exponentially. But when I take what I feel are the 4 top types of that love that radiate from the heart [ Eros – passionate love, Storge – Family love, Philia – Friendship love and Agape – Selfless/God’s love] they reflect all of the combining fruits of the spirit [Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Gentleness, Goodness, and Self Control]. But to me you can not have any of these without kindness. Kindness is a deliberate act by an individual to behave in such a manor that the recipient can feel the genuine love of God from the individual or at least be confused by the behavior as it was not deserved. For instance, if someone says or acts mean toward you and you choose to still be kind, it can diffuse a volatile situation or at a minimal create an opportunity to open a door for you to explain why kindness is so very vital. But if the door does not get opened, still continue to be kind. Kindness eventually wins when it is honest from the heart.

kind7 — All we need is a little kindness

True heartfelt kindness should be spread wherever you go. It doesn’t cost anything but your time and willingness to share it. So this week I challenge you to think about being kind to a friend, a stranger or even to an animal.

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Canning from the Garden,#SoCS

Canning is a process of saving wonderful foods from the garden and preserving them for use all winter long…but it was never in a can.

When I was growing up, we always made pickles, chow chow, chili sauce and various flavors of jelly, jams or preserves but they were always in glass jars, thank you Ball jar company. And the sad day was when the jar was empty and you know it was the last jar.

Linda G. Hill with Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week got combined with Nancy Merrill‘s prompt for Pictures through Glass jars to recognize both prompts of fun and creativity.

There are many ways to use “can” as it’s a noun or a verb. You can have a fictitious Can of Worms or a fictitious train that told everyone “I think I Can”.

And with different products found in or behind glass, I offer you the wonderful candles I have burning almost daily around my house. They help hide the occasional “just came in from outside dog smell” that Mimi has for about 10 minutes until my nose adjusts, especially when raining.

As I remind myself on every post, and hopefully remind anyone that may read, always be kind. Its the best attribute you can reflect. I know you can’

Sad Doors, Thursdays Doors

There have been so many fabulous pictures of doors that I thought I would take a different angle but still show a door. In tapping in with Norm’s Thursday Doors I ask the question -how about the forgotten doors, the lost doors or the doors no more. Doors are a portal into another world with each room has its own history. Then when economic doom ascends and robs the life of the room and causing forever closure. The sadness replaces the coming in and going out through the door and the life it once knew ceases to happen. Then the history gets replaced by cold loneliness. Ah, the stories the rooms could tell.

IMG_20181018_144620 — Forgotten and over grown

IMG_20181018_144454 — Filled in doors & windows never to be opened again

Abandoned due to the sword of progress.

Progress is a doubled edge sword as it bring in the knew and throws away the old. May we as people never become so cold and callous that we too can become abandoned and lose the wonderful stories we could tell.

Always think of ways to be kind. Kindness is a gift of God.

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The Value of Man-Fruit

Have you ever thought of how you treat others as producing fruit? Think of how you feel when someone is rough with you. It hurts like a barb from a pine cone. If you are not familiar with that analogy I promise its no picnic. Then in the opposite direction you have someone who is over sweet in action but you can tell its not sincere, I smell a rotten orange here.

I find it interesting that there are 27 references in the bible (old testament and new) that compares how you treat others as ‘bearing fruit’. Fruit, back in biblical times, was probably not as abundant as it is today so it made a good reference to help people understand the sweetness of following God. Galatians 5:22 even list the Fruits of the Spirit – “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Love, I believe is listed first as this is the binding agent of everything we do. All of these fruits overlap at times but consistent use of them only strengthens our trunk. Colossians 1:10 tells us to bear fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God. And Matthew 7:16 reminds us that by their fruit you will recognize them. And Jesus also reminds us in Matthew 12:33 “Make a tree good…for a tree is recognized by its fruit.”

We are God’s tree and must strive to only bare good fruit. Do we slip up and and produce rotten fruit periodically? Yes but God’s grace plucks that bad fruit and tosses it in the nearest trash can, pruning that branch to strengthen it where good fruit will again be produced. It’s a process that we must cultivate and fertilize daily.

Of all of the fruits listed, my favorite is kindness. Even when you are hurt or angry and in a dark place, if you can pull kindness from your tree, the rotten fruit trying to sprout will not be allowed to fester and grow. Sometimes your kindness may be all that is needed to break the ice of a frozen pond of fear and rejection.

ice

Remember…

gentleness — To the tiniest creature be kind

Autumn in Iowa via My Phone

I don’t have a nice camera but the one on my phone does pretty good. So while the color brilliancy doesn’t match what I saw, there is still beauty here. Today is a gorgeous fall day with cool temps(long sleeve) but not cold. The sun warmed me nicely as I ran errands and admired the foliage. Some people think the cemetery is a creepy place but I think it it has a beautiful tranquility. The hardwoods there are really pretty right now. I will have to post some pictures from there when it snows as the evergreens there are old and massive.

IMG_20181015_135316 — Peaceful sleep as the season change

Most of the yellow just turn brown and falls off the trees here but the reds do show off a bit. Hope you enjoy looking through these as I did taking them.

The berries on these trees are brilliant red.

IMG_20181015_135123 — Heavy with berries

In reminder as the season as our Thanksgiving draws closer(and Canada’s just finished), it brings to mind of how we need to be kind, especially to those who are hurting in various ways.

kindness

Random acts of kindness may be the one thing to change the world for that day for one individual being, whether it is man, animal or plant. Always be kind.

Change, A Multi Use Word

You can change your hair, change your clothes, change your mind, change your attitude, change your ways, change the world, make change, create change, love change or hate change. Change can be a verb or a noun depending on how you use it and it can be good or bad. But regardless of how you use it, change is constant.

I tie in with Debbie Smyth’s pictures on Change for Good saying this is an excellent use of the word change. Her word for One Word Sunday was blue and I didn’t have any pictures of anything blue but instead I had pictures of red leaves, so there you go. There are many ways your pocket change can benefit where ever you are in the world. It can benefit locally, regionally or across the globe. So be kind and remember those less fortunate.

Coming home from church I noticed how the leaves were beginning to change color showing the change in the season. That is a good thing and a bad thing. It is good in that we are through with the heat but it is bad as soon it will snow. Matter of fact it snowed on Thursday – didn’t stick but it still snowed. Change.

I am partial to the reds in the leaf color as they change. If I remember from my science teacher in high school correctly (back in the stone age) when chlorophyll is no longer being made which makes the green, you are left with the sugars? of the leaf…or something like that. Guess that is why I went towards art instead of science. Bottom line, when the green is no longer being produce a beautiful change occurs that we all enjoy.

It was cloudy today so you can not really appreciate the beauty of this tree against a bright blue fall sky. If the sun is out tomorrow, I will retake this and show you just how beautiful it is. I love the reds because they don’t just have red. They hang onto traces of the green, mixed with a touch of yellow, then darker reds before they turn brown and drop from the tree. And all of those colors radiate against a blue sky when hit just right by the sun. But I wanted to take these today because cloudy skies are kind of a norm once summer is gone for this area and I wanted others to enjoy at least the idea of fall. I imagine the leaf color in the northeast of the US is fabulous. I have never seen it but the pictures are amazing.

We all love the beauty of spring with its flowers blooming and new growth everywhere but each season has it own beauty. The warm energy filled days of summer, the relaxing and slowing down of fall and the sleeping days of winter help rejuvenate everything so that when spring returns the new growth will be ready to produce.

Life is very much this way. Whether you look at on a yearly basis following the natural weather seasons or if you look at the full span of your life. It starts with youthful newness like spring, then the young adult years of summer energy followed by the understanding years of middle age autumn ending with the teaching years of winter so the the follow generations of spring can learn from your wisdom of a life well lived of loving and learning.

And we have to mention that sometimes change is not good. When people change to the point that they forget how to care for each other, that is when evil steps in and the path to destruction becomes a slippery slope down a dark path. Change then needs to come in the order for to change the footing to get back onto a level non-slippery path. It can be hard work but well worth the effort.

So as we go through the season of the year and the season of our lives remember the many changes, to enjoy them, be watchful that the changes are uplifting for you as well as others and to help those who may temporarily step on a slippery slope and may need your help in getting back onto level ground.

And in closing, I remind myself as well as other to always be kind. Let the water drops of kindness roll of of you as water rolls off of a duck.

And if that statement only make sense in my quirky mind, just remember to be kind.

What Is It You Hold Precious #SoCS, 6WS

When Linda G Hill gave out the prompt for Streams of Consciousness for ‘precious’, I decided to combine it with Debbie Smyth’s normal Six Word Saturday. One of the first things that popped into my mind was “The Precious” from the Lord of The Rings.

Rings Precious

In the south(Ga, Fla, and such – Texas is not south. It a country all it own) of those in my generation, we use precious as a term of endearment when someone does something well out of the norm to help during a difficult time.

Normally when we(I) think of something as precious I conjure up things that are cute, cuddly, heartwarming, which usually involves, babies or small children and young animals so I have included some precious pictures, of course one of my grandson.

Caleb August 2015 — Precious child with a precious smile

Many things in this world are precious, you just have to know how to look.

We approach preciousness with tenderness and awe…as does the animal kingdom.

In closing on the thoughts of seeing precious pictures, let us remember to always be kind. Show how preciously you can be by being kind.

A Couple of Beliefs? from Old

October is a time when Hollywood throws out all the adrenaline rush garbage of horror movies. Me, I am not a fan but I know plenty who love a good horror movie and Hollywood keeps them coming as they make money. I saw recently on the science channel the stories of mythical beast, like flying dragons and bull/man type animals that walk on two legs.

When we see something we can not understand and try to describe it to others, they may not believe it and mythical tales can begin to take shape.Take for instance the book of Revelation and all the the things John saw that he could not explain easily where the readers would understand what he was seeing. So to some, Revelations is mythical and far fetched in nature. To Christian it is truth and we accept his vision on faith.

I want to touch on two stories that were believed truths of their time that I find almost humorous now due to our knowledge of today. One is biblical and one goes back to the 1400’s or further.

The biblical story is the Tower of Babel as told in the book of Genesis in chapter 11:4 and it says “Come let us build a city with a tower to the heavens”. Now their purpose of this tower was not to honor God but to honor themselves which then created the story we now believe to be true.

Knowing what we learned say 100 years ago, much less what we know about the heavens today, the tower would still be under construction, still not reaching even through the outer atmosphere. The size of the tower would have to cover the entire face of one side of earth and still not be big enough.

Every day we are learning more on how vast space is and just how tiny we are and for someone to think a tower could be built that could reach the heavens makes me smile. The earth’s atmosphere from ground up is about 300 miles – that would be a tall building. These are currently the tallest buildings worldwide.

Tallest_freestanding_structures_in_the_world

Another ancient story we now scoff at is the theory of the world being flat and if you sailed to the oceans edge you will fall off and be eaten by huge monsters that live there.

Our world is a beautiful roundish ball of amazing complexity created for us to live on. If we were on Venus, we would burn up, if on Mars we would freeze.

What a magnificent blue marble we live on. May we always protect her as I feel she is very angry right now. We have not been good stewards of her beauty and resources.

And in closing I always remind us all the wonderful gift of Kindness. May we spread it like jelly on toast, thick and sweet.

toast

The Value of a Hug

When we chose to get married, we wear a ring to symbolize the love we share with another individual. We wear this ring on our left hand on our “ring” finger. Do you know why its called the ring finger? This finger has blood flow from a single vein that goes straight to the heart – where we say love must come from. We can have love in various forms as the different love languages tells us but all forms of love come from a commitment of the heart. And I believe all forms of love are shown through some form of touch. A hug is the quintessential form in expressing whichever form of love you are expressing.

All though the scriptures God tell us to love because He is loved us first.

First day

But we are not the only specie that understands the value of a hug. All of the animal kingdom understands the value of hugging to express love, tenderness, compassion, friendliness.

And even with inter-species there are various forms of hugging.

Hugging takes kindness and those who read me know I am a big fan of being kind. So in closing, I remind myself and anyone else to always be kind and if you get the chance, hug someone or a favorite animal today.

PS – I want to shout out to all photographers who have the ability to take marvelous photos and add them to the internet where those of us who do have have abilities or access to the many places you go. Thank you for sharing you love for all of us to enjoy.