Words of Hope

All people everywhere have some tangible evidence that they hold onto which guides them to the intangible belief of their hope. For Christains, it is God’s Holy Word – the Bible. Then there are song that are in the bible, the Psalms, and song written about the stories of the bible, that help us stay true the the truths written in this ancient manuscript.

One of my all time favorite artists of Christian music is Michael W. Smith and he sand a song about this magnificent manuscript called Ancient Words. Here are some of the words that show the heart of the song.

Holy words long preserved for our walk in this world
They resound with God’s own heart
Words of life, words of hope
Give us strength, help us cope
Ancient words will guide us home

Ancient words, ever true
Changing me and changing you
Holy words of our faith
Handed down to this age
Came to us through sacrifice
Oh, heed the faithful words of Christ

This song is on YouTube, if you would like to hear it. My goal for this post is to share the knowledge of how very much you are loved. For Jesus did not come to condemn but to love, and to bring us all to the place where we share in the beauty He has to offer.

May you all have a blessed weekend and are fully aware of the beauty and love that surrounds you. And as always, be kind. Kindness has the power to change the worse day into something sweet.

FOTD, July 6, Yard Fun

This first part of the summer, here in the Midwest, was excessively hot. so many of the seeds planted have not shown their beauty, specifically the sunflowers. What the heat didn’t kill, the squirrels dug up. So no 12 foot tall sunflowers this year. However, I do have some dropped seeds the birds left behind from last years crop that are trying to come up, so we will see. So far 5 foot height is the standard.

A fun one is coming up through the slinky I put on my birdfeeder post two years ago to discourage the squirrels. That works by the way.

This is the one the goldfinches love because they can sit on the slinky. The one in the middle of the yard is light yellow. I think it was called a lemon sunflower.

The front of my house is filled with various types and colors of flowers. A mixture of lilies, petunias, impatients, coreopsis and verbena spread their smiles of happiness as they sway in the breeze.

The smiles of summer through the flowers we see are good reminders to share our own smiles with others who need to see them. Smiles are infectious and a good way to share kindness. So, smile often and share kindness.

Monday Windows, July 4, Non-Square

I have always loved interesting shaped windows or architecture around windows. Monday Windows gives us the opportunity to share the beauty we see with windows.

Older architecture has always fascinated me. When I went to San Francisco earlier this year I loved the windows I saw.

Then closer to home we have some more interesting architecture and non-square windows.

And last but not least, we have many beautiful church windows. This is just a sampling.

Just as our eyes are the windows to what is deep inside of us, windows on a building have the same correlation. From the outside, you can guess the beauty from within but when inside, and God’s light is shining through them, the true beauty is seen in any building.

And remember that inner light can reflect our kindness from within – whether it be a person or a building. So, remember to always be kind.

Why Sunflowers?

There are many reasons people choose certain flowers for their yard; their color, the way they bloom, or maybe their fragrance.

For me, a large component is what they bring to the yard. Some of my flowers bring butterflies and some bring in certain birds. It has been two years since I have seen the goldfinch come to my yard, but they are enjoying the sunflowers.

I had a pair today, male and female, both very interested in the sunflower blooms. They were beautiful but very skittish. I was not able to get a good close shot but wanted to share their beautiful yellow color.

Now my sunflowers…well, they had a rough start. First, they were planted by the birds from last year’s flowers. While this particular flower is standing about five feet tall…it has a good two feet crawling on the ground where the drought, heat, and a dog trampling through them when they were young plants that affected their full potential. Yet they are still beautiful. Nature’s resilience is always amazing.

Hopefully, we can all understand nature’s strength and resilience and use that knowledge to make this a better world – maybe a little kinder.

Always Be Kind!

FOTD, June 30, Happy Flowers

The wonderful benefit of spring and summer is flowers. While to some, the allergies kick in, to others, they make us smile.

Sunflowers and coreopsis are some of my favorite happy flowers.

From the sunflower’s first start of opening with thin tiny petals…

…to opening its face wide to soak in the sun, and sharing its beauty with all of us. Now we just wait for the seeds to start to form and feed the birds.

The coreopsis if another happy flower with many varieties of color – even in the same plant.

Some have more orange and some have more yellow coloring on their petals. But regardless of their color, they are quite striking with their showmanship.

Even the ones who have no orange at all. This one has a friend helping himself to its nectar.

These happy flowers really show off their flowers within the flower. The center areas are even called disc flowerets. So, enjoy your flowers and the smiles they are sharing with you and always be kind. Kindness has the power to make all things better.

Mimi’s Lily

This is Mimi, a wonderful protector that I lost in August of 2021. It was her loss that prompted me to write another book – Our Real Home. I am a firm believer in the Rainbow Bridge and that God created animals for us to enjoy here on Earth…and in Heaven. I believe that all the dogs I had throughout my life I will see again in Heaven when I get there. In the back of Our Real Home, I quoted Randy Alcorn from his book called Heaven, page 381, copyright 2004 by Eternal Perspective Ministries. He said…

Adam, Noah, and Jesus are the three heads of the three Earths. When Adam was created, God surrounded him with animals. When Noah was delivered from the flood, God surrounded him with animals. When Jesus was born, God surrounded him with animals. When Jesus establishes the renewed Earth, with renewed men and renewed women, don’t you think he’ll surround himself with renewed animals?

YES, I do. Why else would so many people be interested in working with animals, saving animals, photographing animals…animals matter, not just for food. Their lives matter, their beauty matters…

When I lost Mimi, I had her cremated for two reasons. One, I am just too old to dig large holes and two, I don’t have the large yard I used to have. So, I placed her ashes in a new flowerbed and a friend gave me a bulb to plant where her ashes were placed. This year the bulb bloomed and it is a beautiful lily.

For those that may be visually challenged, the lily’s main color is a light pink, a salmony pink and the inner color is a rich reddish-pink fading to an orange. Then the very center is bright yellow. The petal edges are ruffled and tinged with the same reddish-pink color. The size leans more to the Easter Lily size but the petals are wide. It is truly striking.

Thank you for reading today and helping me one more time honor Mimi. She will always be remembered as a very special dog…well, they are all special. Enjoy your pets and remember to be kind. They understand kindness and one day we will all be kind together.

Always be Kind!

FOTD, June 28, Calibrachoa

Cee’s fun challenge, Flower of the Day, is always a great way to share the beauty we see all around the blogging world.

Today, I share various colors of Calibrachoa which look like miniature petunias. They are prolific bloomers and seem to tolerate the side of my house that get sun all day. They even do better than the petunias.

These come in solid and two tomes but most of their centers seem to be yellow.

And they usually always have friends drop by for a taste of their nectar.

I am partial to the two-toned purple. While even the solid purple is beautiful, the two-toned seems to have a little more pop.

The pink this year seems to be the most hardy as this plant is full of blooms.

The pink two-tone have points in their petals making them more graceful.

However the yellow seems to be the happiest. Yellow is such a happy color and this pot is surrounded by sunflowers making it even happier.

As I look back at these flowers, I see that color is not the only difference. They also have different petal shapes from round, to pointed, to indented. It shows the beauty of all things created, even man. We are all different but all beautiful as God does not make junk or mistakes. There is always a divine nature in what he does. So embrace your beauty and reflect the kindness from within.

Why Would You Do That?

There are many things I want to ask people “Why would you do that?” Like why do you ride a motorcycle without a helmet? If you get seriously hurt, and not killed, then your family has to take care of you. To me that is selfish. How about those who blast their music in their cars where you can hear them coming a block away? Again a bit on the selfish side, not to mention the damage to their ears. But then there are people who love to jump out of perfectly good airplanes or those who climb to the top of rock cliffs. Not selfish…but why??

This week our church is having a fundraiser for missions. We have a group going to Honduras at the end of the summer to help build housing. So we decided to be one of the groups selling fireworks for the fourth of July. The fund raiser will really help with all of the missions we do at our church. Loud noises and playing with fire has never interested me, but I like helping missions so I volunteered to help. The tent was bigger than I thought, and the various ways to blow yourself up were somewhat shocking.

And let’s not forget the crazy names of these entertaining explosives – The Ten Gun Salute, The Grave Maker, The Demolition Derby, The Master Class…etc. And then the size of some of those boxes…why?

And for heaven’s sake, let us not forget the costs…

This was the most expensive item but seriously, I was still amazed at the money people would pay to watch an item get blown away or burned up in a matter of minutes.

There were plenty of items that were under $10.00 but I counted the number of items that were over $20.00 – 564 items. WOW. There were 155 items over $50.00 and 38 items over $100.00. Amazing. With these prices and the love people have for fireworks, we could make a nice profit, we just need people to help us get them sold and that is a challenge in itself.

Now I know each person has their fun hobby and some are more expensive than others but I have a hard time understanding this one. I probably spend $200.00 every spring and summer on flowers and plants for the yard but at least they last longer than 5 minutes.

Regardless of your summer hobby, please be safe while you are having fun, and always remember to be kind.

FOTD, June 23, Lily

Last year we had beautiful lilies at the church for Easter. Several of them were left without homes so I brought one to my house, left it out in the yard, forgot to plant it, but my dog took care of that for me when she got to messing around in the area and turned the pot upside down. In the fall cleanup, I notice the pot and remember I was supposed to plant that bulb. So I threw away the pot thinking I missed the opportunity to plant a gorgeous flower. But nature is more resilient that we give her credit.

I did not remember it being this beautiful.

May we always remember we are beautifully created and amazingly loved. Have a great day and shine out your kindness with your beauty.

Dinosaurs at The Zoo

My trip down south made a midpoint stop in Nashville to see my youngest and my grandchildren. It was such a fun trip and we made a visit to the zoo. Of course, the first stop for the zoo was Dinotrek. These are winding paths through lush gardens filled with life-size robotic and growling dinosaurs.

Each dinosaur had a board explaining the name of the dinosaur, a little information about it, and where they have been discovered. My grandson, age 9, was a walking encyclopedia on the information of the signs. I was impressed by his knowledge.

I think this is the right dinosaur for the sign, some were close to several signs so I was easily confused on some of the lesser know varieties. But regardless, it was a fascinating stroll through prehistoric times.

These two bottom ones I knew but to see the brachiosaurus’s actual size was interesting.

I thought this was a T-Rex but no, it’s another big guy. The fun one I forgot to get his name because I was running from him. He periodically shot water across the path at his enemy who was also shooting water at him. Water fight!!

The family behind me did not see what the dinos were doing and their toddler got sprayed – he was not happy.

Some of the smaller dinos seemed gentle and there were some boys who took the opportunity to pet…the robot.

I always find it fascinating by what is buried beneath us. When I was a teenager, I went out to Utah to the Dinosaur Park. There was a building built over a huge fully in-tack dinosaur fossil still mostly imbedded in the rock. I can see why kids get so enamored with them. Animal life was way different then with more dangerous creatures than today, however, a bear or crocodile will make a mess of you if you are in his territory.

In closing, I remind you that even people can be viscious and we must always try to not be. Show kindness everywhere you can and maybe kindness will begin to win out.