Archives for October 2014

And the Winner Is . . .

This week, the drawing was for Laura Boggess’s fine new book, “Playdates with God.” Twenty-five friends asked to be included in the hat but only one could win . . .

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And her name is:

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Congratulations, Stephanie! I’ll ship your brand new book to you tomorrow morning, book rate, so it will take about a week to arrive!

My thanks to all who have entered the Giveaways the past two weeks – it’s been fun to have the chance to share these fine new books with you all.

31 Days of Looking for the Little: The Angle of the Light

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It was early August, just about six weeks after my foot surgery. Our eldest daughter and her family had rented a beach house nearby and they invited the rest of the family over for a swim and dinner. I definitely did not swim, but I did sit and enjoy the scenery. Oh, yes, I’m good at that!

The house they rented was just back from the sand. In fact, the front yard was filled with the stuff! But all around the edges were several beautifully landscaped succulent gardens.

This one was right in front of me, in the chair where I set up shop, with my newly acquired walker-with-a-great-seat holding up my booted foot. As the afternoon began to darken, the angle of the mid-summer light caught the petals of this rose-shaped plant and made me gasp. Who knew a succulent could be translucent?

People who have never lived in California tell me that they would miss having seasons, would be bored by weather that is too similar year-round. But we do have seasons here, they just don’t look like the traditional ones. And those seasons are marked by the angle of the light, as well as by falling or rising air temperature and/or rainfall.

It’s one of the ‘little’ things I enjoy most in my life: observing how the sunlight changes how things look, depending on where the sun stands in the sky. The shadows lengthen, and the sun sets directly over the ocean in the fall and winter months. Only then.

Ask me how I know this! (I bought my first good camera in May and drove 60 miles trying to find a sunset over the water. NOPE. But in January? Spectacular.)

Just Wondering

31 Days of Looking for the Little: Creatures

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This little fella is someone we usually hear but do not see. He has a very basso profundo voice, and his song often accompanies our early evening reflections. 

He (or a very similar friend!) usually resides in the bottom of a large pot we keep on our front patio, but this past summer, we found him in the back yard . . . in our swimming pool!

He was swimming merrily along, but couldn’t find enough traction anywhere to get himself out of the water. So we helped him along a little bit. He sat in the sunlight for a minute, to catch his breath, and then he hopped away. Who knows where he went next?

Small creatures captivate me. Even spiders. IF they’re safely visible in their webs, not if they surprise me in the house. But these little frogs are delightful co-residents with us here in Santa Barbara. We look forward to their summertime music and enjoy their company.

I’m so glad that God made this world with little things as well as big ones. I love watching the recent video of our immense galaxy (featured by Ann Voskamp in one of her weekly collections of good things). But I also like looking deeply into creation to find the smaller things that keep everything going. On that scale, this froggie is not so tiny, I guess. But on my scale? He is tiny, indeed. And I am grateful.

Just Wondering

31 Days of Looking for the Little: Seeds

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Have you ever cut a papaya in half? They’re filled with hundreds of small, round, black seeds! And they are beautiful.

For much of my life, I couldn’t be bothered with papayas. I thought of them as strangely shaped tropical fruit that grew on really weird trees. And they smelled just a tiny bit like dirty feet!

But then one vacation, we ate at a breakfast buffet where they featured slices of fresh papaya, and I was hooked. I especially love these large, red ones from Mexico. Total yum.

But the day I cut this one open, I was fascinated by the little stuff inside the fruit. So I took this picture and I’ve loved looking at ever since. Seeds are miracles, you know? Just tiny things, but containing within themselves a whole new life.

But of course, in order for that life to take root, the seed itself has to disappear. It has to die. It has to open itself and be completely transformed into something new. 

So much of this life of faith is like that, don’t you think? We, too, must ‘die,’ in a sense. At least our false selves need to die — those personas we carry around to show the world that we’re-just-fine-thank-you, that shell that we protect ourselves with. It’s gotta go.

Because it’s only when we let that shell slough off that the beautiful newness the Holy Spirit is growing in us can be seen and experienced. 

Yes, I love seeds. Even though they have to sacrifice something in order for new life to flourish. Maybe especially because they do.

Just Wondering

31 Days of Looking for the Little: Moments that Make Me Smile

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It only took a minute. Just a minute. My grandson told me to turn my head and watch his cat, Dexter. So, I did.

And what I saw made me want to laugh out loud! Only, I didn’t because I didn’t want to frighten Dexter — I wanted him to stand there forever, just looking with longing at the yard.

He soon moved onto something new, of course, but that moment salvaged an afternoon that had been tiring and occasionally upsetting. He’s just a small cat, and it was just a small moment.

But it made me smile.

And there is nothing small about that.

What are the little things that can bring a smile to your lips, even when you’re moving through a bad day?

Just Wondering

31 Days of Looking for the Little: A Single Tree

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If you’ve read anything in this space, you know that I love trees. All kinds of trees. Great gobs of trees.

But I also have a deep fondness for stand-alone trees. Just one, out there by its lonesome, looking majestic and powerful. No, trees are not ‘little,’ but somehow a single tree falls on the ‘little’ end of the tree-scale in my mind.

This one is a particular favorite of mine. It’s a Monterey cypress tree, and it hangs over one of my favorite places, Butterfly Beach. These trees have become almost iconic in California, adorning the 17-mile drive in Monterey and showing up along the coast in lots of different places. To say nothing of the great numbers of them that are used in landscaping around all the Spanish revival homes in this area.

They are not perfect, but then who of us is? They get brittle as they age and have this nasty tendency to drop their large branches on parked cars, garages, or people who might be in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

But they are beautiful and haunting, aren’t they? They may be solitary, but they still provide shade, a lovely profile and a welcoming home to lots of different kinds of birds. I like that in a tree — and in a person, too. 

Just Wondering

31 Days of Looking for the Little: Fuchsias

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When I was 12 years old, we moved to an old house in Glendale CA. Along the narrow side yard, which was pretty much in the shade all day long, there were long, brick planters filled with a variety of fuchsias.

I fell in love.

They looked like tiny fairies to me, like the ballerinas atop a music box. So delicate, rich in color, and unusual.

My mother, however, detested them. I never did understand why. She kept threatening to yank them all out, and I would beg her to reconsider. Apparently, she heard me, because they stayed in place until we moved to a different home about seven years later.

We have a few fuchsias in pots on our front patio, and my husband tends them carefully. Both of us love to see their blooms and to marvel over their delicacy. 

Fuchsias are small things, preferring to hide in the shadows rather than bust their buttons in full sun. I think that’s what I love about them: their fierce beauty, almost hidden in the side pockets of most gardens. 

I love coming across beautiful things in unexpected places, don’t you? I know people who are like these flowers, too. They don’t make a fuss, they refuse the limelight, they just sit quietly in the shade and radiate beauty.

I do love all the flowers that bloom in the sunlight, too. And you know — it takes all kinds to make a garden, just as it takes all kinds of people to make a good world.

Just Wondering

31 Days of Looking for the Little: Pelicans

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I am fascinated by pelicans. Though they are large by bird standards, in the scheme of all the things, from humungous to tiny, I’d have to say that they’re on the little side, wouldn’t you?

First of all, they are silent. Did you know that? Apparently there is no room in that generous beak/throat of theirs for a noise-making mechanism of any kind. Then, there is what they look like — almost prehistoric in their outline, like some fossils I’ve seen in pictures. 

What I really admire is their grace, and their incredible diving ability. They usually hang out with friends, often making a silent, long line like the one in the picture. And when I see them flying up or down the coastline, I always breathe a little more rapidly and begin thanking God for this visitation.

When I’m at the beach, I’m on the lookout for birds, especially for these strangely beautiful creatures. Pelicans are reputed to feed their young with their own blood during times of famine and distress, pecking at their breasts until blood flows and then feeding it to their chicks. The early Christian church often used pictures of pelicans in churches and in other art work.

Why?

Because such sacrificial life-giving spoke of Jesus to them.

I knew there was something special about these birds!

Just Wondering

Did You Say SHORTS? A Guest Post for Jamie Wright

I had a fun thing happen! On a whim, I left a comment at TheVeryWorstMissionary.com when Jamie offered a giveaway of three guest post opps. And I WON! Begin fear and trembling. What in the name of heaven does an old lady have to say to such a young, hip crowd as those who read this woman’s amazing words? She was encouraging and I stewed and prayed for about four days, and then, this came pouring out. You can start here and then follow me on over to her place to read the rest . . . 320-main treadmillGetting old is ripe with indignities. Go ahead, ask me how I know. I watch my 93-year-old mom take daily steps further into the haze of dementia, and I fear for the future. And then I realize — the future is here. Yowza.

In four months, I will be 70 years old. 7-0. I remember struggling a bit with 35, taking a deep breath at 40, sort of reveling in 50 and feeling resolute about 60. But 70? The word that comes to mind is sobering. Also? More than a little bit humiliating.

Case in point. About a year ago, I injured my left foot while taking a morning walk — on vacation, no less. That led to a couple of months of physical therapy, which led to a different injury, same foot, which led to three months of tests, boots, ice packs, and assorted piles of pillows.

Ultimately, a new set of x-rays revealed a congenitally crooked heel bone, which had likely led to the two tendon insults in the first place, one of which proved to be a nearly irreparable tear.

And that meant surgery — to break and reset (with two titanium screws) that gnarly bone problem and to clean-up and re-connect the bashed tendon.  Which meant, NO weight-bearing for a minimum of two months.

And? Ta-da. MORE physical therapy.

I am happy to report that I am now walking, in two shoes, and trying to re-learn how to move this elderly ankle of mine. And just last week, I was invited to try out a brand, spankin’ new, space-age treadmill called the Super G.

What they did not tell me is that to use this machine, I had to wriggle myself into a pair of strangely shaped walking shorts made of neoprene. Listen to me now — I have not worn shorts of any kind in over twenty years. Twenty years.

Even when I was younger, stronger, and more shapely, getting into this particular pair of shorts would have been a good trick. Now? Holy Toledo, it is . . . well, humiliating.

In a good way, of course. Yeah, that is pretty much the oxymoron of the century, I know. But what this strange, gravity-defying machine is teaching me is that sometimes humiliation can be a very good thing.

Come on over to Jamie’s good place and encourage the old lady, okay?

And the Winner Is . . .

 

 

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My sincere thanks to all 17 of you who left nice comments last week and asked to be entered into the drawing for Preston Yancey’s new book, “Tables in the Wilderness.”

And yes, I did put them all on paper and toss them into my favorite beach hat and about midday today, I drew out the name of the winner. And it is . . .

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Congratulations, Hannah! Your new book will be winging its way to you very soon now!

And to all the rest of you who entered, please check today’s 31 Day Challenge post, because there is YET ANOTHER GIVEAWAY in that one. Laura Boggess’s lovely new book, “Playdates with God.” Be sure to leave me a comment, and I’ll put you in the hat for next week’s drawing!!