When we are open to beauty, it is more likely to appear to us. When we share that gift by pointing it out to others, we find we have even more of it to celebrate.
Trebbe Johnson
When I looked up who is Trebbe Johnson on the internet I found her website https://trebbejohnson.com/about/ and learned some about her. You might want to look into her work more deeply?
I certainly agree with the quote above from her. Many times when we are out and about, Bob with his camera and me with my iPhone, I will point something out that I think would make a great photo. He is so good at capturing those ideas! He is very good snapping photos on his own, too! Imagine that!
Every year we try to get to the Moler race track at least once during the summer. It is a quarter mile clay oval racetrack. We call it ‘eating dirt’ since the dirt flies over the fences and often into the stands. Helps us get in touch with the amusements of our country neighbors. This year I spotted this fellow dressed for an evening at the track. I like his hat with buttons, his hair pulled into a ponytail, his overalls and food for the next race.
At racetrack by r m dutina
Then my Wish-I-was-her image.
Hope she is always this confident! r m dutina
This was amazing. Duckweed, frog and leaf shadow. How does he capture these so nicely?
r m dutina
The busy bees!
r m dutina
“You planted these, here, just for me?” asked the goldfinch.
r m dutina just out our front door
Glory bee by m l dutina
Keep watching for treasures in plain sight! And always give thanks.
always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
“Opioids such as oxycodone (OxyContin), hydrocodone (Vicodin), codeine, and morphine are valuable medications for treating moderate to severe pain. However, they can cause physical side effects, such as itching, even when an individual takes them as prescribed.
“Itching is extremely common among people using opioids. One 2021 study found that between 60–90% of individuals experienced itching following the use of lipophilic opioids, such as fentanyl. After morphine use, 60–85% experienced itching as a side effect.
“Opioids cause itching because they can trigger an immune system response that affects receptor proteins on the surface of mast cells.
“Mast cells are a type of white blood cell found in connective tissue throughout the body, particularly in the skin and nerves. These cells help the immune system respond to pathogens, such as bacteria and parasites, and control other types of immune responses.
“Most cells contain chemicals, such as histamine and cytokines, that they release during allergic reactions and some immune responses. This helps the body widen blood vessels, allowing more blood to the area. However, this can also cause itching and inflammation.
“It seems that when individuals use opioids, their mast cells may respond as if it were an allergic reaction.
“An individual may also feel itchy due to the effects of opioids on the nervous system. The itch sensation can transmit from the skin to the brain via the nerves due to opioids interacting with skin receptors.”
This is not superstition about money. No rash. No bumps. Just a screaming itch.. And I am lucky enough to have the experience! There is also research linking pain to itch sensations in the body.
If you did not live with me you might think I make this stuff up! Oi! If only that were true and I did not have to experience all of this.
“Opioid use for severe pain may trigger mast cell reaction with itching.” Did I mention itching? My palms itch with no reasonable solution. No lotion, cream or ointment helps. Ice pack doesn’t really dull it. Breathing into it? Well, that means being willing to truly feel it. Not willing yet as I have been battling it for several days. Cut back my dosage and added Benadryl. Still there, but less so.
Paul wrote about his thorn in the flesh. Perhaps this has been one of my thorns? As I child I had such itching all over my back that doctor thought perhaps I was allergic to oranges. Not so. It seems as if I have always been itchy. During my first pregnancy I had itching. Went through a tube of Cortizone in about a week. Doctor was aghast. Later in life I had an allergic reaction to Prolia with rash and itching from shoulders to thighs for 3 months. All they could do was sedate me until the drug was out of my system.
This is over the top though. Today I have had no opioid. Over 24 hours now since I swallow 1/2 tablet. Just Tylenol and I am clawing my hands. Oh Lord, have mercy, I pray.
C. S. Lewis wrote, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pain.” I hear your shouting God, help me to understand what You desire of me. Perhaps He simply wants me to write about all this and publish it on this blog so others can be comforted?
Use my writing to Your glory, Father.
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.
My friend and I both have this auto immune condition called scalp plaque psoriasis. It is a scaly itchy condition with lumps on the scalp. I swear I feel like a @#*(&#@% monkey. I scratch unconsciously because it itches almost every waking hour. I have even woken myself up scratching in the night. The warning is not to scratch as that can make for hair loss. When one itches like this the warnings mean nothing.
Not only do we itch but we also shed these overgrown skin cells. Don’t think dandruff, think heavy snow storm. Nope there is no cure. There are some prescription remedies that try to tame the symptoms. No cure. Oh, I remember! They are PRACTICING medicine on us. We are the practice subjects, along with 7.5 million other Americans. yikes.
Snow Squall
I read my iPad mini in bed. Sometimes I am too tired to put it away in the drawer and simply slide it under my pillow. When I got up this morning I heard a slide then bump. I looked in the drawer. Nothing in there. I moved my pillow aside to make certain I had not missed it. Then I saw the blizzard of skin cells on the dark blue sheet. Yuck. Sure enough, the iPad had been under my pillow and slipped off the end of the bed. I got down on the floor (a feat in itself!) but I could not see it. The dog wondered if I was doing morning stretches like she does. I call her Slinky Dog. I got out the bedside mini flashlight. There it was. Had to find the extension picker-upper thingy. Got on the floor again and retrieved the iPad. Finally, I went to the front closet to get the sweeper.
I have heard it said we should vacuum our beds several times a year because each of us shed skin cells, but this was ridiculous. I suppose there is a snow storm headed to my bed every single night as this condition continues. She recently commented how badly she needed to vacuum her black car seat.
I brush my hair and there are snow squalls. At times, white out conditions!
I am not entirely hopeful the dermatologist can bring this under control. And now, sadly, I have it on my ear, too. Never. Ever. Ask what else can go wrong.
LORD, I need patience and now would be a really good time to send that! Amen.
Have you ever tried to slow and deepen your breathing? If so, you may resonate with this quote.
That moment of inward breath, that pause and awareness of “how beautiful this is” is a prayer of appreciation, a moment of gratitude in which I behold beauty and am one with it.
Jean Shinoda Bolen
I have a friend who is participating in a church plant. They are going to have something like a seven minute silence following the sermon. I think that is terrific! Seven minutes to sit together, breath together, rest in the worship and prayers and sermon you just heard. Almost sounds like the Quakers.
It has been said that as Americans in 2023 we do not know how to breathe properly. That’s right a simple, deep inhale followed by a simple deep exhale. And then again. And once more. We want our autonomic nervous system to do it all. In case you have forgotten that science lesson, here is a very short refresher.
You don’t have to think about breathing because your body’s autonomic nervous system controls it, as it does many other functions in your body. If you try to hold your breath, your body will override your action and force you to let out that breath and start breathing again.
BUT there are health benefits to learning how to breathe, how to rest, how to stop and feel what is happening within ourselves.
The lungs are like sponges; they cannot get bigger on their own. Muscles in your chest and abdomen tighten or contract to create a slight vacuum around the lungs. This causes air to flow in. When you exhale, the muscles relax and the lungs deflate on their own, much like an elastic balloon will deflate if left open to the air.
“A prayer of appreciation” the first quote says. Do we appreciate our breathing? Are we willing to make the most of it? My sister recently suggested this book to my husband. As you may recall his lungs are compromised. I have read parts of the book and intend to finish it. Book description below is from Amazon.
No matter what you eat, how much you exercise, how skinny or young or wise you are, none of it matters if you’re not breathing properly.
There is nothing more essential to our health and well-being than breathing: take air in, let it out, repeat twenty-five thousand times a day. Yet, as a species, humans have lost the ability to breathe correctly, with grave consequences.
Journalist James Nestor travels the world to figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. The answers aren’t found in pulmonology labs, as we might expect, but in the muddy digs of ancient burial sites, secret Soviet facilities, New Jersey choir schools, and the smoggy streets of São Paulo. Nestor tracks down men and women exploring the hidden science behind ancient breathing practices like Pranayama, Sudarshan Kriya, and Tummo and teams up with pulmonary tinkerers to scientifically test long-held beliefs about how we breathe.
Modern research is showing us that making even slight adjustments to the way we inhale and exhale can jump-start athletic performance; rejuvenate internal organs; halt snoring, asthma, and autoimmune disease; and even straighten scoliotic spines. None of this should be possible, and yet it is.
Drawing on thousands of years of medical texts and recent cutting-edge studies in pulmonology, psychology, biochemistry, and human physiology, Breath turns the conventional wisdom of what we thought we knew about our most basic biological function on its head. You will never breathe the same again.
Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art, James Nestor
I do not think we can master her prayer of appreciation until we become conscious of our breath. Are you willing to learn something new that simply might change your life for the better? Video below is about 11 minutes. Maybe not smoke and mirrors!
I had a tooth cut out yesterday by oral surgeon. Seems the molar had decayed beneath the crown (on the lingual side?) so badly that if they tried to pull it most likely it would just break. So yes, I had anesthesia similar to twilight sleep during a colonoscopy, then he went about cutting it out. Promised me stitches that would dissolve on their own.
All this to say this type of disruption sends Type 2 diabetes into chaos, not to mention the pain of extraction and subsequent healing. Will be sipping chicken noodle soup broth, milkshake with a spoon, applesauce, whatever I can think of trying not to fill a crater with stitches with food scraps.
Not like I have never been through this before: I will only have 8 teeth of my own left after this procedure. Dentist plans to build a “flexible partial” 4-6 weeks after extraction. This will be an autumn of soft foods and large dental expenditure.
Will be relieved to get the nasty taste from this decay out of my mouth. My teeth have been rotting for over 50 years. I gave up on them a long time ago. With all the other health issues I just got to where I did not care any more.
So please, pray for me and for Bob as he takes care of me during recovery. We had dinner reservations at a church for a program entitled “Death over Dinner.” I had to cancel my reservation since it occurred day of extraction and I won’t be eating anything, needing to stay close to my ice pack. I found it amusing as I age and decline. Humorous that the verse below did not include ‘toothless wonder.”
Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.
He has a pink metal flamingo sculpture in his side yard, a large black eagle sculpture on his deck. The ridiculous and the sublime? The beagle and I walk on.
There is a huge dip near a stand of mailboxes. The landscapers were to repair that dip where someone really could stumble and get hurt. They sprinkled a little dirt at the edge and threw a few grass seeds. NOT what we had in mind!
One neighbor scared herself and the rest of us. She had surgery on her knee a few weeks ago. She was totally healed and good to go. Then she slipped on their garage floor and went down on that same knee and ankle. I happened along as she was standing in the side yard, obviously stunned, in pain and in shock. Helped her to the porch, got an ice pack, got her son to open the front door, we helped her inside to lounge chair, set up ice machine. She is okay, but was truly shocky for a bit there. Today she is walking the golden retriever and doing just fine. Whew!!
There is another neighbor who complains and complains about every body and just about every thing. Then she lets her mini boxer out in her yard. That dog never gets taken for a walk. And it barks. And it barks. And it barks. They also got a mini-something and it has learned to also bark, and bark, and bark. Wish there was a forum for barking dog complaints. I did post on neighborhood Facebook about law in NYC stating a barking dog can only stay out for 15 minutes. Grrr. I have been known to stand on my front step and in frustration after hours of barking holler, “Shut up!” Not kind, but at my wits end.
We have been enjoying Ohio tomato season at its finest. There is a farmer down the road who sets up his table by his driveway. Puts out a money collection box. Hangs plastic bags from a nail in the tree. Then he loads that table with some of the best tomatoes you have ever tasted. $5 for a stack of 6 large red ones. At times he has a ‘scratch and dent’ box or another price for gigantic tomatoes.
I take mine home and we enjoy hard boiled egg and tomato sandwiches with juices dripping down our hands. Or I make Caprese salad with fresh mozzarella and fresh basil.
Rolling and cutting Basil chiffonade
I could learn to make basil vinaigrette but I like Kraft basil vinaigrette. Pour it in a pan and reduce “until it coats the back of a spoon.” Yum!
Most of our neighbors are kind and considerate. We share baked items and ideas like the salad above. We play cards on occasion and greet each other warmly. One brought us fresh corn on the cob his son was given. Yum.
A few younger families have moved in and we are grateful to see and hear the children. (We old folks have so many bodily ailments to speak about.) Just like you cannot choose your family members, we know you cannot choose your neighbors! We try to develop the good ones and seek patience with the others.
What is going on in your neighborhood? Are you watching for treasures in plain sight? Enjoy the summer weather while it lasts. Before long we will be wishing for a hot day instead of the chill headed our way!
Oswald Chambers continues to inspire me. In My Utmost for His Highest, daily readings were selected mostly from his lectures from 1911 to about 1917. The August 20 selection is entitled “Completeness.” Since I recently posted about the teaching in Hebrews about rest this seems so appropriate.
“And I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28
Whenever anything begins to disintegrate your life with Jesus Christ, turn to Him at once and ask Him to establish rest. Never allow anything to remain which is making the dis-peace. Take every element of disintegration as something to wrestle against, and not to suffer. Say – Lord, prove Thy consciousness in me, and self-consciousness will go and He will be all in all. Beware of allowing self-consciousness to continue because by slow degrees it will awaken self-pity, and self-pity is Satanic. Well, I am not understood; this is a thing they ought to apologize for; that is a point I really must have cleared up. Leave others alone and ask the Lord to give you Christ-consciousness, and He will poise you until the completeness is absolute.
Oswald Chambers
My goodness. I found that so powerful this morning. I opened to this selection and it was not even August 20! God knows what I need at all times.
John Eldredge writing in the book Resilient cautions against the same thing. He calls it desolation.
I realized a few days ago that the warfare I was coming up against was this desolation, trying to disintegrate my life with Jesus and His people. Coming to that realization was huge for me. I know how to bow to the King of Kings and let Him help me. Chambers says to ‘take every element of disintegration as something to wrestle against.’ The Lord has taught me that when I recognize darkness trying to encroach upon my life to PUSH BACK. Basically stomp my foot and declare, “NO!” or as some popular t-shirts say “Not today, satan.”
Chambers says to ‘leave others alone and ask the Lord to give you Christ-consciousness.’ Draw close to the LORD. Pray to think His thoughts. Follow His lead. Be His in every way.
Repeatedly in the New Testament we are told to mind our own business. (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12, John 21:22) If I am truly paying attention to my walk with Jesus, my attitudes, my frame of mind, my motives and desires … if I am doing all that, I will not have time nor energy to get into someone else’s business.
Whew. Not exactly a tall order that I cannot grasp, but sobering to realize that missing the mark at times can simply be blaming others when I have no authority to judge. I so easily deceive myself. (Jeremiah 17:9)
Jesus says, “Come unto Me and I will give you rest,” i.e., Christ-consciousness will take the place of self-consciousness. Wherever Jesus comes He establishes rest, the rest of the perfection of activity that is never conscious of itself.
Oswald Chambers Utmost, August 20, Completeness
Looking up images to illustrate “disintegrate” I was amazed at how many depicted satanic happenings in films. Interesting that even online photos reflect this truth. Yuck.
It is amazing if we are willing to listen to God, examine our selves, repent and move on how an abundance of rest becomes ours! I cannot tell you how STRONGLY I want you to try this for yourself.
The other day I was pondering since I am going to try to do more with Inter-parish Ministry (feeding the hungry) and I already lead a biweekly small group and just finished a weekly small group, do I sign up to help in a fifth grade classroom, too? As well as write and blog? The quote below came to mind. Like many good quotes this one has controversy over who actually wrote it or said it. Dickens? Wesley? H. R. Clinton?
John Wesley was a prominent English religious figure whose teachings inspired Methodism. (Faith of my mother and grandparents.) The following elaborate injunction is sometimes called “John Wesley’s Rule of Life”:
Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can.
The 1799 work “Sermons on Several Occasions” by Reverend John Wesley contained a homily on “The Law Established through Faith” with the following guidance.
Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Neither is love content with barely working no evil to our neighbour. It continually incites us to do good: as we have time, and opportunity, to do good in every possible kind, and in every possible degree to all men.
John Wesley
I need to rearrange my writing schedule as that one day seems to always be interrupted by medical appointments. Is there time to fit another activity in this calendar? At what point am I over-committed and prone to burn out?
As they teach at Walk to Emmaus or Cursillo life leads us to Do-Be-Do-Be-Do. I will pray about these decisions. Eventually it will become clear what time to block off for writing. Currently that has been Monday and Tuesday mornings. Inter Parish Ministry has been every other week. Oh, then we throw in volleyball games at college level with Grandgirl (when the games are in town, 6 PM) and soccer games with grandson (when times coincide with what we can accomplish, Saturday mornings). My husband and I wonder why we are so tired? In our seventies and get weary over seemingly nothing.
Help Lord we need wisdom about all the good, all the ways, all the means, all the places, all the times, all the peoples, but most of all, WE WANT YOU, Lord Jesus!
Treasures in Plain Sight, A Christian Blog 