Neighbors yard is filled from
First tree to drop her gown
likely Yellow Poplar
We have a few buttons
And ribbons in our lot from other
Ladies preparing to drop their gowns
Cicadas still sing afternoon melody
Sun shines brightly
Some maple branches turning
getting ready to disrobe
Mostly green on our horizon
Autumn waits at the corner
So humor from proof reading blog. Must have thought I had deaf cicadas in our yard because I wrote “Cicadas still sign afternoon melody.” Oh Molly, bad humor.
One cicada was so loud last evening, for a moment Bob thought it might have gotten into the house. Saw a huge one on the sidewalk when I walked Lucky this morning. Not dead, but certainly slowing down. Was this who we heard last evening?
So easy to pray and ask, but thanks after the event?
Each of us have thousands of thoughts daily. When bad news comes we sometimes project the worst possible outcomes. When those worst things never come to pass do you give thanks?
Not talking pumpkin spiced thanks. Every season of every year! Not talking Turkey and pie here – daily thanks. “In everything give thanks for this is the will of God.” But do we? I first Thessalonians chapter 5 Paul writes a list of things we are to do in our walk. “Be at peace, admonish the idlers, encourage the fainthearted, rejoice, pray, hold fast to what is good”, etc. This was set to music when my kids were little. It was a great way to learn the passage. If you want to look it up on You Tube it is usually entitled “Rejoice Evermore.”
in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1 Thessalonians 5:18
I love this painting. For me it says so very much! Ten lepers were cleansed. Only one thought to turn and give thanks.
Ten Lepers by James C. Christensen
Have you tried it? Turning back and giving thanks. Spend one week with this as your focus. When you don’t get the thing you were fearing or ‘awfulizing’ about do you give thanks? Will post about same subject a week from now. New habits can be difficult to initiate, but so rewarding when you find it is a practice! Notice how you do!
Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”
14 When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.
15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.
17 Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” 19 Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”
Luke 17:11-19 NIV
However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
Going inward with the deep blue of the bachelor buttons I sink down.
I take the encompassing blue with me. Down.
I drop my shoulders
Down I breathe the blue petals.
Knowing the blue from the petals will fade. Down.
For now they wrap me in stillness. Down.
Wash me in the blue brightness I pray. Down.
Not Mrs. Stewart’s bluing agent. Down.
But the true blue of fresh flower. Down.
Peculiar petals, Down.
Not like tea rose. Down.
To where I am nestled inside the flower.
Down.
Beyond the pollen gathering bees. Down.
Sitting still in the Blues
And restored.
As you can tell I have been riding a wave of poetry. The book Every Day is a Poem by Jacqueline Suskin has helped to challenge and inspire me. Uncertain how long this wave will last. Hope you are enjoying it!
I was frustrated as I have 4 photos of the flowers that I wanted to intersperse with the verses. Word Press was having none of that. I suppose if I spent enough time changing blocks and formatting I might get it. Hopefully, you grasped the idea, even without all the photos!
“Look, he is coming with the clouds,” and “every eye will see him, even those who pierced him”; and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.” So shall it be! Amen.
Revelation 1:7 NIV
While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
Matthew 17:5 NIV
The word is used as a symbol of the Divine presence, as indicating the splendour of that glory which it conceals.
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!
Treasures in Plain Sight, A Christian Blog 