I may have told you previously that my friend, Debby, gave me a copy of a book entitled Amazing Grace: A Morning and Evening Devotional by Stephanie Sample. I have been thoroughly enjoying this book. On May 17 the entry called Fathom His Glory reminded me of our recent trip to GSMNP.
It begins with Psalm 19:1-2 NIV
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. 2 Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.
Imagine my joy reading this verse and then almost simultaneously remembering this sight!
Look into those woods. Saplings and full grown trees. See the many layers of creation there? The mountains are also layered. And the clouds; such a wondrous creation we live in! Part of me wonders why some creature did not eat the brown stalks during the winter. The green is soon going to outgrow those brown stalks. Declaration! Proclamation! Speech and knowledge without words.
If we lived in Tennessee I would want to return to this very spot in all four seasons to try to capture the glorious creativity of God.
What calls to your soul to notice the vast creativity of the Lord?
This prayer has been on Lectio 365 for several weeks. It’s impact hits me only occasionally. And then WHAM! it hits me just what we are praying.
Lord Jesus Christ, alive though you died, meet with me now, speak to me now, and grant me your peace, both here in these moments of prayer, and throughout the day to come. Amen
“Alive though you died.” Revelation 1:18 Did you catch that? We are speaking in prayer to the risen King. He died. He rose again. He dwells with us and lives in us through the Holy Spirit.
“Meet with me now.” Christ is able to do that.
“Speak with me now.” Nothing is too difficult for the King of kings. Jeremiah 32:17 Open my ears to hear you I pray.
“Grant me your peace.” Regardless of what this day or hour or week may bring, your peace please. That peace that is beyond all understanding. Philippians 4:7
Lord Jesus Christ, alive though you died. Yes, I truly believe this prayer and the outrageous claims of Jesus. After three days dead he did rebuild the temple of his body. Complete with scars inflicted by man upon his hands and feet and side. He came and was seen by the disciples. He ate meals with them, even cooked a meal for them on the beach! He showed them his scars beautified by the Father. And this same Savior is with us today, decades and centuries later.
The Collect for this past week at church read:
O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Certainly gives us plenty of meat to ponder for our journey this week! “Loving you in all things and above all things.”Help me do just that Lord.
God is so good and wants to give good things to us. Matthew 7:11 NRSVUE
Seek him and you will find him when you seek for him with all of your heart. Jeremiah 29:13 NRSVUE He will not disappoint us.
I never learned how to cook for two once the kids left home. Many of our neighbors benefit from this lack in my education. I asked one man recently, “Aren’t you glad I never learned to cook for two?”
Recently pork tenderloin was on sale. I bought one for cooking after our vacation. I usually sear it on the grill to lock in the flavors. For this version I inserted slices of lemon and onion between the partial slices before baking. I sprinkled those same areas with Lemon Pepper marinade and kosher salt. I baked it, basting after 20 minutes with butter. Baked another 20 minutes. Meat thermometer said it was not done enough when we needed to leave the house. I baked it a while longer. When cooled I poured off the juices to make a gravy.
I was cooking this with one neighbor in mind who loves lemon. I made a lemon mushroom gravy to go with the slices. That was a new attempt for me! I used strained broth from the baking, fresh lemon juice, lemon zest, lemon pepper marinade in the gravy as I had done on the meat. I think it tastes pretty good. Seriously different! Wonder if I can ever make it again with a good outcome? I sliced the meat into portions and poured some gravy into each zip lock bag.
The neighbor who loves lemon got it first. Then another neighbor who has two little kiddos and needed a break from cooking on Mother’s Day. Another neighbor in his 80s who needs to gain weight gets a portion. We will have the rest.
We like to eat tenderloin as a meat with potatoes and vegetable. Or we slice it up and eat it in dinner salads. Can’t go wrong, especially when they put it on sale!
My friend wants to learn how to make the twice baked potatoes I often make and freeze. I use baking potatoes of a good size. If I am planning 6 potatoes I bake 7 so I have plenty for the filling.
Bake them thoroughly at 350 degrees. After they cool a bit I cut an oval in the top of each potato. I scoop out the inside into a mixing bowl, reserving the shell to fill. Each shell gets sprinkled inside with Lawry’s seasoned salt and a pinch of shredded cheddar cheese and set aside.
For the filling I whip the baked potato centers with milk, butter, cream cheese, Lawry’s seasoned salt, white pepper, and cheddar cheese shreds. Portions of those vary depending upon the size of the potatoes I use. Keep tasting the filling and you will find what portions you like best. I try to go easy on the salt. (Those store bought twice baked always seem to have salt as their major spice! Ugh!)
I refill the skins making certain the filling goes over the top edge. (If there is filling leftover I put it in a greased baking dish for us to enjoy without the skin.) I roll them in cheese before placing in a baking dish and baking them a second time. The second baking is to warm them through and melt the cheese. After that I serve the potatoes or cool and freeze for another day.
They always seem to be a hit whenever I serve or share them. Must admit I am starting to drool thinking about them!
Not mine, but close!
So if meat and potatoes is not your thing, I apologize. If you are vegetarian perhaps you would like to try the potatoes only!
A new friend told me a story recently at a church dinner. We were talking about cooking. She said after her husband died she stopped cooking. I said I am thinking if Bob dies first I might give it up also. Once a person at church told her about a man who they thought was lonely. Perhaps she could have a meal with him? A dinner place was chosen and the two of them met at the restaurant. He was recently widowed. He asked her if she liked to cook .She told him she never cooked any more. Again during the meal he asked doesn’t she like to cook at all? She said not really. Finally he proclaimed that perhaps if she had a new set of pots and pans she would cook again! She adamantly stated she had no interest in cooking again. Seems he wanted a woman in his life to cook for him?!? They did not go out together after that.
I do not want new pots and pans but I might not object to getting my knives sharpened! Guess I better call the man who did it last time and make certain he is still in the business. With arthritis I need all the help I can get cutting things up! And yes, Bob is willing to help. He just is not always home when I want to prepare something. He likes sharp knives, too.
I am trying to write this morning and the long awaited landscapers are here mowing. The huge riding mower is so loud it is drowning out sounds about the room. The windows are rattling and I wonder how I can write about the necessity of quiet when my very teeth are on edge.
And then I remember to breathe. This too shall pass. Each moment is like a bell curve. There is a beginning, a peak, and a subsequent lessening. Okay, now I hear them in the backyard, but that too will lessen as they move to the next yard and the next down the street.
Cannot even show you a photo of the man standing behind the mower as all the photos online are pristine mowers with absolutely NO grass cuttings upon them.
The point for me is how can I return to the quiet once the quiet is disrupted? Do you have a trick to do that?
I decided to step outside and try to photograph the first bachelor’s button of the season. They seeded themselves from last year and are now starting to bloom. (May 11) I might have practiced the method I wrote about in the following poem right then, but the mower was back to shear the verge so I came inside to check the photos and write the poem out for your perusal.
Page 5 in the new book Poems.
"This poem took me into the deeper silence of meditation. For me, the center down silence of being with God is a wonderful place to be. Thus, Down repeats in the poem.
Bachelor’s Buttons
Going inward with the deep blue of the bachelor’s 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 To where I am nestled inside the flower. Down. Beyond pollen gathering bees. Down. Sitting still in the Blues. I am restored.
Just contacted WordPress and learned a new skill! Hope you liked this layout 🙂
Typing it and editing the photos, I stop. And drop. And roll in the restoration.
Down. Help me to stay with You, Lord. “Continuously renewed Immediacy,” wrote Thomas R. Kelly in A Testament of Devotion.
As you read this I will have already undergone a routine colonoscopy. Yuck. Can any preparation be as gross as this one? I am a little preoccupied as I try to write this morning knowing what lies ahead for me.
The opening photo cracked me up with the scented candle in the shopping cart! Ha! As if that will be strong enough to remove the odor!!
Laxatives, ounces, upon pints, upon quarts of forced fluid intake.
The IV, the drugs. One time they gave me twilight sleep I was not quite out. That was NO FUN! Bob argued with me about my ability to be aware of what was happening. I should know what I am aware of or not. Geesh!
I know the test is preferable to not knowing and suffering the consequences of undiagnosed colon cancer. Here in Cincinnati we were recently shocked by the death of a popular TV news reporter.
“Not until last month did WKRC-TV staffers begin to wonder if something was wrong with health reporter Liz Bonis. They were stunned to learn that their “very private” colleague died Thursday, three years after being diagnosed with colon cancer. She was 58.
“A longtime Channel 12 employee told me that Bonis “told no one. We didn’t know there was an issue until the last couple of weeks when she didn’t look quite right.”
“The station, which announced her death at 7:11 p.m. Thursday, said she had five surgeries and participated in six experimental oncology drug trials since her diagnosis in April 2023. She died at home with family at her bedside, according to Channel 12’s story.
“Bonis continued to work through it all — anchoring the weekday noon news; hosting her Sunday morning one-hour What’s Happening In Health program; and doing health/medical reports for Channel 12, which aired nationwide on most of Sinclair’s 185 stations. (She’s listed as the “health and medical reporter” for Sinclair’s news team at Dayton’s WKEF-TV and WRGT-TV.)
“On her last day in the office — a week ago Friday, April 24 — she did three stories. And on Sunday and early Monday “she was texting people about possible national stories that could be done,” says Franco Gentile, WKRC-TV vice president and general manager.
“Bonis — a registered dietician, certified personal trainer and a Diabetes educator — “told no one she was sick. In the last months and especially the last few weeks we suspected and knew something was wrong but were never told anything,” another Channel 12 veteran told me. “We didn’t dare ask because she wouldn’t have admitted anything. I think what surprised most of us was how long she’d been fighting.”
So Liz, thank you for your inspiration to do a test I dread. You were quite a testament to what is possible. For the rest of us, please take care of your health and get the tests the doctors think are fitting for your age and continued health. No fun, but just do it!
Last year at Christmas Bob thought it would be fun to own a dash camera. I was unimpressed. He has enjoyed driving around town with it. Then he hit upon the idea of recording our time in the Smokys. I encouraged him, “Why not?”
On our last drive through Cades Cove, after the ranger comfort station, we got behind a car going 10 mph. He went 15 tops. We kept hoping he would use a pullout and let us and the huge line of cars behind us pass him. He did not.
We thought about flashing our lights, honking, putting on turn signal. We did not. Frustrated to 10th degree we tried to imagine was it their first time there and they were fascinated? Afraid they’d miss something? We imagined she was dying and this was the last time she would see this? Anything to keep our blood pressures down and try to find grace for these persons.
We got to the end of the Cades Cove Loop road and they signaled for campground then changed their mind. We groaned in agony fearing they would go this slow all the way back to Townsend.
screenshot of video recording
Then they turned into a picnic area to which we cried, “Let them!”
screenshot of dash cam video
We slowed at the yield sign. As we began to pull out on main road a bear cub jumped in front of our car. Bob missed him and saw another on the hillside.
We eventually decided there was such a long time since a car had gone past the mom probably decided it was safe to cross the road and then we broke through the clog. If we had not been delayed for so long behind that creeping slow car we would not have seen these cubs.
As we traveled down the main road we imagined conversations. “We were not planning on cub patties this evening.” “Really Ranger, we did not mean to hit him!” It was a close encounter of the kind we would not want. Imagine the car damage and THE PAPERWORK!!
How difficult is it to extend grace to someone who frustrates you? Whew! The Lord insists that we love as God loves us, that as we forgive we are forgiven. Matthew 6: 14-15 Have you ever had a frustrating experience that later you become thankful for?
For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. Matthew 6:14-15 NIV
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35 NIV
Hoping you will cruise slowly through this day and take in all the sights!
Holy God, the source and giver of all wisdom, in your love, give to each of us a hearing heart and the will to listen deeply for your guidance, that the decisions we make will honor you, and our life together give you joy as we serve, praying in your Name. Amen.
I heard this at my most recent retreat and was arrested by the sentiment of a hearing heart. If you are a frequent reader of this blog you know I have been writing about listening and ears and the whole concept for a couple of months now.
A hearing heart.
The will to listen deeply for guidance.
Oh yes, and the strength to trust and obey what we hear!
Many religious institutions are in transition as fewer men and women seek to follow and serve God through ordination or monastic life. So I ask that you pray for these friends who have been so crucial and instrumental in my formation as a follower of Christ. You can meet them at the link below.
Almighty and everlasting God, we pray you, bless your servants, the Associates of the Community of the Transfiguration. Pour your grace into our hearts, O Lord, that we may know and do your will. Guide, strengthen and protect us by your Holy Spirit, that we may walk in your ways all the days of our life and in the end be brought to life eternal, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
It is not unusual when I complete a project to feel a release, a let down, perhaps a turning loose of the tension. When I was in retreat and folks around me were celebrating the publication of the book of poems, I was asking the Lord, “What next?”
Several times during the appointed times of prayer at the Convent we read Psalm 139. Verse 4 in the prayer book, which is verse 5 in most Bibles, struck me. The first time I just noted it. The second time I wrote it out. Now I have been doing some study through the Logos app regarding that verse.
The promises here are astounding. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Even though I do not feel your touch, your word assures me you lay your hand upon me. I am yours. I am never abandoned, never alone. You shall lead me and hold me fast.
Matthew Henry wrote: “Thou knowest me in every part of me: Thou hast beset me behind and before, so that, go which way I will, I am under thy eye and cannot possibly escape it. Thou hast laid thy hand upon me, and I cannot run away from thee.” Wherever we are we are under the eye and hand of God. Perhaps it is an allusion to the physician’s laying his hand upon his patient to feel how his pulse beats or what temper he is in. God knows us as we know not only what we see, but what we feel and have our hands upon. All his saints are in his hand which tenderly holds their aching head.
U wrote: In proportion as we are fully reconciled to God, and love Him, and rejoice in Him, it will become a cause of joy to reflect that our best Friend is never away from us, that our Protector’s hand is never removed, that the great observant eye of divine love is never closed.
He continues, “We may judge as to our position before God by this test—is the thought of His constant observation of us a subject of joy or of dread? If we dread it, surely we have the old spirit of bondage still upon us. But if we rejoice in it, then we may know that we have received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, “Abba, Father.” Spurgeon went on to take a military point of view with the idea of Beset me behind and before. My response was, “Really? Do we have to take that view?”
Nelson Study Bible said, “The purpose of His intimate knowledge of His servants is protective and helpful, not judgmental and condemning.”
Yes Lord, I believe this. You protect and help me. As I confess my sins you are faithful and just to forgive me my sins and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9) Therefore, I can rest in your encompassing care and closeness. You are my Abba, Father.
And the New Commentary on the Whole Bible by J D Douglas 1990 says,”laid thine hand upon me—This is the body language of blessing (Gen. 48:14, 17). This level of being known and accepted overwhelms the psalmist.”
For me there is nothing to fear in these verses, nothing to run from. Why would I not accept the hand of blessing from my God upon my head? We are known and loved. Do not be overwhelmed. Sit with your God and receive.
Why do we return there as often as possible annually? We hunt for wildflowers. Not to pick or dig up. Wildflowers to photograph. We have favorite spots and favorite flowers.
Sadly, this year, most of the flowers we love had already bloomed, faded, and sent their leaves back to fertilize the ground. It was quite disappointing. The entire time we were there we did not see a single Jack-in-the Pulpit! Not one. I understand you can purchase the plants. I just might consider that. We had one plant at our previous house. It was always magical when I would venture outside and there was Jack preaching to the heavens!
I especially like Bluettes. We could not find the tiny flowers at any of our usual places. Finally a Ranger told me to go to New Found Gap. Look for the restrooms. Beyond the restrooms I should be able to find wildflowers still in bloom.
We ventured up the mountain. It was a sunny, lovely day. We stopped at a pullout to photograph one view of the mountains. I heard a bird who was unfamiliar to me. When I asked the Merlin Bird app to listen I was told it was an indigo bunting. I was not able to lay my eyes upon it, but man could that little critter sing!!
The rough ridges of the mountains lured me to take photo after photo trying to express what I saw. I saw the same rough ridges were mimicked in a huge rock along a stream.
As we got higher on the mountain the famous smoke of the mountains became more like a heavy, dense fog. And it got chilly. It was so thick it was hard for Bob to discern the road! We found the driveway and grabbed jackets, cameras and took our expectations to the bathroom area.
We were not disappointed! Oh that Ranger was SO RIGHT!
These flowers are tiny. Smaller than my pinky fingernail.
So sweet. What a blessing to me!
There were even a few Trillium.
And scattered all over the place were White Fringed Phacelia.
We had to stop ourselves from venturing too far. We were still sore from the long walks the two days prior to this. As we returned to the beginning of the trail I had to capture a photo of May Apples for my friend Phyllis!
I am pleased you can even see the flower under two of the umbrellas. Guess I learned a bit about this camera!
We were at an intersection with the Appalachian Trial. The hiker only had 1,972 miles to the northern end at Katahdin, Maine. I wondered why they did not post how many miles to the other end in Georgia? In the parking lot were dedicated hosts to help Appalachian Trial Thru hikers. Not a service I have ever needed in my life!
I told Bob I wanted to go back and see if that ranger was working. We did. She was. I kissed both of my hands and planted them on her cheeks, thanking her for making my trip more memorable and much less disappointing! She was truly a gift to me!
And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life? 28 And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? Matthew 6: 27-30 NRSVUE
Rich Mountain Road is one of Bob’s favorite drives in the Smoky’s. The other is Parson’s Branch road. That one was still not open for the season. Drats.
Rich mountain is described as “a one-way, 7-mile journey on a twisting gravel road that leads north out of Cades Cove and ends in the town of Townsend. The road winds through quiet forest that often features excellent opportunities for wildlife viewing and nature photography.”
“Are you staying put?” she asked.
We stopped the car. Mom thought about challenging us. She had walked towards the car aggressively, (first photo). Then must have realized we meant no harm. (second photo). We waited quietly to see what she would do.
Excellent opportunity indeed! Look who we got to see. The mother was small. Maybe her first cub?
photo by r m dutina
To our amazement they crossed the road in front of us. The remaining photos are taken by me from inside the car!
I think the baby could not have been more than 2 days old?
It reminded both of us of a very small puppy!
As we drove on in amazement, I realized except for the photos, we might be the only people to actually see these two this spring! What an awe inspiring event.
Treasures in Plain Sight, A Christian Blog 