I heard this quote many years ago at a retreat. I was so inspired I actually collected feathers and made some note cards with the quote.
What does it mean? The breath of God is a powerful thing. Can you be as moveable as a loose feather? Can you be willing to go where He asks you to go?
This quote is from a blog, written by Jean Wise, (interesting name!) She was so succinct that I cannot improve on her writing!
God calls each of us to be His feather – responding to where He calls us. To be responsive to His nudges. To be open to His grace.
I want to live as a feather. Not burdened down with the heavy concerns of my heart, but focused, surrendered, dependent entirely on God for every moment. Ah, to be a feather. What a lovely image this is.
Gee, did I just write that title? Sitting here at my desk watching a black cloud settling in to pour it’s rain over a nearby neighborhood, I have been pondering all the physical changes Bob and I have been going through. Sort of like having that black cloud park over our home. I was hit by a triple whammy recently.
Had a steroid injection in my right shoulder on a Monday afternoon. Just imagine the most tender spot in your body, put a needle in it. Inject steroids and see what happens. As a Type 2 diabetic those steroids (and every other situation) make my glucose react. This time to jump sky-high. Yes, next morning my glucose value was 210! I average around 79-110. Pounding headache arrived that Tylenol could not touch. Night #1 slept in recliner as no comfort to be found in the bed. Did not even try to go to sleep in the bed on Night #2. Meantime, I must have eaten something funky. In protest my bowels decided they must be emptied of all substances.
Before those things began my ear decided it was living underwater – or some such, with fluid that would not move out. Eventually, the steroid stopped making my glucose skyrocket. The BRAT diet of banana, rice, applesauce, and toast became just rice. Then a rice cake. After days of trying to hear my ear is still funky after plain Guaifenesin and Pseudoephedrine to try to dry it up. One ear felt left out so it too started to slosh. Shoulder is still touchy. Did not expect injection to heal the partial tear, just give some pain relief. Doc is still talking surgery. Need to sign up for PT. Again.
Meanwhile, Bob has had lung difficulties, pain that wakes him in the night, discomfort that makes it hard to sleep. You know, aging is NOT for sissies! Who knew the decline that comes with aging is not just losing your strength.Nothing here is unusual to humans. If we are blessed with a long life we will have illness, decline and perhaps suffering.
One neighbor fell at the community mailbox and bruised both eyes, chin, face and is fortunate not to have broken anything. Later turned out she did break her elbow. Another neighbor fell in his bathroom and needs shoulder surgery. The doc says he cannot repair both places, only one place in his shoulder. Another friend fell and broke her pelvis. Has been suffering all kinds of severe pain. Another friend flew home from Kentucky only to get home with fever, sore throat and likely Covid. Is it that new strain?
As we lose strength, dexterity and even our health can we fix our eyes on Jesus during these trials? Will we do our best to remember these are things we are goingthrough? It seems when I experience these sorts of set-backs I never quite recover the strength I had prior to the event. Just a little slower, a little weaker, a little less young when things stabilize again.
Perhaps the most important lesson to hold on to is ‘these are things we going THROUGH, not camping here, just having to endure.’ Even chronic pain will not go on forever. When we die and go to Jesus we are promised a new body. Thank goodness for that! Cling to Jesus now. Like the tendril on this morning glory vine sculpture, we wrap our hearts and minds about Him the best we can. He holds us. We hold to Him.
Again and again I am brought back to my own prayer,
I have determined that this day,
each time I am drawn up short by pain,
I will praise You
for I love You better than life –
even better than quality of life.
Molly Lin Dutina
I am always amazed that if I pray this with focus and sincerity, (usually from a 4 x 6 card), my attention is drawn to Jesus and away from all the what-ifs and if-onlys. We cannot control our circumstances, but we can control our hearts, our mind-set. Using the pain to draw myself back to Christ is a powerful panacea.
May you lean hard upon the One who loves you best and knows you even in the sleepless nights. Blessings, Molly D.
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.
The vile mud pot that bubbles through my life. Wants to contaminate everything. Makes me irritable. Unable to see the best in others.
There was a poem I found that helped a bit. I first read this while on retreat recently. I believe Joan Chittister had it in one of her devotional books.
Home of My Loneliness by Karl Rahner
In the curve of my heart
lies a hollow place
where grudging loneliness asks a welcome.
In that empty chamber of solitairiness
You rest Your consistent, welcoming love
on the heartsick and patterned
discontent of my gloomy days
and shredded dreams.
You care for my loneliness with affection
during the times when no one
and no thing soothes
the deep yearning
sitting listlessly
inside the arid place of my discontented self.
The Home of Loneliness welcomes me.
As I found solace in this poem I also remembered a piece of coral we found in Hawaii.
“You rest, Your consistent, welcoming love,” “You care for my loneliness with affection”. The Holy One knows my hollow place. I am held in that consistent, welcoming love. My loneliness, which at times I detest and want to deny is cared for by the Trinity. Even that place. Even those feelings.
Chronic illness has taught me so much about loneliness. Only those who have suffered can truly understand the plight of the chronically sick. The ambivalence of taking medication that may or may not help. The side effects that can send you into a ‘tizzy.” The wisdom of prayer and listening to your own body when making decisions about self-care. The Word says to ask God and He will give you wisdom. James 1:5-6 NIV
My parents dying when I was young (aged eleven when Dad died, aged 24 when Mom died) has taught we so much about loneliness. When your family of origin is gone when you are just forming your own family, the word difficult does not describe the impact upon your life.
Next time you sense that “deep yearning sitting listlessly inside the arid place of (your) discontented self” I urge you to turn that place and those feelings to the Holy One. The internet says there one hundred verses about God holding us in or with His hand.
Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.
Psalm 73:23 NIV
Once during a retreat I spent several hours walking the retreat grounds and envisioning the Lord holding my right hand. Though that was many years ago, to this day I remember how poignant that experience was. You might want to try that for yourself. The Holy Trinity is always with us and walks close, even when we are unaware.
Recently we were watching a PBS series entitled Southern Storytellers. Online synopsis reads, “Southern creators of literature, music and film explore deep ties with the South: Billy Bob Thornton reflects on a life of writing songs and screenplays; Adia Victoria celebrates music and marriage near Nashville; David Joy laments the loss of the Appalachian culture he loves; Jericho Brown reveals the South to be essential to his creativity; and Mary Steenburgen remembers her Arkansas childhood.”
We thoroughly enjoyed each person’s story. I especially liked Mary Steenburgen’s song that she wrote for her husband, Ted Danson. I share it here with you and ask that you remember Bob Dutina, my husband of 52 years and 9 months, so far! He is a fabulous husband indeed!
Yesterday was tremendously difficult. Bob and I were both struggling with frustrating chores and situations. Then I snapped at him and things got even worse. I had to really work to get my brain and soul into a better, calmer place. There was nothing earth shattering, except great difficulty mentally and spiritually. I apologized for my outburst. He forgave me and the day went on.
This morning on a podcast I heard an interviewee tell the moderator that with his broadcast he casts a ray of sunshine on an otherwise dark network of podcasts, social media, etc. I thought, “You know, that is that is what I try to do with this blog. A ray of sunshine in an otherwise dark world.” Then I returned to my desk and lying open was the following paragraph written by John Eldredge in Resilient.
Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, right and pure, lovely ad admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise (Philippians 4:8). Think about something beautiful, something that reminds you of the goodness of God. A place you love. A sweet memory. Something in nature. Something that makes you smile.
Now stay with that today.
Resilient by Eldredge Page 172
Even when things are terrible, we have the ability to move our minds to other places. We can cry out to Jesus and ask the Holy Spirit to help us. Nothing is easy when the warfare is raging against us. There are times I think for the Christian in this day and age nothing is easy period.
The chorus from the following song was rolling around in me this morning. I pray that if you come upon a warfare struggle like what I faced yesterday you can move towards Jesus and not away.
Lord I give you my heart
I give you my soul, I live for you alone
Every breath that I take
Every moment I'm awake
Lord have your way in me
Have your way
Recorded by Hillsong music, written by Reuben Timothy Morgan, 2002
As a child I visited this lake with my mom’s sister and her husband, two kids. Uncle Whitey had a boat and would take us out to try to ski. My sister was able to do it. I was never strong enough to pull myself up. I never remember seeing lily pads there as a child, but I suppose Uncle Whitey never docked his boat in that particular area.
The park is between our house (Amelia) and Wilmington. Bob and I first discovered the lily pads there last year. We were delighted. We marked the calendar to go back this year. The weather has been so hot that the lilies were not at their peak. We marked the calendar for earlier next year!
Spectacular!
You might wonder about my fascination with Lily pads? I first discovered them as a flower to photograph at the Cincinnati Nature Center during a prayerful walk. That inspired a poem in 1990.
Though it had rained earlier in the morning when we visited Rocky Fork, I found no pads with ‘mercurial glistening spheres.” That would have been tremendous!
So here I am 33 years later still trying to do the Lord’s bidding, gather the living water, stand and tip, yielded and bent in His service. May you be Spirit-kissed and become priests and royalty singing praises to God!
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Recently we went to a special exhibit at Cincinnati Art Museum. These were paintings by Pablo Picasso entitled Out of Bounds. The museum notes, “The year 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), perhaps the most innovative and influential artist of the 20th century. The Cincinnati Art Museum is celebrating his legacy with an unprecedented exhibition, the first to examine Picasso’s lifelong engagement with landscape. Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds brings to our galleries paintings and sculptures by the artist from some 25 public and private collections across the United States and Europe.”
I have never ever cared for his cubist styles. A few of the items in this exhibit showed he really could paint in styles I liked! Well, at least twice.
He could have been an impressionist!
Some of the items looked as if they were drawn by a child with crayons. I should have taken a photo for you!
Here is one of Bob’s favorites.
There are likely folks around the world who like his art along with many collectors. Give me an impressionist any day!
We went searching for this tree when we were on Maui.
Banyan tree of some repute!
There is only one banyan tree in Banyan Tree Park in the middle of Lahaina. But it is the largest banyan tree in the United States and one of the largest in the world. Lahaina’s giant banyan tree is 60 feet high and 200 feet wide, filling most of the block that makes up Banyan Tree Park on Front Street, behind the Lahaina Harbor.
Here is my video to try to capture just how enormous this tree is!
Of course, Wikipedia had lots to say about this tree. Here is a portion
The banyan tree in Lahaina, in Maui, Hawaii, United States, was planted on April 24, 1873, in Lahaina to mark the 50th anniversary of the arrival of first American Protestant mission. The banyan tree (Ficus benghalensis) known in Hawaiian as paniana, located in the Courthouse Square, which was renamed Banyan Tree Park covering 1.94 acres, is not only the largest in the state but also in the United States. The tree was a gift from missionaries in India. A mere 8 feet (2.4 m) when planted, it has grown to a height of about 60 feet (18 m) and has rooted into 16 major trunks, apart from the main trunk, with the canopy spread over an area of about 0.66 acres (0.27 ha).
In 2023 Lahaina will have a birthday party to celebrate the Banyan Tree being planted 150 years ago.
Recently I came across something that said I need a mind that is peaceful, still, serene and quiet. That led me to the idea that all those things are promised in Scripture. I would imagine you could use a mind like that also? Here are some passages and images that might help you get to that state of mind.
You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.
Isaiah 26:3 NIV
Another version reads “Whose mind is staid on you.” Staid as in fixed. Read that again and just sit with it a moment. Those of us who are familiar with the Bible tend to run right past the verses we think we know. Can you live this verse?
The mind that is still.
He says, “Be still, and know that I am God;
Psalm 46:10a
It is easy to read or say “be still” but can you do it? Still yourself. Quiet yourself. Even sit still for an extended period of time? Dan Harris, former ABC news anchor, now heads up 10% Happier, an app based on his best selling book. He says even one or two minutes of stillness can make a huge difference. Take a pause right now to try that.
The mind that is serene. That brought me to two different passages. If you read Psalm 23 you begin to realize how serene life with the Shepherd can be. Though there may be dangers and enemies, He is able to keep His sheep. Philippians 4 with emphasis upon verse 8 came out on top though! It gives us very clear instruction about our mind and what to do with it!
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
Philippians 4:4-8 NIV
We CAN take captive our thoughts to Christ Jesus. No, it is not simple, but oh so very worthwhile! Think about such things!
And finally we are urged to have a mind that is quiet. It is exhausting to have a busy, busy mind. Here is help for that situation. But you must DO it.
But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content.
Treasures in Plain Sight, A Christian Blog 