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.
When it’s over, I want to say all my life I was a bride married to amazement.
-Mary Oliver
Have you read Mary Oliver’s writing? I love that image of “I was a bride married to amazement.” The LORD God Almighty has filled our world with truly amazing creations. I cannot fathom how a person can walk around with open eyes and not see the creation with amazement.
Almost 53 years ago I was a bride.
I was amazed at the wonder of my betrothed, Robert M Dutina. I was amazed at the goodness of God in creation, thus married in the park. I knew no building could contain the God I worship. I have continued to be amazed at all my life has been filled with. Both happy and sad.
Always, though, always I have been married to amazement.
Amazed at not only the nasturtiums above, but the next one, too!
One flower filled with sunshine and a glorious land snail in my very own side garden. The first year we were married we had a two track driveway outside our dining window. Someone had planted nasturtiums down the center. They have been dear to my heart ever since!
And just now! One pileated woodpecker flying over my front yard singing as it goes. Yes, married to amazement.
When Amazement asked if I would be married to it, I gave a resounding Yes!!
"There is a white scribble
in that Blue Sky," I note,
"scribble with a long underline
like an exclamation point."
It reverberates with “Look!”
This morning sky was dark and gloomy
Booming with thunder
Flashing with lightening
Now sky is glary with sunshine
Ridiculous with heat
hours ago you would never
have suspected this total change
was even possible
now be in awe of the
power of transformation
hours can create.
Will you allow God to cause a similar transformation in you? Are you willing to yield to that power? The sky was always blue, yet our eyes could not perceive it.
See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
Isaiah 43:19 NIV
“I am making a new creation,” says the Lord. For you and me He is making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland! There is a plan. Whether or not our eyes can see it, our brains perceive it, the plan is there waiting for us to fulfill it. Through the power, strength and guidance of the Holy One a way in the wilderness is found.
We once visited Craters of the Moon park in Idaho. It was a very strange wilderness indeed. While we were there one woman went hiking with her friend for her birthday. She had hiked the park many times. They got lost and died. Here is a short video giving you a sampling of what that wilderness is like.
Visitors are urged not only to not hike alone, but to tell someone where they plan to hike. It is easy to get lost there.
It is easy to get lost here, also! Have you asked the LORD to guide your life and journey through this strange land of living?
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV
In Christ. New creation. With purpose and a plan to fulfill. Follow on, fellow travelers!
I have been noticing spider strings in the morning sun. These are not “webs” as such, more like hunting lines? I suppose the spider drops out of the trees because these begin high in the air) and drops down into the grass. The sun catches the gossamer line and glistens in my eyes.
Makes me wonder how all the birds frequenting our feeder miss those lines as they come flying in? We have decals and a blotter marker that leaves a residue that the birds can see so they do not crash into our sliding glass door. Does the spider have something like that in its silk?
I forgot to write about all this until this morning when I put the sprinkler on our clump river birch and then the new Mallow shrub. High heat this week and no rain in the forecast, ugh. Trying to unwind the hose and blech! a spider string was caught in my hair. Now I am wrestling the hose, (and I eventually turned the hose storage roller over on its side), trying to get the string out of my hair and remembering that I did not write about all of this.
In high school I did a science project with Becky about spiders. She was an artist and her family lived in a large house with an old stone basement. We sprayed a piece of cardboard with hairspray, captured a spider web . And repeated the process. Not all the captures were successful. We used the good ones as our displays to discuss the various kinds of silk a spider uses in construction.
Likely the most maddening encounter I ever had with a spider occurred at our last address on Siesta Drive. We had bird feeders (as usual) on our front porch. One day we came home from shopping and wondered how the hummingbird was holding this strange position on the porch.
Upon closer inspection, Grr! A spider had captured it and killed it. I was furious that our little friend had fallen prey to the natural order. Then I began to wonder what size spider could do that? I went inside to get the broom. Believe it or not I found that spider hiding along the edge of the porch. I drove it out into the open and beat it to death with the broom. Not exactly proud of that moment, but I felt justified at the time.
Silk so strong. Arachnid so mysterious. I am not afraid of spiders but like many people I do not like when I get their silks in the face. Walking a trail at the Nature Center I am always sort of relieved when Bob goes first and knocks the hunting lines away.
So with all my unscientific lingo but strong interest I guess I could have the title Citizen naturalist?
A man without God is trusting in a spider’s web. Everything he counts on will collapse.
Awoke with ceiling fan and floor fan on full blast. Legs and feet frozen. Temperature outside 62.
Same morning worked in yard and along entrance sidewalk for about 1-1/2 hours. Drenched. Every. Single. Stitch. I was wearing. August in Ohio. Was 76 degrees and humid when I came indoors. Bob says my thermostat is broken.
Here is my new favorite perennial.
Hibiscus or Mallow Shrub
Yes, they are like day lilies in that they drop their flowers every day, but what a delight!
This rabbit is certain if he sits tall and still I either will not see him or think he is a wrought iron statue. (two slots left of Mallow.) Then he turned and ate a pyracantha leaf. No wonder that shrub does not flourish!!
Yes, I know, not the best focus. So far he has not eaten the mallow shrub to the left!
This what I got from an entire package of nasturtium seeds. Lousy ground and lousy year for gardening! Perhaps the wood chips are to blame as I now hear they make terrible mulch for growing things. Ugh!
Yes, the leaves are supposed to be mottled.
Perhaps it is because we did not sow seeds until after May 19th when we returned from Maui? So sad the happenings in Maui. Each time we watch the news we are just stunned. Those poor people. Most of them got out with their lives, but now not only the clean up but questioning if it will be safe to live there with all the chemicals in the soil. Land grabbers trying to buy up the land. The spiritual center of Maui in ruins. Lord may those who lost their lives rest in peace. May those who are still missing loved ones have Your comfort. They say identification may take months or years as in most cases the pathologists are working with dust.
The opening photo was our dinner in Lahaina at Kimo’s restaurant. Totally gone now.
Online photo. Now I wish we had taken more photos of the street!
Scanning videos and photos on line, trying to decide what best to show you. This one photo certainly sums it up. Front street as it is now. And then I find myself overwhelmed with grief for the people there.
Never mind. I have nothing to complain about. We have been told the Red Cross is the best place to give donations. One of the airlines that I had accumulated miles on asked if I wanted to donate the miles to the cause. I responded absolutely! My friend who ministers in Nepal said this Hope Force International is also quite reputable.
Whatever you do , try to give to something to the rebuilding of Lahaina. Such terrible loss.
LORD, uplift and sustain the people of Lahaina and those who love her. Send the comfort of Your Spirit to them. Show each of the readers how to best support them in their losses. May Your will be done in our hearts and in our giving.
Do you remember the childhood joke about the bathtub? “How do you know there is an elephant in your bathtub?” Answer, “You can smell the peanuts on his breath.”
On a recent trip to Rocky Fork Lake, Bob caught this shot of a heron wading in the bathtub of the Canada Geese.
How do you know there is a heron in your bathtub? The long legs and no splashing.
photo by r m dutina
Some things just make me laugh out loud!! Heron likely just wanted lunch. Maybe she was hoping the geese would stir up the fish?
We will never know for certain!!
And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.
Genesis 1:20-23 NIV
And He knew there would be a woman in Ohio in 2023 who would laugh!
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.
Treasures in Plain Sight, A Christian Blog 