Category: Amazing Creations

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Faith, Joy, Look, Praise, Prayer, Thanks, Traveling, Worship

Fences

There is some advertisement on TV that has been playing this old song. It catches in my brain and then I can’t stop singing it. What does it say about our lives today?

I think there are few places where I can go where one can “give me land, lots of land under starry skies above,
Don’t fence me in.
Let me ride through the wide open country that I love,
Don’t fence me in.
Let me be by myself in the evenin’ breeze,
listen to the murmur of the cottonwood trees,
Send me off forever but I ask you please,
Don’t fence me in.”

Of course, there are the expressways through America. Come to think of it the song is probably being used by a car company.

Turns out the lyrics were a poem written by ” Robert Fletcher, a poet and engineer with the Department of Highways in Helena, Montana. Cole Porter, who had been asked to write a cowboy song for the 20th Century Fox musical, bought the poem from Fletcher for $250. Porter reworked Fletcher’s poem, and when the song was first published, Porter was credited with sole authorship. Porter had wanted to give Fletcher co-authorship credit, but his publishers did not allow it. ” Wikipedia

“After the song became popular, however, Fletcher hired attorneys who negotiated his co-authorship credit in subsequent publications. Although it was one of the most popular songs of its time, Porter claimed it was his least favorite of his compositions.” Wikipedia

I never want to forget that our United States of America is made up of so much land, and so varied in type and variety! We happened upon a television channel called Naturescape. We have been watching an episode entitled Death Valley. When we visited there we were amazed at the variety in the landscape. So VERY different from Southwest Ohio!

Another place of fascination is the telescope at Hilo, Hawaii. You can watch it daily. https://liveworldwebcams.com/subaru-telescope-live-webcam-hawaii/

I was hoping I could catch the glow from the recent volcano eruption for you. The emphasis today was the Meteor shower which we were totally unable to see here due to cloudy conditions.

Watch. Be amazed. Thank the Lord for this amazing land where we live!

Posted on in Aging, Amazing Creations, Beagle, Humor, Joy, Memories, Music

Lucky and Ginger

For many years women have reminded men that “Ginger Rodgers did everything Fred Astaire did, but she danced backwards in heels.” Our dog, Lucky, dances backwards with joy as we approach her with her filled food bowl. She makes me laugh and think of Ginger! This is the dog that was requiring monthly injections due to arthritis in her hips. She is no longer in pain or requiring those! Amazing!

This year New York City celebrates one hundred years of the Rockettes. My husband, Bob, who is from NYC, just realized in amazement after years of watching the parade they dance in heels!

Such talent!

Don’t expect a video any time soon of Lucky dancing backwards in heels. She would likely chew up the shoes any way!

Amazing!
Posted on in Aging, Amazing Creations, Beagle, Humor, Joy, Look, Memories, Nature, Praise, Thanks

Glimmers

A reminder: A glimmer is anything that makes you smile and pause in joy. “A glimmer is the exact opposite of a trigger—it is some kind of cue, either internal or external, that brings one back to a sense of joy, safety, or comfort.” from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-glimmer-5323168

I was getting ready to write this post. I looked up at the meal worm feeder outside my window. SIX no kidding SIX lovely bluebirds crowding for a place at the ‘table.’ What an incredible blessing! We have not seen that many here for quite a time.

“Thank you for the world so sweet,
Thank you for the food we eat.
Thank you for the birds that sing,
Thank you God for everything.” author unknown

“The maple tree puts on her fancy party dress, green with yellow and red spangles.” That is how the maple trees appear to me in autumn. I was driving past the library the other day. There was a mess in the road. Nope! stopped the car to capture the decorations from the cypress. Not to be outdone by the maple, the cypress threw her needles as far as the wind would carry them.

Inches deep along the roadside.

Several days later they were still there!

I drove into a local park to check out the new construction they have been doing on the facilities. I saw another car park. The woman let a Basset Hound out of the car door. She merely dropped the leash upon the ground. Then she went around to the other door and brought out a beagle on a leash. Basset was simply moseying around taking a sniff here and there. Made me wonder how long it had been since he had run any place at all! Giant ears, stumpy legs.

Remember this guy from childhood? Could you name it any name besides Droopy?

May the month of December be filled with glimmers for you! May you find countless treasures in plain sight!

God spelled backwards is dog.

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Challenge, Faith, Family, Music, politics, Praise, Prayer, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Yield

When You Hit Wrong Date as You Write

I wrote this last week. Then I hit the wrong date for it to post. It went up. I took it down. I reset for a different date. Bob said nothing seemed to post at all on that date. So, if you saw this video and read this already forgive me. Welcome to my world of less than perfect writer!

My husband took this video for me. He knows the poem I wrote about lily leaves at the pond. Trying to get ‘mercurial glistening spheres’ in words was tough. Perhaps the video will help you catch the vision! Please watch his video and then read or re-read the poem.

Video by r m dutina
Perhaps I Could Ask You Just to Stand and Tip? ©1990 Molly Lin Dutina 

Lily pads at the pond
grow on stalky stems
leaves unfold at opened palm
cupped at center point
summer shower starts to drop
mercurial glistening spheres
gathering in the center spot
'til bulbous weight smears silver drops
into glistening globs
and tips the leaves so full
to pour their content overboard 
and rising from the spill
stately shielded lily-hands
begin the cycle once more

Keep my stalk flexible, Lord
my hands open cupped
eager to receive Your all
questioning not Your skill
only trusting the power of Your love
to melt my rigid will

drench me Lord
in Your shower of love
let me gather and drink my fill
then spill over on those around
and rise to await your will

Send water of You Spirit
to tip me over, pour me out
then wash over me once again
fresh cleansing by Holy Words

Shine Your light through
this enshrouding mist
color me with covenant this:
Abiding presence and constant love,
indwelling grace that conquers sin
Transfigured rigid I
Yielded and bent 
in Your service
Spilling forth rivers of living water
and giving rest to croaky voiced frogs
who, when Spirit-kissed
become priests and kings
singing their praises to You.
 
Perhaps You ask me jut it be Your lily leaf
stand and tip.

Posted on in Aging, Amazing Creations, Faith, Focus, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Thanks

This Would Be Amazing

Grateful Living says: Brother David Steindl-Rast — 99 year-old author, scholar, and Benedictine monk — is beloved the world over for his enduring message about gratefulness as the true source of lasting happiness. Known to many as the “grandfather of gratitude,” Br. David has been a source of inspiration and spiritual friendship to countless leaders and luminaries around the world including Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, Thomas Merton, and more. He has been one of the most important figures in the modern interfaith dialogue movement, and has taught with thought-leaders such as Eckhart Tolle, Jack Kornfield, and Roshi Joan Halifax. His wisdom has been featured in recent interviews with Oprah Winfrey, Krista Tippett, and Tami Simon and his TED talk has been viewed almost 10,000,000 times. Brother David Steindl-Rast

Imagine a country whose citizens—maybe even its leaders—are brave, calm, and open towards each other; a country whose people realize that all human beings belong together as one family and must act accordingly. Br. David Steindl-Rast

Brave

Calm

Open to each other

One family

That would be amazing, wouldn’t it? Maybe we can begin today. Just each one of us reading this trying to live out the message and make a difference, right where we are, right now!

Posted on in Aging, Amazing Creations, Challenge, Faith, Just do it, Listen, Nature, Praise, Prayer, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Surrender, Thanks, Yield

Move A Snowflake

Saw this quote and wanted to share it.

Every avalanche begins with the movement of a single snowflake, and my hope is to move a snowflake.

THOMAS FREY

Doesn’t that make you want to DO something? This morning we are having our first snowfall of the season. It won’t accumulate much, but there is snow on the grassy places and on most every rooftop. Almost every plant is bowed over, not from the weight of the snow but the bitter cold. Wind chills are in the 20’s and teens. The birds are crowding the feeder.

Where do you need an avalanche in your sphere of influence? Can you attempt to move a snowflake and begin needed change? An avalanche is usually destructive, but what if that avalanche just clears away accumulated, unwanted debris?

Thomas Frey hopes to move a snowflake. What do you hope to do? Here is a little video from Nat Geo. Enjoy!

This leaf was the day before the snowfall. Yes, one was face up and next one was face down.

What would change if I moved some of the things cluttering up life? Bob cleans every drawer and closet annually. Not exactly an avalanche, but when I do it there tends to be a huge donation pile for Goodwill. As the weather brings us indoors more and more I look forward to moving some snowflakes and creating avalanches of unnecessary items to be taken out of here.

It is truly right, and good and joyful, to give you thanks, all-holy God, source of life and fountain of mercy. You have filled us and all creation with your blessing and fed us with your constant love; you have redeemed us in Jesus Christ and knit us into one body. Through your Spirit you replenish us and call us to fullness of life. The Great Thanksgiving, BCP

Yes, Father God, move heaven and earth to help us uncomplicate our lives and give more and more of our attention to the Holy Trinity. May we yield to you with grace and peace.

Posted on in Aging, Amazing Creations, Challenge, Faith, Humor, Joy, Memories, Nature, Poetry, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Thanks

Yes, Lord

When I was at the Convent November 9 for our JTIS meeting, I again remembered this prayer poem. Thirty one years later this is still my prayer.

Grow On! ©1994 by Molly Lin Dutina                

Wild the wind that sends the leaves aloft
Gleefully they chatter, “I’m free! I’m free!”
‘Falling’ leaves of autumn
Travel far from their beginning
Mixing with a flock of birds
As we, all earth bound, fail to see
Which is bird and which is leaf.

Mighty Force of God, capture me in Your updraft
Hurl me headlong in Your love
Drift me sideways with the angels
Take me far from all complacency
Where the familiar dulls my senses
Gently land me back at the place
On my Pilgrim Journey path where
You meet me with new courage
To grow on.

I wrote this while at the Convent of the Transfiguration in 1994. The wind caught the Japanese Maple leaves and the poem tells the rest of the story. I still need new courage to grow on. Lead me oh Thou Great Jehovah in your paths of truth and righteousness.

JTIS is our group for crochet, knit, any hand crafting an associate or friend wants to do. We started the group a decade or so ago. Most of us sat in silent retreat with one another, but did not know anything about each other. So we began with inviting the Cincinnati, (i.e., local) Associates of the Convent. The initials stand for Journey Together In Stitches. Not just sewing stitches, but laughter, too. Sadly, our group has begun to dwindle of late. One month another person and me were the only ones in attendance. This past week there was only one Associate and two sisters, another friend and me. I wonder if the group can be sustained?

I asked if anyone had any ideas how we might grow the group. I was told about the Methodists wanting to join communion with the Episcopalians. Perhaps we can invite Methodist women to join us?

I ask your prayer for this group to grow and prosper. We all need others to complete our walk. We need the stories of others. We need the encouragement of others. The joy and laughter cannot be substituted with things on line. The face-to-face meeting is special and to be cherished.

I know things change and evolve, but not everything needs to be thrown out. This fellowship has been working and in my opinion can continue to work for years to come. In AA they say, “Keep coming back. It works if you work it.” I pray the members of this group will return to coming back and working the magic of fellowship in Christ.

19 Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.

20 For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Matthew 18:19-20 KJV

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:24-25 NIV

 

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Faith, Nature, Poetry, Praise, Worship

Autumn Has Arrived

Right out my door
3 days later
Straight out my door
3 days later, even the light is so different!
Left out my door
3 days later, the orange gown on the grass
The entire neighborhood has black roofing material. This is Baker’s roof on the morning of 11/4/25, pure white.

Yep, Jack Frost has been getting busy with that brush of his! Do you recall the power of your childhood imagination?

“Jack Frost” by Gabriel Setoun

The door was shut, as doors should be,
Before you went to bed last night;
Yet Jack Frost has got in, you see,
And left your window silver white.

He must have waited till you slept;
And not a single word he spoke,
But pencilled o’er the panes and crept
Away again before you woke.

And now you cannot see the hills
Nor fields that stretch beyond the lane;
But there are fairer things than these
His fingers traced on every pane.

Rocks and castles towering high;
Hills and dales, and streams and fields;
And knights in armor riding by,
With nodding plumes and shining shields.

And here are little boats, and there
Big ships with sails spread to the breeze;
And yonder, palm trees waving fair
On islands set in silver seas,

And butterflies with gauzy wings;
And herds of cows and flocks of sheep;
And fruit and flowers and all the things
You see when you are sound asleep.

For, creeping softly underneath
The door when all the lights are out,
Jack Frost takes every breath you breathe,
And knows the things you think about.

He paints them on the window-pane
In fairy lines with frozen steam;
And when you wake you see again
The lovely things you saw in dream.

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Faith, Joy, Nature, Obedience, Praise, Thanks

The Garden at Church

Our church has a Creation Care Team. Each year they plant a vegetable and flower garden. It is a great opportunity for the children to learn where some of our food comes from. They also let the children (and adults) pick the vegetables (such as cherry tomatoes) and package them. The tomatoes were donated to Interparish Ministry. It gave me quiet satisfaction when a shopper at IPM chose one of our containers and was delighted to get fresh produce for their family.

The garden has now gone to seed. The giant sunflower stalks were allowed to remain for the birds.

Look closely at right stalk and you can spot a male cardinal.

The garden looks tiny from above but the plants were packed in there and produced so much food. Below is a short video that shows the birds flying to and fro gathering the seeds. The iPhone camera did not know quite where to focus, but I believe you can figure out what you are seeing! Watch for the shadows of the birds. Some are perched on banisters at the stairs.

Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? MT 6:26 NIV

All creatures look to you
    to give them their food at the proper time. Psalm 104:27 NIV

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Beagle, Faith, Humor, Joy, Memories, Thanks

Glimmers

Children bring me some of the best glimmers day in and day out. There was a tiny one (8 months old) in a shopping cart seat that smiled at me and melted my heart. She had never seen me before but there was no stranger fear in her!

This is our little neighbor down the street. She wants to befriend Lucky but is fearful of the dog. When she can summon the courage to pet Lucky she is so satisfied. Here is her Halloween costume. Her mom said she dressed herself and they are not certain what she is. I would answer, “Adorable!”

This is the same child who likes regular Doritos. At a neighborhood picnic she ate a small bag of them. Then she realized there were partial bags laying around. So she began collecting the partial bags and eating those, too! Squeezable joy, indeed!

I ordered a crochet kit because my daughter likes Gnomes. I thought this would make a good gift for her. I set myself a goal to finish it before my birthday. And I got it done!

He is about 6 inches tall.

yep, makes me laugh every time I think of him. He lives at her house now.