Category: Amazing Creations

Posted on in Aging, Amazing Creations, Covid 19, Faith, Just do it, Social Distancing, Thanks

Covid-19 Vaccine TOGETHER

I am so thankful for each of the scientists who worked on producing the vaccines. Bob and I have both had 2 doses of the Pfizer brand. After the second dose we both had a couple days of feeling just crummy. Had already planned to lay low and let our bodies adjust. We are much better now.

I must admit, I have been cringing the past few months with all the ads on TV about the vaccine and showing those needles filled and up close, in arms, too.

When I was three or four I played jump rope with my sister and her friends. They were trying to get me to do double dutch.

I fell. I broke my leg. I rode in the backseat of the car many miles to the hospital. I was put in traction for 6 weeks. (Think 1954.) My father was in the same hospital with one of his many heart attacks. In 1954 there was not much they could do about heart disease. At one point they rolled our beds into the same room so I could see him. When I came home from Good Samaritan Hospital I was in love with the Sisters of Charity who took such good care of me. I am certain I learned the Presence of Jesus while there. I remember them holding my hand when the doctor was ready to cast my leg. The wraps were hot and I was so afraid.

Once home I was also terrified of white coats and needles. I was so fearful my parents could not tell me about any doctor appointment the night before because I would get very worked up. I worked for years to overcome all of that trauma. And I succeeded.

As to those ads showing the injection and those needles. I was more than unsettled knowing I would get that twice. I did okay. The first nurse to administer it did not do well. The second nurse was great.

We are still washing our hands. Avoiding crowds. Wearing our masks. Keeping our distance. But there is a sense of coming freedom!

We still need to keep well so we can get moved and unpacked! Bob says this virus will likely become like the flu. We will eventually get annual injections. We are both in high risk categories, but so grateful for the vaccine developers, nurses who administer the injection and the other people who actually get the injection to help keep it from spreading and killing people.

TOGETHER, yes, we are in this together and we can get through this TOGETHER. I praise God giving the scientific community the wisdom and methodology to develop these vaccines. I rejoice that He is able to keep us. I cannot answer the questions about those who died, and those who grieve their passing. I have been holding my breath afraid that Bob or I might die before we get this house built. So far, it looks as if we are moving there together.

Regardless, I will continue to praise my Lord and my God. He is “worthy to receive glory and honor and power for You created all things and by Your will they were created.” Revelation 4:11 NIV

This song keeps following me and I decided it fits right here. All along there was another in the fire. And He remains with us.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and He will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand.  But even if He does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”

–Daniel 3:16-18, 25

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Faith, Humor, Nature

Spring Peepers

Bird song is not the most amazing sound, though now, March 18 they begin before dawn. Spring peepers also delight me with their evening songs. Psudacris crucifer. Not surprising the educators dropped the CROSS on the back of this tiny frog and now simply refer to it as an X.

Hearing a spring peeper is rather easy. Seeing one is a different challenge altogether! Once Bryan brought me one cupped in his hands. This video helps my imagination.

I just love it! Makes me laugh and know regardless of the ground hog nonsense and the thermometer, spring IS coming.

Keep your ears and eyes open!

And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying,

“To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”

–Revelation 5:13

“The heavens declare the glory of God,
    and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.”

–Psalm 19:1

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Faith, Music, Nature, Yield

What Pneuma Pleases

The wind chimes are playing in the breeze outside the office window this morning.

Daffodils in the front garden with tuned chimes. Narcissus in the side garden on land we do not own, but no one cares that we have planted there! This also the milkweed bed later in the year.

The giant tuned wind chime off the deck only rings when winds are strong. Harder to get a photo of this one!

Chimes tuned to deep notes, daffodils on back hill

I often listen to the Calm app and select Mystic fountain for the background sound. Can even make it my sleep sound. It is a dribbling source of water with wind chime ringing occasionally in the background. Why do I enjoy the wind chimes so much? First it reminds me the wind is moving.

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

John 3:8 NIV

The wind blows – is similar to the action of the Spirit. The Bible Knowledge Commentary, Volume 2, p. 281 says:

“This verse contains a wordplay which cannot be adequately expressed in English. The Greek word pneuma means both wind and Spirit. The work of the Spirit (pneuma) is invisible and mysterious like the blowing of the wind (pneuma). Man controls neither.”

Exactly! I cannot control the wind. I cannot control the Spirit of God or how It wants to use me. Like the wind chime, I can yield to that power.

Obstacles ought to set us singing. The wind finds voice, not when rushing across the open sea, but when hindered by the outstretched arms of the pine trees, or broken by the fine strings of an Aeolian harp. Then it has songs of power and beauty. Set your freed soul sweeping across the obstacles of life, through grim forests of pain, against even the tiny hindrances and frets that love uses, and it, too, will find its singing voice. —Selected

Streams in the Desert Devotional February 4

Obstacles set me singing? Not quite there yet, but working on being more like the Aeolian harp below. Set your freed soul sweeping across, through and against the challenges of life, and perhaps you, too, can sing !

Hit play for 3:45 minutes of wonder wind music!

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Nature, Poetry

Before Spring Fever Consumes Us

Lest we forget a few weeks ago, I decided to post this last hurrah to winter.

In the Throes of Deep Winter © 2014 Molly Lin Dutina

In the throes of deep winter
snow muffles our noisy world
playing havoc with human plans
the season reigns.

Globs of winter white
cascade from treetops
as wind whips their froth
no comforting cappuccino this.

More shovels, blowers, chemicals
as men reclaim their surfaces
trying to conquer black ice
on surface nature never intended.

Help us, just now, to be still, Lord
stilled as winter woods
stilled as inches deep snow
quiet, still.

Enjoy the crocuses and daffodils with great thanksgiving!

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Beagle, Faith, Nature

Miracle of Melting

Have you ever watched autumn leaves falling? Didn’t it seem rather miraculous that one week they were offering you shade and the next they were colored as if by crayon and tumbling through the breeze? The February snow reminded me of the leaves.

I had been complaining about snow that fell and melted in just a few hours. Once in Wisconsin it had been a delight to watch snow fall at the rate of an inch an hour.  Then we had snow in Ohio, upon older snow upon piling snow until there was an accumulation of about 14 inches that did not melt but stayed!

After two weeks of constant snow cover, birds that do not usually come to the feeder were suddenly eating the seed we put out. There was nothing else available except for a few bugs under tree bark.

Fourteen days in I was more than weary of wading into deep snowbanks. Sinking into deep snow while walking this dog who still refuses to ‘do her business’ in our yard was giving me a workout. Irritability was growing. At least I had long zip up boots instead of having to lace up ankle bracers!

My husband and I had been daydreaming about not having to bundle up against the arctic cold to walk the dog. We even mused about the time we could just grab her leash, hook her on and head out the door!

And then there began a slow but gradual thaw. At first there was only a tiny border around the base of the trees. Then on the hill patches of brown leaf detritus with birds hopping around, turning over leaves looking for lunch.

This miracle of melting snow, the return of rocks, grass, and soil – a marvelous discovery. Today I walked the dog amongst snow banked on the sides of the road. The melting was a constant sound as the water flowed out of the yards, across the seams in the sidewalk and down into the storm sewers. Gurgling water, not created by a man made fountain!

It was as if I was watching a holy transformation. Suddenly we do not require boots, scarf, hat, and gloves. Today it was 50 degrees! Tomorrow’s forecast is 51 degrees. Then almost every trace of snow will have vanished.  One more of the many miracles of our God.

By the breath of God ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen fast.

Job 37:10 ESV

Out walking on 2/27/21 there were still patches of snow!

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Poetry

One Autumn Week

One Autumn Week © Molly Lin Dutina

 
 The other morning
 woods bathed golden with
 sunlight shining through autumn leaves
 making butterscotch in LED format from on high,
 amazed.
 The depth of the woods has been
 secreted all summer in leaves and shadows.
  
 I awoke next morn to gray sky
 shaking pillowcases full of snowflakes
 upon fallen leaves and naked trunks.
 No surface was chilled enough to hold
 the flakes for more than a few moments
 murmurs of winter to come.
  
 Today the woods are bare
 the sunlight shows brown trunks and black
 punctuated by an occasional leaf
 all this
 within one autumn week.
Posted on in Amazing Creations, Memories, Nature

Picking Daffodils in The Rain

Picking Daffodils in The Rain © 2014 Molly Lin Dutina

 I ran out the door 
 to pick daffodils before the rain beat upon them.
 Wandering up the hill I looked over the white Trout Lilies,
 Then noticed something most unusual!
 The time for tapping maples has passed
 Yet here bubbles sap - at base of the walnut tree?
 No!
 Rain is simply percolating through the rugged bark!
 In concert with gravity it creates a bubble fountain of joy.
  
Trout Lily by r m dutina
Posted on in Amazing Creations, Beagle, Poetry

Exceeding Expectations

 Exceeding Expectations © Molly Lin Dutina  21-2-9 
 
 As forecast
 the snow fell in the night
 surpassing the expectations 
 of excited meteorologists
  
 There are no rough edges on our 
 world this morn
 only smooth brush strokes
 from the palate of Jack Frost
 he was heavy handed with his snow
 flat surfaces are now domed
 the squirrel baffle on the suet post 
 resembles the Pope’s miter cap
 the dog labors to walk at all
  
 Finally we let her off leash and she ran 
 in laps like a maniac
 leaving few traces of her joyful gallop
 when we got the bird feeder filled
 the chirpers seemed delighted
 all other foods were buried 
  
 Soon leaf blowers, shovelers, plow trucks
 snow blowers all joined the chorus of removal
 It will be days before the entire pavement is seen again
 unless some winter exceeds
 Expectations once again!

  
Posted on in Amazing Creations, Faith, Humor, Marriage and Memories, Traveling

Ireland 2011

We traveled to Ireland to celebrate my belated 60th birthday. When we went walking the first morning my ears immediately perked up to the lambs in the distance. They were crying and as they did it pierced my heart. I could not help but remember that I am under the care of the Great Shepherd, no matter what continent or island I am walking upon.

In the Old Testament God is called the Shepherd of His people.

“The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters” Psalm 23:1-2

In the New Testament Jesus refers to Himself as the Good Shepherd in John 10:11.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

As we meandered through the lanes of Glendalough I could tell by the cries we were getting closer and closer to the lamb. Then we turned a corner and there it was! Bob caught this tremendous photo of it on the hillside. There were other ewes and lambs around it.

r m dutina

Right after he snapped the photo I busted out the laughing as the lamb sneezed, and then rolled a bit down the hillside. What a sense of humor my God has!