I could have danced all night I could have danced all night And still have begged for more
I could have spread my wings And done a thousand things I've never done before
I'll never know what made it so exciting Why all at once my heart took flight I only know when he began to dance with me I could have danced, danced, danced all night
Yes, after 56 years I am more than willing to dance with Robert Milan. We have FUN together. Sometimes he carries his teasing and jokes too far for my emotion at a given moment, but overall, we have fun.
We create humor and jokes between ourselves. We are friends, yes, even best friends. There are times he gets on my last nerve and I get on his, but we each get over that and move on.
On this date in Edges of His Ways Amy wrote:
It is the little things of life, the minute, unimportant-looking things, that are most likely to shatter our peace, because they are so small that we are very likely to fight them ourselves instead of looking up at once to our Strong God, our Barrier between us and them. “Close the gate, or bar up the way, as the cloudy pillar formed a barricade between the Egyptians and Israel” is Kay’s note.
The deaths of Ginny and Chuck Lynch have taught us how short life is, how unexpectedly death can come and now is the time to love and laugh, to cherish and sing.
When I saw Bob Dutina for the first time, at a distance, it really was love at first sight. I have never understood exactly how our lives came to be together; however, I am grateful and blessed to have been given the gift of this incredible marriage.. Thanks be to God!
Psalm 90:12. So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts to wisdom.
I posted this with wrong date. Then it did not seem to post this morning. So here is another attempt!!
I write about this many times because I am still learning the importance of gratitude. I studied the book by Ann Voskamp entitled One Thousand Gifts and did the work of finding a thousand things to be grateful for. Mind you, there were to be no repeats from day to day. Her goal was for us to “Find Everyday Graces.”
There have been many research projects proving the benefits of doing this practice.
Recently while listening on Insight Timer the meditation instructor mentioned write 3 gratitudes, large or small. Yes, I know about those. Then he went further and said, “#2. Explain why you are grateful and how they improve your life.”
Yes, I have likely thought that while recording the gratitude, but never wrote out the reasons why. Research shows that if we will write things out, especially with pen or pencil, they make a greater impact upon us.
Then he went on to, “#3: Notice how focus upon gratitude shifts awareness from unfairness towards appreciation.”
Oh boy! Don’t most of us love to harp on things we perceive as unfair!?!
So while writing this blog I stopped to perform the three steps the teacher proposed for expanding gratitude. Yes, I literally stopped typing and wrote out with a pen the answers to his expanded examination of gratitude. It actually takes less time than one might think it would! And I do find myself more at peace and delighted with the three gratitudes.
If I type my responses out for you, I am not at all certain they will retain your attention. The benefits however are not to be discounted.
Word Press says that so far this blog post only requires a one minute or so reading. So here goes. I have often blogged about crocheting, cooking and gardening. They are my three topics.
1. I am able to crochet again
2. I enjoy cooking
3. Nasturtium blessings
Okay there are three but they are not explained at all.
#2. Why grateful? How it improves you life.
I am grateful I can create with yarn, be it a coaster, hat or blanket. Crochet improves my life with gifts to give, plus the joy of sharing patterns and the craft with Dana, Bonnie, Phyllis, etc.
Cooking is a creative outlet for me, but I am glad we can eat out when we want so I don’t have to cook dinner daily. Cooking improves my life because I use better ingredients and less salt than restaurants. It is also fun to share what I cook with others.
I am grateful for nasturtiums because so long as I pick them they bloom on and on. No matter how many I pick they bloom right into the frost season. They also remind me of our first year of marriage.
Nasturtiums improve my life because through them I can bring sunshine into the house with different shades of yellow and orange. I also get to share a bouquet with others. 🙂
Our nasturtiums with one rose
Gratitude shifts from unfair to appreciative.
After 55 years of the craft to have to stop crochet was sad, but the steroid injection in my thumb joint, then giving it time to heal, learning a new way to hold my hook differently and being content to crochet less all flowed from the change in ability. Perhaps this old dog has actually learned a new trick?!?
I have gratitude that I could in recent years offer meals to Pete (RIP) and Chuck and Ginny (RIP). The gratitude helps relieve the grief of their passing. Soon Kathy will move back to Florida for six or seven months, (that too is grief for me). I suppose I might share her portions with Jennifer, Judi and Micky, or Jerry and Diane?
The summer was blistering and miserable. I got nasturtium seeds in the ground before surgery. Then I had to get family, friends and neighbors to pick the flowers so they would not go to seed. I was often frustrated that I could not just go do it myself. (In fact, it was one of the first things I actually did outdoors once I could bear weight on the boot.) I have a better appreciation now for these sturdy little annuals and the friends who helped me in my garden when I was unable.
There. That is expansion on the three simple gratitudes. It did not take much time to write it out long hand. Studies show that is more impactful on our brains than typing, though I mostly type my journal now because of arthritis in my hands.
I hope this blog will inspire you to try this exercise. At least once a week? Look at your life, find three things to be grateful for, and then answers the questions.
#1. Write 3 gratitudes, large or small. #2. Explain why you are grateful and how they improve your life. #3. Notice how focus upon gratitude shifts awareness from unfairness towards appreciation.
Ann Voskamp wrote, “And I ride the undulating wave of grace, this lifting higher and higher in grace, the surging crest of joy, and this plunging lower and lower in humble thankfulness only to rise yet higher in grace.” Page 108 One Thousand Gifts Devotional
Lectio 365 wrote this quote from Nouwen on his feast day:
The love that often leaves us doubtful, frustrated, angry, and resentful is the second love, that is to say, the affirmation, affection, sympathy, encouragement, and support we receive from our parents, teachers, spouses, and friends. We all know how limited, broken, and very fragile that love is… The radical good news is that the second love is only a broken reflection of the first love and that the first love is offered to us by a God in whom there are no shadows… The knowledge of Jesus’ heart is a knowledge of the heart. And when we live in the world with that knowledge, we cannot do other than bring healing, reconciliation, new life, and hope wherever we go. https://lectio365.24-7prayer.com/share/devotionals/2026-09-21/morning?locale=en
It has at times been difficult to offer the love God gives us to those around us. We knew for more than six months that both Chuck and Ginny had fatal diseases. We made an effort to take them meals, visit them when hospitalized, send texts, cut flower arrangements, anything we could think of to cheer them. It was not always easy to extend our hands and hearts to them, but we felt the Lord was asking us to do it. So we did, even when our own hearts were reluctant.
Now Chuck is dead. Ginny is dead. Our local restaurant keeps this sticker on the counter for anyone who wishes to take it home. It has been on our kitchen counter for many months urging us into obedience to God. John Wesley is reported as having said,
“Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can.”
Our time for doing good for Chuck and Ginny is over. He sent us a basket of African violets and philodendron vines just before he died. He had no idea that Bob had recently told me he would like to have another African violet! It is such a gift of love. The card on the flowers reads: “Thank you guys for your compassion, prayers, and most of all for your love. We love you, Chuck and Ginny” I see the flowers and miss them both.
The house across the street where they lived is empty now. The sons have all gone home to prepare for another funeral or celebration of life, this time for Chuck. I keep getting startled when I realize there is no one there.
Icon of Henri Nouwen by Kelly Lattimore
I hope our efforts reflected what Henri Nouwen wrote. This is not to brag to you, but to show that we never really know what the outcome of our loving, our extending the hands of Jesus to another … we never quite know what the impact will be upon the other person. All we can do is try to follow the example Jesus gives us and obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit. May the God and Father of us all be pleased. (Ephesians 4:6)
Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. James 2:15-17 NIV
But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. “And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Matthew 6: 6, 16-17 RSV
These words jumped out at me: Father who is in secret, Father who sees in secret, Father who is in secret.
Pray to your Father in secret. Talk with God in secret. Do we?
Once a friend named Char told me she talked to God all day long. Then she asked, “Am I doing it right?” I told her she was practicing faith exactly right. We are told to talk with God about everything, all the time. Not to be seen and lauded by others, but for that personal, holy, Spirit- filled relationship with the Lord God Almighty. This is what Jesus died and rose again for – to give us this ability through the power of the Holy Spirit.
in the 1600s Brother Lawrence taught, “That we should establish ourselves in a sense of God’s presence by continually conversing with Him. That it was a shameful thing to quit His conversation to think of trifles and fooleries.”
“With him the set times of prayer were not different from other times; that he retired to pray, according to the directions of his superior, but that he did not want such retirement., nor ask for it, because his greatest business dd not divert him from God.”
Can you imagine having developed your prayer life to where nothing could divert you from conversing with God? Have you arrived there? I certainly have not.
“As he proceeded in his work he continued his familiar conversation with his Maker, imploring His grace, and offering to Him all his actions.”
Yes, Lord, yes! That we might please always be in this secret communication with the throne. I never want the sacrifice of Jesus to be in vain as far as my life goes. As I bend the knee of my heart before You I reach for Your Presence within and around me. Amen.
Here is a short video about the story of Brother Lawrence. I have it starting at the discussion about conversing with God.
Seems like wherever I turn these days folks are seeking direction and fulfillment for their everyday lives. I keep returning again and again to Rumi, the poet, theologian, Islamic scholar, and Sufi Mystic. I am not looking to replace my Christian faith, but this guy understood the depths of mysticism and genuine faith.
Merriam-Webster defines mysticism as a religious practice based on the belief that knowledge of spiritual truth can be gained by praying or thinking deeply. I know Jesus would agreed.
Be like a tree and let the dead leaves drop. There are quite a few dead leaves dropping around here and summer is not even complete. How about the things we fill our lives with that do not fulfill us? Can we drop some of those and be more like the tree described in the Psalms?
Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked or take the path that sinners tread or sit in the seat of scoffers, 2 but their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night. 3 They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper. Psalm 1:1-13 NRSVUE
Whatever lifts the corners of your mouth, trust that. There is a local billboard that states “If you see someone without a smile, give them one of yours.” It is powerful advice. Our worship service has children participate especially in collecting the offering. There is also a special children’s sermon that is delightful. I am always refreshed by the children. And they know how to smile!
Before I had the recent foot surgery if I saw someone in a wheelchair I made an effort to get on their eye level and greet them with a smile. Since I have so recently driven electric wheelchair shopping carts in so many different stores I am even more inclined to do that. It is an entirely different world down there. Most people just hurry past and ignore those who are seated. Try giving those folks a smile of yours! If you have never driven one of those carts, the next time you see them lined up for charging you should try one, just to gain a new perspective! Of course, if there is only one or two please leave it for those of us who cannot walked the area of American mega-stores! There are some people who would see me reaching for an item and ask if they could help me with it. There is still kindness all around us!
Hard, but oh so true. Constantly flowing, never clinging, always embracing the new. Wowsers. Here are just a couple of short songs to keep you in the ways of a river today.
This series of books written by Sharon Garlough Brown features 4 women on their spiritual journey, ending with Book 4, entitled An Extra Mile. I finally started reading book 4 and have been staying awake longer at night due to the story. Brown is a terrific author! Once a librarian told me you know it is a good book when you wonder what the characters are doing when you are not reading.
In part 2 of this book, Page 166, a couple of the women are experiencing an experiential prayer journey to the cross on Holy Saturday. The fourth prayer station is described as follows:
Three dead trees were secured in five-gallon buckets with duct tape and rocks. Draped through the bare branches of the trees was a long black cloth, at the top of which was painted the silhouette of a weeping woman. Blue beads and crystals representing tears hung from the branches, and at the base of one of the trees was a puddle fashioned from turquoise tulle.
“Jesus Speaks to Weeping Women”, the sign read. Beside it was the Scripture text from Luke 23:27-31
A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. 28 Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. 29 For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ 30 Then
“‘They will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!”’
31 For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
I have read the Bible through several times and studied particular books many times. I did not recall this passage at all. See why I like her writing? The image of the dead trees, the way the woman’s tears were depicted; certainly her church must have had this display once?
Two characters stop at this prayer station. The author writes out their experiences. These two paragraphs drew me enough to turn down the page in my book (rather than look for a pen or pencil as I read into the night). Page 170
But I can’t fake joy, Lord. What I have right now to offer you is sorrow. Gratitude, too, but also sorrow. I miss ___ _____.I miss my work. I miss my space. I grieve what was. I grieve what will never be. I grieve.
But I’m not the only one who grieves. I sit and stare at these dead trees watered by tears and find myself strangely comforted at the thought of being part of a community of the brokenhearted and the disappointed who keep watch for redemption. For resurrection. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Let that be true, Lord! Not just for me. For all of us.
This has been a difficult summer in our household. Recovery from the foot surgery. Storms. Multiple deaths in our neighborhood. Storms. Bob got really sick and is on multiple inhalers and treatments for his lungs. Another death looming. Garden going to seed despite the efforts of friends and both myself and Bob .
I know you invite me to trust you as Redeemer, Lord. Not to expect you to be the God who fixes broken things or prevent brokenness from happening but to trust you to be the One who redeems broken things, makes your presence known in the midst of all that is broken, and keeps us company as we grieve. You do make all things well. Like Julian of Norwich’s prayer. All shall be well. And all shall be well. And all manner of things shall be well. Someday. No matter what.
God is with us in anything and everything that happens to us in this life. Somehow everything that happens to us in this life can form and shape and prepare us for life beyond this world as well.
If you have never read this series of books I cannot urge you enough to look into them! Book 1 is entitled Sensible Shoes and introduces you to the four main characters. Those characters are developed through the all four books and certainly worth the read.
To be astonished is one of the surest ways of not growing old too quickly. SIDONIE-GABRIELLE COLETTE
Around our neighborhood we are each looking for this elixir, ways of not growing old too quickly. Oh Lord, help us find soul-filling healthy astonishment this week! There has been a lot of death around here for the past year. One gal wondered if we should walk around burning sage and praying?
When was the last time you were astonished?
Bob and I decided not to go to the beach in September. It is just too soon after my foot surgery. Instead we will likely go to the Amish country in northern Ohio and visit our favorite cheese shop, Pearl Valley. Yes, I ran out of the very large order we placed some months ago. Besides, for reasons unbeknownst to us they do not ship sliced cheese? Good excuse for a short get away.
I heard the monarchs are making a comeback. That made my heart skip a beat!
The Butterfly Connection reports “According to a recent report from the World Wildlife Fund, the eastern monarch butterfly population has increased by 64% during the 2025–2026 winter season.
Remember the severe thunderstorms and tornadoes that caused many to lose power in many parts of the country including ours? Now that Bob is serving on the HOA board again, he made a call to the folks in charge of our retention pond and the fountain that keeps the water moving. The timer was out of whack. She said that fountains all over town are messed up due to the power outages. That never crossed my mind before! I imagine they are running from subdivision to subdivision resetting timers!
Not our actual pond, but you get the idea!
I saw Ed walking down the sidewalk. He is a neighbor who is suddenly father of two lovely children. When we first moved in he and his wife were trying to train their large black Doodle dog, Maverick, to walk calmly on a leash. They were having a time of it, but finally prevailed.
Maverick is VERY well behaved now. Then they had their first child and Maverick had to learn how to walk alongside the baby stroller with Keegan. Then they were gifted with sweet Ember girl. Maverick then had to navigate alongside a stroller for two!
Ed just walked past pushing the newest stroller which allows Keegan to stand on the back while Ember rides in the seat. He was moving at a fast clip. And there was Maverick sedately keeping pace with the family parade. Those sorts of this bring me awe. This young family has blessed us many times over. When I had to miss Ember’s first birthday party because of the foot surgery they came to see us afterwards. Ember used to cry when she saw me, but even with my foot elevated and iced she just smiled and cooed. Keegan was well behaved as he marveled at being inside our home.
I am in awe at how blessed our lives are. I do not fully understand it. I do adhere to the tile plaque in our hallway declaring people are more important than things.
What brings you awe? Try to come up with one thing, then go for two!
You have stirred in us the desire to praise you, for you have made us for yourself and our heart is restless until it comes to rest in you. Grant me, O Lord, to know and understand whether first to pray to you or to praise you; whether first to know you or call upon you. Augustine’s Confessions https://augustinesconfessions.com/chapter1.html
Which do you do first first? Pray or praise God? Call upon God or know God?
I came across this poem set to music after reading Amy Carmichael’s chapter entitled Rose from Brier in her collected writings in the book by the same title. (Pages 51-53) I found it enchanting. The photography, also, especially the raindrops on the pavement! She heard this poem as “a little song that sang within me” as she longed to be at a welcoming service in the House of Prayer, but could not leave her bed.
Amy Carmichael Rose From Brier
She describes the sweetbrier of England in contrast to the roses of India. “I saw a little, low, very prickly bush in an old-fashioned English garden; it was covered with inconspicuous pink roses. But the wonder of the bush was its all-pervading fragrance, for it was a sweetbrier. And I saw one who has long been in the land where no thorns grow, cutting a spray from the bush, stripping the thorns off and giving it to me. May these for whom a rose from my brier may be caused to blow, those who do indeed walk the dear familiar ways of home, and road, and street, as unregarded as a breath of air, but there in love and longing, always there, find no pricking thorn on the stem of this rose from my brier.
“I think that when He whom our soul loveth comes so near to us, and so gently helps our human weakness, then what Madame Guyon wrote more than three hundred years ago becomes a present truth. We are borne over the oppression that would hold us down, we mount up on wings, we find a secret sweetness in our brier. But it is not of us. It’s Love that lifts us up. It is Love that is the sweetness.
“Is the one who reads this in a great weariness, or the exhaustion that follows a sore hurt, or in the terrible grasp of pain? He who loves as no one else can love understands to the uttermost, is not far away. He wants us to say, He can give it to us to say, “My Lord, my Love, I am content with Thee.”
Beautiful pink and yellow flower of dog-rose, sweet brier
In America we often call the same plant a Dog Rose. My neighbor has them in her backyard. I will have to experiment next spring to find out if the foliage is also fragrant as the internet reports!
I find the fragrance of Amy’s writings a gift to my soul.
Joan sends a weekly e-newsletter. This one really spoke to me. She wrote about the Rule of St. Benedict.
In her recent newsletter she pointed out:
“The Rule gives us three criteria by which to assess our likelihood of ever being truly happy. Not simply satisfied, that is, but genuinely contented by life. Happy.
“First, if you have not attached your sense of self to having the best of everything, you won’t be crushed when you see someone with things that cost more than yours. You’ll be happy to have what you truly need.
“Second, if you don’t need to be the center of attention, you will be happy just to be part of a group of good people who do good things together. The thirst for attention is a toxic brew. If it comes—in athletics, in government, in public activities—you will be scrutinized. And if it doesn’t, you’ll be depressed.
“Third, if you don’t expect a constant deluge of praise, privilege, and preeminence, then not experiencing those things will not disturb you.
“The Rule is straightforward: If you do not depend on exemption, advantage, and personal prerogatives to measure your happiness, your success, your life will become its own reward. A walk by the lake at night will dilute all the pressures of the day. An appointment for supper with friends will be enough to get you up happy in the morning. Then whatever the turn of the social system around you, your love of life unadorned and unaffected will sustain you. from Radical Spirit: Twelve Ways to Live a Free and Authentic Life by Joan Chittister
If you have not read anything written by her, you might want to try. She is the author of 26 books.
Love of life unadorned and unaffected … quite a concept in contemporary America. I am giving it a try!
I have been experiencing this and trying to express it since the surgery on June 15. Still clumping around in the boot and hoping this cheers those of you who are struggling.
August 15 Amy Carmichael from Edges of His Ways For the tempted. (1) Psalm 77:3, P.B.V.: When I am in heaviness, I will think upon God. “Have you noticed how, when you are in heaviness, you are always tempted to think about yourself–your uselessness, your failures, your nothingness–yourself in one way or another? I have known this temptation and have constantly found it tormenting others. To draw one’s thoughts to oneself is a long-tried and most successful wile of the devil.
“Straight against this is the word we have in this psalm, “When I am in heaviness, I will think upon God.” I will turn my thoughts from myself to my Father who loves me and does not stop loving me, though I am useless and a failure and less than nothing at all.”
The meditation app Calm on the same day brought forth the idea of how we fixate on certain things as required for our contentment. We are ever reaching for one thing or the other than what is for our happiness and contentment. Both Amy Carmichael and Tamara Levitt encourage us to find peace right where we are. Right now. With things as they are.
Tamara says, “The stories we tell ourselves about our lives suggest there is always something missing, some incomplete piece keeping us from happiness.” She reminds us that it is “unhealthy to place our happiness on some ever-elusive external goal.” She challenges us to find satisfaction with who we are right now. Amy stated we might feel “useless and a failure and less than nothing.” Tamra suggests we turn loose of the idea of something missing and cling instead to what is here, right now, as enough.
Tamara says, “When we rely on external factors as the key to happiness we only perpetuate our discontentment. She quote B. Grace Bullock as saying, “Once you shed your distorted lens and self-doubting beliefs, there’s a good chance you’ll discover that you’re pretty awesome. And that the light burning within you is a far more accurate reflection of who you are than the stories you have been telling yourself.” That is when contentment becomes possible.
Shed your distorted lens
So my struggle the last couple of months has been to stay in the present, realize that even with physical limitations I can turn my heart and mind towards God. If I stop telling myself distorted stories and think upon my God, contentment is possible. Just now.
