Category: Focus

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Faith, Focus, Nature, Obedience, Praise, Prayer, Trust

Hummers Know?

The hummingbird is flitting from one jewelweed flower to the next, and there are hundreds of flowers out there. I read they know every flower they visit. How do they remember all of those flowers? So tiny, pausing only a short moment to drink from each, how do they keep track?

Flash of green darting among the green leaves and orange flowers, you are a marvel.

It has been reported they can recognize humans!

Hummingbirds have excellent memory and pattern recognition skills. There is evidence that they can remember and recognize individual humans, particularly if that person frequently interacts with them or feeds them. However, more research is needed to fully understand the extent of hummingbirds’ ability to differentiate between people. https://www.hummingbird101.com/do-hummingbirds-recognize-individual-people/

What?!? Those tiny creatures who migrate thousands of miles can know me? We have seen them come to the kitchen window and look in as if to find us or remind us to refill their feeder.

Hummingbirds remember every flower they visit and when it will have fresh nectar again!?!

Perhaps even more impressive than their spatial memory is hummingbirds’ temporal memory—their ability to track when flowers replenish their nectar. Studies by Dr. Susan Healy and colleagues revealed that wild hummingbirds can remember the refill schedules of hundreds of individual flowers, returning to them just as the nectar reaches optimal levels. https://www.animalsaroundtheglobe.com/hummingbirds-remember-every-flower-7-326678/

They report that the hummingbird’s brain is roughly the size of a grain of rice. I want to know if that is cooked or uncooked rice? Imagine their ability in contrast to ours! I can walk from the office to the bedroom and forget why I was going to the bedroom. Remember every flower? Human faces? What an amazing creature!

Each time I think I am finished blogging about these amazing birds who frequent the late summer jewelweed I find even more reasons to marvel over them.

They were His idea from the beginning!

And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky.” 21 So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” Genesis 1:20-22

Thank you God for the blessing of birds and flowers!

Posted on in Aging, Amazing Creations, Faith, Focus, Look, Nature, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Thanks, Worship, Yield

Seasons Changing Heat Remains Here

As seasons change I am noticing the change in sunlight and find myself anticipating the daybreak. Then I read this quote –

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.

HENRY DAVID THOREAU

Some mornings I actually awake before dawn! Turning the clocks back help me eventually get up earlier. “Reawaken with an infinite expectation of the dawn.” Our neighbor Chuck is dying from the leukemia he has fought for the last 12 months. The doctors say there is nothing more they can do for him. He is not responding to treatment. From listening to his heart’s desire to go be with Jesus, I imagine he only has an infinite expectation of waking in the Light of Christ, not the dawn of the sun, but the Son.

Those of us less aware of our dying are called by Thoreau to reawaken and KEEP ourselves awake by an infinite expectation of the dawn. How are you at this admonition?

When was the last time you looked towards the east while it was still dark on the earth and had an expectation of the dawn? A new start! A new day! Another attempt to enjoy life. Life in the here and now? Perhaps you can arise early tomorrow and be like the watchman in the Psalms?

I wait for the Lord
    more than watchmen wait for the morning,
    more than watchmen wait for the morning. Psalm 130:6 NIV

Posted on in Challenge, Faith, Focus, Just do it, Obedience, Prayer, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Trust, Yield

Present

This morning my meditation sites seemed to all converge. Don’t you just love when that happens? God uses all the sources around us to point to the Divine will for us.

Challenge to me is can I stay right here in the present moments as they unfold this day? Not worry about if I can attend the book discussion group this evening. Having no fret about completing my writing so I can teach a new pattern to someone tomorrow morning. No concern about something I said or did yesterday. Just right here. Right now. This present moment, enjoy this gift.

Then the Scripture meditation on another app:

12 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal, but I press on to lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have laid hold of it, but one thing I have laid hold of: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal, toward the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. 15 Let those of us, then, who are mature think this way, and if you think differently about anything, this, too, God will reveal to you. 16 Only let us hold fast to what we have attained. Philippians 3:13-16 NRSVUE

Paul urges us to turn loose of the past, anything we have already laid hold of we should keep, but not dwell there in that past accomplishment. Press on toward “the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” Right here I want to embrace You Lord and Your will for me.

It has been said that if you do not know what God is asking you to do right now then obey the last thing that you heard. In other words, if I do not have new marching orders, do the last thing I heard. How do you accomplish that? Are you obedient to what you have been told or are you always seeking for something else, some new thing you might like better?

Trying to find artwork to illustrate this blog entry I found runners and then more runners (that does not apply to me as I barely walk right now) then even worse, a guy walking a tightrope over the Grand Canyon (I fear heights). For me to ‘press on toward’ means do not stop where you are for more than this moment. On toward the goal.

Along with Paul I do not consider this a done deal. It requires my discipline and obedience daily, at times hourly. “Let those of us, then, who are mature think this way.” Ouch that could hurt on days when I am stuck in some other kind of thinking! The good Lord does not leave us to ourselves. Paul goes on to write “and if you think differently about anything, this, too, God will reveal to you.”

Holy Spirit come please, correct my wrong thinking and help me to follow hard after the thoughts of the Lord God Almighty. Deliver me from brain habits and flesh habits and world habits. Help me recognize and cling to Christ-like habits. Make me wholly Yours. Amen.

Posted on in Aging, Book quotes, Faith, Focus, Humor, Joy, Look, Yield

I Like This One!

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.

“That’s not just a small bump—it’s a meaningful surge that has scientists, conservationists, and butterfly lovers celebrating.” https://thebutterflyconnection.com/a-hopeful-turn-monarch-butterflies-are-making-a-comeback/

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?

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Challenge, Faith, Focus, Joy, Look, Nature, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Surrender, Thanks

Let’s Regroup on the Topic of Awe

Do you recall my reference to the TIME magazine article on Brief Health, 5 ways to experience a little bit of awe every day? https://treasuresinplainsight.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=23481&action=edit I also wrote a couple times about Glimmers. I think I mentioned it 6 times? Here is the first Glimmer post https://treasuresinplainsight.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=21104&action=edit

Have you been seeking those experiences? The 5 ways in short are 1. what makes you say “whoa”? 2. Think small. 3. It can happen on a screen, (nature, short lab videos, etc.) 4. Awe is a reset button and 5. Pay attention to goodness.

Our deathly ill neighbors have large flower boxes on either side of the front walk. Last spring, a healthy friend of theirs planted annual seeds in the boxes for them. Ginny has since passed away. I went clumping over in my orthotic boot one day and could not get through to the front door as the sidewalk was overgrown with flowers blooming and falling all over the place. Zinnias that were over 3 feet tall, sunflowers falling down, and under it all a riot of marigolds. I am still trying to offer meals to Chuck. Last Sunday I asked Bob to go with me bearing clippers and a bucket so we could cut back the jungle to get to the porch. We disturbed a parade of butterflies and bees. As I cut one stem I noticed a lovely bug. At first I called it a leaf hopper. (See opening photo) On closer inspection it was more likely one of the zillion kinds of grasshoppers. And as I marveled at its intricate body I realized I was holding my breath for a moment in awe. There it is!

From the bedroom window this morning I could tell the weather has finally changed with lower humidity, MUCH LOWER, and cooler temperatures. Then my eye was captured by the sunlight through the elephant ears. No rabbits lately, but this was indeed a delight. Breathe in the awe with me.

We attended church this morning with me in sandals, left one had top one strap entirely unfastened, no boot! Though the day held delightful weather our outdoor service was changed to indoor due to other issues. After being spread out in chairs under the towering oak trees in the parking lot there was an enhanced sense of intimacy once indoors. I was amazed how many people greeted me with well wishes for thorough healing. The arms of Christ were certainly all about me. The doctor had said he still wanted me to wear the boot in public. I admit I was a bit nervous with all those other feet around me, especially the children. I look forward to serving at the altar again as soon as I can climb the stairs.

What a glorious day of awe and wonder. Instead of rainstorms right now there are small, pure white, puffy clouds floating slowly past in an incredibly blue sky. Life is truly a wonder. The TIME article suggests taking a 15-minute “awe walk.” Just look at the world with fresh eyes, pay attention to the details around you, and engage your senses.” Slow down for the details and let awe capture you!

Consider the work of God;
    who can make straight what he has made crooked?

In the day of prosperity, be joyful, and in the day of adversity, consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that mortals may not find out anything that comes after them. Ecclesiastes 7:13-15 NRSVUE

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Book quotes, Faith, Focus, Illness and Health, Music, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Surrender, Trust, Yield

Struggle Continues

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.

Posted on in Book quotes, Challenge, Faith, Focus, Just do it, Look, Rest, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Surrender, Thanks, Trust

Amy and Tamara Inspire Again

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.

As I am.

Right here.

Give it try!

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Faith, Focus, Nature, Thanks, Traveling

What Do You See?

Bob took me for a drive around the Lake at East Fork State Park as we ate our soft serve ice cream cones from Legendairy in Bethel. This little pond is one of our favorite places to watch the seasons unfold.

First I saw duck weed, lots and lots of duckweed

Then lily pads

But wait are those pink blooms? pink water lilies?

Nope, those are wild mallows blooming on the edge of the pond

Here I have blown up the image for you

Earlier I mentioned our mallows in the garden. I have been delighted by all the wild mallows I am seeing this year. The lake edge is a perfect example!

We took one turn off and as we came out I spied a plant with a butterfly. By the time it registered from my brain to my mouth we had passed it. On our way back I asked Bob to turn in at that spot. Here is what we found.

There are at least 3 butterflies in this photo

I especially wanted to show him (below) the shape of the sepal and how it seemed an extension of the plant’s stem.

The center flower cupped by sepal

The plant is commonly known as a teasel. “The dried heads of the plant were once used in the textile industry to raise the nap on woolen cloth.” Wikipedia

The butterfly is a silver spotted skipper.

Great ice cream. Terrific, relaxing drive.

Praise the Lord from the earth,
You great sea creatures and all the depths;
8 Fire and hail, snow and clouds;
Stormy wind, fulfilling His word;
9 Mountains and all hills;
Fruitful trees and all cedars;
10 Beasts and all cattle;
Creeping things and flying fowl;
11 Kings of the earth and all peoples;
Princes and all judges of the earth;
12 Both young men and maidens;
Old men and children.

13 Let them praise the name of the Lord,
For His name alone is exalted;
His glory is above the earth and heaven. Psalm 148: 7-13 NKJV

Posted on in Aging, Amazing Creations, Collection of Quotes, Faith, Focus, Illness and Health, Joy, Just do it, Look, Nature, Praise, Prayer, Spiritual discipline, Thanks

A Little Bit of Awe

Bob reads Time magazine. I occasionally pick it up if there is an article that catches my attention. In the throes of this recovery from surgery we both caught a wicked cold. The headache and coughing are exhausting. When I moved his magazine this article caught my attention, “5 Ways to Experience a Little Bit of Awe Every Day. ”My first reaction was , “Not again!?”

I was finding it difficult to think about awe in the midst of the ripping sound of Velcro, hot ortho boot, inability to move about the house without forethought and planning, gripping abdominal pain from coughing so long and so hard. Now someone wants me to find awe?

When I finally stopped long enough to read the article I realized the exercise was exactly what I needed. Dacher Keltner a psychologist and author is quoted as describing awe as the feeling you get “when you encounter things that are vast and beyond your frame of reference,” shifting attention away from self and toward something larger.

You can read the article here. https://www.pressreader.com/australia/time-international/20260727/281754161083947

I read through the list of 5 ways and made myself look away from the coughing and the lingering limitation to my walking ability. I found indeed there could be a shift in my thinking. I knew this to be true, but have not experienced this noticeable shift in several months. The shift is very difficult when you feel unwell.

For example, we had some nasty storms pass through our area recently. One tornado came within a handful of miles from our house. We watched the neighbor’s trees twist and turn in the wind as never before and the elephant ears in our garden were being whipped into a frenzy. I wondered what would happen to the newly bloomed mallow flowers on the shrub next to the giant ears. Two days later we were both marveling at how the flowers seemed to be entwined and hugged by the elephant ears in our garden. In other words, the plants were still standing and prospering despite all the storm threw at them.

If you don’t feel good and are limited in your physical function one challenge you don’t want to encounter is the invasion of the tiny black ants. One treat I am allowed is a couple of ginger snaps or a few select low carb cookies with my morning coffee. I opened the can with the coconut cookies and it was literally crawling with ants. So many in fact that I just threw the cookies away. There was no way to pick off a few and save the cookies.

Bob helped me pull things out of the closet and vacuum up ants. I sprayed bug killer and shut the pantry door. If would take hours to wash things off and replace them in the pantry. By the time I was finished I was exhausted. At some point in the housekeeping event I remembered the verse about consider the ant you sluggard, while contemplating how do they even get inside this house? Look they are congregating around the edges of the dishwasher. How do I spray there?

6 Go to the ant, you lazybones;
    consider its ways and be wise.
7 Without having any chief
    or officer or ruler,
8 it prepares its food in summer
    and gathers its sustenance in harvest.
9 How long will you lie there, O lazybones?
    When will you rise from your sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little slumber,
    a little folding of the hands to rest,
11 and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
    and want, like an armed warrior. Proverbs 6:6-11 NRSVUE

We find those tiny critters on the dining room table. I will occasionally find one walking up my arm. I am getting to the point if I feel like something is crawling on me I check to be sure it is not an ant.

There is the reset button! This invasion did not have to be more fuel for frustration and despair! We may never win the battle with the ants, but we can hold a little bit of territory. There are likely ten thousand upon ten thousand ants living in our backyard alone. When Bob pulls up a solar light to change the battery he often encounters them going mad up his arm and all over the light. A moment ago he saw none. Then wham he is battling for his own skin.

This marvel is occurring in all the neighbors houses. Some even find the ants where this is no food about such as in an office. Yet the ants explore and send out sentries and food gatherers. Can we just for a moment be in awe of them?

This awe is one thing that makes it possible to turn away from the attention my ailing self demands and look to the Lord. This marvel, even for a moment, helps me move towards praise and pray again. It is no slight thing to find a way to focus on the Risen Christ when your body of flesh is clamoring so loudly. Here again is a big reason why I admire Amy Carmichael so much. Her writings delineate her turning away from the flesh and the world to God Almighty.

You might want to try it today, if even for a moment.

Posted on in Aging, Challenge, Faith, Focus, Joy, Just do it, Listen, Praise, Prayer, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Thanks, Trust, Worship

Zing!!

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Romans 12:12 NIV

And God said, “Gotcha, Molly!” Indeed my attention was fully clasped upon that verse.

Yep, I have at times been less that patient in my afflictions. Not always joyful in hope. Trying to be faithful in prayer, but even there I often fall so short.

And where was I convicted? While watching a movie on the channel Great American Family. During recovery, I spend most afternoons watching a movie and trying to do a few rounds of crochet. This particular channel is showing Christmas movies and at commercial breaks they show a Scripture verse.

So there I was with foot elevated, coughing and being convicted that maybe I could live Romans 12:12 a bit better.

Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; persevere in prayer. Romans 12:12 NRSVUE

Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. Romans 12:12 NLT

Rejoice, be joyful – can you do that even when forced to stillness, Molly?

Patient in affliction, in trouble – healing is going to take almost every single day of this summer season. And then I will need to learn to walk with this new equipment in my toe, or as my friend Dan said, my own “hardware store” in my toe.

Persevere, keep on, be faithful in prayer – yes, those needs, Molly. There is the one across the street still battling cancer and now a widower. The church as we try to reach the hurting with the Good News and comfort of Jesus. There is Pete’s family as they prepare his house for the market and decide what to do with his belongings. The one who suffers from Parkinson’s. The two widows down the street. The other with the awful struggle with antisynthetase syndrome. She who is practically bedridden with back pain and a variety of other ailments. The needs for prayer are always there, Molly. Will you be faithful as the Holy Spirit leads you to pray?

Lord, forgive me I pray for falling short of this call from Paul. Help me to bring joy to your heart. Help me to hear you singing over me. Please do not stop encouraging me to do better as your child and daughter of the King of Kings. Amen.