God – Valerie's Voice

The Kindness of Strangers

Henri J.M. Nouwen’s prayer*, that I posted a few days ago, came to mind when I was cruising on the Pacific Ocean one afternoon. I had some free time and decided I wanted to get out on the water. I booked a coastal cruise. There was an additional fee to get on the upper deck, which I decided to pay… I did have a coupon so that covered the extra cost. I’m glad I chose that option. I was the only one up on the deck. There were twenty-six friends in the main enclosed deck below. They were having a good time. But I was blessed to be on top.

It was amazing to see the SEA and reflect on Nouwen’s prayer. The ocean is unfathomable and incomprehensible. When one is looking out over the vastness of the water, towards the horizon it seems never ending… as Henri compared it to the never ending love of God.

“O Lord, [you are the] sea of love and goodness” (*Nouwen’s prayer).

“Out of your love I came to life, by your love I am sustained, and to your love I am always called back.” (*Nouwen’s prayer).

I was feeling a little vulnerable from all that’s happening in life right now, so when many kindnesses were shown to me on this cruising adventure, I teared up.

To begin with, the ticket taker was friendly and warm, and engaging (I was first in line).

I boarded the yacht and immediately went up to the upper deck. One cheery crew member came right up to greet me and hand me a menu. She came back a little while later to take my order, but I didn’t order anything.

A bit later, I was sitting on the top deck by myself, and the captain came out and started a conversation with me. He was interested in my story. He was so kind.

Again later, the cheery crew member came back to check on me. She wondered if the music was too loud (it was a bit – so she turned it down). Then she started to chat with me, and showed a genuine interest in me, that I found endearing.

That afternoon boat ride was a wonderful reminder of the power of kindness, and the sea was a beautiful reminder of God’s love.

“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” Leo Buscaglia

“Kindness can transform someone’s dark moment with a blaze of light. You never know how much your caring matters. Make a difference for another today.”  Amy Leigh Mercree

March Celebrations

Our family has many reasons to celebrate lately.

Our fifth grandchild, Mila Hope, was born on March 19. A sweet, healthy baby girl.

I celebrated my 71^st birthday on March 20^th.

Gary and I are celebrating our 46^th wedding anniversary today, March 25.

Our two grandsons celebrated their birthdays this month.

And, we celebrate Easter early this year…March 31.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow….

A Sigh

Years ago, I read several of Max Lucado’s books. He writes short devotionals in chapter form and I always liked his style of writing. One of the meditations in the book God Came Near, has stayed with me ever since I read it 30+ years ago, (which doesn’t happen much for me these days…remembering themes or plots of books or stories, plays or movies that is).

The chapter “When God Sighed’ in his book God Came Near, talks about a surprisingly, small word tucked into the passage where Jesus is ready to heal a deaf man, in Mark 7: 31-37. After putting his fingers in the man’s ears, Jesus looks up to heaven and sighs before he does any healing. Max goes on to say “I never thought of God as one who sighs. I’ve thought of God as one who commands…weeps…calls forth the dead…created the universe, but not one who sighs.”

Max surmises, we all do our own share of sighing. “All these sighs come from the same anxiety; a recognition of pain that was never intended, or of hope deferred.” Wars, sickness, poverty, broken relationships, our own life troubles, all these situations cause us to sigh.

“Man was not intended to be separated from his creator; hence he sighs, longing for home. The creation was never intended to be inhabited by evil; hence she sighs, longing for the garden. And conversations with God were never intended to depend on a translator; hence the Spirit groans on our behalf, looking to a day when humans will see God face to face.”

This idea of sighing was implanted in my heart years ago, and I think of it often. Many times, when I sigh, especially a deep sigh, I remember this may not be the way the God intended our/my world to be. And God sighs too.

So, Max concludes, he hangs this word “sigh” alongside the word comfort. He finds comfort in sighing and remembers, “The holy sigh assures us that God still groans for his people. He groans for the day when all sighs will cease, when what was intended to be will be.”

May we, too, find comfort in our sighing.

All quotes are from Max Lucado’s book God Came Near (1987) pp.63-66.

More Random Thoughts on Animals

We’ve had unseasonably warmer weather for this time of year (except for that one cold night in Duluth at Bentleville). It hit 54* yesterday. Gary went for a bike ride (my bike was put away for winter already) and I went for a long walk around the three ponds in our neighborhood.

This is one portion of the pond where hundreds of geese are facing the same direction.

This is a regular route and we often see wildlife. We’ve seen otters, and a beaver a couple years ago, a fox and frogs and such. However, the past few days the ponds have been clear of any wild life. I thought the Canadian geese and ducks had flown south. I guess not, they were back, in mass.

The geese in the pond from a different angle.

It was a beautiful sight, and a fun sight since they were mostly all facing the same direction…like they were waiting for a preacher to start preaching.

The beautiful Cathedral of Our Merciful Saviour in Faribault, Minnesota.

Which led me to thinking about a recent concert we went to at Our Merciful Savior’s Cathedral in Faribault Minnesota. We entered the church from the front and I liked what I saw.

The menagerie of stuffed animals taking up the front pew of this church.

The entire front pew was lined with all different sorts of stuffed animals…all looking towards the pulpit. I thought it was a clever way to fill the front row since so many of us head to the back of church to sit, but I found out after the concert, when we visited with the priest, that he keeps the stuffed animals up front for his children’s sermons.

Glass frog…photo off internet public domain

Then, as I continued walking along, I thought about an age-appropriate book I’ve been reading for our grandson. This adventure book talks about different animals in the Amazon rainforest. It introduced me to a glass frog. It is amazing (as all creatures are). This frog has a lime green, camouflage back with a translucent underside where you can see the organs inside its body! I had to look it up! I had never heard of this.

And sure enough, there is such a creature! And there are a couple of fun videos on the internet about the glass frog! I’ve added a couple of links.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twAK29xwb6Q

The male glass frog also is the soul protector of the eggs and will ward off its predator, the wasp, with one swift kick of his very long leg.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7zARByAu1c

Once again, I’m reminded “All creatures great and small, the Lord God made them all” – unique, wonderful and amazing!

Busy Beavers

We were enjoying a hike in our neighboring town of Faribault, on one of the last warm days of fall. The section of trail we were walking along had trees on one side and the Straight River on the other. I was looking toward the river when I noticed what looked like beaver shavings on the base of a very large tree.

Evidence of beavers gnawing on this huge tree.

We stepped off the trail to check it out, and sure enough there was evidence of a beaver, or beavers, gnawing its way around this massive tree. But we wondered, can a beaver really gnaw its way through this huge tree?

This is a photo of Gary hugging the tree. He cannot reach his arms around this large tree the beavers are working on.

Gary couldn’t even put his arms around the tree it was so wide. Was this the work of one busy beaver, or several beavers?

I do believe if one were so inspired, you could dress for the weather, park yourself at the near-by picnic table, sit quietly, and wait for the beaver to come back to work on this massive endeavor, because it will take some time for any beaver, or a colony of beavers, to fell this tree.

This size tree seems to be where we usually see beaver markings…

Lots of beaver activity along the Straight River.

Farther along the trail we saw more sightings of beaver activity…only the trees were more reasonably sized. Even so, some nice trees were being leveled. We couldn’t see the dam the beavers must be working on.

This tree is felled but has not been taken away yet…

The animal kingdom is amazing…beavers born with big teeth and flat tails to construct their homes…skunks spraying nasty, unpleasant scent to protect themselves…hummingbirds, the smallest bird, having energy to migrate twice a year spanning up to thousands of miles to stay warm…

An artistic design left behind by beavers…a shapely stump.

“All creatures great and small, the Lord God made them all.”*

All unique. All wonderful. All Amazing.

*From Cecil Frances Alexander’s poem: All Things Bright and Beautiful (1818)

A Hedgehog and A Firefly

A flicker of light~
Twinkling and twirling around...
Fireflies at night.

While in Minnesota, our Ukrainian friends saw fireflies for the first time. They were excited. We were with them one evening, and the fireflies were dancing all around us. We all enjoyed seeing the fireflies, as well as our friend’s excitement.

A hedgehog I saw in the wild in Ukraine, 2008.

I told them the one and only time I saw a hedgehog was in Ukraine, and it was exciting to see it. We walked to a village after class one day, to an interpreter’s home, and we saw a cute, little hedgehog tucked away on the side of the path.

God is creative!

“God made the animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the crates that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.” Genesis 1:24

Asplund Peony Garden Revisited

I wasn’t planning to blog about the Asplund peony garden when I drove out for a quick look on Saturday, but I just cannot not post some pictures I captured.

There are no words to describe this gorgeous display of color.

Once again, the intense colors and variety of color for one kind of flower is astounding. I am often reminded of what I told my boys once, “God created the colors long before Crayola!”

There were many bushes blooming, some were already done, some were buds ready to bloom, like mine at home…

The buds are about to bloom on this yellow peony bush in the Ashland peony gardens.

Long rows of peony bushes throughout the garden. Photo by cb.

All were a joy to see.

On another note, the Asplund Farm also grows grapes and had opened a winery for many years, but the winery has permanently closed.

It was a spontaneous, fun and colorful morning.

An Annual Get Away

It was a quick turnaround for me. We arrived home from an almost four-week trip to North Carolina, and two days later I was driving to Madison, Wisconsin to meet up with a friend for our annual get away.

We have been meeting once or twice a year since 1989. Earlier this year we had planned to meet on two different occasions, but each time we had to cancel, so we squeezed in a trip during the busy holiday season. We did not want to break our record and miss a year.

Colorful dogwood shoots with a pagoda in the background at Olbrich Gardens.

My friend and I met many years ago during a church greeting time. Soon after, she gave birth to her first born and I offered to bring her lunch. Not knowing the protocol for bringing new mom’s lunch or dinner at that time, I simply brought her a tuna fish sandwich in a brown paper bag.

BUT… God multiplied that simple lunch into a nourishing friendship that has spanned almost 40 years and is still going strong.

Madison is a good half way point for us, and is our default destination when we don’t have a lot of time. Our criteria for choosing destinations is the area has to have gardens, water (lake, river, ocean) and antique/thrift stores.

A huge cottonwood tree standing tall and proud without its leaves.

A carefully placed birch stump that looks like an owl.

Although it was a cold and windy December day, we enjoyed walking around Olbrich Botanical Garden in Madison. We have been there many times. Although no plants were blooming, the textures and contrasts of the different fall/winter plants were vibrant.

Lake Monona is across the street. The lake was full of white caps.

We discovered two great restaurants for dinner each night. We’d recommend both. Dotty Dumpling’s Dowry has been in business for 47 years making delicious hamburgers, and it did not disappoint.

This restaurant offered delicious hamburgers. We understand why it was voted as having favorite burgers. They were juicy and tasty.

The Old Stamm House, in an old stone house, had the best Brussel sprouts I’ve ever tasted.

I don’t normally take pictures of food, but these Brussel sprouts were scrumptious!

The lobster ravioli was great, and to top it off we had a Crème Brulée (we split everything, therefore we could enjoy an appetizer and dessert).

Old Stamm House building from 1847…it is not the original site of the restaurant.

Our shopping times were fruitful in finding a few inexpensive little treasures here and there, which provides us with much entertainment just from the hunt!

Back home now, I will settle in and start getting ready for the Christmas season.

Happy Easter

He is risen. He is risen, indeed!

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13

Merry Christmas

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
Luke 2: 11-14

God Bless us one and all!