May we embrace our loved ones…
Through food…
Through thy hands…
In our words…
Through our laughter…
Through sharing our traditions…
To all those tiny special details and spices…
May we celebrate, feast, nap and then repeat til the cows come home…
Happy Virtual Thanksgiving and God Bless you and your families!
Here, have some pie…
This seems completely unfair… I love both the Mountains and the Ocean the same, just for differing reasons.
I travel with anticipation toward the heights for all the sights and sounds…
I glide along the shore of the ocean, blissfully calm from the sense of silence it pushes towards my bare feet sinking in the wet sand..
If I stay too long upon the mountain, I feel as if I might explode from taking it all in…
If the waters of the ocean stopped pushing me ashore, I believe I would simply follow its pull into the depths never to return…
See…
Checks and Balances folks… there’s only one favorite anything that I claim and His name starts with J and ends with an S…
Everything else must simply take a seat at the back of the bus…
Here, have a cookie…
See those shoes? Those are the ones I mentioned that I also wore when I was a babe…
How does a turkey travel? By gravy train.
I found this in a Country Living magazine… I immediately gobbled it up…
I’m the calm one resting in the corner there…
Did you know that I still have my first pair of walking shoes, which were actually my mothers when she was a baby?
As you may have already noted, Holiday decorations have gone up early… making it easier for me to focus on things like eye drops 4 to 6 times a day, and/or other stuff over the next few weeks.
When me and my new eyeballs come back online, we have great plans for the Virtual Christmas Gift ideas and want everything ready to go… plus Crocket mentioned that putting lights up would be cool, and so I took that as incentive to go wild a little early… not sorry!
Let no one here ever suggest I didn’t warn of my penchant for being wildly creative if left to my own devices! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED…
I’m fully serious when I say that I’ll be very creative in my ideas for those who didn’t send me their Santa List ahead of time…
Being an honest woman, I feel it only fair that I confess how some of you may be getting certain things I’ve already chosen, regardless of your list, but please send them anyways because I want to see if I guessed correctly.
And no… that’s not me up above… but it could be… never trust an elf…. hehehehehehehehehe…
Through the years I have always enjoyed walks during the fall, in part from the cooler temps, but also for the glorious colors being displayed as the trees go to sleep for winter.
While I may have captured something beautiful in this shot, I am unable to determine if this picture even captured half of what it should… I miss having visual clarity!
Next week begins my journey to restore that which was lost somewhere along the way during the last few years. I am looking forward to reading and writing clearly, yes, but my deeper hope is that vivid colors return to my sight… I miss them!
Looking at this drab photo from yesterdays wonderful walk through the park, I am greatly anticipating the return of visual clarity and FOCUS!
Beginning next week, there will be 15 days of Audio Reruns of this and that, while I undergo my surgeries and recovery. Keep an eye out for daily posts titled, Seeing Eye to Eye, as I will be keeping you up to date as things move forward through this time. It may or may not be much depending on how I feel and such, but I have heard many say that it’s easy. Perhaps, but I decided to plan ahead either way.
The 12th of December is my birthday and this is what I am considering my present to myself… the bravery to let someone poke me in the eyes to SEE if it makes me SEE better…
Here, have an early Turkey Day cookie…
Here we are already at the beginning of Thanksgiving Week… how crazy is that?! Time goes by faster and faster with each passing year of our lives and I’m torn as to whether this is a good thing or bad. Growing up I remember always hoping time would speed up, and now I find myself screaming SLOW DOWN depending on the day! But… we all know that time will not wait for little ole me to catch up.
With that being said, sometimes I just don’t want to care… like with my favorite Holidays, which happen be both Thanksgiving and Christmas! Back in the day I would put up the tree during Turkey Time and leave it up till the new year. I’ll be honest in saying that I did this, in part, because I was lazy and liked to wait until the very last traditional second to put things away. Nowadays, here in the RV, there is no room at the Inn, as they say, so I wouldn’t have a clue as to where the tree might even fit. Plus there’s no one here to do it for… the kids are all gone now so it’s just me and the hubby during the holidays.
With that being said, I still love celebrating on these occasions so that was why I decided on a Virtual Holiday Season this year. A major part of a good attitude grows out of the power of intention, in my opinion, so I Intend to experience the upcoming celebrations with a joyful heart.
My hope is that when I post on Thanksgiving Day, the comment section will begin filling up with some Christmas Virtual Wish Lists… yup! Let’s fake it til we make it this season! You can put whatever you want on your list and need only give 4 or 5 of your favorite things and leave the rest to this Virtual Santa’s Helper… I know it’s not real, but isn’t it all about the thought that’s actually supposed to count?! I will be posting all the gifts for each of you on Christmas Morning… and if you don’t leave a list, I will be forced to get really creative, which may or may not be a good thing.
My Truths has a new episode up in the lobby for those interested.
Saturday and Sunday continue with both Note To Self and Live Wire, and remember to stick around for the potluck on Sunday… our theme is Lazy Leftovers so shout out some of your favorite reheated Turkey Day dishes.
I love nature… but you already knew that!
I love flowers… but you also know this!
I used to be a photographer… maybe you didn’t know that part.
What is it about flowers?
Color maybe… shape perhaps… smell could be a part of it too.
My guess is that the combination of all three reasons may be what attracts me to flowers.. but I think there’s more to it.
Take the photo above, for instance. See how each bud looks a bit different from their neighbors? I am completely fascinated with how God can design such a vast number of things in our world, and still take such care with the tiniest of individual details… sort of like humans.
One of my dreams, after my eyes get fixed this month, is to save up and buy another Nikon. Maybe I’ll head for the hills like I did when I was in my prime… wandering for hours, clicking shots that bring a lasting record of things I find beautiful. I realize that time has moved forward, slowing me down a good bit. So! I also recognize the less than steady hands I know use to point and click, as they say. I still don’t care!
If they can take something like a camera and build it faster, lighter, and stronger… then I want to be like Steve Austin in the Million Dollar Man with bionic eye implants. While they’re at it, I wish for them to add better arms and legs… why not?
What if we were able to have a camera built right into our eyes… then we could literally capture the perfect angle and light just by winking, blinking or even crossing our eyes… just saying…
Raising a Village
As I was reading further into the book of Exodus this week, continuing to follow the journey of Moses and the Israelites, a strange thought occurred to this inquisitive mind. If the old adage “It takes a village” still holds true, like I believe that it does… the next question one might ask themselves is “Who raised the village that it took to raise the one that the village raised?”
I know that I am not alone in this place of curiousity… how else do you think those DNA mail in companies became so popular? Why else would we care who and where we came from? How often do we wonder why we look the way we do, why we have mannerisms that we have, and/or why we were raised the way we were raised? Some are raised deeply rooted in traditions handed down from earlier generations, while others grew up without anything familiar from their earliest memories.
The Israelites memories and belief systems were set from generations earlier… beginning with Gods’ covenant with Abraham, again later with Isaac and Jacob, and resting with Joseph when he entered Pharaohs court as a young man. The Egyptians carried generations steeped with their own traditions, blending some of the Israelites traditions with their own through years of coexisting. When Moses was born, it was as if he was placed in a foster home. He must have been exposed to the most confusing of upbringings, in my opinion. Growing up in the foster care system, all I remember was feeling like I was to go where they sent me to school, attend whatever church that particular family went to, if any, and sleep in whatever room had been made available for guests.
While I don’t necessarily believe that Moses upbringing was as harsh as mine, I believe we both grew up very confused.
I am guessing that played a large part in the amount of time it was before Moses returned to Egypt, to represent the God of his forefathers. In essence, I think Moses became like an adopted son of sorts, being raised up, cared for, and prepared for a purpose he was born to fulfill… beginning right there at that burning bush I mentioned in the previous episode.
I’ve only just gotten through all the 10 plagues, and the departure of the very large village Moses found himself responsible to lead and teach. They only just arrived at the Red Sea and had already accused Moses and GOD, of leading them to their deaths. The only traditions these people had gotten settled into was bondage, so they didn’t get far before their faith ran out. This got me to wondering how long a tradition has to be in place before it can be considered a solid tradition. All this village knew how to do was survive… living had become nonexistent to them.
From there I asked myself how long it actually took for the plagues to run through, as well as the leaving part. History seems to show a lot happening in a relatively short period of time. I can only imagine how overwhelming it must have been, to experience something so life altering during those days and weeks. On the heels of 10 major plagues ravaging the land, the village was then instructed to pack up their families, livestock and belongings, and wander off into the desert. Logistically, it must have been a nightmare to organize a village of this size. Did you know that there were over 600,000 men… not including their wives and children. Nothing about this many people is going to move easily nor quickly. Don’t forget that the Israelites had also been instructed by God to plunder the Egyptians (Exodus 12:36). Personally, I would break out in hives at the thought of taking someone’s stuff and leaving town.
At this point I am getting a clearer picture of the state of mind this village was in by the time they pulled out of the station in Egypt.
I get the feeling that it took God some years in the desert with Moses, just to undo all of the damage caused by the wrong Village. God then worked in and through Moses to free a village that would need to do a lot of growing up before arriving at the land God intended to give the Israelites.
God is the ultimate example of a parent caring for and teaching their child. As parents, you and I have no intention of handing our 5 year old the car keys, leaving them to simply have a go at it! In the same sense, God had no intention of handing over a land flowing with milk and honey to a bunch of scarred, scared, and far from spiritual children… so to speak. While I’ve not read the passages ahead yet, I am already privy to the 40 year time period of wandering that was in store for the children of Israel. Based on my own life, it took 40 years from the time I divorced my parents and became a Voluntary Ward of the State, to where you find me today. When I broke free from that bondage, had God just handed me the keys to freedom and said, “There ya go”… I wouldn’t be alive today!
If I can leave you with anything today, it would be a reminder that just as God used Moses back then to raise a village, He works through you and I today, to stand in the gap for some pretty broken villages. There are so many children of God still living in bondage to something, and whether or not I feel capable on my own, my desire is to be a part of God’s plan and purpose… His village!
Christ our King by Village Lights will be the song I wish to leave you with, and I have no clear reason why… sometimes it’s not about me, but someone else may need this so I will leave it at that… I love you guys.
Let’s be a village together…
Today Is Everything Potato Sunday!
Be sure to pick up your favorite slippers
and bean bag
Lets strap on the feed bags and belly up to the Potato Bar…
You can either pick an already prepped tater, in case you are in a hurry…
Or grab a plate and follow me…
Now that you picked out your tater, let’s head for some toppings…
Who doesn’t like at least a smidge of crumbly and salty goodness sprinkled across the top…
For our cheese lovers I brought a choice of yellow or white cheddar…
For dessert I thought a simple chilled peach might suffice…
Have a Blessed Day everyone… hugs
Journey With Me! 