Pink Clouds

Winter skies. They simply can't be beat.

...do you not perceive it?

"Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?"

Isaiah 43:19

Amazing! I remember planting these spruce trees. Now they tower over my head and provide shelter to our house from harsh south winds.

How did this happen? I did not see these trees grow. It was a slow, imperceivable process. Now it seems they have grown to be giants overnight.

God works the same way. Unless we choose to see, unless we look closely with eyes set on Him, we do not see the new thing God is doing. Yet the new thing comes whether we see it happening or not. It is my choice to trust in that new thing and rejoice in Him... or look the other way in despair or distraction. If I choose the latter I will be caught unaware and unprepared for the new thing God has been preparing and suffer much anguish in the mean time. Yet if I choose to perceive God's great workings, no matter what hurtles and difficulties come along the way, I will receive the joy of the Lord for each day and be ready to go forward into that good, new thing. I must choose to perceive! Will you, too?

A Day to Be Outside

Besides being a quiet day for the telephone, Sunday was a day to be outside. It was cold enough to freeze the slush of last week, yet warm enough to rush outside with camera, warm coat and flimsy shoes (note that snow pants and sub-zero boots were omitted). Frozen grass crunched and crackled under said flimsy shoes. Last week's warm days did a number on our snow.

I have an acquired taste for field landscapes, a result of growing up on the cultivated prairie no doubt. I do love the look of frozen, black dirt sprinkled with snow. My favorite, though, would be an un-worked field of stubble, sun bleached to a buttery yellow by the winter sun.

A Peaceful Telephone

Yesterday was one of those blissful days when the telephone rang only once. A telephone man's daughter should be more excited about telephones you would think, but no. I have vivid memories of avoiding the phone like the plague when young. It was so bad that I remember crying long and hard when Mom "made" me call Dad to get help on a math question I had one day.

 

Tears aren't my response anymore. In fact I quite like the convenience of picking up the phone to call family and order medications from across the country. They make quick work of a job that would otherwise weigh heavy on my mind until completed. Still, it wasn't until a nearly telephoneless day that I realized how peaceful life could be without that ring. More time and energy to enjoy God, His people and His creation. I will take that gift for a day!

 

Now back to a day of ringing telephones.

Flowers for Mom

On the Road Again

Dad, Hannah and I recently returned from another visit to our chronic Lyme doctor along the Mississippi River. We made the trip short in order to get home to Mom who was in sole charge of Dorothy during our trip. Still we found some small ways to vacation on the way home, including a stop to take pictures of a lock. We speculated unsatisfactorily on why the dam requires six rooms atop it.

 

 

Note: The doctor said we are going in the right direction but not as fast as any of us want. Kicking out the bad stuff and healing the extensive damage it has done continues. The most exciting new treatment I am beginning is drinking rose hip tea for vitamin C (my supplement was stopping thyroid meds from being absorbed). It tastes just like Russian compote, a hot drink made from boiling dried fruits, foraged wild flowers and tea. Happiness!

...things which seem to turn to man's disadvantage...

"The Christian turns again and again from that bewildered contemplation of history in which God is so easily lost, to the prayer of filial trust in which He is always found, knowing here that those very things which seem to turn to man's disadvantage may yet work to the Divine advantage. On the frontier between prayer and history stands the Cross, a perpetual reminder of the price by which the Kingdom is brought in."

Evelyn Underhill, Abba, 1940

 

"And we know in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose."

Romans 8:28

Grandma's Fern

My garden of last winter has whittled down to one surviving and thriving fern.

Return of the Purple Finches

The purple finches are back and are giving resident chickadees a run for their bird seed both in the feeder and on the ground.

Orchids by Morning Light

Another Mitten

First Colorwork, First Mittens

After telling Hannah I thought I'd leave colorwork knitting to her, I got inspired. Here is my first tiny pair of mittens drying after being wet blocked (a shaping method). There is much room for improvement in my colorwork and mitten work, but it was a fun and brain stretching first try.

When I can see my face in it

"'When He hath tried me I shall come forth as gold'... This picture of the Refiner is straight from Eastern life. The Eastern goldsmith sits on the floor by his crucible. For me, at least, it was not hard to know why the Heavenly Refiner had to sit so long. The heart knows its own dross. Blessed be the love that never wearies, never gives up hope that even in such poor metal He may at last see the reflection of His face. 'How do you know when it is purified?' we asked our village goldsmith. 'When I can see my face in it,' he answered."

Amy Carmicheal, Rose From Brier, 1933