Bon Voyage

"LOVE IS SPONTANEOUS, BUT IT HAS TO BE MAINTAINED THROUGH DISCIPLINE"
Oswald Chambers

Great Quote - completely unrelated to my post.

A busy day - full of sunshine and beauty...and energy ! Yeah - this is one day I really needed it. The earth continues to celebrate the joys of this warm season. The apple trees are in full bloom, already starting to lose some of their petals. I planted my geraniums, allysum, lobelia and one lone tomatoe plant yesterday. What fun to think of the bursts of color that will soon be spilling out of my planters. (I'm saying this in faith that Patrice will water them while I'm away!) Thankfully my sprinklers have been fixed so I don't have to drag the hose and sprinkler around the grass anymore! I was doing a rather pathetic job, considering there is about an acre or two of grass. I'm so glad that I got my little plants into the earth yesterday so that they can be well rooted in and growing by the time I come home.

Today I've been trying to pack for the cruise we're going on tomorrow and my bed is full of piles of clothing. How to decide? I'm not a fashion expert by any means...I love to be comfortable, but I do believe that some "fanciness" is required at the dinners. I hope I'll be able to put it all together before I go to bed tonight. There is always the question of what season of clothing to bring along when one is travelling to Alaska in May. A little bit of everything I guess!

So the adventure begins. Ahh, anticipation. What a gift to be able to celebrate mom's 80th birthday with family and some dear friends. God obviously arranged this whole extravaganza, because everyone was ready with a big YES when the call went out and tomorrow we all converge on the Ballentyne Pier in Vancouver to board the "Serenade of the Seas". So I'm committing this time to our precious Lord - inviting His presence to go with us, inviting His joy to infect all of us and heal us of the hard winter of the soul some of us have endured. What a gift to feel anticipation and some excitement. It's taken awhile for it to come around. May the lethargy I've been carrying be lost at sea and may the wind of the Spirit breathe fresh life into all of us.

He is able to do abundantly MORE than all we are even able to ask or imagine!! Ephesians 4:21? or somewhere around there.

So here's little battle maiden signing off with a
"BON VOYAGE!!!"

Piece of Paradise

The Father has seen fit to place me in a piece of paradise. My heart is so full and content as my eyes take in the scenes around me...the glories of Spring are spread out in every direction. Each window I peer out of holds marvelous beauty and delight. I awaken to the singing of birds and the little mysterious frog that croaks to me, cheering my heart. I have never seen him, but I take such pleasure in his strange little sounds. They are so comforting - mostly he sings at night.

The grass is green - how kind of the Father to carpet the earth and scatter lovely yellow dandelions to humbly sing His glories.

The Creator and His Creation...His magnificence is displayed in a million ways. I feel incredibly privileged to live up here on the orchard where I am so visibly reminded, constantly, of His beauty. The mountains surround this little valley, and I sit high up, enjoying the vistas and the stunning drive up the hill that brings me here. It begins on the low grounds where there are pussy willows and bushes where the red winged blackbirds dart about - proudly showing off their colors. I wind up the long hill, looking eagerly for the sheep and their lambs that have their faces plastered to the grass - grazing so contentedly. The varied orchards - beautiful trees in rows, awaiting their turn to bear blossoms, leaves and fruit. The lake that emerges as I go higher - brilliant blue, or other shades depending on the skies and clouds. The green pines, wildflowers, bushes in blossom and finally the school ground spilling over with laughing children announce that I am almost home.

These have been years of pure grace, living out in the country. Seeing the stately horses riding by, occasionally a tiny pony pulling a cart, people walking their assortment of dogs and a dirt biker happily zooming by. Shouting and cheers from the schoolyard where baseball games or soccer games bring out families in droves. And if I head out to the back of the property I look down to see the city in all its beauty, encircling the lake and surrounded by the mountains.

The blue, blue sky, the warmth and brightness of the sun, the mountains that still hold a few traces of snow, the trees around the house unfolding their leaves and my faithful tulips, tryng to grow in the few places where Jewel hasn't dug them up to find a cozy resting place in the dirt.

I love my piece of paradise. I don't know how long I'll be up here, but I want to delight in every moment - to give glory to the Creator. It's all a gift. And I give thanks…

Happy Spring FOR REAL!!

I can actually say Happy Spring because the calendar tells me this is now a fact! And my world is slowly beginning to look like the season has changed. The grass is turning a lovely shade of green, the air is not so frosty (some days are even WARM!) and the birds are out heralding the season. I saw a little quail in my garden the other day and we've had the loveliest tiny birds at the feeder. The apple trees outside my office window stretch their naked arms to heaven eagerly awaiting the blossoms, leaves and finally fruit that will be blanketing them soon. I am so ready for a new season to begin and feel spring beginning in my spirit as well. I choose to embrace it along with my Lover who ordained the seasons...He calls to those of us who will listen, who have ears to hear:

"My lover spoke and said to me,
'Arise my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me.
See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone.
Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come,
the cooing of doves is heard in our land.
The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their
fragrance.
Arise, come my darling; my beautiful one, come with me"

Song of Songs 2:10-13

What a sweet invitation - what a blessed announcement for those of us who have waded through a long, cold winter and have watched others struggling and fighting with the darkness and cold that a winter season can bring. The ones I have been watching and praying for have struggled with a winter season in the natural and the spiritual and my prayer for them is that the Lover will come and rescue them and breathe hope and warmth and new life into them.

**************************

It's taken me a long time to get here - and my fingers have been itching to tell some stories and reconnect with the few people I know that visit me here. I actually sat down on Sunday night and put together a long book review, looking up scriptures and working hard to get it all right and then I clicked on a key that I obviously should have avoided and half of the post disappeared! At this point I was so exhausted that I just shut off the computer and went to bed. I still hope to put the book review on here because I feel it is an urgent and compelling message for the Western Church and those of us who feel we are growing somewhat complacent in our walk with Jesus. The book is called "RESCUED" by John Bevere & Andrew Olson.

So - what has kept me away from the computer? (besides the fact that it's usually my daughter who is enthroned in front of this screen for hours at time) Well, we just finished Spring Break which was lovely - and this break from school contained my precious daughter's Sweet 16th birthday, sleepover parties for her, a bonfire with her school friends in our "backyard", company from out of town and a holiday at West Edmonton Mall. I returned home to days that were quickly filled with numerous important meetings etc. and am even now surrounded with a desk loaded with papers that need to get to an accountant (For the first time in my life I'm finally having to compile papers for personal income tax and it's a bit of a learning curve!)

So, there you go - I am alive and well on planet earth!! My washing machine just announced that it is finished it's job and it's time to load all those towels into the drier. I have a huge pot of soup simmering on the stove (added butternut squash & sweet potatoes which pleases me immensely - doing something relatively healthy and creative in the kitchen!) And my back is announcing to me that it is high time that I go and lay down to give it some rest. I will happily acquiesce!

Keep On Asking...

Spring is most definitely in the air - oh glorious sunshine, oh sweet blue sky, oh gentle breezes come to breathe hope into weary souls. Reminders that prayers long ago prayed WILL one day spring to life...just gotta keep believing and waiting and hoping. It will come. Just like this winter has felt endless at times, spring is moving in and taking over. YESSSS!!!

Was reading today out of Luke and came upon one of my favorite passages...the one that tells me it's worth hanging on - to believe that spring is coming even when it keeps snowing! To believe for miracles & answers to prayer despite seeing the opposite over and over again.

"So I say to you, keep asking, and it will be given to you.
Keep searching, and you will find.
Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches finds,
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened..."
Luke 11:9,10

If that isn't just the greatest news! At the end of that passage Jesus reminds us that God is willing to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask... Funny - when I read that whole passage I focus more on the asking, knocking and seeking - thinking of the different things I've been petitioning God for over the years. But I rarely ask for more of the Holy Spirit.

So today I ask for more of YOU - Precious Amazing HOLY SPIRIT. Cause You're the One who can help me to be conformed into the image of Jesus - you're the one who counsels, convicts, comforts and reveals Jesus to me. Pretty AWESOME!! Yeah - I definitely need more of You and so I ask for more. In obedience and in anticipation. I need a spring season in my spirit and You're the One who can cause new growth and the hope that accompanies the season.