Slowly I Retreat from my Retreat...

So, today I head back home to my guy. AND the mail and the ongoing care of my mom's finances and bills etc. etc. and all the problems that I left will still be there. BUT, I will be refreshed yet again. I am realizing I need a "refresher button or arrow" just like my computer programs!

So as I spoke to my friend Jill yesterday afternoon about a theological question this was where I was sitting and some of what I was looking at. Oh, I will miss this!!!!

One of my views. Today's reading in Ecclesiastes was, "Whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; God has done this, so that all should stand in awe before him." v.3:14

Later in the afternoon I met up with Becky downtown for a yummy fish dinner at The Farmers Gastropub Restaurant and Bar. We had a silly and delightful time just being together in that beautiful space that years of friendship have carved out for us.

Such a pretty lady!

37 years after we met...

Then it was onto a stroll about the downtown area to the coffee shop/library on the square. Interesting subculture and lots going on at sunset there!

We kept running into this guy everywhere we went down there.

Girls and Kawasaki Ninjas all rate 2nd looks!

I love some of the architecture and colors in this "urban" :) area.

This is the little "city market" I went to the other day. So fun! It's a Cost Cutter.

KC has one that's a HyVee!

This little car-towing drama unfolded around the corner from us as we sipped our coffees. Awesome car!

So, all I can do is be grateful for the ability to just take off and retreat like this and for friends like Becky and Michael to open their home to me and let me just chill there for several days. It was a gift  of rest in a "spacious place"!

Another Day of Rest and Being Still

Ahhh. Here I sit. Becky has left for work almost two hours ago and I have been doing some "busy-work" and now I will sit in the uncomfortable yet strangely comforting stillness and quiet and try to quiet my thoughts. I am reading Ecclesiastes right now and finding it wonderful.

So, I just read the first 8 verses of Chapter 3. The one the Byrds made famous all those years ago in their song "Turn, Turn".
"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:" (verse 1)
What is this time in my life?!?!?
IS it a time to heal, to mend, to be silent, to weep and to laugh?
I think so, but why is it so hard to do?
Perhaps because it is a journey, an adventure and I want to know the outcome, which defies the very spirit of an adventure. Right?

I am rather reluctantly reading Elizabeth Gilbert's latest book Eat, Pray, Love.

"Reluctantly" because I hate reading the latest trendy books. A leftover from my anti-establishment jones I suppose.
Anyway, she has some good stuff in it so far...I'm in the "Eat" phase in Italy, the first four months of her year experiment so to speak.
I also just read Mennonite in A Little Black Dress, another woman's true-life spiritual and life journey story.

I find myself so much more open to non-critically read and hear these people's hearts and questions, and musings. I think it's partially because the longer I walk with God the more I realize he's so much bigger and creative in his pursuit of mankind and it's comforting to realize that so many people that would be considered by conservative Christianity to be ultra worldly with little hope of redemption are asking the very same questions that many Christians are also asking if they would just be honest. In other words, I RELATE!!!!
I want the "open and exploratory dialogue that would, ultimately, bring me very close to God, indeed" that Elizabeth Gilbert talks about at the end of Chapter 4 in her book.
Now, I am aware that the end of her journey looks probably very different than mine...AT THIS TIME...but at least she is open to the journey which is exactly what God wants for us to be no matter what we label ourselves. He calls us his creation and his image-bearers, so he has an investment and a reputation at stake. He will not be satisfied, nor should we, with a "vanilla" existence when we could be and have so much more in our spiritual journey of which our years in this lifetime are one part of, a brief but terribly important part!

Hey on a lighter note. I just noticed the detail to the left of me in this photograph from my birthday dinner at Iron Barley with the fam. PERFECT!!! And so true!!!

LATER!

Time to Reflect and Pause

So, I am at my girlfriend's home in Springfiled, MO and loving it! She has the most aesthetically pleasing home to just "be" in!
There is plenty of origianl artwork from throughout the years from her and her talented daughters, wonderful photographs, large bay windows opening onto their "back 40" that is just plain restful and quiet. Wow, the quiet.

Becky and Michael's home invites you to rest and be inspired.

From the views from their windows...

Backyard...

and Front Yard...

To the artwork and photos everywhere...

Even their so-called "cluttered areas" are artistic and restful!

I am not totally without companionship...

Meet Cara(biner)

...and Malcolm the "man dog"!

Anyone would think that an "empty-nester" such as myself would have all the quiet she wants.

WRONG!
I find my days full and stimulating on so many levels. And that's good...
However, I feel God calling me at this time to BE STILL and this is always the very hardest thing for me to undertake.
SEE? "Undertake", I look at it as a task to accomplish, to tic off of my list of "to dos"!
So, my girlfriend graciously invited me to come be at her home and share evenings together (and maybe mornings if I get up before she leaves to teach her gifted ed class at 7 a.m.), but otherwise just sit here in the quiet and reflect or go to somewhere either stimulating or quieting here in the Springfield area.

I slept in until 7:20 which is late for those of you that know me, and had a quiet time. Then began to surf the web, read my emails, respond to some and even plan another trip. STOP MARSHA!!!
I need to sit in the quiet and realize what this last year (or 3-10 years) has meant to me and how God has been right there in the midst of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

I love that He pursues my heart this way and fills me up when I don't even realize how empty I am. Such was the case when Fred and I went to Blue Mountain Beach, Florida a couple of weeks ago and I absorbed the rest and restoration and healing like a sponge.

         I am so blest and at times so dense, yet He just keeps on coming in and doing heart surgery.

Dolphins and More...

So every time we go to the ocean I try not to obsess about getting a great picture of a dolphin. Apart from going out on a boat where they guarantee you will get to see them up close and personal and I am surely guaranteed to heave ho due to the rolling and pitching of the boat I have to try to capture them from the shoreline. I have had amazing experiences with dolphins. I've swam with them, I've had one accompany me for a good half my morning beach walk, and other such close encounters. I just never have my camera with me when such things happen. Hence the propensity to obsess.
So here's a few I DID manage to get this year from our deck with a 200 mm zoom lens.

This was a sweet family that were here for the weekend and Monday was their son's ninth birthday.

When Fred and I first saw this shadow approaching them out swimming past the sand bar we froze and then I started shooting away with my camera thrilled that it was a dolphin and not a shark. The mom and dad didn't see it at this point, just their son!

And away he goes!

These were some random shots of beach and ocean wildlife!

I love this one!

And this one...

Ole Florida

So Fred and I are in Florida and we decided we wanted to keep our granddaughter Sonya connected with us some while we were gone as we didn't get to see her and the baby crocodile before we left on vacation.
I found a Dora the Explorer Beanie Baby at...where else...a truck stop of course! And we promptly decided we would email, facebook, text, and blog our time in Florida with Dora the Explorer to our sweet Sonya.
Here are a few of the pictures that we have sent to her.
We've also posted videos n facebook that are quite silly, but fun. I've already gotten some comments after asking people not to comment, so we may start posting the videos on this blog if I figure out how to do it. I AM on vacation after all and trying to destress, so figuring anything out technical is a stressor to me as one of the videos will testify to on my facebook postings from yesterday.

Here we are on our way!!!

I know, I know, but he's such a good sport!

Oh yeah. In the quaint berg of Florala!

And one more there...

Our second sunset... on Sunday

Beach shots!

Until later...I'll post tomorrow...got some awesome dolphin shots!

Caterpillar Tales

So, I noticed that my Mexican Butterfly plants outside our windows were looking a little "chewed on". Finally very early this morning this is what I found, not one of them, but at least two of them.

Look how he's stripping the leaf right off of the stem!!!

Perspective

 So I believe in "catch and release"...they both went for a swim in our indoor "pool"!

(BTW, these are unedited with my new multipurpose lens that replaces my cheap kit lens that came with the camera. I love it already!!)