Wordless Wednesday: Go skateboarding

Green growth spurts



In "the Secret" and the 100 Day Challenge, the participants talk often about getting great parking spaces, which sounds nice; but I really didn't need it. I didn't want to take a good parking place from some old person or someone with pain who didn't have a Disability parking tag.
I have two good legs, I like walking, and there's usually no good reason for me to be taking primo parking places from people who would need it more!

Huh~whaddaya know
But I'm learning about the slightly odd, surprising generosity of God~ ~ I've been getting better parking places ~ as good as I'll take! After I thought a little about how nice that is, getting a good parking space, especially when the weather is bad, or I've got lots of groceries to cart to the car, etc., I started finding them with no problem.

I don't really look for them, they're just there. I don't usually look up towards the front rows of a parking lot, but I'm still ending up with parking spaces that are better than I would get, before ~ usually a lot closer to the front that I'm used to getting! :) It usually "just happens to happen" in a way that ends up with me getting a great parking place. (fun!)

In one particular instance, last week, there was an important-looking vehicle parked across many spaces at the grocery store parking lot.
It was blocking the spaces, with its yellow lights flashing~ it was reserving those spaces, obviously.
This isn't something you see everyday (first time I can remember seeing it, actually), and the car that was headed towards me in our lane was so busy looking at the important-looking vehicle, they passed right by the Really Good parking place near the store, and parked down towards the bottom of the lot, in the first empty space they came across, once they'd come to their senses.

So, I took the good parking place! :D
(well, mister, if you're just going to pass it up and park somewhere else.....!)

Getting better parking places is a small thing in life, yes~ but it's quite handy, anyway.

The key for me
Mostly, I just feel that God deserves for me to be grateful for what I'm being given of good. If I don't have gratitude for what I've got there's no reason for God to give me more!
This 100 Day Challenge/Law of Attraction just reinforces in me the belief that gratitude towards God and belief in His kindness and His good, generous gifts are of vast importance!

Gratitude, faith, prayer, love~ the cornerstones to a good relationship with God.

The changes that are occurring in my life have to do with making gratitude and hopeful belief in God's goodness my Way of Life~ an ongoing attitude towards God.
He's taught me about patience during suffering, and growing during trials~ now, He's teaching me about His tender side.
I fully believe now that God wants to give all sorts of good things to me, not just strengthen me through trials and troubles!

Maybe God isn't always pushing me towards tests of endurance, trials, sacrifice; maybe He wants to give me a lot more than what I've been thinking He will give ....maybe God wants to take care of me, much more than I've been letting Him.
Maybe God wants me to be happy in more than just spiritual ways. Maybe my physical life counts, too. Maybe He wants to give me more so that I have more to give.

How incredibly touching that thought has turned out to be....! To see in personal ways how God really does care, about all facets of my life.....

If He gives me something lovely, I give credit, even if there's no 'clear proof' that God is giving it to me! Because I know that every good thing that comes to me is given to me by God out of the generosity of perfectly wonderful Love.

In fact, I totally believe that all things that come in my life are there because God allowed it to come in; and that God only allows good things to come into my life, things He can work with, to help me along in our shared goal of bringing me to a better understanding of His selfless, giving, kind Love.
It's the ones who believe in a selfless, kind God of Love who are most selfless, loving and kind. They can afford to be~ they're SURE!

And the more I see of that, the more I'm loving God, and trust God more. That kindness just gets me!
It's up to me to allow that Good design to work in my life~ to give God that room to grow lovely things in my life! To trust and believe and hope and love with all I can give....

Happy happy plants
The two photos on this entry are of my two climbing plants~ the New Dawn rosebush outside, and the pothos plant inside. They've just taken off, these last couple of weeks, growing a span of over 2 feet, each.

Lasting / ephemeral



I find the Quiet today, in little pockets of indulgence~ the beckoning of God, to come and set aside any ephemeral thing that tries to weight heavily on me, and sit in the silence with Him.
I remember (if only briefly! heh) that 'ephemeral,' by definition, is not to last. It will be gone, a feather tossed far away in the wind.~
I stop what is going on, and look over, look for the Eyes of the Loving God...the world and its importance can wait for a bit!
I have to remember that these things I live through aren't so very important, next to what is all underneath it.
These earthly things bide their time, and then disperse like mist on a mountain.
Only the unseen things last~ and even among those, only the things of God go on forever.

I go about my day, and every now and then, stop to savor the moment with God, setting aside all things bound to the earth, to my life that I'm living here....

There is something soothing about leaving the torrential changing rains of the everyday life behind for a while, leaving it for a moment of stillness and timelessness, and a gentle quality of something holy and untouched, the 'life' of God, His pulse beating in the space around me....a part of Heaven, a tiny taste of what it must be like to be around Sacred Love.

Sought
I seek God often, pursuing a better view of this Grace-Love, looking for the eyes of God; but really, I find the truth is that God pursues me, seeking me out, in this delicious, rather daunting game of hide-and-seek, where glimpses of God sparkle out at unexpected times, when I am unprepared to see Him....
and what a gift! ~

Wordless Wednesday: Detail of a day

Autumnal splendor

We've been having gorgeous weather, here, but I understand that it won't last~

lots of cold front-y stuff coming our way till Saturday. ~

I love rain at night, when it's not rough rain, anyway, so I'm looking forward to the thought of cuddling up with a book in bed, tonight, and then falling asleep with the rain pattering outside.....

But for now~

You should see it out there! Very, very bright and 'lively'-looking, with the bluest turquoise skies you've ever seen! The trees are definitely turning, and it all looks breathtaking....

(found this on a google search- isn't it beautiful? That's pretty much what this weather looks like.)

Day 31 (I think) on my 100 Day Challenge
Making new brain grooves wears a person out!
I've been trying to develop those healthier attitudes towards many things in my life, like money, and I'm telling you, it's practically painful!
And very wearing.
But it must be done, and so, I do it.
Sometimes it's fun, though~ thinking of the possibilities in life~ that can be fun.
It's the Doubt that tears ya every which way!

I've also been developing the habit of using my driving-to-work time as a sort of contemplative prayer time~ without closing my eyes, of course! Hehheh.
It works, anyway. Prayer of any kind doesn't have to be done with eyes closed, after all.
I find it absolutely necessary to do this contemplation/meditation daily.
If I don't, life gets yuckier, fast! I start worrying more, things bother me more, it isn't as pretty, I don't enjoy things as much ~ my quality of life just sinks.

In this life
It's crucial to learn to achieve a balance between the physical and spiritual lives that live side by side in us while we live. There's no use, in my humble opinion, of slacking off on the physical stuff in favor of all-spiritual. To do that is to deny the whole experience you're supposed to be going through!
And there's no use trying to chuck the spiritual side of things in favor of just plain physical living~ that makes everything sallow and shallow and flat, very much dulled to what life could be.

No. I've been looking around, observing, regarding, contemplating on this, and I come away with the conviction that we have to balance our step ~ we have to give due credit and time to both sides of us~ we are spirits, we have bodies, we are living this unique experience out, this living life thing~ do it while it's there to be done!
Do them both, the spiritual and the physical living!
This is perhaps the only time in our existence when the spiritual and the phyiscal can be of equal accord; I believe it's essential and highly rewarding to learn to balance those aspects of our lives.

The spiritual side keeps things beautiful. It keeps the outlook sweet, the way clean air is said to be sweet. The spirit gives depth to our physical experiences~ roses smell sweeter, the wind suddenly thrills, sunlight seems like magic, the whole world beckons, it all has more impact, when you've taken time to tend your spirit and get back in touch with God.
(And I'm convinced that God misses us, every day that we don't stop by and say 'hi', and reconnect with Him, even if we only do this for a bit.)

But the physical side, life, is truly God's gift to us~ to experience things not just with spirit, but also with 'feeling'~~ what a beautiful, unique thing that is! A multi-dimensional experience, layered and astounding in its potential....

Just a quick note,
I hope this is intelligible, since it's on the fly~

I've been working on this Faith, a real trust in the goodness of my God; I've been given the opportunity in the midst of nerve-wracking circumstance to step out in faith that God will get me out in one piece ~ and I've been answered, so far, in amazing ways.

(This is not a shot at convincing you of anything, so details won't be written down, here; but suffice it to say, I'm stricken with Gratitude, in its sheerest magnificence.)

But even as I lived through the faith during trial, I realized that each uncertain moment I face will be different, and I will have to convince myself all over again to have Faith and trust in God, to face that moment.

But let's hope it will become easier.....!

100 Day Challenge~ Day 20


(Image courtesy Frank Benson)

Wow~ how did it get to be 20 days of this, already?

I've listened to more of the audio book, "The Secret", and for the most part, I find myself going between belief and disbelief.

Not one raised on miracles (and faith being a thing you must learn for yourself, anyway), as I take in this new-to-me belief system, I find myself trying to hold on to my practical background, voices from my past, stern viewpoints of immutable down-to-earthness.

I find that I fear to be foolish as much as I fear failure, on this one!

Fervent prayers go up to God~ I don't want to believe foolish things, but I also don't want to limit whatever God wants for me, in my life and my beliefs!

Lack of belief limits what God can do; but lack of wisdom limits what God can do, as well....

But the thing is, faith is always foolish, in the eyes of a practical, logical, down-to-earth world. They are down to earth in the most shackled sense, and faith is the anti-logic from which they flee.

Great faith and bold ventures always look foolish to a skeptical public.
We would do well to chuck logic for wisdom, and learn to lean on God, learn to fly with God's power, learn to live boldly and generously with our love, live with a brave whimsy in the unimaginable being possible.

I myself developed the belief that, "with God all things are possible~ (but He ain't gonna do it!)"

~ a belief system that seemed oh so very safe... practically risk-free! If you don't stick your neck out on this faith thing, you don't get hurt or disappointed or made to look like a fool, right? That's how I felt.

Bollocks to that, say I! I want to grow a faith so strong, it looks foolish to all but God and me and the faithful sea!

I want to be brave and trustful of God, full of trust, and not mind the naysayers~ to look straight at God and do what is right, between God and me.

Perhaps an Indigo Bunting

That's what I want. But the doing of it is a different bird.

(Image courtesy of k43.pbase.com)

I'm going to keep trying to build faith slowly, undoubtedly too carefully. Undoubtedly, clinging to God for assistance, for direction, 'do I please You, God? Is this what You want me to do, to believe, to think, to feel?'

I want to do what God wants me to do not because of fear or out of a sense of Duty (I'm not that 'good' inside!) or any of that~ I do it because I've never been sorry for bowing to God's idea, submitting my bold spirit to whatever God wants me to do, next. God has the BEST ideas!

The dark side of moi
(For the record, I freely admit that I often am not sorry when I don't bow to God's ideas!
I'm too human not to enjoy free will, and God is too kind to hold a grudge, when at heart, I want very much to please such a kind, loving~ can I say, "sweet?" ~ God. God knows where my heart is, and I love this Love all the more for these connections.)

Though some might purse their lips and disapprove, it's been my encounters with the generous forgiveness of God that has led me to love God so much more. ~

Which leads me to less willfulness, more trust. You would think it would give me license to go wild and do it all, but it has the opposite effect, and makes me want to try harder to refine my wild spirit to coo peacefully under the Wing of God's will. The gentle willingness to submit to Love has great value to me, now. I've seen it~ I've seen the beauty of that gentle submission towards this gorgeous Love.

Darlin', yooou send me

God forgives~ that gets me. I love it!

And I love God for being capable of that forgiveness; not only capable of it, but giving of it, giving and gracious and so eager to forgive me, it breaks the heart.

Oh, God~
This can't be happening...

I'm posting in red today to show solidarity with the Burmese monks.

The most effective thing that we can do in situations like this is to pray.

Where I have limits, my God doesn't.
Where I don't know the facts or the future, my God knows both.
Where I have no voice, my God has one like thunder, like a whisper, like a whirlpool going deep and deeper into the soul of man.
Where I can't reach, God can.
And will.
Because I ask.

The quiet time
In God I find a peace,
A love of solitude, that
Time alone, when I can hear more in the silence.
And things slow down and
Things get clearer
Calmer.
Hope is somehow reinforced,
Balance regained
Perspective clarified
Guided through.
And something integral
(perhaps I could say primordial)
Is released from the loch inside
Still waters, still center, relaxed posture~
Something twinkles serenely
An unhurried sparkle, soft and dear
And unheard-of, before now.
The Holy comes to rest,
Gliding down in smooth winds,
On smooth wings,
Circling slowly, loft held,
Unfurling magnificence
And ease
And love
of the profoundest kind~
"It's only forever
Not long at all".....