Green?

Ever woken up hearing plink! plink! splash, drip drip drip, coming from the nearby window.  Such a soothing sound. So quiet in your darkened room, snuggled under the coverlet.  You lie there and listen . . . drip, slash, plink, plink, drip. It begins to have a rhythm . . .  (three short plinks) . . . plink, plink, plink . . .  (lower pitched) slash . . . (two shorts) . . . plink, plink, (and a plonk)  . . . drip.  It's been awhile since you've heard rain, such a comforting sound in a dry season.

In the early morning, you go to the window and look out, looking down on the garden plot.   More splash, drip drip drip.  This is a promising sound, saying:  "Come on!  Here we go!" . . .  it promises things like "Go! Be green!"  The promise of a future --"Go! Be fruitful".  You hear it calmly rolling in waves of hopefulness.  And whether it is a fruitful garden that you want, or it is a fruitful future life, the question today is: Do you believe that things are going to change and get "green"? Wondering what that "greenness" will look like?  Visualizing a new beginning today . . .

Can you see it?

Thoughts of the Day

Previously,  I shared some of my photography.  I am looking for progress with it in the near future.  Still playing with it a bit . . .

At breakfast this morning, I had to be wrapped up in a blanket on my little deck.  It was raining again, and not just the gentle rain of the last few days.  The wind was blowing it well into the little patio with occasional bursts.

I stayed out there long enough to finish the sketch that I started, then retreated to the warm interior and my computer. 

I love my peaceful patio.  Just me and my thoughts.  No push back from anyone. But when I go out into the community, I feel isolated, unwanted, unless I say all the right things, you know "political correctness". I feel as if people don't want to hear me speak, unless I agree with them.

I feel a bit like what I read this morning in my devotional study. King David wrote the words of Psalm 120.

A Pilgrim Song

I took my troubles to God;

I cried out to him, desperate for an answer: 

2 "Rescue me from liars, God! 

They smile so sweetly but lie through their teeth." 

5 How I suffer among these scoundrels!

It pains me to live with these people! 

6 I am tired of living here 

among quarreling neighbors. 

7 As for me, I am for peace;

but when I speak, they are for war!

This is one thing that I am grappling with during my time away--how do I handle those who despise me?  How do I respond?  

I have lived other places, where I enjoyed going out.  Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed my peaceful quiet times, but I didn't dread going out.  People were friendly, they waved as you went by, even if they didn't know you. Yes, they had opinions, but they knew the skill of not judging others simply for their different thoughts.  They didn't place preconceived labels on you, and were willing to get to know you.  Seems, more and more, our society has chosen sides,  which is a shame. 

We should like, even love our neighbors, our countrymen, other human beings, because they are worthy of our esteem.

  

One New Adventure

Sabbatical adventures, when do they start?

Immediately, when all the pressure was off -- "to preform"-- I picked up my camera.  I found myself walking out the door to the post office and grabbing my camera!  Odd.  It hung from the dining room chair finial for the longest time.  Oh, I used it, for taking pictures of my finished products to list in my online shop.  But, taking pictures just for the fun of it?  Not often enough!

Today it was rainy, again, but I took the camera while we drove to the post office.  I took some pictures as we drove,

while I was sitting in the car waiting for hubs to come out with the mail,

and later when I went on an errand.  Before I got to my destination, I got a coke at the local drive-thru, sat in the parking lot and snapped a few out the car window!  Then when I got home, I went outside my bedroom window and snapped a few more.

Sabbatical is like these next pictures -- going from a gray late winter day,

looking more closely  . . . .

zooming in . . . .

to an awesome moment!

Taking pictures--always something that I wanted to be better at and being a better photographer.  It takes time to see what is really there.

Yes! The adventure begins!