Editor’s Note: This post was to appear September 22nd, but was delayed due to Internet connection issues.
Autumn officially arrived on the calendar and in the weather today. We had rain very early this morning, followed by a period of sun, blue skies, and wispy clouds. Conditions changed quickly around mid-morning with winds picking up and more clouds and rain moving in. The variety in the weather over a short time period offered much to contemplate about life. Autumn in our household is traditionally the time to reflect more and get less caught up in life’s busyness. We thought we’d shift gears on our post this week and make it short and sweet to allow for less distractions and more focus.
Gift From God
“Every day is a gift from God. Learn to focus on the giver and enjoy the gift.” –Joyce Meyer
Theme of the Week: Just Be
Our theme this week stemmed from a question we read. The question asked if we’d rather be happy or rich. My immediate response was, “I’d like to just be; I don’t need the adjective.”
Perhaps that is one of the joys of autumn, or fall, a time to just be thankful for what daylight remains before the winter solstice, the changing colors in the landscape, and the variety in the weather that allows for indoor and outdoor activities (though not always to our plans or liking).
“The best way to pay for a lovely moment is to enjoy it.” –Richard Bach
Enjoy the Moment
Lesson of the Week: Change Ever Before Thee
Our lesson of the week stems from the changing skies and foliage in our area. All the change around us reminds us that there is ever change within us. These changes are necessary to keep moving forward on the journey.
“The active mind comes across a lot. Keep tilling the soil and you will occasionally unearth something wonderful.” –James Clear
Sight of the Week: Heaven’s Sea
Our sight of the week in nature occurred in the skies today. As the rains gave way to sun for a brief period this morning, the sky was a deep blue behind the wispy clouds white as cotton. The movement of the clouds was quick, opening and closing pockets of blue for miles around.
“Things may happen around you, and things may happen to you, but the only things that really count are the things that happen in you.” –Eric Butterworth
Things That Happen
Words of the Week: Autumn Journey
Our words of the week from the Daily Word devotional included thoughtful, grace, free, peace, and faith. If we take the time to be thoughtful, we find grace received from our gift of thoughtfulness. This grace sets us free from burdens of want and turns our inner being toward peace. This peace is a result of our faith and strengthens our faith even more so that we may continue to be thoughtful with our prayers and start the process all over again.
May we learn to embrace the seasons of life. May our lessons come at the right time for us, and may we come to reflect upon the gifts of grace received in autumn’s days to be.
Autumn’s Days to Be
After the Rain
Bright is the sky after the rain
In the tides of time’s change
As the winds blow and the leaves turn
Above the seed sown in the field and the urn
Where the spouts once young now yield fruit
After spring has sprung and summer’s youth
Give forth their gifts of life
To support the soul inside
Through autumn’s days to be
Wild Asters
In the wake of the breeze.
Glowing is the sun through the clouds
Flowing from the heavens to the ground
Where the deer graze and the squirrels run
As plays the chipmunk
Zigging and zagging with its prize won
In the shedding of the sagging walnut
Whose leaves blow with the wind
To and fro and back again
Through autumn’s days to be
Fall Crop of Red Raspberries
In the grace given thee.
Ready is the fruit upon the vine,
Steady is the decrease of daylight
As the days bring forth
The songs that play in nature’s court
With the call of the dove and the locust
That rise and fall with the sun
As goes the steady stream of change
That flows with the eddies and the wakes
Thanks from Us!
Through autumn’s days to be
By the Lord’s ways and glory.
-Lisa A. Wisniewski
A Note of Thanks
Our thanks this week goes out to everyone who has exhibited patience and understanding. Today’s world can be hard at times to navigate, and those who show patience and understanding are the beacons that shine to lead us in the right direction.
Editor’s Note: This post was to appear September 15th, but was delayed due to Internet connection issues.
Our week weather-wise was a mix of rain and sun. The rainy Sunday was a bit disappointing as we had high hopes of getting outdoor projects done and instead had to focus on some other tasks given the weather was not cooperating. The sun that followed during the week coaxed a number of final blooms to flower in the landscape and fields. Observing the blooms and how certain plants and trees are adjusting to the decreased hours of daylight in our area brought some questions to mind about processes and cycles that seem to go on without end. We thought we’d share our wonderings and learnings in this week’s post.
Our theme of the week started with a homily we heard on the Heart of the Nation mass via YouTube. In the homily the priest talked about God’s infinite mercy, how wide and broad God’s forgiveness and understanding are when it comes to dealing with humans. The homily reminded me of a math lesson many years ago about infinity, which is often symbolized by (for lack of a better description), a figure eight laying on its side. The concept with the symbol is that if you follow the path around the figure in the same direction, you come back to the starting point and can repeat this process over and over and over without end.
Contemplating this further, I wondered how many processes there are that act the same way. Sure, there are computer algorithms that work in a similar way, but eventually the computer breaks or has malfunction, ending the process. Every mechanical machine at some point succumbs to its life span, thus ending any process or work it does. Humans, animals, plants, and trees also have a limitation factor of life span. This fact led me to broaden the categorization of infinite things.
Always Wondering
On a broader spectrum, time goes on and on cycling through seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, etc. While there are limitations to time allotted to certain events, time itself keeps on going.
In addition to time, some of nature’s processes go on without end, though the pattern to them may not be predictable. Processes like the water cycle where water falls to the ground in the liquid state of rain or dew; the water is filtered along rivers, stream, creeks, and creeks to lakes, seas, and oceans; and ultimately evaporates into the atmosphere as a gas where the water molecules in the gaseous state meet wind currents that heat or cool the molecules, changing them back to a liquid state to start the process all over. The phases of the moon act in a similar way, changing from new moon to waxing crescent, waxing crescent to first quarter, first quarter to waxing gibbous, waxing gibbous to full, full to waning gibbous, waning gibbous to last quarter, last quarter to waning crescent, and waning crescent to new moon. The process repeats itself every 29.5 days.
If one considers these processes and how many times they occur (most often without much recognition from today’s society), it can be mind boggling.
Water Running Over Rocks
“The chief prevention against getting old is to remain astonished.” –Kevin Kelly
Lesson of the Week: What Ties These?
Our lesson of the week came in trying to determine a common link between the processes found to be infinite. What is it about time, the water cycle, and the moon phases that allows them to keep on going? Well, they all have ties to the sun and the earth’s orbit around the sun. Time is measured as the earth spins around the sun. The water cycle is dependent upon the amount of sun, which plays a part in the temperature, which in turn changes water to and from liquid to gaseous states. The moon phases also are determined by the moon’s orbit around the earth, and this orbit is tied to the earth’s orbit around the sun.
All Connected
We admit the above explanation may not be entirely scientific, but for the sake of illustration and using layman’s terms, makes a plausible explanation.
If we dig a little further and ask what is the common thread between the sun and the earth’s orbit around it, we can offer up two answers to keep things politically correct. The first answer we came to as a spiritual household was God. God is infinite, in all things, Creator of all things, guide of all things. God offers us life lessons through His blessings, grace, forgiveness, and peace. We spend a lifetime living these lessons without even realizing them at times.
The second answer we found so as not to offend those who may not consider themselves spiritual is nature. Nature is also infinite, in all things, creator of all things, guide of all things. Nature offers us so many examples to live by and so many ideas to ponder that we could spend a lifetime asking and researching and still not cover every topic.
“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” –Friedrich Nietzsche
Liriope
Song of the Week: Encountering Thee
Our song of the week is a favorite hymn that speaks of many walks of life, covering a variety of instances that together create an infinite network. This network connects us whether we recognize it or not. It is the common thread that binds us to faith and/or nature.
Gather Us In
Here in this place, new light is streaming, now is the darkness, vanished away, see, in this space, our fears and our dreamings, brought here to you in the light of this day.
Gather us in, the lost and forsaken; gather us in, the blind and the lame; call to us now, and we shall awaken, we shall arise at the sound of our name.
We are the young, our lives are a mystery; we are the old, who yearn for your face, we have been sung throughout all of history, called to be light to the whole human race.
Gather us in, the rich and the haughty; gather us in, the proud and the strong; give us a heart so meek and so lowly, give us the courage to enter the song.
Here we will take the wine and the water, here we will take the bread of new birth, here you shall call your sons and your daughters, call us anew to be salt for the earth.
Give us to drink the wine of compassion, give us to eat, the bread that is you; nourish us well, and teach us to fashion lives that are holy and hearts that are true.
Not in the dark of buildings confining, not in some heaven light years away, but here in this space, the new light is shining, now is the kingdom, now is the day.
Gather us in, and hold us forever; gather us in, and make us your own; gather us in, all peoples together, fire of love in our flesh and our bone.
Goldenrod
“For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.” –Psalm 100:5
Words of the Week:
Our words of the week from the Daily Word devotional included remembrance, blessings, protection, prosperity, forgiveness, and soar. Our remembrances are blessings in a sense for they lead us in infinite direction, seeking the protection and prosperity necessary for the soul to live and find forgiveness for ourselves and others. This forgiveness allows the spirit to eventually soar with time.
May we walk our journey ever seeking with gratitude and thanks for the infinite things that keep life flowing. May we come to find knowledge and wisdom along the way through the sun and rain encountered.
Sun and Rain
Sun and Rain
Sun and rain
Come in waves
With the stars in the skies
And arc of the vine
Climbing the tree
Above the clover high beneath
Kissed by the dew
That enlivens and renews
The earth below
To heal the hurt that flows
With the calming of the breeze
Butterfly Bush
And song of the dove’s peace.
Sun and rain
Run and play
In the skies
With time’s
Endless sea
That befriends the seed
That grows from the earth,
Slow to spurt
Forth its sprout in spring
But then uncorks to bring
Thanks Everyone!
Fruit to feed the heart and soul
Hewed in the young and old.
-Lisa A. Wisniewski
A Note of Thanks
This week, we remember my late Uncle Jim, whose infinite wisdom continues to guide us from heaven above. Ever the nature lover and kid at heart, Uncle Jim taught us to ask questions, seek answers, and always be open to what life offers us.
Our adventures this week had us literally all over the place physically, mentally, and spiritually. We did everything from cutting grass to writing poetry, weeding to cleaning, and loving to forgiving. Along the way, we found a number of road blocks, things that held us up or set us back, obstacles that were not welcomed nor warranted (in our opinion). Through it all, what remained constant was the struggle and strong determination to just move on. We thought we would share some things we learned from our experiences in this week’s post.
Life Experience
“The aim is to experience the fact that everything belongs—the good, the bad, and the ugly. Often this is hard—especially coming to terms with the ugly—and may take living a while.” –Richard Rohr
Theme of the Week: Rescue Me
Our theme of the week started Sunday while trying to get back on track with a house project that has been put on and off hold multiple times in the past year. It is the first house project that has ever taken more than six months to complete and the second house project during which a family member passed away, leading to extra delays. So, needless to say, we want to get this thing DONE!
The most recent hold up had to deal with trying to get a ledger board set across the roof of a porch. The task itself is not hard per se, but can be challenging without a helper and with one Leo and one Lena running all over the place under the one ladder you have that works while dealing with one of the most out of square or level old farm houses ever built. Things were made a little more difficult given the weather was so humid and I was sweating profusely as I wrestled the long ledger board into place and tried to drill holes for fastening. The hole drilling was an exploration in itself as our house has multiple layers to the outer fascia and finding studs to attach to takes some effort. Add to this fact none of the studs are on standard center spacing, so you can’t just find one stud and measure off the rest. Nope. That would be way too easy and easy is not the straw we drew in life (which is really quite fine with us, but frustrating at times).
Challenging Sea
After multiple attempts to try to get the board up, an idea came to me. I had used this method years ago when hanging drywall in the kitchen and found success. The only issue was it was a little time consuming to get things set up, and given it was Sunday, my only day off in a week, we did not have the luxury of time, or so we thought. Most of the day had already been consumed by church, running, cutting grass, weed whacking, laundry, and three showers for me. Considering I had just spent an hour trying to get one board up, I figured I needed to cut my losses and do things “the long way” so to speak.
I found some short, thinner blocks that I could temporarily fasten to the house with a nail gun. The blocks did not have to be structural and only had to stay in place long enough for me to get a screw on each end of the long ledger board. I spaced out the blocks in a straight line on the side of the house and fastened them with the nail gun. (Sounds easy but when you have to run an extension cord from inside the house across the porch with one Leo tied to the same porch and tools all over the place, it can become an obstacle course). Next, I took the long ledger board, climbed up the ladder, and sat the ledger board on top of the blocks. This allowed me an extra hand to begin drilling and screwing the ledger board in place.
Possibilities
After drilling and screwing in place with decking screws, I went back through with a bigger drill and the impact wrench putting lag screws in place. The ledger board would be structural, so it has to be secure, and by the time I was done, that board was most certainly secure. I repeated the process with the next ledger board (the span is twenty feet, so I needed two boards to cover the distance). Now, I was finally ready to start putting up brackets for the roof joists. A quick check of the clock showed I still had some time to get started before having to clean up for the day. Now that the ledger board was up marking off the joist spacing and screwing in the brackets and joists was less of a chore. I got eight brackets and four joists up before I had to stop for the day. The next day after work, I got sixteen brackets and eight joists up in short order. Wow! All those delays and then the struggle with the ledger board are behind us now! Maybe we can get this project done before too long after all.
Small Lifetime
Though there was a physical aspect to this project, the more challenging aspect has been a mental one. It is not that we cannot work through it all, but rather that we have the patience and determination to do so. This is the case in many life struggles. We either over analyze and get paralysis by analysis or we underestimate our strengths (and weaknesses) and get done in by nothing. We may feel we need rescued, but really we just need to renew our faith by stepping back, stopping to reflect, and taking whatever happens for the gift that it is.
“Each day is a small lifetime. Live a good life today.” –James Clear
Lesson of the Week: One Moment Please
In addition to having the struggles with the porch project, I also had to navigate through a learning process with a computer system at work. I have been trying to get past a certain learning stage with this system for some time, but made no progress. However, this week I had a training session on a different work aspect that put an idea in my head to try a different approach to the system. After a few frustrating attempts, I finally got things to work. Oh, thank you, Jesus!
Full Moon
The biggest struggle was not with the system, but rather with making and taking the time to work with it. Every day I get interrupted multiple times and pulled in too many directions by my entire team. On this particular day, I finally said, “I’m sorry, but I’m in training and need to learn this. Someone else has to step up or wait until I’m done.”
Too often in life today, there is a feeling of a need for instant gratification. And it truly is a feeling of a need, more precisely put, a want. It is not a life or death need. The world will not end despite what is believed or said. What will happen is someone will have to wait. (Oh, that dreaded four-letter word). What will become of this having to wait is a lesson learned. (Granted, the lesson will most likely be a hard one for some). This lesson learned has the potential to be life altering. How great is that compared to instant gratification?
Admittedly, I am not a patient person with myself, but try to be patient with others (unless they give me a reason not to be, then all bets are off) and the systems and processes in place to help us in life. I’m also not a fast learner and often have to do things first hand to process the entire lesson to be learned. The benefit to digging in is getting the experience along with the lesson. The downfall to digging in is it takes time, energy, determination, curiosity, and courage (including the courage to ask for help, pray, and admit one’s strengths and weaknesses) to do so. Through digging in, we find more facts along with more obstacles. What starts out as solve problem A turns into solve problem A using methods B through Z, and methods B through Z entail using corollaries one through fifty. Encountering all of this becomes the requirement to overcoming or getting past the original obstacle. Good Lord, who has time for all that?
Goldenrod
Well, if we are honest with ourselves, we do have the time and simply need to take it for what it is—a gift of endless potential and opportunities to guide us through life. They key is to not get caught up in what “everyone else” is doing and forge our own paths. This takes courage and thought, two things whose values are not promoted in today’s rely-on-technology world full of noise with no real direction to the song being conducted.
“Learn to get in touch with silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose.” –Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Song of the Week: Overcoming What is and is Not Seen
Come to the Light
Our song of the week is a favorite hymn that asks us to overcome some of life’s obstacles in order to find our way to where and who we need to be. The questions are not easy to answer, nor are the answers the same for every person. However, if we take our time searching and digging in to find our own answers, we come to find the resources to continue on the quest.
The Summons
Will you come and follow me if I but call your name? Will you go where you don’t know and never be the same? Will you let my love be shown? Will you let my name be known, will you let my life be grown in you and you in me?
Will you leave yourself behind if I but call your name? Will you care for cruel and kind and never be the same? Will you risk the hostile stare should your life attract or scare? Will you let me answer prayer in you and you in me?
Butterfly Bush
Will you let the blinded see if I but call your name? Will you set the prisoners free and never be the same? Will you kiss the leper clean and do such as this unseen, and admit to what I mean in you and you in me?
Will you love the “you” you hide if I but call your name? Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same? Will you use the faith you’ve found to reshape the world around, Through my sight and touch and sound in you and you in me?
Lord your summons echoes true when you but call my name. Let me turn and follow you and never be the same. In Your company I’ll go where Your love and footsteps show. Thus I’ll move and live and grow in you and you in me.
In Nature This Week: What Comes to Be
Last Trumpet Vine Flower of the Season
Our observations outdoors this week led us to find many of the plants in the landscape on the downward side to their life cycle. The reason for this has to do with decreasing daylight. We now have sunrise at 7:01 AM and sunset at 7:30 PM. While that still allows for over twelve hours of daylight, this fact combined with cooler night time temperatures makes it harder for the chemical reactions going on inside the foliage to maintain a steady state. So, like us humans, the plants have obstacles to deal with as well.
We also observed the male deer scraping their antlers to remove the velvet coating. This is the deer’s way of removing the itch that happens when the velvet and their antlers reach the peak of growth. The deer rub their antlers on saplings, small trees, fence posts, bushes, and shrubs to remove the velvet. Beneath the velvet is the hardened or calcified structure of the antler. The obstacle of the itch forces the male deer to take action to relief the discomfort.
Buck With Scraped Antlers
Humans may or may not take action as a result of obstacles in our lives. Perhaps this is both good and bad. If we take action and the end result is positive not only for us but for others around us, then that is a good thing. However, if our actions create negativity within us and for others, then we have a less-than-desired outcome. Often, it is our attitude and perspective that influence these outcomes. If we remember that obstacles are placed in our lives to strengthen us, we may just find a way to accept and overcome these road blocks and detours along our journey.
“Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You may find they haven’t half the strength you think they have.” –Norman Vincent Peale
Words of the Week: What One Needs
Anything is Possible
Our words of the week from the Daily Word devotional include: ease, refresh, joy, inner peace, prayer, feelings, and life. As we go through life, we encounter many feelings, which often lead us to prayer. The prayers we say ultimately allow us to experience a sense of peace, though not always with the joy or time frame we envision. This peace refreshes us, allowing for a sense of ease even in times of turmoil. The essence of all these words is experience, and every experience has its own set of obstacles to encounter and overcome.
May we not be deterred, but rather strengthened by the challenges before us. May we come to see these challenges as opportunities for growth, and may this growth see us through the encountered obstacles along the journey.
Obstacles
Inner Beauty
Obstacles
Born to make possible
So many things;
Taken and given as time brings
All and each one forward
Chasing the dream and the goal
Leaving behind the seams and folds
Entwined to create
Clearing Skies
Songs in life’s ways.
Obstacles
Believed improbable
Set before us to prove
That more is not always to pursue
Alluring as it may seem
Curing is within thy reach,
Loving is the Lord
Entrusting all the more
So that we may come to explore.
Summer Parade
Obstacles
Breathed in the morn at will,
Shared with the dew
Taken as God’s care through
All and every moment
Created by the call to keep on going
Luring the heart and the soul
Enduring the art of the fold
Thanks Everyone!
Spaced within life’s molds.
-Lisa A. Wisniewski
A Note of Thanks
Our thanks this week goes out to the people who have helped us overcome and meet the challenges faced in life’s obstacles.
Editor’s Note: This post was to appear September 1, 2022, but was delayed due to circumstances out of our control.
Our adventures this past week led us to a number of questions and perspectives that put us off the beaten path so to speak. The adventure was most rewarding from a mental exercise perspective and very enlightening to the mind, heart, and soul. We discovered a lot about our thought process, life, and how we have the potential to impact and influence others without even realizing it. Our readings for the week supported our experiences, and we hope you enjoy this week’s post.
New Well in the Skies
“You can’t dig a new well by digging the same hole deeper.”- Edward de Bono
Theme of the Week: Seeing Differently
Our theme of the week started Sunday morning as I was running before church. With sunrise at 6:43 AM and sunset at 7:58 PM, we have had to shift our activities around a bit to get everything done in the daylight. This has forced me to run a shorter route before church on Sundays, which is disappointing after having run longer distances all summer before mass and really clearing my head. However, I’ve been doing this long enough (over 30 years now) and know it is something I just have to accept and be thankful for the ability and opportunity to still do it. So while the inner eight-year-old is moping about the reality of the facts, the inner adult is grateful to have learned to look at the situation and circumstances from a different view.
Unknown Sea
Our theme continued in church with Father Chris’ homily. He told a story about something he witnessed many years earlier. While studying to be a priest, he and several fellow seminarians were to chaperone a trip to a foreign country. The details of the trip got mixed up and the seminarians had to return home. Given the timing of it all, the young men boarded the plane and were told to go to the first class section because those were the only empty seats available. One of the other passengers got upset and made a comment about the seminarians taking the first class seats.
Father Chris then explained how what the man did not know (the details behind the why of the move to first class) affected the man’s view of the situation. Father Chris then challenged the congregation to be considerate of what we do not know in life and not jump to conclusions.
Accepting Weeds
With all the technology we have today, we think we know it all, but statistics and information only present part of the facts. The story behind the statistics and facts has great potential to get mixed up or misconstrued in interpretation. As such, we really don’t know unless we are witnesses to what is happening at any given time, and even if we are witnesses, our vision can be clouded or impaired by harbored resentments, feelings, and misunderstandings.
“Our world is filled with a lot of angry people because they cannot accept their own weeds.” –Richard Rohr
Lesson of the Week: Behind the Scenes
Our lesson of the week came through several readings about different kinds of scripture passages and writing genres. In the readings, the authors took different perspectives on several parables in the Bible related to the sower of the seed. One author asked the question, “What if the parable is not about the ground upon which the seed is sowed, but rather about the sower of the seed?”
Behind the Scenes
This question puts a totally different spin on the parable. Instead of being about the seed growing or not growing due to the ground in which it is placed, it is about the person sowing the seed and the generosity of that person to sow the seed over all the ground, no matter the conditions. The story becomes not about us and what we reap, but about God and how generous He is with His grace and gifts to us.
Another reading explained what parables are. These stories are a wisdom genre and belong to the Jewish branch of the universal tradition of sacred poetry, stories, proverbs, riddles and dialogs that convey wisdom called marshal. The Buddhist koan is another such writing that uses deliberate underlying paradoxes to turn traditional or usual thinking upside down. One interesting note about parables is they are not about God, but rather ordinary people, places, and things. Jesus used these stories to try to show people that the world was changing and they needed to change their perspective of the world. The goal was to draw attention to the events happening in plain sight and to illustrate the people could be a part of the changes.
Wisdom Born
This reading was most enlightening as it explained what parables are, how they originated, and the intent behind the stories. With so many sources for stories and information in today’s world, one often skips over or misses the intent portion entirely. There are also prevalent amounts of negative intent that seem to get more attention than positive intent stories. The focus of the world has changed from the normal elements to artificial or virtual elements, neither of which fully portray the truth. Perhaps this is another reason society and priorities seem mixed up today—there is little thought given to the intent, and what thought is given regarding intent is fueled by negativity and pessimism.
“Wisdom is born, stupidity is learned.” –Russian Proverb
Song of the Week: Lucky Me
Our song of the week played on the radio on the way home from church and has been stuck in my head all week. The song was the first number one country music hit for Keith Urban back in 1999. The lyrics tell the story of a man who witnesses a number of unsettling events, yet finds a way to see the good in his world. In a way, the song was ahead of its time, yet made people consider a simpler life that is possible if we open our minds and eyes to seeing the beauty under the surface of our circumstances.
But For the Grace of God
But For the Grace of God
I can hear the neighbors They’re arguing again And there hasn’t been peace on our street Since who knows when I don’t mean to listen in But the shouting is so loud I turn up the radio to drown it out And silently I say a little prayer
But for the grace of God go I I must’ve been born a lucky guy Heaven only knows how I’ve been blessed With the gift of your love And I look around and all I see Is your happiness embracing me Oh Lord I’d be lost But for the grace of God
Nature’s Riches
I can see that old man He’s walking past our door And I’ve been told that he’s rich But he seems so poor ‘Cause no one comes to call on him And his phone it never rings He wanders through his empty home Surrounded by his things And silently I say a little prayer, yes I do
But for the grace of God go I I must’ve been born a lucky guy Heaven only knows how I’ve been blessed With the gift of your love And I look around and all I see Is your happiness embracing me Oh Lord I’d be lost But for the grace of God
Embracing Me
I look around and all I see Is your happiness embracing me Oh Lord I’d be lost But for the grace of God Oh Lord I’d be lost But for the grace of God
(Written and performed by Keith Urban)
“Thankfulness may consist merely of words. Gratitude is shown in acts.” –Henri Frederic Amiel
Sights of the Week: Summer’s Creativity
We were fortunate to see some beautiful skies, intricate patterns in clouds and dew, and signs of summer moving on in time. The cooler evenings allowed for clearer mornings for viewing the sunrise. The temperature drop at twilight helped form more moisture in the air and dew on the grass and landscape foliage. The sunlight hitting the dew sparkled in shimmering patterns as the breeze blew. Every passing minute was filled with opportunities to observe, reflect, and create.
Quality Thoughts
While both the calendar and nature indicate summer is coming to a close, we can still enjoy the moments if we choose to do so.
“The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts.” –Marcus Aurelius
Words of the Week: Let What is to Be, Be
Our words of the week from the Daily Word devotional include: purpose, prosperity, guidance, reflection, waken, and divine order. As we explore and experience life, we come to see our purpose. The sense of purpose offers us prosperity in various forms. This prosperity may take some guidance to find, and in this guidance there is a reflection component that wakens the inner soul. This wakening leads us to accept divine order in time.
“Sinners often speak the truth. And saints have led people astray. Examine what is said, not the one who says it.” –Anthony de Mello
May we come to see life as the journey it is. May our footsteps along the way be guided by faith, and may we find the light of the truth from a different view.
Chicory
A Different View
Sun on the rise at the break of day
So begins the heights for nature to create
As the dew drips
And the chicory blue dips
With the curve of the stalk
Above the dirt blessed by God
With the potential to be
Essential and free
From a different view
As comes the truth.
Clover Dancing in the Light
Clover dancing in the light
With blooms pink handing over the life
Offered to it by the winds and the rains
That come in and out with the wakes
Of the breezes that blow
Beneath the heavens’ glow
Of moon and stars
In the blue afar
Where a different view meets
The stare of new feats.
Trees along the fence,
Fuzzy leaves that bend,
Daisy Yellow and White
Stare of the deer with eyes wide,
Clear hues smeared in the skies,
Daisies yellow and white,
Other posies saying hello in the light,
All part of the plan to be
In the sands of the hourglass’ sea
Offering a different view
From the coffers of nature’s youth.
-Lisa A. Wisniewski
A Note of Thanks
Thank You Everyone!
Our thanks this week goes out to all the people who have challenged us to see things from many views so that we may become cultured and better versed to handle life as it unfolds. Special thanks to long-time friend Julie for opening my mind long ago, cousins Dorothy and Chris for sharing the faith that comes if we allow it to guide us, and mentors Aikens and Tognarina for helping keep the inner eight-year-old spirit eternally young at heart.
Editor’s Note: This post was to appear the last week of August, but was delayed due to scheduling and technical issues.
While going about our activities this past week, we noticed a variety of butterflies and moths. Given it is late summer, and the weather has been hazy, hot, and humid, the conditions have been favorable for the little flying creatures. What struck us more was what the butterflies and moths appeared to be attracted to as they fluttered through the yards and fields. Normally, the monarchs, viceroys, swallow tails, and skippers go to the milkweed and butterfly bushes. However, this year, they seem most attracted to the cone flowers and sedum. This observation, along with other circumstances in life led us to the question of what seems right in the world today. We thought we’d share some of what we learned and saw in this week’s post.
Always Best
“Do the best you can at every task, no matter how unimportant it may seem at the time. No one learns more about a problem than the person at the bottom.” –Sandra Day O’Connor
Theme of the Week: What It Seems
Our theme of the week stemmed from having to switch up schedules and routines. The changes were not horrible, but not exactly welcomed in our household. While we enjoy the challenges and growth opportunities change offers us, there are times when we long to just be, to have our little routine that feels like home not be interrupted, criticized, or blown to pieces by someone else’s priorities (which may be just fine for that someone, but not so much for us). Most likely, we are not alone in this thought process, however, there are days we feel like we’re stranded on an island with no common ground between us and the rest of the world.
Pondering Skies
The theme continued at work, where a number of complaints led to additional stress and issues to contend with each day. At one point, I had enough and silently wondered why people seem so miserable no matter how much others try to help them. It occurred to me that many people have been isolated since the pandemic started and maybe interacting with others is not as comfortable as it once was for these people. I also recalled a time in my life when I really did not to socialize, not because of others actions or words, but because of how I felt about myself.
These thoughts dogged me as I ran, bike, and prayed through the week. Being outside and in nature is my go-to therapy, medicine, and crutch for life. So many people are cooped up indoors with ailments, other priorities, and tasks they feel they must do. Perhaps the inactivity and lack of interaction with nature and God adds or compounds to people’s misery?
Regardless of the reasons why or the answers found or not found to the questions we have in life, we can remember that what seems to be may not actually be reality. It is important to keep things in perspective, consider sources, and be patient with ourselves and others so that we can be thankful and grateful for what we are given, no matter how it appears or presents itself, for everything in life is a gift.
Spirit Healing
“The spirit in us knows how to use everything that happens to bring about healing and growth.” –Richard Rohr
Lesson of the Week: What May Be
Our lesson of the week was a tag along to our theme of the week. Since things seem so different in the world today, one may wonder what will come to be. There are already studies about how students have been affected by online or virtual learning due to the pandemic, how certain cultural activities impact the environment and society, and what role religion plays in a person’s well-being.
Asking questions is part of natural curiosity, which helps one to learn and grow while building character. With so many technological advancements making the answers readily available without much effort, one may wonder how this impacts the opportunities for growth. One aspect of learning that I recall vividly is the excitement of figuring out or finding the answer to the question or problem at hand. This experience came to me through the teachings of my third grade teacher, Miss Guckert. She gave us homework in every subject, every day. We had spelling words to write and use in sentences and stories, math problems, terms to define in social studies and science, sentences to diagram in English, and many stories and articles to read and answer questions to for reading and language. Our days in class were busy, jam packed with opportunities to go to the chalk board and show what we had learned.
Joy of Learning
Admittedly, I was not the best student in the class, and I had much difficulty with the assignments, but we kept track of our work done on a chart in the front of the class room, and the visual progress, along with Miss Guckert’s encouragement (ok, so she did make me stay in at recess once because I was being super stubborn about an assignment), helped me find my way and made me want to do better. Other teachers in my academic career had similar but different ways of helping students see and reach their potential, accept their weaknesses, and develop their talents. Later on in life in the workplace, managers, supervisors, and co-workers offered up their ways to challenge and motivate me. Though admittedly some of these ways were difficult to navigate, the methods did help in time, allowing me to move forward not only at work, but in life as well.
Through the efforts of many, I have been able to accomplish what may have seemed impossible or improbable to me years ago. Granted, I have taken a most circuitous path in life, often getting involved in too many things at once to really have a direction. But this variety (perhaps insanity or determined spirit is a better description) is what forced me to stretch my limits and boundaries so that I was no longer caged, but rather free. (Maybe too free at times, for I roamed an awful lot before finding the right inner compass to guide me).
Winding Paths
Like the butterflies this year, I did not conform to “normal” very well, but rather forged my own path finding other things to attract my attention. Was this wrong? Maybe at times, for there were days when what seemed right was far from what I pursued, but somehow I survived (mostly because an army of people prayed for me and sat me down to have difficult conversations in order to open my mind).
“If I accept you as you are I will make you worse; however, if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that.” –Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Science Lesson of the Week: What Attracts Thee?
Checkerspot Butterfly on Sedum
We did some research on why the butterflies in the area seem more attracted to cone flowers this year and found out some interesting facts. I also drew upon a lesson from Miss Guckert as a starting point for our research. Butterflies have life cycles consisting of four stages: egg, larvae (caterpillar), pupa (chrysalis), and adult (butterfly). The eggs are laid on plants by adult butterflies. The larvae or caterpillar hatches from the egg and begins eating immediately in order to grow. It first eats the egg shell then eats the plant leaves that is was laid upon.
All this eating is to help the larvae prepare to pupate, or form a protective shell. It will stay in the shell 1-2 weeks before emerging as an adult butterfly. This process starts all over again when the adult butterfly lays its eggs on plants.
Admiral Butterfly
The plants chosen by the butterflies upon which to lay their eggs are called host plants. The host plants are the food sources for the eggs. Different species of butterflies prefer different host plants. Typical host plants include: cone flowers, hollyhocks, milkweed, parsley, purslane, stonecrop, dill, snap dragons, sunflowers, mallow, violet, oak, and switchgrass. The following is an abbreviated list of butterfly species and corresponding preferred host plants:
Monarch- milkweed
Swallowtail- parsley, dill, common rue, various fruit trees
Like the butterflies above, we humans have our own version of “host plants” that attract us. Some human host plants may include habits like exercise, socializing, or other behaviors; environments like classrooms, gyms, or studios; and people like teachers, mentors, and coaches. Our host plants may differ for many reasons, and what we feed off of may or may not be or seem good for us.
Endless Possibilities
“When nothing is sure, everything is possible.” –Margaret Drabble
Words of the Week: Right Maybe?
Our words of the week from the Daily Word devotional included: gratitude, pray for others, joy, protection, wonder, let go and let God, and calm. When we feel calm inside, it is easy to let go and let God do His thing in and with our lives. Though we may both wonder and wander, we feel a sense of protection, which can lead us to a place of joy. This joy opens our hearts and mind to pray for others to share what we have found, and for what we have found, we have much gratitude. This process may or may not seem right, depending on the circumstances, so we may need to spread our wings like the butterflies and moths and fly against or with the wind to reach our destination.
“Follow what you are genuinely passionate about and let that guide you to your destination.” –Diane Sawyer
Dandelion
May our spirits be free like that of the butterflies, allowing for natural paths to be discovered and explore. May our discoveries lead us to what seems right in time.
What Seems Right
Sunrise in the August morn,
Clearing skies come before
The day starts once again
In the wake of nature’s elements
Pink Weed
Where the butterfly flutters and flits
As the grass dries and dew drips
In the light reaching all in sight
With what seems right.
Rolling clouds coming in
Float about as the minutes slip
On by in the day’s expanse
Where the butterflies dance
Poke Weed
With the finch and the bee
Every little inch in harmony
With life itself recreating
The skies in the making
Keeping time
With what seems right.
Dandelion bright with the chicory
View Above the Pond
Reaching high with the poke weed
Whose fruits turn from green to purple
As the pink weeds’ flower circles
Pop into sight with the goldenrod
In the heights above the pond
Where the water holds in wait
As unfolds the day
Thank You!
Into the deep of the night
With what seems right.
-Lisa A. Wisniewski
A Note of Thanks
Our thanks this week is to all the people in our lives who challenge us to learn and grow into who we are meant to be.
Natural Deltas 