1994-1995 Pontiac Bonneville photographed at the Rassemblement Rigaud Car Show. Category:Rassemblement Rigaud 2008 Category:Pontiac Bonneville (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sometimes, instead of no, God says Go!

Suddenly, in His perfect timing, everything seems fresh and green and alive, and growing and resting in peaceful expectancy, the kind that grows peaceful when it’s no longer expected, but given up to God, the Creator of all.

This morning at the center, everything worked! Our leader was called away, but we all worked together, nobody pushing or shoving or complaining or bumping into each other. It all got done, in green, in peace, in joy.

Isn’t God good? We don’t always believe or see or feel that God is good, but He always is and sometimes, like the late great preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon said (in his always profound and always eloquent way) God walks “across the billows,” to draw us and our loved ones out of the deepest depths.

One day, some day, God finds a way, to make it all okay, to keep us alive, to do (and sometimes to do without) but never leaving us alone, and suffering with us (even when it doesn’t feel true, and sometimes it doesn’t, for now) as we suffer with Him, because we are not above our Master.

Just since yesterday, good and hopeful things have poured forth in so many ways, decked out, in faith and in hope and in God’s love.

Just a short time ago, today, one of my neighbors walked outside on the porch, when I was walking to my car on this fresh new day. (And no matter where we are, with or without green grass, each day with God can be a fresh new day, although sometimes we can only limp along, or barely speak, or stop crying. That’s okay. God is with us, if we ask. God never forces anyone, but He will always be there, and Whosoever will may call unto Him, even without words. Somebody said it. All it takes is a look. Just look at Jesus).

My neighbor on the porch and I have been acquainted for at least a year. During that time, she’s walked nearly everywhere, and her options were limited, because she couldn’t afford a car. We’ve been a few places a few times in my car, which another friend gave me last year.

But suddenly, and also over time, things changed for the better, for my friend without a car. Today, when she walked outside, she said, “My car is parked next to yours.”

I looked and there was my friend’s car, a hope fulfilled, a Pontiac Bonneville, in deep forest green, The interior is plush and perfect. That car makes her so happy. She said she feels free now. She said she would ask Donnie, if we could borrow his charcoal grill, to cook out on another day. She told me we would also go for a ride somewhere in her new car, during the holidays.

How can we say thanks, for all God has done for us? What tribute can we give on a bright new day and a gentle quiet evening?

Just watch. Just watch what God can do, when He says Go, and when He flings open the bolted door, or removes the heavy stone. Light pierces the darkness and always comes through. Nothing can hold back Resurrection Power.

God doesn’t keep His children in shrouds. He clothes us with His Light and His Love and His Very Life. Through Jesus, our rags become righteous; our despair becomes hope; our impossible becomes possible. Nothing can separate us from God’s love, in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So we must wait for Jesus, Who walks to us across the billows, sometimes scaring us, in the fourth watch of the night, but still arriving, saying Peace! Be still!

So we wait, on the waters of our impossibilities, behind the stone walls of death, under the heavy weights of hopes deferred.  But by faith, we can hear our Master say, one bright green morning, “Unbind them, and let them go!”

Glory! Glory be to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit! They are One and They are All Mighty. They stay with us, and we will all be together, some day, some way, some how.

Amen!

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WordPress (Photo credit: Adriano Gasparri)

It’s been days since I’ve been here, because I changed the color theme and somehow locked myself out. I felt bad.

A writer is just a person who writes and it’s not too mysterious, or as uppity, as it might sound sometimes.

But a writer gets down when he or she can’t write, especially if she’s become comfortable with her sense of place, which for me is WordPress, which has been with me all along here, working so hard in the background, doing things I could not do by myself.

WordPress deserves lots of credit and lots of appreciation, for all that work, helping people create and share with each other, words and pictures and wisdom and many beautiful things.

People need to create things and they get depressed if they can’t try. I read that statement years ago and it’s true: “Impression Without Expression Equals Depression.”

People try to find ways to express their fire and ice. That’s why I don’t mind graffiti too much, because graffiti means somebody wants to express himself or herself (or themselves), to try to paint something colorful, or to say something, maybe to cry on concrete.

When you get locked out, or lock yourself out, it’s like trapping a wild beautiful thing, for no good purpose. It hurts.

It was such a wonderful (and scary) surprise to see today that someone named Deborah at WordPress was there, trying to help get this blog going again, like a person who reaches out to help someone, or something, that’s trapped. I read Deborah’s note in my in-box and felt great relief, but also disbelief, like could it really be true? Could this problem really be fixed?

When I looked and saw that things might be okay here again, I had to go outside, trying to calm down. I walked outside, trying to see the first beautiful thing. It was everything beautiful, like the precision-cut grass and autumn all around, and a pretty black metal round of benches for people to sit, with a tree right in the middle, and bright clear sunlight, with air just-right cool and crisp and free, so easy to breathe.

Today, everything is so beautifully clear instead of hazy.

Faith gets tried. Faith is hard, because you are trying to see what isn’t there, and believe it really is, through clouds and haze.

Faith can be a muddy business. But sometimes God lets us have precious clarity, like a quality and genuine diamond, multi-faceted, the beautiful miracle of fire and ice, which is the potential and worth of every human being. I don’t want anybody to die or get hurt for diamonds, but diamonds are so beautiful, like all the precious stones, and even the common ones, which look up at us from clear crystal streams, holding us in place.

It’s embarrassing to feel this way, to miss you so much and to know WordPress helps me so much and I took it all too much for granted. I’m sorry for ever taking anyone or anything for granted. I’ll try not to do that again.

So, I hope to see you Thursday. The late Christian writer Eugenia Price said, in her devotional book, that we can share our pleasant stones. Maybe sometime today, I’ll catch my breath again. Whew.

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English: The beach at Loch a’ Bhealaich. Far from the madding crowd – well worth the walk in. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today at the dangerous little intersection at Peerless and Georgetown roads in Cleveland, Tennessee, I wondered how we get these dangerous intersections that never seem to change. What in the world is going on?

Some of the local schools are over-crowded and nobody seems to know what to do about it here in Cleveland and Bradley County. An article this week in the Cleveland Daily Banner named the schools that are already over-capacity. But developers and planners keep planning and developing and building more apartments and businesses and so on and so forth, right into they think forever. Cleveland is crowded now.

Remember that movie “Far from the Madding Crowd” with Julie Christie? I just saw a scene or so, but the title tells the story. She lived away, far from the madding crowd.

If anything can drive you crazy, it’s a crowd. If you live in a crowded city, sometimes you just wish you had somewhere to go, a way to get away, to another place, maybe South Dakota or Maine or Alaska or Black Mountain, North Carolina.

Let’s go somewhere. It’s getting dark outside and time to go to another state of mind, up in a mountain cabin, with pine trees all around and crisp breezes and a pot-bellied stove with glowing embers and naturally, some homemade beef stew that’s been simmered until the meat is fork-tender and dripping with beef juices, with those vegetables like carrots and onions and the potatoes.

There’s a fireplace too, made of river rocks, with a chimney where smoke curls out into the clean black night air, free and unhurried, with stars everywhere, as far as you can see. Here, in this state of mind, we are without those intrusive city lights or city noises or city crowds. But we have lanterns and candles and hot water and we enjoy a few appliances, with just enough spare.

Nothing here dilutes or clouds the clear pure joy. Burning logs crackle and spit their happiness and you can feel the bright fire’s glow, trying so hard to say “All is well.”

There are rocking chairs too, and a sofa, with two or three soft warm blankets, in colors like Hunter green and burgundy and brown. Here, it’s okay to just stare at the fire, with a two-lane highway just below the mountain, with just enough traffic to offer comfort. Nobody’s in a hurry.

Just sitting here safe and cozy and happy, in front of that glowing fireplace state of mind, in that mountain cabin, far from the madding crowd.

Time to go for now. Thank you for listening again. Things feel better. One of my brothers heard a radio report the other day. They say when you want to get away from the walls, it means you’re getting better.

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English: A tie dyed lace tank. Photo taken by User:Gezi and explicitly released under GFLD by ThaiDye Artists. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s hot again here in the Southern United States. It’s not as hot as it was, but it’s hot enough to confuse your clothes. This morning, I must have changed clothes three times, trying to get comfortable.

The repetitively unpredictable weather patterns in the South are hard to live with and can drive just about anybody nutty and swirly, like those autumn leaves swirling down at the same time the roses are blooming and wilting and the yellow butterflies are dancing around all crazy-like, but also pretty.

It sure can get frustrating. Just a week or so ago, we were enjoying autumn with its cool breezes and friendly sunshine and clear moonlight. But it didn’t last. Summer changed her mind, which is the pattern here in the South.

Let’s not get used to any leveled-out weather here in Tennessee, or anywhere else in the South. Just when we think we are free and clear, here comes summer again, carrying that torch for us.

This blazin’ heat makes you want to wear tank tops here in September and maybe thumb your nose at people and then just get somewhere cool.

The guy at the desk stared at my apologetic tank top, but it’s really trying to be a happy shirt, fit for the weather. When (and if) it gets cold enough, I’ll switch to turtlenecks and sweaters and jackets and long sleeves and V-necks. But right now, the heat presses down and makes us wear tank tops, trying to be comfortable.

A young woman with her hands full kicked the automatic door open with her foot today. What did I tell you? It’s the heat. Time for a happy shirt.

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Yellow flower (Photo credit: @Doug88888)

It will sound made-up, but those yellow Irises shut down by Sunday. What a good sign that maybe some of the heavy heat is about to let up on us.

It’s been a manic Monday. Over at the center, right before lunch, somebody yelled out because the edge of another person’s wheelchair caught the table leg, pulling the tables apart right in the middle of everything. That little mishap left a black hole and empty space and no place to go until somebody pulled the tables back together.

Somebody sitting right there at the table’s edge yelled out from sudden fear. We all jumped. We didn’t blame the woman who yelled out. It can scare you so badly when the bottom drops out. (God was with us in that turmoil. God understands the noise and the fear).

Three people are still out sick, or in some other mystery place, or in some other unknown condition. Ms. Shirley remembered them in prayer.

What about the love and ability and generosity of Jesus and His Father-God, the Giver of faith. It gets to where we have to Just Believe, like Ms. Regina‘s T-shirt said today. We have to just believe (even when we cannot feel it anymore) that we have Great Value in God’s eyes and that His eye is still on the sparrow, especially on Manic Monday. God’s love, through Christ our Savior, never bottoms out.

Those yellow butterflies are out there now and last night the fireflies blinked their little lights, silently twinkling and comforting and reminding of God’s Presence on this Earth.

At Communions with Christ, Sharon Ellis wrote that yellow is the color of gold and the color of true faith in Christ. Faith in Christ is more precious than gold. God searches the whole world over for that kind of faith. Jesus notices the tiniest faith, even if it’s as small and as quiet as that flickering little lantern we barely hold inside.

No matter how hard that bottomed-out place tries, it cannot shut out that little light of faith or the Presence of God, felt or not felt. As soon as those yellow Irises shut down, out came those golden fireflies, in all their tiny glory. God takes care. God sends light. Let’s shine our little lights one more day, like the purest gold, a gift from Above.

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Cheddar cheese from Bravo Farms, Traver, California (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

These Frito-Lay cheddar cheese crackers sure are good right here in the Lee University library in Cleveland, Tennessee. It says on the little clear and brick-colored wrapper that these are officially “Cheddar Cheese Flavored Filling on GOLDEN TOAST (trademark sign) Crackers.” Also, the cheddar cheese is “Cheetos” brand and it feels kinda happy (or not miserable) just to eat these buttery-cheesy crackers this afternoon.

It would be easy enough to dwell on the little bad things, in addition to the deeply painful tragedies we endure. Sometimes we can’t help it. It can all add up fast. But I won’t make a long list of annoying little things, but you get it. You know what it feels like when somebody annoys you or hurts your feelings or worries you first thing in the morning or last thing at night. What did that woman mean, waving me out of the way in the post office parking lot, like I’d done something wrong? But maybe it was me, not paying attention. Good grief!

Here are some good things to think about. I’ve already mentioned those good crackers, which I already finished and threw the wrapper in the garbage can. Garbage cans are good. It’s good to have a place where we can throw our junk and not litter up the whole world any worse than we already have.

By the way, the other day I was driving behind a big garbage truck and traffic was slowed down behind the truck while two men ran back and forth, from the street to the truck, running and hefting and lifting those heavy and full plastic garbage cans while everybody was looking and waiting. I wanted to get out of the car and thank those men for the work they do, because it’s hard work—and probably harder when people are waitin’ and starin’ behind the truck. There must be a way to thank people who do the “dirty jobs,” like that show on television.

It wears me out just to think about it, about all the dirty jobs and all the other jobs, about how to be grateful and say or feel “thank you” for all the people doing the dirty jobs and all other jobs that help keep the world up and running or limping along.

We’re all inter-connected and inter-dependent and just like President Obama said, we didn’t build anything all by ourselves. Somebody thought of cheddar cheese and buttery crackers and putting those two things together and somebody had to make the good crackers and make the good cheddar cheese and somebody else had to take care of the dairy cows and somebody else drove that dairy cow’s milk to market and so on and so forth.

It won’t work to dance with the devil and none of us should even try, for our own good and everybody else’s. But whenever possible, it soothes the soul to be glad for the good little things people do or that we take for granted. Have you ever thought about being glad about the goodness of a bath or a shampoo? This morning a woman who’s in her 70s told me she cannot take a whole bath or full shower, but only sponge baths. She has health problems and said the water sometimes causes her to have seizures. She lives alone, with nobody to help her. But this woman was so glad today, because she had been able to wash her hair without having a seizure. Her hair looked so soft and pretty. Imagine that. Imagine having to risk your life just to wash your hair.

It’s amazing, isn’t it? It’s amazing.

So, if nothing else (and sometimes that’s all there is) we can try to be kind to the next person and so on and so forth, as much as it’s up to us. Right now we all live together here on Earth. We can’t think of and thank each other enough. But it’s still possible, when it’s safe and sane, to fill out the flavor for somebody somewhere. That way, hope springs eternal in the human heart. I hope we all have a good Monday night and hope to see you Tuesday!

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Who doesn’t enjoy flowers?

Ralph Waldo Emerson said “The world laughs in flowers”–and I believe him.

The other day I went shopping for some summer clothes. The weather outside this March is almost balmy and the long, hot summer is well on its way.

At the department store, there were some blouses with big floral designs on them. There were solid colors and stripes as well.

I bought one striped shirt in pale blue, light yellow and white and another in blues, purples, a little green and lavender in a big wildflower print. Other choices went to K-mart’s layaway department, layaway plans being  true godsends for those of us who cannot pay for or charge items all at once.

Then I decided to learn more about florals. I discovered flowers can be symbolic and really can say something. According to FTD.com and Withers Place Publications, the chrysanthemum, for instance, is considered a noble flower in China. A bright orange mum is speaks of the sun’s bright color and means “fascinated and enthused.”

But what about the wildflower blouse in shades of blue, violet, orchid, a little green and lavender? At Teleflora, I found that blue can mean calmness and peace.  Another site said violet may signify imagination and spirituality, while orchid is delicate and luxurious. The green leaves mean resilience and the gentle lavender speaks of grace.

Is it possible to live up to a blouse’s message?  Maybe we will all someday be as wonderful as those florals, speaking to God and each other in favorable tones and hues, always mindful of quiet meanings and the context of all living things.