Carried away

It's easy to get carried away when you have a vivid imagination.

Princess Fiona and I found some lonely boards stacked on the side of the street. I imagined, "Hmm, I could make something with those...raised beds for a bountiful vegetable garden, a table for six for the patio, a shelf to organize the garage...If only I could build a stairway to the moon tonight. Beautiful!" Well, we brought the boards home and now I just need a circular saw (hint, hint...maybe a Christmas present). hahaha! =)

This same imagination is creating castles with labyrinths, houses that are havens with more rooms than can be counted, tables filled with food where friends can fellowship and feast.

And then I am reminded of where my childhood took me. To many, these may sound like ones imagination, but for me they were actual places and events: gold digging treks, blazing trails through virgin forest, the Belly Boa ravine, the cliffs of Insanity, Butterfly falls, rotten guava wars from barricades, steaming jungle hills--all drenched with hot summer rain, unknown creatures flying overhead at dusk...was it a pterodactyl?

.....and what shall I imagine next?

Blistering trees

I walk to work each day and pass a row of strong, majestic eucalyptus trees. I have always enjoyed touching them, but even more so during this time of year. The trees are shedding their outer skin. The reddish brown bark blisters, buckles,peels, and falls to the ground. One might perceive the tree trunks to be very ugly during this stage, but I see underneath the peeling bark...a beautiful new layer of seafoam green skin.

The reason for this story: Well, the other day I got to thinking. Our lives can often be very much like these eucalyptus trees. At times in our lives all seems to be going well, smooth, and looks beautiful, but then God chooses refining to occur. These occurances often appear to be messy, or wasteful. They are rough and often a slow process. Yet in the end, we stand, changed. We have been made stronger, we have been made more into His likeness. We are becoming what He desires us to be, with seafoam green bark.

Maybe

I had a thought, but now it's gone. I was going to write something, something I thought was significant, but I can only feel it right now. It has no words. Maybe soon it will come to my lips or my fingers. But maybe instead it is time to pray.

God's faithfulness gives us bright hope for tomorrow.

A Memorial Day poem

The weather befits the mood.
The sky has sunk to its knees.

The tears of the years
drip constantly
down my shoulders.

The cheers in my ears
are lost in the wind as I
remember the heroes.