The Story Behind These Glasses

Sophia

9' x 12"

Watercolor sketch

You never know when a fun little adventure awaits you just around the corner.  Sunday was a gorgeous day just begging me to head out on Fishtrap Creek Trail for a brisk walk.  This is a lovely trail that goes right through town and ambles all along Fishtrap Creek through various neighborhoods here in Lynden.  I rounded a bend in the path by one beautiful thatch-roofed Dutch home and saw a little girl standing in the backyard by the path with these hilarious sunglasses on.  A low, manicured hedge created a border between her and the trail.  As I walked nearer down the path, she hollered out to me, "Free cards!  Free cards!  Come get a free card!"  

There was no way she was going to let me get away without a card!  So I stopped to see what she was giving away for free.  I didn't have any money on me, so felt badly that I couldn't reward her generosity.  Sophia was a little second grader who had about 8 cards in envelopes displayed on top of the hedge.  I asked her which one I should pick and she cheerily recommended one with a butterfly design on the envelope. I opened it up and she had drawn a cheery little face with a comment:

Sophia informed me that she loved to draw all sorts of things, so I couldn't help but say that I loved to draw, too!  She was very engaging and upbeat to chat with, and as I walked on down the trail with her card in my hand and a smile on my face, I got to thinking about her child-likeness and how she demonstrated that by trying to make the world a better place with her cards...for free!  

Childlike vs. Childish

*A child-likeness has nothing to offer except themselves, pure and simple.  They have no pretenses.

*A child-likeness responds to love openly.

*A child-likeness thinks big.  Imaginations soar and possibilities are endless.  

*A child-likeness is receptive.  Children exhibit an openness and alertness to life.  I love how Sara Teasdale described children in her poem "Barter":

Life has loveliness to sell, 

All beautiful and splendid things, 

Blue waves whitened on a cliff,

Soaring fire that sways and sings,

And children's faces looking up

Holding wonder like a cup.

*****************************************

*Childishness is all about me....mine....my way.  It is self-centered.

*Childishness thinks small.  It is petty and cannot see the big picture. It lacks imagination.

*Childishness is closed to wonder and lacks a sensitivity to the world around them.

(Small watercolor sketch)

Child-likeness is a quality that is worth maintaining.  It is a state of continual growth, openness and enjoyment of the wonder in life.  It loves freely and thinks outside the box.

Childishness is unpleasant and immature in nature.  Who wants to be around that?!

Jesus Christ elevated the status of child-likeness when He took a little child and said, "Let the children come to me.  Don't stop them!  For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs  to those who are like these children."  

Sophia helped me to remember how great and freeing it feels to be child-like, to be authentic and quite imaginative and full of wonder for life!  Sunglasses and all!!!

Live bravely and beautifully!

The Waiting Game

"In Memory of Taps"

     Small watercolor study   

                                                                                                                                  Sometimes life has parts that demand a long-term patience.  Think of all those years studying for one or two degrees, taking chemotherapy, being in childbirth labor for hours and hours, building a house or serving a term of military duty away from family.  The waiting can seem like forever, like walking across a desert with no end in sight and no shade.  Perhaps you have some goals that you are working towards, but getting closer to reaching them seems like a mirage that keeps vanishing as you work on them.  

How does one keep climbing when the temptation to stop attempts to overpower a person?

As one who has run hundreds of miles in training for marathons and also enjoyed climbing some very tall mountains, I readily understand how fatigue and discouragement can sabotage your best efforts.  Quitting can seem so tempting!  It isn't easy to keep on going towards goals when nothing seems to be happening, when forward motion is so slow that it's almost imperceptible. 

Let me share a few encouraging thoughts with you on perseverance when it's tough going. 

Unfortunately the author is unknown but I want to share with you a powerful little nudge of a poem to keep on keeping on:  You Mustn't Quit

Stamina, endurance and pushing through to final accomplishment are not easy traits to obtain.  They are only developed by using them when the going is difficult.  I like what King Alfred the Great (849 -901 A.D.) said:  

"If thou hast a woe, tell it not to the weakling,

tell it to thy saddlebow and ride forth singing."

Another poem I like to reflect on is by Joseph Morris titled "One Step At A Time".  Here's the second stanza:

When a man would climb a mountain he's appalled to see the length

Of the slope that reaches up into the sky;

But he starts, and with the climbing he will find he's gained the strength

To attain the very top, however high.

For the climbing of a mountain takes but one step at a time---

Who has courage to do that will reach the goal;

He will stand upon Life's summit and will know that joy sublime

Which is his alone who dares to prove his soul.

(Montana country)

One more important ingredient in enduring patiently over the long haul is this encouraging word from King David in Psalm 27:  "Wait patiently for the Lord.  Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord."  God is sovereign over the events in our lives and He is never slow or late.  His timing is perfect.  We can trust that His way is best.  He gives us strength beyond our abilities to stay in the chase and not give up.  That's how to do The Waiting Game!

Live bravely and beautifully!

Orlando and the Thing With Feathers

Grandness

9" x 12"

Watercolor

This past weekend another horrible tragedy took place on American soil.  So here we are again, grappling with how to deal with it and sort out all the parts and pieces.  By now you've probably heard all the news media and politicians/government leaders ad nauseum.  The same old rhetoric is being kicked around and no true solutions are honestly being looked at. 

We are in a world at war with increasing turmoil and tumult around the globe.  Economies are on the verge of collapsing and the financial prognosis is dismal.  Yet you and I are alive at this present moment.  Our hearts are beating and we have jobs to attend and bills to pay. How are we to live in this world where death shows up stealthily and unexpectedly to steal innocent lives?  At any turn it could be us in the next incident.  

Let me preface my thoughts with the first stanza of a poem by Emily Dickinson:

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul, 

And sings the tune without the words,

And never stops at all...

Indian Paintbrush on Hannigan Pass Trail

We cannot live without hope!  As humans we flourish when we know that things are going to be okay, that good will triumph over evil, and that we will experience progress in our lives. So what can provide us with a hope based on substance and not just an airy/fairy wishing things would get better?  Follow my path of thought here to an answer.  

First, we must recognize that the world we live in has both good and evil in it.  A definite battle has gone on throughout history between these two forces.  Legislation will not change the effects of that evil on people.  It is like using band-aids to combat cancer.  Just as cancer has to be eradicated at the core, so too does evil.  It is in the hearts of all people.  A true change of heart has to happen in order for people to value what is good, true, and beautiful.

 Columbine on Hannigan Pass Trail

The greatest Man who ever lived gave His all on a wooden cross to defeat death, sin and suffering.  He demonstrated His  supreme authority over all by His resurrection from the dead. By acknowledging His rightful authority in our lives and His great love for us, we are enabled to live in a way that overcomes evil. The hope that we have is that ultimately evil will be overcome.  Jesus Christ has promised that!  We have hope that in the middle of trial and sorrow, He will be with us there. And more than that, He promises to return to this earth, to establish His kingdom forever in which all will be just and righteous.  Evil will be vanquished!

C.S. Lewis wrote that "a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do."  

Hannigan Pass Trail

G.K. Chesterson identified the culture of death in his day and stated that we are all on a battlefield.  We all know that there is a fight going on.  But as Dale Ahlquist observed in his book Common Sense 101 about Chesterton, Chesterton said that "this world can be made beautiful again by beholding it as a battlefield.  When we have defined and isolated the evil thing, the colours come back into everything else."

God is sovereign over all the events, nations and rulers of this world.  We can rest in that knowledge.  And there's even more to look forward to....As George Handel wrote about God in his famous music The Messiah:  

King of Kings and Lord of Lords

He shall rule forever and ever!

All I can say to that is "Bring it on!!!"  

Live bravely and beautifully!

Where Your Feet Are

Watercolor sketch done along Hannigan Pass Trail

4" x 6"

This past weekend I had the joy of hiking with two artist friends up in the Cascade Mountains here in Washington.  All along the trail I was so aware of the fresh mountain scents, the abundant colors of wildflowers, the sounds of roaring mountain streams, and the crunch of hiking boots on rocks.  I was in the moment, right where my feet were.  

We love having times like that in our lives.  We thrive on the abundance we experience when living fully engaged in what we are doing.  Utah artist Cassandra Barney has a quote I endeavor to follow:  "Be where your feet are."  It is not easy to stay in the moment and absorb all you can and be giving all you can to that period of time.  We are either fighting distraction with all our digital media or racing ahead in time planning out our lives.  

Here's some  quotes by naturalist John Muir regarding how being in nature in the moment can be freeing for one's soul:

Walk away quietly in any direction and taste the freedom of the mountaineer. Camp out among the grasses and gentians of glacial meadows, in craggy garden nooks full of nature's darlings. Climb the mountains and get their good tidings, Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. As age comes on, one source of enjoyment after another is closed, but nature's sources never fail.

Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean."

 It is so easy to be distracted and somewhere else in our daily life and work.  King David in his Psalm writings has expressed the desire for his soul to be AWAKE, to be alert to God and His creation in Psalm 57:8.  That is what I want ...to be fully alive and in the moment, to be all there in whatever I am doing, and not just to experience that on a mountain trail.  I want every moment of my life, whether mundane and ritual or highly fascinating,  to be full of God-consciousness.  Then will I be able to pay full attention to the life that is going on around me.

Live bravely and beautifully!

The Story Behind Those Mountains

Snowy Range, Wyoming

Small watercolor study

Any opportunity that comes my way to be in the Snowy Range of Wyoming is gladly taken!  I love that area to the west of Laramie and just north of the Colorado border.  But just how did I come to find out about the Snowy Range?  Well, there's a story behind that.

As a young child, my family spent many wonderful occasions at a cabin in the Black Hills of South Dakota.  Later some of my siblings and I attended a camp up in the Rocky Mountains near Estes Park, Colorado and my family enjoyed the time in the Rockies.  So what were we to do the summer of '71 when Dad and Mom were unable to agree on where to go for summer vacation?  Dad was longing for a return to the cabin in the Black Hills, but Mom wanted to go camping in the Rockies of Colorado.  Much debate ensued for several weeks, but only a stalemate resulted.  So my younger brother Robert and I decided we needed to come up with a compromise plan and present it to the parents.  As we pored over the maps, we decided to try and locate a suitable camping spot that would be nearer to halfway between the Black Hills and the Rockies.  We landed on the Snowy Range of Wyoming as a hopeful candidate.  Being in the age before Google, we had limited information to go by, but cooked up as good a presentation as we could.  Would you believe it?  That was the deciding factor!  Both parents agreed to give it a try and loved it!   Many of us in our family have been there repeatedly ever since that fateful summer.   I was blessed to have been there again this last July with my brother, his daughter, and two of my sons to hike Medicine Bow Peak.  

My two sons, Joe and Elijah with his dog Lucy

My brother Robert, his daughter Noelle, and my son Joe

Elijah and Joe heading to the top!

Live bravely and beautifully!