A Father's Love

(Small watercolor study of Medicine Bow Peak, WY)

This coming weekend our thoughts rove to our fathers and their significant role in our lives.  For many, it conjures up fond memories and loving moments. For others, it brings pain and grief for a variety of reasons.  We live in a fallen world where every relationship is affected and no one is perfect.  

A father plays an enormous part in the formation of a child's character and personality.  Certain aspects of training in our lives only a dad can fulfill adequately.  When those are absent, we feel a void and attempt to compensate for them in other ways.  

(Dad with Mom and my youngest sister)

One trait that fathers contribute enormously to their children's development is confidence. When a father speaks an encouraging word, it's like having the sun and moon stand still for a moment.  A father's support can take you a long way over life's bumpy path.  A dad's steady uplifting influence helps instill a child with inner strength to deal with the struggles and difficulties being alive brings.

 

(Dad with Marine Corps buddy)

My own father was that kind of dad to me.  He encouraged me greatly by his own personal example and involvement in my life.  His love was sacrificial in many ways.  He has spent many hours fixing my bicycle flat tires or under the hood of my car.  Dad played ball with us kids, took us hiking, taught me in church, showed me how to build with wood and tools, read stories to us at night, and spent plenty of time having good conversations with me.  My dad gave me the strongest sense I have of God as my heavenly Father.  Dad was a competitive weightlifter and very strong.  I vividly remember being on his powerful shoulders while a little girl as he walked out into the rolling waves of the Atlantic Ocean.  I was clutching his forehead in desperation, fearing that I was going to drown.  Dad's strong hands had a hold of my little arms and he spoke very reassuringly, "Don't worry, Bonnie, I've got a hold of you!"  I will never forget that moment.  It was as if God was telling me that.  In a way He was, through my own father.  So many times in life when I have faced an unnerving situation, those words  have come to the foreground of my thoughts to remind me that God has everything in control.     

No matter what kind of father you may have had growing up, there is one Father who has it all together.  His love is unfailing and he never abandons you. I love the story Jesus told about the prodigal son and his father's response upon the son's return.  What does it tell us about our Father God?  Several things:

1.  God yearns and longs for a relationship with us.

2.  God pulls out all the stops when we come to Him.  He is delighted to have friendship with us!  As John 3:16 says, God gave His very own Son to provide a way for us to become His children.

3.  God is tender and compassionate, full of mercy and love.  King David wrote in Psalm 103:13,14:  "The LORD is like a father to His children, tender and compassionate to those who fear Him.  For He knows how weak we are;  He remembers that we are only dust."

If you had a good father to encourage you growing up, give plenty of thanks! But most of all, just know that you have a Heavenly Father who loves you and has given His best through His Son Jesus Christ to enable you to experience that love!

(My dad at Niagara Falls)

Live bravely and beautifully!

How a Stone Can Affect Your Life

"On the Rocks"

9" x 12"

Oil

Stones are a common occurrence in our daily lives.  We step on them, decorate with them, build with them, carve on them, climb on them, and yes....sometimes we stumble over them. 

Stones have had a powerful effect throughout history. Stones can kill. One process used in killing a person was by a group surrounding a victim and hurling stones at them until they died.  Stones can demolish.   Look at the destruction of a rock slide on a mountain highway.  Stones can be mountains.  They can create obstacles in our path.  

Stones have been used as markers for milestones, for property boundaries, as gravestones, or to commemorate events.  As stepping stones, they have provided thoroughfares.  Architecture has used stones for both foundations and structures.  Artists have used stone in carving monuments, for jewelry, or for sculpture.  Stones have even been used in worship.

 Here's a powerful quote that captures two basic choices we can take in dealing with the stones in our lives: 

"The difference between stumbling blocks and stepping stones is how you use them."

A lot depends on your perspective and choice in dealing with stones.  You can allow them to have a destructive influence in your life and derail flourishing, or you can choose to use the very same stone to result in moving forward and gaining growth in your life.  I value this quote by Brendan Case to that effect:

"The challenges that lie in our path do not only block our way;

by resisting us,

they give us the traction we need 

to move forward."

Some final but important thoughts about stones or rocks in our lives:  

1. God wants to be your Rock!  King David wrote in Psalm 62:1,2,6,7: 

"I wait quietly before God,

for my victory comes from Him.

He alone is my rock and my salvation,

my fortress where I will never be shaken...

Let all that I am wait quietly before God, 

for my hope is in Him.

He alone is my rock and my salvation,

my fortress where I will not be shaken.

My victory and honor come from God alone.

He is my refuge, a rock

where no enemy can reach me.

    God wants to be the anchor for your soul and your place of safety in this life.

2.  Jesus Christ wants to be the Cornerstone on which you build your life!  The        Apostle Peter wrote this about Christ in 1 Peter 2:6:

"As the Scriptures say,

'I am placing a cornerstone in Jerusalem,

chosen for great honor,

and anyone who trusts in Him

will never be disgraced.' "

     What you choose to do with this Stone, Jesus Christ, will affect your life              forever!

Live bravely and beautifully!

Magic at the Edge of Land and Sea

(Watercolor pencil journal sketch)

There's magic at the edge where the sea meets land.  Something mesmerizing happens to your soul.  You are engulfed by the vast immensity of ocean.  Your perspective gets tweaked.  You feel small in the universe.  Something greater than your life exists.  You are made well aware of that fact.  And it's a good feeling.  You have a sense of things being restored to their proper place in what needs to dominate your thinking.

I must go down the seas again, for the call of the running tide

Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;

And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,

And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

---John Masefield

from "Sea Fever"

O LORD, what a variety of things You have made!

in wisdom you have made them all.

The earth is full of Your creatures.

Here is the ocean, vast and wide,

teeming with life of every kind, 

both large and small.

---Psalm 104:24,25

Live bravely and beautifully!

Swan Diving Tips

(Small watercolor study)

Summer time is fast approaching, bringing the sounds of splashes as divers of all ages jump off rocks or diving boards into deep water under the warm sun.  A significant comparison exists between an actual swan diving and a human performing a swan dive. If you've seen swans dive, all that occurs is their rear end raises up above water while their upper body disappears below the water surface.  A bit inelegant for such a beautiful bird.  But if you've watched Olympic divers executing breath-taking maneuvers and flawless entries into the water, you see a display of finesse, art, power, and supreme focus.  

For most of us, bobbing along with our heads under water and all else above is not in the category of difficult.  But when you witness the flawless execution of Olympic perfection in the human body, you are seeing a combination of certain elements that enable such beauty in form and movement.

What are those key elements?  They are persistence, practice, perfecting the fundamentals, keen awareness, and staying focused. Then those elements are repeated over and over again.  These key elements are not only necessary for an Olympic diver doing the swan dive, but for any one of us who desires to develop our lives in a flourishing trajectory that makes a difference for ourselves and others.

So step off that diving board or edge of the cliff.  Take a deep breath. And dive.  Again and again and again.  With persistence, improvement, awareness, and focus.  

          

The Apostle Paul encourages us to "Give your complete attention to these matters. Throw yourself into your tasks so that everyone will see your progress."  To "throw yourself" entails being in these things, practicing, advancing, growing, and exercising yourself in your tasks.  It is to be devoted and absorbed in them.  Beauty and grace will adorn your life, like an elegantly executed swan dive!

Live bravely and beautifully!

Exquisite and Precarious

"North Cascades"

9" x 12"

Watercolor study

On any given ordinary day, we get up, get ready for work, check cell phones and schedules, put the key in the ignition, and go about our daily lives per as usual.  All the while incredible works are going on without our thought or involvement.  The planets keep orbiting in precise alignment, our hearts beat, and all nature keeps up its intricate balance and activities.  

The Roman statesman and philosopher, Seneca, commented on all this phenomena:

"This swift revolution of the heavens, being ruled by eternal law, goes on unhindered,  producing so many things on land and sea, so many brilliant lights in the sky all shining in fixed array....Even the phenomena which seem irregular and undetermined---I mean showers and clouds, the stroke of crashing thunderbolts and the fires that belch from the riven peaks of mountains, tremors of the quaking ground....these, no matter how suddenly they occur, do not happen without reason."

(Scottsbluff, NE)

As huge and complicated as this universe may seem, it goes on with a regularity and order. When you stop to ponder this, it is truly amazing!  Biochemist Michael Denton observed:

"Earth's location, its size, its composition, its structure, its atmosphere, its temperature, its internal dynamics, and its many intricate cycles that are essential to life-----the carbon cycle, the oxygen cycle, the nitrogen cycle, the phosphorus cycle, the sulfur cycle, the calcium cycle, the sodium cycle, and so on----testify to the degree to which our planet is exquisitely and precariously balanced."

(Tetons, WY)

Don't let the mundane, everyday plod of life diminish your awe and wonder at the beautiful and magnificent created world in which we are privileged to spend another day.  Notice and keep on looking for those moments and details that can awaken you to the grandness and beauty of life!  

"For the LORD is God, 

and He created the heavens and earth

and put everything in place.

He made the world to be lived in,

not to be a place of empty chaos.

'I am the LORD,' He says,

'and there is no other.' "

---Isaiah 45:18

Here's poetic challenge to that end from a stanza in William Blake's Auguries of Innocence:

To see a world in a grain of sand

And a heaven in a wild flower, 

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand

And eternity in an hour.

Live bravely and beautifully!

Patience or The Gentle Art of Fishing

"Jacob's Joy"

(Small watercolor study)

Patience is one of the hardest virtues for us to develop.  We want what we want when we want it...which is yesterday!  Our selfish predisposition finds it very trying to have to wait, continue to wait, and then wait even longer.  We don't like "hurry up and wait" situations. But time is one of the important ingredients in so many things...the aging of wine, cheese, growth of trees, gardens, and crops.  Time has the element of development in it.  The process is essential to the product or outcome. 

The sport of fishing provides opportunity for exercising patience.  You don't usually bait your hook, cast the line, and then immediately reel in the catch of the day.  Lots of factors go into a successful catch....time of day, weather, type of fish, type of insects hatching out, the type of rod and reel, color and size of lures, etc.  Fish don't plan on getting caught, so you have to be one step ahead of them in figuring out their habits and actions.  You often have to cast again and again before that successful setting of the hook and hauling in your desired catch. Many times there can be an ensuing fight from that fish that will wear you down until that creature finally ends up in your frying pan.

The daughter of Henry van Dyke, former Princeton professor, pastor and ambassador to Luxembourg, wrote this loving memory of fishing with her father:

"The best times of all, were the summer months when we left the hot, dusty city and went down to the little white cottage on the south shore of Long Island.  Here he first taught us the gentle art of fishing, and how well I remember the morning he spent showing us how to catch the minnows for bait in a mosquito net (for catching bait was always part of the game) and then how he stood with us for hours on the high drawbridge cross the channel, showing us the easy little twitch of the wrist that hooks the fish and how to take him off the hook and save the bait."

Fishing takes patience and so does life.  It demands that you show up to the page, the easel, the instrument, the gym or wherever you need to be to practice and work on your passion, to "move the ball" ahead in your life.  Stay in the chase.  Little by little progress is achieved.  

Here's a poem on time by Henry Van Dyke:

Time is

Too slow for those who Wait,

Too swift for those who Fear,

Too long for those who Grieve,

Too short for those who Rejoice;

But for those who Love

Time is

Eternity.

Live bravely and beautifully!

Intoxicating May and WW2

Lilac Intoxication

(Small watercolor study)

Lilac Air

"A cloud of intoxication

slowing our steps

or mine at least

gathering in the nectar

breathing springtime in

The white and purple

different shades of scents

matching somehow the colors

richly, urgently calling me

to linger in the dew of fragrance

falling down on me

---Raymond A. Foss

What a welcome month May is for many of us!  The cold winter spell is broken and the earth is bursting out of it's wintry seams with all manner of growth and fragrance.  Newness of all things is in the air. Birds are chirping, singing out their arias with exuberance.  Baby calves are staggering on wobbly legs.  Plows open up fields of rich, dark earth.  School teachers and children alike count the days to the school year's end.  All this continues in spite of the world's nightly dismal news of nuclear threats and nations in turmoil.  

(Small watercolor study)

My first memory of lilacs comes from a walk with my grandmother who happened to be visiting from far away.  She encouraged my five year old self to stop and inhale the rich fragrance of some lilac bushes along the sidewalk we were walking.  That moment has lasted all through the years in my childhood memories.  She had personally experienced the horrors of war in other parts of the world.  She had suffered loss of her husband and young baby sons.  Her ship was torpedoed by a German U-boat in WW2 and she endured 3 1/2 weeks lost at sea on a small, crowded life raft for 3 1/2 weeks on the Atlantic ocean.  But through it all she kept a strong faith in her God.  She didn't grow bitter and lose life's joy.  I look on her life as fragrant...like the lilacs we walked by that one May evening in a small town in western South Dakota.  My grandmother's example has encouraged me to appreciate the fragrance in living in spite of adversity and sorrow...to trust in the all-wise and loving God who someday will right all that is wrong with our world.

Live bravely and beautifully!