Encore Weekly Segment

Fridge Poetry Friday...

Here is a smattering of others' craftings with words -

I love standing before the refrigerator to find these.  They are often comical but sometimes snippets of heart that take my breath away.

Here's one of mine:

Happy Friday!

So Much

I have so much to say.  The front page of my legal pad is overflowing with writing that has to be done.  I can not wait.  I hope that as I will be home tomorrow, with some extended periods of time by myself, I will unearth what each idea will become.  I am so ready to dangle my legs over the side of the hammock and pour out.

Journal for the Journey

This past weekend I served at a women's retreat.  One thing that is done occasionally, is that journals are given out to the participants and those serving.  These are not ordinary blank pages sewn between cardboard covers.  I know because I have seen them being made, and I know what happens to them in the months before they reach the recipient.  I know because I have prayed over, and anointed a set of them myself.  They are special.

I pause here to ask you to suspend any formulated opinions.  I can only tell you the story.  I can not tell you what to allow your cognitive processes to hold as 'belief'.  That is okay.  I'm only asked to 'tell the story'.

I received one other of these journals before, and while I didn't necessarily 'get' any kind of understanding from it, it is unreal how these journals 'find' their owners.  I have heard stories of these journals speaking peace and direction to seeking souls. Yet they are randomly (divinely) given out.   There is no system for getting certain ones to certain people.  They just find their way.  Here is my first one and it is 'wild' how it seems 'just for me':

Top left corner is Colossians 3:12-15

See the books?!  The stacks and stacks of reading material?  Do you see in it my dream to write one of my own one day?  Then there's the antique china on the right - I collect teacups and saucers.  Above the china are the words 'STRENGTH' and the question: "The Real Me?"  This couldn't be more profound for the time I received this.  Then there's the 'heart' made out of apples.  You're going to think I'm off my rocker, but God sends me hearts all the time.  Yes, hearts.  He loves me, that's why.  I find them everywhere, like this.

The way these journals are made, several women spend months and months clipping things from magazines.  They also begin the process of praying over them.  As they put them together, they pray.  Random?  Consequence?  I personally do not believe in consequence.  They spend more months creating collages of word and picture on the cover.  As they finish, more prayer.  They write a message on the first page.  Again, more prayer.  Before they are given out, they are prayed over again, and each one is anointed.

So this past weekend, I gingerly anticipated the possibility of another journal.  I was guarded because up until the weekend, I had gone through months of silence from the echoes of heaven.  Cold, gray silence. An inkling that I would get a journal that resonated a dissonance tiptoed through my conscience.

The day the journals were wheeled into our dorm and carted between the rows of bunks, I waited.  The girl handing them out looked as tired as my body felt, and she reached into the boxes of stacked journals without looking at them.  She passed bed by bed, tossing a journal onto each one.  She did not know where any of us slept.  She probably didn't know many of us at all.  We were a team of 90 from all walks of life and many corners of the state.  She had no way to know what she was giving to whom.

I only looked at it later, in the darkness of the room by the light of my ipod:

I held my breath.

There is the word 'watch' that couples with another word that has been coming my way with increasing frequency (more on that later).  There is the word 'try'.  And a door.  So many meanings could be gleaned from that but I do not construct any meaning at all on my own.  That is not the intent.  There is a child, deep in thought (that is 'so' me).

And look -an obviously sandy shore.....

And sand castles, but look closer.....

what do you see?

They are candles.  See the wicks on each one?

Then there's the word 'enjoy' again but this time - 'ENJOY THE PURE'.

Here's what was written inside and I fully understand it.  Deeply.

You may be able to see the faint scrawling pencil on the top that shows through the page from the other side.  When I got this journal, I decided I would ask this time - "what do You want to show me in this?"  I asked and He answered.

Lately, I've been awakened with thoughts that aren't my own, usually during the still darkness of the wee morning hours.  On the 28th, I wrote what I understood about part of the cover of this journal.

I will have a life at the beach, living/building there -(Nicaragua) would be for a season - not necessarily permanent.


I will watch and I will wait.

Anticipating.

Glimpses

I know that Zach's time in Orlando and abroad isn't permanent.  He will return, bringing with him his clutter and 'boy' smell, punctuating laughter, big feet and precious self.  Yet, I know that this is what it must feel like when they do leave for good, and you find little artifacts of the life they had with you hidden in corners, under layers and nestled like treasures for you to find to make you smile.

Since it was such an incredible day, I trotted back outside after the carwashing to play a one-man game of pick-up sticks. I am sure this was to the amusement of the birch tree that takes to casting branches and twigs to the ground that it can't be bothered with during the winter.  As I stooped and bent, I discovered these - one hidden in the winter rye like an Easter egg, and the other embedded deep into the evergreen ground cover.  And I smiled.

These were left by Zach, during one of his afternoon chipping sessions in the front yard.  Treasures to be discovered by a grateful heart, knowing he is right where he is supposed to be.

Oh Yes I Did!

Today was near perfect.  You know THAT day.  The one that lets you peek at the approaching spring - let's you feel the warm, shed some layers and get outdoors.  I raced home, and promptly put on my bathing suit and headed outside to wash my car.  I thought back to my forehead shot and got funky-creative in more pics - cut me some slack, I'm trying to catch up with my pics-o-the-day.

Taken from the perspective of the sun rays, here I am, about to hose the car hood down and get to it.  What an amazing day.  Really.  Thank you, God.
Thank You for 'surprise' spring days.
Thank You for suds and rainbows in water sprays.
Thank You for excellent song rotations on shuffle.
Thank You for daughters that drive by and cat call at their mother out the window.
Thank You for sunflower seed shell spitting.
Thank You for days just like today.

Gettin' Real Pic-O-The-Day

Yes, I looked up today while flying gloriously down the road to see this in my rearview mirror.  I'm just being real with you all here.  I have significantly grayed in the last little bit of time.  I can be glad I didn't start at age 16 like my Granny but nonetheless, it is what it is.  Then a thought came to me, because I honestly think that some gray hair looks like the hue of moonlight to me, that I caught moonlight today in the rays of the sun.  Yet, as much as I found this to be ironically beautiful, stay tuned:  This girl WILL be 'enhancing' nature soon and I MIGHT just try a new shade.  In an earlier post I had mentioned hair being a regular topic of discussion since my daughter was looking at going pixie short.  The 'hair saga' continues with mine but this time it's color and a slight change in cut, although I am actually going to let it grow long - it may be the last time that I do so I'm going for it.

Lunch of Champions