Seeing... From Your Chair

I recently described the excitement of seeing progress in being able to start driving again!  But even progress causes its setbacks and forces more hours of being still to recover.  Not even trying to knit or write.  Not reading or visiting.

Just sitting still.

Yes, it is always hard to go back to that limited place even when I have seen some beauties come from - or through - the stillness.

But as I silently chafed at weakness and pain once again I saw a couple of everyday wonders I would otherwise have missed this week.

First, I turned my chair toward the window and closed my eyes. (Sorry. No photo of the inside of my eyelids!) 

I felt it before I really took time to see it. Sunshine!  A rare treat this month in the frozen north. I knew this treat would be short-lived as heavy clouds crept up the western sky. But wasn't it a little blessing that I could only sit and enjoy a bit of sunshine on my face and hands? 

Meanwhile my eye was caught by wisps much closer to the treetops. You had to watch closely to see that they were hurrying west to join the gathering gloom. But "gloomy" - these cloudlets were not! As each filmy mist swept past the sun's disk, I saw a wonder. They waved at me with a gentle glow of colors - like a wide, faint echo of a rainbow! 

Again, there was no point in trying to get a photo of my elusive visitors. In fact, I didn't even think of it, but just sat and enjoyed the sight and soaked up a few more rays of sunshine before another cloudy week.

Now - if I could only remember that
when the sun is near
a cloud may just be
the foundation of
a rainbow...

 ... And

when the Son is near

weakness could turn into

a chance to see

beauty.

Seeing... Everyday Wonders

Have you seen anything lately?  

Really stopped, stared, and appreciated what is in front of you?

Some days it seems like there is nothing to see, doesn't it?  Nothing to enjoy anyway.  But lets challenge ourselves to look closer.

Yes, there are those sights that jump up and down and shout, "Look at me!" 

Like a bold flower, a prairie sunset...

   

             

 But what about the quiet, common wonders that we usually pass by? 

The lights, the shadows...

The prickly frost, brave tree-tops, fallen flowers, floating leaves...

The footprints of family...

The food we eat...

The fingerprints of our Creator-Father are everywhere. Let's keep our eyes open!

Christmas Memories: Piano Salon

Last night was a milestone in my healing process.  It was the first time in nearly two years that I have made a round trip drive of more than three miles, and it was in the dark.  (An extra neurological challenge.)  Praising God for slow but steady progress!

The point of that drive was another milestone - the first Piano Salon I have made it to in a full year. 

Piano Salon - December 2014

This cosy group of local pianists gets together every other month to play for each other.  The atmosphere is so relaxed and encouraging for all from adult beginners to professional performers.  We come away inspired and with an even greater love for music.  Plus, it keeps us at the disciplines of practicing and performing.

And, we can't forget the good visits over a meal following the music.

Piano Salon - December 2014

Last evening's conversation kept coming back to one special name.  Ruth (or "Ruthie") was missing this year.  Her last salon was December of 2014.  Though struggling with dementia to the point of sometimes being unable to recognize the pages of Chopin, Grieg, etc. that she used to play as easily as she breathed, our friend could never forget her amazing skill of improvising her favorite hymns.

Little did I know this would be the last time I would hear Ruth play (or see her great smile, enjoy her quirky humor, and hear her call everyone "Honey"), but I am so glad I got these few photos and video on my phone.  Ruth is one of the women I want to be like "when I grow up."

Enjoy a bit of Christmas with "Ruthie" - playing as we got ready for our Christmas potluck.  

"Music is God's best gift to man;

The only art of heaven given to earth,

The only art of earth we take to heaven."  

Walter Savage Lander 

Winter Reading

When sorting basement shelves, Mom recently found a couple boxes of books.  Fun books!  From the days of library book sales when my sisters and I decided to start collecting some of our favorites (and even some classics we had not yet read) to begin our own libraries.

Now seemed a good time to sort and split the books with Maren starting her own home.  So, here is my third of the stash!  And now I have more on my reading list as I've never read Black Beauty, Johnny Tremain, or The Tapestry.

How fun to begin my Laura Ingalls Wilder collection just as Elsa and I are listening through that series of audiobooks and thoroughly enjoying this lovely literature we had mostly forgotten from our childhood.

                 

The current audio book (performed masterfully by Cherry Jones - including singing along with "Pa's" fiddle) is The Long Winter. And I thought we had winters with a lot of blizzards and snow when I was young!

While the Ingalls family and the fledgling town of De Smet, South Dakota struggle through their unusually fierce winter - cut off from supplies of food and coal by a train that gave up trying to dig out and reach them between blizzards...

...we turn up the furnace in our insulated home, enjoy views of frost and snow through our triple-pane windows, cosy up on the couch with a blanket and mug of tea, and enjoy the distraction of stories that speed along our handwork and Christmas gift-making - like these pot-holders ready to send to a friend overseas.

Growing II

It was time to rescue another pale sprout from its box.  (See the first here)

That first evening it forlornly hung its head and despaired of ever growing to become a beauty like its cousin.  But through the night those regal blossoms must have whispered encouragement to the stunted sprout.  For in the morning its head was raised in mounting hope!

Seriously, though... isn't it amazing how God has programmed His creation? No one has to tell this bulb how to grow.  We just get to sit back and watch with wonder and delight!

White Frosts

"Oh, Matthew, isn't it a wonderful morning? The world looks like something God had just imagined for His own pleasure, doesn't it?





"Those trees look as if I could blow them away with a breath - pouf! I'm so glad I live in a world where there are white frosts, aren't you?"



Anne of Green Gables, chapter XVIII

Growing

What came home as a sickly-white sprout curling and twisting in an attempt to escape a cramped paperboard box...

... began to stand tall after just a few hours of daylight.

Now it won't stop growing!