Heavens 2

playing with my toys

Art supplies are the crack of artists.
I am no exception.
Tubes of exquisite colors, brushes for wide strokes and brushes to make tiny marks like the dot of white in the eye. Paper for pastels, for markers, linen canvas for oils, heavy weight dry dimpled paper for watercoloring. Endless! Oh the possibilities!
As I move my art supplies from the upstairs to the garage, I am going through them all. Separating. Organizing. I think of them as men perhaps think of tools. Potentially useful toys. I should use them more.

Night is drawing nigh

Some sunsets are spectacular, some are so-so, and because of dense cloud covers, some don't even seem to happen. This is from tonight. I wanted to try putting a verse on a sunset pic, so here goes.

highlights from the day?

Today was hot. Inside the air conditioner is still struggling to cool us humans. 

In my house are a few boxes filled with trivial things that I think the grandchildren might be interested in someday when I have left this world. One of them, an almost square yellow box of a good size with the words "May the Sun Always Shine On You" in a pretty script on the top, has been stashed away in the back of a rarely used closet. It was way before we left Greenville that I had stuffed it with memorabilia, and I wondered what was in it. I wiggled the lid off. On top was a nice beaded change purse that held two twenty dollar bills. Since it is my money, I transferred it directly into my billfold. Lucky me. 

Earlier I drive over to Panera to meet with a woman who may help with new website for our art organization. We had a lot of good conversation, and she told me about her in-laws who were from Eastern Europe. (Or something like that.) The father's Army job during the war was to go places where they needed a Russian speaking guy to do secret work. She told me he wrote love letters to his wife in a code that could be interpreted only by certain people. Though I cannot tell it with the accuracy, or the love and fervor that she did, the story seemed as if it came straight out of a novel. 

I also bought a new scratching post for my sweet boy cat. He is trying to act disinterested, but tomorrow he will be all over it. 

Prime

Amazon and Whole Foods have partnered in a big way, and I really didn't understand how it would work until today.
Since I am an amazon prime member, I signed up online to become a prime shopper at Whole Foods. You can do this by putting an app on your phone or just by getting your phone number in their system. The phone # method was recommended by an employee, so that is what I did. And then I went shopping to try it. There were a few deals for prime members in the store, plus I could get an extra 10 % off  items that were on sale. When I checked out, I gave my phone # to the cashier, and the deductions came off as if I were using my HT card.
Whole Foods in Greenville and Wilmington are not much different from any other grocery store. I wish mine had a juice bar and a place to get wheat grass shots like they have in the Austin stores, but it doesn't. Instead it has this new gimmick to get more customers.

A Song for Sunday and Everyday

Sometimes I find that one of the new church songs is a little hard to catch onto, but once I do, I really like it. This is the first verse to one that has become a favorite.

God the Uncreated One
The author of salvation
Who wrote the laws of space and time
And fashioned worlds to His design
The one whom angel hosts revere
Hung the stars like chandeliers
Numbered every grain of sand
Knows the heart of every man
He is King forever
He is King forever
He is King forevermore

Book Selection

The book club I am in has been going on since 1942, and we follow some longstanding traditions. For the new year, each member chooses a book to put in the rotation, meaning each book gets passed around in an orderly way so that everyone gets a chance to read it. The books must have been published in the year we start back after our summer break, so this time the books must have come out in 2018. After that one rule, choosing one is not as easy as you might imagine. Last year, I think I read and/or bought four books before I settled on the big cookbook, an atypical choice. I look for clean. A book that does not rely on bad language to make a point. One that is relatively pleasant and well written. One that will not embarrass me. After perusing goodreads and amazon, I took a chance and ordered "All the Way to Italy” that is considered fiction but is mostly autobiographical. I prefer that to a made up story. After all those years working in psychiatry, I know when a story lacks plausibility. I started reading it today, and I think I did good.
We can tell when someone puts in a book without reading it.

a nice poem

You start dying slowly
If you do not travel,
If you do not read,
If you do not listen to the sounds of life,
If you do not appreciate yourself.

You start dying slowly
When you kill your self-esteem,
When you do not let others help you.

You start dying slowly
If you become a slave to your habits,
Walking everyday on the same paths,
If you do not change your routine,
If you do not wear different colors
Or you do not speak to those you don’t know.

You start dying slowly
If you avoid to feel passion
And its turbulent emotions,
Those that make your eyes glisten
And your heart beat fast.

You start dying slowly
If you do not change your life when you are not satisfied with your job, or with your love, or with your surroundings,
If you do not risk what is safe for the uncertain,
If you do not go after a dream,
If you do not allow yourself,
At least once in your lifetime
To run away from sensible advice.

This has been incorrectly attributed to noted Chilean writer Pablo Neruda.
The real writer was Martha Medeiros, a lesser known Brazilian. 
Mother Teresa also got credit for a lot of good words that she didn't write. I hate it when that happens. 

Ten things I like about President Trump

1. He was born on Flag Day.
2. His mother was a Scottish Presbyterian.
3. He is laser focused and has a huge amount of energy.
4. He is direct and honest.
5. His goal is to protect and care for America's best interests, and that is what any president should do. Just like good parents should care for and protect their children and family.
6. He is not a politician.
7. He is a man who loves - God, his family, his fellow Americans. And probably apple pie, too.
8. He considered this job for many years and is prepared.
9. He speaks positive words about America.
10. He connects with regular American people.

whole lotta geese

and a few mallards.

cottage garden

I loved this front yard garden in an old part of town.

Green heron

I had fun taking pictures of this green heron at Greenfield Lake. They are smaller, more colorful and friendlier than the blue heron. They look green from a distance.

a headline I relate to

When I was in Guatemala in October, we saw the volcano Fuego erupting in a small way. It was a common occurrence and taken for granted. But over the weekend, it really erupted! The videos I saw with the hot ash rolling through the streets and valleys were scary! Here is when I was there and yesterday.

Commas matter

I like this line from today's Rick Warren devotional, both for its content and for its punctuation example. "It's not what you think you are, but rather, what you think, you are."

The Golden Ratio

Back when I lived in Greenville and spent lots of time in my backyard studying nature, I saw a repetitive pattern. I looked it up and learned it is called the Fibonacci spiral or sequence, named for the mathematician who identified it way before me. We see it all over, in pine cones, ocean waves, the seed head of a sunflower, the Milky Way galaxy, and in this tiny shell of a deceased snail - probably. It is also known as God's fingerprint.