Advice From the Ocean

Be shore of yourself.

Sea life's beauty.

Come out of your shell.

Avoid pier pressure.

Don't get tide down.

Eat ice cream!Make a splash!

The Hummingbird's Guide to Heart Health

If my love could be represented by a blur, it would be the beating of a hummingbird’s wings. Did you know that my love is the only love that can fly backwards?   ~Jarod Kintz, A Zebra is the Piano of the Animal Kingdom

     My mother’s backyard is frequented by those smallest of birds, the hummingbird.  Mom serves them sweet red nectar that they seem to find delicious.  Hummingbirds love red.  Red flowers.  Red clothing hung out to dry.  Red berries.  They tirelessly search for the sweetest flowers.  The hummingbird needs to eat every ten minutes in order to maintain it's high energy levels.
     Hummingbirds do everything quickly.  Their wings beat at an amazing 50-80 beats per second creating that humming sound!   They dance through the air forward, backwards, and sideways at 55 miles per hour, the same speed that we drive down a highway in our car.  They are even able to hover like tiny helicopters.  It’s fun to relax on the porch and see the tiny acrobats dart and swoop.

      The hummingbird's amazing heart beats about 1,200 times a minute during the day when it is active.  At night, their heart slows to 250 beats per minute.  This drop in heart rate, enables them to survive the night, until they can actively pursue the sweet flowers in the morning light. Without this ability to slow their heart rate and metabolism, a hummingbird would starve to death before the sun came up on a new day.  God has designed them to store just enough energy to survive the night.

     Imagine if our heart beat like the hummingbird’s in it’s desire for a relationship with Jesus.   Imagine that with every beat of our heart, and at 1,200 beats a minute that is humming right along, we could:

 “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”  ~Deuteronomy 6:5

      Imagine seeking the words of Christ, written in the red letters of our Bibles as diligently as a hummingbird searches for the red nectar in a garden.  
     And when the night is cold, and our hearts are heavy, to know that God has enabled us to make it to the morning light, when we can actively pursue the sweet aroma, and taste His goodness, in the joy of the new day.
     God is with you always.  He loves you.  I know because a little bird told me so.

Update:  This post was featured by Angie at Womanhood With Purpose!  Thank you so much for the honor.

This post also won the one week space giveaway at Best Post of the Week.  Thank you!

White Heron

     This gorgeous white heron, also known as the great white egret,  was wading in the brackish water in Assateague Island National Seashore.  He graciously allowed me to take this shot.

Nothing Runs Like A Deere

It is God who arms me with strength
 and keeps my way secure.           

He makes my feet like the feet of a deer;                                                                                     He causes me to stand on the heights.  ~ 2 Samuel 22:33-35

     A few weeks ago, our family went to Virginia to visit my Mom and Dad.  One morning during our stay, Dad asked Anthony if he would mow the lawn.   Anthony does not mow our lawn because of a tricky hill, so this was not something that he had done before.  Anthony agreed reluctantly and looked a little apprehensive.  I have to admit that I was, too.   We might have a tricky hill, but Dad has a water canal in his backyard.  I had visions of Anthony driving the lawn mower over the sea wall and into the bay.

Mom and Dad

      I followed Anthony and Dad to the garage.  Dad rolled out the John Deere ride-on mower, with matching hat.  Anthony climbed aboard.  Dad explained the pedals and shifts.  I hoped that Anthony was paying attention, because I was totally confused.  Finally, Dad told Anthony to power it up.  Anthony turned the key, and nothing happened.  The three of us looked at each other.  “Try it again,”  Dad yelled encouragingly.  Anthony turned the key again.  The John Deere remained silent.
     “Did you break it already!”  Dad yelled jokingly.  He told Anthony to get off and slid himself into the driver’s seat.  Dad turned the key and the mower started up with a vroom.  Dad climbed off and it stuttered to a stop.  Anthony got back in the hot seat.  He turned the key again.  Nothing.
     Dad figured it out.  Slender Anthony did not weigh enough to meet the safety requirement that allowed the mower to start. I slid onto the seat.  Insultingly, the machine started right up for me.  Anthony slid onto the seat as I carefully shifted my behind off.  As advertised, the John Deere continued to run.

      Anthony faithfully mowed the lawn for his grandfather.  The John Deere hat flew off as he increased his speed.  To my great relief, Anthony did not drive into the water.

     John 6 tells us how Jesus fed five thousand people with a young boy's lunch of five small barley loaves and two small fish.    Do not underestimate yourself, no matter how small or slender you are. There are no lightweights with God.  Little becomes much when we place it faithfully in the hands of Jesus.

Look carefully, and see a double rainbow.

     Paul wrote to Timothy, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.  Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.  Do not neglect your gift,"  ~1 Timothy 4:12-14
You can read more about our past trips to Virginia.
     Fishing Isn't the Same As Catching
     Father's Day
     Return to Me

Update:  John Deere has in no way paid me to mention their product.   They do not even know who I am!

Best of 2012: May - August

     Thanks for being such wonderful bloggy friends.  It has been fun meeting so many people over the past year.

May:
     Souvenir:  I Remember:  Pat and I were sent by our family on a cruise for our twenty-fifth anniversary.  In this post, I share the shadow box I created to house the memories of that special time.

June:

     The Refinished Dresser is painted a happy sunshine yellow.  The dresser once belonged to my Grandmother.  I think she would be pleased to know that I use it as a night stand by my bed.  Our bed is high and the usual night tables are much too low.  This is perfect and gives me some extra storage.

     Walking on Water is not such an easy thing to do, but my children were willing to try!  They had so much fun falling and running.

     God, George Washington & Me:  How did you picture God when you were a child?  Was He a gentle Father leading you with compassion or was He a stern disciplinarian?

July:

     Patty and I watched a sunrise over the Chesapeake Bay.  It was wonderful.  Where have you watched the sunrise?

August:

     I was enchanted by a set of milk glass snack plates at a local Good Will store.  Milk glass is so pretty.  These plates were trimmed with gold.  So lovely.

     It's fun looking back at reader's favorite posts.  We are expecting more snow today.  It's going to be a hot cocoa kind of day around here.

     Leave a link to your favorite post on your blog in the comments.  I'll be sure to visit.

Best of 2012: January - April

     Hello.  I hope that your Christmas was warm and wonderful.  I've been enjoying my family this week, but wanted to share with my Holimess family, too.  So please enjoy this list of my best loved posts from 2012.
January:
     Each year I choose a word to focus on.  My word for 2012 was "Dwell."  The original post was Dwell Deep.  I learned a lot from this word.

     Our Anniversary post is very precious to me for the love that it represents.

     My brother's have always been my Super Hero's.  I enjoy sharing stories about growing up with the pair of them.

February:

       Drink up!  was the prompt for a photography link I posted to.  My children loved this prompt.  I promise that Cheers the Goldfish was not harmed.

     True Love  was a Valentine post dedicated to my special Valentine.

March:

     A Great Leap is part of our adoption story.

     The Great Auto Heist is a humiliating, for me, story about a suspected car theft.  The pictures that accompany it, also humiliatingly, have nothing to do with the story.  I was just playing with my kit lens trying to take macro's.

April:

     In April, I shared about my father and his difficulty when his sailboat left the dock without him in Return to Me.

     The Yoke's on Me is a favorite post about an ABC Bible Scrapbook that I made for my mom for her birthday.  She loved it!

     Come back tomorrow for more favorite posts!

Fishing Isn't The Same As Catching

The Chesapeake Bay at sunset.

     Our family recently returned from a trip to Virginia to see my Mom and Dad.  My parents are fortunate to live on the Chesapeake Bay.  A canal goes from their back yard into the deep waters of the bay.   Dad loves to be in his boats.  One of the highlight's of our trip is when he takes us  fishing.

Captain Don

      We motor out to where there is a sand bar hidden about thirty feet under the water.  The water is shallow enough for the fish to enjoy the warmth of the sun.  This is one of his preferred fishing spots.
      Dad always offers the privilege of putting the bait on the hooks to anyone who would like the job.  My kids will do almost anything - but not that.  There are no takers.  My boys chime, "That's gross, Grandpa."  Patty murmurs, "Nope," with a quick shake of her head.  I explain that, "I'm not a bait kinda girl."  My Dad cheerfully cuts, dices, and selects various yucky things that he thinks a fish would like to chew on a hook for.

Patrick

     For me, fishing isn't about the fish.  I enjoy sitting on a gently rocking boat, holding a pole, chatting with family.  I do not care if I ever catch a fish.  My children, however, are not so complacent.  They are happy and excited when someone catches a fish,  but in their heart of hearts each wants to be the one who reels in the biggest fish.

Patty -the fisher"man" of the day

     Patty is a patient fisher.  She casts out on her assigned corner.  She waits until she feels a tug on the line, or sees the end of the pole arch as a fish gives her bait an experimental tug.  When she reels it in there is a fish on the end, or her bait has been nibbled away.  On this trip, Patty caught two fish.

Anthony

     Anthony and Connor fish with enthusiasm.  They cast their lines about causing everyone near to duck fearful of being snagged by a hook.  When their bait settles near the bottom, contrary to all fishing wisdom, they begin to reel it back in.  Sometimes, this fast and furious pace works for them.   This time, not so much.

Connor squinting into the sun

     Our oldest son, Patrick, came with us, too.  He caught a crab.  The little creature was determined not to lose her meal, so she held on tight and took an elevator ride up to the boat.  When she hit the deck she scuttled about causing the kids to shriek and tangle their poles.  This crab had a bright egg sack on her underside.  We were able to get her back in the water by giving her a piece of rope to pinch her snapping claws on and gently lift her back over the side.

     Pat missed the trip this year, but when he comes, he wisely sits well out of range of the action of the children, the poles, flying hooks, gushy bait, and flapping fish.  His motto is, "If it's from the sea, it's not for me!"
     Fishing trips always remind me that many of the disciples were fishermen.

     As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.  "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men.  At onece they left their nets and followed him.  ~Mark 1:16

     Jesus called us to fishers of men, too, but we're not in this alone.  The  Holy Spirit is the One who causes the response.  There is a difference between being a fisher and a catcher.  All we are required to do is to fish.
     Think about your life journey.  How often did God use a person to drop a hook in front of you before you grabbed a hold of the new life you found in Christ?  I know God cast a lot of lines in my direction before I believed.

Buoy to mark a crab pot riding the waves in the sunset.

     My husband, Pat, was rather like the little crab.  When he saw the gospel he grabbed on so tight that he was pulled right up.  He has been known to cause people to shriek and run about, too.
     When a person decides to follow Jesus, to allow themselves to be caught up in the cause of the King,  even the angels in heaven rejoice.  Forgiveness is gained.  Broken hearts are mended.  Wounds are healed.  Lives are transformed.

     Jesus got into Simon's boat and sat down to teach the crowd of people.  When He had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch."  Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything.  But because you say so, I will let down the nets."  When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break.  So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.  So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.  ~Luke 5

     Do you go fishing with your family?