*****or-ange, noun…a color between red and yellow in the spectrum*****

Orange is just THE most glorious of colors, don’t you think?  It just brightens up anything it is next to and glows all on its own.  But, orange, she is a fickle girl…she can say ‘warm and cozy’ as well as ‘bright and fun’.  However she’s behaving when you see her…she’ll not be ignored.  You WILL notice her.

Isn’t fall the most wonderful time to celebrate ?  And, don’t ya think orange is the most perfect color to celebrate celebrating fall in?   Oh, just one more picture to share…the best use of orange I’ve seen to date!

 Happy Fall, Y’all !

That would be…three big boys and one little boy.  And, that would be Adam, Alex, Ian and Little Levi.

Ian was home for the weekend and quite a time was had by us all!  He managed to get much accomplished!  On Friday night, he and his sweet cousin Lori, and Pop all went out to dinner.  They all enjoyed the time together and catching up and reminiscing.

Then, on Sat, he did a little studying, a little visiting, and then our little family all ate together last night.  Of course, the main attraction was Little Levi!  We cooked out for our supper…the traditional Southern, get-together, without too much trouble…hamburgers on the grill!  Delicious!

Ian managed to get in some special ‘Levi time’ while he was here.  And last night, all 3 boys were having such fun together.  God blessed Alex with a better day and he was able to be up with the family last evening.  And, those 4 had a ball together.  Levi doesn’t stand a chance!  Check out these pictures…

                      “Children are a blessing and a gift from the Lord.”Psalm 127:3…

                                                                                                      …that would be both big children and little ones!

Are you as happy to see Autumn as I am?  Seems as though summer went on forever!  And, it was so hot…scorching hot…unbearably hot!  I still like it better than winter.  But now, here in the deep South, the heat has lessened and the leaves have begun to ponder whether they will fall again this year.  It’s still pretty warm up in the day, but a little cool in the mornings and evenings.  I love it.

I like everything about fall.  Do you feel that way?  I like to wear a sweater occasionally, and I love the festivals and fairs, and the feeling of celebration in the air.  I have never been much of a Halloween fan.  The boys went trick or treating and we always handed out candy…but it’s never really been that big of a deal to most of the folks we know.

The fun part of it has always been OK, but I do not go in for all the dead things and gory pictures and accessories.  In my opinion, there’s too much violence in the world as it is…..why promote something that gives kids a chance to pretend they are involved.  Now, I know others view it differently, and that’s just fine by me.  Isn’t it a blessing that we live in a country where we have choices about the things we support or not?

By the way, this was not my intended topic for this post, but sometimes things just seems to write themselves.  Does that ever happen to you?  Please say it does, because I already feel a little bumfuddled!

Now THESE are the things I like about Fall!  Well, maybe not the ‘raking leaves’ one.  Who put that in there?  However, I can remember the fun of jumping into a great big pile of them, can’t you?

I love the colors of fall most of all, I think.  And, I wonder if that is because they are so ‘earthy’.  The reds and the browns, and the golds, and the greens, and especially the oranges….they meld together in the nicest way, I think.  There’s never any problem with them matching,  because they just naturally ‘go together’.  Our eyes are accustomed to seeing them next to one another.  I suspect our Heavenly Father planned it that way.

This sign is more of the same, but I particularly like the way the color fades out and the words do, too.  Creates a warm feeling.  And, that’s another great thing about Autumn.  I love to have a fire in the fireplace and sit close enough to warm one side…then turn around and warm the other.  Something that has always amused me is how when people everywhere walk up to a fire…the first thing they do is put out their hands to feel it.  I know they are warming their hands, but it’s just so common an occurance, that we all want our hands warmed first.  Or else, we are just wondering if that roaring, crackling, bright orange and red thing is REALLY hot!  And, if that’s it…I wouldn’t tell it!

“Then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and

spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine, and

oil.”

Deuteronomy 11:14 NIV

Have a beautiful fall weekend! 

Today I have been blessed.

You know, there are dreams that we all have.  I am not speaking of dreams that come to you while you are asleep…even though you may dream about your ‘dream’.  Sometimes we just make a wish in passing…and those are real, to be sure.  But, a dream is a deep longing for something you desire to take place.  Disney says, “a dream is a wish your heart makes.”  Mr Webster says a dream is “a strongly desired goal or purpose.”  Dictionary.com defines it this way “to form in the imagination.”  And, my favorite, from the Cambridge English Language Dictionary, “something you want to happen very much but it is not likely ” and “the very best you can imagine.”

Surprisingly, there were many more dictionaries and many more ways of wording the answer to ‘What Is A Dream?”   I think we all have wishes, but dreams are deeper, somehow.  A wish can be fleeting, but a dream requires thinking and imagining, and hoping and praying.  Because, as Disney said, this wish is from the very heart of you.

Since I was in college, I have had a longing for children.  I have wanted to teach them and learn from them.  I have wanted to learn the very best methods of teaching.  I wanted to be the kind of teacher who had an impact on children.  I have some of the best training both in college and denominational through the Baptist Church, and have been fortunate to work with children in some capacity up until I retired.

Through the years, there have been students who have captured a part of my heart that will forever be theirs.  And, I have treasured the wonky pictures, and the wilted flowers from the playground (weeds, really), the sticky piece of candy held tightly in a grubby fist, and the hugs that nearly choked me, and the timid ones that didn’t quite reach all the way round my neck.  And, the older I got, the more precious these things became.  I knew a time would come for me to step away and let someone more energetic and younger take my place.  And, that is the correct order of things.

Along then is when the thought of a grandchild really became a dream.  I loved being with my own 3 boys and playing and teaching them, but these days they are all too old for me to read to, and they  surely wouldn’t fit in my lap anymore.  They weren’t into fingerpaint…it could ruin those Brooks Brothers Shirts.  They had no time for swinging…slowly cutting and eating an apple…or watching a tiny bug scurry around on his journey.  But, a grandchild would.  A grandchild would love all those things and more.  And a DIL would welcome the help!

My friend, Patty, has been and is, kind enough to share her grandchild, Lucy Jane, with me.  We have had many fun adventures together.  We have painted and we have been swimming.  We have made Christmas ornaments and we have decorated my Little House(potting shed) front porch several times.  She has very carefully learned to make pretty good pictures with my camera.  And, now she is helping me as I care for Levi.  I hold dear to my heart the times I spend with her.

My sister, Joy, was blessed with a sweet angel boy, John Thomas.  He has been a delight to have in our family.  He came at a time our family needed healing from the loss of Mom.  Oh, the joy and laughter he has brought to us!  He is walking everywhere, when he’s not running, and he loves his Uncle Adam.  They play very well together.  (You can draw your own conclusions from that last statement!)

But, I wanted my own.  And, NOW was preferable to me!  Fertility issues came into play, and having another child  in the family looked very doubtful.  It was our desire.  It was our hope.  It was our prayer.  It was our dream.  But, months went by, and there was no good news in that department.

I visited the Lifeway bookstore one day, and found myself naturally drawn to the children’s books and music.  I laughed at myself.  My children were grown, I had retired from teaching, and I had no grandchildren.  This was not the area for me to be in.  As I left the department, a CD literally jumped off the shelf, hit me in the head, shook me by the shoulders and said, “Buy me, you crazy lady! Buy me right now!!!”  Well, I was shocked-as you can imagine!  No one else seemed to have heard all the commotion.  I looked at the CD in my hand.

I tried to put it back, but it was as if my hand would not go in that direction.  And so, even though it was not in my budget that day…I knew that CD had to be mine.  And so it was.

I came home and loaded it into my computer and lay back to listen.  Oh. My. Goodness.  The most  beautiful songs…the most beautiful voices.  As I listened, I was moved to tears.  These were lullabies of the most precious kind.  But, not your typical lullabies…these were full of truth.  They were full of the promises of God.  They sang of the true character of God and how He loves us all- young and old.  And, as I lay there and listened, an image formed in my mind of a little boy, sleeping peacefully in his crib, while this music played softly near him.

Today…at around 12:30 pm, my dream came true.

There sleeps that sweet angel boy, tired from playing with Lucy Jane, a tummy full of green beans and peaches and a bottle to go with.  And, over on the side, is my old CD player that I kept on my desk at the preschool, and the music coming out of it is as beautiful as any I would ever desire sweet Levi to hear.  My dream, my prayer, was answered today.  Years after I prayed it…but right on time!

These are the words to the title song on the album…………SING OVER ME.…..BY Bethany Dillon

I live in the wonder of Your love

You rise like the sun in my heart

Even when the night draws near to me

There You are

I will wade in the water of mercy

I will walk in the light of Your will

Whatever should come against me

Teach me to be still

As you Sing over me

Draw me close to rest in Your peace

Sing over me

Oh, sing

Sing of Your unending faithfulness

That knows no doubt or fear

In the face of all that I don’t know yet

Remind me of who You are

You are mighty

You will save

Rejoice over me with singing

You will quiet

By Your love

Glory over me with singing

[available on Amazon and Christian book stores]

"For the Lord your God is living among you.He is a mighty savior.

He will take delight in you with gladness.

With his love, he will calm all your fears.

He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”     Zephaniah 3:17

AMEN

The older I get, and the more I write, the more I am learning to love words.  And the more I learn to love words, the more I want to write!  Which is a good thing, I think.  I also find myself wanting to read what others have labeled ‘good work’.  At times, I think I obviously must be reading the wrong thing, and I can find nothing redeeming about the work.  Especially if I have to read the same sentence six or seven times and still do not know what I read.  I love reading things that teach me something, or remind me of something I have lived.  But, the best of all is reading something that inspires.  In my mind, there is no greater reading than the books of the Bible.  And, it always brings inspiration to me.  Such powerful words.

This week , I ran across a short piece that I had never seen before.  For if I had ever read it before, I would have not forgotten.  The words the writer uses and the placement of those words, and the imagery, and the places it takes you in your mind…perfection!  I read it again and again and again.

And when you read it, see if you don’t feel everything he is talking about.  See if it doesn’t all make sense to you.  See if you don’t feel transported by the words.  I can imagine the way it must feel to be a flower and open every morning…can you?  Don’t know why, but I felt as if the writer was a woman before I searched out some information.  So,  a little information of the poet and then the  ‘beauty of the written word’.

Info on poet taken from Wikipedia…

René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was a Bohemian–Austrian poet. He is considered one of the most significant poets in the German language. His haunting images focus on the difficulty of communion with the ineffable in an age of disbelief, solitude, and profound anxiety: themes that tend to position him as a transitional figure between the traditional and the modernist poets.

He wrote in both verse and a highly lyrical prose. Among English-language readers, his best-known work is the Duino Elegies; his two most famous prose works are the Letters to a Young Poet and the semi-autobiographical The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge. He also wrote more than 400 poems in French, dedicated to his homeland of choice, the canton of Valais in Switzerland.

For the sake of a single verse, you must see many cities, many

people and things, you must understand animals, must feel how

birds fly, and know the gesture which small flowers make when

they open in the morning. You must be able to think back to

streets in unknown neighborhoods, to unexpected encounters,

and to partings you had long seen coming; to days of childhood

whose mystery is still unexplained, to parents whom you had to

hurt when they brought in a joy and you didn’t pick it up (it

was a joy meant for somebody else); to childhood illnesses that

began so strange with so many profound and difficult

transformations, to days in quiet restrained rooms and to

mornings by the sea, to the sea itself, to seas, but it is still not

enough to be able to think of all that. You must have memories of

many nights of love, each one different from all the others,

memories of women moaning in labor, and of light,

pale, sleeping girls who have just given birth and are closing

again. But you must also have been beside the dying, must have

sat beside the dead in the room with the open windows and the

scattered noises. And it is not yet enough to have memories. You

must be able to forget them when they are many, and you must

have the immense patience to wait until they return. For the

memories themselves are not important.  Only when they have

changed into our very blood, into glance and gesture, and

are nameless, no longer to be distinguished from ourselves only

then can it happen that in some very rare hour the first word of a

verse arises in their midst and goes forth from them.