june twenty-fifteen 
The warmth of the sun's embrace,
the gentle breeze swept in by incoming tide,
the rhythm of seasons,
of new birth,
death and recreation.
All these speak so clearly of your love,
your power
and your beauty.
All are expressions of your creativity,
and more importantly of yourself.
As an artist might share his personality
within each brushstroke,
so within the myriad colours of a butterfly's
wing
you share the exuberance of your love
This world
Your creation
Rolled into a sphere
Packaged in sunshine
Gift-wrapped in love
Given to us
Thank you
"She saw the world, not always as it was, but as it could be…"
–Cinderella movie 2015
"Where there is kindness, there is goodness.
And where
there is goodness, there is magic."
–Cinderella movie 2015
"Contemplation is life itself, fully
awake, fully active, fully aware that it is alive. It is spiritual wonder. It
is spontaneous awe at the sacredness of life, of being. It is gratitude for
life, for awareness, and for being. It is a vivid realization of the fact that
life and being in us proceed from an invisible, transcendent and infinitely
abundant Source. Contemplation is, above all, awareness of the reality of that
Source." –Thomas Merton New Seeds of Contemplation
There are some people in life that make you laugh a little louder, smile a little bigger and live a little bit better.... Thankful for these folks in our lives!
3rd annual kayaking trip from Magnuson Park to Kirkland
I leaned into this quote for this marathon for sure:
"It is only through hardship,
through discouragement, through exhaustion, that we learn to draw on the power
of God’s Spirit within us. It is only when we come to the end of our
own strength, and even then refuse to give up, that we discover God’s strength. “When
we are weak, then we are strong”… Hardships make us bitter… or better. They
lead us to breakdown…or to breakthrough. If we don’t give up at that breaking
point when we feel we’ve reached the end of our own resources, we find a new
aliveness, the life of the risen Christ rising within us."
–Brian McLaren We Make the
Road By Walking
"As I drive home on a narrow curving
road, someone tailgates, itching to go faster, not knowing he’s flesh and
fragile. Slowed by sadness and
sick of pressure, I pull onto the gravel shoulder, let him shoot by, and on my
right catch sight of a great blue heron standing tall and still in the aisle
made by two rows of towering trees.
Like a priest in feathered robes, he bows his head three times before an
altar of mountain bluffs. It’s
dusk, and the moon, just rising, illuminates his wings as they open in
benediction for evening flight. His parting call:
'Stay awake, Holiness may spread its
wings for you at any moment.' ”
Patricia A. Lunetta (quoted in Pilgrim
Walk by the Sea by Susanne Hassell)
Creator God
who breathed this world into being,
who is discernible within
the harmony of nature,
the perfection of a butterfly's wing,
the grandeur of a mountain range,
the soaring eagle and humming bird,
thank you for this world
which you have created.
Thank you for summer sun,
which reminds us
that your creative breath
is still alive and active.
Thank you for the warmth of your love,
sustaining this world, your garden
"You see, as parents we’re
not just raising children. We’re raising ambassadors for Christ, we’re raising
caretakers of God’s creation, we’re raising ministers to the hurting and lonely
and we’re raising justice-keepers. And we do this by first being ambassadors
for one another, by taking care of one another, by ministering to one another,
and by being just and fair."
"Years ago, when our boys were little,
we had a small community of friends that gathered in our home for several
years. One evening, our oldest (three at the time) asked, in eager expectation,
whether our friends were coming over. 'Yes,' I answered. 'Why do you like
having them here?'
My son paused only a moment. 'Because
they love us. And they help us fight the dragons.' In the years previous and the years
since, I’m not sure I’ve heard a better definition of friendship than this one
from my three-year-old. Friends (true friends) love the person we are, not the
person they imagine we are or the person we pretend to be. Friends clasp arms
with us as together we swing at the darkness. I’ve often wondered what the future
will reveal about how we’ve raised our sons, how we’ve done with our hopes to
help them become good men who live good lives. I wonder if our meandering
efforts will prove enough to help them take their good place in this topsy-turvy
world. I will tell you this, though: the friends who have been in our life
(thus, the friends who have been in their lives) will play a larger role
in all this than most of us imagine.When I think about how I hope to love
my sons along the path toward becoming their true selves, my mind turns to the
people they are blessed to encounter…..We have so many good people in our
lives, so many gifts. So many teachers. John Lennon said he got by with a
little help from his friends. We all do." http://winncollier.com/lil-help-from-our-friends/
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