TAKING OUT THE TRASH

Sometimes the ordinary can give you extraordinary. As I was taking something to the trash can at the curb, I glanced at a field across the street and saw this perfect combination of a light dew on a field of grass and the sun peeking over the trees. Extra ordinary.

A COMMUNITY OF VOLUNTEERS

This week children visited "The Kingdom of the Son" during Vacation Bible School (VBS) at our church. It's always so much fun and the children are adorable. Talk about photo opportunities!

This is hand painted on the glass doors entering the sanctuary. The "sun" on the left side is the large window at the front of the church that just happened to show through the paint.  I was crouching to get the window in just the right spot.

But it wasn't the children or their lessons or even the fun they had that struck a cord with me this week although that was all heart-warming and full of laughter. It was the army of people who helped make this a great week for the children and their parents that impressed me the most. Our little church was transformed into jungle of animals by a talented decorating crew.

This fellow is hand drawn and painted before being applied to a jungle motif. Isn't he cute? 

I'm sharing some of the decorations with you as a visual, but there were also people making dinner every night, the snack team, teachers, assistants, actors who memorized their lines and a terrific praise band who added so much to the festivities. One team couldn't do it alone. We worked with prayer and one another to come together in fellowship. What a great find...that we don't have to do it alone.  Wonderful things happen when we depend upon one another!

WHAT IS OLD?

For me, the answer to that question is, "whatever you think it is."  Another birthday is coming up next month when I will turn 63. How did that happen???

When I was a little girl, I don't remember thinking 30-something was old. My grandmother, with her white hair, soft wrinkled skin that I loved to stroke, her stockings rolled and tied just below her knees, the snap-up-the-front flowered "house dress" as she called it, and her refusal to wear a bra (guess she was ahead of her time in that department)  made me think Grandmother was old.

A few days ago, I'm driving my grandson to camp. At six years old he tells me he wants to become a boy scout. It's never been discussed before so I ask why. "Because I want to help little old ladies like you across the street," he answers while I smother a laugh.

What is old? Old is experience. Old is saying, "No I don't want to serve on that committee." Old is accepting that a size 6 is way out of my league and that's OK. Old means comfortable is better.  Old means family and close friendships come before anything. Old is giving up the type A stuff of life at least some of the time.  Old is understanding that God loves me anyway...and other people accept me for me...why didn't I know this earlier?   Old is liking big band sounds and 50's music, Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire. It's thinking Singing in the Rain and The Sound of Music are two of the great movie musicals of all time. Old is before special effects and the words "geek" or "techie."  It's a coke float at the Woolworth's counter.

It's all those things and more. And to a little 6-year-old with green eyes, I'm old and that's a good thing.  

10 TRUTHS

Reading through some e-class notes, I was reminded of a challenge to post "10 Truths" about myself.  So I'm going to jump in.

1.  No matter what type of day I'm experiencing or what plans I have, it can change in an instant because family is always first.

2. I love my church family too. There I find support and encouragement to be me.

3. I love God. Should that be #1? Don't know and I realize this can create all types of discussion, but I'm trying to put my truths out there so here it is.

4. Texture, color in that order (most of the time.)

5. I seem to search out graphic designs and/or texture when a camera is in my hand. Hence the selected photo.

6. I need lots of alone time to read, study, think, create, be.

7.  During the summer,  my screened porch is my evening oasis where I read, study, think, create, be.

8. There is a love/hate relationship in my life with email and Facebook. They can consume a lot of time.  

9. Amazon is my friend.

10. I love rain.


That covered a lot of territory. Now your turn!