Saying goodbye to August...

Joy, joy - there's been the slightest hint of fall in the early morning breezes - these waning days of August.


Thank you, good August, for your nourishing rains and lovely greens - and if you'll take your heat, humidity and mosquitoes when you depart, I'll be happier to see you when you return.




An encouraging verse for these Pollywog Creek summers...

"The Lord will guide you always; He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen Your frame. You will be like a well watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail." Isaiah 58.11

Photos: shades of green this last week of August and a Great Blue Heron at the edge of Michael and Lizbeth's pond

It's never too late...

It was a birthday celebrating tea - with strawberries and muffins and chocolate truffles and cheese, and four generations of mothers and daughters and me.

We sweetened our tea and passed the bowl of grapes and the plate of prosciutto, and my birthday friend's beautiful sister, who had planned every lovely detail, opened her Bible.

"I read that article you linked on facebook," she glanced at me across the table, searching through Psalms for the passage she'd chosen, "and thought I would read a few verses while we're together around the table." I smiled knowingly as she continued, "Sometimes I wish I could raise my children all over again."

"Me, too, Patti - me, too."

With little ones grown, we can't be alone in our longings for a do-over - to have the measure of maturity we possess today, be inspired by the godly wisdom and ways of young women like Ann, and nurture our children one more time. We can't do-over those tender, young years, nor can we waste precious now-time regretting the past, but it's never too late to change what we do today.

"My boys are grown with families of their own, and though Emily is still living at home, she is an independent young adult. When I shared Ann's article with Louis, he agreed that we should bring our Bibles to the supper table, the only meal that on most days we are able to eat together, and read a chapter aloud every day - with whoever is at the table. We've read James, Colossians and now we're in Thessalonians." I continued. "It really isn't too late for any of us to begin doing in our homes today what we wish we had known to do years ago."

Finding the passage, Patti read, and before we left the table, we drank of the Living Water and ate of the true Bread and were satisfied with all things good...

I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together! I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Oh, fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack! The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.

The glory of bread is that it satisfies.

~ John Piper - A Godward Life

The basket on the cedar chest at the end of our dining room table now holds Bibles gathered from around our house - enough Bibles in the same translation for everyone who comes to eat at our table, including and especially the grandchildren.

Photos - the birthday celebrating tea, Patti reading

Thank you, Ann (without an e) - you are a gift, and I give thanks to God always for you.

Longing for simpler times?

I’ve noticed that I’m not the only one that time and the brevity of it all has been a recent and recurrent thought. It must be the season. Little ones entering kindergarten, older children returning to school a year older and a grade closer to adulthood, and young adults heading off to college for the first time are all hallmarks that signal the passing of time. 

Many of us have also bemoaned the times in which we live and have longed for the simpler days of the past – days of horse and buggy and long, uninterrupted afternoons for tea and conversation without the trappings and distractions of our fast-paced communication age. I so enjoyed my facebook fast last week that I’m going to continue it every Wednesday – at least for now. One day a week without facebook, twitter, blog reader and the temptation to click through the links will be very good for me.

The leisurely pace of years past has it's merits, but those of us who have survived cancer or had life-saving surgeries or c-sections - with anesthesia and pain meds, I might add - are more than grateful for the medical advancements of our modern age that made those surgeries and treatments possible. Running water, air-conditioning, electric washing machines (and coffee grinders) are just a handful of conveniences atop my list of favorite indulgences that those horse and buggy days did not offer. It’s very good for me to remember that, as well.

Trusting God in all my ways means trusting that He allowed me to live here on earth at the perfect time in history for me – that I would not long for the past, but be grateful for the blessings of this age and use them not just for my benefit, but for the kingdom and His glory. Facebook, twitter, google reader, flickr and the innumerable internet resources available to me are not the problem – it’s how I might misuse them and waste time in so doing.

"...And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

Good and perfect gifts...

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. ~ James 1.17

It's been thundery and rainy and perfectly delightful for days. Except for the hour or two we lost power one evening, I've loved every soaking wet moment - from the light and steady drizzles to the drenching downpours. Is there anything more soothing or tranquil in the green month of August than the drips and drops and splashes of rain or the gentle thunder that grumbles in the distance in the dark quiet of night?

Photos: splashes of yellow flourishing in beds of green, nourished by the good and perfect gift of rain

Where are the flowers...

As I contemplate the "misty" brevity of time in this my three score year (sounds so much younger than sixty, don't you think?), I have to question the time spent here on Pollywog Creek - choosing what I hope are the best of my photos and a few choice words. And I wonder if I do my readers an injustice by rarely, if ever, displaying those "ugly swamps", "vile weeds", and "sharp thorns" where "life's mercies" are uncovered 'round the pond, along the creek and in the fields. Pollywog Creek is not paradise, as those of you who have wandered about these five acres know.

Kind folks, who've ventured down the pages of Pollywog Creek, have driven past the unsightly migrant camps and piles of trash and overgrown ditches of our rural community and as they've turned their cars down the shell marl driveway that leads to our green sun-bleached front door, I know they have wondered, "where are the flowers?"

Don't get me wrong. We are immensely grateful for this slice of earth where God has allowed us to settle and for the modest home that protects us from the scorching heat and swamp-land critters and where we've raised our children and cared for those we love. But it's not the "paradise" my photos might imply.

It's not my intent to hide those "ugly swamps" and "vile weeds", but out of gratitude for all the Lord has given us and a respect for my neighbors, I'll likely never point to them here. You'll just have to know that what you see on Pollywog Creek are glimpses of God's glory in the small things - in the weeds, and the pond muck, and tangled web of vines in the thickets and the intricate details of insects and wildflowers and zinnias.

He truly makes all things beautiful in its time.

God kindly put a simple camera in my hand to cultivate gratitude in my heart and "an eye for life's mercies." I'd love to know what He is showing you.

I'm humbled by the beauty of servanthood on the faces of those who are caring for Nabakoza and Betty and so many others like her, please go here and here and here and rejoice and pray and give.

Misty and vanishing...

The two strawberry blonde teens sat shoulder to shoulder, snuggled between parents on one side and grandparents on the other. They filled half the pew a few rows ahead of us. "Do you ever long for the days you were that family?" I lamented in a whisper to my friend sitting next to me. "It's a small window of time, isn't it?" She acknowledged with a sigh. Time - the lack of it, the passing of it, the brevity of it. It's been a recent recurring theme. "I can't wait for cooler weather." I heard myself foolishly declare.

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” ~ James 4:13-15

There's no guarantee of cooler weather in my future; and who knows what blessings - what mercies, gifts and delights I am failing to embrace in these green August days while I wish time away waiting for fall.

Photos: A green August morning in my Pollywog Creek backyard.

It went so fast...

I don't like melancholy, but the truth is, it's been a sobering few days. The pain of chronic illness, young families with sick little ones, the sudden death of a beloved gentleman, the distressing news that others are losing their battles with cancer have all weighed heavy on our hearts.

Before the sun was barely above the horizon one day this week, I dropped my brand new blackberry in the pond. It nearly ruined my day. It wasn't the loss of the blackberry that grieved me, it was my carelessness, along with an awareness of how hard my husband works to provide for us and how much of those provisions were ruined in pond muck in a matter of seconds.

I read about Betty and Namukosa and my heart was broken anew - and I repented of my own selfish concerns and the many resources of time and gifts that I waste on any given day. That "beloved gentleman" and his lovely bride had fifty-six years together in marriage before his unexpected death this week. Fifty-six fruitful, loving years. At the time of visitation, the room was overflowing with family and friends who'd come to offer and receive comfort. As I hugged the grieving widow, I'm certain she thought her words were expressions of grief, but I received them as words of exhortation to me. "It went so fast."

Photos: More "Green is the Color of August" on Pollywog Creek and a fleeting sunrise over the Caloosahatchee River

In the field...

"In the field we have a study hung round with texts for thought. From the cedar to the hyssop, from the soaring eagle down to the chirping grasshopper, from the blue expanse of heaven to a drop of dew, all things are full of teaching, and when the eye is divinely opened, that teaching flashes upon the mind far more vividly than from written books. Our little rooms are neither so healthy, so suggestive, so agreeable, or so inspiring as the fields. Let us count nothing common or unclean, but feel that all created things point to their Maker, and the field will at once be hallowed."

~ Spurgeon (Morning and Evening - August 15)

Dinner Island Ranch...

August 11, 2010 Dinner Island Ranch With Louis at Dinner Island, delighting in a sunrise rendezvous and the life that flourishes on thirty-four square miles of prairies, cypress domes, oak hammocks, sloughs and pastures. More photos from Dinner Island Ranch

Sleeping in peace...

August 10, 2010 The park by the river and the green Flower Power shop's window... For several years, I fell asleep at night repeating a verse I'd memorized incorrectly: "I will lie down in peace and sleep alone, for You, O Lord, will keep me safe." I'll always believe the Lord allowed me to read and memorize that verse incorrectly because sleeping alone was my greatest fear.

(Yes. I know. I've bent my "30 Words or Less" rule yet again.)

Worth repeating...

August 9, 2010 In the backyard at dusk... It's worth repeating...

...you'll know you're a servant when you don't mind being treated like one.

HT-Chris Brauns

The green room...

August 8, 2010 Emily's green room... Thinking of my beautiful daughter who is vacationing this week in the keys with her brother and his family.

"Our greatest fear should not be of failure, but of succeeding at things that don't matter." - Craig Groeschel

(HT-Emily. And yes, It's a wee bit over 30 words, but I'm allowed to break my own rules, right?)

On my knees...

Beauty(berry) in the thickets...

August 7, 2010

When surrounded by much that is anything but lovely, discovering beauty often compels me to get down on my knees.

To-do list...

August 6, 2010 Playing at mimi's... Today's to-do list: bake banana chocolate-chip muffins-check, delight in stimulating conversation-check, read storybooks-check, play with legos-check.

My daddy's a hero...

August 5, 2010 Magnolia tree... Three year old Gavin leaned out the truck window and watched his daddy help an accident victim. "My daddy's a hero," he proudly declared.

Mine, too, Gavin.

Please humor me for a moment...

Thank you. Can't remember the last time I updated mimi's brag book. After having three year old Gavin here one weekend, and one year old Austin and his four year old brother Mason the next, this seemed like a perfect time to do so. I'm so grateful that Emily is still living at home. I'm not sure I could keep up with all their little boy energy without her. I'm also thankful that preschoolers take naps, and for the persons who invented disposable diapers (and wipes), security gates, no-spill sippy cups, hot dogs, goldfish, and the Backyardigans. Lifesavers, every one of them. Between the days of changing diapers and filling sippy cups, I found a few days here and there for early morning wanderings...with my camera, of course. It's August now and I've adjusted my focus, but please indulge me while I post a few photos from those July morning wanderings. Have I mentioned that Nick and Kristin are having a girl? As much as we love, love, LOVE those adorable little boys, the Hunter females are rejoicing in our good fortune. Emily: "You're getting a sister for Christmas, Gavin." Gavin: With a scowl, "No, I'm not. I'm getting toys. "