Snow Covered Hills & Life
I was thinking this morning about how life can be like a trip out to the snow covered hills to ski (or snowboard). We want the excitement of the ride down, but being inexperienced, we end up taking some knocks and tumbles along the way. Even as we become more experienced, there's ever more challenging slopes to conquer. Sometimes we have the thrill of a great ride. Sometimes we get tired and sore, need a break, and take time out for refreshment, recovery, and renewal. And sometimes we get exhausted, worn, beaten up, and discouraged. That's when we really need our friends' encouragement to pick ourselves up and go on to finish. When the day is done, it seems although we've been riding the hills all day, we haven't progressed much. But each time we're getting a little better, a little stronger, and what used to seem so challenging isn't so challenging anymore. Soon we'll be the one's cheering on and encouraging those who are less experienced, remembering what it was like to be there. Take heart - life is challenging - but we are growing and we are not alone. When we look back, we'll have great memories and great friends. And we'll know we were up for the challenge, we did it, we conquered!Note: Some of my thoughts here come from reflecting on my friend Stephenie's November post "Warning: Blonde On a Snowboard" on her blog Exhale telling of her first time experience out snowboarding, and some come from my own experiences out skiing.
Webcams!
Check out my latest addition - two local webcam site links. I hope to add a few more in the future.
Those '70's!
About 1973 - my family - Mom, Sue (note the Paul McCartney haircut), me, Cindy, Dad, Chris, Butch, and Dan. Shag haircuts were in - Mom, Cindy, and I all had one!
Just the brothers and sisters about 1977 - I think I was 14 then. (Dan, Cindy, me, Butch, Chris, & Sue)
The next post is just this last Thanksgiving - my how we've grown!
Thanksgiving 2005 pics
The adults at Thanksgiving (except Felecia on the couch). My brother, Jim and his wife Jamie left before we thought to take pictures - Jamie had to go to work. Left to right, top to bottom - Dave (Sue's husband), Aunt Helen, Sue, Ross (Cindy's husband), Becky (Chris's wife), Chris, my Mom, Butch, Dan, Cindy, and me.
The teens and kids at Thanksgiving - left to right, top to bottom - JR, Ezra, DeMario, Spencer, Eliza, Emma, Logan, and Felecia.
Where's the water?
This is a picture from the early '90's. My former bf (pictured) and I went on a canoeing tour down the Muskegon River. All went well until the river branched into the North and South branches. We thought we took the correct branch, buuuut - the river turned into a marsh. We ended up having to portage the canoe over this access road in the river flats to get to a place where we could get back on track and finish the trip.
Yes, that's a couple beers on the cooler - this was before I returned to the Lord in 2000. I had come to the Lord as a kid and had went to church for a few years. In my teens, I turned away from the Lord, choosing a branch to take. Eventually, I was living with a guy, drank and smoked. Then the life choice I'd made began to dry up. First I quit drinking in about 1995, then I quit smoking about 1997. In 2000 my life path dried up - I was depressed and the Lord allowed me to come to a place where I decided that if God wasn't real, and Jesus wasn't who He said He was, I didn't want to live. That was a turning point in my life. I chose to believe. I got rid of all the stuff in the house that I knew was offensive to God - idols and offensive books, music, the works. When I was done, I felt so clean - I spun in the middle of the living room with a big grin on my face. I also knew that I'd either have to marry Pat or split up with him. (I stopped having a physical relationship with him.) I knew I wasn't supposed to marry an unbeliever, but when I turned to God, Pat said he'd also turn to God. We were planning on getting married. I felt driven to spending a month separated from him before getting married, but he figured that if I wanted to spend time away that it was over. I did move in with my mother. During that time, I called Pat to see how he was doing and if he was going to church. The answer was always no. At that point I figured that God wanted me to see that Pat's heart hadn't changed toward Him and that if I were to marry him, that I wouldn't be happy and neither would he. So that was when we broke up permanently. Now I'm back on the right branch and can finish the course.Remembering that trip also brings to mind the story of Elijah in the Bible when the evil King Ahab & Jezebel were ruling. Elijah told Ahab "As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word." Then God sent him to the Kerith Ravine saying "You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there." Some time later the brook dried up and the LORD sent him to Zarephath where God commanded a widow to supply him with food.There are times in our lives where the supply we're receiving where we're at dries up. At this time change is needed. We may be going in the wrong direction and God, in His kindness, is forcing us to go in a new direction. We may be going the right way, but God in His wisdom has determined that it's time for us to move in a new direction. Either way, change comes. Follow God and you can't go wrong. Don't know the right way? Read the Bible and do what it says. Beyond that, pray to the Lord for wisdom and guidance, then step forward in faith - trusting that God will take you where you need to go - one step at a time.My newest new direction, coming up quite unexpectedly, (although in hindsight God gave me hints all along), is going back to school to become a civil engineer specializing in foundations, structures, and site layout for: the best in areas of hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and other such disasters; and revitalizing old buildings that would otherwise be torn down.
I will continue to follow as the Lord leads. May you be blessed as you follow Him too.
What do you do after a hard day of barking at squirrels, birds, and neighborhood kids going by? Why, lounge on the recliner, of course! Killer - my Mom's miniature dachshund.
Whiteness
Whiteness is falling
Wet cold collects on the ground.
Breaths of wind play a tune
The whiteness knows the dance.
Soft, yet when pressured hard,
Beautiful yet dangerous - Everything, everyone bows to your power.
When you're here I feel you've been here ever.
But seasons pass
And soon you will disappear
Only to reappear
When time rolls once again
To your domain.
