I read the following quote this week and thought of our blog-ring, “Water to the Thirsty”.  It is from the book, Holiness, by J.C. Ryle.

“There are some believers who are ‘rivers of living water’ by the beauty of their daily conduct and behaviour.  There are many quiet, gentle, consistent Christians, who make no show and no noise in the world, and yet insensibly exercise a deep influence for good on all around them.  They ‘win without the Word’ (1 Peter 3:1).  Their love, their kindness, their sweet temper, their patience, their unselfishness, tell silently on a wide circle, and sow seeds of thought and self-inquiry in many minds.”

“Think not for a moment that your own soul is the only soul that will be saved, if you come to Christ by faith and follow Him.  Think of the blessedness of being a ‘river of living water’ to others.  Who can tell that you many not be the means of bringing others to Christ?  Live, and act, and speak, and pray and work, keeping this continually in view.”

J.C. Ryle

In the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink.  He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” John 7:37, 38

The weather.  Isn’t that what everyone is talking about here in the Northeast?  I’m sure it was the upper 60’s today.  The perfect day to be outdoors.  I went for a walk this afternoon- I wore a jean jacket over my sweater and got too hot!

My cat, Spot, kept me company:

“Ping! Ping!” said the windchimes, “look at me! Take my picture, too!”

“I hear you!”, I said out loud.

I love my windchimes, I tied them up myself, using one of my little daughter’s blue hair ribbons.

Nature will bear the closest inspection.  She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.  ~Henry David Thoreau

A tree hug.  Can you see the pinecones? On some days they are open and other days they are closed.

A bright spot of red.

Wooly-bear, do you think it’s spring?  Or maybe it’s still fall?

This soft, wet, spongy moss was growing on a rock.

Jacob discovered this little tree.  A grape vine twirled it’s way up and caused the tree to grow in this fashion. 

By the way, Jacob bought himself a new capgun today with birthday money. . . .

Whenever I see the peeling bark of these types of trees I think of how people are like this, muli-layered.  We see the outside layer of everyone but it is rewarding to keep going past the layers into the realness of a person and to experience depth.

To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter; to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird’s nest or a wildflower in spring – these are some of the rewards of the simple life.  ~John Burroughs

For some pictures, please see my Aunt Colleen’s site:

http://www.xanga.com/colleena146

More of Caleb’s pursuits:

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

So, I put him in his HIGH CHAIR with some BOOKS.  He was in it for HALF AN HOUR. . . .What do you think he did the MOMENT I let him out?

Yep.  Right back at it.

I guess I better move the chair.

Caleb’s Pursuit (He does this quite often)

“My mother
had a good deal
of trouble with me.
But I think she enjoyed it.”
Mark Twain

It’s about 7 in the morning and I am talking to Rich as he gets ready for work when I see a bit of pink showing through the crack between the shade and the window in our bedroom.  I race over to look and it’s yet again another gorgeous fabulous fantastic sunrise!  The heavens declare the GLORY OF GOD!  (It seems so right to listen to Handel’s Messiah as I type this.)  So bye bye dear husband as I grab the camera and frisk around on the cold cold porch in my socks (I finally had to give up and get my slippers.)

Whenever I see a sunrise I think of this passage from a book I read:

“Outside the barn the morning was gray, and as I came up the path I was surprised to see my mother, wrapped in a shawl, standing outside the kitchen door.  “Hurry!” she called to me.  “It’s changing every second!”
The barn behind me was black against a rosiness in the east, but it was not the sky she wished me to see.  It was the evanescent colors, the lights and shadows subtly changing down the length of the valley at the coming of the dawn.  We stood and watched them silently till the rosy sky faded to the color of water, and sunshine came yellow across the fields.  A new day was there, a day as miraculous and fresh as though it were the first ever dawned, and a chill little wind that ran before it went westward, followed by a promise of warmth.”

Rose Wilder Lane

to inspire

“There is beauty in homely things which many
People have never seen. . . .

Sunlight through a jar of plum jelly,
A rainbow in soapsuds in dishwater,
An egg yolk in a blue bowl,
White ruffled curtains sifting moonlight,
The color of cranberry glass,
a little cottage with blue shutters,
Crimson roses in an old stone crock,
The smell of newly baked bread,
Candlelight on old brass,
The soft brown of a cocker’s eye.”

 by Peter Marshall

****************

(there is beauty all around you)
(look)
(live with your eyes wide open)
(do you see it?)
(share it with others)

To say what I mean

and mean what I say.

To Be Real

Without being False to God, His ways (like LOVE and PEACE), or my true Self

To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.  George MacDonald