"...out here in the stillness, I find my house of worship
with column trees and canopy of stars,
Here in my cathedral." ~Chris Rice from the song, My Cathedral
I posted this most beautiful music composition I've recently discovered, it invokes so many feelings, thoughts...memories. Please enjoy while reading and browsing...
Al, you would have been so proud, so very proud. She looked lovely. Could you see? I think you can sometimes because I can feel it (Hebrews 12:1).
Remember how you would hold baby Zuzu over your shoulder, singing with her little baby noises, Ahh, Ahh, Ahh and you would sing with her comforting her...You would walk tall and strong, a peaceful cadence with baby Zuzu, your sweet grandbaby you treated as your own. She was, she was because you were like a real dad. A real dad. A real grandpa.
I remember craving time to spend with you, Al. I wanted to sit and talk..talk and sit with you...It was very definite, and then I found out why...For you passed suddenly on to the other side with God soon after baby Zuzu's first birthday. We miss you so, Al. So. Very. Much.
Do you know that baby Zuzu would run up to silver haired men at the grocery store putting her little arms around their legs? Thinking it was you? It broke my heart. It even broke our pediatrician's heart when I shared with him...It did. I saw my pediatrician tear up too as he slowly backed out of the room.
You would hold Janie and Joycie's little hands and take them to the corner grocery in the inner city for treats... Little Joycie would later say in her five year old sweet little voice to another child at a birthday party, He was my best friend...
You should see Baby Grace too, Al. She has light hair and grey-blue eyes...much like yours. She's an artist like you, Al. I wish she could have known you.
There are lots of thoughts whirring around, many things in the background.
And may I say that I am very blessed, I have the Gift of precious daughters, son-in-love and a wonderful husband who is a spiritual leader and protector.
Do you see her? Do you see little Janie and Joycie? Baby Grace? Do you see them, Al?
Do you know, Al, that the young man Zuzu married is strong, gentle, and kind like you? You should see their new little home, it's lovely...
So many things to be thankful for...
I hope you enjoyed the photos and music, thanks for visiting with me this autumn eve...Jem found this special music on spotify on the Christian instrumental or either the Sunday genre. Enjoy and be blessed.
This evening Jem and I, hand in hand took a walk through the woods, I wearing my plaid rubber boots, cotton skirt, old linen jacket, hair thrown up...I saw a mommy cow with her baby calf in the woods...So very precious, soooo very precious.
Last week we were paralyzed with wedding planning, on an ongoing freight train so to speak! Wowza. One afternoon I lay on my bed in the sunlight cherishing the quiet and peace and I hear Zuzu laughing from the kitchen to her sis..."I heard Dad over the phone at the tux place..He was saying... 'This is RIDICULOUS!'".. I lay there and smiled hugely. Oh my. Yeah...The tuxedo places just ain't what they used to be I tell you, they were overcharging my husband to the tune of $200.00 with no apologies...I think their attitude is what got his goat. Understandably!
We all got a real kick out of it, we immediately thought of this clip above! I don't endorse this movie in entirety but this scene is hilarious to me...It's about how one feels as a wedding approaches. Truly so.
But Let me say...We are resting and re-cooping after a lovely wedding that glorified Christ. We are so happy with the wedding in this most beautiful cathedral (1910), it's the kind of church you walk in and your breath is taken away...One guest was heard saying in a hushed tone as the pipe organ played..and our precious friend played violin...This is incredible.
May God be Glorified.
The freight train has abruptly stopped now. My head is spinning and ya know? I'm actually glad to see Christmas catalogs. It's a sign of normalcy in a way.
Tonight I was able to see the clouds reflect in the pond at sunset, I was able to walk in the cool grass at dusk. Beautiful.
Here ye Here ye! Tally-Ho and Away we Go! Zuzu and Tommy our precious new son in love.
We had so many life-friends there who we love so much like real family and so many distant relatives who behave as a sister and brother to me. We are so blessed.
"It has been said that no great work of literature or science has ever been produced by someone who did not love solitude. It is also a fundamental principle of faith that no tremendous growth in holiness has ever been achieved by anyone who has not taken the time frequently, and for long periods, to be alone with God. from The Still Hour" Excerpt from today, Sept. 29, Streams in the Desert devotional.
This page has always resonated in my soul.
Today I was re-viewing this movie, it's from a famous classic play I had studied in highschool. The name? Our Town by Thornton Wilder. I highly recommend.
This movie has some huge glaring truths in it. Live Life, appreciate it. In the end all that is left is Eternal.
I highly recommend this beautiful piece, play for your family...this copy is not the greatest but I'm almost certain you can check a video out form your local library if you would like to see a more clear copy of the movie, even with the grain, it's worth it in my opinion. EDIT: 9.30.115 I have found the above second copy as well, you may see if the quality is better on this one.
This morning my heart was struck when I heard a conversation about bottled water, needing it for a lunch at a sweet relative's home. I suggest the dollar store, my suggestion is somewhat ignored and the amount of $5.00 for a bigger lot (not really needed in my opinion) was mentioned like it was nothing. Nothing. It's not a big deal at all, just perception of an attitude(s). I do wonder what my Italian immigrant grandparents would have even thought about bottled water? Think about it. What is our attitude on things. The conversation I'm speaking of brought me to tears, the attitudes, etc. No, I have nothing against bottled water, but I don't think it's a given or an entitlement, my issue was attitude. I cried and shared that for me? Five dollars means a lot. This mommy once stood in a grocery line with my firstborn little girl having to choose between a banana she wanted and something else to put back because I did not have enough money.
Here is another excerpt from yesterday's Streams in the Desert:
"Dear tested and tried believer, it is your mission to walk onto the stage of this world in order to reveal to all of heaven and earth that the music of life lies not in your circumstances or external things but in your own soul." Excerpt from Sept. 28, Streams in the Desert
I am thanking God for Life, and so many miracles God answers for this child.
I've been busy painting a porcelain blonde bride's hair brunette, washing tablecloths,and spending time with God. Tonight for dinner? I think I'll throw together a light pasta dish.
"Do
any human beings ever realize life while they live it?—every, every
minute?"
"We
all know that something is eternal. And it ain’t houses and it ain’t
names, and it ain’t earth, and it ain’t even the stars . . . everybody
knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something
has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived
have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you’d
be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There’s something
way down deep that’s eternal about every human being."
Excerpts from Our Town by Thornton Wilder (SparkNotes) Have a sweet evening Loves, Amelia in the Forest
P.S. Been having some wonderful ministry opportunities coming, going, receiving, giving at the little grocery store in smalltown. Real Church indeed!
"My mother, Vivian Baxter, warned me often not to believe that people really want the truth when they ask, 'How are you?'...No one really expects to be answered, or even wants to know 'Well my knees feel like they are broken, and my back hurts so bad I could fall down and cry.' A response like that would be a conversation stopper. It would end before it could begin. So, we all say, "Fine, thank you, and you?'
I believe in that way we learn to give and receive social lies. ...I wish we could stop the little lies. I don't mean that one has to be brutally frank. I don't believe that we should be brutal aobut anything, however, it is wonderfully liberating to be honest. One does not have to tell all that one knows, but we should be careful what we do say is the truth."
~Maya Angelou excerpts from Letter to my Daughter, Chapter 7, To Tell the Truth
Well friends, to tell the truth...I need to be bathed in prayers. We have this wedding coming up you see. My dad was not doing well healthwise last week at all to the tune of our oldest daughter, Lea crying Sunday morning talking with him over the phone, pleading with him to please hit the emergency button necklace if he needed it, trying to make sure he knew the Father in that personal way... Me sitting at the table with a twitch in one of my eyes, as our thirdborn, Michelle shares her bride's photo shoot stills with me. Oh dear ones! What is a mother and daughter, only-child to do?! A child at heart that thinks, feels and discerns on steroids. Not a bad thing most of the time when helping people or dealing with foes. I know what's up before they do usually. Comes in handy but tends to nerve a person like me up. The same thing that makes me feeling makes me feel.
There are soooo many facets to the story of my father. I know that my saintly mother, the wife of his youth, whom he left when I was eighteen years old would still care for him... But he is hours away and most of the time seems to like it like that...until something really horrible happens and usually not then. Then it is only briefly considered. Some justice-injustice questions prevail at this very time. You know Sisters, Brothers? Sometimes we are just not sure what is a Blessing and what is a curse! So. Please pray for me. Pray for all involved. This only child can only take so much. This mama can only take so much. It's hard, really hard.
Today was nursing home day and oh what a precious blessing that was! Calvin the precious almost blind, almost deaf man was there and I gave him a handmade bracelet from wooden beads I made with his name: c-a-l-v-i-n. He shrieked with joy...Sooooo precious. Marianna reminds me that this would also help him to tell people his name!
Becs and I rode together and that was a sweet blessing. I would look up every now and then and see Becs standing sweetly with a resident, just listening patiently, smiling and sharing quietly. Lunch together was such a sweet time and then back home to the Forest riding past fields and birds and crop dusters...Lovely drive.
Lea our oldest came to the home too...Do you know what a blessing it is to hear my daughter giving a public message on salvation and encouraging the room full of elderly friends? Oh may I never lose sight of what God has done! How blessed I truly am! GIFTS.
Lately I spend a lot of alone time talking to God, yesterday I sat on the side steps of our home and just kept quiet and looked up at the clouds, thanking the Father for the clouds and trying to remember that the Father created these clouds. He can help me too.
I'll close with another excerpt from Letter to my Daughter by Maya Angelou. The Chapter is entitled To Tell the Truth, Chapter 7.
"Let's tell the truth to the people. When people ask, 'How are you,' have the nerve sometimes to answer truthfully. You must know however, that people will start avoiding you because they have knees that pain them and heads which hurt and they don't want to know about yours. But think of it this way, if people avoid you, you will have more time to meditate and do fine research on a cure for whatever truly afflicts you."
~Maya Angelou
I will go create in the kitchen now with Marianna...Enjoy our fur angels who minister to me daily. ....I will also meditate, pray and yes. I will research and pray in my Kerith Ravine. Check out Sept. 16 reading ofStreams in the Desert.
Wedding plans bubbling along on the surface. Prayers going forth internally...in the Forest deep in the Kerith Ravine...
Good Evening Loves, ~amelia
The following message by this sweet sister in Christ has some very common sense points in it. She also shares a most poignant story of Charlie, the little boy in the mountains of Virginia, the story touches my heart greatly. You see, we all have "Charlies" perhaps that we failed to minister to when we were supposed to, maybe years ago. If our hearts are tender...We wonder what we could have done differently and have used these failed situations to learn from and do better in the future for the next time.
I hope you enjoyed the lessons! I did. Great reminders!
My Charlie Lessons (...just a couple for starters)
When I was a newly married young lady 35 years ago, I was at the grocery store and an elderly lady in the frozen vegetable department was on my heart...She had came up to me to tell me that a certain mixed veggie-mix "tasted real good". She was soooooo precious, just so very, very precious. She was with her adult son and my heart was so strong to go to her and speak to her and tell her that Jesus loved her...She needed to hear it so badly, just a little care is what she needed! I saw her later as I stood in the check line and my heart beat rapidly. Did I speak to her in the next line? No. My heart is still grieved over that disobedience. Just think of the Hope and perhaps answer to a lonely heart I could have been an instrument of?! Oh God forgive us! Forgive me!
Ten years ago or so I was at our local grocery behind a poor young black woman... She did not have money for her baby formula. She was trying to use food stamps to pay for it. As she walked off the checker looked at me and shared that she did not understand why the government did not pay for these mother's baby's milk. Did I offer to pay for the baby formula? No. My heart still aches over that one and in the future that will not happen again! Oh God forgive us! Forgive me!
In my home... I have consciously made an effort to watch my mouth. When I speak in the car or at the dinner table I ask myself... Is this going to make the atmosphere in our home more beautiful? If it's not a necessary thing to bring up I do not. Does that mean we walk around like a bunch of goodie-two-shoes never correcting or bringing up any controversy at all? No, but some things are better left alone. We must pray for discernment. God help us.
I do have lessons where I have obeyed that Still Small Voice of the Holy Spirit and oh what a Blessing! ...Once my husband and I were at a coffee shop when we were newly married and I saw a depressed-hopeless-looking young man sitting at the table by himself and God impressed on me to tell him Jesus loved him... As we left I walked by his table and told him... I feel like I need to tell you that Jesus loves you. The young man smiled hugely at me as if his prayer was miraculously answered. It is so worth it to take that chance...
Sometimes I am on the receiving end. The other day at the little town store the checker asked how we were; it was slow with no other customers, our conversation went deeper and I was sharing with the precious checker on the various spirit of various towns and she was so-getting me on the shocking prejudice of what others perceive to be outsiders in one particular town. She fingered her cross necklace and shared how the manager of the store from uso-town also has the same-thing happen to him. She was so precious, her caring words were...If there is anything we can do to let us know.Her care was so precious. She attends a liturgical church many would scoff at but her heart was the real deal.
As I left the store that day a black lady who also checks, who I always tell that she looks like Diana Ross walks up, I say... Hey! There's my mo-town girl! I hug her quickly. Yep, Church can be everywhere. Let me be that smile and giggle. Let me share encouragements and be willing to be encouraged too. As Mo-town girl said when we got on the church-subject... It's right here right now.
Now before you read the next paragraph, please know I am not anti-Gifts, I have attended many spirit-filled churches, I am not against conservatives either if it's from a personal relationship with Christ, I like to align myself with a true Heart of Christ which may appear ultra conservative to some. I will say though lately I've heard some things from both camps that seem to be a bit on the crusty side to put it lightly and the only thing I can think of is that these folks from town or city must be big fish in their small ponds so to speak that have become very comfortable in their set.
It was rather interesting that very day...Just an hour before I had talked with a charismatic lady, she said the right thing but seemed overly confident... neither my daughter Delle nor myself felt comfortable with her attitude, we felt an arrogance. It grieved me personally, I left her presence with a heavy heart. Also, earlier at Walmart a religious woman behind us, no makeup, a bun on the back-top of her noggin. The male checker had joked with her good-heartedly about her "ponytail". She dryly replies, "It's a bun". I looked back at her and smiled hugely, a toothie grin. ... I couldnt' resist... * big smile* I bet you have a ponytail under that bun!
I'm still finding myself laughing to myself over the off-the-wall comment I found myself making.
Well, that is life in smalltown. The Forest is a beautiful place of solace with my Father, my Creator.
I'm just typing my thoughts here, very little editing, please oblige.
Have a good day Loves, let's think of our Charlies, let's think of and pray for ways to keep that Fire Lit!
Please Father help us to have Your Heart. Help us to be broken-hearted over the things that break Your Heart.
I so enjoyed this; this man is precious. What a great message to get us through the week!
Enjoy.
...And me being the music lover I am...I have been once again so encouraged, just so feeling His Love by this song and music. Such a rush. Such encouragement to keep things in perspective.
Oh may we pray for this country. Does it amaze you what people claim is simply politically incorrect when it is simply grievous to the Father?
Stay good Loves. Let's keep a Beautiful Mind...You and I...A Beautiful Mind...Heart...Soul...Mind
"As God’s image-bearers and as caretakers of His creation, we must not choose between Cecil the lion or Planned Parenthood. ...So let’s not fall into the trap of pitting the senseless death of Cecil the Lion against the wanton slaughter of the unborn. They are not the same, but they both speak powerfully about human dignity—our dignity as God’s image-bearers and as caretakers of His creation." Eric Metaxas
I've prayed and prayed that the churches would wake up on this issue. This is a MUST READ ARTICLE in my opinion, Eric Metaxas states my sentiments exactly.
Article in entirety, highly recommended! Click this link-title:
Wilberforce, of course, fought the British slave trade for many years because, as a Christian, he could not allow that brutal institution to continue undercutting human dignity. But the outworking of Wilberforce’s Christian worldview didn’t stop there. The great member of Parliament also fought for a “reformation of manners” in England, seeking to preserve an otherwise decaying society by reintroducing people to God’s standards in numerous areas of life.
And did you know that one of his passions was getting people to treat animals humanely? In 1824 Wilberforce actually founded the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, saying that the ugly contemporary practice of bull-baiting was evidence of a “degraded human nature.”
So let’s not fall into the trap of pitting the senseless death of Cecil the Lion against the wanton slaughter of the unborn. They are not the same, but they both speak powerfully about human dignity—our dignity as God’s image-bearers and as caretakers of His creation.
I hope you too are encouraged as I was on this article by Mr. Metaxas. My daughter, Marianna sent it to me knowing this has been a matter of prayer. THANK YOU ERIC METAXAS
Once in a while someone will ask how we taught our children, now adults a true love for the Lord. The main way we taught our children is by our lives. They see us in quiet time, they see us feed the homeless when we run into them instead of making a sarcastic remark. They see us care for homeless animals...not making hard calloused remarks on tofu, cats, lions etc. (My heart weeps at times) They see us live out that Bible we read...and yes we teach the Bible I hope in a gentle, loving way. Jesus Christ is a living thing, not a dry crusty doctrine. If we are busy loving the Father, living that lifestyle out in our lives...repentant hearts, not perfect, but perfectly repentant...Then our children will see the real Christ-Life. It's not going to be ridiculous comments on someone reading the King James-version-only of the Bible or if Ann Voskamp is a pantheist because she loves the beauty of God's creation. (ridiculous accusation by the way). It sure will not be from those who hatefully call the Duggar family - names, those who despise goodness. I'm sure you too could add to my sentiments of hurtful and most ignorant comments coming from those in their robes so to speak whether the robe be of silk embroidery or denim grunge. Marianna and Lea were eating lunch with a homeschooled friend, now married with a beautiful baby girl. They were discussing how some of the homeschooled adults now have turned from the Father. The young women agreed it was because many of those who have turned, ...they saw compromise in the home. That's my heart for this morning. So thanking God for the article above. God truly hears our hearts and does answer prayers. There is truly a Remnant of Followers of Christ in the World. Good afternoon Loves, amelia
Hello, Thank you for stopping by. I'm a middle-aged veteran home educator, happily married over 46 years, mother of four sweet adult daughters, grandmother of 5 precious little children, three boys and two girls. We live in the forest. I design, sew, write, enjoy art, cook, and take care of our many fur angels. ...I'm also a hopeless romantic who wishes it were the 40s again. Follower of Christ, I cherish my personal relationship with the Lord. A pro-life advocate and ethical vegetarian; think: John Wesley, William Booth, Fred Rogers and Frances of Assisi. I laugh hard and pray hard too! Live, Laugh, Love...And pray hard...That's me.
