Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Stranger On The Shore



Stranger On The Shore



Vladimir Volegov





Here I stand, watching the tide go out
So all alone and blue
Just dreaming dreams of you
I watched your ship as it sailed out to sea
Taking all my dreams
And taking all of me
The sighing of the waves
The wailing of the wind
The tears in my eyes burn
Pleading, "My love, return"
Why, oh, why must I go on like this?
Shall I just be a lonely stranger on the shore?
The sighing of the waves
The wailing of the wind
The tears in my eyes burn
Pleading, "My love, return"
Why, oh, why must I go on like this?
Shall I just be a lonely stranger on the shore?

-Acker Bilk









Sunday, March 23, 2014

The Legend of the Cardinal


“God saw all that He had made,
 and it was very good.”
 Genesis 1:31






"According to an old legend,
the brilliant red feathers
of the beautiful
Cardinal
were once
an unremarkable dull
brown color.

When the little bird
came upon the scene
of the crucified Jesus
his tiny heart
became heavy with
deep sorrow
and compassion.

He alighted upon 
a nearby tree branch
and began to sing,
lamenting...
his tiny heart
beat with sorrow...
at the broken body
of the dead Lord..

A single drop
of the Savior's precious
blood
fell upon the
weeping bird...

His dull brown feathers
transformed 
to a beautiful
bright scarlet red,
a perfect match
for the tiny crown
of glory
rising from his head. "

-Author Unknown





The blood of Christ, Thy spotless Lamb,
O God, is all my plea;
Naught else could for my sin atone;
I have no merit of my own,
Which I can bring to Thee.
No sacrifice save His Who bore,
My load upon the tree,
No other plea which lips could frame,
No other blood, no other name,
Accepted is by Thee.
Since Christ has entered by His blood,
The holiest on high;
By that same hallowed blood stained track,
Thou welcomest the wanderer back,
And biddest me draw nigh.
Oh, wondrous cross! Oh precious blood!
Oh death by which I live!
The sinless One, for me made sin,
Doth now His wondrous heart within,
Eternal refuge give.
By that blest cross, that cleansing blood,
I know His power to save;
The merits of His work confess,
I stand in Him completely blest,
A conqueror o’er the grave.
Words By 
W. S. W. Pond
1901.
Music By
Frederick C. Maker
1887




Unlike most songbirds in America,
 both the male and female
 cardinal can sing.
 However, the
male does most of the singing!





"If a cardinal flies into your life, expect a
change for the better in 12 days."
-Cardinal Folklore












All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.
Each little flower that opens,
Each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing colors,
He made their tiny wings.
He gave us eyes to see them,
And lips that we might tell
How great is God Almighty,
Who has made all things well.

 -Cecil F. Alexander









Saturday, March 22, 2014

Broken & Wounded






"The "star of the sea"
 as it is sometimes called, 
had always held a fascination for me,
 I remember an old seaman's tale
 that said starfish were the remains
 of stars that fell from the sky. 
I peered into the pail.
 Broken and wounded,
 the creature did indeed
 bring to mind a fallen star."
 Excerpt from "A Broken Star" 
 By Sue Monk Kidd




Broken and wounded...
That's about right.
That's how I have been
feeling lately.

Broken and wounded...
betrayed,
by someone
who once promised to 
love me forever.

Broken and wounded...
my heart shattered,
by the sudden
and unexpected death 
of someone dear to me,
who considered me
 his friend...

Now we are separated
by the dark chasm
between life and death
and all I can feel
is broken 
and wounded inside
just like the little starfish...

  feeling lost...
in a decaying world
that seems to be
rushing faster and faster
headlong 
towards some cataclysmic 
end...

But...
was the world
ever in control of itself?

And...
am I really alone in
my suffering?

Is there not Someone
Who knows me
better than anyone else
including myself?

Someone Who
knows
what it feels like
to be broken
and wounded inside?

To feel forsaken...
and betrayed,
and lonely...

Someone Who
 is close
 to those with
hurting souls...

Who wept,
at the death of 
a beloved friend...

Someone Who,
 I am often reminded,
 loves me so very much
that He suffered the most 
excruciating brokenness
  and wounding of 
 His own
body and soul
on my behalf ...

 He suffered...
becoming a curse
on a tree
Shedding drops of
precious blood,
His precious love,
for me...

so that I may have life,
more abundantly ...
and share  
the glory of
Eternity

with Him

"Broken and Wounded"
By Pamela Denise Brida









What is the message of this post?





"When you are broken, wounded, 
scarred, and tired...
when you have lost just a little,
 or so much
 there is hardly anything left,
 take heart. 
 That is when God 
does His most beautiful work."
"A  Broken Star"
  -Sue Monk Kidd 






"Do not let your hearts be troubled. 
 You believe in and adhere to
 and trust in and rely on God,
 believe in and adhere to 
and trust in and rely
 also on Me."
John 14:1

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Of Eggs & Equinoxes 2014







 Spring arrived
 this afternoon at 12:57 pm EST.
 




"The Little Egg That Stood"
Courtesy Daniel Kelly Productions




A ritual old,
amazing to behold...
pristine white,
against deep verdigris green,
this oval wonder
was mean't to be seen!
-Pamela Brida



The Vernal Equinox

Ah, spring!
 This season brings
 increasing daylight,
 warming temperatures,
 and the rebirth
 of flora and fauna.
The word equinox
 is derived from
 the Latin words meaning
 “equal night.”
 Days and nights 
are approximately
 equal everywhere
 and the Sun rises
 and sets due east and west.
At the equinoxes,
 the tilt of Earth
 relative to the Sun
 is zero,
 which means
 that Earth’s axis
 neither points toward
 nor away
 from the Sun.
 However,
 the tilt of Earth 
relative to its
 plane of orbit,
 called the ecliptic plane,
 is always about 23.5 degrees.
 Information Source:
 The Old Farmer's Almanac 
2014


The Beauty Of The Full Moon Night






The other night I walked outside 
and into the beauty 
of the full moon night.
 I felt as if I had walked
 into an Andrew Wyeth painting
 of the winter countryside...


  Snowy Landscape 
Andrew Wyeth






Walking in the brilliant moonlight...
My boots
making a single pair of tracks
across the frozen white landscape
the sharp interplay
of light and the stark
shadows
of the bare trees
silhouetted
across the

 illuminated ground.
I stand there
in silence
so deep
my ears are ringing.

- Pamela Denise Brida





"I prefer winter and fall
when you feel the bone structure
in the landscape- the lonliness of it-
the dead feeling of winter.
Something waits beneath it-
the whole story doesn't show."
-Andrew Wyeth 







Brandywine River Museum of Art
 Chadds Ford, PA

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Your Soul Is As A Moonlit Landscape Fair






To all who love the
mysterious beauty of a moonlit landscape fair...
to all hopeless romantics and restless dreamers
out there...
this post is for you!



Full Moon Rising
 Antelope Canyon, Utah. 
Photography by Nathan Brisk






"Tis moonlight, summer moonlight
All soft and still and fair;
The solemn hour of midnight
Breathes sweet thoughts everywhere..."
-Emily Bronte



"Walk In The Moonlight"
Svetlana Ivanova




"We'll be shadows in the moonlight,
Darlin' I'll meet you at midnight
Hand in hand will go,
Dancin' through the Milky Way..."

Charles Black/Rory Bourke



Lovers In The Moonlight
Vickie Wade




Shadows In The Moonlight
Anne Murray
(1980)





Friday, March 14, 2014

One Solitary Life



 He was born
 in an obscure village
The child of a peasant woman
He grew up
 in another obscure village
Where He worked
 in a carpenter shop
Until He was thirty.
 
He never wrote a book.
He never held an office.
He never went to college.
He never visited a big city.

He never traveled
more than two hundred miles
From the place
 where He was born
He did none of the things
Usually associated with greatness
He had no credentials
 but Himself
He was only thirty three.

His friends ran away
 One of them denied Him
He was turned over
 to His enemies
And went through
 the mockery of a trial
He was nailed to a cross
 between two thieves
While dying, His executioners
 gambled for his clothing
The only property
 He had on earth.
When He was dead
He was laid
 in a borrowed grave
Through the pity
 of a friend.
  
Nineteen centuries
 have come and gone
And today Jesus 
is the central figure
 of the human race
And the Leader
 of mankind's progress
All the armies
 that have ever marched,
All the navies
 that have ever sailed,
All the parliaments
 that have ever sat,
All the kings
 that ever reigned,
 put together,
Have not affected
 the life of 
mankind on earth,
As powerfully as that
 One Solitary Life.
Dr James Allan
 © 1926

Arise My Love


 
 "Humbly she confesses that
 she is just a common flower of the field.
"No, He replies,
She makes the others
 look like thorn bushes."

               
  Richard S. Johnson  

 
"They say there is a young lady here
 who is beloved of that Great Being,
who made and rules the world,
who fills her mind
 with exceeding sweet delight,
and that she hardly cares for anything,
except to meditate on Him.

Therefore, if you present
 all the world before her,
with the richest of its treasures,
she disregards it,
and cares not for it,
and is unmindful 
of any pain or affliction.

She has a strange 
sweetness of mind,
and a singular purity 
in her affections;
is most just and conscientious 
in all her conduct;
you could not persuade her
to do anything wrong or sinful
if you would give her
 all the world.

She will sometimes go about
 from place to place,
singing sweetly,
and seems to be 
always full of joy and pleasure;
and no one knows what for.


She loves to be alone,
walking in the fields and groves,
and seems to have
Someone Invisible
always conversing with her."
-Jonathan Edwards




Vladimir Volegov





"My beloved speaks and says to me
 Rise up, my love, my fair one,
 and come away.
 For behold, the winter is past;
 the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth;
 the time of the singing of birds has come
 and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.
The fig tree puts forth and ripens her green figs
 and the vines are in blossom and give forth their fragrance.
Arise, my love, my fair one,
 and come away."

Song of Solomon 2:10-13







"Jesus answered her, 
All who drink of this water will be thirsty again.
But whoever takes a drink of the water
 that I will give them
shall never, be thirsty anymore.
 But the water that I will give them
 shall become a spring of water
 welling up within them into eternal life."
John 4:13-14



A capable, intelligent, and virtuous woman-
who is he who can find her?
 She is far more precious than jewels
 and her value is far above rubies or pearls."
Proverbs 31:10



Vladimir Volegov




“Godly womanhood….
the very phrase sounds strange in our ears.
 We never hear it now.
 We hear about every other type of women: 
beautiful women, smart women,
 sophisticated women, career women,
 talented women, divorced women.
 But so seldom do we hear
 of a godly women–
or of a godly man either
 for that matter.
We believe women
 come nearer to fulfilling
 their God-given function
 in the home than anywhere else. 
It is a much nobler thing
to be a good wife,
 than to be Miss America.
 It is a greater achievement
 to establish a Christian home
 than it is to produce
 a second-rate novel
 filled with filth.
 It is a far, far better thing 
in the realms of morals
 to be old-fashioned, 
than to be ultra modern.
The world has enough women 
who know how to be smart.
 It needs women who are willing
 to be simple.
 The world has enough women
 who know how to be brilliant.
 It needs some who
 will be brave.
 The world has enough women
 who are popular.
 It needs more
 who are pure.
We need woman,
 and men, too, 
who would rather be
 morally right 
than socially correct.”


Reverend Peter Marshall 
1902-1949
Twice elected
Chaplain of the United States Senate




Godly women are needed...
for such a time as this...