From the Porch: Reflections on Bearing Fruit

Those of you who have read my blog for a while may have noticed I hardly ever post "from the patio" anymore. It has become more difficult to beat the sun out there in my east-facing back yard, since in my retirement I hardly get up before 8:00 unless I have an appointment. That's the main reason, and we'll leave it at that. 

So I now have a comfortable, shady little nook by my west-facing front door that is so good, thanks to some chairs I acquired a few weeks ago. It's not really a porch, but we're going to call it that.

Ah, it's good to be back. I didn't realize how much I had missed being outside with the breeze, the birds singing, and the beauty of God's creation.

Recently, as I sat on the front porch in my new plastic chair, I noticed that the petunia in my tiny little garden area is struggling, yet it has managed to bloom anyway. Even though the heavy rains in early August nearly drowned it and the extreme heat that followed the rains threatened to burn it up, still it managed to bloom. 

This caused me to reflect for a moment. When it would appear outwardly that it had become useless and needed to be discarded, it still did what God created it to do: bloom. In doing so, it was providing nectar for bees and beauty for all to see and enjoy.

I meditated on this thought for a while, as I sat outside enjoying nature during my morning prayer and devotions for the first time in many weeks. 

I believe we humans are not entirely dissimilar to my poor little plant. We have storms in life that threaten to destroy us. Sometimes we undergo sickness and pain and we feel we will surely not survive the heat of the trials we are suffering through. Yet we "soldier on" as the British say. 

As long as we have food, water, and health, we remain alive, though age and years of abuse from various types of adversity render us into an older and less than stable-looking version of ourselves. We look in the mirror and scarcely recognize the older, more "mature" face that stares back at us.

Yet if we submit to the hand of the Master Gardener, our Lord Jesus, we can still produce fruit in our lives. Even if we don't think we appear as appealing on the outside as we once did, (this is very subjective, and we are usually more critical of ourselves than others are), we still can do what God has enables us to do, fulfilling our destiny as Christians.

This is the desire of my heart; to be fruitful and useful for all the days God gives me.

Just a few thoughts from the perspective of a retired, "mature" (in age, anyway) woman.

Be blessed, my friends.

"I am the vine, you are the branches; the one who remains in Me, and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing." John 15:5 NASB

Christmas in the Hometown

I went back to my hometown for a Christmas visit last week, but I'm just now posting about it.

It was a good visit; I saw friends and family (sorry, didn't get pictures of everyone I got to see) and visited places in town that are new to me (since I haven't lived there in over 2 years). My oldest son flew in from Atlanta, so we got to hang out for a couple of days.

Interesting perspective: My children visited me lots of times in the many years I lived in Van Buren; I would take them to see new things and they would comment on how much their hometown was changing. Well...this time, my son and I were BOTH seeing our hometown as visitors who hadn't lived there in a while. We were amazed and delighted by visiting some things that hadn't changed, such as Paul's Bakery, Pizza Parlour, and Braums. Thank God those places are there! Neither of us have anything as good or nostalgic in our current homes. (Ok, it's not all about food, but we still have to partake of their goodness when we visit! IYKYK!)

We were also amazed and excited to see things that are different, like Arts on Main, which is delightful, and the beautiful downtown area that is vibrant with glorious color and is so alive with the community gathering there.

Also, finally a Chick-fil-A is coming! About time! Although, the traffic is already terrible in that area. I hope someone can engineer a solution to the traffic problem.

We drove through the City Park one night to see the lights there. It's so fun to see what they have done there; they have added some since last year I believe. We forgot to take pictures of them, though.

We also visited Creekmore Park in Fort Smith. Some of the pictures are from there. The line was extremely long, so we didn't ride the train. We just walked around the walking path.

Saturday night, after Jeremy had to go catch a plane, I watched the Christmas Parade. I thought I was videoing the very awesome VBHS marching band but found that I wasn’t! I hadn't pushed the record button apparently. I almost cried about that. They were magnificent.

So there aren’t many pictures of the parade because I was heartbroken I hadn’t captured the band’s performance.

I also walked around and took some pictures of the area close to the depot where the skating rink and tree are (can’t remember what it’s called). I hadn’t taken pictures of it lit up when Jeremy and I had seen it earlier that evening.

It was a great trip, and I'm pleased that my hometown is doing so well. I miss living there, and I miss lots of people there, but I'm so glad to be living where I am now, 10 minutes from my daughter, son-in-law, and grandkids. I'm also gaining new friends and have a new church family here. I'm so blessed.

I hope you all have some wonderful experiences this Christmas season, and that you remember that Jesus is the reason for the season.

Merry Christmas to all my friends and family! ❤️🎄❤️🎄❤️

Just the Perfect Time

I almost forgot to post this! I went to Walmart around 7:30 tonight, kinda bummed that I had waited so late to go. I live at the west side of town, kind of at the bottom of a mountain and Walmart is at a higher elevation on the eastern end, so it’s uphill almost the whole 2-3 miles there.

I headed toward Walmart, resigned that I would just get this trip over with. Suddenly, as I started up the hill in the direction of Walmart, the moon appeared on the horizon, orange in color like it is as it first rises and appearing so much larger than I’m used to seeing it. I’m not accustomed to seeing it that low on the horizon at my house; I don’t see it until it’s really high in the sky, because the trees and mountainside block it. It was gorgeous; it took my breath away! I couldn’t get a picture because I was driving, but as soon as I parked at Walmart I took this picture.

Of course the picture does not capture just how magnificent the moon appeared as it continued to rise in the eastern sky. I just marveled at its beauty for a minute before I went inside the store to make my purchases.

I believe that sometimes when we’re weary and don’t really want to make the trip to the other end of town that God allows us to delay until He can let us have a glimpse of one of His beautiful creations.

We think we’re going late when really it was just the perfect time.

It made my day.

Blessings to you, my friends.

Late Summer Post from the Patio

I haven't been sitting on my patio for a while now. As you may recall if you've read my blog posts often, my east-facing backyard patio is too bright and usually too hot by the time I'm up and have taken my meds and made my coffee. 

Most days, I'm up by 8:00 or so (retirement perk!), but since the sun gets up much earlier than that, I end up taking my coffee to my recliner, which is in front of my west-facing living room window. This is a nice place to have my coffee and quiet time. My bird feeder is outside this window, so it's "somewhat" like being outside. 

Nothing really replaces the cool morning breeze and the sounds of nature waking up, though. For that, I have to actually go outside.

This morning, I woke up about 7:30, and managed to get myself up out of bed within a few minutes. I took my medications and fixed my coffee, then outside I went! By the time I opened the backdoor, about 8:10, the sun had topped the trees, at least from my perspective on the back porch. Seven steps down to the patio, however, and the sun was still behind the trees a bit. 

I sat down, after I reopened the patio umbrella. We've been having lots of thunderstorms with high winds in the past few weeks, so I have just left the umbrella closed to protect it.

I was only able to sit out there for 15 minutes or so, because even though it was still a cool 65 degrees out, the sun was blaring down on my patio too much for me.

One thing I got from this morning that I felt was worth sharing was that of perspective. If I had judged whether or not I could have my coffee and prayer time on the patio based on the conditions on the porch, I would have turned around and gone back inside. But five feet can make a difference. Once I was on the lower ground of the patio, it was still shady from the trees behind my house. 

It may seem silly, but I was so glad to have a short time on the patio. It was like a preview of the cooler weather that is to come. I am looking forward to the cool mornings that come with later sunrises. Fall and winter are my favorites for this reason. I love the mornings that I need a sweater to sit out there.

From this morning's reading:

"The Lord sustains all who fall and raises up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to You, and You give them their food in due time. You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing." Psalm 145:14-16.

Be blessed my friends!