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Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Simple Philosophy

I bought these six angel statuettes before Christmas, cheap little things that were so ugly they were cute, in my opinion. Anyway, I photographed them all and have been playing with the photos in Photoshop. I really like the way the background on this one turned out. Even my fifteen year old was impressed and Lord knows she is hard to impress!

I should have made notes on what I did though because I do not remember all the steps I took to get it to look this way. I know this because I tried to duplicate this look for another card and could not do it. But I had fun trying and enjoyed the results I got in my attempt (and of course, I will post it too sometime soon!).

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Sight of the Day

Is this not the coolest wet spider web you have ever seen??
(Click to enlarge--and see all the detail.
It looks like pearls!
But I warn you, the file is huge.)

Friday, February 23, 2007

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Mardi Gras Haiku

I drove down this street today. It was still early enough that I could do so. People are starting to gather, to stake out their places (it does no good, at the last minute, other people will come along and crowd your spot). I smelled barbecue and beer (at 10 in the morning?), saw a man in one of those heavy duty electric wheelchairs (with one kid hanging on the back and another in his lap on the front), saw women with babies in strollers. I stopped by my favorite smoothie place and wished them well today. They are located on the parade route. Today will be stressful for them I am sure. They have only been open about six months. This will be their first Mardi Gras parade.

The day is gloomy gray with the possibility of rain later. I don't think I am going to make it to the parade. My own mood is gray enough already and these kind of events tend to make me gloomier. My youngest is going with a friend and her older sister and fiance. To let her go is in itself an exercise in faith.


But the powers that be have done a lot to make the celebration safer and more family friendly. And it can be fun, walking down the main street of town and catching the sights. She and I keep joking that we are going to get bicycles and go out early one year with our cameras. But we have not done it, yet.

Only plastic beads
white ones not real pearls people
let your baubles go.

Well heck, here is how my mind works--I wandered away for about an hour and added filters and words to the photo....

Monday, February 19, 2007

Whispers


Hold on little girl, hold tight.


Springtime is on her way.


(This I know because the redbuds told me so.)

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Forgiven

I've been listening to a series of CDs by Beth Moore, "Wednesdays with Beth", and today she talked about how so many of us Christians live as though we are not forgiven. I really need to listen to this one again (and I will), but hearing the message today is what inspired my thoughts on the photo above. I never know how things will go over, or if they make any sense to anyone other than me, but here it is, such as it is.

I keep telling myself I am forgiven, but some days, it sure seems like I fail to appropriate that forgiveness. Today is my physical birthday. I was given the gift of forgiveness many years ago on my spiritual birthday. How wonderful it would be to accept and celebrate my spiritual gifts, to use them and live with them "out in the open" and not tucked away in the dark recesses of my soul.

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Unbalanced & Slightly Out of Focus

This week we were discussing the office Super Bowl pool and I said I was not going to participate because it was too complicated for me to figure out if I won. One of the guys said in an exasperated tone “It’s just numbers, you work with them all day.” My “little boss” (the 25 year old son who is the shop manager) looks at him and says. “Yeah, tell me about it. That’s scary.” I am not a numbers person. What I do all day long is tedious work, which requires attention to detail. I am not a detail person.

I work with “Type A” people who multi-task like crazy and are move like little whirling dervishes all day long. I am a “Type B” personality who does not like to be interrupted from the task at hand and could most likely spend the day doing nothing more than watching the grass grow if I thought I could get away with it. Details are not that important to me.

I rarely see or talk to any customers. I mostly stay in the office with my coworker. I like being around people and miss the opportunity my old job provided in seeing a variety of people.

But this is where I landed two years ago when I started my search for a job after my old one ended when my former bosses shut the doors on their business and retired. It has it advantages—one important advantage is that I am off on weekends and will be able to visit my son each weekend when he is granted the privilege of having visitors in March. But it is also very stressful simply because the job is not a good fit for me.

I’ve been visiting a large church in our area for over a year now. It’s a place where nobody knows my name, and for a long while, I liked it that way. I don’t have a place there yet—a small group where I fit in and can interact on a more personal level with other believers. That is more my fault than the church’s fault.

It seems things are settling down a bit in my life and I am seeing areas where my life is out of balance and I have some work to do. The Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines tag line is “Get out there”. I think that might be this year’s theme for me, to “get out there” and quit hiding and settling. For me, that means a little less thinking and a little more doing.

I regret that I dropped school before I finished and I have hopes of one day going back to complete what I started there, “if God is willing and the creek don’t rise”, as the country people say. But even if I do not go back to pursue formal education, there are still plenty of opportunities to learn and do around me. I plan to take a Leisure Learning class on Photography in March. That is one way of getting out there.

I plan on looking around for a church home. If not this big giant church, then possibly a smaller church, maybe even a different denomination. It’s hard when you feel like you do not fit in your church anymore. I have said I often feel like a square peg being squeezed into a round hole. Maybe God is calling me to be a minister of square pegs being squeezed into round holes! I am searching for direction. And I am searching for a place to serve.

I am looking at jobs again. I am also considering the possibility of a home-based business, which I am not yet ready to write about.

So these are the things that have been on my mind lately. Maybe I'd have myself a little more together in this stage of the game had I only paid a little more attention to the details. Thank God His mercies are new every morning. I'm pretty sure I use my day's allotment every day.