" gold in them hills..."

“But if we'd only open our eyes 

We'd see the blessings in disguise 

That all the rain clouds are fountains 

Though our troubles seem like mountains

There's gold in them hills 

There's gold in them hills 

So don't lose heart 

Give the day a chance to start

Every now and then life says 

Where do you think you're going so fast."

-Ron Sexsmith, “Gold in Them Hills”

Gold in Them Hills

“The mountains may disappear,

    and the hills may become dust,

but my faithful love will never leave you.

    I will make peace with you,

    and it will never end.”

The Lord who loves you said this."

 Isaiah 54:10 (ERV)

"...stillness and packwood cabin..."

A busy time yet a time of rest and stillness.
 -a welcomed time of the lack of connectivity to all that has been distracting via internet and media
- the smell of sunshine in hair after a day skiing
- the warmth of the of the afternoon suns rays on the porch and on their feet 
- the sound of the wind in the tall pines- natures sound machine 
- the chattering of siblings playing outside on tree stumps and the woodshed
- smell of wood burning and fresh coffee

So how can I better focus on living the present moment?

“Even during a quiet evening at home, all we’re thinking about is the list of improvements that need to be made. There may be a beautiful sunset, but instead of taking it in, we’re taking a picture of it.
We are not present... and so we miss out. On life.
On being our best.
On seeing what’s there.
We do not live in this moment.
We, in fact, try desperately to get out of it–
by thinking, doing, talking, worrying, remembering, hoping, whatever.
There is only this moment.
Who is certain that they’ll get another moment that they can confidently skip over this one? The less energy we waste regretting the past or worrying about the future, the more energy we will have for what is in front of us.

"and finally He said to me, 

“My grace is enough to cover and sustain you. "

2 Cor 12:9 

We want to learn to see the world like an artist: While other people are oblivious to what surrounds them, the artist really sees. Their mine, fully engaged, notices the way a bird flies or the way a stranger holds their fork or a mother looks at her child. They have no thoughts of the morrow. All they are thinking about is how to capture and communicate this experience.
An artist is present.
And from the stillness comes brilliance.”
- Ryan Holiday, Stillness is The Key

You may be sure that you are at peace with yourself,” Seneca wrote, “when no noise reaches you, 

when no word shakes you out of yourself, 

whether it be flattery or a threat, 

or mearly an empty sound 

buzzing about you with unmeaning sin.”

 In this state,nothing could touch them, no emotion could disturb them, no threat could interrupt them, and every beat in the present moment

 would be theirs for living.

...stillness. 

To be steady while the world spins around you.”

- Ryan Holiday, Stillness is The Key

“Think how much grace one saint requires,

 so much that nothing but the Infinite could supply him for one day; and yet the Lord spreads his table, not for one, but many saints, not for one day, 

but for many years; not for many years only, 

but for generation after generation." 

(CHS - Evening 3/4)

"To everything there is a season,

A time for every purpose under heaven."

 Ecclesiastes 3:1 NKJV

“In this stillness, trust that morning

 still overcomes darkness,

and there is a miraculous place 

you have been invited to.

Breathe through.” 

-Morgan Harper Nichols

"keep praying even if you only have a whisper left. "

Prayer was the topic at church today and the pastor mentioned this quote which got me thinking

"Keep praying, even if you only have a whisper left."

Yasmin Mogahed

Prayer was the topic at church today

 and the peace it brings when we pray. 

"Then you will experience God’s peace, 

which exceeds anything we can understand.

 His peace will guard your hearts and minds

 as you live in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:7 

During the time I thought of our family and today specifically 

of our three grandsons.

 I recalled them interacting together at the beach and around the pool. 

The smiles, laughter,bright eyes

 and challenges as well. 

I then, as clear as the day today, 

I saw them as young adults interacting 

together 

on a bright summer day, laughing, smiling, strong - joking with each other.

 I was with them talking and enjoying the time and I was recalling the scripture that was shared today.

I wanted to write these thoughts down, to record them, so when they do get to be young adults someday they can recall the mercies of God. 

“Let this be recorded for future generations, so that a people not yet born will praise the Lord.”

Psalm 102:18 

I have been listening to a new song the last few days and the lyrics were made alive in my heart as I was walking on a trail this afternoon thinking of prayer, the peace it gives, and those who have been examples to me in prayer.

More than Enough

by Jesus Culture ft. Kim Walker-Smith.

"You are the one who provides for me

You are the one who makes a path for me

You are more than enough for me

And fear could never conquer me

'Cause You already have, yes, You already have

I thought about my own sons and the experiences we have had together and also the times we have had to lift one another up in prayer both in the good times and the not so good times.

"Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying."

Romans 12:12

More than Enough

 “More Than Enough" by Jesus Culture ft. Kim Walker-Smith

Verse 1]
Beyond all my wildest dreams
Your grace is alive in me
I'm caught in the overflow
Of mercy that won't let go

[Chorus]
Here on this holy ground
Standing before You now
Jesus, You are more than enough
If there's one thing I know
It's how You love me so
Jesus, You are more than enough for me

[Verse 2]
Finally my eyes can see
You've never abandoned me
I'm held by the kindness of
A Father who won't give up
My Father, You'll never give up

[Chorus]
Here on this holy ground
Standing before You now
Jesus, You are more than enough
If there's one thing I know
It's how You love me so
Jesus, You are more than enough…


[Bridge]
Forever strong, forever faithful
All my life, You are enough for me
In every storm, in every battle
All my life, You are enough for me
Forever strong, forever faithful
All my life, You are enough for me
In every storm, in every battle
All my life, You are enough for me

[Chorus]
Here on this holy ground
Standing before You now
Jesus, You are more than enough
If there's one thing I know
It's how You love me so
Jesus, You are more, You are more
Here on this holy ground
Standing before You now
Jesus, You are more than enough
If there's one thing I know
It's how You love me so
Jesus, You are more, You are more
Oh, You are more than enough for me
You've opened my eyes to see

[Spontaneous]
You are more than enough for me
You are more than enough for me
Tell Him tonight
You are more than enough for me
You are more than enough for me
Leave behind the past and all the ways it was done before
Laying down my own will, my own strength to take up Yours
'Cause You are more, You are more, than enough for me
Sing it tonight, we believe tonight
You are more than enough to me, Jesus
You are the one that never fails me
You are the one who fills me to overflowing, to overflowing
You are the one who provides for me
You are the one who makes a path for me
You are more than enough for me

[Bridge]
And fear could never conquer me
'Cause You already have, yes, You already have
Fear could never conquer me
'Cause You already have, You already have
And worry could never conquer me
'Cause You already have, You already have
Worry could never conquer me
'Cause You already have, 'cause You already have
No fear
Fear could never conquer me
'Cause You already have, You already have
Fear could never conquer me
'Cause You already have, You already have

[Outro]
You are more, You are more than enough, God
There could never be a shortage, there could never be a shortage
'Cause You are more, You are more than enough for me
You are the river that never runs dry, the fountain that never runs dry
Run to the fountain tonight, drink from the fountain tonight
Oh, drink [?] there

"..We know each other as we always were.."

Trying to work on clearing a closet today and found pictures,cards & letters from our children. 

Got very little done but the memories

 stuffed into those closet spaces !!

 To the outside world, we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were, we know each other’s hearts, we share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys.

– Clara Ortega 

I do find the sibling connection endlessly fascinating, as I do all family dynamics. I like how siblings seem to create their own parentless mini-civilization within a family, one that has its own laws, myths, language, humor, its own loyalties and treacheries.

– Jandy Nelson 

Your siblings are the only people in the world who know what it’s like to have been brought up the way you were.

– Betsy Cohen 

Our siblings push buttons that cast us in roles we felt sure we had let go of long ago 

– the baby, the peacekeeper, the caretaker,

 the avoider…

It doesn’t seem to matter how much time has elapsed or how far we’ve traveled.

– Jane Mersky Leder

“How good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters live together in peace” 

Psalm 133:1 (Voice)

"what is unseen..."

“What is unseen.”

Picture from my friend from Iraq OIF 2008 Where he boarded many helicopter missions.

“ Everything difficult indicates something more than our theory of life yet embraces”

-George MacDonald

Reading this 📖 by Timothy Keller,

Walking with God through Pain and Suffering.

Is helping in times like this tragic helicopter crash, in California, and evil we can'’t comprehend.💔

"I want it to come untrue!

Life is unpredictable.

He talks about the final judgment and renewal of the world and says “And why could it not be that our future glory will actually so “swallow” the evil of the past that in some unimaginable way even the memory of the evil won’t darken our hearts but only make us happier?

CS Lewis writes -when on earth, people say “no future bliss can make up” for particular instance of suffering, “not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into a glory.” 

JRR Tolkien - “Envisions a time in which “everything sad is going to come untrue.”

 “The evil we see today was not part of God’s original design. It was not God’s intent for human life.

That means that ultimately, even a peaceful death at the age of ninety years old is not the way things were meant to be. Those of us who sense the “wrongness“ of death – in any form – are correct. 

The “rage at the dying of the light"  is our intuition that we were not meant for mortality,

 for the loss of love, or for the triumph of darkness. In order to help people face death and grief we often tell people that death is a perfectly natural part of life. 

But that asks them to repress a very right and profound human intuition – that we were not meant to simply go to dust, 

and that love was meant to last."

-Timothy Keller

“So we do not set our sights on the things we can see with our eyes. All of that is fleeting; it will eventually fade away. Instead, we focus on the things we cannot see, which live on and on.”

2 Corinthians 4:18 (VOICE)

"...a story bigger than our own..."

"Lift up your head, Warrior.

 Every now and then, heaven opens

 and a hand reaches down to connect

 the past and the future

 with the story bigger than our own.

 Like Jacob’s ladder, it hints of a greater salvation, a God who is more relentless than our worst circumstances, and a deliverance that isn’t just for one man and his children but for those who have already live and died 

in those yet to be born.”

-Michele Cushatt 

"My voice You shall hear 

in the morning,O Lord;

In the morning I will direct it to You,

And I will look up."

Psalm 5:3 (NKJV)

“We have not forgotten .. Remember, remember the fifth of November”

“We have not forgotten ...
Remember, remember the fifth of November”

“It’s the knock on the door you never want to come,” Thomas said.

Army Staff Sgt. Carletta S. Davis

Died November 5, 2007 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

34, of Anchorage, Alaska; assigned to the 10th Brigade Support Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y.; died Nov. 5 in Tal jAl-Dahab, Iraq, of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device detonated near her Humvee during combat operations. 

Carletta was awarded two air medals, a rare feat, and earned the prestigious combat medical badge. She also earned a Bronze Star and Purple Heart. She twice received awards for heroism -- for rescuing two soldiers who had fallen down a cliff near Ft. Lewis, Wash., and for rescuing a wounded Iraqi police officer.

Carletta was the 91st female U.S. service member to die in Iraq. Two more have died since.

“Carletta was the best medic in a company packed with medical professionals,” her commander, Lt. Col. Joseph Novak, wrote to her husband. Carletta was selected as the lead medic in the brigade commander’s personal security detachment -- an elite position that often took her away from her fortified base near near Kirkuk.

Together We Served SSG Carletta Davis

Army Times

Faces of the Fallen

2007 picture on my desk 

Thomas and sons Treyton, 14; Theodore, 13; and Tyrique, 8

( 12 years - now 26,25,15)

2007 the year of Matt and Cynthia's deployment was the highest casualty year for OIF.

holuta10th OIF

Faces of the Fallen - SSGT Carletta S. Davis