A Web Master's Phenomenal Artistry Mirrors One Greater

Just out for a walk with Angel, our Westie. Passing through the neighborhood, midday, checking out the flowers and bushes without a great deal of attention, when there it was...one of the larger spiders I'd seen, just hanging in the sun. I'll bet it was close to 4 inches long including the legs, the body about 1.5 inches or so.

I had to return with the camera; so I walked Angel home and returned with the Nikon, hoping that it hadn't left for some other web. Sure enough, still there, and more than willing to be photographed. I didn't have the macro lens along, but I moved around to the other side of the web and got as close as I could and still have focus....WOW, the colors and beauty of this spider!



Granted, spiders aren't everyone's idea of beauty, but you have to admit, this one is amazing. Yet another example of The Creator's Phenomenal Artistry and Joy in HIs Work!

And so easily I could have walked right by, missing His Handiwork.

I do this more often than I'm willing to admit, with more significant creatures than a spider.

I wonder...how many times have I walked right by others....probably even you, and missed the Creator's Phenomenal Artistry and Joy in Having fashioned YOU?

Not today. Today, I want to proclaim God's Glory for YOU, designed right into YOU!

Yes YOU...You're Phenomenal!

I've Got A PROBLEM...and so do YOU!

Look...you've got to read this book...Don't let the title give you reason to ignore it...this book is for anyone who ever interacts with any other person. Couples, families, groups, businesses, office staffs...anyone.

A close brother recommended that I read it, so yesterday I went to Barnes and Noble and found a copy, thinking I might get a chance to read it while traveling. I did...like FAST...I read the book on the plane here and encouraged (did I mean to say "ordered"?) him to read it...FAST!!!

I don't even know where to start, but I'm convinced we all have the same problem that is talked about in this little book. And as the writers suggest, we don't even know we have the problem which actually keeps us from getting help! And within one single reading, I'm more than convinced that the problem we all have can only be addressed in the manner the writers of this book prescribes.

HINT: When you and I are prompted to put the needs of another out front, but then fail to act on them, we're betraying ourselves. We begin responding to other persons from inside our box. Ever pretend to be asleep when the baby cries? (Ahh, she'll get up, besides I work early) Or consider filling up gas tank for someone else, but then deciding to just go home and let them do it?

Get the book...please. Read it...FAST!!! (Or SLOW, or MEDIUM, or Read it TWICE!) Just READ it!!

This "box thing" that all of us do...it's hurting everyone...

Sometimes the water

Sometimes, the water is just not deep enough.

The huge iron ore carriers that sail the Great Lakes are long, narrow giants that plow their way from Duluth/Superior to the eastern steel mill cities. They are weighed down with hundreds of tons of ore, the raw material that is smelted in furnaces of Nebuchadbezzar temperatures. But the danger for those who sail such ships does not lie in the smelting furnaces, but in the cold depths of the Great Lakes on which they sail.

Icy cold, even in the summer months, the water runs deep and dark. The waves roll and toss, and in the late shipping months of November/December, gale force winds have taken way too many ships to the dark depths.

But sometimes, the water is just not deep enough.

When the ships come in for repair, or drift too near the rocky coast line of the North Shore of Lake Superior for example, there is simply not enough water to float the massive carrier. In the latter, the ships run aground, often ripping huge holes in their hulls, taking on water, losing fuel and cargo, and sometimes life. In the former, the ship is brought in on purpose, the water is drained slowly from its berth, leaving the ship's hull exposed to the elements of air and sun, something that parts of the hull have not seen since construction.

At such shallow depths, propellors will only grind away at the sand or rock; rudders are locked in place, frozen not by the cold water, but by its absence. The ship is going nowhere...for awhile anyway.

But while it lies in dry dock, it is being cared for, repaired and refurbished. New iron panels, new rivets, new paint, enhanced electronics, more comfortable crew facilities. The owners who rarely step aboard these beauties, are detemined to see them perform at top speed and with top loads. These ships are made to haul...and then do it again.

Perhaps...right now in my life...the water is just not deep enough because my Owner has determined I'm in need of some refurbishing, some repairs. Such a thought, while only that, is a bit reassuring in this dry dock called now.

A Not-So-Distant Shore Shrouded in Fog

So much seemed clearer...not so very long ago.

Work

Calling

Relationships

Family

Friends

Love


But that's no longer the case...

The shoreiine that once seemed firm and well defined
has eroded; washed away by an undertow
I did not see coming.

With it came an uncertainty,
a lack of clarity in most everything...I think.
And this fog has crept inland,
swallowing what lies just beyond...what once was seen.

Angry inside, disappointed with so many aspects of life
Aiming angst at those who are closest.

Tired...but cannot sleep
Sinking in expectations...never was very good at swimming.
Disabled by mountains of the undone.

Anxious...but struggling to trust
Fearful of what's to come...
like a child in the night on a fold-up roll away bed
whose closet curtains move too much
when there is no window open.

I know
I know
I know

Like the shore that I know is there,
the knowledge too has been eroding...slowly
Like the fog that my eye sight cannot penetrate,
my soul sight struggles to perceive.

Going Home: Image as spiritual pathway?

The Fog rolls in...

Not all who wander are lost (but some not lost do wander)