A Prayer for Quiet Confidence

A Prayer for Quiet Confidence

O God of peace, who has taught us that in returning and rest we will be saved, in quietness and confidence will be our strength: By the might of your Spirit lift us, we pray, to your presence, where we may be still and know that you are God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

~ Book of Common Prayer

Moon: September 26, 2017

Photos of the Moon
Canon powershot 

Trees by Joyce Kilmer

Trees by Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918)

I think that I shall never see 

A poem lovely as a tree. 

A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed 

Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast; 

A tree that looks at God all day, 

And lifts her leafy arms to pray; 

A tree that may in Summer wear 

A nest of robins in her hair; 

Upon whose bosom snow has lain; 

Who intimately lives with rain. 

Poems are made by fools like me, 

But only God can make a tree.

God is Here

As I finish my third week of classes at the Sewanee School of Theology, I am typing away some time in the computer lab while my laundry dries down the hallway :-) With this "free time" comes an odd feeling.....am I forgetting a meeting? Is there some place I should be right now? What should I currently be working on? This meme sums it up all too perfectly:

I am pondering the new environments into which I have come...

There are many. 

They are exhilarating.

They are intimidating.

They are a challenge.

They are an adventure.

They are God-filled.

- Chapel services in the COTA (Chapel of the Apostles): Morning Prayer, Eucharist, Evening Prayer, Taize, other. I am so lucky to have the privilege to worship at such a beautifully-organized and executed level and so regularly. The singing is terrific and the Anglican chants are moving smoothly. All the sermons I've heard have been excellent. I love to hear my fellow classmates read or to watch them serve as chalice-bearer. If only I had the stamina to attend everything! As it stands currently, I am doing what I feel that I can with regards to stabilizing my schedule, fatigue, homework etc. Still, I've gone to about 3/4 of the services thus far. There is simple beauty in sitting still and breathing before each service. Gathering your thoughts, opening up a space for the spirit to move. 

It didn't feel right not to go to Evening Prayer tonight and so...
I thank God for that!

- Classes: Each level of class has its own atmosphere (and humor), but everyone seems open to hearing from each other and all of my professors are BRILLIANT. In fact, my classmates are BRILLIANT and magnificently articulate. I love that there's a quote board and that our junior class has already populated it a bit!
- Classmate groupings: Sewanee is so so sooooooooooo welcoming and inclusive. It is idyllic in one sense and just plain friendly in another. There is also a community cookout each week, a community garden, a chess club, mission society, intramural football team, choir, and so much more for everyone. Nothing is forced either. I appreciate being asked to attend things, but also being understood if I simply need to chill on my porch and stare up at the treetops. (That's awesome, by the way.)

- Nature....literally the environment of Sewanee and the diversity of the Cumberland Plateau.....all the trees, bugs, and outside stuff! It's a TON of breathtaking diversity of creation and beauty.
As much as I love being outside....that lovely nature.....so much nature.....well, let's just say I'm cool with it as long as it stays out of my apartment. 
(I love nature, really I do....)
The baby snakes inside the apartment, not so much.
Giant spiders....NOPE.
Spiders that apparently FLY/FLOAT on webs and puffs of air. I experienced this today.
TRAUMATIC.
Thanks, God.
But I didn't faint...so there's hope. 
And there was encouragement (and humor) from fellow classmates.
And there was God, turning my attitude a bit. Thank you, God.
I'm learning that the Cumberland Plateau is one of the most diverse areas of the US. I had rarely seen praying mantises before this week and now I've seen three. I had never seen Walking Stick insects and now I seem to live in the midst of a Walking Stick convention. Seriously. They are everywhere. 
Meet Jacques...

Video of Jacques talking a walk.....across the porch...

My awe in God's creation is being touched and renewed.
The space inside myself is slowly cracking back open as I get settled and make connections.

I'll end these ponderings with a few words from Fred Pratt Green and his hymn "God is Here". I'm singing it to the tune Abbott's Leigh. It fits what I'm not eloquent enough to state.....plus my laundry is probably ready now...

God is here! As we his people

meet to offer praise and prayer,

may we find in fuller measure

what it is in Christ we share:

Here, as in the world around us, 

all our varied skills and arts 

wait the coming of His Spirit 

into open minds and hearts 

Here are symbols to remind us 

of our lifelong need of grace; 

here are table, font and pulpit, 

here the cross has central place. 

Here in honesty of preaching, 

here in silence, as in speech, 

here in newness and renewal 

God the Spirit comes to each.

My Nature Photo Challenge, March 2016

My Nature Challenge Photos. A friend challenged me to share a nature photo every day for one week. It must be a photograph that I took. I did this on Facebook, but am posting here for my own memories and to share in this way. I hope you like them! :-) (Most are Canon powershot 10X photos copied into Facebook and then copied and pasted here so there is not a hugely high quality to the photos, but....whatever, they're still pretty! :-)

1. Here is a tree in the frozen sunset of Gyeongju, Korea on the grounds of the Bulguska temple. It was 6 degrees and the lake was partially frozen. Here is my blog post on that trip!

2. Daisy on the ground in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I was at the Interlude Conference for mid-career church musicians and leaders in 2013. It had just rained and the drops were so pretty on the petals.


3. A dragonfly resting on a twig. Taken in 2015 at the Northlake Nature Center in Mandeville, Louisiana. I like how you can see the two giant eyes and that the pattern in between the eyes looks like a third eye. Hmmm, maybe there's something to that... 
Here is my blog post about my visit to Northlake.


4. The hills of India near Bhoramdeo and Mandwa Mahal temples. I took this last summer (2015). Here's my blog post on my visit to the temples


5. Another photo from the Northlake Nature Center. I LOVE how this photo came out and how you can see his shell underneath the water!


6. The "Eighty-eight" Butterfly. I lucked out on this shot because I had been following various butterflies for about 30 minutes when I visited the Argentine side of the Foz do Iguacu. This little one decided to rest on part of the boardwalk railing, enabling me to snap a picture. Canon powershot 10X. More about the butterfly species 


7. A View toward Mt. Everest. From Nagarkot, Nepal, looking over the beginning of the Himalaya mountain range and Mt. Everest in the distance. It's obscured by cloud, OF COURSE, but I guarantee that it is there!

#AdventWord #LISTEN - Listen to Nature, for here are God's treasures

Today's #AdventWord is #LISTEN - December 15, 2015
Listen to the voices of nature: to pattering raindrops, squalling wind, falling snow, chirping birds, buzzing insects, murmuring springs, to the hum of life. Listen, for here are God's treasures. Listening will help us with ALL of the AdventWords we have had so far! 

Rain on the leaves outside a Province IV Synod mtg. at Kanuga in NC :-)

‪#‎Episcopal‬ ‪#‎Anglican‬ ‪#‎SSJE‬ ‪#‎EDOLA‬ AdventWord was created by SSJE (The Society of St. John the Evangelist) and is the Anglican Communion's Global Advent Calendar. I'm using it as a daily meditation, prayer, photo post, and a way to connect in spirit to millions during this season of light and hope. You can join me in creating your own. Just take a picture and post it with the day's AdventWord tags! Click HERE for their website and for their daily AdventWords.

i thank You God for most this amazing day

I THANK YOU GOD FOR MOST THIS AMAZING

Photo I took in 2013 at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens

     
                                          i thank You God for most this amazing

                                          day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees

                                          and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything

                                          which is natural which is infinite which is yes

                                          (i who have died am alive again today,

                                          and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth

                                          day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay

                                          great happening illimitably earth)

                                          how should tasting touching hearing seeing

                                          breathing any–lifted from the no

                                          of all nothing–human merely being

                                          doubt unimaginable You?

                                          (now the ears of my ears awake and

                                           now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

-- e.e. cummings (1894-1962)
#poetry #gratitude #thanks #Nature #nola #Episcopal

Poem found at: http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2013/10/26

And here is a GORGEOUS choral composition written by Eric Whitacre (b. 1970) sung by The Stanford Chamber Chorale and the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, under the direction of Stephen Layton. * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMbSY7b0fuM

A Dose of Louisiana NATURE!

This past weekend, I visited the Northlake Nature Center in Mandeville, Louisiana.

Photo by CPCarson

From their website:
"The Northlake Museum and Nature Center, Inc. was established in 1982 by as a project of the Greater Covington Junior Service League as an independent non-profit corporation directed to preserve, study, and publicly exhibit the natural and cultural resources of the Florida Parishes in southeastern Louisiana. In 1985, the Northlake Nature Center, Inc. entered into a 50-year lease with the State of Louisiana for a 52 acre tract of land situated along Bayou Castine on Highway 190 east of Mandeville across from Fontainebleau State Park, subsequently expanded to 400 ac, just 45 minutes from New Orleans. Situated in the heart of St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, it is also adjacent to Pelican Park Sports Complex and the 31-mile Tammany Trace Rails-to-Trails path."

Photo by CPCarson

Northlake Nature Center is across from the Fountainebleau State Park, and just down the road from Big Branch Marsh, which we also visited.

Photo by CPCarson

Aside from the mosquitoes eating us up, it was fantastic to be outside and to have a fun day of taking photos! My personal photo successes of the day are as follows:

A bird eating a frog - The spacey-looking other bird, who didn't look like he was paying attention, attacked the bird eating the frog and a battle ensued about one second after I got this photo at Fountainebleau State Park.

Photo by CPCarson

A Green Heron - I don't see them very much, but this little guy was stunning!

Photo by CPCarson

Dragonfly eye - a very cool closeup! I have always loved dragonflies. I used to sit on the back stoop of our house called "Seafair" on Daniel Island, SC (waaaaay before it was developed) and hold out my finger. One by one, dragonflies would rest for a spell. Of course I had to name them and my little self started out with such original names as "Bluey" and then "Greeny". As you can probably guess, other names included "Orangey", "Purpley", and "Silvery" etc.

Photo by CPCarson

Turtle under water - There was a baby turtle resting above water on a branch and I think this is its mother keeping an eye on him. I love seeing the shell under water.

Photo by CPCarson

Hawk in flight - This one is, well, over-cropped and grainy to say the least, but I still like it :-)

Photo by CPCarson

Red-eared slider turtle head up close - I've never ever noticed turtle pupils before, but they are wild! When zooming in, I saw him blink too - very strange, but cool!

Photo by CPCarson

Here is the whole album - it's on FB, but I made it public so you should be able to see it. 

Photo by CPCarson

Photo by CPCarson

Photo by CPCarson

I Arise Today

I arise today in the company of the Trinity, 
Father, Spirit and Son.
I arise today

An Afternoon in NOLA City Park

Sometimes in the winter and often in the spring, I LOVE to take some time out and go to City Park (New Orleans) to chill amongst the beauty! 

I semi-regularly go to the walking track near the NOLA Museum of Art and actually exercise, but avoid it like the plague in summertime because it's approximately one billion degrees and a million percent humidity here. If that sounds like it's an exaggeration, it's not.....it's completely true.

                               

Anyway, before I moved to NOLA, apparently most of City Park was comprised of golf courses and while there has only been one in the almost ten years I've lived here, post-Katrina, they are now being re-developed. So, a giant swath of the park will no longer be the lovely, natural, and free area I've known it to be. 

                        

It always makes me so happy to drive through the Harrison Avenue cut-through and see people out playing with their dogs or kids. On some Tuesdays after my St. Paul's staff mtg and in my way to UNO, I stop and sit for a little while with my morning coffee. I haven't been able to in a while since I have lessons now on Tuesdays, but I do still steal some Friday afternoon time or weekend time to go and read in some of my favorite spots! 

                          

I've been soooooooooo happy over the years to see the lovely Spanish moss returning to the trees! Though I was a new resident after hurricane Katrina, I noticed its absence and it struck me as rather odd for this Savannah / sub-tropical climate area. 

City Park helps me relax. It gives me (and countless others) a place to be out "in the wild" without driving outside city limits and while being relatively (and arguably) safe because roads are nearby, it's reasonably populated, and one still probably has cell phone service. 

                       

I love the place. While it's exciting (and brings the city tons of revenue and glitz, I'm sad to have seen the start of rebuilding the golf courses. I have no idea how many of them they're planning to rebuild, but I surely hope there will be some of my favorite places left when it's all said and done!

PS. Two weeks ago, a whole field was covered in giant, beautiful thistle! 

                         

i thank You God for most this amazing

                                   I THANK YOU GOD FOR MOST THIS AMAZING

City Park, NOLA in March 2015

                                        i thank You God for most this amazing

                                        day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees

                                        and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything

                                        which is natural which is infinite which is yes

                                        (i who have died am alive again today,

                                        and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth

                                        day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay

                                        great happening illimitably earth)

                                        how should tasting touching hearing seeing

                                        breathing any–lifted from the no

                                        of all nothing–human merely being

                                        doubt unimaginable You?

                                        (now the ears of my ears awake and

                                        now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

                                                                   -- e.e. cummings (1894-1962)
                                        #poetry #gratitude #thanks #Nature #nola #Episcopal

Poem found at: http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2013/10/26 
And here is a GORGEOUS choral composition written by Eric Whitacre (b. 1970) sung by The Stanford Chamber Chorale and the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, under the direction of Stephen Layton. * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMbSY7b0fuM

butterfly I saw at UNO on a pretty purple flowering bush

Thistle at NOLA City Park, March 2015