on coping… (quickie quote)

Posted on February 25, 2016 by Virginia

Morogoro home from office“Life is not the way it’s supposed to be.  It is the way it is.  The way you cope with it is what makes the difference.”   Virginia Satir

grace, peace & creative coping

Virginia : )

Photo:  Morogoro, Tanzania

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STORM WARNINGS!!!

Posted on February 24, 2016 by Virginia

We interrupt Virginia’s regularly scheduled blogging with a STORM WARNING:

Duck, hide, run for shelter… a storm is on the way (actually, it’s here!)

This afternoon while munching lunch, minding my own business (occasionally jotting notes for today’s other blog) my iPhone started buzzing with bizerky sounds.  At first I thought it was an Amber Alert. When my sister-in-law Lynn visited a few weeks ago, both our phones buzzed with an Amber Alert after a child disappeared in Charlottesville.  We stopped what we were doing and prayed for the child, family, abductors… our sick world!

But today for the first time my phone went crazy with a Tornado Warning: Seek shelter. Get off the road.  Go down to your basement. Stay away from windows. 

We’ve been under a Tornado Watch all day, but a WARNING means serious business: the hypothetical tornado is OTW (on the way.)

My brother texted from the library that all his colleagues gathered in a hallway. (The James City County Library is beautiful with lots of natural light, from lots of windows!)

I went into the bathroom (with no basement, the most fortified room in our home) taking along my iPhone and iPad to track what was happening. And, yes, I definitely started praying (fervently!)

25 minutes later when the warning lifted, I peered out the window to see our street was still there and everything looked okay. My neighbor Laurin called to check on things, then we both went back to what we were doing.

In those few minutes, however, the tornado did touch down with destructive force, decimating Waverly, a small farming town about an hour from us.

Three people died.

My heart and prayers go out to their families and their community, along with those killed in Louisiana yesterday from the same storm system.

The wind is still whooshing and branches keep clattering on our roof. (We’re still under a Tornado Watch ’til 9:00pm.) So grateful for a sturdy home in the midst of the storm.  We have weathered many hurricanes. (Our roof had to be replaced after Irene crashed a tree through it, also destroying my car at the same time.)  But tornadoes? Not so much.

Kinda scary! Such destructive force…

A Lenten application to all this?  Sometimes the storms of life swirl around us with hurricane force winds. Occasionally we may tangle with a tornado that hits our hearts and lives with destructive power.  We need to immediately seek shelter in the Everlasting Arms of God. Maybe the storm will pass, maybe it will hit us full on – but from the shelter of God’s Arms encircling us with unending love, we can face what comes.  One grace-filled moment at a time…

Stormy trees“Have you heard the saying, ‘Don’t tell God how big your storm is, tell the storm how big your God is?’  The Lord, Who is bigger than anything you face, will give you the courage and endurance to deal with your challenges and preach the Gospel.”   Pope Francis

grace, peace & storm warnings

Virginia : /

p.s. hope those swaying, bending trees will not sway this way onto our home!

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God’s love letters…

Posted on February 23, 2016 by Virginia

When we look around and see the beauty of God’s creation – an intricate flower, a beauteous bluebird, turquoise oceans, trees with golden leaves – it’s like a reading a love letter.  Seeing Heavenly paintbrushes busy in a glorious sunset over the incredibly glorious Grand Canyon takes it up a notch — it’s like reading a manuscript of God’s love.

My sister & her husband are visiting the Grand Canyon today.  Seeing iPhone pics she sent earlier reminded me of a visit my brother & I made 7 or so years ago.  In the winter cold we got up @ 4:30AM each morning to see sunrises and trekked about icy slopes to get ‘the picture’ (of which there were many.)

But something funny happened. Gathering with others to see the sunset at a popular lookout, we snapped photos of the sun’s descent (at every stage.)  When dusk came we packed away our cameras and folks started leaving. It was so peaceful, we stayed behind a few minutes, then… WOW!  I scrambled my camera back out & took this picture.

"The Heavens declare the Glory of God..." (especially at Sunset in the Grand Canyon!)

Like a backlash, the dusky sky fireballed into golden hues that took my breath away. This picture doesn’t even come close to capturing the glorious moment, but you get the idea…

utterly, awesomely, AMAZING!

“It is just as true to say that every leaf on every tree is a work of art made by the Divine Artist with the intention that we see it, know it, love it, and rejoice in it, as it is true to say that every word in a lover’s letter to his beloved is meant to be seen, known, loved and enjoyed.”   Dr. Peter Kreeft, (The God Who Loves You)

Here’s to rejoicing in the glory of God’s many love letters (& manuscripts) to us!!

grace, peace & Heavenly love-brushes

Virginia : )

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..Rise, let us be going…

Posted on February 22, 2016 by Virginia

I have been an avid Oswald Chambers groupie since high school when I first encountered “My Utmost for His Highest.” Several tattered editions later, I’m still reading his words of wisdom and faith in this treasured collection of daily devotionals.

A few days ago, My Utmost looked in on the Garden of Gethsemane where the disciples went to sleep after Jesus had asked them to pray. They blew it!  Even though they disappointed Jesus, He tells them in Matthew 26:46, “Rise, let us be going.”

“The sense of having done something irreversible tends to make us despair.  We say, “It’s over and ruined now; what’s the point in trying anymore.” But Jesus comes and lovingly says to us, in essence, “That opportunity is lost forever… But get up, let’s go on to the next thing.”  Let the past sleep, but let it sleep in the sweet embrace of Christ…

If we are inspired by God, what is the next thing? It is to trust Him absolutely and to pray on the basis of His redemption.

Never let the sense of past failure defeat your next step.”

Oswald Chambers, “My Utmost for His Highest“

FL SA shrine cross with statue (2)grace, peace & inspired next things

Virginia : )

Photo: Saint Augustine, FL (November 2015)

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…sparking initiatives…

Posted on February 21, 2016 by Virginia

It’s Sunday night, already! Since Virginia your blogger is very pooped after a very full weekend, this post is a short thought for our minds and hearts to contemplate.  Don’t be fooled by short — read it more than once (& get challenged!)

“Real power is love; love that empowers others, love that sparks initiatives, love that no chain can hold because this love is capable of loving even on the Cross or a deathbed.”  Pope Francis

Think about it…

Is God’s love empowering others through us? Sparking initiatives? Unfettering constrictive chains? Loving even when spat upon or derided by others? Faithful by the bedside of those at the end of their journeys?

JC labyrinth bench fall treesgrace, peace & sparking (powerful) Love

Virginia  : )

p.s. photo taken in November at the Jesuit Retreat Center in Wernersville, PA, during 8-day silent retreat…

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…reformed crabs…

Posted on February 20, 2016 by Virginia

Dr. Peter Kreeft gave an amazing talk last night @ William & Mary to a packed auditorium, literally overflowing with students sitting on the floor, in the aisles, standing along the walls.  How cool is that? On a Friday night?  During my university years I seem to recall attending to many social obligations on Friday nights?  For so many students to spend a Friday night listening to a philosopher & theologian is so inspiring (& encouraging!)

It will take awhile to process what he shared in 90+ minutes – so much, so deep! Mercy and justice, a topic of great interest to this former relief & development worker who struggled for years overseas to raise awareness of injustices (& change laws, systems, & people perpetuating them.)

Chatting afterwards with friends about that struggle – to be loving & merciful while working for justice in places where lopsided power oppressed people with no rights (at times standing between gun-toting soldiers & children) – it’s a conundrum.

Sometimes breaking the bonds of injustice & setting captives free, as God asks in Isaiah 58, requires tough love.  Do you give an alcoholic another drink? Or do you say, “because I love you, i’m not giving you what is causing (or will cause) your downfall?”

Ditto that concept in seeking to hold folks accountable for actions (like facing off with soldiers shooting children, “yo! these children are beloved of God – just like you!”)

So much more to mull over … but alas, more social obligations on the calendar (my brother & i are celebrating his early birthday by going to a Virginia Symphony concert this evening, preceded by celebratory morsels…)

Contemplating the antics of Virginia, the Relief & Development Worker, hopefully these words shared from a much younger Virginia in an overseas journal might bless you today (& isn’t it funny that car troubles can get you down wherever you may be found??)

December 18, 1994

 Rejoice always in the Lord. Let your gentleness be evident to all. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Jesus Christ.       Philippians 4:4

Lord Jesus, I come before you both anxious and depressed.  My life seems quite the mess at the moment with uncertainties, wandering thoughts… and now even car troubles to boot. My roots in You have become shallow & I am losing these battles, trying (or rather not trying) to look to You for strength and peace in all these things.

BE GENTLE.  Yet this crab liveth and walketh, trampling all in her path.

REJOICE.  Crabs have a hard time in that department.

DO NOT BE ANXIOUS.  I’m freaking out.

Lord Jesus, I place these frustrations before You… & ask Your forgiveness for not turning to You in ALL things, and for being such a grouchy crab.  Please fill me with Your peace and joy.  St. Paul said, “all things work together for good for all those called according to Your purposes.”  Show me Your purpose, Lord, in my life & please deliver more peace and joy…. (more grace & love & mercy would be good, too!)

in Your Name, Lord Jesus, Amen.

CRAB editedgrace, peace & reformed crabs

Virginia : )

p.s. isn’t it comforting to know that as the cracks in our clay pots get wider, there’s more room for the Light of Christ to shine through?? : )

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…warm cars, warm hearts…

Posted on February 19, 2016 by Virginia

Today i picked up my happily heating car from the shop just in time for it to be 66 degrees tomorrow. How hilarious is that?  My heater now works.  Turns out the solution was rather simple — it needed more coolant to make it warm.  (Sounds weird, but evidently coolant is needed to make your car heater work.)

I’ve been driving around with temperamental heat since December thinking something was seriously wrong – & it was just a quick fix!  Of course, I asked them to check everything thoroughly so they fixed a few more things, but egads, i could have been driving all this time without freezing my tushi, toes (& various other body parts!)

my bad.

Is there a Lenten Friday lesson in this? I hope so because I have to dash (evening plans & all that.)  Sometimes we make faith so complicated …and we don’t ask God for help when our lives seem so complicated.

Ask, and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door shall be opened.

Jesus said it.  Believe it.

Now (not three or four months from now.)

Don’t let’s keep driving our lives around for months without the heat of God’s love. The coolant of the Holy Spirit is available to fill us up (as crazy as that sounds, i know, but maybe coolant to cool down our tempestuous leanings?)  whatever!

.. and let’s take whatever is complicating our lives right now and place it at the feet of Jesus.  Let Him fix it (or fix us to fix it)… or, if it’s God’s will for us to face tough challenges, let Jesus give us the gasoline of grace to continue driving by faith in the warmth of His love.

“…in faith you talk with God, in hope you listen to God, in love you experience God.”  (Carlo Carretto)

FL SA St George St purple mustang (2)grace, peace & warm cars, warm hearts

Virginia : )

p.s. Check out this PURPLE Mustang sighted during November’s visit to St. Augustine in Florida. Cool!!

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God loves you (Peter Kreeft says so!)

Posted on February 18, 2016 by Virginia

So the Bible says so, too (that God loves you… & me!)  Virginia (that’s me!) is really looking forward to hearing author & theologian Peter Kreeft speak Friday night @ the College of William & Mary.  (7:00 PM in Ewell Auditorium for any interested Williamsburgers – all are welcome!)  He’ll be tackling the topic: “Can a Just God be Merciful? Can a Merciful God be Just?”

Over the years I’ve read several of Dr. Kreeft’s many books (he’s written 75!?), but last November my 8-day silent retreat got a great start with “The God Who Loves You.”   In the introduction, he said we often take the fact that God loves us as sort of humdrum.  God loves you, God loves me, God loves everybody.  (yawn) … When it should be the most shattering fact of our lives.  It changes everything.  God’s love.

Needless to say I highly recommend that book, but you can also check out Peter Kreeft’s website that’s loaded with excerpts of his writings. (Click here: www.peterkreeft.com)

On this Lenten Thursday let’s be challenged by this thought from Dr. Kreeft that’s oh, so appropriate here @ Roses in the Rubble…

“Love is a flower, and hope is its stem. Salvation is the whole plant. God’s grace, God’s own life, comes into us by faith, like water through a tree’s roots. It rises in us by hope, like sap through the trunk. And it flowers from our branches, fruit for our neighbor’s use.”    Dr. Peter Kreeft

Roses in Ibillin, ISRAEL (1992)

grace, peace & flowering Love

           Virginia : )

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…mystic mountains, startling joys…

Posted on February 17, 2016 by Virginia

Today’s post will be a wee bit short.  Pourquoi?  After my brother sent the amazing NASA rose galaxies photo for Valentines (I know I shared it the other day, but here it is again in case you missed it.)  NASA_Rose_Made_of_Galaxies_Highlights_Hubble's_21st_Anniversary_jpgI must confess to getting distracted today on NASA’s Hubble website. (Blog-writing-time gobbled up with star-gazing, ooops!)  The Hubble photographs are so cool(!) The fact that they’re in the public domain because they’re taken by NASA is double cool(!!)  (For my overseas buddies NASA is the U.S. space agency.)

Spent so long on the website (hubblesite.org) it’s hard to pick a favorite, but this one of the Mystic Mountain in the Carina nebula is up there..

NASA Mystic_mountainddddThis is not a science fiction painting but an ACTUAL PHOTOGRAPH taken by the Hubble Telescope (credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble 20th Anniversary team.)

Think of what it means when we say, “Heavenly Father”… or “the Heavens declare the glory of God..”  (Psalm 19:1)  Then picture this photo, plus hundreds of others capturing galaxies far, far away from us that look so glorious. (Ok, so some of them are dead stars, but they’re still beautiful.)

“If it can be verified, we don’t need faith… Faith is for that which lies on the other side of reason. Faith is what makes life bearable, with all its tragedies and ambiguities and sudden, startling joys.”    Madeleine L’Engle

grace, peace & sudden, startling joys

Virginia : )

p.s. Dwight said you can ‘like’ the Hubble Telescope page on Facebook & get regular updates (that’s how he found the celestial rose photo…)

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…choosing joy…

Posted on February 16, 2016 by Virginia

There is so much negative sludge going around – condemnation, unkindness, defamatory  rhetoric (& not just in the U.S. presidential race!)  Maybe this Lent we can try to take a moment to think about what we say before we say it?  or write it? or forward it? or any-kind-of-social-media it?

Just ‘saying. We can lift ourselves and others up in the Light of God’s love, or we can drag ourselves (& others) down into the doldrums of deceit and darkness.  It’s a choice.

Just like joy is a choice on dreary winter days.

“Joy is not simply a matter of temperament.  In the service of God and others, it is always hard to be joyful – all the more reason why we should acquire it and make it grow in our hearts.  Joy is prayer; joy is strength; joy is love; joy is a net of love by which we catch others.”   Mother Teresa

So, what kind of nets are we using?

grace, peace & joyful nets

Virginia : )

02 26 snowy leaves

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