PAPA: A Prayer of Thanksgiving

Posted on March 21, 2014 by Virginia

Papa the look (2)It’s now spring (let’s see if the weather catches up with the season.) Since early January Virginia, your A.W.O.L. Blogger, has been a bit occupied with Other Things.  After enduring a severe two week bronchial infection, a week in the hospital for heart failure, a 10 day stomach virus, and then a deadly urinary tract infection, Virginia’s dear Papa went to rest in the Everlasting Arms of God on March 8, 2014. 

Although attempting to write about it yesterday went bust, my sister brought over a program from Papa’s 65th Birthday celebration that included a prayer I wrote while working overseas.  Even after 18 years, it’s a prayer close to my heart today…

Oh God, I come before You on my knees with a special prayer of thanksgiving for Mama and Daddy.  My heart is overwhelmed with gratefulness for so many things, it is hard to know where to even begin, but I do thank You for their life and dreams together as one.  Together, through Your love, they have dreamed the impossible.  Indeed, they are still living what might seem to the outside eye incredibly impossible.  They have passed Your light from their hearts to ours.  They have given us a gift – the gift of life – that will continue even as they pass into Your Kingdom.  That thought fills me with peace to know the legacy of Your love in them will continue in us and all those touched by Your love through them.

Daddy’s words and teachings live on in us, because he taught us Your principles through his life and in our lives.  “God loves you anyway… I love you anyway… I can’t but He can…”  So many times Daddy loved us anyway when we struggled to face the storms along the paths of our lives.  So many times he persevered when the dark clouds loomed into his life.  Seeing him now filled with so much love and enthusiasm for Your Words, even though he can barely move, is the greatest testimony of Your life in him – to Your grace and power surging through him to me, to us, to others.

Mama’s love and deeds, which reflect Your person in the mirror of her soul, continue in us.  Her love for You and Papa is amazing – she and Papa are the ultimate team, the ultimate unit of one, so that sometimes it’s hard to see where one ends and the other begins. For her servant’s heart of hope and powerful faith, I come before You humble and grateful.

Mama  & Papa’s dreams – with our family, with the Virginia Beach Community Chapel, with the move to Williamsburg and the Chapel there, with the Mini Bible College – what realities!

Mama & Papa’s life and dreams are like many seeds, planted when we were young,  that have grown as we have matured into servants of Your Kingdom.  What a legacy, far more valuable than silver or gold!  For they have instilled in us the gift of Your love and life.

Oh Lord Jesus, I am so grateful, so VERY grateful for Your grace to me through them.  Such light, it blinds the eye, yet is so real through laughter and all that is human as well.

Oh, how I love them and am grateful for them.

Oh Lord, I thank You.

“Ginny Lea” Woodward
Bethlehem (October 6, 1995)

Posted in Sunday-ish Reflections | Tagged , , , | 18 Comments

New Year’s Eve….

Posted on December 31, 2013 by Virginia

As another new year rolls in the old dissipates into memories:  maybe some good, maybe some bad, but memories just the same.

I don’t know ’bout you, but i hope some 2013 memories fade FAST.   The usual gig here helping the Savvy Saints (my parents) is plenty hard ( i do thank God regularly for the opportunity to Be Here Helping, but that doesn’t mean it’s not challenging!) but adding injuries to the mix has made it even HARDER.

Hobbling to the grocery, shuffling through the house, ‘icing’ various body parts (like there’s time for this??) …& the pain drones on.

Papa challenged us with something that stuck with me through Advent: i can’t choose to be strong, but i can choose joy. He intimately knows what it means to be weak, physically weak as a bedfast quadriplegic wracked with pain 24/7.

For some of us, physical strength is not an option.

But… joy is.

Not some bubblehead happiness (contingent upon what happens) but JOY that springs from an inner well of hope that doesn’t run dry ’cause it’s connected to the Sea of God’s Grace & Love & Peace & Mercy.

Maybe it’s not physical pain that zapped your strength in 2013, perhaps your heart has been battered by hurricanes of loves lost or lost loved ones.  And, it’s hard.

Life is hard.

And…joy is STILL an option.

Check out a sunrise – glorious golds, pinks … check out a sunset – glorious reds, purples.

Grand Canyon sunsetThe sun still rises, the sun still sets…
as we let the Son rise in our hearts, joy comes.

Joy comes… if we open our hearts.

JOY is an option.  Choose it.

Tel Aviv sunset (2)

Wishing you lots of JOY in the New Year (& blessings, too!~!)

grace, peace & JOY groupies

Virginia : )

Posted in Life (in general), Sunday-ish Reflections, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Dinner Impossible: people, pleasure & …PASSION!

Posted on November 25, 2013 by Virginia

In the U.S. this week everyone is gearing up for the Thanksgiving holiday by giving thanks & thinking about FOOD.  Perusing cookbooks for new recipes, dusting off trusted family favorites… compiling menus whilst contemplating how to please everyone?   Answer: many options (which means rather long-ish menus & lots of quality kitchen time for the family cooks…)

So, today at Roses in the Rubble be inspired by a different sort of (rather muscular) Rose: the culinary celebrity, Robert Irvine.

hmmn, some of you (especially my international buddies) might ask, who’s he?

When i first returned from working in Africa i had no idea who he was either, but saw an advertisement in the local paper that he (a Food Network Chef) would be signing cookbooks that evening.  Thinking it would be a rather cool auntie thing to get an autographed cookbook for my niece Joy (who was getting married soon),  i zoomed the 30 minutes from Williamsburg to Newport News (our nearest Big City) to find a LONG line at the Barnes & Noble.  Undeterred, i merrily waited (hot drinks? treats from the B&N Cafe to go with?) interacting with fans, aspiring young chefs, older gents & ladies. Non-stop conversations made the 2 hour wait zoom by…

Then it was my turn… and i could not say A WORD!

Pourquoi?  MUSCLES !!!  Chef Robert Irvine’s Mr. Universe type muscles bulged from his fitted sport shirt.  I’ve always crushed on cerebral Cross Country-ish fellows (kinda skinny runner types?)  but, geez, i could hardly stammer two words whilst asking for the long waited autographs. He wrote the NICEST inscription to my niece & her husband, however, wishing them well in their marriage (Joy & Randy are now blessed with three little ones under 3…)  And, of course, a cookbook had been procured for ME (i, ah, sort of have this thing about Books? well, ditto for cookbooks, always adding to the >200 Collection!) Chef Robert had a rather bemused smile inscribing the cookbook for still-stuttering Virginia.

Whew(!) I had never seen the Dinner Impossible show, but you can be sure i’ve seen many episodes since then.  (It’s lots of fun, give it a watch!)

So, this Chef has muscles.  How exactly (beyond the obvious eye candy angle) is that inspirational?   … Back to our story.  Upon returning home i stayed up into the wee morning hours reading THE COOKBOOK. (As an avid reader,  i’ve spent sleepless nights with the latest Daniel Silva spy thriller or Lois McMaster Bujold sci-fi or David Weber… but never reading a Cookbook!)

Robert Irvine mission cook jpegCover to cover Robert Irvine’s Mission:COOK! uniquely blends his life experiences with his passion for cooking.  It’s an inspirational read that jumps right off  with a crisis – feeding 4,000 stranded evacuees on a South Yemen beach as civil strife raged around them while he served as a chef aboard the HMY Britannia, the yacht of the British Royal Family.  Creativity, ingenuity, resourcefulness – Chef Irvine galvanized his team into action unloading stores & identifying tools (a pot to cook on a beach for 4,000?  Brand new trashcans!) as the Royal Yacht left them to ferry evacuees to safety.

Hours later those evacuees of many different nationalities enjoyed a ‘loaves & fishes’ meal of rice, beans, broccoli & carrots… & even a dessert of rice pudding.

Since then Robert Irvine served as Chef in many famous establishments & certainly is very famous now as a culinary TV celebrity -it’s quite inspiring to read how doors opened for him, but also how hard he has worked & his willingness to take risks – like his taking on the show, Dinner Impossible.

Asked what drives him in the cooking profession, Robert Irvine narrows it down to three keys:  “people, pleasure, and passion.”   But, the prize goes to passion.

“Most of the time, I truly believe it is passion that drives the boat.  When you’re up before the crack of dawn, or awake late, late at night, long after everyone else has eaten and gone home to bed, and you are cleaning and scraping, or slicking or stirring, and your bones are on fire and the arches in your feet are disintegrating, and you can hardly bear to look at another scrap of food, it is only passion that keeps you going.”  (p. 220)

However you slice it, cooking (especially for a holiday) is LOTS of hard work.  As you seek to serve the people around you – families, loved ones, friends – may all the cooks this Thanksgiving (& my friends all around the world who cook for their families) know pleasure in the kitchen, not just from making & tasting good eats but from hearts full of PASSION…

When your legs are about to give out & getting dinner on the table (on time?) seems impossible, remember:  PEOPLE, PLEASURE, PASSION.   The pleasure it IS to serve your loved ones (& others benefiting from your culinary largesse) something yummy. Most of all, be passionate as you cook (Chef Virginia contends that this definitely makes the food taste BETTER…)   And, if the pots boil over & maybe everything doesn’t turn out quite so ok, remember why you’re doing it: LOVE.

..Asking for a bit of God’s help, like in blessing the preparations, is a also a Good Idea.

Receive God’s love anew, to BE LOVE anew –

IN THE KITCHEN!!!

this morning, last piece of pineapple upside down cake (now, no crumbs left!)

grace, peace & PASSSIONATE COOKS

Virginia : )

p.s.  a blessed Thanksgiving to ALL!!

Posted in Bookshelf (BOOKS), Life (in general) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

…Peace vs. Pieces….

Posted on November 13, 2013 by Virginia

Bethlehem shepherdThis is not about the Middle East peace process, altho a dear Anglican pastor in Ramallah, Rev. Audeh Rantisi, highlighted this phrase time & again (after Oslo when the West Bank was ‘carved into pieces.’)  No… Virginia, your humble blogger (with plenty of time during her TWO MONTH blogging hiatus) has been contemplating this concept a bit lately.

What gives with (having & exuding) Peace vs. (falling to) Pieces in our private lives?

Sometimes our heart grumbles are so loud & disruptive our peace goes out the window of our (wannabe) calmly collected minds with frustrated sighs. Or, maybe we’re just too @#!%#@ tired to ‘be at peace.’  Not sure about you, but i don’t have hours to meditate or levitate or whatever…

‘Tis not easy getting into those Peace Grooves when the going is tough & pain-filled. Actually, it can be downright Difficult.  Challenging. Overwhelming.

ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE? …

When all around us everything falls to pieces (our bodies, too) & the foundations of our hopes (& dreams) crumble …

We have a CHOICE.   We can fall to pieces (ok, a wee crying jag every now & then is not necessarily a Bad Thing!!)  …or, we can seek Peace.

It doesn’t mean our challenges (or pain) will Go Away (altho pursuing any & all resolution is a Good Thing.)   It just means our hearts can be at peace (not in pieces) as we face the way forward.

There’s not a magic formula (altho prayer, meditation & daily quiet time help) –  i kinda think asking God each day (the squeaky wheel gets the grease) might be the ticket.  Something simple like,  “oh Lord, please transform my heart & mind & spirit with Your Peace…”

Peace is a choice.   (1st to ask for;  then to be a conduit of…)  If we ask for it, we must open our hearts (& minds) to receive it & then BE it. BE PEACE.

yeah, right.  Since the accident i haven’t necessarily been a conduit of peaceful cuddles the past 2 months.  Pain & tireditis & frustration (when will the Pain make an end?) have made that a wee bit challenging.  Being PEACE is also not easy when our internal Freak-Out-O-Meters escalate (sorting out Insurance Details? in triplicate? gaining TEN POUNDS of hard-to-get-rid of weight?)

But, hey. Peace is a CHOICE. Instead of clobbering myself mentally (& maybe others in the vicinity), i can choose to let God put those Peace Grooves into my heart, mind & spirit.

It’s a daily deal… (sometimes hourly!) … but with God’s help, possible.  To be at peace & to Be Peace.  God’s peace in this whacked out world.

“My peace I leave you, My peace I give unto you. Not as the world gives… do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”  John 14:27

Estes countryside yellow tree

grace, peace & pieces (of Real Peace)

Virginia  : )

p.s.   So, an update (for interested buddies.)  After 6 weeks in the Repair Shop, the Out-Of-Africa mobile looks like new… & hopefully Virginia (the person, not the State) will be feeling like new, soon (but alas, not yet..)  Still undergoing Physical Therapy & such for ankle, back & Neck… (wore Birkenstocks to niece Megan’s formal wedding & to wedding of friends Leanne & Bruce; recently procured winter Birkenstocks, the kind worn with socks? … but instead of complaining about lack of shoe attire-ability, isn’t it grand that Birkenstocks help alleviate Ankle Pain? : )

Hey, life is a Gift & there’s so much for which to Be Grateful!!

Posted in Life (in general), Sunday-ish Reflections, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

CRASH! SMASH!! BAMMM-Boozled….

Posted on September 5, 2013 by Virginia

Life is a GIFT, truly it IS. Especially when everything in a moment gets turned upside down. ‘Everything’ is a broad contextualization for recent goings-on with Virginia, your more-than-slightly battered blogger. Maybe I better explain…

Last Friday morning while driving home from a doctor’s appointment through a busy Williamsburg intersection (Route 199 & Jamestown Road), the previous planned festive activities for the rest of the day changed (rather suddenly) when an elderly couple ran a red light.

Not just a wee-bit-over-run, unfortunately.  In retrospect, instead of hitting the brakes, the driver slammed on the GAS PEDAL forwarding their car at a high speed into the intersection as my car happened to be passing through.

SMASH. SMASH. BAMMM-BOOZLE.  My car was smashed, then bammm-boozled into the oncoming traffic lane, which fortunately providentially at that moment was the red-light turn lane for Jamestown Road (headed toward The College of William & Mary.)

whew!  Carted away in a stretcher to the ER: swollen ankle, knee, hip, back, neck and checks for internal injuries. 9 (NINE) hours later of tests, x-rays, and scans – there was no broken neck (thank you JESUS!) just a cervical sprain (did I mention the Friday doc appointment was treating misbehaving discs in neck?) But when the nurse said it would hurt worse the next day (like you gotta be kidding lady, everything hurt pretty bad!!) SHE WASN’T KIDDING.

The next morning I woke up actually HYPERVENTILATING from The Pain.

No kidding. Hurt so bad my clamoring woke up my brother who ran to get bread to take with the heavy duty pain meds (after reading the bottle, you can actually take TWO of these? throw some cheese on that toast!) egads.

ICE. ELEVATION. MEDS. BED. ICE. MORE MEDS. BED.

It hurt so bad I didn’t even want TO READ. (Virginia’s ultimate Pain-O-Meter, as even with kidney stones, the Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit or other comforting books usually serve as pain distractors.)

ok, ok, so I also prayed. ALOT. But, not terribly deep stuff, more like:

PLEASE GOD HELP. HELP. HELP. HELP. Interspersed with Thank Yous (like, for life – it IS a Gift, no kidding!) and other stuff.

I truly am so very thankful for Good Samaritans – a lovely man jumped out to help immediately after the crash (a paramedic visiting from Minnesota) … a young lady called 911. The local paramedics, so very helpful, my family galvanized into action. My sister Shere (even with a house full of company and packed weekend of frenzied plans) who spent those 9 hours with me in the ER then got me home and showered (after using a bed pan to wee? can you believe?) My brother Dwight’s colleagues let him zoom immediately home from work to cover the Savvy Saints (thank God for the holiday weekend he had off to take care of his battered sis.)

Family praying, friends praying (& bringing food! & flowers! & fellowship!)

… ooooh, so much to be grateful for!

Life is a Gift. Yep. It is.

And yes, almost a week later, I still hurt. It may take awhile for the ICE-MEDS-BED- treatment to work (24 steroids notwithstanding. Methinks the petering down, is, uh, a reality pain check from how much can I do without lifting anything heavy? like a milk carton? to like, how can I get out of bed?)  : )

But, ONE MORE TIME. Life really is a GIFT.  An ordinary day, an ordinary way (driven almost every day) and suddenly everything can be turned upside down.

But my heart is right-side-UP with gratitude to God, the Ultimate Giver of Roses in the Rubble of our lives, Roses of LOVE that bloom peace in the rain of our pain.

crutchesgrace, peace & Bamm-Boozles

Virginia  : (

p.s. for my praying buddies, please lift up the elderly couple – they took the wife away in a stretcher and I pray that they are OK…

p.s.2  a little Holy Hilarity … for faithful readers, you may recall the escapades of Virginia’s Ankle in the far environs of South Africa (read about it here) … guess what? SAME ANKLE injured, yet again. sigh. But, thanx be to God, no huge flights of stairs to manage, et all!

p.s.3 My poor battered car will be assessed by the insurance folks tomorrow. It is just a thing, but it was oh-so-much-fun driving it these past years. My parents got it for me before I left Tanzania (we called it the “Out-Of-Africa-Mobile” – they sent pics to kinda hurry me along, you know, welcome home & all that & here are some spiffy wheels to get you around when you’re back in town.)  So, I didn’t think the damage to my car was so terrible, especially since the whole front of the other car was completely smashed off, but my brother Dwight went to the towing place where it has been stowed. From the pics he took it looks sad, very sad. The whole passenger side will have to be replaced along with some of the hood? ‘Tis not lookin’ too good for the OOAMobile.

Posted in Life (in general), Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 14 Comments

@ The Movies w/Virginia: Lee Daniel’s The Butler INSPIRES!

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Virginia

On Saturday my sister came to hang out with the Savvy Saints while my brother & i  zoomed out to see Lee Daniel’s “The Butler.”  After a week of listening to Dwight Davis morning promotional plugs on WHRO, (our local Public Radio classical station), we were Not Disappointed with this absolutely AMAZING FILM!

Inspired by the life of Eugene Allen, who served 7 (or 8?) Presidents during 35+ years as a butler at the White House, this movie’s main character, Cecil Gaines, rises from abject poverty to serve the most powerful leaders in the land; along the the way he faces good times, bad times, and a whole lot in between.

Spanning U.S. history from 1926 to the (almost) present time, the movie chronicles the challenges of race injustices in the South, successive Presidential Administrations & the Civil Rights movement – but it’s also a powerful story about FAMILY: what matters in tough times, the struggle to sort life out amidst radical change & the enduring power of LOVE to overcome schisms of all sorts.

For sure, there are a few rough spots – it starts with a bang (literally.)  As our history is violent, so, too, Cecil faces & overcomes violence in his life… and outrageous injustice … and sadness.  But there’s also joy & laughter to be found in family, friends & colleagues (& even fashion!)

An absolutely stellar cast delivers a Five Star effort: Forest Whitaker as Cecil Gaines & Oprah Winfrey as his wife; David Oyelowo gives a powerful performance as his son Louis… Cuba Gooding, Jr., Terrence Howard, Robin Williams, Alan Rickman, Vanessa Redgrave, Jane Fonda & many more light up the screen.

Forest Whitaker is OUTSTANDING as Cecil, but i was blown away by the depth of Oprah Winfrey’s performance as his wife, Gloria. I so admire, respect & appreciate Oprah for all she has done raising awareness of HIV/AIDS, malaria, education, literacy and many other important issues – but i had no idea what a fine actress she is. I surely hope she gets a nod from the Oscar crowd for her role in this movie – she deserves it. Totally!

Although this movie just opened Friday, it became the topic of conversation at an Afternoon Tea Party on Sunday – several ladies had already seen it and many wanted to go, especially after our dear friend Carol said, “The Butler is the best movie I’ve seen in a Very Long Time.”

Lee Daniel’s “The Butler” – catch it before it moves on, it’s really one NOT to miss!

Lee Daniels' The Butler

(click here to see the trailer & movie website)

grace, peace & INSPIRING MOVIES

     Virginia  : )

p.s. while zipping around the movie website, i found this REALLY cool film guide – with discussion questions, scripture verses & lots of material for mind-munching based on the issues raised in the film.  Check it out –   LeeDanielsTheButler/Guide.pdf

Posted in MOVIES !! | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Caught by Sunday Thoughts @ LOVE!

Posted on August 18, 2013 by Virginia

Sometimes we think love has got to be that mushy stuff plastered on anniversary cards or whispered between folks who are Seriously Serious into that commitment thing (relationships, dating, marriage??)  But, for all of us (single or not) there’s that Other Kind of Love that melts our hearts & molds our minds into beautiful beacons of Heavenly Light:  GOD’S LOVE.

Last week in my stack of daily readers i was caught by inspiring thoughts from Søren Kierkegaard on this topic.  Way back in University i studied this Danish theologian in an Existentialism class (somehow related to my German major?) – i remember reading his sentences many times to ‘get it’… The following, however, is quite easy to understand & definitely something my mind has munched on all week… 

‘Tis probably a good idea to let our minds AND hearts munch on…

“This is all I have known for certain, that God is love.  Even if I have been mistaken on this or that point, God is nevertheless love.  If I have made a mistake it will be plain enough; so I repent – and God is love.  He is love, not He was love, nor, He will be love, oh no, even that future was too slow for me, He is love. Oh, how wonderful! Sometimes, perhaps, my repentance does not come at once, and so there is a future.  But God keeps no person waiting, He is love.  Like spring-water which keeps the same temperature summer and winter – so is God’s love.  His love is a spring that never runs dry.”

Søren Kierkegaard, (1813-1855)
from Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard

WY Great Fountain Geyser tallgrace, peace & Everlasting Springs

Virginia : )

p.s. this week Virginia the Blogger is plotting to get back into the Movie groove.  After starting this blog 2 yrs ago initially to be about movies (note the movie list page…. that will hopefully be updated as part of the movie blitz!) it’s Been Awhile … so, even if short reviews, mentions, links… this week we’re heading to The Movies!!!

Posted in Quotes, Sunday-ish Reflections | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

A.W.O.L. bloggers ….& August flowers

Posted on August 8, 2013 by Virginia

After that nice blog-cation, Virginia the Blogger went A.W.O.L. the past month for Several  Reasons. Yes, it’s summer & that seems like a good reason all by itself, but a Bigger Reason remains:  A NEW LAPTOP.

Why (the heck) would a nice new laptop cause any distress? Since this 7 year old laptop (note present tense, ie, the one in use for this blog) is Rather Ancient in Laptop Life expectancy, what Happy Technology Grooves to zip about on a shiny new laptop with all the latest bells & whistles…

But, wait! Those shiny bells & whistles involve WINDOWS 8.  grrrrrrrrrrrr.   It was quite the accomplishment just figuring out how to turn New Laptop off (altho the on switch is fortunately easy to find)… & then getting around the new ‘start’ screen (with no ‘start button’ … hmmmn) … but figuring out How To Load all the nifty  photo programs from the old laptop to the new has  Been Delayed.

Several times.  (Does Not Help that the hefty ‘how to’ 600 page MicroSoft Windows 8 book continues key role as Door Stop…)

ooops.

But, here we go… it’s August & time for A.W.O.L. bloggers to get back into the groove (shiny new un-trained laptops or no!)  In July this Roses in the Rubble blog turned TWO (!!) woo, woo – Let’s celebrate today with a few recent flower bouquets..

August ressurrection liliesEach year these Resurrection Lilies only bloom on 0n the first day of August – a dear friend of Papa’s brought them over for us to enjoy…

Caught by a Thought of Patti LaBelle‘s in her “Patti’s Pearls” book of wisdom & lessons learned from a full life as famous singer (mother, friend, performer, wife, et all) –

“Every exit is an entrance to someplace else.”

Sometimes our roles in life change – maybe from student to Employed , or singleton to married, full time mother to empty-nester, or sadly married to unmarried … the list goes on.  In her book Patti LaBelle describes how her perspective changed vis a viv her painful divorce after many years of marriage:  “…I have learned to see the beginning in the ending… that the bend in the road is not the end of the road, as long as you make the turn… I’m not saying that my divorce is easy; it’s not. No end – at least to anything meaningful – ever is. But I’m not having a nervous breakdown over it because I have learned how to look at it. Not as an ending, but as a new beginning. Just as waking is an ending to sleeping.”

wow.  let our minds munch on that for awhile (whatever change looms large in the vicinity of our lives at the moment..)

August peach rosePeach roses (a personal fav of your humble blogger… along with yellow & RED, of course!) brightened up the July celebration of my brother’s 12 years at the Williamsburg Libraries.

Caught (by another) Patti LaBelle thought:

“You preach a better sermon with your life than you do with your lips.” 

Not to embarrass my brother, Dwight, but the sermon of his life these past twelve years bellows love (that Sacrificial Kind) to all who know our situation.  He returns from his job serving the community to serving my Papa in many roles: as The Orderly – hoisting him from hospital living room bed to hospital bedroom bed;  as The Valet – rub-a-dubbing Papa clean each morning & getting him tucked in at night; & as The Therapist working Papa’s atrophied muscles out with rounds of Physical Therapy exercises… & So Much More.

Dwight’s life = a Very Powerful Sermon!!

August white roseAnother dear family friend popped by last month with this most extraordinary fresh flower arrangement that lifted our spirits for days.

One more pearl of wisdom from Patti LaBelle:

“A thousand mistakes are an education if you learn something from every one.”

Our lives are often strewn with the rubble of our mistakes:  from missteps (what we’ve sidetracked) & missed opportunities (what we failed to do) to misdeeds (what we’ve done wrong)…

Then there’s Failure (with a capital ‘F’.)    We can choose to wither from our mistakes or we can learn from them & GROW (with God’s grace & Lots Of Heavenly Help)  & try not to make the Same Mistakes, again…

That hard-won education is like this last white rose, life as we overcome…

Roses in the Rubble!! 

grace, peace & inspirational flowers

   Virginia :  )

Posted in Bookshelf (BOOKS), Life (in general), Quotes, SNAPSHOTS & WHATNOTS | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Ideas & Apples: George Bernard Shaw

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Virginia

Yesterday to celebrate my brother’s 12 years as a Reference Librarian at the Williamsburg Regional Libraries, we enjoyed a lovely lunch at Food for Thought (what a selection of delightfully delectable vegetarian dishes & plentiful meaty options for the carnivore!)  ‘Twas too appropriate that the restaurant is all about books & authors (the menu even is divided into chapters) while thoughts enlighten diners with quotes emblazoned all over the walls.  (yes, definitely my kind of place!!)

Dwight & i were both Caught by a Thought above our table from the famous playwright, George Bernard Shaw:

“If you have an apple and i have an apple, and we exchange these apples, then you and I will each have one apple.  But if you have an idea and I have an idea, and we exchange these ideas, each of us will have two ideas.” 

File:DeScott Evans Hanging Apples.jpg

Artist: DeScott Evans (1847-1898)

So, think about it… & share an idea (or two) … & see what happens…

grace, peace & Ideas

Virginia : )

p.s. sharing our apples … & oranges & grapes & peaches (especially South Carolina peaches!) & Other Goodies (chocolate?? : ) can also be kinda fun, too.  An apple for an orange? Grapes for peaches? …ah, all of it for chocolate??  : )

Posted in Quotes | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Caught by a Thought: Ansel Adams

Posted on July 6, 2013 by Virginia

Last Sunday my sister, Shere, came over so my brother & i could zoom down to the Fragile Waters Exhibit at the Mariners Museum in Newport News. We were absolutely mesmerized by the 100 (ONE HUNDRED) nature photographs of water from various views: oceans, icebergs, marshes, waterfalls, geysers, ponds, lakes, seas … & so much more from three extraordinarily talented photographers:  Ansel Adams, Ernest H. Brooks II and Dorothy Kerper Monnelly.

While reading the quotes and background information accompanying each photograph, i was caught by these thoughts from iconic photography pioneer Ansel Adams:

“File:Ansel Adams and camera.jpgTo photograph truthfully and effectively is to see beneath the surface and record the qualities of nature and humanity which live or are latent in all things.  Impression is not enough.  Design, style, technique – these, too, are not enough.  Art much reach further than impression or self revelation of life.  And life, or its eternal evidence, is everywhere.

Some photographers take reality as the sculptors take wood and stone and upon it impose the dominations of their own thought and spirit.  Others come before reality more tenderly and a photograph to them is an instrument of love and revelation.  A true photograph need not be explained , nor can it be contained in words.

Expressions without doctrines, my photographs are presented as ends in themselves, images of the endless moments in the world.”   Ansel Adams

File:(Jackson Lake in foreground, with Teton Range in background, view looking southwest from north end of the lake.), Grand - NARA - 519909.tif

Ansel Adams, Jackson Lake (National Parks Archives)

Local buddies, be sure to check out the Fragile Waters Exhibit…it’s extraordinarily excellent.  So well curated – each photo has an interesting quote about water and/or writings from the photographers – & the photos are just AMAZING (!)   There’s even one of Dorothy Kerper Monnelly’s that when viewed dissipates high blood pressure – no kidding – entering into her photo is like swallowing an inner peace pill.

And… the Mariners Museum has lots of other cool stuff.  If you haven’t seen the Monitor Ironclads section or the the Admiral Lord Nelson exhibit, you’re in for a double dose of Interesting High Seas History-Goings On (or what went on, anyway!)

grace, peace & Endless Moments

    Virginia : )

p.s.  yes, after a few weeks Virginia is back from her blogcation (vacation from blogging 🙂  She must get back into her blogging grooves as next week this blog turns Two (as in Two Years Old! )  woo woo!

p.s.2.  As an Ansel Adams groupie, while interneting ’twas grand to find a stash of his photos taken for the National Parks Service that are in the public domain. (click here to check them out…)

Cool.

Posted in Quotes, SNAPSHOTS & WHATNOTS | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments