Note To Self

Note to Self

1.  Find the beauty

2.  Laugh out loud

3.  Clear the air

4.   Rest enough

5.  Create

6.  Stay kind
7. Be generous

8. Thank God for something

Reminding myself of what makes life beautiful for me.

Photo source:  Lilac and Lavender

Gotcha...

 

In my posting from the other day, I mentioned seeing the Northern Flicker hanging up-side-down onone of our small bird feeders.  The thing is, I didn't have the camera nearby to catch him. 

Fortunately yesterday, when I heard the now familiar whistle and my glance out the window confirmed he was indeed out there, I was ready for him.

Hanging by a toenail, happily poking out his share of the seeds, he seemed mindless of any shadow or movement my camera and I might have made.

No hanging upsidedown today, but we were delighted to catch his pose. And, we love that he considers our yard a regular stopover now!

Wishing you a beautiful day,

Brenda

 

A Glimpse...Or A Flicker?

 
It's been snowing -- nothing serious but the world is white as I peek outside this morning. Birds are very active in the garden these days -- mostly Redpolls at the moment.

But then I heard a whistle and caught sight of our Northern Flicker. If he didn't look funny -- this larger bird trying to perch on a feeder meant for tiny finches. I did tell him he'd be much more comfortable sitting on the much larger feeder with the big tray, but he paid me no mind.

After doing a little reading up about this fellow, I realized he's from the woodpecker family, so no wonder he was loves to hang upside down too.

I'm wishing you your own glimpses...and flickers of beauty today.

Hugs,

Brenda

xox

What Do You Like About Me?

 

As I spent a few quiet moments with God the other day, I asked Him if He'd share something that He liked about me.

I felt I heard Him say, "I like how your face lights up when you think about Me."

Can you imagine how precious that was to hear?  Oh my..... it spoke deep on the inside. 

Earlier this morning, I got a Facebook message from a friend who said her patient could 'see' Jesus in her. My friend went on to say that for years she'd longed to be thought beautiful and to be told it by someone. Now, she was being told that she looked like Jesus to her patient. For anyone who loves Him, you will know just how affirming and meaningful those words really are.

I was delighted to respond to such a note... here is an excerpt:

Hi K---, Thank you for your lovely note. What a wonderful moment for you that your patient saw the beauty of Jesus in you. WoW! I can totally understand how that must have moved your heart; it touches me to read it.

Right now I 'see' Jesus gently cupping your lovely face with his hands... covering it with tender kisses...... how He loves your face. He likes how it lights up when you talk or think about Him. He sees your love for Him when He looks at your face. A woman in love is always beautiful... you are beautiful.

Here's something I do often with worship songs we sing. If they are love songs, I often image Jesus singing the words back at me. So that song we sang recently about Beautiful Face, Beautiful Eyes..... as I sang that to Him, He was singing it back to me. I found that so, so affirming.

Perhaps this is the day you might want to ask Him what He likes about you!  You can trust that He will say something that is beautiful, kind, and loving.  Because that's just how He does it.

 With a gentle kiss atop thy head,

Brenda

xox

Gifts From The Heart

It was the pleasantest of surprises. The door bell rang early on the morning of Valentine's Day. Hubby and I had just arrived home from our wee hours housekeeping stint at the local performing arts center. Our lovely, thoughtful neighbour, on her way to work, was standing at the door with hand outstretched, offering homemade heart-shaped cookies.

What a surprise, what a treat! How delicious they looked with their pink frosting. So pretty.

Gifts that arrive unexpectedly can turn an ordinary day into one of wonder and delight. Those moments of time, when relived in our memory, give us a rush of pleasure all over again as we recall the affection that was wrapped up in that offering.

Earlier this morning I thought of another gift that brings me joy whenever I remember it. This gift comes to us through a text from the New Testament.  First learned as a little girl, I took these words as a young teen to my own heart and received the gift offered. 

And so as I remember them all over again today, I'm writing with hand extended....for anyone who would care (and maybe dare) to ponder and receive them as their own gift from God the Father:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.~ from John 3:16 NIV

Wishing you lots of heart treats today!

Hugs,
Brenda
xox

Blogging Tip: Did Your Blog Go Missing?

In 2012, my blog went missing for a couple of days.

Talk about having a shock when I went to check my blog that morning to find it wasn't there... anywhere. I keyed in the url again, just to make sure. No. It. Was. Not. There. Talk about feeling frantic! What I did find was a note from Blogger saying that it had been removed. My beautiful life blog... removed???

Thankfully, computer savvy nephew helped me go through the info they gave in a link as to possible reasons why my blog might have been removed (we could be spammers, we could be violating copyright, or other terms of service policies, blah blah blah...).

We sent in a 'report' to Google for help in identifying the problem. And waited...and waited. Checked and waited some more. Checked... checked...checked. Nada.

At least I didn't feel 'alone' in the situation, for I found other people were experiencing the same thing. Looking at comments left by other bloggers (we'd queried Google about the potential problem), it seems that sometimes these things happen because Blogger is doing system maintenance and things happen when they are 'cleaning' up stuff.

It seems to also happen because there are so many not-nice bloggers who are spammers or are violating terms of service. In the mix of a ga-zillion users, the innocent blogger sometimes get caught up in the net (pun intended).

After the initial shock at the realization that yes, my whole blog and all my beautiful content was really and truly g-o-n-e from blogland, and getting in touch with the people at Blogger, I knew I needed to stop fretting about it. I felt a peace that I knew wasn't my own. After all, I remembered I often ask God to protect all my online stuff -- I felt I could anticipate a good ending to this story.


Let me say, too, that even though my blog had disappeared, I did have back ups of most of my content so I could have retrieved it, if necessary, with help from computer whiz nephew.

Thankfully, in a couple of days, my blog was back online. Everything was restored. All was in order. You can be sure that I was celebrating! You can be sure, too, I backed up my blog content right away.

Let this be a gentle warning, if you have been putting it off... please go back up your blog... and do it regularly. If you don't know how, check out this link: business2blogger

Gratefully glad to be back with you all,

Brenda
xox

Post updated January 2015