What Do You See Outside YOUR Open Window Today?

What Do You See Outside YOUR Open Window Today?
Remember: "When God closes a door, He always opens a window!" You never know what might be out there waiting for you!

Monday, April 17, 2017

A Different Perspective on Life...and /or The End of the Fence Saga

I know many of you enjoyed reading about our "Fixer Upper" Fence project...(Click HERE if you missed it), and now I feel like I have to give you the final episode and we can be done with this story...We could probably name our new fence "The Eyes Have It"...



This Owlie face is smiling at me every time I open the gate...


And these little Sand Hill Crane faces remind me of our many such birds that live in our neighborhood:



(Doesn't everyone see faces in their fences? Surely it's not just ME!)  (maybe I have been living in the woods too long...)

So, moving right along...
All of that demolition of our old fence resulted in many piles of discarded old fence slats, broken, brittle lattice, vines and general debris scattered and piled in several places throughout our back yard.


My original thought was that we would eventually have a big bonfire, (or several big bonfires) to get rid of all that stuff...but with the current drought in our area there will be NO burning for a long time.  So we couldn't leave it here forever...I mean, it was a mess...rusty old nails, staples, scraps of wood, just a too much to ignore or overlook...


So finally we determined to get it all loaded up and take it to the county landfill, which is about 40 miles away.  Thankfully, a friend of ours loaned us a flatbed trailer to haul it all:


The guys loaded it all up and wrapped it securely in tarps, secured with bungee cords, etc., and off we went.  The trip to the dump was thankfully uneventful...had to stop once to resecure the tarp and bungee cords, but that was all.  Hubby and I followed our son just in case he ran into a problem.

Anyway, once we got to the landfill, they had to weigh in to determine the fee for depositing all of this lovely stuff, and then they had to drive the truck and trailer up onto the high mountain of trash to unload all of the stuff.
photo courtesy of http://www.marioncountyfl.org/departments-agencies/departments-o-z/solid-waste/marion-county-baseline-landfill
 I sat in our car down below and waiting for them to return, just listening to the radio and basically not paying much attention to anything around me, except to watch for them to return.

Then all of a sudden I heard the familiar call of an eagle, and looked up and saw two eagles soaring above me, coming from the top of the landfill with some kind of materials in their talons, apparently for nest building or something...didn't look like food...but I wasn't quick enough with my camera to catch a picture then.  But you can bet I whipped out my camera right away and watched and waited for them to return, and here is what I finally was able to capture:


Yes, there was a magnificent eagle, sitting high up on the "mountain" of trash...sharing the view with quite a few buzzards and other types of  birds, each waiting for their share of the "goods"
 See the eagle flying?
 There were so many birds flying overhead I couldn't keep track of them all...many vultures, eagles, hawks, sea gulls...

But this eagle kept going back to his 'kingdom' of trash...

Isn't he magnificent?

Oh, look!  Here's two of them together...for a moment...

And then he's all alone again...for now...

 Wow!!!  Those few minutes watching those magnificent birds just "flew" by (no pun intended...), and before I knew it, the guys were coming back down the "mountain" and were there waiting for me to catch up with them and head back home.

They had stories of driving through and walking upon mountains of putrid trash to unload the trailer and couldn't wait to get home and get rid of the stench...and I had stories of seeing that "mountain" of trash from a totally different perspective...enjoying the view of some of God's most powerful birds ever created, going about their daily routine of gathering food and materials for their home and family and soaring above the stench and ugliness of that mountain of trash...

Sometimes they say that life is what you make of it.  Some look at their lives and see only bleakness and misery and sorrow (and mountains of trash).  Others look at the same situation and see God's handiwork and beauty in the midst of the storms and difficulties of life.  I am trying to  learn to keep my eyes focused on the Lord, and no matter what garbage piles up around me...if I just look up I will see the handiwork of God on the mountaintop...

Deuteronomy 32

10.  "He found him in a desert land 
and in the wasteland, a howling wilderness;
He (God) encircled him, 
He instructed him,
He kept him as the apple of His eye.

11.  As an EAGLE stirs up its nest,
hovers over its young,
spreading out its wings,
taking them up,
Carrying them on its wings,

12.  So the Lord alone led him,
and there was no foreign god with him...."

Wow!  All of that from going to the county landfill...and finally finishing the fence project once and for all!!! Amazing how God has little lessons on life out there for us...if we just look UP where the eagles are!!!   Have a blessed day my friends!!!

18 comments:

  1. Oh, my, Pam, what treasures can be found in a trash heap! Your lesson for us here is absolutely profound - where some see a stinky challenge, others see the way God is working positively in our lives. It's totally up to the way we choose to perceive our circumstances.
    Your photos are stunning, too. So glad you captured the eagle so beautifully. I've yet to see one in the wild, but this sure came close.
    Blessings to you, and thanks for inspiring me this evening!

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    1. Thank you Martha Jane...Yes, God has positive lessons for us out there in so many places...as I'm sure you've experienced lately! I'm glad you enjoyed the pictures of the eagles. Maybe you should visit your county landfill and see if you can discover one there as well! You never know what surprises are out there in the most unlikely places!

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  2. Great photos! The Eagles are magnificent indeed! I love how you always find just the right Biblical passage for whatever is happening in your life. You are such an inspiration, Pamela!! Beautiful.

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    1. Thank you Terri. I was totally amazed! And the Biblical passage? I never noticed that one before...but looked up "eagles" in my Bible's concordance and checked all the verses that had the word "eagles" in it...and this one just seemed to fit. God was in that, too!!!! He always has a lesson for us, if we just learn to "look up"! (in more ways than one!)

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  3. Thank you for this post. I have never seen an eagle so it is so great to see them on you blog. I once read this about verse 11: "So God rouses his people to action by making their place uneasy for them. By placing them in trying situations, by removing comforts, by the stimulus of necessity, by the sharp provocation of afflictions, he goads them to think, act, and put forth the powers that are in them. It is not for the good of Christians that they should have too much comfort." A new lesson for me.

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    1. Oh wow, Ariella! Thank you for that insight on verse 11. Yes...God does do this in our lives...for our good, not our harm...to teach us, inspire us and lead us on to live better lives for His honor and glory. I've been there and done that and know how it works...and lived to tell about it. Our God IS a loving God...but like a good parent, He doesn't let us get through life the easy way. We will certainly appreciate heaven all the more for our trials here on earth. Thank you for sharing this...that was a great addendum to this today!!

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  4. Pamela, loved, loved, your post along with great photos. I too see faces in fences, clouds, wallpaper etc... LOL! Thank you for reminding us of Deuteronomy 32. Haven't read that one in a long while. Have a day of blessings my friend.

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    1. Thank you Toni! Our God is an awesome God...and He has beauty for us everywhere, if we just train our eyes to look and behold His majesty!!

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  5. Pam, It was fun to read about the end of the remodeling project. I find it fascinating to consider how we all see the same thing with different eyes. There's much truth in the saying: "one person's junk is another person's treasure".

    The photos of the bald eagles are amazing--such majestic birds. I see an eagle very occasionally.

    Blessings!

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    1. Thank you Kim. It's been a fun journey...and I love how God has given us little blessings along the way to make the trip more enjoyable, even in the midst of the "mess". Yes, I am so thankful for God's many blessings surrounding us...and the eagles are the icing on the cake!!

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  6. Pam, you are gifted by our Lord in so many ways, but my favorite is the ability to take the everyday things around us and present them in a spiritual way. This post is a prime example of that and I thoroughly enjoyed it. thank you for all of the pictures you shared of the beautiful Eagles. Sightings of them around our area are very few and far between, although my brother-in-law has seen them several times out at his farm. Thank you for sharing about the end of the fence story.

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    1. Thank you Dianna...but all the praise goes to God...He gives me the stories as He provides the subject matter and the backdrops. I'm thankful that He opens MY eyes to see these things! You never know when the Lord might be showing you something out of "the ordinary"!!!

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  7. The eagles are beautiful! I had a bald eagle recently drop a bass right in front of me while walking. YEP...scare the daylights out of me. But I did manage to get a picture from inside my house looking through the window of the Eagle to send to my husband. Quite beautiful birds. I am laughing at your faces on the fence! Oh I see them....I have a hidden closet door going from my bathroom to my closet and it has a face too! So funny. Hugs and blessings, Cindy

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    1. Oh my goodness!! What a "gift" from the skies!! Free fish for supper! LOL. I am glad that you can see the faces...and that I'm not the only one who does that... Good day for a laugh! Thanks for stopping by!!

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  8. It just shows that God has blessings even in the stinkiest of situations. The eagle photos are wonderful. I think that eagles are magnificent. Yes, I see faces on the fence too. The "owl" gate is cute!

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    1. Oh Melanie! You are back!!! Yay!! I must go check and see what you've written. So happy to see your smiling face again! I've been thinking about you and praying for you as you settle in to your new "home". Thank you for chiming in here today.

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  9. My sister and I remember the faces in the pine paneling in the den at our childhood home. There was even a giraffe! That is fascinating that you get to see the eagles and I like that scripture passage.

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  10. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!! The eagles certainly are magnificent, how nice that they came to keep you company! The faces in the fence are fascinating, I wonder if I would have seen them without you pointing them out to us...guess that will remain a mystery!

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