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!!!

A New Perspective

I like to mix things up sometimes just to see things differently.  For instance, at our weekly staff meetings at the church where I work it seems as though we each have our favorite spot where we like to sit.  There are no assigned seats around the large oblong conference table, but each staff member tends to gravitate toward the same chair every week...the seat where each feels the most comfortable and "safe". 

So once in a while I like to get to the conference room a bit early and sit in a different chair so I can have a new view of the room and perhaps sit next to a different person.  By the reaction of the other staff members one would think that I had tipped the canoe over on an icy river!  Oh my goodness!  These intelligent, highly educated, deeply spiritual leaders and workers were suddenly thrown out of their comfortable positions and were having to navigate new waters!  It was an interesting experiment...I found it hilariously funny to watch their expressions as they attempted to figure out where to sit down and by whom they would now be sitting!  Several were very vocal in their protests at having to rearrange their personal comfort zone for something so simple as a staff meeting. 

I couldn't help thinking to myself, "And these are the people who are trying to teach others about stepping outside the box...reaching out to strangers on the street...sharing the gospel with lost souls both inside and outside the walls of the church?"  Now, don't get me wrong...I am not attempting to be critical of my fellow servants for Christ.  It was a lesson as much for myself as for them...and perhaps for you.  If we are to be the light in the darkness...the salt of the earth...the voice of Christ to those who have not yet heard...how can we expect to do that when we are not even able to change positions at a friendly staff meeting without feeling out of place and uncomfortable?

Perhaps we each need to put ourselves to this little test...mix things up a bit in your own situation...try sitting next to a new person or a stranger the next time you are at church, or an office meeting, or a community gathering of some type.  Maybe it would be a good idea to practice this at home first...try sitting in a different place at your dinner table or in your living room and look at things from a new vantage point.  Put yourself in your child's place for a while...try to see things the way he/she sees it...or from your spouse's viewpoint...or any other family member or friend with whom you perhaps do not always see eye to eye.   Carry that thought with you to work next time...if there is a difficult co-worker or even a supervisor...allow yourself the opportunity to look at the job or life from their perspective.  You may come away with a new understanding of why that individual acts or reacts the way they do.  You may actually begin to care more about that person as a real person and not just another co-worker or supervisor.

You know, Jesus has already set this example for us.  When He left His throne in glory, and Christ, the Son of God, stepped down to earth and became One with us...to walk with us, talk with us, and even die FOR us, so that we might have everlasting fellowship and life WITH Him and His Father. 

"The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."  John 1:14 

"Immanuel", "which is translated, 'God with us.'"  Matthew 1:23.

He didn't leave us on our own to figure these things out...He left the Great Comforter, the Holy Spirit, about Whom He said,

"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you."

Maybe this is one of those things...

To lighten things up a bit...
How would you like to see life from the perspective of those two
"love-bugs" sitting on the edge of a daylily? 
I'll bet you didn't even notice them until I mentioned it...

I hope you will look at your life from a new perspective today! Try it, you might like it!! 

"Call unto me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know." Jeremiah 33:3