Friday Foto Friends...Amazing Transformation!

Here it is Friday again (but I am posting on Thursday night)...and sadly our dear friend Debbie from Breathing in Grace, who has been our "hostess with the mostest" for Friday Foto Friends for the past few years, has come to a point in her life where she really is not able to keep hosting this weekly gathering.  We totally understand, but will truly miss you, Debbie, and pray that God will continue to bless you with good health, peace, and joy in all that you do. Thank you for bringing us together...and now we hope someone else will step up to the plate and take this little weekly group on.  If you think you'd like to, please talk to Debbie (see link above)...and she can fill you in on the details.  I would offer to do it, but things are just to uncertain in my life right now...still trying to sell our house and possibly move...and I just don't feel like I can take on anything else right now.

That being said, I still love to post photos on Friday, because I find myself thinking about it during the week and saving some up to share with you on Friday. Sometimes I just can't wait and go ahead and share them earlier in the week, but "normally" I try to have something to share on Friday, and I look forward to seeing what everyone else has been up to all week as well. 

Here's a few of my pictures from the past few days:

 The hummingbird comes and goes to the feeder at my kitchen window all day long...

She sometimes sits still long enough for me to get a good picture:

We've been seeing the deer again in the evenings...these are just two of the usual 6-8 deer that are out there:

I got a new flag for my front porch this past week....I love the little chickadees and the pretty church bird house...

The Swallow Tailed Kites are still out there perching in the trees in the early mornings, and gliding around most of the day:

 Here are two of them in trees near each other.

This lizard was climbing up our window on the sun porch...he has his eye on the violets inside the window...

 The little green apples are growing bigger every day!!!

I apologize that I haven't been around much lately to visit you all, as you are probably aware that my brother passed away earlier this week after a long battle with leukemia.  Thank you all for your kind words and thoughts expressed on my last post regarding this. I do appreciate each and every one of you, and your sympathies and thoughtfulness mean more to me than you can imagine. 

On the morning of my brother's passing, I woke up to the phone ringing, with the call from my niece that he had passed during the night.  I kind of expected it, as I had awakened in the night around 4 a.m. and thought to myself that he was most likely already gone. My niece confirmed that he passed peacefully in his sleep around 3:00 a.m.  Even though I was very sad to see him go, I was relieved for his sake, as he truly was suffering, and he was ready to depart from this world.  I am so very thankful that I made that emergency trip up last weekend to see him one last time before he passed. We had such a good visit and he was so happy to have us there with him. God was so good to grant us that special time together. 

And so, on that morning after receiving the call, I took a little walk to the neighborhood pond just to spend a few moments alone with the Lord and feel close to Him and to my brother's spirit. I don't mean that in a weird way...please don't misunderstand me...but I just needed to feel that sense of God's Presence along with the comfort that my brother was truly with the Lord at that moment. There were no astounding revelations, but this is what I did see that made me smile:


This dragonfly doing handstands on the tip of a fishing rod...

I especially liked this because my brother loved fishing...

 Don't you love the way the sunlight is shining through these translucent wings?

This just really struck me as something special, but I didn't fully understand why, until I looked up more information about dragonflies and their significance.  Now please don't misunderstand this either...I am not a person who spiritualizes animals, etc., but it seems as though often when there has been a death in our family, God has given me a special gift of comfort through one of His creatures. 

Let me share with you one quote from an article that I read entitled 'What Does a Dragonfly Symbolize?"  I found this very interesting:

"When the dragonfly larvae, or nymphs as they are called, are ready, they shed their casing and the graceful adult insect emerges. As much as this represents change, it can also be taken as a symbol of death, when the soul leaves the body. Also that the soul, after leaving the body, resides in a different realm, can be likened to the fact that the life of the dragonfly is also spent in two "realms". While the larval stage of the insect that is spent underwater, can be likened to life on earth, the emerging of the adult insect that has wings and is airborne, can be compared to the soul that is free from the body."

Wow! I had no idea...but what a powerful symbol of the new state of my brother's "life"...as his soul left his earthly body, he is now set free from that body and at that moment was "airborne" and bound for heaven, and new life everlasting.

Also, a quote from this same article,

"In Native American legends, the dragonfly is a symbol of resurrection, and renewal after hardship. "

How marvelous! My brother had just gone through a horrible time in the past year...suffering greatly through many months of treatments, constant traveling back and forth to the clinic where he had to undergo chemo and other painful and difficult procedures, and definite hardship on his body and his life in general. And now, on this very morning, he was enjoying a definite resurrection and renewal...a new life...a resurrection from the painful, suffering dead body into life everlasting in heaven!

Jesus said to Martha after the death of her brother Lazarus (see John 11:1-44) in verse 25:

"I am the resurrection and the life.  

He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live."

My brother was not what one would consider a deeply religious person, but he definitely believed in Christ as His Lord and Savior...I know, because I asked him.  I already knew it, but just wanted to confirm it...for his own sake as well as my own heart's comfort.  And he was looking forward to heaven, and the rest and peace that would bring.  And this little dragonfly standing on his head on the tip of the fishing rod was a sweet little extra confirmation to me.

Click here for another interesting article about the dragonfly, entitled "God's Dragonfly".  I didn't know there was so much symbolism and interesting information about dragonflies out there...and now when I see a dragonfly, I know I will think about my brother and rejoice that he is free from his earthly body of death, and rejoicing in the amazing transformation and beautiful new heavenly body, where no sickness or death or pain will ever corrupt again.  Praise God!

Have a blessed weekend my friends.  Go take some pictures of something special today! God may have things to tell you in those "pictures".

Friday Foto Friends...Seasons of Life

Written on Thursday evening...for Friday Foto Friends.

Hello! Life has been rather crazy here this week, as most of you already know.  My  95 year old mother in law, "Nanny",  is still among the living, but barely. Every morning we expect a call from the nursing home telling us she passed in the night...but so far she is hanging on and we make the hour's drive in every day to see her and tell her we love her and try to soothe and comfort her when she is having extreme agitation.  Thankfully the meds they give help, but there are moments when they don't...so we sing hymns, hold her hands and talk softly to her and soon she calms down and drifts back to sleep.  We can't stay all day, so we tiptoe out after she falls asleep and go on about our business and wait for the call.  This has been our routine all week.  She is a strong woman, and for whatever reason, her time to let go just hasn't happened yet.  In God's perfect timing she will make the transition from this life to the next...and not a moment sooner.

I have been watching this rose develop, bud and bloom on my Don Juan Rose bush this past week. I had said to myself last week when I saw it beginning to form that it would be "Nanny's Rose", and that when it fully bloomed, she would probably be in heaven.  That was what came to my mind, because I've noticed that these roses in our memorial garden  seem to  bloom especially for special people on special days.  (click on the links for examples)  This is another example.

But the rose blossomed, and because of the extreme heat and dryness this week, it started to die very quickly...

And so I cut it and brought it inside and put it in water to see if it would revive, but as you can see, the sun damage was pretty severe.

And God said to me, "Who do you think you are, to be able to say on this day or that day so and so will happen? You are not Me, and you do not know the plans that I have for you or for "Nanny"...so please just rest in Me, and let Me show you what is best."

And so we wait, and I feel somewhat admonished...and yet comforted that God has shown me again that He is truly in control in all things...His timing is always perfect, and it is not up to me to know the times or the seasons  (even Jesus told His disciples this in Acts 1:7, just before the day of Pentecost)

"It  is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority."

But it is up to me to trust Him, and go about doing whatever needs to be done...and leave these important issues and moments in the lives of our loved ones up to Him...and to just be patient and wait on Him.

Same thing with my brother...he has been in ICU all week after a serious complication to his Acute Leukemia happened. He is battling a severe fungal lung infection, and has been on a respirator and under sedation since Monday. But each day is showing new signs of improvement, and they are hoping to take him off of the respirator possibly tonight or tomorrow.  I know many of you are Facebook friends and you have already been watching the progress all week and praying...and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.  You are such a blessing to me. The prayer support means so much.

I had to submit some DNA samples this week, to be tested for a possible match in the event that he should need a bone marrow transplant.  My other two siblings also are being tested. We hope and pray that he won't need to have this done, but we are ready to do our part if it should come to that.

I will try to keep you posted throughout these next days regarding the state of things here, but if you don't hear from me often, just keep praying. I am sorry I haven't been able to get around and visit you all like I'd like. I try to take a peek now and then, but with the daily journey to and from the nursing home and trying to keep up with "life in general", some things have to be set aside. You all understand that.  

Here are a few more pictures I've managed to snap as we've taken a our early morning or evening walks. That is a time of relaxation and regrouping our thoughts as hubby and I walk together.  Very therapeutic...and I thank the Lord for those times.

 Evening Sun reflected on the neighborhood pond.  The golden glow of the sun tells me that summer is fleeting and fall is on its way...

 That same spiderweb a day later (See A Fragile Thread) 

 This Milkweed Plant popped up again in the same place since last year...just waiting for it to bloom...

Coral bean plant...now you see why it is named the coral bean plant! Those red "bean" seeds are poisonous...but the flower in the spring was beautiful:

Then: (spring)

NOW: (late summer)

Neighborhood Deer...I sometimes think he's a pet...he just hangs around...

I believe he is a yearling who is now on his own as the parent deer have a new family to raise...

I know you probably can't see what I see in this picture of the little pine tree, but one morning it was all sparkly with the dew and the sun shining through, and I told hubby that it reminded me of a little Christmas tree, all decked out with lights and icicles...and for some reason that thought made me happy and gave me hope...

Life goes on...the seasons of life come and go...Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter...

One more thing...

Remember this pillow?

Yes, that is the pillow I made for my husband's cousin Janice last summer for her birthday.

It came back to me this week. One year later, Janice is in heaven, and her immediate family returned it back to me.  I made this especially for Janice from the vintage embroidery that I found among her grandmother's things when we  cleaned out Nanny's house. Janice always had poodles, and so this just seemed to be meant for her.  

Now it is in our guest room, which has reminders of my hubby's grandmother, his mother, and now his cousin.

These familiar words of King Solomon seem to fit here:

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, 11

"To everything there is a season,

A time for every purpose under heaven;

A time to be born,

and a time to die;

A time to plant, 

And a time to pluck what is planted;

A time to kill,

and a time to heal;

A time to break down,

and a time to build up;

A time to weep,

and a time to laugh;

A time to mourn,

And a time to dance;

A time to cast a way stones,

And a time to gather stones;

A time to embrace,

and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to gain,

and a time to lose;

A time to keep,

And a time to throw away;

A time to tear,

And a time to sew;

A time to keep silence,

and a time to speak;

A time to love,

and a time to hate;

A time of war,

and a time of peace."

11.  "He has made everything beautiful in its time.

Also He has put eternity in their hearts,

except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end."

Thank you for "bearing" with me 

on this little seasonal journey today...I hope this wasn't too depressing of a post...if it was, let me end with a happy picture:

Yes, that is "yours truly", riding on my retirement tractor! Yes, that is the same little pool that the bear is drinking out of above...

Okay, I'm calling it a night...you will see this in the morning, Lord willing...

Now let us drive our little tractor over  to Deb's place at Breathing in Grace and see what our other Friday Foto Friends have plowed up for us to enjoy!  Have a blessed day...and hug your loved ones and tell them you love them!!!