Photo Friday – Paws for Thought

 

 My daughter’s cat get quite the attention with her “PAWS” so I thought I would try to snap a photo of her for this entry…..everyone things she has her nails painted, but actually, they are just “soft paws” which are like fake nails, but they keep her from scratching up the furniture…..and they come in so many fun colors……

 

 

 

 

 

PHOTO FRIDAY ADVANCE DIARY 

31st October: Author’s choice - Halloween!

7th November: Tina’s choice - Action Shots

14th November: Author’s choice - Windows (unusual or favourite windows, in your own home, or other homes, or churches, buildings etc – you may even include the view through a window. This can be a selection of photos or just one favourite pic

To Love and be Loved..con’t.

The elements of love…..

I liked this section….Knowledge….Love without knowledge is a sentiment without depth.

To know me is to love me….or to know me is not to love me…..  read on.

“Which one of us does not sequester a shadow of shame that makes us fear that “to know me is not to love me”? “If someone were to see me as I am,” you may think, “with all my faults, brokenness, conceits, weaknesses, needs, feelings of worthlessness, and grandiosity, they would turn aside in disgust. Therefore I hide. Half of my life takes place in some closet or other, safe from the prying eyes of others.”

“but wholehearted intimacy can develop only where two people are equally forthcoming and self-revelatory. To take the risk of loving, we must become vulnerable enough to test the radical proposition that knowledge of another and self-revelation will ultimately increase rather than decrease love.  It is an awe-ful risk.”

Easy to say, hard to do…..but to get to that point, where nothing is hidden, and you know you are loved unconditionally …..wow….. is it possible with human love?  I guess knowing that God’s love is this way, and we are made in the image of God, it must be possible…..

Photo Friday – Bridges

 

 

Photo Friday – Bridges 

 Below are the two entries for this week….both of the photosI took on a trip to Aspen for Thanksgiving in ‘04….and both are taken with 35mm film, so I had to scan them….The first is titled “Red Cliff Arch”, …somewhere off Highway 24, built in 1940….

 

 

 

This bridge is in Aspen, just off a country road somwhere…..

If you want to view the other entries, just press Mr Linky and select a name to view. A new window will open to that blog – so you can return to select the next name/blog to visit, with ease.

 

PHOTO FRIDAY ADVANCE DIARY 

17th October:CuriousCs choice - Bridges / Arches

24th October: Eiain’s choice - Paws for thought

31st October: Author’s choice - Halloween!

7th November: Tina’s choice - Action Shots

14th November: Author’s choice - Windows (unusual or favourite windows, in your own home, or other homes, or churches, buildings etc – you may even include the view through a window. This can be a selection of photos or just one favourite pic) 

Scripture Cards – 6th in Series

This photo was taken on a camping trip at a campground called “the Lost Burro”…near Cripple Creek, Colorado……it has the most amazing area that you can hike to that has a natural water slide….I didn’t have my camera with me when we went back there with the kids, so I don’t have anything to show you right now…but now that I’m reminded of it, I will have to put that on my list….

Just in case I didn’t mention, all my cards are available for purchase……just so you know….$4.00 each or 5-$15….I use to sell them at Farmer’s Markets etc…but too busy with Real Estate now…..

Photo Friday – Night

Photo Friday – Night (Moon, stars, etc.)  

  

This week I was trying to think of photos I have taken of the moon, etc….not an easy thing to do….when it’s dark…..need a great big lens and a great big tri-pod and great big patience….hmmmmmmm

Well, these photos were taken in Oct/Nov. 05….one thing I love about the fall is the beautiful sunrises and sunsets…..incredible!!!! These were taken in my neighborhood where I lived then….on a walking path that I take when exercising….although it’s day time then and I don’t see this…can’t remember how I stumbled upon this awesome view…..glad I did though!

Colorado Fall

Colorado Fall Moon

Colorado Full Moon-Card No. 78

If you want to view the other entries, just press Mr Linky and select a name to view. A new window will open to that blog – so you can return to select the next name/blog to visit, with ease.

To Love and be Loved….Part 1

New book I’m reading……by Sam Keen

Seems like everyone I talk to, everywhere I look, relationships are stressed…..Friendships are falling apart, family upset at eachother, marriages a mess….what’s wrong with us?  Everyone thinking that their life is not as good as someone else’s….the grass is greener, etc.

I came across this book…..not looking for romantic love necessarily but for love in an even bigger understanding….why do we fail at this so badly?  Isn’t the greatest commandment to LOVE?

I’m not very far into this book yet, I’m trying to take each chapter in…but what I’ve read is good…I would recommend it to everyone….on any LOVE level……even to understand to love yourself.

Excerpts from the book:

….The paradox of love that I want to understand was stated by the early atomic physicist who said, “I have my solutions, but I don’t know how to arrive at them.”…….

I can offer no final explanation for why we idealize love so much and practice it so little.

….For openers, consider the lopsided amount of attention we have paid to the definition, measurement, and cultivation of intelligence, in contract to our failure to investigate the many modes of love. We have a national obsession with IQ, but we never seriously consider the possibility tht we possess an LQ, a love quotient, a generic aptitude for empathy or compassion that may be enhanced or diminished by circumstances.

As Erich Fromm said in the midcentury classic, The Art of Loving, “In spite of the deep-seated craving for love, almost everything else is considered to be more important that love: success, prestige, money, power – almost all our energy is used for the learning of how to achieve these aims, and almost none to learn the art of loving.”

…when we focus obsessively on romance, the single most irrational, volatile, and often illusory form of love, we fail to consider that love may be an art involving skills that need to be developed and practiced throughout a lifetime. As a consequence, we have no school, no curriculum. that teaches us how to cultivate the disciplines and delights of love that give meaning and depth to our lives. When it comes to love, we are emotional illiterates. We know far more about aggression, competition and developing willpower.  Further to the point: Because we have adopted intimacy as our one test and model of love, we miss the infinite variety of forms that human love can take.

Any thought????

To be continued……………

Recipes: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Since Autumn is here, whether we like it or not, I have been asked by my kids to pull out the recipe and bake these muffins…..it’s a tradition, I guess…..thought I would share the recipe if anyone is interested…they just taste like fall!

 PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP MUFINS

4 Eggs, 2 Cups Sugar, 1- 16 oz. can pumpkin, 1 1/2 c. veg. oil., 3  c. flour, 2 tsp. baking soda, 2 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. cinnamon, 2 c. chocolate chips

In large bowl, beat eggs, oil, pumpkin and sugar until smooth.  Combine dry ingredients, then add to pumpkin mixture.  Fold in Chocolate Chips.  Fill muffin tin 3/4 full, and bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes.  Cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing from tin to rack. 

(I have sprayed the muffin tin with cooking spray, then added sugar for decoration in the past….nice decorative plus).

Photo Friday – MUSIC

Photo Friday – MUSICWell, I thought I was going to take a grand photograph of an instrument ….maybe a keyboard, or something…but then I remembered these great photos I took of my boys in 7th Grade.  Right before we moved to our new home, I took these…..

Jordan on the Saxaphone

 

Schuyler on the Trumpet

Jordan played for 1 year, Schuyler played for 2 1/2 years….wish they still had an interest….maybe someday they’ll pick it up again…..they both did amazing for the amount of practicing they did!

  I’ve also included a clip from  one of the concerts they played in at school……