Don't You Love It!? More & More & More Stars Being Added to the Universe

 NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has snapped a stunning image of the Tarantula Nebula, shedding new light on the brightest region of starbirth in our galactic neighborhood. 

Also known as 30 Doradus, the nebula is a large star-forming region of ionized hydrogen gas that lies 161,000 light-years from Earth in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

Its turbulent clouds of gas and dust appear to swirl among the region's newly formed stars.

Miracles happen every day in every life...miracles as significant as a star being created. Sometimes, however, we fail to recognize the event as miraculous. For over 1 1/2 years now, Dave and I have witnessed countless miracles in our lives as we are fighting to live together as long as possible. People pop out of the woodwork wanting to pray for us...a teller on the phone, a checker at TJ's, every neighbor on the block, a radiation assistant, a carpet cleaner, a roofing guy, a cardiologist, our home care nurse and her prayer group in India...the list goes on.

We have never felt so loved, so supported or cared for. We are basking in God's love and provision for us. Even when things happen that I thought were wrong or untimely, turn out to be for the best and at the right time! 

My vision of the future is so very limited. God's is endless. So I pick his vision for us, want what he wants for us. Today is a good day, a very good day.

Amen.

My Next Project: I am not afraid

I found this silver charm on Etsy today. I think I have to have it to make my next bracelet!

The notation said it was from Joan of Ark so I looked it up:

As Joan of Arc was leaving Vaucouleurs to begin her mission to save France she was asked by a women: "How can you make such a journey when on all sides are soldiers?" to which Joan responded: 

"I do not fear the soldiers, for my road is made open to me; and if the soldiers come, I have God, my Lord, who will know how to clear the route that leads to messire the Dauphin. It was for this that I was born!" 

The original in French is: "Je n'ai pas peur des soldats, car ma route m' a été ouverte, et si les soldats viennent, j'ai Dieu, mon Seigneur, qui saura comment libérer la route qui mène à Sieur le Dauphin. C'est pour cela que je fus nais." 

From the website Maid of Heaven

America, America God Shed His Grace On Thee

The best song ever sung for our country by the great Ray Charles...please listen and be inspired

ray charles america

Counted in the Stars

It is a great sadness that we have lost many many people around the world from 
the 2020 virus. 

We don't know the whole story yet...we are still living in quarantine. These are not really happy times, but they are making us think of bigger things than cars and vacations and future plans.

I am reading the Little Prince 
and the Bible these days.



“In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing, when you look at the sky at night…”

Antoine Saint-Exupéry, "The Little Prince"




"Then God took Abram outside and said, 
"look up at the sky and count the stars - if indeed you can count them...So shall your offspring be."

Glorious Easter

We were invited to our friends, Jodie and Jeff, for Easter. I wanted to make her an Easter basket because it is just so much fun to gather spring flowers together in one spot...here is how it turned out.

I started with the variegated plant on the left and thought the nasturtium was the perfect contrast. Cell packs of cosmos and coleus filled in well.

See the little blue glass tulip? 

I got that at Alden Lane.

The white, cheerful basket came from Bloomies in Pleasanton. It had a liner so I just added soil and then the flowers.

I added Easter eggs, a mushroom and a glass tulip. The succulents were from our yard and the ribbon was the same we used at the Gala last September.

The best part? Jodie loved it!

Notre Dame...Our Lady is burning almost to the ground

Nearly unbespeakable news from Paris. The beautiful Lady is on fire. I have been there and seen her. Dave has walked up to the top of her and viewed Paris from on high. Somehow she is burning. I don't know if we will ever know the truth of why. Terrorism? Carelessness? Accident? The end of the age? It is simply horrendous for me, for the French. For the catholics? What does it mean? France has become secular and the church of God is just a place to visit with very little if any spiritual value to the people of secular France. The same thing happened in Christchurch NZ. We visited the famous church and it was a place of nothing related to Christ. In the church, there were postings on a wall of places to meet people for a massage, Muslim meetings, vegetarian meetings, gay meetings..no word about Jesus. So the earthquake hit and the Christ church fell to the ground. Now Notre Dame has burned. Against a backdrop of multiple church burnings in Paris in the past year, growing Muslim infiltration pushing out any Christian vestige of faith, and large disinterest in Christianity in Europe as a whole. I had an English patient once who was amazed at Americans always talking about God. She said, in England we never talk about God. So Europe has left God. doesn't care. I prayed for her child who had no normal vessels to the Kidney and was expected to die. I prayed for a healing. I prayed for a healing where the doctors would say, "we have never seen this before". The baby was healed and the doctors said. "We have never seen this before." So in England where no one talks or thinks about God, this God heals a baby. When faith leaves the heart, no miracle is done. Why did Notre Dame burn to the ground? Maybe no one cares about the God she is supposed to house. The truth though is that God lives in a human temple, a human heart. So if she is Never rebuilt, maybe that is just fine. As long as people invite him into the human temple. He will live forever. Happy Easter.

Last Spring...ahhh

It's been raining forever...yeah!...but the sun is a wonderful thing to see and so are flowers and memories of all...

A visit to Rose Garden in Portland 8 years ago...

..

A photo shoot I did with my friend Kris to display her candelabras..we found this old barn door!

A walk in Chicago back in the day

Portland again

my succulents!