Watercolor

The beginning of my watercolor phase -or career, maybe! Do you think?

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Manon Washburn taught and encouraged me at the camp where we stayed last week.

We painted on a table under the trees, and the weather was perfect.

Do you know where this is?

Camp

This is the labyrinth. Find something of significance in nature to you, and in silence walk the labyrinth with it, then contribute it to the center collection.

We are over 7,000 feet at Big Bear on one of the hour long nature walks we took every morning.

Lee at the labyrinth

The cabin where we stayed.

Leezza's First Birthday

What I Learned

I spent a week “finding joy” and writing about it daily in my past entries.

These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. -John 14:11.

In every joyful moment I experienced I saw divine hands, and the hands of people that have been in my life in one way or another. I had to take time to look and appreciate. It was well worth it.

…men are, that they might have joy. -John 15:25

Finding Joy Day 7

Look at me! I made a new lacy curtain out of an old shower curtain to replace the 20 year old set. There is nothing like a sense of accomplishment!

Finding Joy Day 6

Every Monday I attend a "Write Your Life Story" class. The teacher is an elderly professor who has helped create this group of 20 or so diverse individuals become a caring and open group of people. One woman, Irma, is pushed into the classroom in a wheelchair. She can only move her eyes, lips, and fingers and yet spends hours each week blowing into a tube to "write" her amazing story and reveal her strong character and intelligence. The members come from numerous countries, from Argentina, to India, etc. and share stories of war, poverty, or narrow escapes from tigers or bears. Each person and story is highly valued. I have learned to appreciate and love each individual there, no matter how different from me, because I know their story.

Finding Joy Day 5

Today at church a woman and her husband came in late and sat two seats over from me. She was someone I had never met. During the choir’s performance I was surprised that she reached over to me and tapped me saying, “You have the prettiest little face.” I was quite taken back and told her thank you for saying that. She left early and I didn’t have a chance to extend myself to her. That personal and kind act on her part was the highlight of my day and reinforced something I had taken in as truth: “We all need someone to look at us,” Milan Kundera from The Unberable Lightness of Being. I know what that encounter did for me, and I'd like to take that strangers role in my next encounter.

Accolade

A compliment can be uncomfortable.
It results in a blush.
But, I must admit, it gives me a rush.
Graciously I say, “Thank you,”
As I know I should,
Because it makes the giver feel good.
-Carol Oldham