Summer and we are dressed in shirts with no sleeves and skirts made of cotton and linen.  Our legs are bare, sandaled feet with coloured toes.

It’s my favourite, this season.  They say it’s better to have four seasons and truth is

Seasons are good.  Each has it’s own beauty and this Country is full and someone said just a few days ago that we don’t need to travel to other continents and lands because the exploring in our own

is endless.

Yet there is much to see in our World and I hope we don’t ruin the beauty in every corner

in Any corner

because

what a shame that would be.

In the beautiful place just north where there is often silence except for birds and crickets and sometimes a breeze

there is a path made of stones.

They’re big, the stones

and heavy and they’re stacked to make steps

from just outside

to the wood path where the red chairs perch

right

next

to the water.

It’s calm and when it’s early or late and I am

at the edge

and even my heart, my soul feels like it is sitting on the edge, I’m thankful

for sight and sound and I wonder at the beauty in Heaven because what I’m looking at is more than I can describe.  Bigger.

Feeling, is blessing and curse because there’s just no telling when it will rear it’s head

wrap itself around my heart and bring lovely or darkness.  Beauty or sad.  Sunny happiness or misty grey.

Today was full of feeling.  I sat at one table and then at another table.  First was coffee with a friend and the next was lunch with another friend and our talk was similar.  We shared and opened and smiled and we learned from each other.  We dug deep and when I sit with these, I come away with much.

The lunch friend talked about the steps we figuratively climb or descend and reminded me of what I already know but isn’t it so good to be reminded of what we already know and it’s this

God gives me just enough light to see the step I’m on.  

At both, coffee and lunch, we talked about Living Present because one day it will be done and what disappointment, to look back and realize we spent all of the today’s thinking about the yesterdays or the tomorrows.  To sit and look across a table and listen and learn is rich.  Drink in and come away with quenched thirst and full heart.  Tonight I’m tired and full of thoughts to think about as I rest.

The coffee friend talked about how she is so thankful for friends since she is alone in her house now.  I’ve told you about her before and She has a friend who reminded her recently of how good it is that she has precious friends and my friend said back

yes, she does have dear and precious ones and then they go home and there she is

alone

except the really good news is that she isn’t,

alone

because she is never without Jesus and He is her dearest friend and then I just could not help myself.  That fulness.  The blessing of feelings, wrapped itself around my heart and I was so overjoyed for her and yet broken for her and the blur came and I couldn’t see her for just a few seconds.  She was so beautifully guileless and transparent and I felt her sincerity.  It was truth to her

and also to me and I was thankful for her and she was pure blessing and I thought and then thought more about whether He

Jesus

is so dear to me that it just doesn’t matter about not seeing anything but the very step I’m on. When it’s tempting to worry about the next step and the next minute is uncertain, just like my coffee friend said

“when you have Jesus you have everything.”

There’s a song about Him and what He has to offer.  He offers the best.

The song is about Mercy and strength and His multiplied peace in our multiplied trials and His love has no limits and His power has no boundaries.  It was written by Annie J Flint in the middle of the 19th century and it’s called He Giveth More Grace

Tomorrow I’m seeing another friend.  The talk will be vastly different from the talks I had today because tomorrow’s friend isn’t familiar with

Jesus.

She hasn’t experienced the strength He offers or reached out to take hold of the peace He wants her to have.  Today, I mentioned her to the friends that spoke truth to me.  I told my coffee friend that I’ve heard lots of times the saying

Our actions speak louder than our words.  I know it’s true and yet I also know that no matter how loud my actions are, if people, tomorrow’s friend, never hears the words

“Jesus loves you and wants to give you peace and has offered you mercy through His blood,” then how will she know about it?

Actions are good but words are Most good sometimes.  Important stuff, this.

I’m going now, to sleep and I’m resting on the truth that even if I forget,

am full of the feeling of

dark, sad, or misty grey

Jesus is still everything and I have Him.

Better and far more

He has me.

If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
    If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
 If I take the wings of the morning
    and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
 even there your hand shall lead me,
    and your right hand shall hold me.  Psalm 139:8-10