Friendship

It was so much fun to come onto my blog and see a comment from a friend about "The Landing" posting. Tami raises healthy animals, whether they be birds, dogs, cats or a variety of other creatures great and small. I thought what she wrote about birds was very interesting and wanted to share it here.

Vicky, I am always pleased to see you have added something to your blog! I love your new look!(This is a picture of Java at 3 years old.)

I thought I'd add something that you might not know, but which I find absolutely enthralling about Amazons regarding the subject of scent. Each Amazon produces its own unique aroma when they are very happy and content. It is described by some owners as a floral scent, and by others as a rather musky scent, but most find it very pleasing. I noticed when I held Java or Kiwi,that they had a wonderful aroma, but it meant so much more to realize it just comes in those special moments when they are feeling very happy or loving, and those moments come when they are sitting on my hand or when I draw near to their cage to visit them! They do not emit this aroma when they are playing or actively prowling around the room, only when they are sitting quietly with me. It always amazes me the way God has implanted in His Creation, those things to illustrate tiny facets of His Word to us. What a beautiful way to illumine the verse that says that we are a fragrant aroma of His Presence in every place. Is it that same feeling of love and contentment in us, that produces that aroma for others to know Him? If so, it makes me more determined to take the time to sit in His presence, bask in His love, and allow His aroma to penetrate my being. Tami

Tami and I have corresponded for many years. At first we sent letters back and forth the old fashioned way. I looked so forward to the arrival of her letters and when I saw one in the mailbox I would race home and settle in for an enjoyable and leisurely reading. Tami's letters are always special because they are thought provoking, profound without being cumbersome and sparkling with her special wit. We each saved our letters and now enjoy reviewing them. We are continually astounded at how the Lord was uniting us through the miles by giving us the same insights on the same day. Often we would be thinking the same ideas without the other one knowing about it until days later when we communicated. We have always wanted to combine our friendship into a "joint venture" by linking our communications as if they were letters sent back and forth through the mails. Perhaps that time is just around the corner now.

Today, we still have to communicate through long distance, but now of course we communicate via email or computer chat programs. The link to Tami's blog is www.thesilvertrunk.blogspot.com

The Landing

"Hawks are social birds." my Dad used to say. He would add, "You will see a lot of them perched on power poles along the road." Therefore, whenever we're on a drive back to Iowa, I like to count how many hawks I see as we travel along the interstate. And I wave to them. I think what Dad meant by the hawk being social is that they are not so shy of man. It makes me happy to see a hawk who is one of a social bunch. It pleases me to wave at a creature that doesn't shun me.

In actuality, each one is oblivious to a red Vibe on a busy highway. He's occupied, instead, with watching for the faint movement of a grassblade knowing that hustling underneath it would be a tasty morsel for dinner.

Can birds smell?

David Allen Sibley in The Sibley Guide to Bird Life & Behavior, says that in comparison to vision and hearing, the other senses in a bird are secondary. However, in nocturnal birds, vultures and tubenoses, the sense of smell can be significant. These birds are able to locate carrion by detecting the odor of a chemical that is emitted by rotting meat. (Since I procrastinate at this bit of housekeeping, it's therefore a good thing there isn't a Turkey Vulture near my refrigerator.)

There is something wondrous about a bird. The fact that they can soar in places that we can only think about is, I think, part of the wonder. How delightful it is to spot a fallen feather, claim it as your own and then poke it into your cap! A bird's plumage is so luxurious and gorgeous that it makes it hard to believe that underneath that lofty bit of color is a scrawny creature with a pokey neck.

A friend of mine raises Amazon parrots and for awhile also raised cockatiels. I have a prized cinnamon cockatiel hand-raised and given to me from Tami. I named her Acorn and she and I are buddies. I collect Acorn's fallen feathers and have been known to give them as special gifts or use them in some of my art projects.

I went to a quilting class one time where the quilt artist was doing a series of quilts on the topic of feathers. She was not just quilting ordinary feather shapes, however. This women studied feathers by magnifying them many many times and then made dazzling designs from the hidden-to-the-natural-eye shapes and colors. She showed slides of the colors and textures that were underlying the surface. They were sensational.

Since that time, I have been fascinated by thinking about those hidden things that are so easily passed over in the superficial glance or in the haste of the moment. I find that if I remain enchanted by small treasures, then all of life holds wonderment. But if I lose sight of the intrigue of finding the veiled treasure, then I find myself becoming self-absorbed and depressed. I would much rather spend my time waving at hawks and thinking about their aloof but friendly beauty than being annoyed about my ingrown toenail. I'm thankful that God created such variety to enchant and draw us out of ourselves.

"Is it by your understanding that the hawk soars, Stretching his wings toward the south? Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up And makes his nest on high? On the cliff he dwells and lodges, Upon the rocky crag, an inaccessible place. From there he spies out food; His eyes see it from afar." Job 29:26-29

(Graphic based on tutorial by DaBratz membership group.)

Friends Share!

Last night Tami and I went through letters that we had written to each other 20 years ago. Those were tumultuous years for us both. Twenty years ago those letters encouraged us as we held hands through the mail and we were amazed at how timeless those words were. The lessons we learned and applied in those days are bringing forth fruit even today!

I found a newer "letter" that I had written to Tami, but this one was sent via email. It contains the same intense sharing for which we are noted: April 15, 2003
Tami,
I sat outside this afternoon, in this beautiful weather, scribbling some notes. Even though Diann had been here for 4 days and left yesterday, I still feel the need for "intellectual talk". Therefore, I am going to share with you my journal, in doing so, I will be sharing my heart - and this is what I love to do. I hope it makes some sense to another mind.
...
I'm writing at my make-shift desk: a board stretched across the ample arms of an adirondack chair. On it are my notebook, beverage, highlighter and a couple of books - Friends For The Journey by L'Engle and Shaw; and Only Fifty Years Ago by Gladys Hasty Carroll. A sheaf of papers: enlarged copies of papercuts from Wana Derge's book, are peering at me from beneath the books. These books are not only good reading, but are also useful for holding the papers in place as a breeze eddies around me. The cat is laying stretched out at my feet. And Acorn, the bird, is chirping in her cage. I positioned her cage half in and half out of the sun so she also could enjoy this incredible weather. The stimulus of a Phil Keaggy CD "Still Life" floats through the open office window and my chair comfortably sits on the patio - out of the sun but not out of the freshness, security and peace of this place. What an incredible blessing and experience this is! I'm enjoying the beauty of this house we so love, and the solitude of our backyard. Almost everything that I so enjoy is merely a few paces away - or it's on my desk now! How can God be so good to me!

Today I even made the final IRS loan payment from a loan taken out 3 years ago. On this day of April 15 we sent in the 2002 tax forms and will be getting some money back, and we completed paying off the 1999 tax bill! It is delicious to have such rich contentment at this moment. I don't want to lose it or diminish it.

I sense a rich joy soaking down to my very toes. Oh, to be able to express in some form, or in a variety of creative forms, the majesty of God's artistry! His Art lies within and without every life form. We behold it with our eyes, but we also embrace it with our heats, minds and senses. His Artistry seeks a level deep inside each individual. Art is more than a beautiful painting, a gracefully executed dance, a perfectly formed sculpture, or a moving group of well-selected words or images. Art, from the hand of God, is all of those things together and much much more. All these forms swirl simultaneously in some great inner dance within all that lives. It is much like C.S. Lewis writes about when he tries to convey the Trinity.

However, God's skillful Artistry has incapacitated me. I'm unable to express the joy of His presence in such a multi-dimensional way. I sense it, but it turns at a 90 degree angle within me and blocks further flow. I don't allow it's conception to fully play out within my heart. I want to stop it - like stop motion camera work - so that I can capture a moment. It is too much for me to grasp at one sitting, or in one moment. It is because I am slow and heavy. Yet, to stop the unfolding of His Artistic drama so that I can savor it, can also be a means to suspend the power of it. The sorrowful truth is that there is a time to savor the facets of His Workings. There is also a time to allow the drama to unfold it's holistic purpose so that I can gain an understanding of His Mission statement through it.

For example, I am decidedly refusing to leave this habitation of peace. A misguided desire for muchness, or my internal "Attention Deficit" disorder, would move me away from here to look for a "better" place in which to view God's Art. Or it would attempt to drive me to look for a better means to express to Him what He's stirring within me. NO, I am seated here to stay for a duration. I will allow this duration to work its way through me. I will not try to sketch (badly), or sew (fitfully), or knit (disjointedly), and be confused about what it is I'm to do at the moment (creatively). I'm just a-sittin! And I'm just a-stayin'! I am not going to harbor guilt feelings about work that awaits me, or "art" that is not conceived and possibly never will be.

For this is His moment in me. Whatever I try to do myself is flat and lifeless. I am awaiting the waking of His Artistic Life within me. This can only come as I allow Him to freely work deeply deep down in the cold currents and dark seas of my soul and to bring out the Life of His Spirit in me. The awakening and refreshing of His life in these dark fountains release His artistic forms through this stilted and clumsy frame.

True Art takes time. A lot of time. It is tedious. How much more willing I am to look at art second-hand, to jealously view the results of someone else's creativity rather than persevere through the messy tedium of working, reworking, and working yet again through the germ of my own idea. Honing an idea, developing a concept, is like playing with modeling clay. It is never set, and develops best through the warmth of my own hands. It is the exhausting workingness of it all that can be off-setting.

God's process is unfolded through the seasons which come and go, then take their curtain call so that the next season can come center stage. Yet, He upholds the promise of the seasonal cycle and finds that it is good. I cannot have summer for 3 seasons in a row, as much as I would prefer it to be that way. Still, I find anticipation in knowing that summer will again appear after 3 seasons have passed. This artistic wonder births a delight and security. This delight and security incubates a sense of well-being. And that is amazing! We don't have to have it all in this moment.

Society around us would tell us that "ARTISTES" stir things up and reveal things that are not always comfortable, as if artists have morphed into prophetic gods to whom we should give our total attention. And yet, God's Artistry does bring a sense of well-being. I will allow that the beauty of a storm does not always engender a sense of well-being: power and awe, yes, but well-being? Not really. Still, this is also a part of God's Art work. The well-being underlying a storm rests within the heart of the believer who knows in Whom he believes, and his foundation is settled upon the Person and Character of his God, and not upon the appearance at the moment. All that I do needs to be also founded upon the Rock Who is my total Source, and through Whose security and truth my work develops.

God created the world in 6 days. But He worked from a plan and each day built upon the preceeding day. Anything that I do is to spring from a plan. A plan gives framework from which a final result is ensured. If there is no framework, there may not be a final result because the building will collapse before the end can come. A plan can motivate one through the tedium of the precess in order to complete what is begun in the excitement of the idea.

God's Artistry springs from a life that is 100% alive. Is it possible, Father, for me to be 100% alive? I know this is true: that true Artistry springs from a life that is 100% alive. I don' t know how to become that. In fact, I cannot become that on my own. It is only as You work it in me, through the modeling clay process that an idea is birthed. However, as I sit here, at my writing desk in this wonderful moment of time which You have so graciously given me, I await the unfurling of Your life. And I seek the unfolding of Your Words which give Light and Life.
Love,
Vicky