(All photos and pictures adapted from
photos are mine unless noted. You can bring the pictures up in full screen by
double clicking on any image. Click on a border to return.)
Lee and I spent the four days of Thanksgiving on Grand Manan Island off the coast of New Brunswick in Canada. We stayed at a wonderful cottage on the southern end of the island in a house named "Dorothy." It was not just a place to stay but a house with a delightful history. It was owned by a woman from New Jersey who spent her summers there and in her eighties sold the cottage to a couple who already have two other cottages close by. Her selling was finalized as she knew the place she loved so much would be used by many others who could have something of the experience she enjoyed for so many years. The current owners, Shayne and his wife Anna-Marie are keeping with the desire of the original owner and are holding her legacy in a most wonderful way.
Take a look:
"Dorothy" in Frank L. Baum's Wizard of Oz was a girl of this world arriving in a magical place. "Dorothy" the cottage, with its charm and view of the ocean are not magical - I experienced it an eye opening event that was only about the present moment which let me know that I was in a special place removed from the usual passage of time of daily events that tend to fill the days. The words awesome, startling in its beauty, and the offering of a solid "Yes!" are inadequate to describe the joy of being there. The daily grind gives precious little of knowing that there is a 'self" within that can rise to the present moment and know something of the reality of God's immense gifts to us.
We were both Graced to have been there this past weekend.
The photos and the captions below may offer something of the things I am trying to convey with words. All references to "Dorothy" are used as a noun, pronoun, along with the implication of an underlying adjective to express the 'soul' of the cottage and the experience of being there remembered. (Perhaps it can also be a metaphor for God's loving care for us.)
The sun will not rise
until Dorothy releases the dawn
from its nightly rest -
where she held the ever new day
with a gentle embrace
until the doors open
and the Light of day arrives for work.
The angelic birds of heaven draw back the night
and lead it to safety into Dorothy's loving arms
The Morning Light will shine through
the cleansing surf as another day begins anew
for the shore, and for our awakening, each twenty-four hours
There are few words for the quality of mornings light.
The best way to see and know is to go and be there at sunrise.
When Dorothy reclaims the day
She releases the night for its shift -
The cycle of the day,
is the cycle of our daily being present to the Gift
that is given every twenty-four hours.
God knows we have built-in forgetters'
and will remind us of our Creators patience
with great frequency.
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I have posted this short audio several times before and I ask that you listen to it again, or perhaps hear it for the first time.
Simple Grattitude: https://www.box.com/s/a7262dad1064ab730005
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A little humor: The current definition of "partisan politics" - perhaps .....
Peace until next week, Bill Lagerstrom
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