Quarter to three, late August, cool, breezy day. I sit under old pines at the lake’s boat launch, where we drove with a picnic, to settle into pine fragrance and sun shimmer off water and just enjoy the quiet.
Another group, but with voices subdued, have unpacked their picnic at a spot not far from me, but only minutes ago. They’re eating now, and may leave soon after they fill up with food and fleeting fellowship.
I sit here alone now because Husband was chilly in the shadows, and the table they claimed was the partially sunlit spot to which he was about to migrate. So he’s gone up the hill a bit to bask in warmer air. But it’s all sun there, too glaring for my eyes to read or write, and not near the lake’s light lapping.
So I stay. Whenever my sandaled feet and Capri-bared ankles chill, I walk them to patches of light nearby, let sun rays toast them warmer, then return. I’m glad that before I left the house I grabbed the wool cardigan now cozying my back and shoulders. And glad I grabbed something else…
The water shimmers in broad stripes of sun and shade-water made green by tree reflection from the opposite shore. A crow caws in the distance, light laughter floats over the water, crickets drone all around.
He did this for me, I think gratefully, drove me here like this, to give me respite from the sequestering my fading vision’s bringing on. Here feels a bit like lakeside Canada, without the loons, and oh, I was so wishing for lakeside Canada!
Yet this is also a revisit to where, exactly where, I used to come sometimes to write when things got noisy at home, or just because I felt like it. Right here I’d park my laptop, on this weather-warped rough wood and tap out words as they’d come in intermittent runs. I think maybe I could still safely make this trip alone, via some back roads. But this is nice, with husband near, yet at some distance, solitude yet not oblivion.
I can almost hear the conversation from the nearby group. They seem to be telling bear and skunk tales to one another, talk not unpleasant to have nearby, talk made soft by courtesy and pine needle’s muffling and just the tone of this place which seems to whisper, “Hush.”
I have a quarter bottle of Snapple left from lunch and a still untouched Baby Ruth from the ma-and-pa store on the way here, my camera, my pen, my journal, and a cache of books I grabbed just before heading out the back door and stuffed into the canvas bag now beside me.
I draw out my volume of choice, open it, read but a few words and sigh more gratitude, thankful I have this with me, thankful for what I’m reading.
For God’s voice comes through it, echoing what He’s lately spoken via other means:
Live My presence every moment. Breathe it, for it is your very Life and Breath. ~“Breath” or “breathe” have come repeatedly this week, and in this context of God’s life in us. First from Husband, then from a fellow blogger, then from her blog’s comments, and now here at this picnic bench, in Andrew Murray’s Waiting on God:
“Even in the regenerate man there is no power of goodness in himself: he has and can have nothing that he does not each moment receive; and waiting on God is just as indispensible, and must be as continuous and unbroken, as the breathing that maintains his natural life.” (Chapter 1, “First Day.”)
[This was August 29, first day of my vacation from blogging. I came apart to meet with God. And by His grace I did. Since then, God has done an amazing thing with my eyesight. You can read about it here.]
Beautiful post. I love your photos and your words…reminds me of being by the lake nearby my home too. I want to share a healing verse with you and pray it with you over your eyes: Deuteronomy 34:7 “Moses was 120 years old when he died; his eye was not dim nor his natural force abated.” Lord, as you were with Moses, so You are with each of us! Blessed are our eyes to see and our ears to hear! Thank you for your promise to us in Jesus…you are risen with healing in your wings for us, and that includes healing restoration for our eyes! I pray that for my sister here in Jesus name, name above all names.
Pam!
Bless you, bless you, bless you, sister, for your faith and your prayer! You have got to read this post
“Breathing, Lakeside,” above, basically came right out of my personal journal entry for Aug 29. But since a a week or so ago, I have been seeing a LOT of things my eyes “shouldn’t” be able to see! And it’s because of prayers like yours a few other people have been praying. I credit yours, too, because I believe in “retro” prayer results, meaning God’s answered the prayer before it was prayed because He knew just what would be prayed. (I’ve witnessed this kind of thing, too.) I appreciate your specific prayer now for another reason: the eye condition I have is genetic, and I (of little faith) think things like, “Will this last? because I still have the same genes.”
I want you to know I just threaded my sewing machine needle, by hand and eye, no needle threader — twice, and each time on the first try. I mean I could see the eye and the thread going through it! This kind of thing is momentous, cause for celebrating! I’m planning on going out highway driving on Tuesday. Prayers for good driving vision will be so much appreciated, because losing that mobility has been my biggest hindrance to many things I’d hoped to be able to do.
Thank you so much again, dear sister! You have blessed me so much!
Sylvia, I wasn’t sure of your name here, so I addressed you as sister in the last comment… but wow, your testimony is amazing and beautiful! I remember hearing a testimony of someone who could see who had once been blind, and when doctors checked, the eye itself still showed it impossible. Yet they could see 20/20! So God can certainly heal “genetic’ disorders! I wasn’t sure how you would take what I wrote, but now I now you really do believe for this… God has been showing me so much about declaring His word, how the word “receiving’ really means “taking” and we are to “take” our healing according to Galatians 3:13, 14 and Mark 11… What you said about “retro” praying is so interesting to me. I have wondered lately, since God is not limited by time, if He could use our prayers even after someone has passed on. But only in the sense that he knew we would be praying them and if no one else would while the person was alive, then he could use them ahead of time so to speak… I wonder. For example, I have always had a heart for hollywood celebrities, having grown up out there and having had a love of classic movies. Often I find myself praying for them as I watch them onscreen… and sometimes have had to stop myself, thinking well that person is no longer alive. Because i do believe the person needs to receive the Lord before death. But, what if God knew someone would be praying and somehow used those prayers before the person died? Does that sound weird? It’s just a thought I’ve wondered, being such a prayer warrior. But in any case, yes I do believe that God could have known I was going to pray that for you today and made that part of your previous healing. God is good! I will keep praying for your eyes. My eyes are no where near that bad, but I have floaters and a few other stuff going on and sometimes have difficulty reading blogs, computer etc…. and I need my eyes for writing, drawing and work. If you think of me in prayer, I have been out of steady work for two years and things are getting to a desperate point with needing a good paying job etc. I don’t write this on my own blog…since using that as a “resume” of sorts too. God bless you abundantly too! I think God led me here today to pray that verse over you as I was standing on it yesterday for myself. Thanks for praying with me too on my blog for all the needs for our election and for NY in this time…
Pam,
Sound weird? Probably to a lot of people. But all His miracles sound weird and unbelievable to those still too “blind” to “see.” 🙂 I’ve wondered some things along those lines, too, anyhow. Here’s a testimony an elderly told me many years ago about how God had to have answered her prayer before she prayed it, when she was a little MK in some isolated South American outpost. I guess we ought to just go ahead and pray when we feel prompted to do it and not think about the impossibilities, huh?
And I’ll have to look for One Bella Day.
I will be praying for your job/financial plight. I may email you with some links to posts where I tell about God dropping money out of the sky just at the last minute and things like that when I was living (really) hand-to-mouth. Just to encourage you. He sees our needs, and cares.
Meant to tell you too… your post reminds me of a post I posted about a beautiful day at the little nearby lake… One Bella Day… 🙂
Your blog is filled with gems! Love that story about the red shoes… have read so many similar situations when God provides the “impossible” like that…especially for praying children. Yes, do send me some of those links to posts about last minute provision. (I do feel like I’m living hand to mouth for the first time in my life, single, looking for full time work after being employed so long at one place.) I have been believing for those myself. It’s happened a few times… Today, I’ve been stressed over it all, but I have a CD a ministry sent me with someone reading beautiful promise verses – was just listening in my car as i ran errands, and the word breathed peace. I try not to speak out the negatives about situations, but just keep declaring God’s providing words… My Bella post is here: https://wordglow.wordpress.com/2011/07/17/one-bella-day/
Thanks for the encouraging! Your writing is beautiful and uplifting!
Sylvia, Pam guided me to your post, and what a treat this was to read your lilting lyrism depicting a sylvan setting, complete with lovely lake. I felt as if I were there. I so relate about deteriorating eyesight, having just had yet another vision change (I see extremely poorly). I am so sorry and lift you to the One who is the Light of the world, praying He will flood your eyes with light. I am also reminded of the significance of Heartsight (my ministry name is Heartsight Journaling), and I continually ask God to open the eyes of my heart to see Jesus in every situation (ala Eph. 1:18). I love this quote by Saint-Exupery: “It is only with the heart that one sees rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.” This is essentially it–I can’t take time to look it up, but I think I’m very close. May God heal your physical eyes and continue to open your spiritual eyes, Sylvie (if I might call you that), so that you see *Him* in all situations. And alluding to your breath theme, your writing is a breath of fresh air! Blessings, Lynn
Hi Lynn,
I’m so glad you stopped by and commented! We seem to be experiencing all kinds of miraculous and providential happenings around the environs of this blog lately. (See my first comment reply to Pam and the link on it.) So I am going to be praying for your vision, too!
I agree, though. I would never trade my ability to “see” the Kingdom of God (as in John 3) for my physical eyesight, and since I got the diagnosis of a corneal dystrophy, God has given many beautiful lessons and special blessings right in the midst of the visual deterioration! Some of the posts here about that might encourage you. To see them, click on “Vision Loss” in the sidebar.
Certainly you may call me “Sylvie.” I like the moniker, and it seems it’s always special people who want to call me that.
God bless you, and work wonders on your eyes!
Breath in, breath out; continually, in-spire, out-spire; round and round and round we pray, and He speaks real life-giving grace and mercy in it all; truth in, lie out; faith in, fear out; grace in, sin out; in, out; in out….every breath we take, He is there; in, out, in out…..
Hi Kelly,
Yes. The way you put it brought chuckles of appreciation. I like all your in-outs. So beautifully true!
Thank for commenting!
So beautiful! Makes me want to sit there, too! Something so soothing about being in nature . . . Thank you for sharing!