Personal Prayers of Thanksgiving and Praise

For my Sacred Life Sunday post today, I discovered the wonderful quote below over at Does Not Wisdom Call. The blogger, Ellie Finlay, often serves up beautiful visual displays and inspiring words for reflection. I hope you will visit her site soon. Here's the quote from Michael Ramsey, one time Archbishop of Canterbury -

Without meditative and contemplative prayer the sacramental life can become shallow and formal and can lack interior depth. It is essential that the liturgical movement with its great emphasis upon the corporate action of the faithful in worship be accompanied by no less emphasis upon interior prayer.

I find that it is tempting to be transported by the beauty of the Episcopal liturgy perhaps at times to only appreciate it for its loveliness rather than for its worship quality. For me, it is essential to remind myself that the beauty of this service is God inspired, God given and if for no other reason during the church service I'm attending, I should be on my knees giving thanks for the beauty and privilege of worshiping the giver of my life. I hope you have a chance for a little liturgy in your life today either in a church or in your own special silence of interior prayer.

Photo - Courtesy Wikipedia - Canterbury Cathedral

Faith and Will - the book

I'm enjoying a nice little, recently released book, "Faith and Will" by Julia Cameron, best-selling author of "The Artist's Way." Ms. Cameron's straightforward, easy to understand writing seems to me to be a primer for faith as understood by practicing Christians. Its content subtitle is "Weathering the Storms in Our Spiritual Lives" and indeed, she taps the reader on the shoulder with reminders of why we may begin to believe in God, how to continue to believe, and why we may doubt from time to time.

Last night's read before my lights out time was on page 160 with this quote -

Proverbs 1:5 - "Let the wise also hear and gain in learning."

"This Scripture (according to the author) advises us that no matter what level we have reached in our faith, there is always another level that we can go to. There is no limit on how close we can get to God. God is always ready to be still more intimate with us. God is always ready to be even more our companion and our mentor. There is no upper ceiling on our relationship with God. There is always room for more growth, more tranquility, more faith."

I found that of great comfort to fall asleep by and to reflect on again this a.m. Where am I in my faith and am I ready to be yet more intimate in relationship with God? Do I believe that God is interested in even matters I might believe too unimportant to bother Her with? Well, do I? How about you? Something seemingly trivial in your life that bringing it before God might ease your burden, your pain, your fear? Questions I ask from time to time of myself - Julia Cameron has given me a reminder of living in the faith that I espouse.

Personal Values Assessment

Over at Magpie Girl's site there's an invitation to list 8 values by which we live our lives. A little space, a little thought and here's the personal list from me.....with some license for listing Self-Esteem in the mix, I'm not sure that qualifies as a value........but seems important to me in my "values mix."

Love - Everything else is secondary to this value for me
Faith - Love and faith are almost tied for first place
Service - To family and to community
Generosity - I have been shown such generosity in my life, I find it only right that I should continue to show others a full measure of it
Integrity - is a desire that I find extraordinarily important for me
Honesty - perhaps to a fault, I believe in honesty
Compassion - is so entertwined with love as to be almost inseparable
Self-Esteem - See above. I've been working on this one all of my life and I feel more and more comfortable with it all the time, in fact downright folksy with it:)

It's a baby what?

Image via Wikipedia

It's a baby, I think or maybe not. It's kind of green and very small. It was captured by a friend as a very special gift for me. I don't know if it's a male or a female. (I probably should have two? Will he/she die of loneliness and fear tonight? I hope not!)

I've released it in a very damp area of the flower garden, with water, bugs and shelter nearby. We are supposed to have some rain tonight and I really am eager for it to just hunker down and stay, perhaps attract more small creatures like itself. I don't know - what do you know about little TREE FROGS??? (And please no lectures about importing foreign species, he/she/it was already living in Walla Walla:)) If I discover it's really bad for the environment, I'll just put up a sign that only the crows and magpies can read.......

Why would a friend give me a little tree frog? Well, because I really wanted one, of course, and besides doesn't every mature, intelligent, lovely, down-to-earth female gardener want a few little frogs of her own?

Have you ever wanted something that seemed totally out of character for you to have? Have you ever told someone else of that wish, never dreaming they would take you seriously, and/or have you just proceeded to find it on your own? Come on, I would love to hear of that special something you "gifted" yourself that no one else would have thought of finding for you!


Photo - no, that's not THE frog - just someone that looks like mine:)

Black and white and living color

Can the lens and the shadows catch the soul of the tree?
Perhaps it matters little, the capture of the tree’s soul
Yet with the simple effects of shadow and light
The eye may glimpse unexpected pleasure
A treasure of its own, the secret of its own colorful creative soul!

Photo - Courtesy Abbey of the Arts 36th Poetry Party
Visit the Poetry Party today - fun and fame.....well fun, anyway:)