Just Wondering.....

Our friend, Tom, related a story to us about his elderly mother who lay dying. As she slept in her bed she suddenly awoke and sat bolt upright. "Tom, am I dying?" she asked. "Tom, there are all these people here telling me that I'm dying, and one of them came and poked me in the side and woke me up!" Afterwards, she lay back down to sleep and awoke in heaven.

In Acts 12, it tells the story of Peter imprisoned and then rescued by an angel. Verse 7 says that the angel "struck Peter on the side and woke him..."

I just can't help but wonder, is this angel operandi??

Ponderings

I used to think that older people sat quietly and still for long periods because they were too feeble or tired to do anything else, and that may well be the case. But, now I am thinking that it also may be because they have hearts and minds that are too full.

The Scripture says that after the birth of Christ when Mary had been visited by the Magi, she "pondered these things in her heart." I am finding that the older one gets the more there is to ponder! It's not easy to think through all the things that life affords.

This week, in about 36 hours time, with great relief we welcomed home a son from war, sat with a daughter in the emergency room awaiting word from the doctor about a threatened miscarriage, saw - with great relief again - the ultrasound image of a healthy, busy baby, and then learned that the greatly-anticipated, greatly-needed employment fell through. Again.

What to think? How to feel?

This I know: the overwhelming goodness of God continues; through good and through bad it continues, and there I can find rest, for His purposes in our lives will be accomplished. This I feel: the exhilaration, the fear, the joy, the discouragement - is all real. It's a lot to ponder!

A Psalm of Thanksgiving

Shout for joy to God, all the earth;

sing the glory of his name;

give to him glorious praise!

Say to God, "How awesome are your deeds!

So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you.

All the earth worships you and sings praises to your name."

Come and see what God has done:

he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man.

He turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the river on foot.

There did we rejoice in him, who rules by his might forever,

whose eyes keep watch on the nations -

let not the rebellious exalt themselves.

Bless our God, O peoples; let the sound of his praise be heard,

who has kept our soul among the living and has not let our feet slip.

For you, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried.

You brought us into the net; you laid a crushing burden on our backs;

you let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water;

yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance.

I will come into your house with burnt offerings;

I will perform my vows to you, that which my lips uttered

and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.

I will offer to you burnt offerings of fattened animals,

with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams;

I will make an offering of bulls and goats.

Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for my soul.

I cried to him with my mouth, and high praise was on my tongue.

If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

But truly God has listened; he has attended to the voice of my prayer.

Blessed be God, because he has not rejected my prayer

or removed his steadfast love from me! ~ Psalm 66

After the Waters

The Nashville flood of May 1st - 3rd was more stunning than words can say. I've heard story after story from friends who experienced far worse than we did; story after story of strangers who went through disaster and lost everything but their lives. Even with the telling of stories, words seem to fail everyone. How do you fully describe such things? In the days following the receding of the waters, we've been back out and around through our town, and are awed at the high level of mud and debris lines. In some places, they were far above our heads as we drove by. But, amazingly you can only mostly see the line where it was - so much outside has already been cleaned up.

As it's been said, "A picture is worth a thousand words". Here you will find both pictures and words of what happened in Nashville. I'm so proud of the people here - what they endured and continue to endure. The clean-up will be a long time coming, but the rushing waters have only revealed the gold that resides in hearts and minds, and all to the glory of God.

As clean-up continues and people begin to put their lives back together, keep them in your prayers and donate if you can. Thank you.

Evening in May

I can think of nothing nicer than to share this honeysuckle-scented evening with you.

The Thomas Affleck rose has just burst into bloom.

Dwarf Foxglove and Pincushion Flower.

The valley beyond.

Pretty pink Bright Eye looks down the walk.

Our newest rose, Lavender Lassie, overlooks Ladybug while she overlooks who-knows-what. Lavender Lassie will eventually grow to 20+ feet!

As they say here in Tennessee, "Come and set awhile!"

I was SO delighted to get this picture of such fun symmetry! Tweety (in the middle) looks like he's giving the game plan to the rest of the team.

Still chatting.

THE END!

Backyard Waterways

It's been a week now since Nashville and surrounding areas flooded. The waters have receded for the most part, and as they did, more unfortunate souls were found - even as of yesterday. At this point the death toll from the storm, which included a tornado, is at 31. This disaster was largely ignored by the Media, but over the weekend it leaked out here and there and today the Administration has sent 2 representatives to Nashville to take a look at things.

We Middle Tennesseans however, have not been sitting around waiting for the government to come pick us up. Volunteers of all types have sprung into action and needs are being met. Neighborhood after neighborhood has been taking care of its own. THAT'S how it's done! Kudos to Middle Tennesseans!

Our own clean-up is finished: rock (as much as could be found) put back in the driveway, debris and trash picked up, mud cleaned out from the barns. We've begun collecting things for a church in Nashville that lost everything, and the many clothes from our yard sale have made for a good start.

Continuing the photo tour, I'd like to show you what happened in the back yard while a river roared through the front.

Our back yard is at the foot of a hill, and even then it continues sloping downward to the road and valley bottom. All that rain came down in three areas from the hill - one just behind the house, the other right into the back yard, and the other through the garden and large dog run. That last one was one giant, flowing sheet of water.

Here it comes from behind the house. I tried protecting my recently planted herbs with the pine straw bales, but it was gutted anyway. At least 3" of soil washed away as did a few herbs. I found them, though, and replanted. It looks like they're going to make it.

Here the water continues on and is joined by the 2nd course of water flowing down the hill. It came down right to the base of the tree. Several inches of dirt and grass were washed away from the tree trunk base. At one point, the water came within 1 1/2 feet of our back door and we thought we might have to barricade it somehow, but that didn't happen.

The water flows on around the corner ...

... under the bridge ...

... and out the other side.

Here you can see that sheet of water as it courses through the dog run and on down into the front field.

Mind you, we don't have a creek here - usually.

It would have all been quite pretty had it not been so destructive, most of all for other people.

Franklin Floods

Last week the weather forecast predicted a stormy weekend, much like what had occurred the weekend before ... severe storms and tornadoes, and that's pretty typical for our area. But, what actually did happen surprised pretty much everyone. Franklin, Nashville, and most of Middle Tennessee experienced what the news announcers quickly began to call "an historic flood." And indeed it was!

The rain began to fall Friday during the night and continued almost non-stop until Sunday night. There were breaks in the action, and light rain, too; but for a lot of the time it was torrential, monsoon-like rain. And, oh, the lightening was incredible. These were fierce, intense storms. By mid-morning Saturday we had the first of 3 floodings here, and each time the water rose in literally minutes. I've heard of flash floods, but had never seen one and certainly never expected to see one right here at home. I mean, really, the creek is a dry creek!

In these first two photos the creek (on the left side of the picture, out of sight) has jumped the banks and quickly makes a river that runs across our front fields. It was impressive to say the least!In the third photo, the creek - which is just on the other side of the tree line, is flowing full force through the fence. It was amazing that the fence wasn't compromised considering the large debris that was carried, and caught, through it.Here we are looking across our field to our neighbors driveway entrance. The big brick entry is just visible above the water. From our driveway, and continuing down about a quarter-mile, the road was a river cascading down the embankment on the other side. We would have never imagined the road would - or could - ever flood, but it did!While we watched this happen three different times over the weekend, we also watched on TV what was happening in the rest of Middle Tennessee. On Facebook, we got reports from people throughout the area about what was happening in their neighborhoods. The stories were just unbelievable. Any place that was low or near a creek or river flooded. Downtown Franklin was almost completely surrounded by water with only one road left passable into and out of town. All three interstates which run through Nashville were closed due to flooding. One of the sections of I-65 that was closed included our own exit which was underwater. On Saturday afternoon as we watched an I -24 traffic cam on TV, a portable building came floating down the interstate, crashed into a semi-truck and disintegrated. Vehicles were abandoned everywhere because the waters rose so quickly - there was hardly any time to get out of cars or houses. That day, there were 600 water rescues in Nashville alone. The May 1st Flood was on us before anyone knew what was happening, and we still had 24 hours of rain yet to come.

One weather site I read said that Franklin had 17.63 inches of rain on Saturday and 8.76 inches on Sunday. Other sites say anywhere from 12 - 18" for the weekend. Our neighbors measured 15" in their rain gauge, but said it overflowed significantly before they were able to check it each time. Regardless, it was a heck of a lot of rain. Oh, and did I mention we had a Yard Sale on Saturday? It became a carport sale, and actually did very well. Yard Sale shoppers are an intrepid group.

I have more High Meadow flood and aftermath photos yet to blog about, as well as impressive photos I've found on-line, and you can see those in the next posting. Meanwhile, please pray for folks here who've lost so much and are still in the throes of suffering, and if you feel so moved, please donate through the Red Cross to recovery efforts that will be going on for some time to come.