Back to the Fields

It was a real battle to get my dear bro from Africa here to our little city from Chicago where he’d been holding some meetings with a pastor there who is also a very dear friend of ours.  One of our other friends from North Carolina had some health issues arise and couldn’t make it so it’s been very interesting.  None the less we get a breather come Saturday and hope to have the day with him which we are very excited about.  Life hands you lemons…make lemonade! 

Back to the fields..yes, that’s the title.  Visiting the little stores in the tiny dot’s sometimes called towns here in Montana is something I actually enjoy.  This seems like a blast from the past and somehow brings me real peace…seems like the shadow of better times…except there’s still today’s high prices.  Going back to the cabin we find a different view of things.  I treasure seeing similar things a different wayor maybe it’s just finding new joy in the familiar…I don’t know.  I never tire of looking up the gentle hills to the big blue sky.  Yeah, I’ve seen it before but it seems fresh and new every single year.  The mercies of God are fresh and new each day…this seems to mirror that.  This looks so much like the view we enjoyed when we owned land on the Stillwater River ourselves many years ago.  The high points and low compliment each other out here.  This is the land of emerald grass and purple mountains majesty.  I can see what settlers of old must have treasured back in the day here.  Not many animals to speak of this time though we did see a bear several yards away from the cabin we stayed in.  Animals or not, I love this countryside!  This land seems to take my troubles and cast them to the wind.  Walk the fair weather road with meand let your troubles slip away.  Nothing to hear but the quite babble of a hidden stream or far away screech of a Red Tail Hawk or faint knocking of a Wood Pecker.  Sufficient are the evils of the day…let your burdens that may be tomorrow rest for now.  There will be new mercies for the challenges of tomorrow.

An Excursion

The thing that’s really nice about the cabins we’ve stayed at is that we can go from there to explore other beautiful areas.  We can walk around and still come home to a nice place to relax and clean up. I love seeing the different mountains and rivers that there are in this country.  No two look the same.  Nothing can beat the view from a wild flower covered hillside.  Most of these areas had no other people to be seen in them which made it all the more spectacular.  We were glad for my Dad’s Grand Cherokee to get us to some of these spots.  I seriously don’t think my car could have handled it.  I wonder if this keeps the tree warm during the harsh winters here!  These little purple flowers smell like black pepper if you take the time to sniff them.  This is a chipmunk eye view of Mike and Gabby exploring the forest.  I can never get enough of the wild roses and their heavenly smell!  Seeing some of these rockslides made me glad that it wasn’t pouring rain while we navigated the narrow roads.  Here’s an idea of just how narrow the roads were.  I love the sound of these mountain rivers so much!  I can imagine the fish in this stream hopping right into my frying pan!  The weather couldn’t have been more glorious.  This is classic Montana!  This is ironically called the Stillwater…I think not!  Walking these trails is something I’ve grown to love so much.  Several people have been hurt and killed by bears over the last couple years…it pays to pay attention to your surroundings.  A couple we met up here actually saw a large black bear but all we saw were these signs.  Our days for really long hikes are over and seeing the names of these places makes me glad about that.  I have to admit these trailheads did look inviting never the less.  I will leave this as a bookmark until next time!  Now we look forward to my dear brother visiting from Africa.  He will be here on Monday…we are so excited.  He’s not been here to visit us for about 14 years though we visited him last year.  Also so I don’t leave anything left to guess.  The reason I said last week was hard was because our trip to the Philippines has been postponed.  I believe this to be right but it was also very difficult.  Time and seasons belong to God.  We continue to trust Him.  Bless you all, thanks for visiting!

The Power of Perspective

One thing that I have always enjoyed about photography is the way you can alter how things look just by changing the position of the camera.  Sometimes Lovely and I can look pretty comical positioning ourselves for a shot that shows something common in a different light than usual.  Sometimes I like to just make a picture look sort of half an halfother times I like to make something as simple as sage brush look like a forest.  Sometimes I find that this leads me to an angle I fancy for other things and I get sort of a theme going for awhile.  Mostly I feel I’m sort of an photographic accident looking for a place to happen.  I take a picture and quite by accident I find that I just like something about it.  This is something I really enjoy actually because I feel it has a lot more to do with me stumbling on a secret that God has been working on.  I noticed a lot of purple in the fields this year…not sure if this was new or that I didn’t notice it quit as much as before last time we were here.  Looking down the road we often walked at different times of day really opened up new light situations.  I rarely feel I can accurately capture the lighting of the moment but these I’m well pleased within fact I’m thinking perhaps fall doesn’t have a monopoly on golden light at sunset after all.  Sometimes taking pictures of wildflowers can lead to unexpected finds…notice the little white spider here.  We found these spiders in various colors as we walked…I think they’re quite amazing.  Staying in a cabin means that when the storms of the afternoon rolled in we could enjoy it and not worry about how strong they would be.  I was amazed to see how much snow was in the mountains still.  This is why I don’t feel too thrilled to see fall rolling around again.  Our winter was truly long and brutal last season.  Some flowers seem to be made to pose for a picture.  These are the times that I hope the kids will remember all their lives.  There were cicadas aplenty during our stay…they are not like the ones I remember when we lived in Oklahoma.  Looking at these things makes the troubles of the day melt away…it’s not just pictures that sometimes need a change of perspective to become extraordinary…life often needs a change in this regard too.  Seeing through they eyes of faith really does change everything.  Many times when I’d walk and was feeling low just looking up at the endless blue sky would lift my spirits.  Look up my friends…the challenges of today will be the victories of tomorrow if we don’t give up.  Faith changes the whole equation.