Dear friends,
On the way home from an appointment: clouds.
I lucked out with the sun rays on these, hastily taken at a stop light...
One of my hobbies is watching clouds and photographing them...
They are a symbol of hope and God's providence for me.
I pulled over into a parking lot for some of these
so I could could get the maximum view of clouds
while avoiding the visual interference of power lines.
I usually crop out any remaining signs of messy human existence (power lines, buildings, light poles), and I sometimes use saturation to brighten things up, as you can see from these two versions of the same shot:
Another cloud of sorts,
another sign of messy human existence:
My appointment today was with my hand specialist.
Now that I'm out of my brace,
I have to buddy tape my fingers
with a wad of gauze in between
in hopes that the pinky
will stop twisting against the ring finger.
Tape and gauze, for two more months,
is not exactly what I wanted to hear.
It's necessary for recovery, a good thing,
but an inconvenience nonetheless.
But I will count my blessings
that I could see on the new x-ray
that the fracture is healing neatly,
even if there is a loose end
that will take two more years
for new bone to completely fill in.
As I waited for the doctor to enter the exam room, I read from the chapter "Oyster Bed" in Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh:
"Each is fitted and formed by its own life and struggle to survive. It is an oyster, with small shells clinging to its humped back. Sprawling and uneven, it has the irregularity of something growing. It looks rather like the house of a big family, pushing out one addition after another to hold its teeming life... It amuses me because it seems so much like my life at the moment, like most women's lives in the middle years of marriage. It is untidy, spread out in all directions, heavily encrusted with accumulations and... firmly embedded on its rock."
My life, too. The needs of my family, my friends, my students, my community, my own interests. Commitments. Opportunities. Interruptions. All piled on, seeming unseemly at the first glance, even the second glance. Messy, messy human existence at times that I can't (completely) crop out of my real life. Like the oyster, I hope I am firmly embedded to the rock, and maybe even growing a pearl inside. And despite the demands, my beloved peeps do give back, too. Joy. Compassion. Understanding. Chocolate. Relationships, even complicated ones, are a blessing.
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| Sweet gift from my sister-in-law Dana, who also sent dark chocolate toffee! |
Grace and peace,
Virginia Knowles
P.S. More to read:
A lovely, candid blog post by Tsh which I found in my Google Reader this afternoon. Life's answers aren't always perfect, but there are still "Partial Solutions" in our complicated lives: Making Friends with Imperfect People.
My own series on Advocating for the Vulnerable, dealing with the human messiness of elder abuse, homelessness, child trafficking, and more to come.
The story of the injured hand: Many Ways of Coping with a Fractured Hand and Arthritis
Clouds, more clouds, and the realities of life:
- One Sky
- I Dreamed a Dream
- Is My Head in the Clouds? (And Notes on Beauty)
- Shimmer and Shadow
- Weekend Gratitude: Lake Sybelia at Sunset, Lake Lily at Dusk
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| From I Dreamed a Dream |
This post will be linked at:
P52 Photo Project this week's theme "Hobbies"
(Yes, I confess that I submitted two photos to P52 this week! You can find the other on my www.ContinueWellHomeSchool.blogspot.com here: Ripstick or Rat?)
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| Domestically Divine Tuesday |
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| Raising Homemakers |
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| Funki Planet |
Yes, Ma'am. Sometimes a head in the clouds yields just the right perspective...
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