A WALK IN THE PARK

Well, today was a beautiful day to be outdoors. I called my friend to see if she was up for a walk, and she was, so off we went.

I chose Gibbon’s Park this time. There is a narrow dirt path, narrower this year than last with the wild growth, which I like to follow rather than the paved pathway. It’s a little like being out in the woods. There aren’t as many tent caterpillars this year, so it was nicer to go that way. We tried a side path down to the river, but I couldn’t seem to get to where I wanted, so we returned to the main path.

We walked back via the paved path and sat for some time on one of the benches. The sun was warm, the breeze cool–a perfect combination.

We kept going into the main park and sat again on a bench, this time overlooking the river. It was really pleasant. We walked as far as the bridge and took some photos from the middle. The Canada Geese put on a good show for us while we watched.

As we drove out of the park, I stopped along the street where we had seen a gorgeous bush loaded with flowers larger than any I have ever seen of that type. The photos don’t really show the size without including something to compare them with. But trust me, they were huge.

After stopping at an A & W to get a burger, I dropped my friend home then came back about five and a half hours after I left, tired and sore but having enjoyed a wonderful afternoon.

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I hope you have enjoyed another mini tour of another of our nature areas in the city of London Ontario Canada. Please leave a comment below. If you are not already following my blog, please take a moment to click on the “Follow” button to get e-mail updates for new posts. I really appreciate you taking time to read my posts. It means a lot to me. If you have not been here before, please feel free to browse through earlier posts to see what I have been up to.

Have a wonderful Labor Day Weekend. God bless you.

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LOST IN THE WOODS

Yesterday was a beautiful day, warm, sunshiny all day. My friend and I popped in to Harvey’s for a burger and fries after church before heading for a walk in one of the conservation areas here in London.

I have been to this area a few times, but not in the last two or three years. As we followed the path we noticed yellow arrows on the trees every so often to direct us in the way. That was great until…

After climbing a huge wooden stairway, we continued walking until we came to a sign that told us that beyond that point was private property. We could go no further, but neither could my body go the distance back over the whole path. We were lost.

We saw a man coming along behind us, so we asked him how to get out and back to the car. He was good enough to pull up Google maps on his phone and I was able to tell him where my car was parked. He told us we had to go back down the steps and quite a distance along until we came to a path leading to the left.

As I limped along behind my friend, I said to her that my body would never be the same again. I was literally forcing myself to keep going as it was my only choice. Spending the night with the cayotes did not sound in the least appealing. The man overheard me, and said that it depended on whether or not I wanted my body to be the same. I said I didn’t really want it to, and that I knew I needed exercise. The only problem was that I seemed to be getting at least a week’s exercise all in one day, and that was not really wise.

Every so often he would stop and wait for us until he turned down that path himself. He motioned to us that this was the path we needed to take. Later that evening I realized we never saw that man again, not even a distance ahead of us. Was he an angel? Do angels carry cell phones?

It was definitely the right path, and we found our way back to the car. None too soon, I should add, because my legs were almost at the point where they refused to work at all. It was so good to get into the car and know I didn’t have to walk any more.

All evening and today I have been suffering from that way-too-long walk, the first walk I have done in at least a year. But I survived, and that is the important thing. Now I will share some of the photos I took along the way.

This butterfly was difficult to photo as it kept opening and closing its wings and my camera has a delayed reaction, so I would click at the right time, but by the time the camera actually took the picture, its wings were closed again. This was the best I could do.

Darning Needle Dragonfly

This darning needle dragonfly was also difficult to capture on film. They move so quickly and don’t alight for long, but I got lucky with this one not long before my battery died.

More of the wildlife in the conservation area

The turquoise “collar” on this bird (grackle, I think) did not really exist. It was simply the way the sun caught the iridescent feathers at that angle. It was amazing.

Some of the wildflowers we saw along the way. The top is sumac. I’m not sure what the one to the left of the second row is. The center is goldenrod, next chicory (or cornflower). I don’t know what the one on the left of the bottom row is. Next is sweet pea then queen Anne’s lace.

Well, that is about it for my photos. The best thing about this conservation area is that it it right in the middle of a subdivision in the city. I love the fact that there are a number of these areas in London designated as conservation areas, places where we can walk and feel as though we are in the middle of the country yet we don’t have to travel far to get there.

I hope you have enjoyed my condensed tour of our Sunday afternoon walk. Please leave a comment below if you liked it. And if any of you know the names of the wildflowers I couldn’t name, please feel free to share in the comment box as well. If you are not already following my blog, please take a moment to click on the “Follow” button at the top to receive e-mail notifications of new posts.

Have a wonderful week. May God bless you richly.

ANNOUNCEMENT!

It’s an exciting time, and I have a special announcement to make.

My new books are now available on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca as well as other Amazon markets.

It is Written: My Prayer Journey into the Heart of God

It is Written: My Prayer Journey into the Heart of God Study Guide

It is Written: My Prayer Journey into the Heart of God Journal for Study Guide

It is Written: My Prayer Journey into the Heart of God Thanksgiving Journal

If you are looking for a book which will encourage you to seek a deeper prayer life, a book which will teach you about prayer, a book which is based on the Word of God, a book with many scripture-based prayers, then you will want to get a copy of It is Written: My Prayer Journey into the Heart of God. Forward by Pastor Cheryl Roach, The Gathering Place and Revival Centre London, Ontario, Canada. Endorsed by Margaret Gibb, founder and director of  Women Together.

If you love to study, you will also want the Study Guide which takes you through the book with questions and suggestions for renewing, or beginning a fruitful prayer life. If you have a small group Bible Study, you may want to use the book and Guide for study in your group.

The Journal for Study Guide gives you more room to write your answers and notes and prayers.

The Thanksgiving Journal is for the challenge I have put out in the chapter on the importance of giving thanks.

Please click on the above links which will take you to the individual pages, or click here to go to the page with all of my books listed.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit and for allowing me to share my excitement with you, my readers. After the many years I  have been working on this book, it is a joy to see the final result of all the hard work. I hope you will leave a comment in the box below. Again, please check out the Amazon pages. I have linked to Amazon.com, but if you live in Canada, you can find the same results on Amazon.ca. Either enter my name or the book title in the search box.

If you are not already following my blog, please take a moment to click on the “Follow” button at the top. I thank all of you who are already following me. I really appreciate your interest in reading my posts. Watch for an announcement for my new web site which I am currently working on. It’s not quite ready yet, but hopefully soon it will be public. I hope you will all follow me there as well.

I pray that these books will bring great blessing to those seeking a new or renewed prayer life and in the lives of the people who will be on the receiving end of all of those prayers. May God bless you abundantly as you begin or go deeper into your own personal Journey into the Heart of God.

WHAT IS SUCCESS?

The question was asked in one of my FaceBook groups the other day: What are you doing towards your success?

My answer probably looked atypical, because I do not view success as most business people do. For one thing, even though I was in business for years, I do not consider myself a businesswoman. I realize that, as an author, I am in business. I am in the business of selling books. At least, that is how the public sees it. It is also the way other business people see it. But I consider what I do more as a ministry than a business.

My answer went something like this: If even one person is helped, encouraged, finds hope from each of my books, I will consider that success. If I reach and help many people, I would not consider that more of a success than helping one person.

What am I doing towards success? I write the best I can, with the help of the Holy Spirit, that which the Lord inspires me to write. I hope to share the gospel and the love of God with my readers in such a way as to inspire them to better things, to a closer relationship with the Lord, to a deeper desire for the things of God. I share my books on my blog, on social media, with friends.

What more can I do? I can pray. And that leads me to my newest book, It is Written: My Prayer Journey into the Heart of God. It should be published by the end of this week. Along with the book is a Study Guide to be used either personally or in a small group study. Two journals will accompany these books, one a Thanksgiving Journal to be used for a challenge I have put forward in the book, the other a Study Guide Journal for extra notes for those who choose to use the Study Guide. Together, I pray that my readers will find their way into a brand new place in prayer for the first time, or into a fresh, dynamic renewal of prayer in their lives.

I will be back to let you know when the books are available on Amazon.

Announcement! The books are published and are now available on Amazon. Check my post here with links to each book on Amazon.com.

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Have a wonderful day and be blessed.

ANOTHER UPDATE

Just a short note today to bring you up to date on what I have been doing. My book, It Is Written: My Prayer Journey into the Heart of God is currently being read by Margaret Gibb, founder of Women Together, as she has generously agreed to endorse it. In the meantime I have been working on a study guide to go along with the book. I do not have a specific publishing date, but hope they will be available within the next month or so. I plan on publishing them together, so it depends on how long the study guide will take to finish.

Then, I have been side-tracked on another issue. My computer keeps telling me I need to update Windows. But the only problem is that I don’t have enough disk space to accomplish that. So I have spent days deleting many, many documents that I have no use for. Also, I discovered I had never resized many of my hundreds and hundreds of photos. Plus I had numerous duplicates that I had no need for. I am not quite finished yet, but I am getting closer to creating enough space for my update. Quite a chore, but one I have wanted to accomplish for some time now.

Some things I just have to be forced into doing. I suppose that is the way life often works, even in the spiritual realm. The Lord asks us to do something, but we are “too busy” to obey, so we keep ignoring it. Eventually, He gets our attention one way or another and we are forced into following His instructions. Often the thought of what we must do appears to be a mountain which, once we begin, we find is not much more than a hill. Yes, it takes effort to climb it, but it’s not really so bad after all.

I hope you are having a productive week. Thank you for taking time to drop by to read my post. I really appreciate you. Please take a moment to leave a comment in the box below before you leave. And if you have any extra time, please feel free to browse through my other posts. If you are not already following me, I would be happy if you would take a moment to click on the “Follow” button. You will receive e-mail notifications when I add a new post.

May the Lord bless you abundantly throughout this week and always.

STILL EDITING and WRITING

My apologies for having neglected my blog over the past couple of weeks. I have been editing my book It Is Written: My Prayer Journey into the Heart of God. Finally, on Thursday evening, I finished what I think was the fourth recent edit and, hopefully, the final one except possibly a final read-through.

I e-mailed the manuscript to Margaret Gibb, founder of Women Together, and she is currently reading it in order to endorse the book for me. Then there will be just the last minute things to do before I upload to KDP Print.

It’s exciting to see another book so close to being in my hands. I am now writing a companion workbook to use either in a group study or for personal use. This is a new area of creation for me, and I am enjoying it. I have 30 pages done as of Saturday night (first draft, of course), and hope to be able to publish both books together. I will let you know when they are available on Amazon. If you would like a preview of part of this book, check this post and follow the links to read the rest of the topic.

Other than this, I have been occupied with the usual things such as prayer, going to church and Bible Study. I had a lovely afternoon yesterday. A friend invited me to lunch after church. After eating, we sat out on her little patio enjoying a cup of tea and the beautiful weather. 

Well, this is just a short post, but I will be working on the study book this week and I just wanted to keep you updated on what is happening in my world.

Thank you for stopping by and reading my post. I hope you will take a moment to share your thoughts with me in the comment box below. And if any of you are not yet following my blog, please take another moment to click the “Follow” button to receive e-mail notifications of future posts.

Oh, and please watch for an announcement of my new web site sometime in the future (hopefully not too-distant future). I hope once it is made public that all of you, my followers on this blog, will skip over to the new site and sign up there, too. This site will remain and I may possibly post from time to time, if only to share new updates on my new site.

God bless you all. I pray you will have a wonderful and exciting week.

PRAYER AND EDITING

Sounds like a strange title for this post, no doubt. But the two words do have more  in common than you might think. If you are a regular reader here, you will know that I have written a book about prayer and am in the process of doing some final edits. If you are new here, now you know too.

It has been a little bit tedious as this current edit is to check all of my Scripture references and make sure they are correct. A good thing, too. I have found a few typos which created references which do not even exist, such as 1 Samuel 49, which should have been 19. I had also included a few which, on reading now, could not figure out why I had even chosen them. Out they went. I have another 30 pages to go to finish this edit.

Then comes the next edit. All of the concordance references. That, too, will be rather tedious as there are a lot of them, and footnotes are in smaller type so not as easy to read. But better to make sure now that they are correct than let them go through the publishing stage to find there are a bunch of mistakes. I’m sure I won’t get it perfect, but I do want it as close to perfect as I can come. It can be frustrating to read a book, check a footnote or Scripture only to find it doesn’t make any sense.

Next I will probably read the whole thing over again to check for any other type of errors. I have someone who has agreed to read and endorse the book, so I will probably send it to her before I do the that particular read-through. We can do that simultaneously. Since I have been working on this book for years—more than a decade—since before I even considered turning it into a book. Originally it was just a list of prayers I would pray on a semi-regular basis. I had no idea it would turn into a 350-page book!

When I read/edit, I always do it out loud as I find I can pick out errors much easier than doing it silently. Otherwise I can skip over without even seeing extra words, typos, missing words. I find these audibly much more quickly than visually. I think I tend to almost become hypnotized and sleepy if I don’t verbalize lit.

When I thought further about prayer and editing, it came to me that sometimes we need to actually edit our prayers. There is a possibility that we could be praying wrong prayers. We may be inserting too much of the flesh and too much of what we consider the answer should be. Perhaps we are analyzing the situation from a worldly standpoint and not praying according to the will of God. It’s time to edit.

Not that we want to get too tied up in knots as to how we pray. The exact words are not of such importance as the attitude of our hearts as we come to the Lord. But it never hurts to check our prayers from time to time to see if they line up with God’s heart and word in the situation or for the person we are praying for. Or if we are seeing ourselves rightly before the Lord. If our spiritual vision is twisted or clouded, our prayers will be the same and we will not see the answers we hope for. So an edit might just be appropriate from time to time to make sure we are still in alignment with God.

Prayer is our communication line with heaven and with our heavenly Father. You could call it a life-line. Without it, we have no connection to the source of life. So we need to be sure the lines are clear. This particular book is all about how to pray using the word of God. I have often been in prayer meetings where the leader would ask someone to take a particular verse and pray into it. I discovered that many people do not know how to do this. They will read the verse, but then seem to be at a loss as to how to turn it into a prayer. So my book was born partly for this reason. Then it expanded to a teaching on the different types of prayer we find in the Bible. It kept growing, together with personal anecdotes, until it is now almost ready to publish. I hope it will prove to be a useful tool for many people to enhance and deepen their prayer life.

So there you have the story, in a nutshell, of It Is Written: My Prayer Journey into the Heart of God.

Stay tuned for future announcements when it becomes available on Amazon.

Thank you so much for stopping by to read my post. I would really appreciate it if you would consider leaving a comment in the box below before you leave. And feel free to browse other posts here as well. If you are not already following me, please take a moment to click on the “Follow” button to receive e-mail notifications of each new post. I would also love it, if you are new here, if you would tell me a little about yourself and how you found my blog. It would be a great help to me.

I pray you will have a wonderful weekend. May God bless you abundantly.

HAPPY SUNDAY

Just a short post today to say, “Happy Sunday”. I hope you are enjoying the spring weather. I was beginning to wonder if we would ever get a real spring day, but today, though a little cool, is just perfect.

As I drove to church and back this morning, I so enjoyed the flowers filling gardens and the blossoms on the trees. It is a beautiful time of year. Another thing I love is to hear the birds singing and filling the air with life.

I also wanted to share with you some of my recent artwork. My photo cut off off a little of the chickadee, but I hope you enjoy the colorful birds. I don’t know if I have ever done drawings of birds before, but I had fun doing them in colored pencil.

From top to bottom: Cardinal, scarlet-bellied mountain tanager, red-breasted grosbeak, chickadee and American goldfinch.

I hope this has brightened your day a little. Thanks for taking time to stop by. I hope you will leave a comment in the box below before you leave. I do look forward to your comments. And if you are not following my blog, please take an extra moment or two to click on the  “Follow” button at the top. You will receive e-mail notifications for every new post.

God bless you and may you have a wonderful week filled with joy and peace and love.

SPRING INTO NEW LIFE

Spring. A time of awakening. A time of new life beginning. A time of the sprouting up of plants from the earth. A time of opening of buds and blossoming of flowers and greenery. A time of change from the often dreary, dark and cold days of winter into the warm sunshiny days which promise to follow.

Although spring is not my absolute favorite time of year (that would be summer), I love this new stirring of all nature as it prepares for the maturing of summer growth and, eventually fall harvest. This means increased rains in many areas as well as milder temperatures and sunshine (unless, of course, you already live in a tropical or semi-tropical area). I am fully aware that the rain is essential to spring growth, for is it not April showers that bring May flowers? Yet I am not fond of day after day of rainy and damp weather. That’s why I prefer summer–most years.

Spring is a time, also, for the stirring of hearts, the renewal of hope and faith. It is a time of the blossoming of love. Countless weddings take place in the spring months, and particularly in June. Weddings speak of new beginnings, the promise of blossoms and new life to be produced through these new relationships.

What has seemed dead for so long has come to life again in nature. This brings hope to heavy hearts that life can once again return to them. Senses are reawakened by this breath of life. It is time to shed the spirit of heaviness and receive the garment of praise from the Lord of all life. To allow His rain to shower us with blessings. To allow His love to soften the hard places in our hearts. To allow His joy to awaken new senses. To allow His peace swallow us up in His presence.

A time of renewal. What needs to be renewed in your life? Do you need to work on your prayer life? Your relationships? Your spiritual walk with God? Or do you need to review and revamp your business? Your career? Your job? Your marriage? Perhaps even your geographical location? Regardless of where your particular need lies, spring is a great time to make any changes necessary to improve life in any and every aspect. 

Do you have a dream to awaken? Do you know what steps you must take in order to see that dream come to fruition? Is there something you have set aside for whatever reason that you know now is time to bring it back out of storage? There is no time like the present. There is no time like springtime.

Let’s together do a life-check to see if spring has come into our lives again this year. Let’s check where we need to do some weeding, fertilizing, watering, new planting, tilling of the soil of our hearts and lives. Now is the time. Now is the hour. Let’s be busy on improvements wherever we can. 

What is the Lord saying to your heart? Stop. Sit still. Listen. Ponder. Act.

I’m not sure what prompted me to write this, but here it is. I hope you have enjoyed reading it and I hope it has spurred you on to find your place of reawakening and blossoming so that, in the future, your life will provide a great harvest for the Lord.

Thank you so much for stopping by and reading. I would love it if you would leave a comment in the box below before you leave. And if you are not following me, please take an extra moment from your busy day to click on the “Follow” button at the top. You will receive an e-mail notification of each new post as it is published. Oh, and do feel free to browse previous posts.

I pray that you have been blessed with your visit and that you will come back soon. Please share with your friends on social media and/or through e-mail or word-of-mouth so the blessing can spread. I pray that you will have a blessed day and week filled with encounters with God.

AROUND THE WORLD AND BACK AGAIN

Anyone here ever heard of Kiribati? Have you ever been there? Neither have I. In fact I had never heard of it until a couple of years ago. And when I searched a map for it, it turned out to be on the tiniest island, only a dot, in the middle of the ocean, in the South Seas. No bigger than a pinpoint. Actually it is on Canton Island. And I have a strange “connection” with Kiribati.

December 23, 2010, I placed an order of skin care products from a company named L’Bri Pure N ‘Natural. I had been a distributor for this company for a few years, and this was the last order of that year for me. Actually it turned out to be the last order I ever placed as within a couple of months I could no longer keep up with the annual doubled quotas that were being set. The order did not arrive. I cannot now remember if I had them reship or if I may have even forgotten about the order. Probably not as some of the products would have been for customers, and I imagine the company resent the order to me eventually.

But where did that order go? Well, I would not find out for seven years. One day in January or February of 2017, the postal delivery buzzed me to come down to the lobby. He had a parcel for me. It surprised me as I did not recollect placing an order for anything. Down I went, and the first thing the postman said was that it looked rather battered. And it did. I should have taken a photo of it. But from the box I could not learn where it came from. Upon opening it, I saw the products, one of which had broken and leaked all over everything else. I checked the Customs declaration. It had come by Priority Mail. I looked more closely and discovered that, instead of being sent to London, Ontario, Canada, it had been addressed to London, Ontario, Canton Island (Kiribati). It had the correct postal code even. And the postal code is supposed to be enough for the parcel to be directed correctly.

But what happened between 2010 and 2017? I guess I will never know. But how it ever eventually arrived at my door is an even greater mystery to me. I really wish I could have traveled with that carton to see some of the places it went. The only explanation? You can see it on the label: Missent to Kiribati.

I think there is something to learn from the spiritual standpoint from this story. We must be directed to the right location. Are you heading for heaven? If not, you need to find out how to redirect your life onto the right route to get there. If you are expecting to get there whatever route you take, you may find out you are too late. The story in Matthew 25 about the 10 virgins confirms this. Five had enough oil for their lamps to last, but the other five had not taken extra. By the time they had gone out to remedy that situation, they returned to find out they were too late. How disheartening those two words would be. “Too late!” I want to make sure my life is directed to the right address. I don’t want any delays or detours or wrong destinations to jeopardize my arrival in heaven when my life here is completed. Check the “shipping address” on your life. Do you need to be redirected to the right location? It is simple enough to do. Just ask Jesus to forgive your sins and ask Him into your heart to take over the direction of your life. All it takes is a sincere heart to reach out to Him. Take a moment to check the address marked on your life. Where are you headed?

I hope you enjoyed my little story. Thank you for taking time to stop by and read it. I would very much appreciate it if you would leave a comment in the box below. Have you ever had anything similar happen to you? Please tell me about it. If you are not yet following me, please click on the “Follow” button at the top and you will receive e-mail updates when I publish new posts.

Have a wonderful day and a wonderful Mother’s Day this coming Sunday. May the God of all peace bless you with the peace that passes all understanding. Put your hand in His and let Him lead you.