Cumberland Island, Dungeness Estate Ruins, Georgia - “The Way of Life and The Way of Death”

  "Now you shall say to this people, 'Thus says the Lord: "Behold, I set before you the   way of life and the way of death. 

He who remains in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; but he who goes out and defects to the Chaldeans who besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be as a prize to him. 

For I have set My face against this city for adversity and not for good," says the Lord. "It shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire." ' 

“And concerning the house of the king of Judah, say, 'Hear the word of the Lord, 

O house of David! Thus says the Lord: "Execute judgment in the morning; And deliver him who is plundered Out of the hand of the oppressor, Lest My fury go forth like fire And burn so that no one can quench it, Because of the evil of your doings. 

“Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley, And rock of the plain," says the Lord, "Who say, 'Who shall come down against us? Or who shall enter our dwellings?' 

But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings," says the Lord; "I will kindle a fire in its forest, And it shall devour all things around it." 

Jeremiah 21:8-14

Cumberland Island - "How Excellent is Your Name in all the Earth"

 O LORD, our Lord, How 

excellent is Your name

 in all the earth,
You who set Your glory
above the heavens!

Pslam 8:1

Cumberland Sound, Cumberland Island - "The Light of Your Countenance"

 

There are many who say,
"Who will show us any
   good?"
LORD, lift up the light of
   Your countenance upon
   us.
You have put gladness in
   my heart,
More than in the season
   that thier grain and wine
   increased.
I will aboth lie down in
   peace, and sleep;
For You alone, O LORD
   make me dwell in safety.

Psalm 4:6-8 NKJV

Cumberland Island State Park - "You, O LORD are a Shield"

LORD, how they have

   increased who trouble

   me!

  Many are they who rise up

   against me,

  Many are they who say of

   me,

"There is no help for him in

    God."

But You, O LORD, are a

   shield for me,

My glory and the One who

   lifts up my head.

I cried to the LORD with my

   voice,

And He heard me from His

   holy hill.

I lay down and slept;

I awoke, for the LORD

   sustained me.

I will not be afraid of ten

   thousands of people

Who have set themselves

   against me all round.

Arise, O LORD;

Save me, O my God!

For You have struck all my

   enemies on the

   cheekbone;

You have broken the teeth

   of the ungodly.

Salvation belongs to the

   LORD.

Your blessing is upon Your

   people.                     Selah

Psalm 3 NKJV

Cumberland Island, Georgia - "Planted by the Rivers of Water"

 

Blessed is the man

Who walks not in the

   counsel of the

   ungodly,

 Nor stands in the path of

   sinners,

  Nor sits in the seat of the

   scornful;

But his delight is in the 

   law of the LORD,

  And in His law he

   mediates day and

   night.

He shall be like a tree

 Planted by the rivers of

   water,

 That bring forth its fruit

   in its season,

 Whose leaf also shall not

  wither;

And whatever he does shall

   prosper.

Psalm 1:1-3 NKJV

Cumberland Sound - "All Scripture is Inspired by God"

 All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:16-17

'The Fire of Drift-Wood' by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

The Fire of Drift-Wood

We sat within the farm-house old,
Whose windows, looking o'er the bay,
Gave to the sea-breeze damp and cold,
An easy entrance, night and day.
Not far away we saw the port,
The strange, old-fashioned, silent town,
The lighthouse, the dismantled fort,
The wooden houses, quaint and brown.
We sat and talked until the night,
Descending, filled the little room;
Our faces faded from the sight,
Our voices only broke the gloom.
We spake of many a vanished scene,
Of what we once had thought and said,
Of what had been, and might have been,
And who was changed, and who was dead;
And all that fills the hearts of friends,
When first they feel, with secret pain,
Their lives thenceforth have separate ends,
And never can be one again;
The first slight swerving of the heart,
That words are powerless to express,
And leave it still unsaid in part,
Or say it in too great excess.
The very tones in which we spake
Had something strange, I could but mark;
The leaves of memory seemed to make
A mournful rustling in the dark.
Oft died the words upon our lips,
As suddenly, from out the fire
Built of the wreck of stranded ships,
The flames would leap and then expire.
And, as their splendor flashed and failed,
We thought of wrecks upon the main,
Of ships dismasted, that were hailed
And sent no answer back again.
The windows, rattling in their frames,
The ocean, roaring up the beach,
The gusty blast, the bickering flames,
All mingled vaguely in our speech;
Until they made themselves a part
Of fancies floating through the brain,
The long-lost ventures of the heart,
That send no answers back again.
O flames that glowed! O hearts that yearned!
They were indeed too much akin,
The drift-wood fire without that burned,
The thoughts that burned and glowed within.

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

'Footprints on the Sands of Time'

 

A Psalm of Life

Tell me not in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou are, to dust thou returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each tomorrow
Find us farther than today.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act, - act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o'erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sand of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solenm main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us then be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"The Phantom Horsewoman" by Thomas Hardy

 

The Phantom Horsewoman. by Thomas Hardy

Queer are the ways of a man I know:
He comes and stands
In a careworn craze,
And looks at the sands
And in the seaward haze
With moveless hands
And face and gaze,
Then turns to go...
And what does he see when he gazes so?

They say he sees as an instant thing
More clear than today,
A sweet soft scene
That once was in play
By that briny green;
Yes, notes alway
Warm, real, and keen,
What his back years bring-
A phantom of his own figuring.

Of this vision of his they might say more:
Not only there
Does he see this sight,
But everywhere
In his brain-day, night,
As if on the air
It were drawn rose bright-
Yea, far from that shore
Does he carry this vision of heretofore:

A ghost-girl-rider. And though, toil-tried,
He withers daily,
Time touches her not,
But she still rides gaily
In his rapt thought
On that shagged and shaly
Atlantic spot,
And as when first eyed
Draws rein and sings to the swing of the tide.

Cumberland Ents Protector of Wild Horses

 

The horses feed on the grass under the protective shade of the Cumberland Ents.  These ancient trees spread their branches in a protective guard around the horses.  They help to shield them from rain and heavy winds and provide shade from the hot sun that beats down on the island.  These horses roam the island freely and they get the right of way to the island and tourist do not get in their way.  Particularly, when there is a herd stampeding down the dirt roads.  You will move out of their way! Where in Middle Earth do horses rule the land and are allowed to run free? 

Cumberland Island's Ancient Ents of the Forest

Middle Earth is not the only place where you can find Ents.  The oldest living things that still live beneath the sun.  In The Hobbit, Ents are tree like creatures in the forest of Fangom.  These "Ents" live on Cumberland Island, Georgia.  Protectors of wild horses and the forest. Their branches spread out like twisted long arms and fingers across the sky and land. They cast wicked shadows in the moonlight.

The Old Carnegies Mansion Cumberland Island

Refer to as the "The Last Bastion of the Gilded Age".  Cumberland Island was a vacation home for the extreme weathly.  Let us be So grateful that the Island is no longer in the hands of the wealthy and elite.  Its unspoiled beauty is now available for us all to enjoy.

Cumberland Island, Sand Dunes and Marsh Boardwalk

Horses were everywhere on the island.  Due to the heat, I never thought the horses would be so close to the beach or hanging near the marsh but if there is grass, the horses were there.  You can see them in the distance from the boardwalk.  The sand dunes are the mountains of the island.  Your feet would sink in with each step up the slope. 

Cumberland Island - Wild horses and Manatees!

We took a 45 minute ferry over to Cumberland Island. The Barrier Island is wild and beautiful with feral horses running free all over the island.  It was a very hot day and it was more heat then I could handle.  We only saw a the southern tip of the Island and plan to come back for a full day of bike riding.  We got to see a group of manatees swimming close to the ships dock.  That was a treat to see so many of them.  Seeing Wild horses, Wild Turkeys, Deer and Manatees made it a very good day!