Parc National Jacques Cartier, Canada - "Finding Direction"

 

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Psalm 119:105 NRSV

Parc National Jacques Cartier, Quebec, Canada - “Faith the Substance of Things Hoped for”

 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.   By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible…

But without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarded of those who diligently seek him.

Hebrews 11:1,8

Quebec, Canada - “You do not Know the Path of the Wind”

As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.

Ecclesiastes 11:5

Parc National Jacques Cartier - The True Light that gives Light to Everyone

 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.  He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.  He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.  Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of god--Children born not of natural decent,  nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

John 1:6-13 NIV

The Light Shines in the Darkness

 

In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  

There was a man sent from God whose name was John.  He cam as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through hi all might believe.  He himself was not the light, he came only as a witness to the light.

John 1:5-8 NIV

Jesus Commands my Destiny

"No guilt in life, no fear in death--
This is the pow'r of Christ in me;
From life's first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No pow'r of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or  calls me home--
Here in the pow'r or Christ I'll Stand."

Lyrics Stuart Townsend

Eat and Sleep with the Earth

 

"Now I see the secret of the making of the best persons; It is to grow in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth."

Walt Whitman

Love the Moment

"Love the moment, and the energy of that moment will spread beyond all boundaries."

Aristist Corita Kent (1918-1986)

Monts-Valin National Park

"The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.  So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.  John 3:8

My Grief is like a River

Grief Is Like a River

by Cynthia G. Kelly

My grief is like a river, 

I have to let it flow,

But I myself determine

just where the banks will go.

Some days the current takes me

 in waves of guilt and pain,

But there are always quiet pools

where I can rest again.

I crash on rocks of anger--

My faith seems faint indeed,

But there are other swimmers

Who know that what I need

Are loving hands to hold me

When the waters are too swift,

And someone kind to listen

When I just seem to drift.

Grief's river is a process

Of relinquishing the past

By swimming in Hope's channels

I'll reach the shore at last.

Neither Height nor Depth will Separate Us

 


 


"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Romans 8:38-39 NIV

He will wipe away every tear

"He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

Revelation 21:4 (NIV)

Grands-Jardins National Park

1 Corinthians 13:2

If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

Peace Like a River - Parc National Jacques Cartier

Isaiah 66:12

For this is what the Lord says:  "I will extend peace to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flooding streams; you will nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knees.

La Maurice National Park

Psalm 46:4

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the most high dwells.

The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls

 

The Tide Rises, the Tide Falls
by Henry Wadesworth Longfellow


The tide rises, the tide falls,
The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;
Along the sea-sands damp and brown
The traveler hastens toward the town,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.


Darkness settles on roofs and walls,
But the sea, the sea in darkness calls;
The little waves, with their soft, white hands,
Efface the footprints in the sands,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.


The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls
Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;
The day returns, but evermore
Returns the traveler to the shore,

And the tide rises, the tide falls.


John 5:11  "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life."

In Loving Memory
Mary Lee Smith-Brown (1928-2019)
Photo:  Gulf of Mexico, Panama City, Florida

A Psalm of Life

A Psalm of Life
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


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 art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.


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


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 sands of time;


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


Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fare;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn no labor and to wait.




This poem expresses how a person's "footprint in the sands of time" can impact the lives of others.  Throughout her life, my mom reached out to countless others in need:  cooking meals,  collecting and serving food banks, clothing, visiting nursing homes, teaching children Sunday School, sharing her garden, comforting and praying for family, friends and neighbors.  She has left footprints for us to follow on how to be kind, compassionate and to love and serve others.


In Loving Memory
Mary Lee Smith-Brown
April 16, 1928 Canton, Georgia
July 19, 2019 Columbus, Georgia

La Malbaie and St. Lawrence River