Everything is Brighter After the Rain

We had 2.75 inches of rain yesterday and last night.

Beautiful!

Every thing

is

clean.

Bright.

Colorful.

I knew if I walked today,

I'd be rewarded with something

special.

I was.

A blue bird.

Birds are eloquent expressions

of life and vitality

and watching them makes you

more

alive.

~ Roger Tory Peterson

Branching Out

This little sweetie was a new bird in my yard yesterday.

Along with about 10-or so friends.

Thinking of my Grandma Marj,

I quick snapped some pictures through the screens and rain.

Then I took her green hard-cover Roger Tory Peterson

field guide to western birds and started searching.

I like hers because it rests softly in my hand, falling open easily

like an old well-worn Bible...

the sides of the pages stained with the oils of fingertips

searching over the years.

A pine warbler

is what I think it is.

Which got me thinking about this theme of "Branching Out".

It is what keeps popping into my head.

Branching out with my writing, photography and art.

That is what blogging has been.

For so long, I have kept my photos on my computer

and my scrapbook pages tucked away in books,

and my writing in my journals,

and leading Bible study with my comfy little group of dear sweet friends.

But it is time to "branch out" . . .

to go out on a limb and share all of this.

Not to stop doing the things that are here at home and with my friends.

Because that is the foundation.

But to extend it out there.  Out on a branch.  Out on a limb.

It is what I am preparing to do.

And I am anticipating sharing the fullness of it with you soon.

But I will wait until it is prepared, so that you can be a part of it . . .

no matter where you live.

No matter how crowded or how isolated you are.

Jesus said this about branches . . .

"Abide in Me, and I in you. 

As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,

unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.

I am the vine, you are the branches.

He who abides in Me, and I in him,

bears much fruit;

for without Me you can do nothing."

John 15:4-5 NKJV

And in Phillippians 4:13, it says,

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

{Without Him nothing.  With Him all things.}

In The Message it says it this way,

"Live in me.  Make your home in me just as I do in you. 

In the same way that a branch can't bear grapes by itself

but only by being joined to the vine,

you can't bear fruit unless you are joined with me.

I am the Vine, you are the branches.

When you're joined with me and I with you,

the relation intimate and organic,

the harvest is sure to be abundant."

Copyright 2010 Jodene (Jodi) Shaw

Artistic Mother Poetry Tote { ! DONE ! }

When I was in high school

one of the electives for freshman

was Home Economics.

I do not know what I took

but I was a career-minded, intellectual "snob",

and so I laughed when my dad

suggested I take it.

So, here I am:

living on a ranch, raising my kids, afraid of a sewing machine.

Somedays, I think I could use a few Home Economics lessons.

But . . . I have done it!  I completed a tote bag.

To go with my Poetry Journal.

Often I write about birds.

My Grandma Marj was an avid bird watcher

and her favorite bird book was always Roger Tory Peterson's.

So the quote on my poetry journal is from him:

"Birds are eloquent expressions of life and vitality

And watching them makes you feel more alive."

True.

And so is this:

She gave me my first Roger Tory Peterson field guide in 1980.

Like her, I have written the dates and places

that I have a new bird sighting

in my Peterson field guide.

Fond memories

of birds and my grandma.

Bittersweet feelings well up when I hear the call

of a chickadee, a blue jay, the cranes in the spring,

or see a slate colored junco or nuthatch.

I could not have made this tote bag

without my mom.

The machine, many phone calls, rotary cutter and mat,

trip to the fabric store, showing me where to bargain shop,

what kind of fabric to use, selecting thread.

Taking the machine 80 miles to her house

So that she could show me

how to thread the machine

without having an emotional breakdown!

And yet, it is good to do something

I did not think I could do

Or would want to do.

And enjoy it.

So, this recovering intellectual snob,

Who at age 15, planned on being a career woman,

Living in a suburb,

Is now a birdwatching at-home mom,

is an aspiring writer and photographer,

is in love with the man she married 14 years ago today,

 is in love with the kids and lifestyle on this cattle ranch

on the South Dakota prairie

painted with wildflowers,

and she has learned to sew.

{Thanks, Mom.}

Photos & text copyright 2010 Jodene (Jodi) Shaw.