and my own back yard... er... um.. South 40

Yesterday, Brad and I drove to Dallas to a beautiful Arboretum located next to a wonderful lake.  Completely surrounded by beauty, we found ways with the help of water features, shade, mist, and caramel mocha lattes to keep cool and forget that it was the dog days of summer.  You don't have to describe beauty to appreciate beauty.  You just have to experience it. It seems like beauty has become isolated from today's world... isolated by Glamour Magazine or Supermodels or images of the perfect body, hair, and clothes.  But if you think of beauty as an experience, it draws you outside of the shallow world into the realm of nature and God's amazing world around us.  I love to find treasure in the everyday.  Experiences are all around us, everywhere we look.

Brad has now started our very own arboretum on the South 40, albeit more of a "nature trail".  And I like it that way.  He and his tractor and tools have been etching away a trail so that we can enjoy the hill that makes up the back of our property.  It's a transformation and I love it.  My camera and I walked it today, following our outing yesterday and discovered... that you don't have to drive all the way to Dallas to get in touch with nature.  God and Brad can  help you do that in your own back yard... True beauty is bound within the nature of God, even transforming what appears useless into something very useful and amazing. And I was gently reminded today by the birds and nature on the South 40... that in the very same way, God transforms us by his Grace.

Genesis 1:31 - And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.... 

Enjoy the pics from the South 40 today:  This is the start of the trail from the back of our house.

Not sure if this is a sign of Fall or just from the drought, but some of the leaves were starting to turn.

These sweet little wildflowers grow only in the full sun and it amazes me how they grow without care.

I'm not sure what these are, but they are everywhere and turn purple!  You know I love purple!

Here are some that have already turned purple...

There's a Y in the trail... He's not finished with that side yet...

Brad came up to make sure I was ok... Guess I was gone for a while... it was so peaceful...

This little leaf didn't plan to be this way... I'm sure a very hungry caterpillar helped himself... but it looked lacy and pretty to me...

These were much redder than they appear in this picture... so cool....

I love to practice focusing with my camera... Sometimes I get it right....

Looking up... stretching to the sun... isn't it amazing how things grow towards the sun?

I love dogwood trees... we have many of them... And I especially love to look up into them, like I'm under some wonderful natural umbrella...

I've been looking for some bamboo to make a ladybug home. I found this hollow piece of bark.  It will be perfect...

Tip top of a crepe myrtle... also reaching for the sun...

I almost got tangled with this little guy... He didn't act too bothered by me...

And here he is from the other side... I think he was watching me.... I'm not sure...

Yep, God is in the habit of making things beautiful.  If you wanna talk a walk on the South 40, just let me know.

Blessings,

Charlene

... a visit to the Bead Monkey

Bead Monkey is an amazing little shop in Mineola.  It's tucked quietly away behind another store on Johnson Street.  Sherry takes old, discarded jewelry and turns it into wonderful new pieces with beads and baubles and bling.  You can go in and pick... and match... and create wonderful "one of a kind" pieces.  Whenever I go in, I spend a lot of time looking at the intricacies of the tiny beads and exploring all the colorful choices and trying to imagine what the perfect combination should be.

And I think... God must surely enjoy taking the broken pieces of our lives and arranging them into His own masterful art of mankind.  From the pages of the Old Testament to the pages o the New Testament, Scripture records over and over what God has done in the hearts and lives and affairs of man.  Life moves in cycles.  It has ups and downs; it arranges itself into peaks and valleys.  Some days we're on top; other days we're way at the bottom.

The point is... that normal living, with all of its stress, problems, and crazy pace ages us and the only way we can survive it is to practice the peace of God and let Him put us back together in a brand new way every morning. 

Just as Sherry, in her tiny shop in Mineola, Texas, turns old into new, God turns evil into good, mistakes into miracles, and messy into tidy... with Grace and with a brand new chance, every day, to get it right.

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. (Romans 8:28)

 
If you are in Mineola, stop in at Bead Monkey.  You can find her on facebook at:  Tx. Bead Monkey.

Blessings,

Charlene

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11)