Archive for ‘November, 2009’

The 11th hour of the 11th day

The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th Month – Armistice – a celebration of Peace.

Today and all days, thank you to all of the men and women who have served and are serving – to keep that peace.

A special thought for the veteran dearest to me: Stephen Lee Douglas, U.S.M.C. (above).

For my Grandfather: Paul Biddle, my Father: Merle Summers

Reamus, Buck, Buckskins Rule, Barco, Glenn, Bill and Bob B are From the Front Porch readers who I know have served.

The colors of a Fall morning

It will not be too long until the needles all drop and the larch are bare-boned branches in the Winter sky. The snow will fly and the green-brown-rust landscape will give way to the cool-cold white-green-blue of Winter.

But this morning, the sun lit everything with the brilliant colors of a Fall morning.

Reflected sunlight

Karl and I walk down the driveway first thing in the morning and last thing at night. From late September through early March, these walks are in the dark…in the woods.

This week our walks have been by moonlight. This morning, a warm, rainy front is moving in with blustery winds ahead of it. The temperature was a warm feeling 46F and the wind through the pines felt dry and fresh.

It struck me this morning that I have never felt fear walking in the woods, in the dark. I’ve walked out to the eastern edge to look at the mountains in the night and down the driveway often. I am familiar with all of the creepy fairy tales, but for whatever reason they did not leave me with any fear.

These words of Brennan Manning are often near me and even more so this morning.

Let go in reckless confidence all that shackles you to yesterday, imprisons you in your own small self today and frightens you with the uncertainty of tomorrow.

I find it easy to walk in the dark, in the woods, in reckless confidence. I live much of my life with a spirit of reckless confidence and I’m grateful for that. As I thought about that, there was that flash of insight about at least part of my life where I have allowed fear to imprison me.

Moonlight is reflected sunlight. To photograph the moon, you need to understand that and set the camera accordingly, counterintuitve to typical nighttime settings.

To negotiate life’s scary parts, to go forward with reckless confidence – counterintuitive to past experience and failures – maybe my focus should be set on reflected Son Light.

Photos taken 11/6/2009 shortly after 6:00 a.m.

Moonbeam

The nights and mornings of this November’s waxing-full-waning moon week have been mostly clear and the moon shines in and casts a warm glow of moonlight through the house.

This morning, I started the coffee by moonlight then sat in my sunroom chair and let the peace and serenity of the morning and the moonlight center my thoughts.

Outside with Karl, in the frosty moonlight, to the tune of two owls and a few coyote yips, I got lost in the beauty and stillness.

“This is the day the Lord hath made. Rejoice and be glad in it!” Psalm 118:24

Coffee Klatch?

I had just asked Steve about the best times for hunting and been told that when the moon is full and near full, the animals feed all night so are not out in the open during the day – hunting is not the best near the full moon. Coming in my driveway yesterday, he saw this group sleeping in the grass. Despite the fact, that FedEx roared in with a delivery, the group was still there when we left an hour later.