Sunny Tales

Our temperatures are climbing steadily.

Yesterday recorded 41.5*C up in the 100s F

its 6* above normal for March.

I have to confess that Easter is not my

favorite season of the year -physically speaking

because it is the harbinger of heat.

Strange thought - but I wish Easter took place

in Oct/Nov or even Feb.

But keeping weather aside I rejoice in

the power and glory of

Christ' s resurrection.

That is the foundation of our faith.

Don 't get me wrong.

Easter is the glory of our faith.

Sheeba needed a cooling bath,

so she got one today.

Although she can' t understand what all the fuss is about.

My Jimmy hated baths

and used to cry softly

when I washed him.

By the way the Japanese have invented a washing machine for dogs.

I saw it on TV.

Maybe its on YouTube.
Sheeba sunning her tail on the porch (veranda).

I don 't know if people in hot/tropical countries

have noticed this phenomenon.

If you have a dog of European descent, he/she

will like to sun themselves during spring

and summer, no matter how hot

it is. Its their inbuilt instinct

passed on to them from their forefathers.

My Judy (German Spitz) used to sun

herself in the baking front yard in

the blistering June sun.

We harvested aubergine/eggplant and beans.

Mama is setting them aside to distribute

to needy people.
Like this poor goat lady

who comes to collect grass and greens

for her goats.

Fresh mulberry from our tree.

They are very juicy and sweet.

I avoid sugary things otherwise

I would have made mulberry jam.

Fantasy- could rear silk workms on the

mulberry.

!!!

Like humans nature also has

its highs and lows.

Some tress are drying up

and littering the ground below them

with dead leaves and dry pods and seeds.

While other vegetation is thriving

Our Easter Lillie's are coming up.

In the highs and lows of life its good to remember

17 Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.
Habakkuk 3 (Old Testament)

Encouragement I received from Joni Erickson Tada today

Your spiritual life must not hinge on your commitment to Christ. That only sets you up for defeat. Rather, glory in his commitment to you. Daily come to him in spiritual want and leanness. Acknowledge moment by moment that he is the one whose arms are underneath you as you rise to the mountaintop, and he is the one who preserves you as you descend the other side.* * *

Sunday Blessings; The Miracle of the Carpenter

I got this beautiful true story in a Max Lucado newsletter I am sure it will bless your heart.
The Miracle of the Carpenter
by Max Lucado
Loretto Chapel took five years to complete. Modeled after the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, its delicate sanctuary contains an altar, a rose window, and a choir loft.The choir loft is the reason for wonder.Were you to stand in the newly built chapel in 1878, you might see the Sisters of Loretto looking forlornly at the balcony. Everything else was complete: the doors had been hung, the pews had been placed, the floor had been laid. Everything was finished. Even the choir loft. Except for one thing. No stairs.The chapel was too small to accommodate a conventional stairway. The best builders and designers in the region shook their heads when consulted. “Impossible,” they murmured. There simply wasn’t enough room. A ladder would serve the purpose, but mar the ambiance.The Sisters of Loretto, whose determination had led them from Kentucky to Santa Fe, now faced a challenge greater than their journey: a stairway that couldn’t be built.What they had dreamed of and what they could do were separated by fifteen impossible feet.So what did they do? The only thing they could do. They ascended the mountain. Not the high mountains near Santa Fe. No, they climbed even higher. They climbed the same mountain that Jesus climbed 1,800 years earlier in Bethsaida. They climbed the mountain of prayer.As the story goes, the nuns prayed for nine days. On the last day of the novena, a Mexican carpenter with a beard and a wind-burned face appeared at the convent. He explained that he had heard they needed a stairway to a chapel loft. He thought he could help.The mother superior had nothing to lose, so she gave him permission.He went to work with crude tools, painstaking patience, and uncanny skill. For eight months he worked.One morning the Sisters of Loretto entered the chapel to find their prayers had been answered. A masterpiece of carpentry spiraled from the floor to the loft. Two complete three-hundred-sixty-degree turns. Thirty-three steps held together with wooden pegs and no central support. The wood is said to be a variety of hard fir, one nonexistent in New Mexico!When the sisters turned to thank the craftsman, he was gone. He was never seen again. He never asked for money. He never asked for praise. He was a simple carpenter who did what no one else could do so singers could enter a choir loft and sing.See the stairway for yourself, if you like. Journey into the land of Enchantment. Step into this chapel of amazement and witness the fruit of prayer.Or, if you prefer, talk to the Master Carpenter yourself. He has already performed one impossible feat in your world. He, like the Santa Fe carpenter, built a stairway no one else could build. He, like the nameless craftsman, used material from another place. He, like the visitor to Loretto, came to span the gap between where you are and where you long to be.Each year of his life is a step. Thirty-three paces. Each step of the stair is an answered prayer. He built it so you can climb it.And sing.
Wouldn 't it be a wonderful place to visit? If you are near the area do go to the Chapel.