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Gardens at Villa la
Paix - Summer, 2014 Midsummer here in
the Shenandoah Valley and abundant life is everywhere a reminder. Purple and
white Echinacea blooming in my
garden have become a feeding place for finches.
Likewise, today a butterfly, dressed in royal raiment, stopped by for a
sip of energy from the purple blossoms. A young bunny grown quickly to a
yearling often meditates these mornings there amidst the multicolor zinnias and
golden marigolds. Of late a mischievous
little chipmunk comes to dig small cylinders in search of buried daffodil and
crocus bulbs which he fetches to a lair somewhere near my neighbor’s place. I
watch him zoom across the tarmac with his loot as if he knows he is a bandit. God
has already forgiven him of this thievery and so have I. Come this September,
I will replenish the
garden with spring bulbs and give thanks for the chipmunk’s invasion of my
premises with nature’s lesson he taught me.
Already along
the back roads of Rockingham County Virginia where I live the wildflowers
signal an early autumn and are in full bloom:
QueenAnne’s lace, edelweiss, chicory, rudbekia, chamomile, lupine,
bergamot, and many others – all this splendor with a backdrop of the
Massanutten and Blue Ridge mountains to the east and the sleepy Appalachians to
the west. 
Echinacea blooming at Villa la Paix, Summer 2014 This monthly journal is my way of keeping in touch with more than 300
people who have crossed my path along the crossroads of my several worlds. It
is mailed in paper to more than 125 each
month and via email to many others in the online digital edition. It is also
a way of sharing what I hope will
be meaningful moments and thoughts.
Apologies for any who may find these pages an unsolicited invasion of
your time or the contents of any unacceptable.
Please let me know if and when I should remove you from the mailing address. 
Rudbekia blooming at Villa la Paix, Summer 2014
The
divine inflexible holiness. There was a gifted young artist who in
wartime was billeted as a soldier in a hut in France with a score of other
men. Some of them had placarded on the
walls of their hut pictures of a course and offensive kind. The young artist
was a Christian, and he
hated it. He was in a dilemma. He
knew that protesting would achieve
nothing. But one night, when the hut was
quiet and his companions asleep, he got out a candle and pencil and a bit of
paper about the size of a postcard and began to draw the head of Jesus Christ.
He had sometimes tried to paint a picture of Christ before, and always he knew
he had failed. But now he tried again.
When it was finished, he put it on the wall
above his own bed. He wondered what the
others would say in the morning when they saw it. Morning came.
Nothing was said at all. But
within a week every other picture had somehow vanished from the walls, and only
the face of Christ remained. The other
things just could not live beside it. It
is just that in Jesus divine holiness confronts us. There is nothing so cleansing
and
strengthening, so sure a defense in the day of danger, as one steady look at
the face of Jesus. There are some things
that just cannot happen when He is there.
Jesus, Master, I have seen Thy face, and I know I have seen the holiness
of God.. James S. Stewart in River of
Life. 
Golden sunflowers blooming at Villa la Paix, Summer 2014
Summer Wildflowers
More Summer Wildflowers
A longhorn finds a resting place among the wildflowers
Contemporary
Words out of an Ancient Book: Our Lord
speaks to Israel & Gentile believers
“When thou
passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers,
they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt
not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.” Isaiah 43:2
"And I will
bless those that bless
you and curse the one who curses you. And in you shall all families of the
earth be blessed." Genesis 12:1-3
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