“When we come to know the God of heaven, when we see the Father’s character, when we glimpse the goodness of the Son or his merciful hand in our lives, there becomes within us a need to share it, a need to profess it in word and deed. There becomes within us a need to praise God for all that we see and all that we know. “  Jill Carattini in an essay When Theology Becomes Doxology

           A midsummer drama is being staged on my front porch.  In fact, center stage is right at my porch window.  A spider with the raiment of royalty, Charlotte’s kin, has woven a web of immense intricacy with the determination of a general preparing for war.  Each time I have obliterated her web with ammonia, she has relentlessly rewoven the web the following night.  To wit, I have now ceased my interference and watch with amazement her pursuit of survival.  I suspect that she will have become a delicacy for a robin or wren before summer has waned.  I catch glimpses of her early in the morning but when the sun rises over the Eastern Blue Ridge, she escapes to a daylight-hiding place beneath the roof overhang.  Great lessons she has taught me about faith and survival, reverence for the wonder and artistry of the Creator of us both, and renewed reverence for all of life.  Her royal visit has been an epiphany and a benediction. 

“All love implies a deeper understanding of the other person, a deeper grasp of his real being which shines but imperfectly through many veils and weaknesses, Nothing is more mistaken than the adage, "Love is blind"; Love is that which gives us sight.” – Dietrich von Hildebrand  

 “To remember my life is to remember countless times when I might have given up, gone under, when humanly speaking I might have gotten lost beyond the power of any to find me. But I didn’t. I have not given up. And each of you, with all the memories you have and the tales you could tell, you also have not given up. You also are survivors and are here. And what does that tell us, our surviving? It tells us that weak as we are, a strength beyond our strength has pulled us through at least this far, at least to this day. Foolish as we are, a wisdom beyond our wisdom has flickered up just often enough to light us if not to the right path through the forest, at least to a path that leads forward, that is bearable. Faint of heart as we are, a love beyond our power to live has kept our hearts alive. So it is possible to find peace— the peace that comes from looking back and remembering to remember that though most of the time we failed to see it, we were never really alone.”  Frederick Buechner

“When it comes to life, the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.” G.K.Chesterton

 “I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read, and all the friends I want to see. The longer I live the more my mind dwells upon the beauty and wonder of the world.”  John Burroughs

"Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and hidden things that you have not known" -- Jeremiah 33:3.