Dog Days or Refreshing Days

I admit, July and August are my least favorite months of the year. Now, if your birthday is in one of those months, just let me finish.

By all means my dislike is certainly because of the heat. Only the invention of air condition makes it bearable. We can thank Willis Haviland Carrier for this. The Apparatus for Treating Air (U.S. Pat# 808897) was granted in 1906 and the rest is history.

The "dog days of summer" is so named after a star, Sirius, the dog star. The name "dog star" came from the ancient Egyptians who called Sirius the dog star after their god Osirus, whose head in pictograms resembled that of a dog. The star was in conjunction with the Sun in the summer and ancient Egyptians and Romans argued that it was responsible for the summer heat by adding its heat to the heat from the Sun.


Well, for whatever reason, dog days of summer are hot! When our dog, Emma (above), was alive, she would lay down on the blacktop driveway just a huffing and puffing. I'd say, "Emma, get in the shade, and you'll be cooler."

Then it dawned on me that God tells me to stop huffing and puffing too: "Carol, get in the shade of my wings and be refreshed by My Word. My breath will flow through you and calm your temperature!

I listened! That's one of the things I do to refresh my summer days. Emma, though, still stayed in the sun.

A number of my friends have birthdays during this time. Thinking about them, setting a date with them or calling for a sweet conversation also refreshes my summer days. My friends are the stars in my life, and they bring refreshment to my soul. Happy Birthday to Lee, Mary, Stephanie, Helen, Mom, Peggy, Melody, Hanyin, Hilda, Joan, Linda and Cindy!

"Fawn watch" is another thing I do for refreshment. Early July I began to see fawn in the backyard, and while I'm driving. I've been granted many opportunities to snap pictures of fawn, one of my favorite subjects!


I added to my list of refreshment this year--my garden. I go out early in the morning to water and admire God's creation. Most of the plants are doing well. We purchased some new plants also! The bird baths need fresh water, and deer sometime come up to feed at the back gate. If I'm really lucky, I hear a rooster crow, bringing in the morning! As Sidney Poitier says in "The Last Brickmaker in America," "Yes, the rooster does like the morning!"



Another refreshment I have new this year is the beginning of a wildflower garden! I've always loved wildflowers, whether along the road or in a field. I've wanted to plant some for years, but it just didn't get done. This year it did!

Jerry plowed an area along the back fence, threw down the seeds and covered them with straw. We didn't know what we'd end up with, but I had hope. The first picture, at the top is the result! It needs to be filled in more, which we'll do late fall. But I now have a wildflower garden to enjoy!


July and August are refreshing days as I concentrate on those things that make me happy.

Yes, it's the dog days of summer as we move into July, but there is refreshment out there! I guarantee it!

I Shook his Hand

As reported this week, Fred Luter, Jr., pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church, New Orleans, LA, was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). And my memories began . . .

In the middle 90s, Pastor Luter came to Montrose Baptist Church, Rockville, MD, to speak at the Building Bridges Conference, I was working there as a secretary. I had the opportunity to listen to him preach, and I purchased tapes of his sermons.

He's all fire and brimstone, and he really stirred my heart. That kind of fierce preaching has a way of touching your most inner thoughts and bringing conviction to your faith and commitment. Check out his testimony at www.franklinabc.com/pastor.

A few years later I wrote him a letter after listening to his tapes again. He wrote a handwritten note to me in reply (below).

I was pleased that Pastor Luter was asked to speak at the Baptist Convention of MD/DE(BCMD) annual meeting--I don't remember what year--and I felt like a friend was returning to touch my heart.

Pastor Luter is the first African American to hold the position of president of the SBC. And Shannon Baker's Facebook entry said it was an electrifying moment! (BCMD writer for BaptistLife)

I still have the tapes I purchased of his sermons at the Building Bridges Conference years ago. Now where is that old cassette player. I'm ready for some emotionally-charged testimony about my Lord.

I shook his hand and have a hand-written note from him, along with some powerful memories of his sermons. I pray God will use him in a mighty way as he leads the convention through thrilling times in history!

Bookish

The other day my friend, Kathy, posted on Facebook about the books she'd recently read. It got me to thinking about a quote by C. S. Lewis: “I can't imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once.”

I enjoy reading books more than once. I may reread a book four or five times over the years. It's like visiting with a friend you haven't seen in awhile. You pick up right where you left off. Well, in this case, right at the beginning again!



Mr. Lewis also said: "You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me." When I'm finished with a good book, I just don't want it to end. It lingers in my mind. What did I learn from it? Where did it take me? Now, tea, on the other hand, will never do. Coke for me!

"All my life I've loved books. But the Bible was the only book that ever loved me back." Edward Grinnan, Editor-in-Chief at Guideposts. What a statement! Everytime you read the Bible you learn something new. It never disappoints.



Love poems are usually written in books. But here is one that is written to a book . . . the Book.

"Welcome dear book, soul's joy, and food!
The feast of Spirits, Heaven extracted lies in thee;
Thou art life's charter, the dove's spotless nest
Where souls are hatched unto Eternity.

In thee the hidden stone, the manna lies,
Thou art the great elixir, rare, and choice;
The key that opens to all mysteries,
The Word in characters, God in the voice.


O that I had deep cut in my own heart
Each line in Thee! Then would I plead in groans
Of my Lord's penning, and by sweetest art
Return upon himself the Law, and stones.
Read here, my faults are thine, This book, and I
Will tell thee so, Sweet Savior thou didst die!

Henry Vaughan, 1622-1695, Welsh physician and poet

I enjoy reading books I've never read before. But I especially enjoy going back and rereading a book I loved. Whether a good fiction story, biography or non-fiction work, your world is enhanced by good writing.

A few books I enjoy picking up again are: "The God I Love" by Joni Eareckson Tada; 50People Every Christian Should Know" by Warren Wiserbe; Reagan: A Life in Letters; Draper's Book of Quotations for the Christian World" and Beverly Lewis' books on the Amish.

I'll end with another quote from C. S. Lewis: “No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally – and often far more – worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond.”

The Bible wins again! You just continue to grow . . . the more you read it, the more you learn.

What are you reading this summer?

Me? A Gardener?

The unthinkable has happened. I planted a flower garden. Me. A real flower garden. It only took me til age 63 to accomplish this.

My grandmother was an avid gardener, with prize blossoms. My mother also gardened. But the bug never bit me.

Maybe it was those bugs that kept detouring me . . . or the dirt. I'm really not sure why I never leaned in that direction.

In the past years, with my digital camera, I've photographed flowers from some very lovely gardens. And I've grown attached to their beauty.

Last fall we took down a large tree, and it left a very ugly and barren plot of land (above). Somewhere deep in the recesses of my mind I heard the words, "plant a flower garden."

Wow did I take off! With good advice from my friend, Kathy, in a week's time I planned, bought and planted (with Jerry's help, and generous wallet!) a garden. I'm tickled. I can hardly wait to see the growth

We've planted flowers (rather Jerry planted them) here and there, but never a garden.

Those red chairs you see in the picture at left got a lot of use. We were out there before 7 each morning. And, yes, I got in the dirt! I planted at least half of the flowers and plants myself. Who would of believed? Carol's playing in the dirt. (Of course, I had gloves on.)

Spring has been long and beautiful this year. I hate to see it end soon, as we head into summer. But this year summer will bring me lovely blossoms from my own garden. It makes me smile.


You know, I've been seeing a lot of ugly, barren plots of land since I started. Better wait a week before I tell Jerry!

PS Being retired may have helped too!