In honor of my dad’s birthday today (he would have been 98), I’d like to share a rewrite of the poem “Sea Fever” by John Masefield that he wrote to celebrate his own love of canoeing up in the Boundary Waters.
I must go back to the lakes again, To the lonely lakes and the sky, And all I ask is a sturdy canoe And a compass to steer her by, And the paddle’s kick and the wind’s song And the white caps shaking, And a gray mist on a quiet lake And a bright dawn breaking.
I must go back to the lakes again, For the call of the loon Is a wild call and a clear call That cannot be denied, And all I ask is a windy day With the white clouds flying, And the Norway pines and the portage trails And the sea gulls crying.
I must go back to the lakes again, To the voyager’s gypsy life. To the eagle’s way and the beaver’s way When the wind’s like a whetted knife; And all I ask is a merry yarn From a laughing fellow paddler, And a quiet sleep and a sweet dream When the long day is over.
I copied the cats from someone else’s work, but added my own words. I may have shared this painting on the blog before, but don’t feel like going back and checking. The nice thing is that even if I did, you don’t remember it either, so it’s like you’re seeing it for the first time anyway.
Original artwork and poem.
Hey, speaking of poetry, ten of my poems will be published later this year in a poetry anthology called “I’ve Got A Bad Case of Poetry.” Isn’t that fun? Thank you to those of you who contributed to the Kickstarter campaign.
I’ll probably delete this in the green leaf morning.
When I was very young, my parents gave me a little soft gingerbread man which became Very Important for my sleeping routine. I called him “Gingie.” I had to have him in my arms in order to go to sleep. He was an uncomplicated fellow with two felt circles for eyes and a little felt circle for a nose and not much else in the way of expression. Still, he was a comfort to me. Here’s the surprise part: I still have him. He has long since lost his eyes and nose, which gives him a blank look, but it’s less creepy than you might think.
He was sitting around in my craft room waiting for new eyes (it’s been a long wait) and I thought, “Hey, I should do a watercolor painting of old Gingie! How hard could it be?” In truth, it wasn’t terribly difficult, but then I thought, “Hey, I should give him eyes, since he doesn’t have them anymore.” Done. “Hey, I should give him a nose!” Done. Perhaps I should have stopped there, but the train was running down the track by this time and I decided to insert a mouth where he never had one. Then little stitch marks all around the eyes and nose. Looking at those blank brown circles, I thought, “Hey, he really needs pupils in those eyes.” And just like that he went from sweet little gingerbread man to a creature that might give a child nightmares. Poor Gingie.
Here are another couple of watercolor experiments from this last week, ideas I found on Instagram and YouTube.
Original on left, obviously. Original on left again.
Mistakes were made.
I’ll probably sit in a yellow chair while I delete this in the morning.
We’re sorting through some old stuff and I came across the very first birthday gift that I gave to my husband after we were married.
What is it, you ask? Somehow I thought that what he most needed in life was a Japanese-style canister with verses from the Psalms in it, so he could pick out one per day to read and ponder. I decided to write out one verse from each Psalm (there are 150 Psalms), cut each one out and fold it. And I had to do it when he wasn’t around. As I recall, it took a long time, a true labor of love. In retrospect, it seems like an underwhelming gift, but he received it with gratitude and used it daily at least one time through all 150 verses. That was 40 years ago!
Quotes to Share
Confess all known sin; Get rid of everything doubtful; obey the Spirit immediately; proclaim Christ publicly. Evan Roberts, in the 1904 Welsh Revival
Friendship is a sheltering tree. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Song can turn melancholy into joy, and weakness to overwhelming power. Peter Leithart in From Silence to Song
You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the play and the opera, And grace before the concert and the pantomime, And grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, boxing, walking, playing, dancing; And grace before I dip the pen in the ink. G.K. Chesterton
And now I’ve got to figure out how the font changed. Very mysterious. I’ll probably delete this before I figure it out though.
Our pastor said something yesterday in the sermon that caught my attention and my imagination: we should not equate our amusements and entertainments with true rest. For example, if we’ve completed our day’s work and sit down to reward ourselves with some time on social media, play some games, watch a fun show, read an undemanding novel, we tend to think of those things as taking a well-earned rest. There’s nothing necessarily sinful about doing any of those things within bounds, but this is not rest. As our pastor said, “Sin makes us restless; the heart corrupts our desire for rest and seeks amusement instead.” What he said next really caught me: “Rest is when you can face the hard questions of life.”
I’ve been turning that over in my mind quite a bit since hearing it. Perhaps when we are truly at rest, we are not distracting ourselves from important matters but are giving thought to them, which could take the form of journaling, talking to someone else, praying, reading the Word, reading books that encourage and edify us in those matters, etc. We talk about the Sabbath Day as being a day of rest from our regular labors; it’s challenging to think that we’re not just resting “from” something, we’re also resting “for” something. And the kind of rest our pastor was talking about isn’t something that we would do only on Sundays.
When I was walking more regularly, I was inspired by the poet Mary Oliver to use it as a time to think and observe, rather than a time to listen to podcasts, audiobooks or music. There’s something about giving my mind space to think that is restful in and of itself. It’s also where creativity happens.
Lately, I’ve been doing too much “doom scrolling” on Instagram. It’s amusing, entertaining and sometimes interesting, but after 30 minutes of it, I can’t really say it’s restful. It feels more like I just wasted 30 minutes of my time. Distractions, indeed.
Well, that’s what I’ve been musing about today. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Blessed be the Lord who daily loads us with benefits…
Honeybee slippers for Lynniebee
Snow, snow, snow!
Warm weather to melt aforementioned snow
Good books
Sunrises and sunsets
Quiet evenings
Washing machines and dishwashers
I’ll probably amuse and distract myself before deleting this in the morning.
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I’m very hard on slippers. I wear them all the time in the winter and require a lot out of them. Even the best of them falter, fade and fizzle out as days turn into months and then years. If I get two or three years out of a pair, it’s amazing. Inevitably, however, I’m in the market for them again.
Have I ever mentioned that I don’t like shopping? Also, have I ever mentioned that I’m cheap…er, I mean – frugal? And picky! I have to be able to put slippers on easily from a standing position and they have to have hard soles in case I need to go outside in them. And I have big feet. Those of you with darling little feet don’t understand what us Bigfoots have to go through to find something we like in our size.
I did some half-hearted hunting in February but the inventory is low in most stores by then. “Here’s a pair I could live with – oh, but they don’t have them in my size.” Meanwhile, my old pair of slippers were losing their soles, which is very disheartening for shoekind.
I stopped in today at our local Most Excellent Shoe Store. It’s not called that, but it should be. This is a full-service shoe store, a dying breed, sadly. Their inventory is high quality with prices to match, probably the reason I didn’t go there first. Shame on me!
I didn’t have high hopes. But there on the sale table was the last slipper of its kind in the store. In my size. And it had bees on it. BEES!!!!! 🐝 I’ve been using the name “Lynniebee” for my various creative pursuits for a number of years now, so that got my attention. The slippers are made with wool and were on sale for less than half the original price (which I never would have paid. The frugality goes deep).
How kind of the Lord to pay attention to these little details to delight me with such a gift. Do you think He’s got better things to do than to provide the perfect slippers for me in just the right size at the perfect price? He does, which is all the more reason to praise Him.
And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Matthew 6:28-30
Also, bonus: the brand of the slipper is “Halflinger.” How could I not think of the Hobbits, those “halflings” of Tolkien’s, while wearing them?
That title might be the best part of this post, by the way, but forge on just in case.
I took a few photos from my digital album today and subjected them to some upgrades (or not) through the use of photo editing programs.
What name would you give this fine specimen of a squirrel?
Somehow a haiku appeared on this photo, though not the product of AI, but LI (Lynniebee Intelligence).
Adding a green-ish background to these oranges just made the orange color pop a bit more. The oranges played an important part in the cake, by the way. Oh, haven’t I mentioned the cake yet? Read on!
And last, but not least, we ate cake, due to the celebration of my husband’s birthday. I won’t tell his age, but will give you the hint that yes, I still need him and feed him.
The Glorious Orange Marmalade Cake
And day turned to night, the sky became dark, rain will turn into snow, and we are glad to be indoors.
This post will turn into empty seed bristles in the morning.
The older I get, the less capacity I have to fit multiple things in the mental space that is my brain. Hence the two-week break from posting on this blog. Other things were occupying the Space Formerly Known as Blog Posting.
But it’s a new week, one in which space has opened up again. It’s time to share some random photos from February and finish up with a list of Daily Benefits.
The Scepter of the Fairy QueenPlaying peek-a-boo with a squirrel. “Please kind lady, could you give me a peanut?”“Much obliged. Thank you. Now leave me to eat in peace.”A visitor to our yard. Our latest granddaughter!Adorable!!! ❤️
Note: Even though my readership is small, this is a public blog, so I don’t use the proper names of our grandchildren on here. For that reason, I ask those of you who know the names not to mention them in your comments. Thank you!
Blessed be the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits:
Grandchildren!
The miracle of babies.
Black bean soup…yum
Body parts that still work.
Warm days in early March.
Letters in the mail.
Neighbors who will text you when you have an eagle in your front yard.
Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.
All righty then! I think it’s time for my usual sign off: I’ll probably delete this in the morning.
The poinsettia said, “I’m thirsty,” But I was much too busy. The poinsettia said, “I’m dry,” But I just walked right by. The poinsettia leaves were dropping But I passed it without stopping. The poinsettia leaves turned black And I paid attention at last.
Don’t let this happen to your poinsettia.
I’ll probably delete this when the edges turn black.
My sister visited recently and we decided to spend a little time watercolor painting. I found a couple paintings on Pinterest to copy and that’s been my artwork for the week.
Original painting by Lynda Hendrickson Shilhanek. My version looks a little wonky if you look at it too closely (and maybe you shouldn’t). The front of the house juts out a bit, but the roof still covers it in an impossible way. Kinda trippy! It was a quick painting and I enjoyed working on it.
Original by Lavinia de Boer. I mostly like how this one turned out, except for the legs and feet. Fortunately, you can’t see the original. Another quick painting!
I’ll probably delete this quick blog post in the morning.
Lynniebeemuseoday 