This day

This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
Luke iv.21
Every day and every night speak the goodness of God, and when they have finished their testimony, leave it to the next day and night to say the same.
Matthew Henry

Sunday at Christ's Fellowship we sang the old hymn, Blessed Assurance. "This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior, all the day long". I must confess that is not always the case. Intruding into that testimony of praise and goodness are long silent pauses, uncomfortable pauses as when on a phone with someone who does not know how to keep the conversation flowing.
I am silent in my sin, in my self-absorption, silent in any number of distractions. Interspersed within the silence come bits of praise and thanksgiving. Small attempts to praise a Sovereign God.
Constant though, in the silence, is the underlying, ongoing prayer for mercy.
For grace.
For myself
For loved ones
for the world

Of Thy Pleasures

Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures.
Psalm xxxvi.8.

Infinite the ocean joy,
Opening to His children's view;
Infinite their varied treasure,
Meted not by mortal measure,
Holy knowledge, holy pleasure,
Through eternity's great leisure,
Like it's praises, ever new.
Frances Ridley Havergal

God in His wisdom has given us gem of rivers like the Itchetucknee as a vivid picture of His spiritual river of His pleasures. I cannot begin to comprehend what the River of Life shall be like, or the River of living waters flowing from the throne. I can drift down this clear,cool river as in a state of suspension above a world of grass,trout,bass,alligators, turtles and otter in wonder. I am drawn to these waters the same as I am by the Holy Spirit drawn to Christ, to know His righteousness, to be cleansed from my sins, to soothe my troubled soul that pines for Him.

Trackless trains

I've never been asked about the poetry
Though every word I wrote rhymed
They never asked at which University
Did you spend your time?
Composing the poems you did
Its like all the while
Nothing penned was ever read
As if to say
Here are tracks
But upon them
No train
Ever
sped.
I've never been asked about the photography
Though every thing was recorded
They never asked in which Laboratory
Did you develop the prints?
Taking the photographs you did
As if to say
Here is a train
But upon
these tracks
it never
came.

Kill me with their Love

In the movie the Green Mile, John Coffey tells Paul Edgecomb(Tom Hanks) that Wild Bill  Wharton killed the two little girls with their love for one another.
At times, I feel that as a grandpa, I am being "killed" by my love for two very special little children, Nathaniel and Ava.

When A Grown Child Dies

by Aurelia D.Wallace

After the Black Death, after
Lister, after doctors learned
To wash their hands
---Began to hope
The bloodied spawn might live,
Might starve, for once, the empty plots
In family graveyards
(Birth ten, get four
if you are lucky)
The natural extravagance
of evolution
---Kept on hoping
After polio, after Salk,
After Spock, Gesell, and Gerber,
How better it would be,
A queer economy,
If babies lived
---When my turn
Came, given the laws of probability,
(Buy one, get one free)
---Came to expect
Him to live to grown,
Marry, produce his own,
Bury his mama and daddy
Instead of babies
Under the family's whited stones
---But when
grown child dies...
B

The General's wife

The Union and Confederates were in the cemetery at Olustee paying tribute in a service to those who made the sacrifice of their lives here 149 years ago. I stood over by the fence with General Todd Jesse's wife Helen Case Jesse and the General's attendant of the horses, James Rourks.
The General's wife was of fiery red hair and beautiful blue eyes, an appearance befitting a General's wife.
She was most kind and gentle to Beauregard, the General's horse. I was honored to capture the moment.

Ruined from behind

 f
This is a fine example of how intrusion into your background can ruin a photograph. I was busy concentrating on the expressions and position of the three and failed to notice the spectator
peering into the scene. I suppose he could be blurred out, but best to be aware of ones background and avoid him all together.

ask,askance,glance

Awaiting the mustering of the Confederates to march to the battle on Sunday, I enjoyed photographing these young people selling period garments. There was another fellow in other photographs, but this triangle was my favorite, plus there was a background free of spectators.

Thine hands unto

Thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, in all that thou puttest thine hands unto.---
Deut. 12:18

Christ, when He blesses, blesses not in word only, but in deed. The lips of truth cannot promise more than the hands of love will surely give.
Spurgeon

When I was young at my grandmothers steep yard in West Virginia, it was a pleasure to mow the soft bluegrass with her reel mower.
When I was older and we moved to Florida, it was pure drudgery to mow the hard bahia grass with the reel mower.
Same blades but very different results. I liken the Bluegrass to a life where Christ both blesses in word and in deed. Even upon hills, the cutting is a joy.
When one works in his own effort, apart from the proper tool, (the spirit), toil and sorrow ensue.

Into Olustee Shadow

Is it actually essential to carry the sharpest lenses and the latest gear? When I returned from the Sunday Battle of Olustee 37th re-enactment of the 149th year after the actual Battle, the photographs that piqued me the most were those I had deliberately blurred and panned slowly. It evokes more of a sense of the time to me. I did not take enough of this type as I should have.
For the 150th next year, I hope to concentrate half of my exposures to the ethereal and mysterious.
 

Consider Him

Consider Him.
Hebrews 12:13

Believer, who art weary and disheartened because of the roughness of the way, look at the Master's footsteps, and see how He suffered.
Spurgeon

I must constantly remind myself, my path compared is primrose strewn and soft with pine needles.
What gives me the audacity to go about in a state of sorrow and pity for my minor scratches?
Could it not be the enemies tactic to sideline us in our own misery?
I think so.
Morning by morning I rise and cast away the pity, the woe is me countenance I so love to parade.
And so again today,
I consider Him.

Alligator Day

In the latter afternoon, knowing a front was moving in, I went out to Alligator Park to see what developed. Went on foot with the vest, the D40 with the manual 180mm and 2x extender, plus the Canon S100 and iphone4. I had hoped to see the White Pelicans but I assume the fishing was not to their liking, or they were on the deeper Southern side of the lake.
I was able to capture the two alligators in a one minute video that was uploaded to Utube within minutes after filming. That is what I want in a camera, which is there.
In all, a few promising shots that I later worked in the computer with the HDR setting.
Going more for the graphic look.