Beautiful Places!

The Cloisters!
 New York City
You can read and see more here!
I LOVE, love, LOVE this place!
If you are at all interested in medieval art and history, you will love this place. I could have spent days looking at everything, but my kids were done shortly after we got there. Amazing!!
 
Definitions of cloister on the Web:
  • surround with a cloister, as of a garden
  • religious residence: residence that is a place of religious seclusion (such as a monastery)
  • seclude from the world in or as if in a cloister; “She cloistered herself in the office”
  • a courtyard with covered walks (as in religious institutions)
 
Gorgeous!!
Beautiful!!
Look at the natural lattice, I want some!!

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The woven trellis is to die for!!
Fuschia!! so delicate!
Notice how the animal lies at it’s master’s feet,
even in death. I love it!
What a great trip, if you get a chance, go!!!

Lessons from the Mountain!

You may have read my post  from 10-6-09 about the time me and my darlinest climbed this mountain. Wow, it was an amazing, and hard, experience. I reflect on it from time to time. One lesson I learned was to
 keep a proper perspective. When you’re up high like that, some things down below seem quite insignificant, while others seem amazing, beautiful and very important. You can’t tell from up on top of the mountain that there are any problems in the world. You would think that everything is just moving along. The houses look so nice all lined up next to each other. The things in my life that tend to overwhelm me are not even important. I sensed the reality that we’re all here together just trying to do the best we can.
I once heard an example of perspective from a teacher named Randy Bott. After climbing a mountain, his experience went something like this, while in the valley there were really rough roads, with jigs and jogs, pot holes and bumps. If you were to ride on the road you would wonder why those who made the road did such a lously job. You couldn’t see more than ten feet past the road on either side. But on top of the mountain, he could see why the road jigs or jogs, there was a big boulder or a body of water or something there that couldn’t be seen from the road. He said, “I could see, what I could not see from down on the road.
There was purpose in the jigs and the jogs…it made perfect sense from 1500 feet in the air. And from 1500 feet in the air
you couldn’t see the pot holes“. 
I believe someday we will see our lives like I saw the valley below my beautiful mountain. And like Randy said we won’t see the pot holes. The things in our lives that overwhelm or frustrate us will not be important.  We will understand why the road was bumpy or had jigs and jogs. I am glad, and am thankful when I’m reminded to look at life with the proper perspective.  

Beautiful Places

Conservatory Gardens in Central Park, New York City.

Absolutely amazing!

It’s a little bit heaven, in the middle of the city.

I need just one (or maybe a few) of these in my yard.

I’m sure my darlinest

would be happy to accommodate me.

The pink and yellow are my favorite.

How does God do that?

He is amazing!

I think He made these just for me!

Have a great day!!

Look for the beauty in all of God’s creations.

Lessons from the Mountain!

See this mountain…I have been on top of this mountain.
I love this mountain. It represents so much. From the time I was a small child till now, I have looked in awe at it’s majesty.
One lesson I learned from the mountain is this — you can do more than you think you can. We have untapped abilities that are only used when we really push ourselves. My sweetheart and I decided one year for our anniversary to climb the mountain. That was about ten years ago. It was going to be a testimony to our marriage and the work and effort that got us to that point in our marriage. We started at about 8:00 am. We had a great time talking and enjoying each others company. We talked about our kids, our life together so far, our goals and dreams, and of course we talked about how much we loved each other. As the time went on the trail became steeper. There were many switch backs. There were also beautiful views and flowers along the trail. We had not prepared at all for this hike. No walking or special training to build endurance. We just went for it. I remember saying to my darlin, “Do you think I can do it?” and he would say, “YES! you can”. After 7 hours of hiking we reached the top. I was exhausted, and Brett was tired. Remember, we have to get back down. Some where in the middle of the hike I remember thinking, this is probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I had given birth to 4 children and had gall bladder surgery, I was still thinking this is probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done. We hiked down for 5 more hours, using different muscles than we used going up. Toward the end of the hike we both really had to concentrate to put one foot in front of the other. It was more quiet than the hike up, because we were saving our energy for hiking down. Finally we made it. We were so sore, I mean soooo soorree!!! I couldn’t even look at the mountain for months without shedding a few tears. But I did it! I didn’t know I could. Now I know, I CAN do hard things. It takes alot of effort, but I can do what ever I need to or want to do in life. You can too!
(Oh, by the way the hike was 16.o5 miles)