Growth

Both the Old and the New Testament are filled with references to soil, roots, and growth.  Where do our minds and hearts and souls grow, where are they transformed, except in the good soil and life giving water He has provided us?  And yet, as always, the challenge to us is to choose carefully those ingredients that sustain and grow us.

Drake Bay, Corcovado National Park

Coconut beginning to grow, Amaya Family Cabins

Drake Bay, Pacific Ocean, Costa Rica sunsets

The sunsets  between Drake Bay and the Osa Peninsula of the southern Pacific side of Costa Rica were absolutely gorgeous.  These were just in front of our lodging at Amaya Family Cabins. I will not wax poetic.  You can add your adjectives and superlatives. They did not last long once the sun went down below the horizon, but they were intense! And, for what it is worth, these sunsets inspired a haiku--

soft light, deep color
sunset growing and fading
welcoming the night

Amaya_Family_cabins, Drake_Bay, Bahia_Drako

Amaya_Family_cabins, Drake_Bay, Bahia_Drako

Amaya_Family_cabins, Drake_Bay, Bahia_Drako

Amaya_Family_cabins, Drake_Bay, Bahia_Drako

Amaya_Family_cabins, Drake_Bay, Bahia_Drako

Amaya_Family_cabins, Drake_Bay, Bahia_Drako

Amaya_Family_cabins, Drake_Bay, Bahia_Drako

Amaya_Family_cabins, Drake_Bay, Bahia_Drako

Amaya_Family_cabins, Drake_Bay, Bahia_Drako

The still dwelling upon God

Stillness and solitude do fill our souls, and gradually allow us to change.

"The still dwelling upon God is the quietest

but the most potent action of all"  Emmet Fox

"Solitude is the furnace of transformation....Solitude

is not a private therapeutic place, Rather, it is the 

place of conversion, the place where the old self

dies and the new self is born."  Henri Nouwen 

Amaya_Family_Cabins, Drake_Bay_CR, Osa_Peninsula

maya_Family_Cabins, Drake_Bay_CR, Osa_Peninsula

"…what finally matters is that our hearts become like quiet cells where God can dwell, wherever we go and whatever we do."  Henri Nouwen

When indeed I can quiet myself that deeply, somehow, from somewhere, peace sings and I can feel a deep love for all of Creation.

amaya_family_cabins, osa_peninsula, Costa_Rica_beaches

amaya_family_cabins,  corcovado_national_park

His Mystery

It has taken me many, many decades, but I have finally recognized several important calls in my relationship to God: if God is not in the everyday events of life, He is not God; if I don't want to be changed and transformed, there is little substance to my relationship to Him; and if I only get morality out of my  relationship to God, I have completely missed His call to the mystery of Divine Life.

Amaya_Family_Cabins, Corcovado_National_Park

Amaya_Family_Cabins, Corcovado_National_Park

Wonder

As Meg and I,  Michael and Sara enjoyed the rainforest of Corcovado National Park and the cloud forest of Curi Cancha and Selvatura in the Monte Verde area, the birds of Costa Rica never ceased to astound and amaze us.  This quotation from Dag Hammarskjold, UN Secretary General during the turbulent Cold War years of the late fifties, came to my mind:

"God does not die on the day we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason."  Dag Hammarskjold, Markings

Scarlet_macaw, Corcovado_National_Park, Amaya_Family_cabins

Corcovado_National_Park, Amaya_Family_cabins

Corcovado_National_Park, Amaya_Family_cabins

curi_cancha, Monte_Verde

curi_cancha, Monte_Verde

curi_cancha, Monte_Verde

blurred flight of a Quetzal, Monte_Verde, Selvatura

Monte_Verde, Selvatura

Toucan, Corcovado_National_Park, Amaya_Family_cabins

Corcovado_National_Park, Amaya_Family_cabins

In love, in awe, in worship

For Epiphany--the arrival of the Magi--the British writer, Evelyn Underhill (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Underhill)  wrote this simple yet profound prayer:

"Draw us, O Holy One, as you drew the Magi, to those places and experiences in which we have not known you before, and open our eyes to see you and respond to you in love, in awe, and in worship."

Drake_Bau_Costa_Rica, Amaya_Family_Cabins


Meg and I are just returned from 12 days in Costa Rica.  We took Michael and Sara for intensive birding and other activities on the southern Pacific Coast of Costa Rica close to Drake Bay and the Corcovado National Park, as well as the cloud forest of Monte Verde. The days were full and it was fun to be "off the grid" for awhile :)

Drake_Bau_Costa_Rica, Corcovado_National_Park