"Freedom comes when you know with your heart that you are loved."

"Freedom comes when you know with your heart that you are loved.  If you could accept and believe that you are unconditionally love and embraced,  you could go all over the world and never be lonely…In our personal relationships a moral life is not enough. We must also live the mystical life, a life which is embraced by the God who says, "I love you fully and unconditionally."  Henri Nouwen

Mt_Harris_OR, Union_County_OR

Ohope, Bay_of_Pleanty

Wairaka and the Whakatane Harbour

Meg and I enjoyed a family dinner on the Whakatane Harbour before we left for home.  The Harbour is on the Whakatane river in the wide calm water before the river forms the bar with the ocean.  A lovely statue stands on large boulder inside the bar.  It remembers a wonderful Maori legend, as described on the city's website:

"The bravery of Wairaka and the daughter of Toroa, captain-navigator of the Mataatua waka is commemorated by a statue in the Whakatane Harbour.. When the Mataatua waka (Maori) first arrive at Whakatane after making a perilous voyage from Ngati Awa’s ancestral homeland of Hawaiiki 600 years ago, the men left the women alone in the canoe while they went ashore.  When the canoe started to drift back to sea, Wairaka (defying the tapu that forbade women to handle a canoe) seized the paddle and brought the waka back to shore crying ‘Kia Whakatane au i ahau’ – I will act the part of a man.  This cry is said to the origin of the towns’ name."

Besides watching the sun set behind Wairaka, we also enjoyed watching both a powered para glider and a paraglider drift back and forth about us, the river, and the cliffs, and then land gently as the light was leaving the sky.

Whakatane_Harbour, Whale_Island_NZ

Wairaka, Whakatane_Harbour

Powered_paragliding, Whale_Island_NZ

Wairakaka, Whakatane_Harbour

Whakatane_Harbour, Whakatane_River

Traveling with the eyes of GodT

Meg and I arrived home Thursday evening.  The return trip was long but easy. We are blessed to have each other to as our memories flow back and forth between us.  And, we are blessed to have family and good friends to share time with. Henri Nouwen, as he does so often, summarizes our feelings:

"Traveling - seeing new sights, hearing new music, and meeting new people - is exciting and exhilarating.  But when we have no home to return to where someone will ask us, "How was your trip?" we might be less eager to go.  Travelling is joyful when we travel with the eyes and ears of those who love us, who want to see our slides and hear our stories.

This is what life is about.  It is being sent on a trip by a loving God, who is waiting at home for our return and is eager to watch the slides we took and hear about the friends we made.   When we travel with the eyes and ears of the God who sent us, we will see wonderful sights, hear wonderful sounds, meet wonderful people … and be happy to return home." 

Tauranga 

Ohope Beach

Scenes along beach and bay

Great as the sunrises and sunsets are on the Bay of Plenty from Ohope Beach, there are also many great scenes along the road. I have enjoyed the blessing of getting to know an Emergency Department nurse at the hospital where Matt works.  She is an absolutely sublime photographer who feels the compositions talking to her.  I went out with her and her husband last week, and they took me to some marvelous locations.  Most of these shots were taken on that trip.

Ohiwa, Ketaware_wharf, Opotiki

Ohope Harbour

ohiwa

Ohiwa

Ohope Beach

Shell Beach Ohope

Ohope Beach

Ohiwa, Ketaware_wharf, Opotiki

Opotiki

Waioeka

The Eternal Shepherd

"Love unites all, whether created or uncreated.  The heart of God, the heart of all creation, and our own hearts become one in love."  Henri Nouwen

Kutawere_wharf_NZ, Ohiwa_NZ

And God is the eternal, ever present Shepherd calling us to Him, bringing us to Him. Thank goodness, because even now, I still wander astray and need him to bring me back and give me strength.

Baker County

East Cape, N

 "I myself will tend my sheep and give them a place to lie down in peace, says the Sovereign Lord. I will search for my lost ones who strayed away, and I will bring them safely home again. I will bandage the injured and strengthen the weak." Ezekiel 34:15.16

Sunrise, Sunset, Ohope Bach, North Island, New Zealand

Ohope Beach lies on the Bay of Plenty, a long crescent shaped bay four hours east of Auckland.  It recently was rated as the top beach in New Zealand.  The beach here runs for miles, offering great waves for surfing and boogie boarding.  Excellent fishing is found both in the ocean and Ohope Harbor, or Ohiwa as it is also called.  Morning and evening light is never the same, never boring, sometimes subtle, sometimes shocking, but always alluring and enduring.

Ohiwa, Ohope_harbour

lilies and Ohope sunrise

Norfolk pine, Bay of Plenty

Ohope Harbor, Ohiwa

Bay of Plenty, Ohope Beach

Ohope Beach

Ohope Harbor, Ohiwa

West End Ohope

West End Ohope

West End Ohope

God is at the heart of the answer

"I am certain of one thing: the love that is God is at the heart  of the answer, just as it is at the heart of each moment--past, present, and future…Faith chooses to embrace hope and to be embraced by hope, even when overwhelmed by despair; it seeks life even in the face of death….God's grace embraces our questions as well as our answers and our blindness as well as our vision,  just as the sun shines steadily through the night, waiting to illumine the sky at dawn."  Jean M. Blomquist

Whale Island NZ, Ohope Beach

Ohope Beach