Welcome, all wonders in one night! Eternity shut in a span!
Summer in Winter! Day in Night! Heaven in Earth and God in Man!
Great little one whose all-embracing birth
Lifts Earth to Heaven, Stoops Heaven to Earth! – Richard Crenshaw
God has truly blessed us this year—a busy but very special year. . .
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One thing is certain about life, there's always change that will come. No one except the Lord knows what one day will hold from another.
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“Is anybody listening? I’m very concerned …”
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Just wanted to give an update on the previous Hiatus entry. Things have changed! Wow! Is that unusual? Well …
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Most every blog will take times of hiatus, which is, according to Dictionary.com, "a break or interruption in the continuity of a work, series, action, etc." And, our New Leaves blog is entering into that kind of interruption now.
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One of the greatest announcements made to mankind was "Unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord."
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It hardly seems possible that another year has gone by. This brings us to almost three full years since retirement when our new adventures began.
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The native culture called Toccoa Falls “the beautiful.” It is located on the campus of Toccoa Falls College, our alma mater, where we lived early in our marriage, in a mobile home park on the college grounds. After three wonderful years, in 1975, we both graduated from the college.
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There have been those individuals who have asked us, when they hear about our van-trek, "What do you do when it rains?” I’d like to give an answer to that question for those who haven’t yet had it answered.
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In our travels, we have found that the vast majority of the people we have met, including police officers, are pleasant, polite, interesting and helpful. For example, just now, as I was writing this, sitting in a lovely pavilion overlooking a lighthouse on Lake Michigan, a man and his dog “Rosie” stopped by to chat, while out for their morning walk. But in St. Louis, we met one person who was none of the above, and his actions have wounded, but not defeated us.
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The Joyces have landed! Well, temporarily at least. After 21 months away from our house, we are now spending some time at home, which feels good. It seems very luxurious to have running water—HOT running water, an electric stove with four burners, a refrigerator that actually keeps things from spoiling, and central heat and air! We are living in the lap of luxury!
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Looking out my much-loved wall of family room windows, I see that most of the leaves are on the ground now. When we got home a week ago, there was still a lot of fall color, but it’s November. Soon winter will be here—we had a preview this week! I enjoy this view every day that I am home, no matter what the season or weather. Vivid fall color, crisp winter snows, budding spring greens, and even rainy, foggy days are highlights. But every day has its own beauty, even “in between” days like today.
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We are now back in our home once again. It’s been about 21 months since we first started our Van Trek around the nation following my retirement. We haven’t been traveling every day of those 21 months, but we felt that it was time for us to take a little break and tend to our house for a while.
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When we were in the Everglades earlier this year, we enjoyed attending the ranger-led talks. At one of these, the ranger asked that each of us tell what state we were from. The lady next to me said that she was from Vermont, so afterward I asked her where in Vermont she called home. When she said “Calais,” I knew she was from my sister Dot’s neck of the woods.
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As we are enjoying the lovely spring-blooming trees, shrubs, and flowers along the way, on this leg of our trip, we are also reading in the book of Numbers in our Bible reading plan. Today we read the part where Aaron’s rod budded, and it reminded me of how God uses nature to show us Himself.
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