A Great Dog Living His Almost-Best, Yet Best, Life

This is our cockapoo dog, Finnegan. He is almost ten years old, and he is a wonderful companion.

As he looked out at the new surroundings on our last vacation, I wonder what he thought. Probably along the lines of….”What is that? Is that a creature? I want to go down there and get it. If this wood just wasn’t in the way. Is it time for treats? Where is Mom and Dad? What was that?” Or maybe he was just content and happy. I love to think about what he thinks.

He loves to run free off-leash, but on vacation and in strange places, it’s not safe for him to do that. So that’s why I say ‘almost-best.’ Yet, that leash and those deck railings provide him safety. Which gives him his ‘best life,’ full of pets, rubs, treats, reliable dog food and water, walks, ball playing, car rides, and comfy beds to sleep on practically all day and night.

Note to self: the things I see as restrictions can sometimes be working for my good. Hmmm…much to ponder now. Which I like.

Love, Lisa

Transported

“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” – C.S. Lewis

I love to travel. There is nothing quite so thrilling to me as planning an adventure, booking the flights, the car, the airbnb’s. The feeling of losing touch with the ground as the airplane lifts. Looking down through the clouds at the new unexplored ground as you arrive. Driving on unfamiliar roads, eating new foods, talking to new people who see the world a little differently than I do. Being totally away from the day-to-day problems.

And then the feeling of coming home after the adventures. The feeling of comfort as you drive up the driveway, the familiar farmhouse looking at you kindly as if to say, ‘Where have you been?’, sleeping in a familiar comfortable bed again. The appreciating the familiar after the exoticness of the unknown.

The yearning, as I call it, comes on strong. I read this quote on a friend’s page yesterday, and it resonated with me.

All this yearning, longing, striving, is us yearning, longing and striving for our real home. For heaven. For Christ. To see Him face to face, to have all the wrongs made right, to feel true peace, to have this upside-down world put right side up.

It will come. He is coming again for those who love Him. We will be transported, and it will be the adventure of our lives.

Be His, Lisa

“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.” – 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17

A Tigger Kind of Day

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“I’m bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, fun, fun,fun, fun, FUNNNNN….but the most wonderful thing about tiggers is I’m the only one!”  ~Tigger, from Winnie the Pooh fame.  I was rolling through my old pictures this morning, and I got stuck looking at our Disney World photos from two years ago.  What really struck me is how happy we all look in all the pictures, even though it was about 150 degrees farenheit in Florida all the time.  I have included our photos with good old Tigger.  What is amazing is how all of us still love that childhood feeling of wonder and imagination and excitement.  Part of you still says, “Look!  There’s Tigger!”  🙂  Have a bouncy fun kind of day.  Blessings, Lisa

Protection

DSCN0818When you are in the Caribbean, sun protection is crucial.  The sun is warm and beautiful and relaxing, but can also pack quite a punch on your skin.  So the weathered palm branch huts, the sheltering trees along the edges of the soft white beaches, all provide that welcomed protection after swimming in the perfectly clear blue waters for a while.

When I was younger I used to see God’s guidelines as restrictions, laws, things that were no fun and not very loving.  But with time, I now see that God’s guidelines are full of love, protection, mercy, and grace.  Because He loves me, He wants me to be safe, to be protected.  How wonderful.  Like sitting under a big palm tree on a hot sunny beautiful day.   Slainte, Lisa