Morning Gilds the Skies

When morning gilds the skies, my heart, awaking, cries. "May Jesus Christ be praised!"

When I lifted my head from the pillow a half hour ago, I could see light streaming through the slats in my miniblinds. That light has been sorely missed for the past many months. As a California girl, the apalling greyness of the skies here in Washington tends to leave me feeling physically ill. What a beautiful exception is this morning!

Years past, when our neighbors kept us up to all hours with their 'wild parties', I'd be tempted to serenade them from my garden at 8am with the hymn quoted above, but having a child helped them to settle down admirably; our sleep isn't often disturbed these days. I'm still tempted. Nothing is more satisfying than belting out this song in the thin morning air with golden light falling upon your face; the rarified air lifts the voice like a trumpet, biting and pure. However, I know God and I will be the only two who appreciate it at that time of day and I've learned a bit about compassion and grace over the years.

It's going to be a beautiful day, God willing. There's a bit of high fog that needs burning off, but the sun shows intention of doing so swiftly, so I anticipate many satisfying hours of bicycling with Derek and digging around in my garden. I'll take lots of pictures so I can share them later. God bless you today!

New Beginnings

I'm almost afraid to make the comment for fear I'll ruin it, but it appears that Spring has finally come! I've put off working on this blog for months now because I was waiting for one of my children to help me, but busy lives being what they are, that doesn't look like it's going to happen so I'm jumping in without anyone to hold my hand. Typical Kerri behavior.

Derek and I went to Maui for our second honeymoon in December, and I've held the pictures close for a few months now. I wanted to share some of them because it was just so beautiful (and warm, and sunny) there. Not a drop of rain for seven glorious days, and doing my favorite thing (fall asleep in the sun on the beach).


There were many Spinner Dolphins who thought it would be fun to 'surf' alongside our boat out to Lanai. Out of about 75 pictures (I am not the best photographer), this was the best shot.


Derek snorkeling the reef at Lanai. He kindly decided to skip the Scuba for my sake, since my ears can't hack it. The reef was huge and so pristine, we could have stayed down for hours and hours. We saw so many creatures; a turtle tagged along for awhile but of course I didn't get any good shots of him.


Bottlenose Dolphin, about twice as big as the Spinners and, as a rule, not friendly to people or boats. I consider this a gift from God, as did the guide who says this almost never happens. We also saw False Killer Whales (really, REALLY big dolphins), A Grey Whale and calf, turtles, flying fish (those were WILD!) and numerous other creatures I can't recall at the moment.


Had to throw in a picture of the Luau. The pig was tasty!


Last day, at Haleakala. What you don't see in this picture is the group of (I think) Buddhists chanting and praying toward the sun. We saved this for our trip back to the airport because I just did not want to leave the beach. Ever. And speaking of beaches......


Here's Derek doing a little bodysurfing while I am laying on my favorite Maui beach. I won't tell you the name because I want to save it for myself. Sorry you can't see the beautiful white sand, but I cant' take a pic of it while I'm laying on it!