A Little R & R

I recently returned from an amazing trip with my husband...I will share a few photos in this posting, maybe to go into more detail at a future date...or maybe not, God knows :)

This was taken at a rest stop, we did quite a bit of driving, it was good to get out and stretch our legs...

...it was a huge rest stop,

and the view was spectacular;

we were somewhere between Phoenix and Flagstaff...

these images don't do it justice

I don't know those people, 

they just happened to get in my shot...

the cacti are just beginning to blossom

I can only imagine how beautiful the desert will be

in a week or two...

Our little road trip was so amazing, we decided on the spur of the moment to go west, and it was so wonderful! I only wish we could do it more often...but oh so thankful we could do it at all...

Well, that's all I have time for today :)  <3

The Problem with Atheists...

https://www.recruiter.com/i/how-to-control-for-me-and-against-me-thoughts/

A few weeks ago I began reading a book...for me this is a tough assignment on several levels...The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky is translated from Russian to English (the version I'm reading is supposed to be one of the better ones, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volkhonsky) so perhaps part of the problem is the fact that words often do not translate directly from one language to another and often make for tedious reading. Another problem is the Christianity that is presented in the novel is Russian Orthodox, similar to Eastern Orthodox, it is very different from the Christianity we experience in the west. I go several days at a time in avoiding the reading of it, so after these weeks I'm only at the halfway point, sigh and groan. I hadn't heard or known anything about this story or it's author, I saw it on our bookshelf (my husband purchased it a couple of years ago) and decided to dive in. Interestingly the topic of what atheists believe and think are explored in this story and the hero of this story struggles with these amoral people from the context of his Russian Orthodox beliefs. Although I have encountered these (atheistic) beliefs before, and not just from atheists, but directly from my own mistaken and fallen understanding of what I wanted to believe prior to being saved...encountering them in this story is timely, considering the recent events and my own struggles with the blasphemous utterings from "former Christians turned atheists". I hope to give a blogpost or two in the future (after finishing this drudgery of a book reading) to explore a few things that come up in this assignment....in the meantime, I share a debate that I enjoyed between an atheist and a Christian:


Dinesh D'Souza: "It's not an intellectual revolt, it IS a moral revolt"

Spring!

Today I had to do a couple of errands so I took a walk and went downtown...and on the way I saw

crocuses!

and

a nice scene for a future needlepoint project? maybe...

and a reminder....

the beauty of the day was offset 

by

this reminder

that this world is cursed with 

death

and

corruption

and then in my own garden...

yellow crocuses

I hope I have purple ones also...

I planted bulbs last fall...

they were a mix of yellow, purple and white...

these are the first to bloom! 

I love them <3

There have been a few things that have been heavy on my mind and heart, but I am still ruminating

over them, perhaps they will be the subject of a post in the near future. In the meantime 

I'll be thankful for these blessings and reminders, and will pray about the other things....