Some beauty and some words that touch my heart...

 

"He gives snow like wool; he scatters frost like ashes." Psalm 146:16 (ESV) - Woodrow Church of the Nazarene • Woodrow, WV---Photo from Christopher Morris posted on the West Virginia Heritage, History, and Memories Facebook page

Psalm 146/147

I.

1 Hallelujah!

How good to sing praise to our God;
how pleasant to give fitting praise.

2 The LORD rebuilds Jerusalem,
and gathers the dispersed of Israel,

3 Healing the brokenhearted,
and binding up their wounds.

4 He numbers the stars,
and gives to all of them their names.

5 Great is our Lord, vast in power,
with wisdom beyond measure.

6 The LORD gives aid to the poor,
but casts the wicked to the ground.

II

7 Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving;
with the lyre make music to our God,

8 Who covers the heavens with clouds,
provides rain for the earth,
makes grass sprout on the mountains,

9 Who gives animals their food
and young ravens what they cry for.

10 He takes no delight in the strength of horses,
no pleasure in the runner’s stride.

11 Rather the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him,
those who put their hope in his mercy.

III

12 Glorify the LORD, Jerusalem;
Zion, offer praise to your God,

13 For he has strengthened the bars of your gates,
blessed your children within you.

14 He brings peace to your borders,
and satisfies you with finest wheat.

15 He sends his command to earth;
his word runs swiftly!

16 Thus he makes the snow like wool,
and spreads the frost like ash;

17 He disperses hail like crumbs.
Who can withstand his cold?

18 Yet when again he issues his command, it melts them;
he raises his winds and the waters flow.

19 He proclaims his word to Jacob,
his statutes and laws to Israel.

20 He has not done this for any other nation;
of such laws they know nothing.

Hallelujah!

Psalm 146

I

1 Hallelujah!

2 Praise the LORD, my soul;

I will praise the LORD all my life,

sing praise to my God while I live.

3 Put no trust in princes,

in children of Adam powerless to save.

4 Who breathing his last, returns to the earth;

that day all his planning comes to nothing.

II

5 Blessed the one whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD, his God,

6 The maker of heaven and earth,
the seas and all that is in them,
Who keeps faith forever,

7 secures justice for the oppressed,
who gives bread to the hungry.
The LORD sets prisoners free;

8 the LORD gives sight to the blind.
The LORD raises up those who are bowed down;
the LORD loves the righteous.

9 The LORD protects the resident alien,
comes to the aid of the orphan and the widow,
but thwarts the way of the wicked.

10 The LORD shall reign forever,
your God, Zion, through all generations!

Hallelujah!

"Humble"---A new testimony song from Steve Cline

We have had the good fortune to have posted music and some quotes from Steve Cline on this blog previously. Steve is a pretty deep thinker. He lives in West Virginia and has a powerful story to tell us, and I think that we should hear what he's saying and sit with that for awhile and take what works for us with us. If you read this blog regularly you know that some of our constant themes are recovery, religion and spirituality, and the creativity and beauty that is around us and within us. We hit all of these themes in Steve's music and in much of what he has to say. Do I always agree with Steve? No. But his testimony and his music get and hold my attention, and I know that there are many people out there who will benefit greatly from hearing Steve and knowing that there is someone out there who knows their road and can put it into music and share much-needed hope.

The words are as follows:

I was raised to be a prideful sinner

always to stand up for myself

was how to be a winner

but then I found out that road is just full of glimmer

it'll take u to hell a whole lot quicker 

we all need to forgive and be humble

give the shirt off of our back and love our brother

we need to deny our flesh and stay sober

we need to walk as Jesus walked and be humble

there's a way to man that may seem right

but theres only one way that leads to life

we have to trust that Gods way is right

if we put our faith in him he will bring us through the fire

Steve says:

I'm in the process of trying to start a group meeting around McDowell county. As of right now idk of any. A friend of mine is starting one in welch in Feb. I'm trying to get one going in n the Gary area. These bigger cities have at least one everyday. with all the addiction and deaths from addiction we need a place where people who are struggling can come to talk with others who have been there and not feel ashamed. A place where no one looks down on them. I reached out to the mayor of Gary yesterday an plan on talking to a couple pastors to see if I can find a place to have these meetings. I'm trying to see how many people would be in interested in attending these meetings. The only way we will get stronger is in unity. like, comment, and share if you or someone you know would be interested.---January 27

and

there are people who think they know what recovering addicts are going through but just because you've done a couple pills or snorted a line of coke doesn't make you an addict in the same way that working at a hospital doesn't make you a Dr. no matter how much clean time we have there are days we wake up wondering if this is gonna be the day we slip. it's a constant battle of the mind especially when you have the means to do so. you may think that your actions don't have an effect on an individual and you probably don't care but they do. and I know it's another tool of the enemy to try to get me back but I'm sure that others don't know that. in the past anytime we felt anger, joy, resentment, loneliness, our escape was drugs. Now days I use the bible and prayer. but 20+ years of running to the wrong things takes time to break those cycles. I also know that there are certain people who don't want to see us succeed, but all I'm saying is just watch how you treat people,, you might be the straw that breaks the camel's back.---January 26

Those are powerful statements that come straight from the heart. I think Steve is being a realist here, and I say that with my own struggles and the struggles of many friends in mind. The January 27 statement brought a reaction from someone in McDowell County, West Virginia that I believe is entirely justified. They wrote:

I’ve said that before! Here our county was having the highest od rate in the nation at one time, and not only was there no facilities available for recovery, but there’s not even any AA type meetings! It’s proof to me how our state government thinks we don’t matter in McDowell, and why it’s SOOO very harmful for residents and former residents to think it’s ok for them to leave here and talk like we’re nothing but addicts and low life’s with no redeemable qualities.

Why do I think that this statement is totally justified? Because I believe that the person who wrote this knows from first-hand experience what they're talking about and because it is certainly true that West Virginia and most of Appalachia do not receive the levels of social services and care that are needed. Most of the region lives in a semi-colonial state, producing wealth for export and exporting workers to other states and providing large numbers of people to the military but getting almost nothing back that reaches the grassroots. Most of the politicians act as if they're serving colonial masters. I cannot think of a nicer way to say it. People who want to get sober may have to go elsewhere, as the writer says. But why can't home be part of the care and medicine we need?

The beauty within us and around us

The first photograph below is of a pottery maker in either New Mexico or Arizona in 1908. The photograph itself captures something dear and touching in the woman's expression and in her work. We can tell from the photograph that there is a history present and at work in her and in her pottery, and an intelligence and focus that informs what she has made. I also see something of sadness, and perhaps regret, in her face. Am I imposing this or is the center of this sadness or regret in the object, in herself, or in the act of being photographed?

This second photograph was taken by Allen Edmonds in Dandridge, Tennessee this morning. I took it from the Appalachian Americans Facebook page. I think that most of us would drive by an old barn in the fog in the morning on our way to work or running errands without paying much attention. But slow down for a minute. That fog and that barn have stories. Where do they come from? What are they doing there at the moment when you're passing by? The beauty here is not just in the fog and in the barn, but in your place and their places in a story. If you don't know that story you're free to make something up. Make your story as beautiful and as meaningful as you can and maybe pass it on to someone else if you have the opportunity.

This third photograph was also taken in East Tennessee this morning. It comes from Kerwin Cornett. I think that it speaks for itself. Who, after all, can speak for a flower?

To see more in this series on this blog, please click on the "Beauty" tag.

Hazel Dickens

 

The Hazel Dickens Memorial Bridge is on County Route 11 running over the Bluestone River near Montcalm, West Virginia.

She is buried in Princeton, West Virginia.

She lit up my life and the lives of so many others. I really do miss her.

West Virginia My Home

Beautiful Hills Of Galilee

They'll Never Keep Us Down

The beauty within us and around us---some sketches by Ms. Debra Lynn Kimball

These sketches were done by Debra Lynn Kimball. She is a retiree living in West Virginia and doe some great art work. These sketches depict Christ in the mines watching over mine workers. I think that most people who go underground for work pray some, and many mine workers will tell you that they either
depend on God's protection or have been saved from disasters underground by divine intervention or know people who have been. There can be a spirituality attached to the work, and I think that Ms. Kimball's great sketch work captures some of that.

I want to offer one more thought here. I'm one of those people who loves mine workers and mining communities, but that does not mean that I love the coal industry and do not want to see needed economic and political transitions take place. That said, I want to ask people who don't think much about the mine workers and their communities, and those who do think about them through the lenses of stereotypes, to consider that no one is going to give up on work that they pray over and have a spiritual attachment to without something better and safer and guaranteed and that they can take ownership of in the same ways that mine workers feel ownership and control of their work.

This is part of a blog series on the beautiful things around us and within us. I enjoy doing these posts more than many others. To see other posts in this series, please hit the "Beauty" tag on this post. Thanks!

The great beauty that is around us and among us

We're fortunate to have two separate posts on the great beauty that is around us and among us today. These two come from Mr. Van Malone. He says of the first "I painted this last night using water colors and acrylics. I love seeing old home places and barns." As with many other people, I look at these and wish that I could create something so beautiful as these. Still, I think that some of what we feel as we look at these is bound to derive from the honesty of the paintings, there familiarity, the way they welcomes us. Do you ever drive by barns and rural homes and wonder about the people living in those areas? Do you ever feel the excitement of seeing your destination in the distance? The person viewing these has some critical distance and will feel a part of the trip home. And for some people there is a "Welcome home!" waiting for them.

If you want to see more in our series showing some of the beautiful things around us and among us, please hit the "Beauty" tag on this post.

The beauty around us and within us

I'm going to enter this as part of our blog series on the beautiful things among and around us. This collage was done by Mr. Mark Hanna. I would not have known that it was a collage had I not been told. The detail and the faces are extraordinary and true to life. Mr. Hanna lives somewhere in Appalachia. He calls this "We will keep a light on for you." Wonderful!

You can see more in this series by hitting the "Beauty" tag below.

Finding Black Louisiana Folk Artist Clementine Hunter

Wash Day by Clementine Hunter, 1980. Taken from WikiArt. 

I don't know much about art and artists, but I do want to learn more about the Black Louisiana Folk Artist Clementine Hunter. It seems tragic to me that I could live into my late 60s and never learn about her or see her work. This art is a living example of the kind of beauty that I try to get out on this blog. 

I have the Black Southern Belle and the Glitter Gallery pages to thank for brining Clementine Hunter to my attention. The Gallery provided this brief introduction to Hunter and her work and the photograph below.

Remembering Our great Louisiana Folk Artist Clementine Hunter who passed away January 1, 1988 at the age 102. She was a self-taught African-American artist from the Cane River region of Louisiana. She was born on Hidden Hill Plantation, known today as Little Eva Plantation, said to be the inspiration for Uncle Tom's Cabin. She was the granddaughter of a slave and worked as a farm hand. She was never taught to read or write. In her mid Fifties, she began painting using paint brushes left by an Artist that visited Melrose Plantation where she lived and worked. Hunter's new lifestyle of artwork depicted plantation life in the early 20th Century documenting a bygone era. She first sold her paintings for as little as 25 cents. By the end of her life, her work was being displayed and exhibited in museums and sold by art dealers for thousands of dollars. Hunter was granted an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree by Northwestern State University of Louisiana in 1986. Today her artwork appears in museums and private collections all over the world and sells into the hundreds of thousands of dollars for some of her most treasured paintings. Thank you Clementine Hunter. You Inspired Us.

"...we notice the beautiful faces and complex natures of each other..."

“We are here to witness the creation and abet it. We are here to notice each thing so each thing gets noticed. Together we notice not only each mountain shadow and each stone on the beach but, especially, we notice the beautiful faces and complex natures of each other. We are here to bring to consciousness the beauty and power that are around us and to praise the people who are here with us. We witness our generation and our times. We watch the weather. Otherwise, creation would be playing to an empty house."

---Annie Dillard quote taken in part from Connection & Unity by Mónica Esgueva in Braided Way

 

The Tug Fork River

My friend Dustin Estep is involved in efforts to help clean up the Tug Fork River and he does some fishing there and writes some of the most beautiful reports on fishing that you can image and posts these on the Friends of the Tug Fork River Facebook page. I have talked a good deal here on this blog about the Tug Fork and the Friends of the Tug Fork, and I am sure that I have mentioned Dustin Estep a couple of times. He's a family man and he works as a roof bolter in the mines. He has that great vibe of being someone people are drawn to and trust.

I do want to encourage you to follow the Friends of the Tug Fork River on Facebook and to support their work. And please wish Brother Estep some luck with his fishing! Here are three photographs that he took and posted recently. You won't get the full effect unless you either visit the Friends of the Tug Fork River on Facebook or go and visit the River and the watershed and see the incredible work being done to save it.

The Beauty Around Us

 

This clip comes from near Summerville, Oregon. It was done by Aimme Terry

and appeared on the My Columbia Basin Facebook page.

This meme was taken from the Orthodoxy and Animals Facebook page.

FOR A NEW BEGINNING---John O'Donohue

FOR A NEW BEGINNING

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life's desire.
Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

JOHN O'DONOHUE
From his books 'To Bless the Space Between Us' (US) / Benedictus (Europe)
Ordering Info: https://johnodonohue.com/store
The Burren - 2022
County Clare, Ireland
Photo: © Ann Cahill

Some of the beauty around us

 

Sunset over the Greenbrier River by Lynette Deeds Patton. Found on the 

Vintage West Virginia Facebook page.

“She wanted to be someone who left you with your words caught in your throat & your mind stuck on her soul. To see her true beauty, you needed to close your eyes and feel her all around you in the quiet of your thoughts. The one your heart can’t forget.” New River Gorge National Park, Fayette County, West Virginia---Peggy Smith Photography

Rick Burgess Photography

Photo taken in Grant County, West Virginia by Tony Greco/
@WestVirginiaNatureLovers

Railroad track sunset along Rt 2 in Mason County, WV.--
MKS Photography WV

Steve Cline on climbing mountains and our faith journeys

Friends, this is our third post from Steve Cline. Steve lives in West Virginia. I think that this post carries a great message to end one year and begin a new year with. We all have tough climbs, and some of them are dangerous and not everything that we cling to along the way is going to be helpful but our journeys have meaning and value and can take us to new heights and better vistas with the proper solidarity and guidance. This post also helps reinforce a point that is a basic premise of this blog: wisdom, beauty, and creativity are all around us and amongst us.

Dr. Ralph Stanley's "Great High Mountain" carries a similar testimony and message.

 

The beauty within us and around us

I did a post yesterday about the wonderful work done by Ms. Diane Briggs. The picture of the painted rock that appeared here caused me to meditate a bit on creation and beauty and where they come from, and the post also got many positive comments. Ms. Briggs was pleased enough with this to tell me that she lives in Western Kentucky and she sent me a photograph of another one of her great works that I am posting here. A friend of hers was kind enough to send along a picture of a painted beehive that she did as well. The beehive adds a utilitarian dimension to Ms. Briggs' work, meaning that her creativity extends in a direction that most of what we take as "art" doesn't. Some of her work has a purpose beyond being beautiful in and for itself. I believe that this is unique in these times, when "art" is given a price tag and is identified as something separate from our daily lives. Ms. Briggs is building a bridge and invites us to cross a chasm.

This post is part of an on-going series. Please click "Beauty" in the tags to see similar additional posts. 

The beauty within us and around us

 

Diane Bridges painted this scene on a rock for a Christmas gift. She is quite good at doing this work, and when I saw it I thought of two things. First, this work fits into the posts that I put up on this blog about the beauty that is within us and around us and that is not in the first place about making money. It's not just the painting here that speaks to me, but that Ms. Bridges did this on a rock and did it as a gift. She enjoyed doing it. She built bridges with this.

The second thought that occurred to me when I first saw this is the many places in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles where there are passages talking about rocks and stones. The theologian Richard Rohrs says in one of his books that it's difficult for us to begin our faith journeys by loving God and that it is a good idea for most of us to start with loving something small and immediate first, and he suggests rocks and building our love from there. We refer to God as our Rock. Psalm 18:46 says "The LORD lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God my Savior!" In Luke 19:28-40 Jesus speaks of stones crying out and testifying. He was not using a passing or common expression when he said this. This beautiful adornment of a rock as a gift carries with it a real theology. In raising up something simple and ordinary in the way that Ms. Bridges has we are reminded of the beauty and testimony of creation, where love begins, and the gifts that we have been given.

"From the top of Rattlesnake Mountain you can see the white hem of world..." A teaching from Alberto Moreno

I have once more been gifted with permission from Alberto Moreno to post one of his poems and teachings here. This one takes my breath away. It's cleansing.

From the top of Rattlesnake Mountain you can see the white hem of world. From these rock outcrops I can spot elk migrating. Once I caught a glimpse of two mated lynx below me.

The basin sweeps out and up to the greater Colorado Rockies. Beyond this a crown of mountains encircle this part of the world.

I come up here to take in the sloping shape of the world, to take in the shape and feel of this new life.
The rocks are covered in a blanket of snow today and I don’t know how long I can “sit” for today.
I came up here today to take inventory of a life lived. But also to surrender to this ancestral medicine which now asks for me every week or two. As if it were saying, time for a divine adjustment, my beloved child.

My job is to drag my body up here and to sit for three or four hours while the medicine does it’s work.
It’s uncomfortable. As medicine is likely to be. I try to be a good patient. To this divine physician.
I tuck in my legs and my chin and surrender to this divine process.

When I come to, three hours later, the snow under me has melted. The sun now slung low on the horizon.

The adjustment however painful always feels loving.

I unfurl my legs from under me and begin to gaze upon the valley below.

And in the distance I can see something moving. Its a lanky slinky dark creature making its way over the snow blanketed landscape below.

It’s Coyote. And he’s on the hunt in this wintry tundra.

Coyote who brought us here. To El Norte. To El Otro Lado. It’s an auspicious omen on this Christmas Eve.

The wind begins to howl and I gather my things from the cold rock beneath me and begin to make my way down Rattlesnake Mountain, to a life waiting…

A.M

Wolf Moon and another poem by Mary Oliver

Wolf Moon

Now is the season of hungry mice, cold rabbits,
lean owls hunkering with their lamp-eyes
in the leafless lanes in the needled dark;
now is the season when the kittle fox
comes to town in the blue valley of early morning;
now is the season of iron rivers, bloody crossings,
flaring winds, birds frozen in their tents of weeds,
their music spent and blown like smoke to the stone of the sky;
now is the season of the hunter Death;
with his belt of knives, his black snowshoes,
he means to cleanse the earth of fat;
his gray shadows are out and running – under
the moon, the pines, down snow-filled trails they carry
the red whips of their music, their footfalls quick as hammers,
from cabin to cabin, from bed to bed, from dreamer to dreamer.

Two photographs and Christmas greetings from Peggy Smith Photography in West Virginia

"And she will be the light your darkness has longed for…..”

This one is a throwback from a few winters ago. It’s always been one of my

favorite photos I’ve taken. Fayette County W. VA.

Merry Christmas with so much love from my heart to yours!

New River Gorge National Park

A hand-crocheted Christmas tree from Berea, Kentucky

"Merry Christmas from Berea, Kentucky. This is the hand crocheted tree on display,

made by several Artisans in Berea."