One of the new things people began to find out in the last century was that thoughts—just mere thoughts—are as powerful as electric batteries—as good for one as sunlight is, or as bad for one as poison. To let a sad thought or a bad one get into your mind is as dangerous as letting a scarlet fever germ get into your body. If you let it stay there after it has got in you may never get over it as long as you live…surprising things can happen to any one who, when a disagreeable or discouraged thought comes into his mind, just has the sense to remember in time and push it out by putting in an agreeable determinedly courageous one. Two things cannot be in one place. ~A passage from THE SECRET GARDEN by Frances Hodgson Burnett, 1911

**Image via Pinterest

Breath…
You, Lord, are the air that I breathe
And in it is Your holiness and life,
The life that sparked all that is
Thus I rejoice in thankfulness and praise Your Holy Name, Jesus

Sight…
You, Lord, are the Giver of all that I see
And in all that my eyes behold is Your holiness and life,
The glory of Your life and majesty
Thus I rejoice in thankfulness and praise Your Holy Name, Jesus

Sound…
You, Lord, are the Creator of all that I hear
And in those rhythms is Your holiness and life,
Life, Your sacred, faithful, and rejuvenating life
Thus I rejoice in thankfulness and praise Your Holy Name, Jesus

Blood…
You, Lord, shed your blood for me
And in that sacrifice is holiness and life,
Eternal life and grace, mercy, and salvation
Thus I rejoice in thankfulness and praise Your Holy Name, Jesus

Purpose…
My life is a story
And in it is Your holiness and Divine intention,
Intention as purposeful as the bits of pollen on the floor of this blossom,
Intention meant to serve You and bless You by the sharing of its days
Thus I rejoice in thankfulness and praise Your Holy Name, Jesus

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. ~1 Thessalonians 5:16-18  ✝

**Hollyhock photo taken in her yard by Natalie

And even pretty flowers…

**Photos by Natalie; text box added by Natalie

For the last several months my sister and I have been hand making quilts for family members. She actually does the hand quilting when they are all pieced and ready to be hand basted to the batting for warmth and the lining to cover the batting and the back of the pieced together quilt. The process involves cutting thousands of pieces that have to be sewn together to make the overall design of each quilt. For example this is one of the 20 blocks that will make up the quilt we are currently working on. Each block has 48 pieces that had to be hand cut and then sewn together.

Each star is unique in that though they all have the same eight colors in them, all the fabrics are different so that each star is not exactly the same. And though our grandmothers cut each piece of their quilts by hand, nowadays they have created a rotary cutter with a very sharp blade like the one I was using today. And because the blade is so very sharp one never puts it down without retracting the blade. However, as I was working on a design for another quilt today, my rotary cutter flew out of my hand as I was trying to retract the blade and landed blade first in the top of my right foot. Needless to say lots and lots of blood began to pour out of my foot and because we couldn’t seem to get it stopped, James called 911 who walked me through what I should do until the fire department and the paramedics arrived on the scene. Here is the portion of the block I was working on at the time.

After the paramedics artived and got the bleeding stopped at least for the moment, they recommended that I go on to an Urgent Care facility or an Emergency Room. So off we went, and hours later I came home with stitches in my foot and a new tetanus shot. And the point in my telling you all this is that I’m just too tired to read emails, comments, or posts tonight. I pray that all of you had a marvelous and less accidentally eventful day. I’m not in any pain at the moment but I am very tired as I lost a fair amount of blood. Below is a photo of said foot complete with its stitches. They still hadn’t cleaned all the dried blood off my foot and so my foot appears to be very blotchy. After it was all said and done though, they did wash both my feet since I cannot get the wounded one wet for several days. Love, Natalie

**All photos taken by Natalie