Niece

Photo credit: Amanda Byler

I love you Kaelyn!

Soul

He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock

...and covers me there with His hand.

~Fanny J. Crosby

For weeks I've searched for words to describe my relationship with the Lord. Words are inadequate. But sometimes a picture can say what words cannot.

These wild flowers grew among the rocks along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. Moisture glistened on the sheer wall of black rocks that bordered one side of the road. There in the midst of the coolness and hardness of the rock, the flowers thrived.

I am the pale pink flowers that thrive in the midst of a rock. That is my soul.

More soccer

It's taken nearly a week, but here are soccer shots...

Green Dragon

The Green Dragon is a huge indoor-outdoor market in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, filled with strawberries, scrubs, leather jackets, soap, and cinnamon rolls, and lots of people, including Judith, Amanda, Kaelyn and me. The Green Dragon used to be a speak-easy until Federal agents shut it down and a Mennonite man purchased the buildings and opened an auction barn. The enterprise has grown to encompass everything from gallons of homemade root beer to sun hats.

Aunt Amy bought Kaelyn a hat.

Travel

We traversed four states yesterday--Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania--in an effort to reach our mutual niece and her parents in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The drive despite its length was worth it when we arrived and Kaelyn toddled from her Tia Amanda to her Aunt Amy and back again. Kaelyn and I have already read two and a half books, kick-kick-kicked the ball in the yard, and done the hokey-pokey together.

Inspiration

Amanda and I ventured on the Blue Ridge Parkway yesterday, between Moravian Falls, North Carolina and Roanoke, Virginia. We sipped on the beauty along the scenic route. Suffice it to say that I spent all day snapping photos, and was up twice in the night scribbling ideas on a pad of paper.

Moravian Falls

Moravian Falls, Amanda's Aunt Rachel told us, was once settled by Moravians, who deeded the land to Jesus Christ and kept a twenty-four hour prayer vigil on a mountain. But a man challenged the the claim and the King of England awarded the property to that man. Thus the religious group was ousted from their settlement in North Carolina, but their name remained as a reminder of the simple people who once prayed over the rolling hills and rocky streams.

Amanda's aunt, uncle and three cousins live in a huge, old house surrounded by trees, meadow and rolling countryside. The original four room house was constructed in 1890 and has since experienced two additions that added many rooms and passageways. Amanda and I stayed in one of the original bedrooms that has its own fireplace.

Yesterday afternoon we explored the waterfall that can be reached by meandering through a couple of meadows and a "tunnel" through the shadowy woods. Near the stream the air was cooler and less humid and the water was cool and refreshing. Amanda and I, together with her cousins, ages three and five, sloshed through the water, balancing as we moved from rock to rock as we explored the sandy stream bed. We discovered slugs, crayfish, dragonflies, leeches and ticks. Actually, Amanda and I discovered the ticks after we returned to the house.