Sandra Heska King

daring to open doors

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Deep See Diving

September 14, 2010 By Sandra Heska King

I don’t like bike riding.

Well, that’s not totally true.

I do like the feeling of the wind in my face and a sense of accomplishment.

I don’t like going ten miles when I haven’t ridden for weeks–umm–months.

And since we usually ride single file, I miss the communication, the closeness.

Those are the things I like about walking.

I also have decided I don’t like riding warp speed through life. My friend, Cassandra, is a climber. I like climbing. I like the view from the top.

But what I really like is taking my time.

Lately, I’ve been prone to wander. Off the path.

To see. To see deep. To deep see dive.

Seeking. Wondering at the mysterious and the marvelous. Finding joy in the sacred.

And now, thanks to Claire Burge, I’ve discovered the macro function on my little girl camera.

And so, I may suddenly charge into poison ivy. Or my husband may turn to find me far behind him on the path hung over some obscure weed or flower or berry.

This week over at High Calling Blogs, Claire has challenged us to find, fill, and zoom.

And here are just a handful of glory gifts I unwrapped that made me catch my own breath this week. (And I must say I’m kind of proud of my toddler photographer skills.)

And these next photos showed me what I could really see if I dove deep.

Seeing

Deep seeing

Deep see diving

“What a wildly wonderful world, God!

You made it all, with Wisdom at your side,

made earth overflow with your wonderful creations.”

Psalm 104:24 (Message)

Be sure to visit the High Calling Blogs PhotoPlay gallery on Friday for other zoomers.

Also celebrating the small things with Emily and others today at Chatting at the Sky.

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Filed Under: stories and reflections

Comments

  1. Carol Garvin says

    September 15, 2010 at 12:54 am

    Wonderful “glory gifts”, Sandra! I think it’s so important to look beyond the superficial in life, and your camera has certainly helped you do that beautifully. I hope you won’t mind if I link back to your post.

    • Sandra says

      September 15, 2010 at 9:35 am

      Wow, Carol. I’d be honored.

  2. Cheryl Smith says

    September 15, 2010 at 9:25 am

    Those are beautiful!

    I’m still a newborn.

    • Sandra says

      September 15, 2010 at 9:36 am

      Thanks, Cheryl. Actually, I’m probably a newborn, too. “Toddler” just seemed to flow better with “photographer.” More poetic or something. 😉

  3. HisFireFly says

    September 15, 2010 at 9:34 am

    Incredible! I’ve done some of this as well.. thinking I should post now.

    • Sandra says

      September 15, 2010 at 9:37 am

      Incredible? You just made my heart sing.

      Do. Do. Post now.

  4. Louise says

    September 15, 2010 at 10:29 am

    Oh my! these are wonderful. Thank you for the inspiration of this entire post!

  5. A Simple Country Girl says

    September 15, 2010 at 12:03 pm

    Miss Sandra, it looks like you wrangle that so-called little girl camera just fine. These are amazing images and wonderful details.

    Blessings.

    • Sandra says

      September 16, 2010 at 10:40 pm

      Wrangle. You are so funny. Thanks!

  6. Claire says

    September 15, 2010 at 6:55 pm

    maybe it is time for that big girl camera after all?

    have you noticed how your photography journey has grown over the past few months? i just scrolled back a few months and the change is significant.

    thank you for being you.

    • Sandra says

      September 16, 2010 at 10:42 pm

      I have noticed my sight is more developed. I have to work on talking my husband into spending the money. I think I can’t print photos much larger than 4 x 6 or whatever. You have encouraged me and taught me so much! I should take a trip to Ireland for some one-on-one. 😉

  7. Donna says

    September 15, 2010 at 11:24 pm

    Gorgeous! Exquisite!!

    Deeply seen.

    • Sandra says

      September 16, 2010 at 10:43 pm

      Thanks so much, Donna.

  8. Judith Robl says

    September 16, 2010 at 5:57 am

    The pictures are exquisite! Breathtaking!

    Don’t we serve a marvelous Creator? He put all those minute, beautiful details where we could see them if we were looking. The secret is to look and see.

    • Sandra says

      September 16, 2010 at 10:45 pm

      Hi Judith. Thanks so much for visiting! I’m just learning to see and appreciate the beauty and detail that’s been there all along.

  9. Janis@Open My Ears Lord says

    September 17, 2010 at 8:53 pm

    Wow, Sandra, you do better with your little girl camera than I can with my brand new expensive one! Beautiful flower and such detail in focus. Love it!

    Blessings,
    Janis

  10. deb@talk at the table says

    September 22, 2010 at 8:01 am

    That last one in particular got me…
    There is so much to learn, but it’s fun , don’t you think?

    sorry it has taken me so long to get around to everyone.

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“Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous to “Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous to be understood. . . Let me keep company always with those who say “Look!” and laugh in astonishment and bow their heads.” ~ Mary Oliver in “Mysteries, Yes”
🌱
No way could anyone ever convince me that this world in all its beauty and creativity and mysteries is here by accident.
Food truck night with a newcomer—@crepstick. So Food truck night with a newcomer—@crepstick. So yummy! I hope they come back.  But maybe not too often or I’ll have to do double time on the exercise.
“Embrace this day knowing and showing the world “Embrace this day knowing and showing the world that your God is more than enough for you.”
🌿
@tamiheim @tonibirdsong 
In @stickyJesus: How to Live Out Your Faith Online
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the str My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion.” Psalm 73:26 (ESV)
🌿
I’d almost forgotten what quiet mornings on the patio were like. (Quiet except for the birds and the sound of the neighbor’s AC.)
So yesterday I saw my cardiologist. It was the fir So yesterday I saw my cardiologist. It was the first time he wanted to see me in 6 months instead of a year. He said my aortic stenosis had gotten worse. Like on the cusp of moderate to severe. 😬

So the first thing he asks me is, "How's you daughter?" Wait. Isn't this supposed to be about ME?

Then he asks if I've had any symptoms. "Well, I don't know. Maybe. I felt a little dizzy out of the blue a couple times. And felt like I couldn't catch my breath. I wouldn't have paid any attention if I didn't know I was supposed to be watching for symptoms. I DID walk all over Israel and up a bunch of steep hills, even all the way up to the Golan Heights--against the wind--without anything but normal fatigue.

He laughs. "I created a monster." Ummm, yeah.

"Have you been exercising?" 

"Well, yeah. We walk a couple miles a day. I'm back on my Nordictrack Strider." I didn't tell him I'd been lifting some light weights and some very heavy boxes and other items during this renovation, though I was told in December not to.

So he listens to the beating of my heart. Then he says, "Well, I don't think the valve is ripe yet. I don't expect you to have symptoms for three or four years. You don't need to come back for a year."

Wait! So you ask if I have symptoms. But you don't expect symptoms--yet. And when I do have symptoms, someone is gonna do something. And then I'll be older and maybe weaker. Or what if I have some sudden and silent symptom and boom! And now I have to worry about that. 

(In other news, my oldest grand texts me the other day, and our conversation runs like this...
Last weekend we were in northern Michigan. And the Last weekend we were in northern Michigan. And there were lilacs. They even shook their heads over tornado-induced devastation. Look for the beauty and sweet scents in the midst of the mess. I miss the lilacs.
Yesterday’s morning view. We haven’t seen the Yesterday’s morning view. We haven’t seen the sun all day today.
When the folks in my hometown of Gaylord, Michigan When the folks in my hometown of Gaylord, Michigan ate their breakfast Friday morning, they had no idea what terror and devastation they'd face before dinner. Everyone has a story. You've probably seen pictures.

If not, take a peek at @mlivenews .

My great-nephew, not quite 12, had just gotten home from school when the EF-3 came down the street and left its mark on every home. My niece frantically tried to find her way from work through debris and blocked roads. My sister was 30 miles away visiting my dad in rehab. I don't want to know how fast my brother-in-law drove. 

The house and yard took a hit, worse than some, not as bad as others. A mobile home park was demolished--two deaths there. I heard one person is still missing. So many injured. So much awful. But the town is coming together for each other. Pray for them.

We plan to fly up Thursday--already planned to celebrate my dad's 95th birthday. 

Also, if anyone feels led to help, the Otsego Community Foundation and Otsego County United Way are accepting donations. Note “Tornado Relief.” Beware of any other fundraising requests.
Cutting tonight’s walk short. Stupid blue jay. N Cutting tonight’s walk short. Stupid blue jay. Not this one. A different one. But still. (My niece believes blue jays are a visitation from Grandma—my mom.) 
My shirt says “Walk in love. But I’m not feeling very loving. And if it WAS my Mom AKA Mother Mary Esther of the Order of Perpetual Birdwatchers, I’ll bet she’s having a good laugh. A passerby said she heard it was good luck and I should buy a lottery ticket tonight. In other news, I also banged my hip bone against our bed’s footboard and gave myself a mighty bruise. Then I burned my arm on the top of the grill. I did manage to wash all the knives without cutting myself and didn’t start any fires. So how was your day?
And now… “From the rising of the sun to the pl And now… “From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised.”
The world’s a mess, but His mercies are new. The world’s a mess, but His mercies are new.
When we were in Israel last month, we visited @yad When we were in Israel last month, we visited @yadvashem - the World Holocaust Center in Jerusalem. There wasn't enough time to spend nearly enough time. 

The Valley of the Communities was very moving. It's a labyrinth of stone from which there seems no way out. Our guide said It gives an idea of the endlessness of the horror. His parents emigrated from Vilna (the Jerusalem of Lithuania), before the Holocaust. In 1935, thirteen of his family members still remained there. By 1945 only one--an uncle--had survived. He wrote a book about them from a bundle of old letters. "One story out of millions."

"This memorial commemorates the Jewish communities destroyed by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, and the few which suffered but survived in the shadow of the Holocaust."
#Israel2022 #HolocaustRemembranceDay
“From my favorite spot on the floor, I look up a “From my favorite spot on the floor, I look up at the blue sky and the bare chestnut tree on whose branches little raindrops shine, appearing like silver, ” Anne Frank wrote in the Diary of a Young Girl. Watching the tree change through the seasons her family spent in hiding in an attic gave her hope. The Holocaust Memorial Center is one of only eleven sites in the United States to receive a sapling from that tree. I stand at “her” window and imagine hanging hope on a tree.

"It happened, therefore it can happen again: this is the core of what we have to say. It can happen, and it can happen everywhere.” ~ Primo Levi

From a post I wrote for @tspoetry after a visit to the @holocaustcenter.

https://www.tweetspeakpoetry.com/2016/07/27/regional-tour-holocaust-memorial-center-farmington-hills-michigan/
Stunning tree I parked near at Bible study yesterd Stunning tree I parked near at Bible study yesterday. I was in a rush and failed to snap the whole tree. I need to run back before the flowers fall. I think it’s a jacaranda? I want one.
Speaking of birds... bluejay in my backyard this a Speaking of birds... bluejay in my backyard this afternoon. I thought he was hurt, but I think he was just trying to cool off. (Maybe it's a young one.... unless it's the light?)
Someone should do something about that dog. She’ Someone should do something about that dog. She’s yelping and carrying on like she’s in some awful pain.
“Now in the place where he was crucified there w “Now in the place where he was crucified there was a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.” ~ John 19:41

“But the angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay…’”~ Matthew 28:5-6

Many wonder if this tomb, which lies just a few yards west of Golgotha could be the place where Jesus lay and rose. I wish we could have lingered longer here in this garden and in the tomb itself. It was easier for me to imagine the events of that weekend happening here than in the heavily incensed, decorated, dark and crowded Church of the Holy Sepulchre… though my hairdresser said her old boyfriend “got chills”’when he entered that tomb. We did not go inside that one because the line was way too long. 

At any rate, the most important thing is that he tomb is EMPTY and HE IS RISEN!

HAPPY EASTER!
#Israel2022 #GardenTomb #Easter
 “Peter said to him, ‘Lord, I am ready to g 
“Peter said to him, ‘Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death’ Jesus said, ‘I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day until you deny three times that you know me.’” ~ Luke 22:33-34

The Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu (rooster crowing) built over what tradition says was the house of Caiaphas where Jesus was brought after he was arrested. Perhaps he was imprisoned in one of the underground crypts while awaiting trial. 

“On top of the church, higher than the cross—I loved this—stands a golden rooster! I’ll never look at a weathervane the same again. How would you like to have a church commemorate your weakest moment?” ~ Wayne Stiles in Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus

#Israel2022 #GoodFriday
The olive trees here are ancient… some carbon da The olive trees here are ancient… some carbon dates to the 12th century, according to my Eyewitness book on Jerusalem. “DNA tests have shown that eight of the trees grew from cuttings from the same mother tree—perhaps taken by Christians who believed the tree to have witnessed Jesus’s agony.” 

Gethsemane means “olive press.” Jesus was pressed to his very depths that night.  He knew what was ahead. He could have run far away. But he went where he knew Judas would look for him. 

“And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, ‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.’ And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” ~ Luke 22:41-44

Garden of Gethsemane and Church of the Nations

#Israel2022
A "blue preacher" right outside my door, nearly as A "blue preacher" right outside my door, nearly as tall as I am. I wonder what he's wondering. Is he finding the answer blowing in the wind?

"Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness." ~ Mary Oliver in "Why I Wake Early"
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