ABC Quick Write: RIVER

Another Quick Write experience from my cousin Lorrie Tom!  She is soon to be rafting the mighty Colorado RIVER.  Hence, our current word of focus! 

THE LETTER R
June 20, 2015

R Word List:  Rain, reflect, rainbows, rivers, reach, raise, roof, residence, rose, rove, ramble, recollect, remember, rocks, revelry, rambunctious, reveal, rhubarb, rosemary, rake, radiant, 

These are hardly boulders, but since I couldn't take a picture
at the time, at least these show the beauty of the
Montana rock colors! 

          Our rowdy and rambunctious gathering of roving and rambling Care-a-Vanners have spent the past two weeks raising the foundation for a residence to house a family of eight.  No walls yet, no roof, just what will be the unseen, yet well-remembered, foundation.  Perhaps to be covered with ramblin' roses, a giant rhubarb, or a herb garden of rosemary.   We have worked together with revelry and camaraderie, yet as I reflect, I wish to ponder ROCKS. 

          Our site supervisor said a load of gravel would arrive.  When the truck pulled up and dumped, the driveway was filled with BOULDERS!  We were to move this with our rakes and shovels??  We learned what Pit Gravel means in Montana!  (And thankfully, what a blessing bobcats and other excavation machines are!)  Yet these were Montana mountain rocks and they can be absolutely radiant in their beauty.  They reflect a rainbow of colors, especially when sprayed with the constant stream of moisture to pack things down.  At one point, hose in hand, I looked down and saw three rocks, nestled side by side in a corner.  One was a deep maroon-purple, another a bright orange rust, and the third, the blue-green of copper-infused stone.  The water made the colors vibrant and bold.  I wanted the rocks for my garden.  Yet, soon, the claws of the tractor dropped a shovelful of dirt and gravel on top, and the rocks were buried.  Hidden, but remembered.  I will not be able to look at that corner of the house and forget the three bright boulders that lay below.  
          Everyone has hidden boulders of beauty, radiant rocks, below the surface that is revealed to the world.  Let us not forget to admire and appreciate the foundation that makes us who and what we are.  

The Letter I
June 27, 2015

Word List:  Investigate, integrity, itinerant, incinerate, items, ideas, icons, idols, imitation, insects, influence, idyllic, identify, ignore, igneous, imagination, impression, inclusive, incurable

          When I first began making my list of I words, I couldn't think of any!  But slowly over the past two weeks, the words have emerged.  For this morning's devotion I focused on IMITATION and how our children and others create lasting IMPRESSIONS of our IDEALS and INTEGRITY through what they watch us do and say.  I love to INVESTIGATE IDYLLIC places; I dislike INSECTS that bite; I live among IGNEOUS rocks; I try to be INCLUSIVE without IGNORING others; Habitat Care-a-Vanners are ITINERANT laborers!.  All good thoughts!  All good words! 
        But, if I have to be honest with myself, my very favorite I word has to be IMAGINATION!  I love to create; to explore possibilities with paper and pen, fabric and thread, wood and nail.  I love to express my faith in wild and different ways. I love to find letters hiding in the nuances of nature.  Imagination is the source of that creativity.  Imagination takes our dreams and puts form and shape to them.  Imagination is the spark-plug that really gets our motor running.  I looked up a few quotes about this amazing I word:

Logic will get you from A to B.  Imagination will take you everywhere.  Albert Einstein 

I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living....it allows you to laugh at life's realities.  Dr. Seuss  

To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.  Thomas Edison

Everything you can imagine is real.  Pablo Picasso

       So many people have written about IMAGINATION, so many who have brought beauty and wonder to the world have let their IMAGINATIONS run free.  Consider the IMAGINATION of our Creator God:  The incredible splendor of our natural world, the humor and variety in God's creation.  Just IMAGINE.....oops, my time is up!    

7.3.15  The Letter V 

Word List:  veracity, vivacious, verbal, vegetables, volcanic, vase, vulture, violin, Venus, Virginia, visual, valuable, vineyard, violet, vacation, vocabulary, vibrant, velvet, vanilla, village

      My name is really VIRGINIA.  I don’t admit that often because it sounds just too VICTORIAN prissy for my personality.  But it is a V.  This week the planet VENUS converged with Jupiter in the night sky.  It was quite a VIEW to behold coupled with the full moon.  My VEGETABLE garden, filled with a VARIETY of plants, is flourishing in the summer sun.  I have been to several meetings and listened to VIVACIOUS, yet VALUABLE,  VERBAL exchanges.  I have been baking cinnamon rolls, the aroma of VANILLA, wafting in the kitchen.  My VASES display VIBRANT VIOLET flowers.  'It takes a VILLAGE to raise a child.....', the list can go on and on.    Yet, what V word REALLY calls to me? 

     VISUAL.   Last week I wrote about imagination, so I guess it makes sense that I follow up that thought with VISUAL.  My imagination takes form in VISUAL ways.  I see much better than I hear.  I learn through pictures and diagrams.  I pray my prayers through color and pen.  I record my memories with photographs (and pen!)  I see nuances of color and texture, patterns and shapes in the world around me.  I am a VERY VISUAL person! I like VIBRANT colors and VARIETY!  Rick has noted this in our Habitat work.  Sometimes I can VISUALIZE how something should appear faster than he can, because his mind is computing the measurements and angles necessary first.  Already my mind is drawing the V and what pictures will be included….and I haven’t even finished writing!  (Three minutes keeps us from being too VERBOSE!)

7.11.15  The Letter E

E List of Words: employment, explore, entertain, energy, excitement, enthusiasm, eternal, environment, eager, empathy, easy, eyes and ears, ebullient, eclectic, edible, embellish, endeavors, enigma, epiphany, euphoria, exalt, expectation, extol, exuberant

I got EXCITED about my E list of words when I realized I could pick and choose.  There were a number of negative Es: EVICT, EXTINGUISH, ETC.  I didn’t even write such EXAMPLES down!  But so many E words are filled with ENTHUSIASM and EXPECTATION.  So many words of positive ENERGY and EXUBERANCE!  I want to EMPLOY as many of these words in my daily walk as possible, using EYES and EARS to seek moments to EXTOL God for the ETERNAL EXAMPLES of his creativity in our ENVIRONMENT.  I want to be filled with EMPATHY for others, and  EMBELLISH my world with ECLECTIC ENDEAVORS that ENTERTAIN others while EXALTING our Creator.  I want to EXPLORE the ENIGMAS of our world with ENTHUSIASM.  Simply reading the list makes me EUPHORIC with the possibilities, EAGER to get moving.   It can make EACH day an EPIPHANY of renewed ENERGY!  I’m EXCITED for E words!!   I'm EBULLIENT!

7.17.15 The Letter R

Word List:raft, rhubarb, rose, rainbow, reflection, repeat, rainstorm, recreation, re-create, response, resolutions, reverence, regard, radical, rampant, reciprocate, rapport, reconcile, rejuvenate, relevance, revelation, robust, revolution, rustic, relationship

I had no idea I could come up with this many NEW R words, after beginning RIVER with the same letter!  And while I highly REGARD RAINBOWS and our RECENT RAINSTORMS, I found myself drawn to the words of RENEWAL, especially RECREATION.   RECREATION is RE-CREATING our souls through a RAPPORT with and a REVERENCE for the whole of God’s Creation, often best accomplished in a RUSTIC, simple setting (RAMPANT with wildflowers!)  RECREATION allows us to REJUVENATE and live in a more RECIPROCAL RELATIONSHIP with one another.  Our RECREATION might be a RADICAL RELEASE from the norm of daily life, or it might be a REPEAT of ROUTINE in a ROBUST new manner.  REGARDLESS, RECREATION RENEWS RELATIONSHIPS….with one another and with Creator God!