Abba's Art

Tag: Scripture

  • Nature’s Monet Art

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    Fred D
    in

    “The richness I achieve comes from nature, the source of my inspiration.” Claude Monet Today nature treated me to this inspirational scene . . . a blooming azalea and Japanese maple reflected a Claude Monet impressionist painting on the still waters. Oscar-Claude Monet (1840 – 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who…

  • A Ragamuffin’s Regretful ‘If Only”s

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    Fred D
    in

    ‘Woulda’…’coulda’ …’shoulda’ … Life’s ‘if only’s that can block out the bright sunshine with dark stratocumulus clouds of regret. Intriguing that “if” resides smack dab in the middle of LIFE. Regret is “If Only’s” synonym. The dictionary defines regret as, “To feel sorry, disappointed, distressed, or remorseful about. To remember with a feeling of loss…

  • 2023 New Year Resolution

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    Fred D
    in

    Adolph Ochs, the owner of the New York Times, organized the first Times Square New Year’s Ball Drop on December 31, 1907. Save for wartime blackouts in 1942 (the year I was born ☹) and 1943, this iconic event has welcomed in every New Year ever since. In today’s vernacular,’ dropping the ball’ means to…

  • Being Jesus

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    Fred D
    in

    Today a friend posted on their blog (gratefuladdict) the note below. Someone . . . prompted by love’s pure compassion . . . placed this note on the van windshield a homeless person was living in. This note simultaneously blessed and convicted me . . . blessed, aware of my undeserved abundance . . .…

  • The Blind Boy

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    Fred D
    in

    Ever experience a situation you later regret not taking the time to offer helping someone? . . . You just read three I’ve been guilty of this past year when, unlike the Good Samaritan, I was too ‘busy’, and chose to “…pass by on the other side of the road…”?  . . . proof positive…

  • Nature vs. Civilization

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    Fred D
    in

    On each flight into and out of SEATAC I’m inspired by a mountain. Towering 14,410 ft., Mt. Rainier pierces through the clouds in silent sentinel watch in over the cacophony of Seattle’s nearly 3 ½ million souls 59 miles to the southeast . . . a bittersweet contrast. On this flight it was as though…

  • Contemplating Life

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    Fred D
    in

    This Great Smoky Mountains ephemeral, after-the-storm panorama marked the close of another day. The scene evoked a juxtaposed, sobering/joyful contemplation of life’s unknown brevity, and breathtaking beauty. As dusk fell, the confident wisdom of a beloved preacher comforted my thoughts: “What is your life? You are but a mist that appears for a little while…

  • Three Final Choices

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    Fred D
    in

    Hiking through the Great Smoky Mountains I wandered upon an old cemetery. Treading in a hush of reverent silence, I carefully meandered among the grave-sites reading tombstone inscriptions. Three thoughts surfaced . . . no pun intended 😊 The uncertainty and brevity of life – several tombstones marked the graves of infants, who left and…

  • WORRY

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    Fred D
    in

    Worry is no joke! Its stress causes serious problems. Worry’s stress hormones in the brain have been linked to shrinking brain mass; lowering IQ; heart disease; cancer; premature aging; predicting martial problems; family dysfunction; clinical depression; and making seniors more prone to dementia and Alzheimer’s. Some 500 hundred years ago, Michel de Montaigne said: “My…

  • Peace . . . Hope . . . Joy . . . Love

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    by

    Fred D
    in

    Clouds abated today and sunshine peeked through, a welcome respite from a lengthy stretch of stormy weather . . . and I heard the mountains calling. John Muir once said, “You are not in the mountains. The mountains are in you” . . . and today they moved in. High among mountain cathedrals’ majesty, blanketed…