I really don’t have time for this!

I seriously don’t have time to put anything on my blog this week, and yet here I am writing words on my computer. In fact, that’s what I’ve been doing the last two weeks, almost non-stop. I will be travelling to São Paulo this weekend to speak at a women’s camp. I have four messages that I needed to prepare. When I am in my martyr mode I think: “Does anyone who doesn’t preach have ANY idea how many hours it takes to prepare a sermon?”

And when I am not feeling like a martyr I sort of think: “I love taking the time to study God’s Word in all of it minute details”.

Translating: I haven’t done much of anything else the last two weeks except research and study and write. When I was young, I tried to imagine how a preacher prepared his sermon. I innocently imagined that he kind of had some kind of revelation, hearing God’s voice and it all came to him in some kind of instantaneous dictation. I even thought that was kind of spiritual.

Now I understand, of course, God’s revelation to man through his word. I simply try to understand and share my understanding with others. That sounds easy, but I have to REALLY under stand first. Then I have to clearly craft the words so that others will hear and even remember something of what I say. It’s very hard work. It’s hard work I love, but I am grateful that I don’t have to preach twice a week. I am pooped.

I think I’m especially excited about the message about pierced ears/slavery. Yip, you heard it right. I do come up with interesting topics, don’t I?

Although I have cleared my schedule this past two weeks, doing little outside of writing, occasional cooking and some exercise sessions at the gym and one wonderful massage (did I mention I was tense?), on Tuesdays I did go to my art class because I needed to do something different. My brain needed to be otherwise engaged. I worked on the acrylic painting of Galileu. That is messy and rewarding. I think I am making progress! By the way, the painting is to the left and the photo to the right in case you couldn’t tell (ha ha ha!)

Aren’t his eyes great? I love doing cat eyes. I will be redoing his right ear because it’s just wrong. (All those fine hairs are just killing me). I painted over his nose tip which is also the wrong shape, but that’s not a big problem.  And I have to figure out how to get his fur to look natural without being choppy. I just can’t figure out how to do the whiskers either. I wonder if I can use a colored pencil to get them done finely enough. I just can’t seem to do fine lines with acrylic paints. I keep buying new brushes, but I don’t think that’s the problem. I’ll keep at it until I get it right! Nice thing about acrylic paint is that you just keep painting over your mistakes until you get it right. Wish life were as easy!

My Beloved Forest

Today João and I had a brilliant idea. Why not walk in a place where we could breath fresh air, look at real trees and hear the birds singing. Since I ripped up my Achilles tendons in the Tijuca Forest 3 1/2 years ago, we haven’t been back. Because I am doing so well with my walking/jogging on the treadmill, we decided to take our day off and enjoy some of the beauty of Rio.  So off we went this morning in the car. I could hardly wait to check out my very favorite trail, the “Jaguar’s Cave”. It’s in the heart of the forest, and pretty flat for several kilometers. It’s a long trail, about 11 kilometers,   but after a couple of kilometers it  starts up a rocky trail. When we walked it 3 years ago, the trail ended at a broken down suspension footbridge. I was always sad that I couldn’t see what was on the other side. Today, to my surprise and delight, the bridge had been redone and finally I could cross it. 

When we went cross the bridge, and felt like explorers as we walked in unknown territory. Since it’s been rainy and windy this week, it was actually quite chilly as we walked, even though the sun was bright and the sky quite blue today. On the way back, I jogged part of the way to try to work up a little sweat. In all we walked about 50 minutes.

We didn’t take our camera, so you’ll have to pardon the cell phone shots. In fact I didn’t plan to photograph it at all, but I was so excited about the bridge I just had to capture that. Sometimes, as we walked, we stopped to listen to the birds and bugs or “hear” the silence.

One bird, the Araponga, known as the “blacksmith” or bellbird in English had a fascinating sound. It does rather resemble an anvil being struck. It is not your typical sweet sounding birdsong. If your are interested in hearing it, I’ve inserted this video from YouTube. This is NOT my video, but I’ll bet you anything it was recorded near to where we were today. Looks so much like the trail we were on.

I love these woods. They make me feel so alive. Unfortunately, tonight I have found my ankle area is swollen, tender and hurts a lot. It appears my tendon has been slightly reinjured. I don’t understand why, as the trail was super easy to walk and cushioned by leaves the whole way. I hiked up a rock mountain in Hawaii with no problems. I walk/jog a lot farther on the hard treadmill. I am icing my foot and hoping for the best, for I want to enjoy many more hikes in these beloved woods. How blessed I am to live in a place of such great beauty.