Celebrating Some Things Here and Grieving for Others
Good news for Scout, Faith Through the Lens Pt 4, Calendars for December, and also grieving hurricane devastation
Friends, this is going to be a bit of a grab-bag of things today starting with a celebration of great news in our household. A few weeks ago, we saw swelling around one of Scout’s eyes and the vet started treating it with the least invasive options and nothing was changing. Last week, we took her in and they ended up needing to remove one lump on her cheek near that eye (including a biopsy) and then also take a sample of the swelling to biopsy that. So we’ve been waiting for a week or so for the results while poor Scout has to wear the dreaded cone full time right now because of where her stitches are.
The good news is that the biopsies both came back that neither were cancerous and that Scout just has a really bad irritation/infection around the eye to be treated with antibiotics and prednisone. The lump they removed was just a fatty growth and not anything to be concerned about.
So, given that Scout has to be in the cone for at least another week, she and I decided today that we were going to make the cone beautiful today. Here’s how it came out.
This was in addition to a beautiful orange sunrise, notably reflected in the lake here:
Faith Through the Lens - Week 4 - Its All Connected
I’ve shared my messages the last several weeks of my “Faith Through the Lens” series and here is the last of those. This is also my last message for six weeks as I began the first of two 6-week renewal sabbaticals that I’ll have over the next 7 months.
Calendars for the Holidays!
Last year, I crafted several calendars for holiday gifts and I am working on three new ones for the season coming up. Like last year, one will be a “Daily Doggo Devotions” one drawing on some of the devotions Scout shares on Instagram (@dailydoggodevotions), another will be twelve months of one of the 7:45am benches, and the other will be panorama images from sunrises and sunsets this past year. I’m still working on them but they’ll be available for sale no later than November 1. However, they will not ship until early December since I need to integrate Oct, Nov, and Dec images into the Bench one. Here are some previews of them so far.
Western North Carolina
Finally, I am deeply grieving what is ongoing in western North Carolina (along with other places hit hard by Hurricane Helene). We got clipped by the northern part of the storm as it moved up over Kentucky and just the little edge we got knocked out power for folks here for several days and a good bit of tree damage in our area. Here is some of what it looked like at Winton Lake because of the storm.
This is, of course, nothing like what people are facing in areas further south. But my heart is very much with western North Carolina because of how special that area is to me and my family. Since moving to this area, I have been lucky enough to attend several events in Montreat, North Carolina (right near Black Mountain and about 10 miles east of Asheville) as well as spending several vacation times at a VRBO in the area while our kids attended youth and college events. Montreat is a truly special and holy place and there have been transformative experiences that have happened for everyone in our family there. So as I saw videos showing torrents of water flowing over the Lake Susan Dam and then making the road through the stone archways into Montreat look like it was a river, my heart is heavy.
I also dearly love the town of Black Mountain as we spent time there each time we were in Montreat. The scale of the devastation is just unimaginable and as I look at this tiny glimpse of the damage that we got here, I lament for those who lost loved ones, lost their homes and businesses, and such a beautiful part of the country devastated by the storm.
Rev. Edwin González-Castillo, the director of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, shared this prayer:
God of grace and compassion. In these overwhelming moments of loss and devastation, we come to you with weary hearts that are both heavy and hopeful. We hold in our prayers and hearts all those impacted by the hurricanes, conflicts, and other disasters, and we implore for your mercy, peace, and healing to embrace our siblings all over the world. By your grace, bring comfort to those who are grieving, give strength to the exhausted, and provide shelter for those who have lost everything. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.1
There are many many organizations to whom you can donate to help with the recovery and rebuilding efforts:
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (Be sure to designate DR000169 or North Carolina)
United Way of Asheville and Buncombe Counties
Grace, Peace, Love, and Joy,
Ed
https://pda.pcusa.org/pda/resource/helene-prayer/
Thank heavens for the good Scout news!! Montreat and Black Mountain are very special places for my wife and I and the devastation is heartbreaking. Thanks for the reminder about PDA.
Feel better Scout, g d bless 🙏 praying for all too, Amen