A Walk in His Gardens: A Day of Celebration & Thanks

Every day of life

whether cloudy and gray

or sunny and clear is a gift;

as is every year that we are given here on earth.

A gift of indescribable worth

given us from the Creator of life above--
gifts of love from HE who loves us the most.

And since life is a gift of such immense value and a blessing given us by God,

we should see each day as that priceless gift--

a gift far better then money or material goods.

We should seek to love as God's Son loved

and as the One who sent Him loves

(something not always easy for me to do I admit)

And we should especially seek to give to those who mean the most to us--

those family and friends that bless and enrich our lives.

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Several years back, I'm not sure of the exact date. something changed for me and I began to see the day of my birth in a different light;

I began to want to give to family and friends on that day instead of only recieving--

(after all, at my very great, totally advanced age I already have the things I really need and even a lot of the things I want)...

so I started something that year and I really liked it.

What I did was to ask family members who would normally buy me a birthday gift--or a dinner out--to instead donate that money to charity;

but this was in no way forced on them--it was only if they were OK with the concept. This idea gave me joy.

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And because I really LOVE to be out in God's gardens and could think of no better place to be, I treated myself to the only other gift I really wanted--a trip in the mountains and to the PNW coast

(since Oregon's weather looked better we went there)

Of course, since I also wanted to give and not just receive, I decided to surprise my best friend and treat her to a trip too! It was really a surprise because she didn't 'catch' the hint I dropped and arrived in

'grubbies' ready to do the work we had originally planned to do that day:)

No matter--one quick stop would solve that itsy bitty problem.

I SO LOVE spur of the moment trips and nice surprises!

(it was spur of the moment as we were trying to finish some work before the BIG project began and so didn't know if there would be time to make a trip until the very last moment.)

My DH -- aka "Farmer Boy" of course gave us his blessing -- he knows a trip in God's gardens always brings me great joy

(I should explain that technically speaking this gift of a trip was from him. That man knows what his Country Gal likes!)

So we set off towards the beautiful NW coast range

Once there we spent a bit of time walking along the river there,

gazing at the beautiful reflections of the trees and shrubs along the water's edge and enjoying the silence to be found there.

We passed vine maples - red now because of autumn

and areas where the river was very still--more like a pond then a river there.
Once at the coast we walked a bit along the beach after I treated my friend to lunch at a great restaurant there (salad, seafood, dessert). Giving was really a lot of fun for me!

The beach was SO nice and the summer crowds mostly gone! We saw a few people, the usual seagulls and a kite flying.

We saw several bays too --this rocky one

and one of my most favorite ones!

I LOVE this place!

We also stopped while at the coast to buy real, totally authentic salt water taffy and chocolate--a treat for us and for family back home (eek! I forgot to give the taffy to my family when they were over recently. Good thing it stays good for awhile and good thing tomorrow is the weekend! MY DH already ate his yummy gift from me as did I--sorry but I could not resist the fruit chocolates they had there)

Thank you Lord for the gifts you've given me--the ones that surround me everyday

and

thank you especially for the gift of another year of life!

Blessings,

Aimee

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- "O give thanks unto the Lord; for He is good; for His mercy endureth for ever."

I Chronicles 16:34 KJV

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"To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life—that is indeed a gift from God. People who do this rarely look with sorrow on the past, for God has given them reasons for joy." Ecclesiastes 5:19b, 20 NLT (© 2003, Tyndale House Publishers)

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"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." James 1:17 KJV

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Photos:

Coast range of Oregon & Central Oregon coast.