What's a Coyote doing by the QEW?

 

It looked a bit disoriented ...

 

 

Hope it stays safe, away from the fast moving traffic

 

Here is another coyote we saw on our evening walk in June last year

How I Survived a Brain Aneurysm

 

One weekend many autumns ago, we were getting ready to have dinner when our doctor called us, and said "I just saw your CT scan reports. You have a brain aneurysm, and you need to go to emergency right now, and get admitted in hospital". So we skipped dinner, and quickly walked down to the hospital. 

It was only a few nights earlier that I had one of the worst headaches I'd ever had. The usual painkillers did absolutely nothing to ease the pain, which prompted me to see our doctor, and proceed with a CT scan and CT angiogram.



Now at the hospital, it wasn't long before I was told how serious my condition was. Also, the option to have surgery sounded very dangerous. I could die on the operating table, or end up paralyzed. But, I was prompted to tell the surgeon to go ahead and do it.

Less than a few hours later I was on a stretcher, in a long, cold, quiet and empty corridor, waiting to be wheeled into the operating theatre. My wife was standing next to me. Then the surgeon arrived dressed in his light blue surgical outfit, and one last time explained, and asked if I had understood how critical the procedure was along with the unknown consequences.

I looked him in the eye, and said "Yes. Doctor ..., I just want you to know, that at this very  moment, there are over a hundred people around the world praying for you!" He looked at me and smiled, and said, "I need that".

Moments later, after exchanging a few words with the anesthetist, I blanked out ........ That must be what it feels like to be dead.

But I woke up many hours later, and realized that I was alive!!!

As they wheeled me to the intensive care, I barely had the energy to shout "I am fine", to my wife who was anxiously and prayerfully waiting along with her friends.

The operation went very well, and not only was I released from hospital quickly, but I was back to work three days later (even though my boss asked me to take two weeks off to recover)



Not once during those critical moments did any negative thoughts such as that of dying, come across our minds. That my friend, is what Peace is all about. And only GOD can give us that kind of Peace!

"And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus"

- Philippians 4:7

For giving me a second life, I am truly grateful to the one who made me, and knows me, as well as the doctors, surgeons, friends, and family.

I now know what this verse means:

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful, I know that full well"

- Psalm 139:14

I have experienced many miracles, and still continue to, but this one felt like going to the other side, and coming back. And I cannot help but share with you my friend, how GOD uses whoever HE chooses, whenever HE likes, wherever HE wants, through good times and bad, to glorify HIS name.

 

Remember, miracles still happen!

 

~ This article was also published in The Huffington Post ~

Cooking for twenty guests

(Can't reveal the dishes now, because our guests might see this post)
☺

 

 

Happy Easter friends!

☺

♫ "But HE chose to walk that road out of HIS love for you and me" - Sandy Patti

"Down the Via Dolorosa called the way of suffering,

Like a lamb came the Messiah, Christ the King,

But HE chose to walk that road out of HIS love for you and me ..."

- Sandy Patti

 

 

 

Get Via Dolorosa by Sandy Patti on iTunes

Painting Cardinal in the Backyard

 

 

Cardinal in the Backyard

16"x20" oil painting on canvas

Listening to Gordon Lightfoot, and painting Sandhill Cranes on a calabash

Painting Sandhill Cranes on a calabash

 

 

Whispers of the North from Gordon Lightfoot's 1983 album, Salute

 

Here are the other calabashes

Painting Calabashes to make bird houses and bird feeders

Just a few months ago, I harvested these calabashes from our garden, and hung them out to dry through the winter

 

Here is what they looked like in November

 

Now they are all dry

 

Going to wash, dry and do different stuff with each of them

 

 

Hey birdie, I'm just drying this one out ... come back after a few days, and stay through the year!

I could paint them all, but the natural design is too beautiful for me to erase!

What a lovely sunny day to dry the calabashes

Some will end up as bird feeders,

others as bird houses,

but all of them will still be calabashes that grew up in our garden!

☺

Love the LORD's prayer sung in Aramaic

To me Christianity is Eastern.

Wise men came from the East.

Jesus was born in the Middle East. HE lived, and died in the Middle East.

 

 

The early churches were founded by the apostles in the following places:

Antioch by Peter and Paul, Alexandria by Mark, Constantinople by Andrew, Cyprus by Barnabas, Ethiopia by Matthew, India by Thomas (btw this was in 52 AD, before America was even discovered),  Edessa in eastern Syria by Thaddeus, Armenia by Bartholomew, and Georgia by Simon the Zealot.

 

Love the LORD's prayer sung in Aramaic!

 

"This, then, is how you should pray:

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
 And forgive us our debts,
    as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,    

but deliver us from the evil one."

- Jesus

 

I wish you all Peace!

A pair of sparrows checking out the bird house!

 

 

Very similar behaviour to human beings checking out houses to settle in

Inspecting from every angle

Last year a pair of Robins did their home inspection

This cardinal already has a home somewhere ...

... and is only interested in the sunflowers seeds



Ok guys, dinner is ready!

Ok guys, dinner is ready! Vegetables and salad are not optional. Steak is

☺

Sometimes, the best steak is the one you make at home!
 

(Salad with Arugula, shiitake mushrooms and onion sautéed in butter, baked potatoes with Italian seasoning, microwaved broccoli with melted Swiss cheese, and rib eye steak.
All this would be incomplete without the Sou'wester strawberry wine from Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia)

 

Pursuit

"There are many things in life that will catch your eye,

but only a few will catch your heart.

Pursue these"

- Michael Nolan

Just finished reading Dr. Joyce Knudsen's book, Refusing to Quit

Just finished reading Dr. Joyce Knudsen's book, Refusing to Quit.

 

‘Refusing to Quit’ is Dr. Joyce Knudsen’s latest, and last book which features true stories written by twenty remarkable women, about their indomitable spirit to seek, and live life to the fullest. The book concludes with Joyce’s own story. 

The authors, who range in age from 60 to 94, describe their varied life experiences, in their own style and language, and each story is less than three pages long. 

 

Whether it’s the lady with a 1000 sari collection in Australia, or the 94 year-old cryptologist who at 21, had tea with Eleanor Roosevelt in The White House; the ministers daughter and mortgage underwriter who refused to quit amidst the global financial crisis, or the woman from a rural North Dakota farm family who braved adversity, and later in life traveled the world and shook hands with Mother Teresa; this book beautifully illustrates the subject of aging, and self esteem, through the eyes of women over 60, who have a do-not-quit attitude.

 

 

I am not a woman, and I am not sixty, but I surely enjoyed reading the stories of these women, and I would recommend this book to anyone, no matter what their age or gender!

 

You can get Refusing to Quit from Amazon

 

If you haven't already read it, please read The Generational Puzzle, also by Dr. Joyce Knudsen

(I wrote a chapter in that book!)

♬ "Je Suis Désolé, mais je n'ai pas le choix" - Mark Knopfler

Get Je Suis Désolé by Mark Knopfler on iTunes