SUNSET and MOONRISE

March 17,2022--Sunset/Moonrise--Another photography adventure

We often think of the sun ruling the day and the moon lighting up the night. We think these two celestial bodies are separate, that night and day never meet, that light and darkness are not related, that sun and moon have no reason to talk to one another.  But in some ways, they are always doing this dance and almost every tme I take a moment ot be with these two old friends, I am struck by two things: the faithfulness in following their presence and the exquisite beauty when light and dark play together, finding balance in one another.

And so it was March 17^th, here in Puerto Vallarta, Mexcio, that the sun set and the moon rose within almost the same minute, as I attempted to capture this experience with my camera.

With all the photos of the sun and moon I’ve taken, I don’t believe I’ve ever done this before…captured the sunset and full moonrise within minutes of each other. But it happened! 

Our hotel here in Puerto Vallarta is situated so that when we walk out the door of our room, we enter an open corridor. From there we can see the mountains east of us. The full moon rose over that mountain right on schedule, around 7:30pm on St. Patrick’s Day. At the exact same time the sun was going down in a fiery orange glow down the beach and off to the right in front of our hotel, to the West of the bay we are on. Our room is on the 4^th floor. There is a huge swimming pool and several flights of stairs between the two places but somehow I managed to photograph a beginning of the sunset and then hustle over to the hotel and up the elevator to the top floor to catch the moon coming up. Then I hustled back to the beach for the last part of the orange glow. It was a moment of such satisfaction to both get to see these events happen at the same time and also to be able to catch a photo or two or twenty of the event. It was so fun.The result of my efforts that day is the album full of beauty and wonder. Since I can’t bring you here, I am just posting it here to share with you. Enjoy!

I have put that album in a youtube video along with a bit of music, compliments of my son, Luke Bonde. You can watch video here.

To hear more of Luke Bonde's music go to: https://soundcloud.com/lukebonde

SUN & MOON

They've been doing this dance
Through our skies for ages
Each going at their own speed
Yet still dancing with each other
Or so it seems

Sun--Queen for the day
comes in radiance
Burning with firey passion for all of this life

Moon--the King of the Night
Comes cool and calm
Reflecting the light into our darkness.

Both reminding us
Of the light that never goes out 

Let's join their dance
Let's share our light

~ Just Jules, 3/17/22

PRAYING FOR UKRAINE

FINDING HOPE and TEARS IN PRAYER

praying for Ukraine

March 2, 2022

Ash Wednesday for many believers

At 10:00 am Central Time in the USA, the Lutheran World Federation hosted a service of prayer for the war in the Ukraine on Zoom. I had wanted to take time to really pray for this awful situation so I signed on. I was not prepared for how many and diverse a group of people it would be. Wow!

The people offering their thoughts and prayers on  the screen were from many different faith expressions and denominations. I didn't count those, just noted them. The people listening were from 45 countries, as far as I was able to count. See the list i have posted here. So there was translater button at the bottom of the screen so that most of us could hear in our own language. And apparently there were about 2000 people on the call. Wow!

They prayed for 

    wisdom

        kindness

            strength

                courage

                   love

                        hope

                           blessings

                                for diversity to be valued

                                    to love our neighbor

                                        for refugees to find safe homes

                                            for wealthy western countries to get over our egos

                                                and even COVID-19 pandemic

                                                    PEACE!

Many tears were shed on this side of the screen. And I remembered my friend Rena's words the other day--"With all that has happened in the past two years, I would ask you, "Why aren't we crying?" And suddenly it seemed like tears were an apt prayer for this horrible circumstance of yet another country trying to invade another by dropping bombs. Tears for letting go of our abiility to control, tears for the loss and grieving of so many, tears for our inability to be helpful, tears for sleepless nights, tears for the sadness of it all. Tears for the beauty of our unity as some 2000 people from nearly every continent gathered their hearts virtually to pray for peace in the world.  

I come away from that hour and a half with renewed hope. And I just wanted to share with you that this had happened. That there are people who want peace, who want to join their energy with others to make this world a better place. This one day of prayer does not fix everything but it is a good beginning because prayer changes us. When we open our hearts to wondering if there is a better way, to the possiblity that healing and courage and love can grow, we are already making healing and courage and love grow in ourselves and making space for that to happen for others as well.

Let us keep praying--in all the ways that we do--for all those things I listed--for wisdom, hope, strength, courage, love, and peace for all our human brothers and sisters all over the world.

As one of the speakers said today: "Let's commemorate this event by being hope!" Amen to that!

~sharing my thoughts and prayers, just Jules