God Loves Handmade!

Some days you just get a revelation, or as Oprah would say, "your ahh-ha moment".  I've had one that I would like to share with you. 

First let me say, I am not here to debate God's existence with anyone, talk about any particular religion, or sway anyone's beliefs.  I feel like we all have a personal spiritual journey, and I am just talking about mine.  I do welcome comments on your "ahh-ha moment"- in sharing we grow.

I was standing out on the beach of La Push on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state.  Let me tell you, I have been on probably 50 different beaches in my life, but never on one so raw and wild.  The pounding of the surf is deafening.  The beauty is overwhelming.  Here is a glimpse:
(click on pics for close up)

Everything there is HUGE!  And that is saying a lot from someone that lives in Texas!!  We do *Big* here quite well, but *Huge* is not something I had encountered in any other place.  Look at the size of the 'driftwood' on the beach!  Really now.....

So- I was walking along, taking it all in.  Looking for shells, rocks, sea glass, treasure....just marveling each thing.  How each and every rock, tree branch, shell, person, cloud...you name it....is all different.  Even twins do not have the same fingerprints.  Then came the revelation: God loves handmade!!

He loves the imperfections, and sees beauty in it.  He could have easily copped out and carbon-copied or cloned things, but instead he chose to make each one different in some way.  A lot more work, but like what I do as well, a labor of love.  And that is when I realized that is how I am a child of God!

I have for years, looked at the Omni-presence of my God in awe.  How could I be a child of God, when we are not the same?  He is great, I am small.  He is all-powerful, I am always asking for help.  But in our creativity, we share a love, we have a bond.  

Take a look at this tree:

I can honestly say I have never seen a tree anything like that!  It was more like a cactus that had gone crazy!!  If you know what it is, please leave a comment....my sister and I are still wondering.

On our visit to the Olympic Peninsula we had the pleasure of staying in Sequim (pronounced *skwim* by locals) in a darling little cottage, in an area of town called 'Happy Valley'.  And it was  :)

This was the inside:

There are many lavender farms in the area, and the following weekend of our stay was the annual lavender festival.  It was so clean and fresh there, the air smelled like lavender and lemon verbena.  It energized me, and intoxicated me all at the same time.

Here are pics from the Port Williams Lavender Farm:

The man that owns the lavender farm was so nice, even though we had shown up right at closing time.  He was kind enough to tell us about all the different types of lavender, their uses, and I bought some lavender honey made from the happy bees they have there on the farm.  

I have a craft tutorial that came from the inspiration of this trip, which I hope to get up tomorrow or Tuesday.  

I will leave you today with a picture of one of the sunsets we saw, which when you think about it, are different each and every day as well.  The differences are what make it (and us) great, and as we embrace the differences in small things like a sunset, and ooh and ahh over it, I hope we can remember to do the same with our friends, our family, and our fellow man as well.