Hola bloggers! I can still remember once on a flight from London to New York, I was seated next to a nervous passenger. It was his first time to board a plane and he admitted to me that he felt he was keeping our plane airborne by sheer willpower. He couldn't relax for a moment, for fear that gravity would drag us down.

Even though the law of gravity would keep us earthbound, there's a law of aerodynamics that overcomes the pull of gravity. If this passenger had trusted that principle when he boarded the plane, he would have saved himself a lot of needless worry.

In a similar way, many believers, including myself, are trying to reach and maintain spiritual heights by sheer willpower. But by ourselves, we're bound to the downward drag of the law of sin and death. However, in Romans 8:2, Paul wrote about a higher law - the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which sets people free from the law of sin and death.

If we are living by sheer willpower, our Christian life hasn't really, "taken off." But the moment we entrust ourselves fully to Christ, we're freed from the body of death, and we begin rising on the wings of His Spirit. And I m Ophelia sharing with you this thought...

"Our spirit fails us unless God's Spirit fills us."

Have a blessed day Bloggers!

Sincerely,

Ophelia

Life's Clock

The clock of life is wound but once,

And no man has the power

To tell just where the hands will stop —

At late or early hour.
To lose one's wealth is sad indeed,

To lose one's health is more,

To lose one's soul is such a loss

As no man can restore.
The present only is our own,

Live for Christ with a will;

Place no faith in tomorrow,

For the clock may then be still.

~~Robert W. Wesley~~

Hola bloggers! It's the start of the Christmas season (at least here on my page....lol). Let me thank all of you who sent messages...it's always a delight to hear from you and I cherish all your shared thoughts. I am happy to blog in the midst of migraine attack ...migraines are my miseries in life lol. Here's something for all of you....A BALLAST FOR MY SOUL!

A Ballast for My Soul

Life is like a stormy sea

That tosses to and fro,

But God's Word will ever be

A ballast for my soul.

By its truth I'll be held fast

Till I reach heaven's shore

Where I will be home at last

And sail life's sea no more!

—Perry Boardman

HAVE A WONDERFUL AND BLESSED WEEKEND BLOGGERS!!!

SINCERELY,

OPHELIA

If Wishes Were Changes

I wish that you loved me

The way that I love you

I wish I had angels

Who sang in my dreams

If wishes were changes

We'd all live in roses

And there wouldn't be children

Who cried in their sleep.

He wishes I loved him

The way that I love you

If wishes were changes

I'd dry all his tears

If wishes were changes

I'd make him my anchor

He'd be my angel

Who sang through the years

I wish that I had your

Wings of desire

I wish I had seen you

As I see you now

I wouldn't feel sorrow

You've left here inside me

But wishing won't change

Right from wrong for you now

So long to the blue days of wishing

If wishes were changes

There'd be no goodbyes

So long to the heart I have given

Coz wishing won't bring back

The love in your eyes.

~~If Wishes Were Changes by Nancie Griffith~~

Hola bloggers! Good day! Yeah, yeah, wishes, wishes, wishes.

What it would be like if wishes really bring changes? Let me see...if wishes were

changes there wouldn't be any sorrow, we'll all be happy right? coz who would want to wish for sorrow anyway? If wishes were changes, there wouldn't be any wars, crimes or atrocities coz

who would want all these horrible things anyway? If wishes were changes, no children go to bed hungry, no wife would be battered by their husbands, no husband would leave their families and families would all be happy....then the whole world would be a happy and safe place to live in...that is...if wishes were changes. Impossible isn't it? But we can turn wishes into changes if we would constantly pray to the Almighty God who is the only One who can make wishes come true for the Hand that holds the universe is the Hand that holds me and you.

Have a great and blessed day bloggers! God bless!

Sincerely,

Ophelia

Kitchen Musings by Ophelia

Curried Mushroom with a grilled vegetable sandwhich

(a pizza dough baguette fresh from the oven in the background)

This soup is tangy in its mildest rendition, and just gets hotter, depending on the strength of the curry used. You can also dust with cayenne pepper for added tastebud tingling. Nowadays we can always find a variety of marvelous wild mushrooms, even int he supermarket. Use what is available. For the dried mushrooms, I like the mix of oyster, morel, and porcini, but a cup of any single variety can be substituted. Garnish with chopped parsley if you can't find chervil.

Ingredients
2 cups boiling water1 cup assorted dried oyster, morel and porcini mushrooms

(1 ounce dried mushrooms)Light vegetable oil cooking spray

1 1/2 cups chopped leek, white part only (2-3 leeks)

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon curry powder

4 cups skim milk

1 chicken bouillon cube

2 cups chopped fresh portobello mushrooms (3 smallish mushrooms)

4 cups chopped fresh shiitake mushrooms (10-12 mushrooms)

1 tablespoon dry sherry

1 tablespoon chooped chervil

Preparations:
Pour the boiling water over the dried mushrooms in a bowl and set aside to soak.

Preheat a heavy stockpot over medium heat for about 1 minute, then spray it twice with the vegetable oil. Add the leeks and saute' for about 3 minutes, stirring constantly, until translucent. Add the flour and curry powder. Stir with a wooden spoon until the leeks are well coated. Add the milk and bouillon cube. Raise the heat to high and cook just until bubbles begin to form around the edge.

Reduce the heat to low and whisk until all ingredients are thoroughly combined. Stir in the fresh mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, remove the reconstituted mushrooms from their soaking liquid, strain, squeeze out excess moisture,a nd roughly chop. (Save the soaking liquid for another soup or sauce; here it would thin the soup too much and curdle the skim milk.) Add to the stockpot and cook for 1 minute more. Stir in the cherry.

Garnish with the chopped chervil.

There you go, I took this recipe from the cookbook of one of my favorite lady chefs, Rosie Daley. I've had cooked this several times and each time I asked for more. Try it and you'll surely like it.

I wish all my friends and visitors great days ahead. Take care Bloggers! and Blog on!

Sincerely,

Ophelia

e e cummings

Miranda, 1916 by John William Waterhouse

One of my favorite major American poets is E.E Cummings. He was known for his disregard of the use of uppercase letters. One Cummings scholars believes that on the occasions Cummings signed his name in all-lowercase, the poet may have intended it as a gesture of humility, and not as an indication that it was the preferred orthography for others to use for his name. Herein I am delighted to share with you two of my favorite poems by E.E Cummings.

stand with your lover on the ending earth-

and while a(huge which by which huger than

huge) whoing sea leaps to greenly hurl snow

suppose we could not love,dear;imagine

ourselves like living neither nor dead these

(or many thousand hearts which don't and dream

or many million minds which deep and move)

blind sands,at pitiless the mercy of

time time time time time

-how fortunate are you and i, whose home

is timelessness:we who have wondered down

from fragrant mountains of eternal now

to frolic in such mysteries as birth

and death a day(or maybe even less)

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart) i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done

by only me is your doing, my darling

i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet) i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Solitude by John Everett Millais

Yours Truly

Have great weekend ahead bloggers!!! Poetically Yours, Ophelia (God knows why I got encased in here...lol!) Huggsssss and kissesssss Bloggersssssss!!!!

Only The Sea / Two Hearts

"Only the sea still keeps the love you want no more. Being closer to the sea, I am closer with you without you knowing it. Only the sea still speaks the same language with you, the language I had learned so to be closer to the sea and to your soul. Now only the songs are left, only the songs still tell the words you will never tell me again. I once was a goddess you worshipped in the temple of love and I ended up in the goddesses' destiny, imprisoned in a piece of marble."

Imprisoned therein are the tears I shed for the worship lost and the love erased! Oh, that my champion will come, to free me from this marble prison that engulfed my whole being and tormented my soul. Way beyond the sea, way beyond the sea is where my love lies and my soul delights.

When I first met you, inside I felt

Like I was coming home where I belong

To you and to your words I cling

For you I am willing to give anything

And to you everything I'll bring

You came along and turned the key of my life

Your love was big enough to give me a new start

Yet small enough to live in my heart

Two hearts that beat as one

Two minds with single thought

No one else could ever have been you

It's always been...

Our destiny to fall in love

You're even more than I dreamed of

You came along and turned the key of my life

Your love is big enough to give me a new start

Yet small enough to live in my heart

~~Ophelia~~

" In the deep heart of the man was a shrine where none but God was worthy to come. Our woes began when God was forced out of His central shrine and "things" were allowed to enter. Within the human heart, "things" have taken over. Men have now by nature no peace within their hearts, for God is crowned there no longer, but there in the moral dusk stubborn and agressive usurpers fight among themselves first place on the throne... There is within the human heart a tough fibrous root of fallen life whose nature is to possess, always to possess. It covets 'things' with a deep and fierce passion...The roots of our hearts have grown down into things, and we dare not pull up one rootlet lest we die. Things have become necessary to us, a development never originally intended. God's gift now take the place of God, and the whole course of nature is upset by the monstrous substitution...There can be no doubt that this possessive clinging to 'things' is one of the most harmful habits in the life. Because it is so natural it is rarely recognized for the evil that it is; but it's outworkings are tragic. We are often hindered from giving up our treasures for the fear of their safety; this is specially true when those treasures are loved ones, realtives and friends. But we need have no such fears. Our Lord came not to destroy but to save. Everything is safe which we commit to Him and nothing is really safe which is not so committed."
A.W Tozer, 'The Pursuit of God'

Source of oil painting photo:

Miranda 1875 by John William Waterhouse taken from:

http://www.johnwilliamwaterhouse.com/

Source for sea photos: ophelia's private collection

A Verse From My Heart

Listen here now my love

For I want you to know

That I love thee not for the

pleasing things you do

Nor for the great things you know

And I love thee not for thy tender looks

Neither for the fairness of thine speech

But I love thee for that which is in thine heart

That matches that which is in mine heart

And I love thee more for the eternal essence of thine spirit

That gives glorious savour to mine

For heart to heart and soul to soul

Is love in its grandest and purest design.

~~Ophelia 9-21-08~~

Source of Photo: Moon by Alphonse Mucha taken from illusionsgallery.com

"We found each other somewhere between

the day and the night...amidst the past

and the future...and now we are tangled up

with each other. I would love to spend

all my time writing to you; I'd love to share

with you all that goes through my mind,

all that weighs on my heart, all that

gives air to my soul...phantoms of art,

dreams that would be so beautiful

if they could just come true."

~~Luigi Pirandello~~

Have a blessed Sunday and a great new week ahead BLOGGERS!

Sincerely,

Ophelia