Dear Reader:

Yesterday morning I woke up early and by 6:30 was up and at’em. I have been watering my neighbor Vickie’s grass and checking her mail since she went home to Wisconsin last week… so with the sun and heat rising and the afternoon thunder storms waning… I decided to water early.

By the time I got to my garden the sun was just starting to peek over the horizon, casting shadows across the back yard, which in turn, provided delicious shade for me. Droplets of water were hanging from the Japanese Maples, plants, bushes, and flowers where I had just watered.

Suddenly one small sliver of light, from the rising sun, hit Rutledge’s red Japanese Maple, making its beauty glisten in the early morning light. I just barely had time to grab my IPhone and take the snapshot before the sliver of the sun’s rays began moving across the the back yard…  ‘hitting’  the zinnias and lantana that I had just watered by the fence.

I felt like a child again or maybe Peter Pan chasing his shadow…as I followed the sun’s rays and took photos of all the different foliage ‘coming into’ the  first rays of the sun…a new day being born.

*The gazing ball (Joan Turner gave me for Christmas one year) lit up like a firecracker when the early morning rays bounced off of it… with a round, bright light glowing back from within and all different shades of blue forming under the  sun’s beams of light. Breath-taking!

As I turned around to the entrance to the garden…the gate and surrounding entry points were now all in the shade…but the shade can be beautiful too.

Later…as I pulled the two words….shade and shadow... on the internet… initially the only thing that popped up was an advertisement for new “Window Shadow Eye Make-up Palettes.” The product promotion continued with sale pitches like “Window Shadows and Contours of Shade Make Eye-Aging Factors Fade.”

I searched on and found a discussion with people (on one website) asking what the difference was between shade and shadows. The conclusion was that there were times they could be used interchangeably but normally…there was a difference:

A shadow is the silhouette cast by an object that blocks a source of light. You can see your shadow on the ground or a wall or whatever you are blocking from the light source. You can make shadow puppets with your hands. A shadow can be cast by any light source such as a candle, a flashlight, an overhead light, a spotlight, or the sun.

Shade is the “darkness” created by a shadow and only really applies to shadows created outside by the sun. Underneath a tree on a sunny day would be “in the shade.” Inside a building would be “out of the sun” but not “in the shade.”

So from a scientific perspective that distinction works… yet both of these words evoke strong emotional feelings/reactions (one,more positive/the other somewhat negative) and as such….change the meanings of both…by a “shade” of difference. (Sorry I just couldn’t help myself.) For example:

Both words have emotional connotations. To those of us who live in hot climates, shade has pleasant and soothing associations. Shadow is evocative of something mysterious or threatening, especially in the plural. Stalkers lurk in the shadows. As the sun sets, evening shadows fall, concealing what was formerly visible and making the ordinary strange.

My mind immediately jumped to a story I shared with you (some years back) that has changed the way I think about one particular line in the 23rd Psalm.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

“The Valley of the Shadow of Death”

A very imaginative little girl, since first hearing the 23rd Psalm in Sunday School… was terrified of it. She had nightmares about walking through a valley filled with menacing monster shadows leaping out and dragging her off to kill her…in the ‘valley of the shadow of death.’

Her mother thought she would get over this fear as she grew older, but it never happened. Then, when the girl was about twelve she entered the church confirmation class with her peers. One of the assignments was to learn/memorize the 23rd Psalm. The nightmares started again.

The mother finally called the pastor, explained what was going on and asked if perhaps he could talk to her daughter about the situation. The pastor agreed…so late one afternoon, after school, her mother dropped her off at the church and told her she would return in half an hour.

The pastor listened quietly and gently as the young girl explained her dilemma…somewhat embarrassed but still anxious. When she  finished, the pastor said nothing except…“It’s is such a beautiful afternoon…let’s go outside and get a breath of fresh air.”

They walked over to the church parking lot that was surrounded by beautiful tall pine trees. The pastor glanced up at the sun and then lead the girl to a particular spot on the sidewalk beside the near- empty parking lot. The late afternoon waning sun cast shadows of their figures on the pavement. Both their figures were extremely elongated and funny-looking.

The pastor pointed our their shadows to the girl and then told her to pretend  she was a monster making big circular motions with her hands and growling…the pastor mimicked the same gestures. Soon they were both laughing at their shadows.

The pastor then turned the girl around and asked quietly:” Tell me what you see in the sky that is causing our shadows to form.”

“It is the sun…the light that causes the shadows” replied the girl.

The pastor asked: “If we didn’t have the sun or light would we be  able to form  and/or see other shadows?”

The girl thought a minutes and slowly replied “No. We would be in total darkness.”

The pastor looked deeply into the young girl’s eyes and said, “Don’t you see…David is telling us, in his psalm, that God will never desert us…He will always be there for us…even in death…even in dying…because there would be no shadows in the Valley of Death if there wasn’t light to form them…and that light is God. You are never alone.”

…………………………………….

So until tomorrow…Let us remember that shadows and shade are not possible without light…the “Light of the World.”

“All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow.”  Leo Tolstoy  (And yes…he said this!)

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

It does seem like a GodWink that my cousin Bob sent me some photos of my parents’ grave sites (Laurens, SC)) and my younger brother, David’s grave too yesterday. Tolstoy was right….life is composed of light and shadows. In my mind, heart, and faith daddy, mother, and my brother are living life in the most beautiful place of all…the land of eternal sheer, ethereal  light. No more shadows. *Thank you Bob for your thoughtfulness in doing this for me.