Art is the visual expression of what the soul sees and feels. It is a personal response to what the artist experiences through the medium of his eyes, and does not necessarily represent the actual likeness of what is observed by them. It has been said with some degree of accuracy that if one wants to create a picture of the exact image of what one sees then he should simply use a camera. There is some truth in this statement. I formerly felt the thrust of this statement and grasped it with a sense of responsive agreement. However, one must be careful, when they are agreeing with the thought expressed in that statement, that they are not betraying the fact that they are unknowingly revealing a somewhat less than an artistic spirit. It may also reveal a remarkable lack of real appreciation of the originality which comes into play by the photographer, not to mention that of the artist who paints in the realistic style. No two photographers will see the subject of their shot at the same angle, nor take the picture in the same light, and so forth. And the artist, seeking to portray the same subject, even though very realistically, will not use the same color scheme as another, nor the exact amount of light, or place the same emphases on any aspect of his work as someone else would. Every person, be they photographer or artist, will express what and how they see an object in just such a way as they are governed by their own unique originality. In this inexplicable sense, every human being is an artist in some degree of meaning of the word.

A person can be enslaved by the reality of what his eye sees while not allowing his soul to feel the wonder and intricate beauty of what he is observing. "Beauty is only skin deep", and some people never see more of any thing than what is on the surface.

People are often heard to say, with absolute veracity, "I know what I like." And this is the prerogative of every indiviual. But the one who says this should be careful not to fall into the narrowness of thinking that expects others to like the same thing when it comes to an object of art. It is one thing to know what one likes, but it is quite another to expect everyone else to like the same things. How true this is in regard to life in general. We are prone to judge others simply on the basis of "surface" information about them, such as the way they dress, the color of their skin, or their nationality, or the beliefs they hold dear, or even by such things as the accent of their speech.

The true artist is an observer, by far above all else. He sees what most other people never see until it is, at least, pointed out to them by someone else. And this is another thing that a true artist is good at doing, causing others to look at something in a different way than they would normally see it, or by getting others to look at something which they have never "seen" before. In other words, things they have, indeed, seen, but which they have never, indeed, seen before. Of course this happens on a greater or less scale, depending upon the artist and what he was trying to accomplish and, on the other hand, by the one who is observing his work. Good art sets up a line of communication between the artist and the observer of his art work.

There seems to be a great deal of unwarranted concern these days that the inhabitants of the earth are going to run out of those things it needs to sustain themselves and that the changing boundaries of the deep seas are something to be feard like a plague! Wow, it seems to me that the alarmists we are constantly and increasingly hearing from are, if you will, the chicken littles of our day. They are so mistakenly alarmed that they are causing alarm in others to increase by leaps and bounds. Methinks the whole world is going mad, being dominated by fears which are overtaking their hearts, fears which we should be fearing themselves, rather than the supposed coming of the end of all things ahead of their time. True Christian believers, with a rock solid faith in their sovereign God and His clearly stated purposes, seem to be the only ones who have any stabililty and peace in their inner most being, most commonly referred to as our hearts. This sovereign One is He Who brought all things into existence out of nothing (Genesis1:1, in the Hebrew), and subsequently formed the earth out of a watery mass(Gen. 1:2) and then created the first man and woman and placed them over everything else with which He had furnished the earth(Gen, 1:28). He is the same One who set the boundaries of the seas, raised the mountains, and brought into existence the origins of the nations, and finally provided a way of redemption for His crowning creature, man, who had so terribly fallen short of His glory (Romans 3:23) Can He not be trusted, indeed, to control the whole universe, much less the speck of earth in it, or even less, the needs of His creatures upon the earth? After all, He has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power of love and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7)

"You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed of You, becasue he trusts in You." ISAIAH 26:3

Wow! what wonderful weather has descended upon us where I live. As the sun has come up each morning this week, the temperatures have been in the low fifties and ,with the absence of those miserable high humidity readings, it has been very, very cool for our early walks. So we have had to don long sleeves and, in Mary Lee's case, a hooded jacket. This is a blessing, especially when we head back up the long steep hill near the end of our walk, before the last stretch back to our condo. Along the way, I've noticed that some of the persimmons are beginning to fall to the ground as they have rippened to a soft pumpkin colored skin. However, I have refrained from eating any of them, though they are unusually sweet and delicious at this stage. If only I could find enough of them, I would like to try my hand at making a persimmon pie!

I even noticed this morning that some of the maple trees are already beginning to show a tinge of orange and yellow on the outer perimeter of the foliage. Squirrels continue to show up crossing the road in front of us with chestnuts in the clutches of their extremely sharp teeth, and there are evidences under the tree itself of cracked and discarded shells following snacks which they simply could not resist during their gathering and storing process. I have even seen the crows hopping around in the grass jumping mercilessly at unwary insects and worms. This seems rather strange for the bird which usually relishes the flesh of animals. Someone told us they had observed one crow trying to attack a baby rabbit. However, the rabbit's mother fearlessly launched a counter attack, and a very unusal battle ensued with fur and feathers flying everywhere.

These are just some of the evidences of what seem to be rather early signs of fall.

It is a great time to be alive and to be able to witness both what God is doing and what God allows.

"Why are you cast down, O my soul" And why are you disquieted within me? HOPE IN GOD; For I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God."

Psalm 42: 11

Speaking of marriage and friendship, I just came across this church bulletin blooper which read, "Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days."

Sadly, this is all too true of many marriages. But not so with ours. Since early on in our courtship and continuing till the present day, Mary Lee and I have been the best of friends in the true sense of the word. We have always loved spending our time together and facing our problems together, and making our decisions together. We have a practice of never speaking an ill word about the other behind each other's backs to others. We have so much fun together and often laugh about how much we laugh together, not only about things that amuse us both, but also about silly mistakes that we make. We think so much alike thatwe often make the same remarks about things in tandum

We laugh at ourselves, and at each other, and find it to be one of the best of medicines. There is much healing found in a joyful spirit.

And we pray together, worship together, and serve the Lord and others together. Sure, we "get in each other's hair" sometimes. But we resolve our differences during the same day, and never go to bed angry at each other. We attempt to not take ourselves so seriously that we can learn from each others example and acquired wisdom.

Do I need to apologize for being so personal and talking so much about the friendship we enjoy. Then, I would have to apologize for the intense degree of our love for each other!

"There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."

Proverbs 18:24

"I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine."

Song of Solomon 6:3

You

Ever so often God brings into existence a flower of exceptional beauty and fragrance. Everyone wants to be close enough to it to have their life enriched by its unique qualities.

But only one person is given the privilege of picking that flower and taking it to themselves as their very own precious possession; though that one, out of great appreciation for what they have been given, finds immense pleasure in sharing its loveliness with others.

You are just such a flower and I am the one to whom God allowed to take you as my very own, and my life has been so very deeply enhanced by the wonder of who you are!

(To Mary Lee on her 69th birthday)

As part of our celebration of our golden anniversary, Mary Lee and I set aside time for an overnight "honeymoon". This was just a time to get away by ourselves, and to creat more memories of this very special time in the adventure of our lives together. We drove north from Roanoke along old US route 11. We first stopped and had a simple lunch at the Riverside restaurant in Buchanan, a small quaint and old town situated on the James River in Botetourt County. Then we continued north to the juncture in the road which took us east through Buena Vista and up the winding road to the top of the mountain and onto the beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway. We traveled north for about twenty miles and then left the Parkway, descending down a very steep and winding road, passing through Raphine and Steeles Tavern and then back on to US 11. However, this time we drove south for several miles to just north of Lexington, VA, where we had made reservations for overnight lodging at Maple Hall. This is a bed and breakfast inn which was orginally a plantation house built in 1850 in which the livng area for the orginal family was on the two upper levels with the kitchen and servants quarters located on the ground level. We were assigned a room on the second floor which had a fireplace and was furnished with antique furniture. The bathroom was extremely small and was the only negative aspect of our stay. There were also several other beautiful old brick buildings on the property of two and three storied structure. The grounds themselves presented a very pleasant and gorgious setting.

After, refreshing ourselves and having a short nap, we drove into Lexington, just several miles away, for dinner at Cafe Michel. This is an upscale restaurant featuring French and American

cuisine. The restaurant was very tastefully furnished and the food and service were excellent, combining to make this a very enjoyable dining experience. "Michel", being the French spelling of a man's name, is the Chef and his wife is the hostess of this family owned business of many years. It was formerly located in Clifton Forge, VA, a town too small, and perhaps too remote to accomodate a restaurant of such obvious class. After dinner, we returned to Maple Hall where we were rather surprised to learned that we were the only guests for the evening. Imagine our further surprise to find out that the evening manager was departing at 9:00 PM, leaving us alone in the large old house of many rooms and secret places and passage ways. I jokingly asked her if there were any ghosts in the house to which she replied in a rather somber tone, "Not that I have encountered," adding, but then you have to believe in them to see them."

So we loocked ourselves in our room for the night, sleeping very well and comfortably. The next morning, three ladies came in to take care of the preparation of our breakfast, which consisted of a large extended continental breakfast as though a full house of guests were expected.

After we left Maple Hall in mid moring, we drove into Lexington to the historic district and browsed a few of the quaint little shops and a natural foods grocery, and had lunch at a cozy bistro. We enjoyed talking to the very friendly staff and telling them that we were still celebrating out Golden Wedding Anniversary.

Finally, we left Lexington and drove west on the most beautiful drive through the countryside and on to Goshen Pass. This road skirts the Maury River, which is one of the most rock filled riverbeds we had ever seen, not with pebbles but with very large rocks. And the river itself was practically dry at this time, in most places. This route also eventually led us into the little town of Goshen where we shopped at a Dollar Store, of all places, before heading home, thus concluding our travels of this little venture in celebration of our fiftieth anniversary.

I have been on a long journey, in fact, one of fifty years duration. This journey began on August 15, 1959, in Roanoke, VA, when I married my beloved companion and friend, Mary Lee. After a courtship of four years and nine days, as she loves to remind me and others, we were joined in holy matrimony at Cave Spring Baptist Church. God had led us together after she set her goals and I committed my life to the Lord for the mate of His choosing. She had written down upon a piece of paper what it was that she wanted in a husband. He must be "tall, dark, handsome, and a preacher," she had written. For my part, by the time I was a senior in high school, in what must have seemed like a rather ridiculous desperation of failing to find a permanent relationship on my own, I asked the Lord to take over. Therefore, through His providential leading, by that summer, we came face to face at a Youth for Christ Bible study. We had our first official date, soon thereafter, at the insistance of a friend of mine who was dating Mary Lee's best friend. On that "double-date" with the two of them, we attended a Youth for Christ ralley on a Saturday night. Since that time, we have been constant companions and the subjects of a beautiful love story. The quality of our God blessed relationship has continually deepened and strengthened over the past fifty-four years plus a number of added days at the time of this writing. Thus we celebrated our fiftieth Golden Wedding Anniversary on August 16, 2009, at the Mountain View Recreation Center in Roanoke. This was arranged and put together by our two daughters, Alethea Adkins and Chara Tolbert, who did a wonderful job of beautifying the place and bringing together a large number of our good friends and relatives. What a blessed and emotional time this whole experience has been with the stirring up a long string of wonderful and precious memories which have accumulated over many years, a lot which had become rather latent due to the ordinary busyness of our lives!