An Artist Beyond Compare

A drive north on Michigan's Highway M-25 took my breath away.

Along Lake Huron and through Lexington and other small towns, I headed to Port Austin in Michigan's thumb.

Roots and relationships came to mind.

The beautiful Great Lake State occupied my pondering about water and its power and beauty.

The Gulf and the oil spill animated me enough to feel my sad feelings about the water creatures and their plight, let alone the economic fray of lost jobs and more.

Water was poured over me when I was a baby, I recalled.

At the initiation rite into becoming a Christian, water was used with prayers to welcome me into God's world ever more deeply, my parents told me as I grew.

The original innocence and breath-taking magnificence of life was marred by Adam and Eve in the Genesis story of their crossing boundaries.

Water.

It's like that.

It refreshes, cleanses and cools one.

Woof and Wolf were standing on the back seat of my Chevy Aveo gazing at the Lake.

I wondered what they thought.

A couple hours later, I arrive in Port Austin across from Jenks Park where my brother lived until he met Debbie and fell in love.

Another of life's beauty - love.

As they make choices, decide on a wedding day, and live love's joy's and struggles that come with relations, all of the roots the Ventline family have in the Thumb will come to mind.

My dad's merged family after his own birth mother died while he was six months old comes to mind.

Those roots are not always pleasant to recall given some domestic violence and child abuse, I heard about in this family secret.

Embrace the family tree and tales, I remember a pastor telling me in high school. Own all of life, he said.

I do.

I accept it all in the grandeur of God, the general manager of the universe who must know what
is the plan and purpose of life's unfolding for others, for me, for family, for the village, and the world.

Ducks, dogs, chickens, pigeons, and other heavenly critters engaged my Bichon Frise pups, Wolf and Woof as they would speed out of the house to chase a cat or rooster bellowing out a wake-up call at 4 am each day!

Awe.

The trek home in the heat wave had me counting blessings instead of sheep.

God.

An artist beyond compare who designed it all.