The oak and the acorn...

"...Even the name of the Savior uttered in her singing tone and with the expression she gave it, came nearer to them than when she spoke it..."

"How many things there are in the world in which the wisest of us can hardly perceive the hand of God! Who not knowing could ready the lily in it's bulb, the great oak in the pebble-like acorn? God's beginnings do not look like his endings, but they are; the oak is the acorn, though we cannot see it."

-excerpt from The "Geltlewoman's Choice"

by the wonderful George MacDonald

Shell xx

Hope for Haiti Now...

The beautiful, and ever thoughtful she posted this on Facebook today.

I have become enraptured.

I'm ready to get on a plane and take all my groceries.

Donate my fortnights spending money.

Sell my TV and my iPhone if I could just help an ounce!

I can see why the Lord uses the gifted to help the needy.

That a performance so inspired by the Holy Spirit such as this,

Will communicate to all the millions.

of what we need to do.

At very least.

Log onto iTunes

And donate as little as $5 to the American Red Cross.

Or buy the official Live performance album,

From last night's telethon.

I donated $10 through my iTunes account.

It's not enough.

But it's a little piece,

Of hope for Haiti.

Shell xx

Oh, tree of lights...

Oh tree of lights,

remind me as I decorate-

each star, and each shiny ball,

of the years before I put you there.

And hardly can it be believed-

that a year has passed us by in between?

But it has not passed us by,

We have given thanks for it everyday.

And so it's time to celebrate our Lord's birth,

{and this year, also the newlyweds baby's birth}

And give thanks in a bigger way!

With our tree of lights,

each star and each shiny ball,

A symbol of love, for you.

Shell xx

Dear Friend,

I am so glad you came to stay. To hug your bones, and look in your eyes, and know you more, was a precious thing.

To have you play with my babes was delightful! To sit up with you all night talking, confiding, expressing, about how we'll change the world and feeling the Spirit of hope in the room was amazing...

To sit with you under the sunshine sipping tea was special, and long overdue. I can feel you have blossomed with the spring...

And those blooms! They spoke of everything as friends we love, and why we love. Their colour, delicacy, vulnerability, beauty and spirit was... [pause]

{I'm crying again!}

In short; it was so good to hug your bones, and look in your eyes, and know you more.

Dear Friend.

Love, Shell xx

Today I am...

It is clear I need to do a little posting...

Today I am putting together some musical gooddies for some beautiful women...

I am getting {perhaps a little too} excited by how quickly and beautifully my clothes dry on the line in Spring weather as wonderful as this...

I am not going to be able to get over that blue sky...

...perhaps for some time!

Today I am a being somewhere between laughter and tears;

The more I see of the world the more I am in awe-

Of the beauty, the happiness and the magic,

And also of the darkness, sometimes hatred and cruelty you can see and feel.

I hope just to be a part of the goodness.

To hold out my hand to another.

To listen to the small still voice.

To not miss the calling of my gifts.

To jump out of bed!

And be all that today asks of me!

What are you today?

Shell xx

Standing in the sun...

I love to watch the sun rise over my green house, especially at this time of year - in the winter - where I watch it slowly encompass the ground melting the ice in it's way...

And I notice, on my way to the clothes line this morning, a point at which one half of the ground it frozen, shivering cold in the darkness, and the other, glistening, thriving, having been warmed now, by the sunlight...

The poetic voice inside my mind says; this is an analogy - this is the choice to be made everyday, and for our lives...

If I may think of the darkness and the frozen ground as the place of fear - where nothing grows; in fact staying here, will not only be cold and lonely, but will see me slowly rot, as nothing thrives in the darkness and the cold...

And if I think of the sunlight as a place where all is seen, then surely, if I am to stand here I want all that there is of me, fit to be seen... Only in this light can I aspire, can I grow, can I stand brave, and be seen...

Then the thing that occurs to me, is that before this light rose over my green house this morning, all was in darkness. And slowly the light is delivering life.

I stand in the sun and feel ready to grow. Ready to be seen for who I surely am, and in absolute understanding that this day is a gift, that the Lord has given.

Shell xx

{Sun-smith}

In my place...

This be one of my favourite places...

Where I can take snippets of reality and fantasy - scribble down poetic phrases - make them into songs.

Songwriting is my first love and craft. As a child it was my escape - something I knew I could do well, it was a different, secret world, where I could live...

As an adult, and a Christian it is still my love and my craft. It is now my {though humble} income, a big part of my identity - I have lived out so many of my musical dreams already. I have found a band in my husband and brothers - such gifted and fine men. I have recorded at Studios 301 in Sydney with Abbey Road producer Richard Lush, I've taken my music to America and played for what I think are the nicest audiences in the world. And it seems that my music in part, has become my ministry.

Still I am asked so often, 'what kind of music do you play?'

I'm not "fashionable" - so it can't be Pop!

I'm not cool - so it shan't be Rock.

I'm not classical, or tutored, or trained -

I am organic. Handmade.

Sepia toned.

Folk geared.

Mildly hysterical!

Commercially inept...

Slightly teachable?

Whole heartedly passionate.

Wide awake-

{if daydreams don't count?}

and above all,

I am Yours!

I'm anxious to know what you may call it?

Songsmith xx

He is Risen!

Give thanks...

Shell xx

A walk in the rain...

We were threatened with rain when setting out on our Good Friday picnic down the paddock yesterday, but had high hopes for returning sun.

We had chicken soup under a tree, as the sun promptly arrived;

I put my Nikon to the test by zooming up on mountains;

And stopped to hug trees - how impressively big is this one?!

Walked home with Tara holding my hand, and thanked the Lord for giving us such inspiration, and guidance in Jesus; and remembering, to remember this, at Easter.

Shell xx