Relationship | The Showers of Blessings

Tag Archives: Relationship

Ceramic Painting

Posted on December 25, 2020 by Miriam Hurdle 31 comments

Opaque 1

Opaque 2

Opaque 3

My daughter and I took ceramic painting class when she was ten years old. We both enjoyed this activity.

When choosing a green ware that is a ceramic piece just came out of the first firing from a mode with the clay color. It is still fragile and breakable. We need to clean the rough edges with bladed tools and water. The next step is to paint it with the paint for green ware. After painting, the green ware goes through the second firing. After the second firing, the piece becomes solid. The glaze will be applied and the piece goes through the third firing to have a shiny colored look.

Another way to do it is to purchase the bisque which is cleaned and solid through the second firing. All we have to do is to use a different paint specifically for bisque. We paint the colors, and do the glazing. Then the piece goes through one more firing in the kiln before its completion. The dry brush technique requires different kind of paint, doesn’t need glaze or the third firing.

My daughter and I carry on this hobby separately. I like to paint angels and fairies. When I paint the wings or certain areas in white, I have to be sure to use opaque white that is nontransparent, and covers any unexpected spots of other colors.

Opaque 4

Daily Prompt: Opaque

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #47: Five Elements

Posted on May 30, 2019 by Miriam Hurdle 28 comments

The challenge Amy gave us this week is: Five elements.

Five Elements Theory is a Chinese philosophy which describes that the world changes according to the five elements’ generating or overcoming relationships.

Generating Interactions – The five generating interactions are fueling, forming, containing, carrying, and feeding:

Wood fuels fire
Fire forms earth
Earth contains metal
Metal carries water
Water feeds wood

Overcoming Interactions – The five overcoming interactions are melting, penetrating, separating, absorbing, and quenching:

Fire melts metal
Metal penetrates wood
Wood separates earth
Earth absorbs water
Water quenches fire

The interactions illustrate the relationship even though they are not necessarily in the exact order as listed above. Source

The Five Elements Theory is also related to the Chinese Zodiac and Fengshui, a system of laws considered to govern spatial arrangement and orientation in relation to the flow of energy. Source

A ball of fire going down behind the silhouette of woods in my neighborhood, California

Metal Bridge, Moulton Falls Regional Park, Washington

Hollow wood in Silver Falls, Portland, Oregon

One of the waterfalls in Silver Falls, Portland, Oregon

Muddy earth after eruption in 1980, Mt St. Helen, Washington

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #47: Five Elements

Weekly Photo Challenge – Beloved

Posted on February 4, 2018 by Miriam Hurdle 87 comments

I met my beloved husband Lynton in a church group for single parents. It was the last meeting before summer break. The group didn’t meet again until the following fall season. We exchanged phone numbers and that was the beginning of our twenty-four years of relationship.

One of our first dates was going to a Motivational Leadership Conference. I know, it wasn’t too romantic, but we both were interested in administration and management. When the conference was over, on our way to the parking lot, I thought, it would be nice to keep an admission ticket as souvenir. I turned my head and looked at him. Before I said anything, he reached out to his pocket and took out a ticket, asked if I would like to keep one. It impressed upon me that our antennas received signals from each other already.

Lynton has been supportive of me in many practical ways. I had the administrative credential seven years before we met. For various reasons, I didn’t feel I had the strength to hold an administrative job. An administrative job is a twelve-month, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. position whereas teaching is a ten-month, 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. position. When I was promoted to the administrative position in 1998, I was ready to accept it because of Lynton’s support.

He was a great cheer leader when I decided to get my doctorate degree in Educational Leadership. I went to school full time in addition to my full-time job. All my evenings and weekends were spent on assignments and projects and dissertation in the final year. For three years, he watched television wearing a headphone. I worked on assignments in my office with the paper and books laying on the floor. And I did my reading in the living room where he watched television. At least I was in the same room with him. I dedicated my doctorate degree to him.

doctoral progam_0001

We now both are retired, we go to the gym together three times a week. As I mentioned in the previous posts, he is doing all the cooking, doing dishes, and working on many house projects.

We remind each other again and again that it was a divine appointment in which we met. It’s His guidance and our respect for each other that sustain our relationship!

Weekly Photo Challenge – Beloved

Birthday Present

Posted on November 26, 2017 by Miriam Hurdle 78 comments

I have written a post about My daughter Mercy. I love her dearly.

November 22 is my birthday. Some years, my birthday falls on Thanksgiving Day. This year, it was the day before Thanksgiving. My daughter Mercy, her husband Will, and baby Autumn came on Sunday, November 19 and stayed until the day after Thanksgiving.

On my birthday, we went to the mall to do window shopping. We then had some photos taken in front of the only Christmas tree. Santa was there for kids’ visit and photos. We were going to have photos taken with different decorations, but it seemed like the decorations were down to minimal. Perhaps I hadn’t been to the mall during Christmas for many years and didn’t realize the shrinkage.

We had dinner at a restaurant. Mercy gave me a booklet for my birthday present. It entitled “I Love You, Mom. And Here’s Why!” Each page has a prompt for her to share her thoughts with me. When we got home, I couldn’t wait but read through the twenty-one pages. My eyes were filled with tears from the first line of Mercy’s writing, and the smile mixed with tears for the remaining pages.

Here are two examples of the pages.