Have you ever wondered where maracas come from, our how they’re made? 
Or, why they seem to be such an integral part of Latin music? 
I brought my first set home from Mexico nearly 50 years ago, and they’ve been an integral part of our family making “joyful noises” ever since, charming the children and grand kids from youngest years because they are like giant rattles!
Without even thinking about it, I’ve taken them for granted 
and subconsciously assumed they were carved from wood or made from plastic.
It wasn’t until we were in the tropical rain forests of Costa Rica last January
that I learned the story of maracas. 
Maracas are really made out of the fruit of the Crescentia tree (calabash tree), and they are common throughout southern Mexico, Central, and South America.
Crescentia trees can grow in the tropical wild up to 35 feet tall
(although this one, at the Hotel Villa Lapas, is a young garden cultivar).
The fruits, known as calabashes, are full of soft, pulpy material which is used for treating respiratory problems, but the hard, thin shells have several uses: 
as scoops, containers, and happiest of all—as musical instruments!
Typically, a wooden handle is inserted into the base of the mature, dried calabash, and the seeds are left inside to rattle!
I’m always inspired both by the creativity of God and the ingenuity of man.
It makes me stop to ponder:
*What am I really made out of?
*Are there even more ways that I can creatively serve God and man?
Thank you, Lord, for ripening us, plucking us, plugging up the holes in our lives, painting us, and allowing us to become instruments of service and joyful praise!
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1).
“With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the Lord,
the King” (Psalm 98:6 . . . and don’t forget the maracas!)
One of the things Alan and I especially appreciate about traveling is the opportunity to experience new dishes and flavor combinations. 
On our recent cruise through the Panama Canal, we tried all kinds of good desserts, but our hands-down favorite was a rhubarb crumble that had huge black cherries in it. 
I’ve long loved rhubarb-strawberry pie, but this was even more scrumptious, and with a little practice, I think I’ve re-created a worthy facsimile thereof !
Start with 5 stalks of fresh, bright red rhubarb. Wash them, and cut off the ends.
Chop the rhubarb into small pieces and spread them into the bottom of an 9X12″ baking dish.
Add 1 15-16-ounce can black cherries with the juice.
In a separate dish, thoroughly cream together:
Spread this mixture evenly over the fruit. It will be a little lumpy, but that’s okay!
Bake in the oven at 350°F. for 45 minutes or until bubbly and turning slightly golden brown on top. (Don’t over bake it!)
Serve it hot (or at least warm) with a big scoop of ice cream. Even my grand children loved this one, so you know it’s sweet and gooey! 🙂
During the first Christmas my oldest was able to toddle around, he kept asking for permission to “see” then “touch” then “hold” the Christmas ornaments. Unfortunately, he was too young to hold an ornament for very long before it would fall, and if I wasn’t right there to catch the bulb, it would break.
So, in our home, the line went, “See it? Hold it? Touch it? Break it!”
I think we all have a fascination with holding things that fill us with awe—whether it’s a shiny Christmas ornament or an exotic living creature. 
Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about what can be touched and what to avoid! 
In Tunisia, the zookeeper seemed fearless and knew just how to hold a scorpion 
while the scorpion held on tight to a pack of cigarettes, but none of us dared try! 
He also knew how to handle a deadly sidewinder… 
but nobody wanted to try that one, either! 
Of course, some critters seem more cuddly,
In fact, when it comes to camels, I like to ride them too! 
A well trained camel can take you for a pleasant ride down the streets in India. 
A well-trained elephant will let you pet him in the jungles of Nepal, 
or let you go for a ride (only with his mahout aboard, however!) 
Baby elephants are something else, though! 
They’re 250-pound characters who love to push you around if they can!!
I only dared touch this little playmate while he was distracted by someone else! 
Many creatures look almost irresistibly cuddly, like these monkeys, 
but monkeys are pickpockets with nasty bites, so I’ve been trained to keep my distance lest I lose my camera…or worse! 
Over the years, I’ve been able to see and hold many different creatures, 
but on our trip through the Panama Canal,
Snappy has been handled by this park ranger since his birth,
Alligators have a brain about as big as a pea, so most of what they do is instinctive. Nevertheless, we were back in America, so I figured they wouldn’t let us hold him unless it was relatively safe, and when they asked who would like to hold Snappy, I volunteered. 
Yes, being in America, they made it quite safe! Although the ranger hadn’t forewarned us, he put a big strap around Snappy’s mouth to keep him quiet. He was totally docile and let me hold him by his soft underbelly. 
Holding living creatures touches something deep inside me…a trust given to me to hold without hurting…not to break…and hopefully not to get hurt either. 
As we go through life, I hope we continue learning what is safe and what is not…
and just how close we can get to others without asking for trouble! 
But I hope we keep exploring and trying to connect, not only with critters, 
but with people! There’s a huge world out there full of people who’ve never heard the good news that Jesus came to set us free from sin and give us eternal life! 
Can we hold them so gently that we don’t hurt them?
On every cruise, there are a number of sea days where you have time to kick back, relax, and soak up the sunshine and sea breezes. One such morning, after working out, we splashed in the pool and then decided to parboil in a jacuzzi before lunch. Almost everybody on a cruise is in vacation mode, cheerful, talkative, and inquisitive, so if you meet another couple, common courtesy includes a greeting and exchanging some light banter around, “Where are you from?” and “What’s your line of work?” This particular morning, a couple joined us in the hot tub, and the wife’s answer included, “We live about 50 miles south of Chicago,” and “I’m a retired nurse.”
Monday, I wrote about canoeing where dangers lurked by air, land, and sea, 
(which hadn’t occurred to me beforehand but seemed to be the case 
(I will say that tourists can do much more dangerous things abroad than would ever be allowed in America, so never assume a tour is really safe just because you can choose to do it…such as hanging out at the edge of Victoria Falls in Africa.)
At any rate, it wasn’t until we finished our exploration through the mazes of mangrove tunnels and came out to Lake Cartagena that I began to relax, 
and when we were reunited with our English-speaking tour guide, he assured us that he’d not seen a single crocodile in the lake for forty years. Okay… 
However, there is good fishing in the lake (as attested to by this cormorant), 
so at least some birds and one man spend their days fishing on the lake. 
Our guide poled us over so we could watch the lone fisherman in action. 
Apparently he and the cormorant were willing to take the risks, although after hearing about alligators migrating north to Georgia in the U.S. and seeing crocodiles on the shoreline of the Panama Canal not far away, I wasn’t totally convinced it was completely safe. 
However, the fisherman was working hard, and he was catching fish and crabs!
I felt inspired by his hard work and courage! Jesus calls us to be brave and follow him, promising to make us fishers of men (and crabs?).
It’s pretty easy to say, “Ya, but it’s dangerous! I might get killed. (Many do in the 68 countries where Christians are persecuted.) So, should we leave our boats and give up? 
Or, shall we follow Christ and cast our nets?
“He [Jesus] saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” (Matthew 4:19)
In Cartagena, Columbia, we had a chance to go canoeing through a mangrove swamp, which I anticipated as being reminiscent of our canoe ride in Nepal last fall down the Narayani River. 
You, know—beautiful day, park-like setting, relatively safe. 
Only, this time I was hoping we could paddle our own canoes, because…well, just because it’s good exercise and lots of fun. 
I was disappointed to see men lined up to escort us, although I knew it might be a bit tricky trying to pole with a stick; I was used to sitting down with a paddle. 
Nevertheless, it looked like not all the canoes were attended, so I hopped in one 
that had no apparent captain, hoping they’d let me try my hand at the helm! 
Not so fast! There were strong, capable young men assigned to each craft, 
so I settled back to relax and enjoy the ride…sort of… 
Being a tropical country, and having seen some crocodiles lounging on the bank just the day before, I quickly realized that it was a great idea to let experts pole,
since if I were just trying to learn, I might land our whole canoe in the water!
I had visions of a crocodile or an alligator jumping out of the water 
to bite off somebody’s hand at any moment, and it gave me the creeps! 
I tried to ask the young man poling our canoe how dangerous it might be, but he just smiled and shook his head as if to say, “I don’t speak English,” so I kept my hands well inside the canoe, tried to hold very still, and hoped for no crocodiles!
What had we gotten ourselves into? I had failed to research this tour option! 😦 Have you ever been for a ride through a mangrove swamp? 
In a way, it’s awe-inspiring. Frogs and fish darted through the cloudy water. 
Iguanas hid among the branches overhanging the passageways, 
and termite nests, looking like discarded Darth Vader helmets, rested on trees.
The air was alive with bird songs, although the songsters were hidden behind tangles of branches and flew off skittishly before I could get any good photos. 
The only birds large enough to be unsettled by our canoe were great blue herons 
and the great white herons, who fished silently along the edges of the byways. 
Our canoe was almost as quiet as we glided through the maze of tunnels.
I suspect we were all being still to escape notice, but for whatever reason,
Considering the possibility of a poisonous snake dropping down on us from above, a deadly reptile attacking us from the muddy waters below, or catching malaria or other insect-borne disease from the mosquitoes in the air surrounding us made the whole experience seem a little surreal. 
I kept remembering terrifying stories like Uncle Tom’s Cabin and thought about the horrible fears and dangers that slaves endured while running away from their masters toward freedom, back in the dark, early days of America. 
Can you imagine how desperate people must have been to wander through the mangrove swamps in southern Florida in an effort to find freedom? 
We were at least dry, sitting in a somewhat protected environment, which I found out later was an old, original dugout canoe made from mahogany! 
Most importantly, we were being carried along by someone who knew the way through the tangle of tunnels 
and had the strength and experience to get us safely “home” after our wild ride. 
How about you? Have you—like me—wanted to paddle your own canoe? 
Have you been surprised by how much more complicated and potentially dangerous life is than you ever imagined? It’s definitely been much harder for me than I remembered from earlier experiences.
It’s all too easy to get into a situation where it’s not obvious 
which is the best way to actually get you where you feel like you need to go! 
Alan and I are reading a wonderful book by Joe Stowell called Following Christ. 
If you’re tired of paddling your own canoe, try following Christ. 
It’s simple, and following Christ takes the pain and frustration out of trying to find our own way to freedom and happiness. He loves us and will help. Besides, only Jesus has the wisdom and strength to get us safely home to heaven, which is where we’d all really like to end up…right?! Even if you’re not yet sure it exists?? I mean, if a heaven exists, wouldn’t you want to go there?!
“From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I” (Psalm 61:2).
This is the kind of story where the title gives it all away, but I hope you’ll still be interested in hearing about The Glass Factory in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, 
where they make everything out of recycled glass. 
The outside of the building is totally unimpressive…
the sort of place you’d pass by without a second thought 
(unless you wanted to recycle some old glass bottles), 
but inside, it’s like a little glass paradise! 
The walls and ceilings are aswirl with glass, 
and even the floor is studded with mosaics of vibrant inlaid glass. 
How do they do it? 
A well trained master craftsman starts with an old bottle
Then the artist adds minerals to give his masterpiece glorious colors. 
(Notice the spot of red on his glasses? His eye is focused on his work!)
With the help of an assistant, more melted, recycled glass is added. 
Next, the master shapes the glass with a huge pair of sharp scissors. 
He slowly twirls the fiery ball in a heated container
He shakes and swings the heated glass until it’s stretched to just the right length.
He blows very hard until the glass looks like an elongated balloon. 
He blows until it’s the size he wants, then he squeezes it with long metal tongs to perfect its shape, shakes it more, then shapes it more. He repeats this process until he’s satisfied that the bottle is just the right size and beautifully balanced.
With surgical skill, he flattens the bottom and makes an indention
With his assistant’s aid,
So many steps! The glass has to be reheated again in the oven!
One of the most touching things to me was to watch the master wrap his arm with gauze to protect himself from the heat while working on the vase. “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities” (Hebrews 4:15).
While continuously turning the metal rod to which the glass is attached, he carefully widens the mouth until it’s perfectly round and wide enough to be easily filled. “I am the 
He performs yet another operation to make the lip of the pitcher for pouring out.
Finally, a graceful handle is attached to make it easier to use.
I think everybody who watched the demonstration would love to have been able to buy that exquisite pitcher and take it home with them, but it was still too hot to handle. It literally has to sit for 24-hours cooling down before it can be used. 
So, of course (as you can probably tell) my mind went wild thinking about all the ways in which The Glass Factory reminds me of the way God works in our lives. Here are a few, but I’ll bet you can think of even more:
Are you ready to be made into something even more beautiful than you are to bring blessing to those around you, or would you rather just live for yourself?
Or, maybe you’re struggling with the glass ceiling and can’t seem to get where you feel like you need to be getting. 
God is in the business of taking us to the next level no matter where we’re at…of making us into something more wonderful that we are at present. But, first we have to be humble enough to climb into his recycling bin and let him take charge. Have you done that? If not, would you like to do that?
Have you ever wondered why they say, “Never smile at a crocodile!”? Crocodiles can measure more than 20 feet long and weigh up to 4,400 pounds. Australian crocodiles have the world’s strongest bite, up to 8,000 psi (pounds of pressure per square inch). In the water, it’s alleged they can swim as fast as dolphins, and on land they’ve been known to take down animals as large as cape buffaloes. Crocodiles are extremely aggressive, and humans are on the menu. So…that’s why you should never smile at a crocodile! They’re deadly. 
Although I have no penchant for befriending crocodiles, 
peering down at them (from the safety of a big bridge) while they bask in the sun along the Tarcoles River is a popular tourist attraction in Costa Rica. 
Because of the abundant wildlife, if you can put aside your fear of crocodiles, a cruise down the Tarcoles River is a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. 
Alan and I weren’t the first to board, but I noticed that the front seats were still available. Perhaps it was in hopes that if a crocodile attacked our craft, he would be too full after eating those of us in the front seats to want dessert. 
Whatever the reasons, Alan and I were happy to enjoy front row seating on our adventure! There’d been a torrential downpour that drenched everybody earlier, but late afternoon was beautiful, and the ride was soothing…magnificent even! 
We caught sight of a ring-tailed lemur sitting in a tree with his back to us, 
and there were herds of Brahman cattle with their faces to us, 
watching us curiously as we drifted by. 
The steep banks of the river were pitted with holes where swallows nested… 
as well as all sorts of colorful birds, like this stout little green heron. 
In fact, there was a veritable river bank run going on with creatures galore! 
I’m not sure if it was the highlight or lowlight, but we did see lots of crocodiles. 
Although most stayed at a respectable distance, one came over to check us out. 
In fact, he came right over to check me out, but I didn’t smile. 😦
Thankfully, he took the hint and left. Really, though, I think he would gladly have eaten me for lunch except the boat was a lot bigger than he was. 
The afternoon passed all too quickly, and soon it was time to return to the ship. 
I am thankful that I don’t have to swim in the river of this life without protection! 
Anyone who asks can be sheltered by the protective care of God our Father. 
It really isn’t any safer to swim down the stream of life alone than it would be to swim down the Tarcoles River. (See the crocodile hiding behind that snag?) 
(This is a close up from the last photo.) In the Bible, we learn that someday “the great dragon…that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world” will be cast out (Revelation 12:9), but until that day, we are in need of a refuge, because Satan is even stronger and more deadly than a crocodile. 
Thankfully, our day ended with a gorgeous sunset and no further excitement. 
Although we were very late, our ship didn’t sail away without us. Praise God! 
Back on the ship, we were able to get clean, dry, warm, and fed!
In Puntarenas, Costa Rica, you can walk right off the ship, 
and there are excellent beaches close by, so it was a little hard to resist just spending the day swimming. 
However, we wanted some adventure we couldn’t experience in America, 
so we opted for a skywalk through the jungle canopy of the Villa Lapas Rainforest in Carara National Park. 
Up until that day, the weather had been gorgeous: Glassy seas, balmy blue skies, and about 82° every day. 
The weather forecast was for partly cloudy skies, but there was no rain predicted, so Alan and I left our umbrellas and rain gear in our room and bounced off the ship expecting another gloriously warm, wonderful, dry day. 
Even the tour guide agreed with our assessment of the situation, as did everybody on the tour. 
After a lovely drive into the countryside, we stopped at Hotel Villa Lapas for a bathroom break (since free public restrooms are pretty much nonexistent). 
While there, I noticed a sign listing the nearly 400 species of birds that have been sited in the greater Carara area. 
It was a bird-lovers paradise, and the air was filled with singing, although I really couldn’t recognize more than a few species and only got one reasonably good photo of a toucan sitting high up in a tree, where he was checking out the tourists from a safe distance.
We saw a lot of unusual things, like the nests that termites build in the trees, 
and some rather attractive iguanas sunning themselves on logs far, far away. 
There were butterflies flitting here and there, but they moved so fast among the tree tops that I never did get a single good photo.
There were also reputed to be monkeys, but try as we may, we never saw one. 
On our “skytour” hike, we wound our way through the mountainous rainforest 
and across a series of hanging bridges built to span the gaps between the hills. 
It was a beautiful day, and we all took delight in enjoying our bird’s eye views 
of the vast Pacific Ocean in the distance, 
the mountains, 
and the jungle surrounding us, 
as well as below us! 
In the afternoon, the weather became very hot and humid, 
and clouds began gathering off in the distance, but in a rather ominous way! 
In just a few minutes, we could tell that things were going to get ugly! 
We were about exactly halfway through our hike, so there was no turning back 
but no easy way to get down the mountainside, either. 
There was nothing we could do but push on to the finish line! 
We tried to hurry,
This is the last photo I dared to take before wrapping my camera in the folds of blouse. I leaned over so my hat became a bit of an umbrella. The path was treacherously wet and slippery, but thankfully there were some handrails at critical junctures and nobody had a bad fall. By the time we returned to the bus, we were all soaked to the skin. The guys stripped off their shirts and there was literally a stream of water running down the aisle of the bus from all the men trying to wring out their clothes. (We were parked on the mountainside). 
In less than an hour, the storm came and went, but we were all soaked, chilled and a little shaken by the sudden cloudburst. And…we had a river cruise to take yet! It was after dark when we finally finished our day—so late that the ship had to wait an hour past departure time for us to get aboard. (Thankfully, if you’re on an official tour from the ship, they won’t leave you stranded.) Although our camera and cell phones survived, our passports got totally drenched and are a bit rumpled to this day, even though they eventually dried out! 
On the way home, it occurred to me that I should have been better prepared. There’s doubtless a good reason why they’re called rain forests! Next time I’ll carry a small umbrella, just in case! 
You know, my whole life is kind of like a skywalk through a rainforest! Is yours? 
Breathtaking, but it leaves me breathless sometimes…and it’s unpredictable. 
We have an “umbrella” on our insurance policy. Do you? Did you know there’s an “umbrella” for our spiritual insurance (assurance) too? It’s found in the person of Jesus Christ, who died in our place so that we can have forgiveness for our sins and be reconciled to God. We don’t have to worry about the judgment of God, because Jesus is the guarantor for all who trust in him. 
So, we can say with Amos: “Let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream” (Amos 5:24), because, 
If you love fish as much as I do, you’ve probably figured out whether or not you love tartar sauce too. 
Alan can take it or leave it, but there are very few fish dishes out there that I don’t think could be improved by a little (or a lot) of tartar sauce. 
On our recent cruise on the Norwegian Star (and we all know Norwegians love their fish), we enjoyed many different types of fish…and I was always hoping for excellent tartar sauce on the side, although it didn’t happen very often. 
So, maybe not every culture likes tartar sauce, but if you do, I hope you aren’t buying commercial tartar sauce, because you can make your own at home in about a minute just be stirring together equal parts of mayonnaise (or any similar salad dressing) and pickle relish (sweet or dill, depending on your preference). To me, it tastes better, and it definitely costs less.
Of course, there are all sorts of recipes out there to make your homemade tartar sauce even better, but last spring in Hawaii Alan and I both fell in love with tartar sauce laced with capers, and then last summer we were served such a delectable concoction again at a restaurant here on the shores of Lake Michigan, so I decided it was time to figure out my all-time favorite blend. Here’s what I came up with for myself, but I’ve also listed a few ideas that are good and add slightly different taste points just in case you haven’t already set your heart on any particular recipe. (If you have, please share it!)
Tartar Sauce á la 
Summer Setting 