A Tribute to a Star - Kim Anita Chesley

The country experience of viewing night skies in eastern Oregon can be awesome. The stars shine brightly and seem dense in number when not obscured by clouds and competing city lights.  If you can imagine the stars as humanity, there is a scripture that comes to mind..."Those who are wise will shine as bright as the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever,"
Daniel 12:3  

This post is dedicated to one such star; Kim Chesley.  Kim was an amazing woman, full of spirit, adventure and compassion in naming just a few of the attributes she contained within.  She inspired those around her to be a better person through example and counsel.  A talented and educated woman, she had had the opportunity to travel and live in other cultures at a young age.  These experiences increased her personal expansion in richness of heart that Kim possessed.  As time went on, she became a teacher, wife and devoted mother of four children, now grown.  Each possesses the star quality of their mother - she left her legacy within them.  

Kim Anita Chesley  (1954 - 2020)  A Star

I was fortunate to cross paths with Kim and was struck by her beauty that she wore in humility.  A talented woman, she was an artist and a poet.  Her creative hands could hold a brush for her paintings and a pen for her poems.  Her hands were skilled with carpentry accomplishments and could use a saw, hammer and nails with gusto.  She was an able gardener and tended to the land as well as tending to the elderly that came under her care in later years.  Kim was a star upon this earth.  She carried a light within wherever she went and whomever she'd meet.  

Kim battled cancer during the last year of her life.  As her life ended in this earthly realm, she began her life with the Keeper of the stars in His realm.  Kim wrote the following poem that whispers of her connection with God and how it would be to meet the Master of the Universe....

   The Embracing

Oh, open wide the Kingdom Gates
For traveler home has come!

And line her path with warm embrace 
Fly banners! Beat the drum!

For one is home from journey long -
There's dust upon her feet.

Take basin, then and water pure
And oils for whom you greet.

And offer her on plates of gold
Sweet fruits and nectared wine.

Sing greetings to her joyous smile
And sit with her, and dine.

Then wrap her frame in whitest robe
And ready her to greet

The Master of the Universe
And seat her at His feet.

For one is home from battlefield! 
Her sword does in sheath rest,

And peace may now descend on her
For truly, she is blessed.

Written by Kim Chesley
October 27, 2006

 Salute to you Kim... until we meet again.

Sunsets, Space and Helen Sharman

We have the most amazing sunsets and sunrises in Grant County.  In fact, the night skies can be spectacular with hundreds of twinkling stars that shine so clearly without being hindered by city lights and haze.  I can only imagine how deep the universe is, filled with galaxies and planets and mystery, that continues forever beyond our sky.  For the moment, I can take simple pleasure in looking up to see color, form and movement dancing across heaven's horizon and leave the depth of the universe to astronomers. In the photos below, you can see the edge of the moon set within a framework of clouds touched by colors cast by the sun's descent.  

We observe the heavens above from earth below but there have been others who observe the earth from the heavens above.  One such person is Helen Sharman, a British chemist and astronaut.  In May 1991, she became the first British citizen in space and participated in a mission to the Soviet modular space station Mir.  This is a quote from her after that experience....

"Because we were orbiting the earth faster than earth spins on its axis, we went around the earth 16 times a day, an earth day, which meant 16 periods of lightness and 16 periods of darkness in 24 hours.  Every so often you'd look towards the earth, and often you could see lightness and darkness together, and dawn and sunset were spectacular."

We can look at images of the earth that were taken from the Hubble Telescope that gives us some perspective; this is one such image...

Such an awesome earth teeming with all sorts of living forms, including mankind.  And life came into existence by the hand of the Creator who made the heavens and the earth!


Hope you will return to visit me next time at The Turn-Up Patch....