I captured this cicada that spent the morning on our driveway in the rain. I thought maybe it was dead, but not totally as the legs moved a little. I went to get a clear cup and a piece of paper. Went back outside and scooped it up.
Did not realize until I took these photos that the government rearranged George Washington on the newer quarters and gave him a new hairdo! This is about fifty cents worth of 2023 cicada. Not the periodic cicada that I posted about a year or so ago.
I have often wondered with the abundance of insects that cycle through the seasons where do all those wings go? I rarely see just a wing outdoors!
Can you imagine being a small bird and coming up those white dots that look like eyes?
Or these actual bug-out eyes?
Well this cicada for one is battered and shell might be dented? It was fun to day dream with you about this noisiest of bugs!
Later, I took the cicada outdoors again. I was going to slide it off the paper onto the top of the power box so Lucky would not try to eat it since it seemed to be dying. Much to my surprise, with a noisy flurry of cicada wings (even though battered) it took off into the sky! Guess it came to visit for notoriety on this blog!! Hope I did not traumatize it too much.
Where do you draw nourishment for your soul? I asked Bob to take the photo above because it stirred something in me. You can see not only how the leaves are attached to the branch, but how the leaves have a nourishment system.
Walking to our garbage can storage area we have been watching the elephant ears develop and then open.
M L Dutina
Again the nourishment avenues within each leaf.
M L Dutina
Can you trace the nourishment in your soul from the river of living water flowing inside of you?
I love the photo above. If you look at the top center of the leaf you can see the rough corner of decorative stone on the house. I can only suppose that a wind storm caused the creases on the left side of the photo. Such contrast between rock and leaf.
I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
John 15:5 VIV
How is your connection to the LORD? Are you remaining in Him and giving way for Him to remain in you? Then the admonition, “Apart from Me you can do nothing.” Nothing that lasts, nothing of eternal significance and meaning can be done separate from Him.
As you pass growing leaves or perhaps fallen colored leaves, take a moment to pause and look at the vein system. Is your path of nourishment as clearly defined? How might you deepen and improve that nourishment path?
Steve Green recorded this years ago, 2017. When I heard it for the first time it stopped me in my tracks! Two minutes of challenge. Hoping you will listen!
I am praying that you listen to what the Lord is saying to you personally. I pray you make whatever changes He wishes for you to have better nourishment for your soul and spirit. Will you?
I have been reading You are Here by David Steindl-Rast. In Chapter 6 called The It he quotes Martin Buber, St. Augustine and Robert Frost to name a few.
What I ultimately encounter in any You, I can also encounter in any tree: Mystery. This happens, as Buber says, “through decision and grace.” Both are necessary. I must decide to open my heart wide for this experience and receive it as a gift. “All is grace,” said St. Augustine, all is Life’s gift. And Life is the story of our adventurous encounters with that “Secret,” of which, so far, we only know from Robert Frost that is “sits in the middle and knows, while “we dance in a ring and suppose.” Draw out the line of relationship into infinity and it will lead to that “Secret” – the Mystery, which we encounter in and through all that exists.
-Brother David Steindl-Rast
He ends the chapter with this comment.“What we need to relearn is to ‘kneel and admire’ in reverence and amazement.”
My body SO protests kneeling in the sense of next to my bed for prayer or at the altar for communion, but the Prayer of Manasseh in the Apocrypha helps me with the line in verse eleven: “And now I bend the knee of my heart, imploring you for your kindness.” The Prayer of Manasseh is a part of the Apocrypha, accepted by some as biblical though not necessarily accepted by all persons as biblical. I personally love this prayer.
So I bend the knee of my heart in admiration, reverence and amazement towards the creation of the Father. This is one of the chapters I was reading while sitting on the porch recently when observations and poems seemed to pour forth out of me.
Imagine if we would approach each person as mystery. We are so prone to make judgements and stereotype people this could bring a radical change in our every encounter! Instead of being exhausted by people the introvert might see meeting as an adventure? Instead of thriving off others, the extrovert might see meeting another as an unknown treasure. Just thinking on the page here.
I hope this blog helps move you towards the decision and grace to move towards life with your eyes wide open and your heart seeking Mystery. May you be blessed with abundant life.
Neighbors yard is filled from
First tree to drop her gown
likely Yellow Poplar
We have a few buttons
And ribbons in our lot from other
Ladies preparing to drop their gowns
Cicadas still sing afternoon melody
Sun shines brightly
Some maple branches turning
getting ready to disrobe
Mostly green on our horizon
Autumn waits at the corner
So humor from proof reading blog. Must have thought I had deaf cicadas in our yard because I wrote “Cicadas still sign afternoon melody.” Oh Molly, bad humor.
One cicada was so loud last evening, for a moment Bob thought it might have gotten into the house. Saw a huge one on the sidewalk when I walked Lucky this morning. Not dead, but certainly slowing down. Was this who we heard last evening?
Going inward with the deep blue of the bachelor buttons I sink down.
I take the encompassing blue with me. Down.
I drop my shoulders
Down I breathe the blue petals.
Knowing the blue from the petals will fade. Down.
For now they wrap me in stillness. Down.
Wash me in the blue brightness I pray. Down.
Not Mrs. Stewart’s bluing agent. Down.
But the true blue of fresh flower. Down.
Peculiar petals, Down.
Not like tea rose. Down.
To where I am nestled inside the flower.
Down.
Beyond the pollen gathering bees. Down.
Sitting still in the Blues
And restored.
As you can tell I have been riding a wave of poetry. The book Every Day is a Poem by Jacqueline Suskin has helped to challenge and inspire me. Uncertain how long this wave will last. Hope you are enjoying it!
I was frustrated as I have 4 photos of the flowers that I wanted to intersperse with the verses. Word Press was having none of that. I suppose if I spent enough time changing blocks and formatting I might get it. Hopefully, you grasped the idea, even without all the photos!
“Look, he is coming with the clouds,” and “every eye will see him, even those who pierced him”; and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.” So shall it be! Amen.
Revelation 1:7 NIV
While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
Matthew 17:5 NIV
The word is used as a symbol of the Divine presence, as indicating the splendour of that glory which it conceals.
When we are open to beauty, it is more likely to appear to us. When we share that gift by pointing it out to others, we find we have even more of it to celebrate.
Trebbe Johnson
When I looked up who is Trebbe Johnson on the internet I found her website https://trebbejohnson.com/about/ and learned some about her. You might want to look into her work more deeply?
I certainly agree with the quote above from her. Many times when we are out and about, Bob with his camera and me with my iPhone, I will point something out that I think would make a great photo. He is so good at capturing those ideas! He is very good snapping photos on his own, too! Imagine that!
Every year we try to get to the Moler race track at least once during the summer. It is a quarter mile clay oval racetrack. We call it ‘eating dirt’ since the dirt flies over the fences and often into the stands. Helps us get in touch with the amusements of our country neighbors. This year I spotted this fellow dressed for an evening at the track. I like his hat with buttons, his hair pulled into a ponytail, his overalls and food for the next race.
At racetrack by r m dutina
Then my Wish-I-was-her image.
Hope she is always this confident! r m dutina
This was amazing. Duckweed, frog and leaf shadow. How does he capture these so nicely?
r m dutina
The busy bees!
r m dutina
“You planted these, here, just for me?” asked the goldfinch.
r m dutina just out our front door
Glory bee by m l dutina
Keep watching for treasures in plain sight! And always give thanks.
always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He has a pink metal flamingo sculpture in his side yard, a large black eagle sculpture on his deck. The ridiculous and the sublime? The beagle and I walk on.
There is a huge dip near a stand of mailboxes. The landscapers were to repair that dip where someone really could stumble and get hurt. They sprinkled a little dirt at the edge and threw a few grass seeds. NOT what we had in mind!
One neighbor scared herself and the rest of us. She had surgery on her knee a few weeks ago. She was totally healed and good to go. Then she slipped on their garage floor and went down on that same knee and ankle. I happened along as she was standing in the side yard, obviously stunned, in pain and in shock. Helped her to the porch, got an ice pack, got her son to open the front door, we helped her inside to lounge chair, set up ice machine. She is okay, but was truly shocky for a bit there. Today she is walking the golden retriever and doing just fine. Whew!!
There is another neighbor who complains and complains about every body and just about every thing. Then she lets her mini boxer out in her yard. That dog never gets taken for a walk. And it barks. And it barks. And it barks. They also got a mini-something and it has learned to also bark, and bark, and bark. Wish there was a forum for barking dog complaints. I did post on neighborhood Facebook about law in NYC stating a barking dog can only stay out for 15 minutes. Grrr. I have been known to stand on my front step and in frustration after hours of barking holler, “Shut up!” Not kind, but at my wits end.
We have been enjoying Ohio tomato season at its finest. There is a farmer down the road who sets up his table by his driveway. Puts out a money collection box. Hangs plastic bags from a nail in the tree. Then he loads that table with some of the best tomatoes you have ever tasted. $5 for a stack of 6 large red ones. At times he has a ‘scratch and dent’ box or another price for gigantic tomatoes.
I take mine home and we enjoy hard boiled egg and tomato sandwiches with juices dripping down our hands. Or I make Caprese salad with fresh mozzarella and fresh basil.
Rolling and cutting Basil chiffonade
I could learn to make basil vinaigrette but I like Kraft basil vinaigrette. Pour it in a pan and reduce “until it coats the back of a spoon.” Yum!
Most of our neighbors are kind and considerate. We share baked items and ideas like the salad above. We play cards on occasion and greet each other warmly. One brought us fresh corn on the cob his son was given. Yum.
A few younger families have moved in and we are grateful to see and hear the children. (We old folks have so many bodily ailments to speak about.) Just like you cannot choose your family members, we know you cannot choose your neighbors! We try to develop the good ones and seek patience with the others.
What is going on in your neighborhood? Are you watching for treasures in plain sight? Enjoy the summer weather while it lasts. Before long we will be wishing for a hot day instead of the chill headed our way!
Oswald Chambers continues to inspire me. In My Utmost for His Highest, daily readings were selected mostly from his lectures from 1911 to about 1917. The August 20 selection is entitled “Completeness.” Since I recently posted about the teaching in Hebrews about rest this seems so appropriate.
“And I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28
Whenever anything begins to disintegrate your life with Jesus Christ, turn to Him at once and ask Him to establish rest. Never allow anything to remain which is making the dis-peace. Take every element of disintegration as something to wrestle against, and not to suffer. Say – Lord, prove Thy consciousness in me, and self-consciousness will go and He will be all in all. Beware of allowing self-consciousness to continue because by slow degrees it will awaken self-pity, and self-pity is Satanic. Well, I am not understood; this is a thing they ought to apologize for; that is a point I really must have cleared up. Leave others alone and ask the Lord to give you Christ-consciousness, and He will poise you until the completeness is absolute.
Oswald Chambers
My goodness. I found that so powerful this morning. I opened to this selection and it was not even August 20! God knows what I need at all times.
John Eldredge writing in the book Resilient cautions against the same thing. He calls it desolation.
I realized a few days ago that the warfare I was coming up against was this desolation, trying to disintegrate my life with Jesus and His people. Coming to that realization was huge for me. I know how to bow to the King of Kings and let Him help me. Chambers says to ‘take every element of disintegration as something to wrestle against.’ The Lord has taught me that when I recognize darkness trying to encroach upon my life to PUSH BACK. Basically stomp my foot and declare, “NO!” or as some popular t-shirts say “Not today, satan.”
Chambers says to ‘leave others alone and ask the Lord to give you Christ-consciousness.’ Draw close to the LORD. Pray to think His thoughts. Follow His lead. Be His in every way.
Repeatedly in the New Testament we are told to mind our own business. (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12, John 21:22) If I am truly paying attention to my walk with Jesus, my attitudes, my frame of mind, my motives and desires … if I am doing all that, I will not have time nor energy to get into someone else’s business.
Whew. Not exactly a tall order that I cannot grasp, but sobering to realize that missing the mark at times can simply be blaming others when I have no authority to judge. I so easily deceive myself. (Jeremiah 17:9)
Jesus says, “Come unto Me and I will give you rest,” i.e., Christ-consciousness will take the place of self-consciousness. Wherever Jesus comes He establishes rest, the rest of the perfection of activity that is never conscious of itself.
Oswald Chambers Utmost, August 20, Completeness
Looking up images to illustrate “disintegrate” I was amazed at how many depicted satanic happenings in films. Interesting that even online photos reflect this truth. Yuck.
It is amazing if we are willing to listen to God, examine our selves, repent and move on how an abundance of rest becomes ours! I cannot tell you how STRONGLY I want you to try this for yourself.
Treasures in Plain Sight, A Christian Blog 