Category: Nature

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Nature

Winter Growth

Today, if she were still alive, my mother would have been 106 years old! She loved flowers and worked in a flower shop much of her adult life. Not as a designer, but a shop clerk. A few weeks ago I showed you the first clump of daffodils growing on our hillside.

My favorite photographer taking same photo.

Here they are February 4, 2018, a little worse for wear from all the snow, freezing rain and bitter cold we have had. One delight from living in southwestern Ohio, you never knew what you will find once the snow melts and you can see the plants once again!

Obvious blossoms in those buds!

Forecast for the next two days is warm with a possible two inches of rain! Can’t wait to see how the daffodils respond! One day soon I hope to write about my lifelong fascination with daffodils.

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Nature, Poetry, Spiritual growth

Transfigured Rock

What if I told you a story about myself?

Once I was frozen in my feelings. Our alcoholic family of origin lived by the Alcoholic unspoken, but strictly enforced, rules of “Don’t think,” “Don’t talk,” “Don’t feel.” When I began attending Adult Children of Alcoholics meetings and Al-Anon I started breaking all of those rules. It was as if I was “breaking out of an inner prison” as I first wrote in 1982.

Someone at a Christian group told me about this book. The first time I read “Codependent No More” I bought my sister a copy and told her, “She lived in our house. She got in our heads. She wrote it all down!” I was truly amazed that someone else on earth not only understood the life in our house on Skyview Lane, but published what she knew!

There is a hillside on the way to my house now that is studded with stones. When the temperatures get frigid, as they are right now, the water might drip from the stones, but it quickly freezes into bars. It often reminds me of the prison I once lived in.

The stone that was once my heart has thawed and been healed in so many profound ways. I would be hard pressed to list all of those ways! I have been learning to think and feel and talk in appropriate ways for many years now. I do not ever want to go back to the ways of my upbringing. I spent hours in sessions of therapy trying to untangle the mess that was made in me.

I see a woman in the rock.
In case you do not see her, here she is enhanced.

I am certain my husband and I made some mistakes while raising our children. We used to joke that they might one day need counseling as I have needed it. But “we did the best we could with what we knew at the time.” And I, too, believe that my parents did the best they could with what they knew at the time. Hope my children can understand how not having alcohol as a constant influence in our home set them free from many weird things.

Posted on in Nature, Poetry, Spiritual growth

Living Water Photos

As I wrote this poem on the other blog I was amazed at the photos ….

At the shores of Living Water
Hear crickets there

Flow of Living Water invites me deeper,
Quieter

Petrified Wood

I was struck while choosing these photos for my stand-and-tip blog how much the stone around the mouth of the water resembled petrified wood.

And then how much Grand Canyon itself looked like the petrified wood!

What an amazing creation!

Grand Canyon

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Book quotes, Nature

For One Moment

Rumi wrote:

“But listen to me: for one moment, quit being sad. Hear blessings dropping their blossoms around you. God.”

In re-reading Radical Acceptance I have been reminded how very much I admire the poet Rumi. Found I could get a Kindle version on Amazon for $1.99. Yeah, baby! Same version that I have in paperback, too!

So for one moment, TODAY, can you challenge yourself to quit being sad? God is dropping blessing blossoms all around you. Now perhaps Ann Voskamp can step up the microphone at this point and remind you to find 3 of the 1,000 gifts that flood your life. Just 3.

Here is one I wrote recently. Perhaps I already posted it but the image remains with me though the moon is not full right now.

“Moon shadows out the bedroom window at 1:00 AM are as if an architect has been doodling straight black lines drawn with a ruler on hillside brown background.”

And #2 on the morning walk today, January 8, 2019 shows our back hill with husband and this item complete with flower bud!

This is just WRONG for Ohio!

#3 Wind is driving high cumulus clouds across a blue sky at many miles per hour! What a sight after days and days of GRAY.

What are your three?

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Nature

January Warmth

I know that some parts of the US are being hammered with winter weather. Not so in Southwestern Ohio. In fact, yesterday was sunny and temperatures in the 50s! I, personally, would enjoy some snow. It is January! I enjoy the silence that snow seems to amplify. Not to mention crusted tree limbs, bird prints, etc. Guess I will have to post some of those snow memories in another blog entry!

This morning when I went outside to empty the compost bucket, (without a coat, mind you!) on the way back into the house I noticed daffodils leaves about 2 inches tall!

Warm or frigid, my preferences or not, the season continue to unfold with daylight lasting longer than a few weeks ago, and flower bulbs persist in rising through the leaf litter. Another treasure in plain sight!

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Nature

Gloomy Day Treasure

For Christmas our daughter and Granddaughter gave us a sunflower disk made of compressed bird seed. We took down the regular feeder outside our kitchen window and put it up. It took several days for the wary birds to trust it as a genuine feeding item.

Then the feasting began. One morning while getting some coffee I noticed a bird that does not often come to our feeder. He is prone to totally freeze in place or fly off at the slightest thing that might startle him. He especially does not like the red-bellied woodpecker. Otherwise, he will feed with other birds in relative calm. As I watched he explored the sunflower and then I went to grab my iPhone. He stretched to his full length, and in the gloom of this winter day I captured the best photo ever!

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Yellow-bellied Sapsucker with his belly shining bright! Black capped Chickadee on lower edge of flower.

I remember as a child hearing some actor in a movie who was wearing binoculars about his neck get all excited about this bird with the weird name. This photo was hard to capture, and not the best quality, but for me, a TRIUMPH!! I could finally show Bob why it has that funny name.

Keep watching for those treasures in plain sight!!

Posted on in Book quotes, Nature, Spiritual growth

Simple to Read, Harder to Do!

In her book 1,000 Gifts Ann Voskamp quotes Chesterton:

“Thanks are the highest form of thought  and gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”

When I read this I saw thOUGHT. This is how I OUGHT to think. This is what I OUGHT to do. The part of the earth where I live is gloomy today. No sunshine in sight. This is one reason our best friends moved to New Mexico! Much more sunshine there.

The gloom is accentuated by naked deciduous trees. Somehow they look even skinnier this morning. The ground is mostly brown and gray, too. The recent record breaking rain is slowly making the grassy areas “green up,” that is unless the ground has just turned to mud as in my friend’s driveway! Mushy brown muddy goo.

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Gray sky, brown and gray tree skeletons, but this also reminds me that with this New Year turning of the calendar, I am also supposed to be renewed and resting. One young friend told me she had prayed the Lord would give her a word for the year 2019. She suggested I ask Him also. It seems He already did in my recent journaling and seeking His face. “Be still.”

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Except for the recent wind storms here, the trees are still. No leaves fluttering, not much fluid moving up and down the trunk. No fragrance of newly mown grass outside. The rose bushes are dormant. Even the snap dragons that were holding out with leaves and a few flower buds in the garden are looking shabby and going dormant.

How can I be still and just rest in all of this? Bob’s procedure is coming up in a few hours. But fretting will not help that. Me being still would create a better atmosphere for all. I learned from a recent hospital test he endured that I can accomplish little while the doctors are working their magic upon his body. So perhaps I can take that opportunity to practice being still. Not running out into the future of “What ifs” or the past of “If onlys.” Still in the present moment.

Thanks and gratitude in the stillness. Making that list of 1,000 Gifts to be thankful for feels forced and corny in the beginning. Later it becomes a lifestyle that enriches awareness and has the potential to bloom into gratitude. Help me be still and open my eyes and ears to thanks and gratitude.

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Posted on in Amazing Creations, Memories, Nature

Wind Chill 17

This morning the wind chill was 17 degrees. That is just plain COLD.

As the first salt truck of the year goes down our street, I thought it might be fun to show you the photos I took on our favorite walk last September. Enjoy! and remember seasons change. This weather, too , will pass.

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View from above Harsha Lake, better known around here as East Fork.

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Posted on in Amazing Creations, Faith, Nature, Traveling

Rocks and Your Voice

Luke 19:35-40 (HCSB) Then they brought it (the donkey) to Jesus, and after throwing their robes on the donkey, they helped Jesus get on it. As He was going along, they were spreading their robes on the road. Now He came near the path down the Mount of Olives, and the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles they had seen: “The King who comes in the name of the Lord is the blessed One. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heaven!”  Some of the Pharisees from the crowd told Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if they were to keep silent, the stones would cry out!”

They obeyed by finding the donkey for him. They helped him get on it.

I saw this in South Dakota.

Cathedral spires and He said “if they were to keep silent, the stones would cry out.” Can you see the man in the right photo above, just waiting to cry out to God in praise? I saw him.

This was by far my favorite though! I see a stately woman in  an evergreeen gown with a turban-like head dress, waiting in prayer and praise before the Lord. Like His handmaiden.stones-cry-1.jpg

Have to wonder if Jesus remembered later when He prayed in the Garden that “as they came near the path down the Mount of Olives the whole crowd had been praising God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles they had seen God do.” He knew abandonment and sorrow. I believe we can bring Him joy by praising and crying out to Him with joy now!

Hope you will listen to this song all the way through. When I play it I want to just sing it over and over!

One less stone, one more voice to praise Him!

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Nature

Autumn!!

It is SO difficult to capture a photo of falling leaves! There is one upper left!

The drama of autumn has been happening very rapidly here. Just thought I’d share the changes.

Loved waking up to this flaming tree in the distance!

Same trees less than one week later!

This morning some leaves were falling one by one. Then a gust of wind took bunches at a time. The back hill is mostly naked tree trunks now. We can see more activity with the birds who remain. The grandeur of watching the seasons change that hill is one reason I delight in this house. Our lot is pie shaped and the back hill is just natural woods. It is as if we have a different backyard four times a year!