MIST MONSTER

This is my fun in the fog on a thick December morning.

With the help of my tripod and the monster mittens I was wearing ...

we explored a once familiar world,

in a dense cloud that masked the present reality.

Through the eerie mist and haunted songs of unseen singers,

we crept along trails;

the veil of some ghostly bride.

The way, so obscure, I could not even see my feet!

I appeared to be floating on wood and shore,

as if flying through a dream in the night.

Eerie shadows loomed about me,

some curious, some foreboding,

yet each one beckoning me down a muffled corridor of spectral curiosity.

Exhilarating my senses,

the fog wrapped the world around me in a mysterious shroud.

Its wispy tendrils gripped me as I made my way, carefully along ...

a frightening thing to the faint hearted,

a kiss of greeting, to the adventurous soul.

My senses livened, and grew wings, 

taking flight into an unseen world of wonder.

The gloom became a playground for my imagination,

and with a little creative play,

I captured the spooky, kooky aura of an early winter morning.

What a blast!!!!  :)

 

 

AND YET ...

 

Sometimes we may feel empty and emotionally cracked;

And yet, in our brokenness,

 we can serve as a reservoir of nourishment to others.

Sometimes the storms of life seem to split us to the core;

And yet, in our brokenness,

we become a safe refuge for those seeking shelter.

Sometimes we may feel severed, fallen and all alone;

And yet, in our brokenness,

we find beauty from a whole new perspective.

Sometimes we may be feeling crippled and unbalanced;

And yet, in our brokenness,

with little leaps of faith, we can bravely carry on.

Sometimes we may feel ripped and left hanging;

And yet, in our brokenness,

we provide the support needed for another to grow.

Sometimes we may feel tattered and torn;

And yet, in our brokenness,

We become the inspiration another seeks.

Sometimes we may feel raw and exposed;

And yet, in our brokenness,

we become the material that helps shape another life.

Sometimes we may feel unuseful and cast aside;

And yet, in our brokenness,

we are still able to fill ourselves up with good things to share.

Sometimes the broken chards of our emotions feel sharp and painful;

And yet, in our brokenness,

The kiss of time softens the edges and smooths the heart.

We cannot always predict how life will go

and how things will turn out.

Life has its moments of joy and pain,

but one thing is certain,

there is purpose and a beauty in all things,

as all things are connected ...

And yet, in our brokenness...

SACRED BALANCE

To see a grasshopper is to see a reflection of myself.

It invites me to stop and take a closer look.

It teaches me the importance of searching my heart

and gaining a better understanding of what is required

of me and the courage to leap forward in the way I must go.

As I watch them peacefully feeding,

I know there is a plentiful food supply for them.

Watching them reminds me of sacred balance …

in taking only that which we need,

so that the abundance of all things

is available to everyone in a good way.

 

It invites me to look even closer,

beyond material abundance,

to see that I am giving of my heart and time

in a sacred and good way as well.

 

It reminds me to hold close to my heart and honor that which

is important to me and to try and see the beauty in all things.

And it cautions me...

 

It speaks to me of the devastation that can happen

when we allow ourselves to become unbalanced and

depleted. There can arise a swarming of the heart,

where in frenzied desperation we find ourselves

feeding on negative thoughts and feelings.

 

Grasshopper says let go of the negative energy and move on.

It encourages us to move through life in beauty and balance,

in a good and sacred way. This is what my heart tells me.

I see a grasshopper, and I smile.

WILDFLOWER SPIRITS

 

The spirit of the wildflower touches me.

It is able to endure where other flowers cannot.

It is able to grow and thrive

in most any environment.

In times of plenty or want, it manages to survive.

They continue to spread their beauty,

often in places where there are very few to acknowledge

or even appreciate them.

But their beauty still shines.

Unlike those with exceptional flowers

in prestigious gardens,

where attention and adoration flourishes,

the wildflower spirit peacefully exists without clamor or fanfare … but nonetheless never lacking in its own breath taking beauty and plentiful purpose.

 Often hidden away in obscure places with nothing to really draw attention to them, they speak the colorful language of hope to those who think themselves ordinary with nothing spectacular to offer.

In the hidden meadows, valleys and quiet places where the wildflowers thrive, there brims a fullness of life not noticeable to the busy world surrounding them.

They are a refuge, a shelter, a comfort to those who inhabit them. They provide nurturing and care to the small and fragile who depend upon them for their very survival. There is nothing ordinary about them. Their quiet nature may seem to keep  them hidden and even feeling overlooked , but in reality, a buzzing and busy place of wonder exists.

A colorful and fragrant garden is the wildflower spirit, offering hope and rest to what so much of the world has rejected and deemed unimportant.

They give freely, asking nothing in return.

They give fully, holding nothing of

themselves back to those who need them. 

They love unconditionally, and their fields are full of song.

They exist to make the lives of others a safe place and a haven. They take a quiet joy in seeing the lives they contribute to thrive and succeed. That is their own reward.

Blessed are the wildflower spirits, for their hearts know no boundaries and their love knows no limits. In their medicinal meadows of mercy, hope for others will always abound.

 

 

 

SOMETIMES BEAUTY HIDES

Sometimes beauty hides.

 

I am up before the sun most mornings, and enjoy sitting outside listening to the last of the  night songs and the early awakening of sweet morning sounds. I was sitting contemplating some recent  “ugliness” I had experienced when I  caught a glittering glimpse  of something hidden beneath a leaf. As the trees danced and sang their water songs (suggesting rain was soon to follow), I could see this particular leaf catching the moonlight and silently doing a dance of its own. 

 

I went to examine it more closely, and a small white moth was resting underneath the leaf, almost completely hidden from view. It’s beauty seemed to glow on the dark leaf in the moonlight. My heart leaped with joy at the discovery of this lovely moth.  In its quiet beauty and simplicity, it was absolutely stunning. As the trees had sung their water songs minutes before, I watched as the early morning mist gently kissed the moth, making it glisten all the more in the moonlight.

 

But no matter how hard I tried to photograph it, I could not. It was just too well hidden on a leaf against the house. I could not manage a picture of it without disturbing it. It had found a safe place to rest and I respected its space. So I went  inside, all the while thinking how some aspects of beauty, like this small moth, in its fragileness and delicateness,  may feel the need to hide to protect itself. And as I turned to close the door, still lost in contemplation, the moth was in complete view. The underside of the leaf was resting against the door window. So without disturbing the resting beauty, I managed to get a few pictures of it. And this encounter has touched me deep in my spirit and has me thinking about many things ...

For sometimes beauty does hide;

And one must view it from the inside in order to see it. 

 

****After Thoughts****

Just as I was about to close the door after taking pics of my hidden beauty through the beagle snot on the front door, I caught the glimpse of fluttering wings in the moonlight. I saw where it landed but could not see it. So I took some pics from where I saw it land and discovered another hidden beauty. :) ♥ ♥ ♥

 

This one blended in so nicely with the weathered wood on deck.

Was almost invisible without zoom on camera. :)

 

 

CARELESS CASTING?

 

I love discovering out of place things. While quietly admiring the turtles and ducks in the lotus pond, I looked up from where I was sitting and noticed a bobber high up on a tree branch, swingly gently and colorfully in the breeze, keeping time with the Red Winged Blackbird's song. Made me smile. Careless fisherman?? Maybe. But that is not what my heart saw. I thought about how often we have cast out our prayers, only to find the answers to them turn up in unexpected places. And how often we may even miss them, because we fail to notice them in a place we do not normally seek. I think of tangled up circumstances and in our searching, how Creator sometimes lovingly intercepts a prayer cast upon faith's waters and hangs them in a tree, so to speak, for the right person or situation or set of circumstances to come along to bring about the answers we seek. I think of how often we have also been the one to "bite" at the spiritual bobber we feel, and in our doing so, are able to help another who's prayers were cast out and waiting. Warms my heart. A humorous and colorful reminder of how important it is to stay alert and open and flexible. For the answers to our prayers, or someone else's,  may just be swaying in the breeze right above us.

 

LOVE IS A LIGHT

 

She comes most every morning. I look for her. Her favorite place to perch is atop a streetlight. Just that very fact alone intrigues me, and touches me in a deeper place. She spends most of her mornings here ... singing to her love, listening for him to answer back.

She naps in the morning sun and dreams, perhaps of the one she melodiously calls out to. Love is a light. It illuminates the heart. I guess that is what stirs me the most in her choice of perches ... cooing and singing songs of love to her mate from a source of light.

Like light, love casts away shadows and warms the heart. It gives us beautiful songs of adoration, hope and encouragement to coo into another's heart. Let us be a light ... and live, love and sing. :)

 



CAMPER SCAMPER

One of the things I always enjoyed about camping was being visited by the chipmunks. It was always a great joy seeing them scurry and scamper about the campsites.

 

Way too often I  got distracted from gathering firewood by following these delightful fur balls of energy wherever  they went. They had so much life, so full of energy as they scampered to and fro and up and down,  in and out and all about ... yet always seeming to return to the camp, where they knew they would be rewarded some tasty morsels left by a young girl who couldn’t resist being near them. 

I have spent a lot of time trying to keep up with these busy creatures.  They taught me the joy of discovery, as they left nothing unnoticed. Here and there and everywhere, these curious cuties  taught  me to appreciate with great detail the smaller things that were all about me. Their curious nature and abundant energy made learning a joyous game. Skipping and climbing, and running and jumping ... over rocks , through the trees, in the grass,  atop of picnic tables, below the bushes … it called to the inquisitive mind to follow and see things from a fresh perspective. It taught me that even the smallest discovery could be enjoyed in the greatest of detail.

Chipmunk invites us to take the time to playfully explore. It encourages us to amuse ourselves in the discovery, and so often rediscovery of simple things.

 

Even now when one busily crosses my path, my heart delights in the joyous invitation it brings to do the camper scamper, and follow it as it goes and see what wonder, together, we can find.

And who can really resist a good scamp through the camp? ;)

 

 

SOFTLY SPOKEN

May our words be soft,

Like the whisper and dance of a feather on the wind …

Touching lightly and sweetly,

As a kiss upon the soul, to those who will hear.