I shall open my eyes and ears. Once every day I shall simply stare at a tree, a flower, a cloud, or a person. I shall not then be concerned at all to ask what they are but simply be glad that they are. I shall joyfully allow them the mystery of what C.S. Lewis calls their “divine, magical, terrifying and ecstatic” existence.
Clyde Kilby, “Ten Resolutions”
For Cee’s Flower of the Day challenge: “Don’t forget that my FOTD challenge accepts leaves and berries as well as flowers.“
Furry paws trudge on
Eyes upwards to silver trees
Light beckons homeward
For Joseph's 2021 Home Photo Challenge 2-13-2021
Nothing communicates the fullness of “autumn joy” like a fat, well-formed pumpkin waiting to be admired.
Swallow it up, ladies and gents, in pies, in meditations, in orange fury of sunshiny glow!
How grateful I am for pumpkins on this beautiful fall day! Thank you, Lord God of heaven and earth, for all things bright and beautiful!
Many, perhaps, from so simple a flower,
This little lesson may borrow,
Patient today, through its gloomiest hour,
We come out the brighter tomorrow.
H. F. Gould
For Cee's FOTD Challenge
Cee’s FOTD Challenge
Maybe it’s just that the camera angle caught it just right, but these viburnum leaves seem to form a perfect cross and mid-center, flowering buds. Can our daily crosses be thus, as roads to the heart of hope realized and yet to be realized? I suppose it’s all in where we place our faith, or rather in whom, the One who bore a cross for us and walks the cross-roads with us.
I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.
Psalm 16: 8
Cee’s FOTD Challenge
As if she needed a late afternoon shower to freshen her up, this tiny marigold emerges with golden pistils blazing, her scarlet gown lined with gold.
So too does hope emerge out of the dark clouds of the day.
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation
Psalm 42:5
I can’t see the stars
For too long.
They hurt my eyes with longing
For the unseen.
I can’t see the people
For too long.
They hurt my eyes with longing
For what could have been.
Long years built walls and ceilings
Dressed-up plaster neighbors
Who do not hurt or rob me
Arcana to surround me
Where blue skies cannot spurn.
But somewhere in the concrete
My hardened heart lies buried.
No tender arms will hold me
No twilight rays enfold me
In twinkling eyes of love
And I can’t see the stars.
word count: 94
written for Rochelle's Friday Fictioneers
click on Rochelle Wisoff-Fields's hand-drawing of the frog
for more tales of a hundred words or less.And join the fun!
How wonderful yellow is.
It stands for the sun.
Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
See more at Cee's Flower of the Day Challenge.
For Cee’s FOTD Challenge, a summer rose and a rosebud promise.
God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars. –Martin Luther
This Jolly Beggar 