Photos – This Jolly Beggar

Poetry in Prayer: An Elfchen #1

Blogger friend Richard introduced me to the Elfchen or Elevenie form, which is a German-inspired poem of eleven words in five lines, with 1, 2, 3, 4 words, then 1 word again for the fifth and last line.

LORD,

Help me

Be as Christ

Seeking You in prayer

Always

Then

Shall I

Walk with You

In trust, in communion

Eternal

Photos for Cee's FOTD challenge, November 20, 2021: Tulip Fields
Flower of the Day Challenge (FOTD): "Please feel free to post 
every day or when you you feel like it.  
Don’t forget that my FOTD challenge accepts 
gardens, leaves and berries as well as flowers."

Summer Green

When we went out on our back deck, this is what we used to see and hear:

the summer green Shenandoah Valley and the voice of nature calling out its praise to God.

Screen Shot 2020-07-22 at 1.45.38 PM

Joseph’s Home Photo Challenge

A Gang of Orchids

For Cee’s FOTD challenge, a consideration of how a gang of orchids manages to create a riot of colors right in front of your jaded eyes.

Nature Abstracted

Sometimes you turn away your gaze for a moment
the light too strong for your eyes
then look back and the world’s changed
into something sharper, more beautiful
something urgent and pressing
but sometimes into something indecipherable
that doesn’t belong in this time, this place
but to a sentient landscape
to a prehistoric race
who knew what they saw
and understanding,
took flight.

Continue reading “Nature Abstracted”

Nature’s Cold Designs

A good snowstorm was all it took to make clear nature’s cold designs. We were snug and warm indoors until it came time to shovel out from under all the snow.

And then to be greeted by a still to be cleared patio with inviting “snow seats,” perfectly designed by mother nature for pillowy softness. Did I say inviting? Only if you wanted to “freeze your buns off.” Brr.

#Cee's Odd Ball Photo Challenge

Santa in Civitas

Envision the perfect gathering, would you, of Christmas love and camaraderie spread profusely into every inch and corner of your assembly? Imagine, if you can, you as Santa clad in Christmas cheer greeting one and all in bubbly abandon and not a frown of discontent or “Bah, humbug!” encountered. I dare say it’s more likely that your perfect picture will give way to this: Santa in Civitas in the Aristotlean sense, that is, Santa in the ultimate natural community surrounded by the sweet, the rotten, the bittersweet, the sour, the tasteless and the cloying.