Holding onto Beauty

Favorite Friday Photos

Quote of the Day:  Two quotes by Robert Frost
Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting.

I never write except with a writing board. I've never had a table in my life. And I use all sorts of things. Write on the sole of my shoe.

The sole of my shoe, now THAT'S a unique place to journal! Here are a few more shots from my trip up North, beauty along the Pembina Gorge.

A Path

Lingering beauty as the Earth goes dormant.

Preparing for Winter

Stark Beauty

Watching the sun set.

Go. Create. Inspire!

Journaling Prompt:  Take some time this weekend to examine the simple beauty in your world. Take photos, write notes or a poem, create a setting, reflect, breath, paint, enjoy.

Sunshine and Sorrow

Quote of the Day:

Touched by An Angel

by Maya Angelou

We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.


Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.


We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love's light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.

A rose is a symbol of love. Its gorgeous shape and delicious smell draw us in.  And, yet, this beauty doesn't live forever, and its thorns tear the flesh.

We enjoyed a wonderful weekend, sunny skies, warm weather, time with friends, great conversation, and delicious food.  I finished reading the book I found on my trip West by Maya Angelou.  While I was enjoying all those things, my friend was deciding to take her four-year-old son off life support. We don't know why he stopped breathing in the night, why his brain swelled and caused so much damage, or why his days on this Earth were so short.  His brief life brought joy, love, and meaning.

God sends us sweet roses, loving friends, and magnificent sunrises to help us through the dark days.

The sunrise on the West Coast looked like this, the full moon still shining over the water, and the sun reflecting off the front of the waves. 

From Psalm 30, Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning. 

Journaling Prompt:  Write about your recent joys and sorrows.

A New Look

Quote of the Day:  Philippians 4:8 (The Message)

Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.

The Rose Gardens in Portland, OR give pleasure to all the senses.
 

They inspire creativity and offer moments of rest and peace, a place to breathe in beauty.

In the Shakespeare Garden, the woman in the background has her easel set up and is capturing this sight.

 
Walk slowly, breathe deeply, inhale the beauty all around you. It is our glimpse of Heaven.

Journaling Prompt: Describe something (or someone) beautiful in your life.

Water Molecule

Quote of the Day: The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers, and cities; but to know someone here and there who thinks and feels with us, and though distant, is close to us in spirit - this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden. - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

- We're like a molecule of water, ever moving in the cycle of life -

As a need for a starting point, let's say you are dropping from the sky in the form of a snowflake. You land on a frozen field in Minnesota. There you sit, in your frozen state, waiting for something to happen so that you can move on. In this case, the spring thaw. With the warm air and sunshine, you melt and flow together with all the other melted molecules of snow, now water, and become run-off into the big ditch. You're pulled by the slope of the earth into the Red River of the North, which runs the unique course of flowing north. If you think about maps and how North is at the top, it seems like this river defies gravity and flows up, not down. But, North it does indeed flow, into Canada, where it can get stuck for a while again, because it's colder the further north you go. The river feeds into Lake Winnipeg which is part of the Hudson Bay watershed. The Hudson Bay covers most of Northern Canada and meshes with the Arctic Ocean. Your destiny as this particular molecule seems to be cold. However, you could potentially become attached to a ship and sail with it to the Atlantic Ocean, work your way down the coast and settle somewhere off the Florida Keys. One can always remain hopeful. Still, you could get stuck again in an iceberg. You could spend years and years freezing and melting. You could evaporate and become cloud, blow with the wind and end up in some far-off country where you have to learn all over the shape of the land. And, find, that in the end, it was you, a single droplet of water, that gave life to an exotic flower that brightened a dark day for a girl with a heavy heart.

Did you know that no matter where the stream pulls you, no matter which direction the wind blows, no matter how many times you are frozen, you will thaw, you live on, and YOU create beauty in a world filled with darkness.

I often think of this hymn, My life flows on in endless song; above earth's lamentations, I catch the sweet, though far-off hymn that hails a new creation. No storm can shake my inmost calm while to that Rock I'm clinging. Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing?

May the waters of life flow in and through you, filling you up to overflowing so that when you're needed most, you will provide the nourishment to bring out the beauty in others.

Amen.

Journaling Prompt: Describe a time that you brought out the beauty and talents in another person and watched him or her shine.

Toes

Quote of the Day:

Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed me in my mother's womb.
I thank you, High God—you're breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I'd even lived one day.
- From Psalm 139, The Message Bible

Who likes feet? Some people are attracted to feet. Some are repelled. When I consider all my body parts, I don't list my feet on the "they look pretty good" side. They're really not that pretty. The size is fine, an 8, but I have hair on my big toe, and my baby toes are deformed. The pinky toe rests on the guy next to it who curls under the middle toe. You know the rhyme:

This little piggy went to market (that big one with the hair)

This little piggy stayed home (the normal looking one)

This little piggy had roast beef (middle guy)

This little piggy had none (the one hiding behind the roast beef eater)

This little piggy cried wee-wee-wee all the way home (because it had no muscle of its own and just lies on top of the hungry one)

I had a massage this week and the lovely spa people threw in a half price pedicure. I had one last summer, and it was time to file off the winter dry calluses on my heels. The massage was super. I told the gal that I liked the pressure firm to deep, but when she got to that sore and tense area between my shoulder blades, I had to tell her to ease up. She worked out some tight knots. There were times when I felt like the bread dough and her hands the rolling pin. I lift weights at a Group Power class at the YMCA, and I carry the weight of raising four boys and being single on my shoulders. She played ocean sounds while rubbing me down, and at times, her hands moved along my limbs with the sound of the waves. I'm a pianist, so I'll tell ya, the forearm and hand massage was fabulous.

Then, on to the pedicure. I often ask the spa gals about feet and try to get a feel for what they like, or don't, about their job. One sweet gal said, "I like doing pedicures because it helps people relax." I pointed out my crooked toes to another one. She said, "It's our imperfections that make us perfect. It's who we are." I thought that was profound. The young woman who rubbed my feet this week said, "Feet don't bother me. I'd rather give a pedicure than get one. My feet are too ticklish."

As you can see, I went with a wild purple polish this week. After all, I am a Minnesotan, and the Vikings are in the play-offs, and even though I'm not much of a football fan, I do live with four boys. One son is wearing a different Vikings shirt every day to school. At least, I think it's a different one. He's not above pulling an already-been-used one out of the dirty clothes pile!

We have a tendency to look at ourselves, often cringing, and criticise what we see as imperfect, aka ugly. Only the movie stars and super models are perfect, right? Or, are they? NO ONE is perfect. In fact, I think perfect is a dirty word. I'm trying to eliminate it from my vocabulary. We cannot be perfect in our actions, our bodies, our minds, our lives. We can only strive to do and be the best in any circumstance.

I rephrased a portion of that Psalm and wrote it on my mirror: You are beautifully and wonderfully made. - God

All of you - all your parts - lean or lumpy, hairy or smooth, tall or short, even or asymmetrical, are beautiful in their imperfections because they make you who you are.

A great book about body shapes is The Shape of Me and Other Stuff, by Dr. Seuss. To quote the end: Of all the shapes we MIGHT have been...I say "HOORAY for the shapes we're in!"

Journaling Prompt: What makes you beautiful and unique?