the loveliness is everywhere
even in the ugliest and most hostile environment
at the turning of a corner
in the eyes and on the lips of a stranger
in the emptiest areas where is no place for hope
and only death invites the heart
the loveliness is there
it emerges
incomprehensible
inexplicable
it rises in its own reality and what we must learn is
how to receive it~into ours
~Kenneth White

Ordinarily the rose in the photo is an exquisite beauty; in fact Belinda’s Dream is nearly perfect in color and form.  But Texas has been in the throes of its usual hot August nastiness and our temp here hit 106 yesterday; so this poor baby opened only to have a fair measure of her pretty petals fried before mid-afternoon.  Yet, she held so much of her beauty that I couldn’t resist taking a picture of her “non-standard” beauty.  How could I not when the strangeness of her heat-altered beauty was almost as alluring as the face she normaly presents in the garden.

One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.  ~Psalm 27:4  ✝