One Today

radiatingblossom's avatarRadiating Blossom ~ Flowers & Words

One sun rose on us today, kindled over our shores,
peeking over the Smokies, greeting the faces
of the Great Lakes, spreading a simple truth
across the Great Plains, then charging across the Rockies.
One light, waking up rooftops, under each one, a story
told by our silent gestures moving behind windows.

My face, your face, millions of faces in morning’s mirrors,
each one yawning to life, crescendoing into our day:
pencil-yellow school buses, the rhythm of traffic lights,
fruit stands: apples, limes, and oranges arrayed like rainbows
begging our praise. Silver trucks heavy with oil or paper—
bricks or milk, teeming over highways alongside us,
on our way to clean tables, read ledgers, or save lives—
to teach geometry, or ring-up groceries as my mother did
for twenty years, so I could write this poem.

All of us as vital as the one light we move through,
the same…

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416. God bless America, land that I love. Stand beside her, and guide her through the night with a light from above. ~Irving Berlin

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Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men, and so it must be daily earned and refreshed – else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die.  ~Dwight D. Eisenhower

This, then, is the state of the union: free and restless, growing and full of hope.  So it was in the beginning.  So it shall always be, while God is willing, and we are strong enough to keep the faith.  ~Lyndon B. Johnson

There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.  ~William J. Clinton

O Lord, may we the people never take the gift of freedom for granted. May our hearts be filled with love, our souls with peace, and our lives with joy. May our prayers always be a chant of the humble and the grateful. May your hand of blessing always be over us, and may we praise and seek you in all things. In Jesus’ name!

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ~2 Corinthians 3:17   ✝

Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you save, you heal, you restore, and you reveal Your Father’s heart to us!  You have captured me with grace and I’m caught in Your infinite embrace!

 

 

415. In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary. ~Aaron Rose

Light gives of itself freely,
filling all available space.
It does not seek anything in return;
it asks not whether you are friend or foe.
It gives of itself
and is not thereby diminished.
~Michael Strassfeld

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It was day’s end, and the light had almost drained out of the day, but before the sun vanished, it filled a portion of one last cup with its splendor. This hibiscus had been perched atop its stem since first light, and now it was one of the fortunate “available spaces” to be kissed by the last light of day as well. The flower that had been a thing of great beauty all the live long day was a chalice to be blessed one last time by an essential piece of Creation, light.

For with you(God) is the fountain of life; in your light we see light. ~Psalm 36:9  ✝

Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you save, you heal, you restore, and you reveal Your Father’s heart to us! You have captured me with grace and I’m caught in Your infinite embrace! Like Saint Hildegard Lord, may I too be a feather on your holy breath and spread, like seeds, the gospel abroad.

414. Life’s enchanted cup sparkles near the brim. ~Lord Byron

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Life has loveliness to sell, all beautiful and splendid things, blue waves whitened on a cliff, soaring fire that sways and sings, and children’s faces looking up, holding wonder like a cup. ~Sara Teasdale

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The usefulness of the cup is in its emptiness. ~Bruce Lee

DSC_0033But tomorrow, dawn will come the way I picture her, barefoot and disheveled, standing outside my window in one of the fragile cotton dresses of summer offering a handful of birdsong and a cup of light. ~Edited quote by William Collins

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Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God’s handwriting – a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God fot is as a cup of blessing. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Something opens our wings. Something makes boredom and hurt disappear. Someone fills the cup in front of us; we taste only sacredness. ~Rumi

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Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. ~Psalm 23:5-6   ✝

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Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you save, you heal, you restore, and you reveal Your Father’s heart to us! You have captured me with grace and I’m caught in Your infinite embrace! Like Saint Hildegard Lord, may I too be a feather on your holy breath and spread, like seeds, the gospel abroad.

** Huge hugs and thanks to http://scottishmomus.wordpress.com/  for her help in making this post possible.  🙂

Once again Word Press has changed…

the way you publish a post.  And I cannot figure out how to insert my texts along with my photos now.  I don’t know why they feel compelled to execute these kinds of changes that make using their site so user unfriendly.  So until I hear from someone, I will not be publishing anything.  I pray that all of you have a good week.  Blessings, Natalie

 

413. 
When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other. ~Chinese Proverb

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Lilies–as tall as ourselves and more lovely,
and full of fragrance, and long orange tongues,
and those playthings the bees–stood in

a neighbor’s yard, a thick, ramping
hedge of them.  You could not help but see
that to be beautiful is also to be simple

and brief; is to rise up and be glorious, and then vanish;
is to be silent but as though a song was in you only it
hasn’t yet been heard…

~Excerpt from the poem, The Book, by Mary Oliver

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. ~Psalm 23:1  ✝