Category Archives: Notes

1357. Late February, and the air’s so balmy snowdrops and crocuses might be fooled into early blooming. ~Gail Mazur

by

8

It’s only approaching mid-February rather than late February hereabouts, and there are no crocuses yet nor snowdrops blooming for us, but it is balmy enough for the quinces, daffodils, and saucer magnolias to have been fooled into blooming.

Screen Shot 2017-02-12 at 2.41.26 PM.png

oft treacherous is
winter when it proffers not
cold nor snow nor ice

Screen Shot 2017-02-11 at 9.30.43 PM.png

But instead betrays
the garden with lies that spring
has indeed arrived

Screen Shot 2017-02-11 at 9.45.33 PM.png

So that daffodils
and quince and magnolias
flower too early

Screen Shot 2017-02-11 at 10.11.38 PM.png

Leaving them in great
peril from a forth coming
late wintry, hard freeze

Screen Shot 2017-02-11 at 9.36.26 PM.png

So who’s to say that
‘tis the month of love when
deceitfulness lurks

Screen Shot 2017-02-12 at 2.49.34 PM.png

But as for the Lord: … but I(God) will not take my love from him, not will I ever betray my faithfulness to him. I will not violate my covenant or alter why my lips have uttered. ~Psalm 89:33-34 ✝

**All photos taken by Natalie except for the first one. I found it on Pinterest today.

 

#FridayFantasy . . . Ah, what then?”

by

2

purpleraysblog's avatarPurplerays

16426195_1279013922147807_2158084070737944790_n-1

“What if you slept
And what if
In your sleep
You dreamed
And what if
In your dream
You went to heaven
And there plucked a strange and beautiful flower
And what if
When you awoke
You had that flower in you hand
Ah, what then?”

~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Artist~Daniel F. Gerhardt
Text & image source: Moonlight Serenade https://web.facebook.com/Moonlight-Serenade-228504310532112/

View original post

1356. The February sunshine steeps your boughs and tints the buds and swells the leaves within. ~William C. Bryant

by

9

yellow jasmine and
daffodils too have I seen
springtime harbingers

Screen Shot 2017-02-09 at 8.14.57 PM.png

poppy progeny
grows where seeds fell from dried pods
as summer drew nigh

Screen Shot 2017-02-09 at 8.20.04 PM.png

tulip foliage
as well as anemones
break ground ‘neath the oak

Screen Shot 2017-02-09 at 8.26.34 PM.png

new leaves appear on
roses that survived the first
hard, too early freeze

Screen Shot 2017-02-09 at 8.51.58 PM.png

This is what the Lord says to me: “I will remain quiet and will look on from my dwelling place, like shimmering heat in the sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat…” ~Excerpted passage from Isaiah 18:4  ✝

**All but two images taken by Natalie; collages created by Natalie; haikus written by Natalie

1355. I just kept thinking, if I don’t do something, who will? ~Matthew West

by

17

I am only one, but I am one.
I cannot do everything,
but I can do something.
And I will not let what I cannot 
do
interfere with what I can do.
~Edward Everett Hale

Screen Shot 2017-02-07 at 7.57.09 PM.png

I woke up this morning
Saw a world full of trouble now
Thought, how’d we ever get so far down
How’s it ever gonna turn around
So I turned my eyes to Heaven
I thought, “God, why don’t You do something?”
Well, I just couldn’t bear the thought of
People living in poverty
Children sold into slavery
The thought disgusted me
So, I shook my fist at Heaven
Said, “God, why don’t You do something?”
He said, “I did, I created you”
~Excerpted lines from a song
by Matthew West

Screen Shot 2017-02-07 at 7.58.09 PM.png

While in the car today, I heard this song again and thought to myself how relevant it was and still is in these troubling times. Going to church to worship and praise God once or twice a week is not nearly enough to fulfill our purpose and obligation to the loving God we worship. We have been given that we might give, and we are called on to be His church whenever and wherever we are. In so doing we become the light and hope of a fallen and hurting world. Anybody with an eye to see and an ear to hear knows that all around each and every one of us are people who are suffering, people who are poor, people who are hungry, people who are thirsty, people who are abused, people who are broken. people who need love and encouragement and on and on the list goes. And for all of them far more has to be done than the preaching of a sermon. That’s why we, each one of us, have to let our actions be a message and/or an act of merciful grace to and for others. We must let God use the gifts and talents He gave us to bless those in need. That is the true way of a miracle worker. One random act of kindness a day can change 365 lives every year. And when the right words can’t be found, just a smile and a kind word will sometimes do for they too can be the stuff of miracles. And if you are in need or feeling down, go be a blessing to someone else and you’ll find that the blessing, like a boom-a-rang, comes right back to you. Smiles and kindness costs the giver nothing but their impact is beyond measure, and like a pebble thrown in a pond they reach out in ever-widening circles!

You(God) enlarge my steps under me, and my feet have not slipped. ~Psalm 18:36 ✝

**All images via Pinterest; collage by Natalie