“God never asks us to move backwards.
We are simply asked to grow.”
– Iyanla Vanzant
Photo & text credit: https://www.facebook.com/DrIyanlaVanzant/?fref=nf
Category Archives: Notes
1151. Cherish sunsets, wild creatures and wild places. Have a love affair with the wonder and beauty of the earth. ~Stewart Udall
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
Wowed! When was the last time you were wowed, really, really wowed? I love being wowed! I’ve always loved being wowed! And for awhile after becoming a grown up, I spent some hard years when I wasn’t wowed by much of anything! I was frequently overwhelmed but not wowed! Then I started a garden and now seldom does a day go by that I’m not wowed by something. And I know I’m an easy mark because I adore flowers and birds and butterflies and bees and sunsets and rain and oceans and such. Nevertheless, easy mark or not, I still maintain that the Lord has made incredible things and that they are meant to wow us! So don’t just look at my flowers; notice the colors, look at the shapes, and the amazing details like the pistils and the anthers.
Beauty is nature’s brag, and must be shown
in courts,
at feasts, and high solemnities,
where most
may wonder at the workmanship.
~John Milton
He who can no longer pause to wonder
and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead;
his eyes are closed.
~Albert Einstein
The point is that when I see a sunset
or a waterfall or something,
for a split second it’s so great,
because for a little bit I’m out of my brain,
and it’s got nothing to do with me.
I’m not trying to figure it out,
you know what I mean?
And I wonder if I can somehow find
a way to maintain that mind stillness.
~Chris Evans
Only those who look with the eyes of children
can lose themselves in the object of their wonder.
~Eberhard Arnold
He(God) performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted. ~Job 5:9 ✝
**All images taken recently by me in my yard.
The beginning of…
**Image via Pinterest; text box added by Natalie
“GOD USES THE BROKEN THINGS”
1150. Bees do have a smell, you know, and if they don’t they should, for their feet are dusted with spices from a million flowers. ~Ray Bradbury
How doth the little busy Bee
Improve each shining hour,
And gather honey all the day
From ev’ry op’ning flow’r!
~Isaac Watts
When I add a spoon of honey to my tea, I give thanks to a dozen bees for the work of their whole lives. When my finger sweeps the final drop of sweetness from the jar, I know we’ve enjoyed the nectar from over a million flowers. This is what honey is: the souls of flowers, a food to please the gods. Honeyeaters know that to have a joyful heart one must live life like the bees, sipping the sweet nectar from each moment as it blooms. And Life, like the world of honey, has its enchantments and stings…. ~Ingrid Goff-Maidoff
Eat honey, my son, for it is good; honey from the comb is sweet to your taste. ~Proverbs 24:13 ✝
II
**Images of bees nectaring on poppy and rose taken in my yard.
1149. If you want to be original just try being yourself because God has never made two people exactly alike. ~Bernard Meltzer
There is no intellectual or emotional
substitute for the authentic,
the original, the unique masterpiece.
~Paul Mellon
**Watercolor image found on Pinterest; text box added by Natalie
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago. ~Ephesians 2:10 ✝
1148. Being vulnerable is the only way to allow your heart to feel true pleasure. ~Bob Marley
To become whole
first let yourself be broken.
~Based on lines from
the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu
To love at all is to be vulnerable.
Love anything and your heart
will be wrung and possibly broken.
If you want to make sure of keeping
it intact you must give it to no one,
not even an animal.
Wrap it carefully round with hobbies
and little luxuries;
avoid all entanglements.
Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin
of your selfishness.
But in that casket, safe, dark,
motionless, airless, it will change.
It will not be broken;
it will become unbreakable,
impenetrable, irredeemable.
To love is to be vulnerable.
~C.S. Lewis
Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. ~James 1:12 ✝
**Watercolor image found on Pinterest
Coup
Taste and …
**Image found on Pinterest; text added by Natalie
1147. What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet. ~William Shakespeare
All the names I know from nurse:
Gardener’s garters, Shepherd’s purse,
Bachelor buttons, Lady’s smock,
And the Lady Hollyhock.
~Excerpt from a poem
by Robert Louis Stevenson
What’s in a flower’s name? Goodness knows!
Surely you all know some of them, I suppose.
I’ve heard some say a rose is a rose is a rose,
But is a lily a lily by any other name like the rose.
Some time ago I discovered that the answer is no,
For in my garden fair grow some that are not so.
There are daylilies and spider lilies and crinum lilies,
Basket lilies and blackberry lilies and asiatic lilies.
However, only one of those is true to its name.
Could you guess which one if this were a game?
Furthermore there’s even one “un-lily” that’s referred to by
Yet another name which is indeed just as false a lie.
Sometimes that particular one is called a Peruvian daffodil,
Like yellow “daffadowndillies” which define spring so well.
And then there is one more that’s not really a lily
Whose leafy spears resemble the iris; isn’t that just silly?
So though, by any other name they might “smell” as sweet,
Five of these names in the true lily family shall we not meet.
~Natalie Scarberry
“…rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” ~Excerpt from Luke 10:20 ✝
**Some images in the collages are mine; others were found on Pinterest. The groups of two in each category are of the same species and arranged in the order I mentioned them in my poem.
Sacred Touches 