830. Morning glory is the best name, it always refreshes me to see it. ~Henry David Thoreau 

In the morning, everything is new.
The day’s blank slate lies before me, ready for my writing.
So I welcome this new day.
It is a gift to me, a new creation, a promise of resurrection.
I am thankful for being alive this morning.
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May I not miss beauty.
May I not miss joy.
May I not miss wonder.
May I make the world a better place this day.
~Both passages are excerpts
from Ceisiwr Serith
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Oh how I love vines; I love the way they climb; I love the way they twine around things, and so I’m thrilled as up, up, and up they go, these beautiful morning glories of mine! One of their best features is that the hotter it gets, the higher and faster they climb, and the higher they climb the more blooms they produce. Also morning glories come in a variety of colors, and the best part is that they all easily reseed themselves. That means I seldom have to start any new ones because Mother Nature does it for me. I do, however, occasionally try new varieties like the striped ones and the curlicue one you see. Although right now, because of the intense heat, my morning glories are only blooming in the mornings, as their name suggests, they will start staying open most of the day when it finally cools off sometime in September or October. Regardless of when they bloom or how long they stay, morning glories bless my day and among other things make me thankful for the gift of a new day. Thoreau may have been speaking of the glory of the morning in general, but these beauties can’t help but make the glory of the morning more spectacular.
**Give thanks in all circumstances, for this God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. ~1 Thessalonians 5:18  ✝

829. In every man’s heart there is a secret nerve that answers to the vibrations of beauty. ~Christopher Morley

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That breath you just took is a gift. The song of the birds you hear is a gift. The beauty your eyes behold is a gift. Beauty is all around us and it declares the existence of a holy Being. This exquisite flower, a hauntingly magnificent sunset or sunrise, the splendor of oceans or mountains–all these things were created to proclaim God’s presence in the world. And we are designed to be awed by nature’s beauty because it opens us up to the knowledge of the Lord’s holy Presence. It is a gift. It is a miracle. It is an invitation from the Maker of the universe to get to know Him on a very personal level and then to declare His Presence, His goodness, His grace, His love, His mercy to the world. Jesus loves you and He’s waiting today and every day for you to join Him in the Divine dance of life.

And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty: the whole earth is full of His glory.” ~Isaiah 6:3  ✝

828. …the sunny glow which brings it forth, soon slays with parching power. ~Alighieri Dante

…summer gathers up her robes of glory,
and like a dream of beauty glides away.
~Sarah Helen Power Whitman

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In Texas the fierce summer sun of August is not for sissies nor the faint of heart, be they plants or people. My great grandparents came here in a covered wagon from the east, and I’ve always said that had I been on that wagon and we had arrived in August, I would have either kept on going west or turned that wagon around and headed right back from whence we came.

For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant… ~Excerpt from James 1:11  ✝

**Image via Pinterest

827. The moon is at her full and riding high… ~William C. Bryant

As ancients saw, so do I
A throbbing light, a painted globe
Upon a pinpricked sparkled sky.
Suspended in the nothingness of black
Always there, poetic universal rhyme
Dangling upon an invisible track of time.
~justme

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The Moon was but a Chin of Gold
A Night or two ago—
And now she turns Her perfect Face
Upon the World below—
Her Forehead is of Amplest Blonde—
Her Cheek—a Beryl hewn—
Her Eye unto the Summer Dew
The likest I have known—
Her Bonnet is the Firmament—
The Universe—Her Shoe—
The Stars—the Trinkets at Her Belt—
Her Dimities—of Blue—
~Excerpted verses from a poem
by Emily Dickinson

The Eiffel Tower in the photo is blue, and there’s a “blue moon” in the sky tonight – but that doesn’t mean the lunar surface will turn indigo. Tonight’s (July 31) moon will be a gorgeous sight, but it won’t look different than any other full moon. The term Blue Moon has come to refer to the second full moon in a given month (since full moons come around about every 29 days, most months only contain one). So set your sights skyward tonight, but don’t expect a change in the moon’s regular hue.

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? ~Psalm 8:3-4  ✝

**Image via Pinterest

826. With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts. ~Eleanor Roosevelt

We live between the act of awakening
and the act of surrender.
Each morning, we awaken to the light
and the invitation to a new day 
in the world of time.
Each night, we surrender to the dark
to be taken to play in the world
of dreams where time is no more.
~John O’Donohue

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Every morning is a chance to forget
the pains of yesterday and to see
the changes a brand new day brings –
chances to dance and laugh again,
chances to make up for wrong things done.
Most of all, it’s God’s reminder
that He’s sending another blessing –
another chance at this thing called “LIFE.”
~Edited lines by Justice Cabral

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness, Lord. ~Lamentations 3:22-23  ✝

Oh Lord, lover of my soul, thank you for coming to dance with we again…

**Image via Pinterest

825. What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. All that we love deeply, becomes part of us. ~Helen Keller

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Thank you, Monsieur Monet, for all the beauty your art and gardens have created for your fellow man to enjoy. What you felt in your heart continues to touch our hearts.

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Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. ~1 Peter 3:4  ✝