Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. ~John 6:35 ✝
Tag Archives: Life
943. If you wish to know the Creator, come to know His creatures. ~Columbanus, Medieval Irish Monk
Out of the waters of God’s life
come the creatures of earth, sea, and sky.
With the birth of the creatures on the fifth day
there is the emergence of seeing, hearing,
smelling, tasting, and touching.
~J. Philip Newell
One of the keys to listening needs to be simply an appreciative attentiveness to God’s creatures. The Book of Job says, “Ask the animals, and they will teach you; the birds of the air, and they will tell you.” And to look to the animal world is not to look away from God; instead, it’s a way to look at a showing forth of the mystery of God. For it reveals something of the way of God’s seeing and sensing, and one can see as well that in Creation’s mysteries is part of the Christ mystery.
I’ve seen animals, such as the bird in the photo above, who seem to be bowing before the Creator in gratitude for life, for the day, for His continuing Presence here. There is also the unbroken song of the creatures. And in Revelation John envisaged an unending song of praise being sung by all that swims and flies and has motion. He said every creature on earth here below and in the ocean beneath and in the air above was giving glory to God, singing Holy, Holy, Holy. ~Both paragraphs contain directly quoted, paraphrased, and/or adapted random excerpts from THE BOOK OF CREATION by J. Philip Newell
Consider first the Canada Goose,
brown body, whitish breast
black head, long black neck…
Then there’s the Barnacle Goose…
flight note
a rapidly repeated gnuk
gnuk gnuk gnuk gnuk gnuk gnuk gnuk
(like an ecstatic Eskimo)…
The snow goose
has a pure white plumage
with black-tipped wings…
In Europe you might take her for a swan
or maybe a gannet
till she lets you know abruptly
she’s all goose
so
there they go
through the wind, the rain, the snow
wild spirits knowing
what they know
~Kenneth White
“But ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish in the sea inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.” ~Job 12:7-10 ✝
**Mike Bizeau posted the great photo of a bull elk on his blog, and I found the image of the bird with its head bowed on Pinterest
941. Freedom is the open window through which pours the sunlight of the human spirit and human dignity. ~Herbert Hoover
I will not follow you, little bird;
I will not follow you.
I would not breathe a word, little bird
To bring thee here anew.
For I love the free in thee, little bird,
The lure of freedom drew;
The light you fly toward, little bird,
I’ll fly with thee unto.
~Edited excerpt from a poem
by George William Russell
I awoke this morning by the Grace of God
in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
For that I am grateful Lord, and so today
I come to thank You as well as the women and men,
past and present, who have served and yet serve this great nation.
First was my sweet dad, Norman Franklin Holcomb, and
then are all those who like him sacrifice(d) life and limb
to stop those who would oppress our freedoms.
Thank all of you for keeping us free so we can enjoy
life and liberty as we chase our dreams in pursuit of happiness.
~Natalie Scarberry
Christ has liberated us to be free. Stand firm then and don’t submit again to the yoke of slavery. ~Galatians 5:1 ✝
**I created the collage with an old photo of my dad at boot camp and two images found on Pinterest
937. The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind. ~Albert Einstein
If you have a trust in and an expectation of your own solitude,
everything that you need to know will be revealed to you.
~John O’Donohue
Certain springs are tapped only when we are alone. Women need solitude in order to find again the true essence of themselves; that firm strand which will be the indispensable center of a whole web of human relationships. ~Anne Morrow Lindbergh
He(Jesus) said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a remote place and rest for a while.” ~Mark 6:31 ✝
**Image via Pinterest
932. How fair is a garden amid the trials and passions of existence. ~Benjamin Disraeli
To forget how to dig the earth and
to tend the soil is to forget ourselves.
~Mahatma Gandhi
There is something incredibly engaging and comforting about a garden, especially when one is surprised this late in the year by a find as lovely as this Heavenly Blue morning glory. However, even long after she’s gone when winter has plunged us into its “vale of grief,” there will yet be signs that point to primeval and sacred origins, ordained recurring seasons, and our connection to the Holy Breath of the Creator. But today it was the brilliance of the autumn morn, the splendor and blueness of the blossom, and a gentle breeze blowing in my face from time to time that prompted an awareness of the in and out movement of God’s life-giving breath in me as well as cognizance of a sacramental connection to Him. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a French philosopher and Jesuit priest, said, “There is a communion with God, and there is a communion with earth, and there is a communion with God through the earth.” Teilhard de Chardin contended that the more he devoted himself in some way to the interests of the earth the more he belonged to God. It is the same for me. Being close to the earth in my garden or taking photographs of its progeny and/or nature in general, is like being attached to an umbilical cord that keeps me forever tethered to the Divine Source of all life, and therefore through it comes the spiritual nourishment that feeds my hungry soul.
The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for He founded it on the seas and established it on the waters. ~Psalm 24:1-2 ✝
930. The spirits of the air live on the smells of fruit; and joy, with pinions light, roves round the gardens, or sits singing in the trees. ~William Blake
And November sad,—a psalm
Tender, trustful, full of balm,
Thou must breathe in spirits calm.
~Caroline May
I like spring, but it is too young. I like summer, but it is too proud. So I like best of all autumn, because its tone is mellower, its colours are richer, and it is tinged with a little sorrow. Its golden richness speaks not of the innocence of spring, nor the power of summer, but of the mellowness and kindly wisdom of approaching age. It knows the limitations of life and its content. ~Lin Yutang
I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit. ~Leviticus 26:4 ✝
**Image via Pinterest
926. Woe is me; what did I eat that made me feel so very, very bad?
Life can be like a roller coaster, they say.
You climb on and sometimes the hills are high.
And at other times they are low, but any of them can
Twist and turn and make you feel oh so puny.
Boy it must have been a heck of a twist and turn that got me on yesterday’s ride. Not only did I eat something that tore my stomach up, but as a result I didn’t sleep worth a darn last night. So it has been one of those yucky, rough days, my friends. I hope to be better and back up to snuff tomorrow. Love, Natalie
The human spirit can endure in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear? ~Proverbs 18:14 ✝
**Image via Pinterest
902. Come dance with me life and let me enjoy the seasons! ~Natalie Scarberry
Shall I dance among the flowers asked the butterflies?
Yes, replied the Lord of the dance!
Shall I dance as I fall asked autumn’s leaves?
Yes, replied the Lord of the dance!
Shall I soar o’er the waves of the sea asked the gulls?
Yes, replied the Lord of the dance!
Shall I sparkle in the night asked the stars?
Yes, replied the Lord of the dance!
Shall I bring light and warmth to the earth asked the sun?
Yes, replied the Lord of the dance!
Shall I dance in my cyclic waxing and waning asked the moon?
Yes, replied the Lord of the dance!
Shall I dance in the clouds to wet the soil asked the rain?
Yes, replied the Lord of the dance!
Shall I sing songs that lift the spirits of men asked the birds?
Yes, replied the Lord of the dance!
Will You shower my friends with love as they dance I asked?
Yes, replied the Lord of the dance!
O, Lover of my soul, will You dance with me again today I asked?
Yes, yes, yes, replied the Lord of the dance!
…a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance… ~Ecclesiastes 3:4 ✝
**Images found on Pinterest
898. Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born. ~Anaïs Nin
In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out.
It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being.
We should all be thankful for those people
who rekindle the inner spirit.
~Albert Schweitzer
Each day holds a surprise. But only if we expect it can we see, hear, or feel it when it comes to us. Let’s not be afraid to receive each day’s surprise, whether it comes to us as sorrow or as joy It will open a new place in our hearts, a place where we can welcome new friends and celebrate more fully our shared humanity. ~Henri Nouwen
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. ~Psalm 34:18 ✝
**Rose image via Pinterest
897. A garden must combine the poetic and the mysterious with a feeling of serenity and joy. ~Luis Barragan
The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed. ~Albert Einstein
By Einstein’s definition above, I’m not dead yet, for my eyes still open and I frequently stand wrapped in awe when I find amazing things like what you see in these photos. What caught my eye at first was the marker identifying the vine as a Dutchman’s Pipe whose flowers, it said, have an interesting and specialized pollination mechanism. Intrigued by that I read on to find that because they are quite aromatic, their strong scent attracts insects, and that the inner part of their perianth tube (or pipe stem) is covered with hairs that act as a fly trap. Once caught these hairs wither to release the fly who has been covered with pollen. That in and of itself was more than enough to wow me. But now after also having seen the strangely beautiful and mysterious flower and its seed pods, I can, with complete confidence, attest to the fact that my emotions are not yet strangers either. Once again the Lord’s amazing creativity and imagination have stopped me in my tracks and taken my breath away. Chronic pain may have long been my lot in life to bear, but I can do nothing less than continually praise the Lord and express my gratitude for unlike me there are so many people in the world who have little to nothing but misery, grief, suffering, and grievous iniquities dumped over and over again upon their plates. Such is why tears so often flood these eyes that yet allow me to see and emotions erupt that yet allow me to feel.
Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? ~Job 11:7 ✝
**Sadly with the recent debacle on computer that I shared with my readers, I’ve discovered that some of my photos are missing or in a black hole somewhere. So I had to use these that I found on Pinterest.
Sacred Touches 