Tag Archives: Purple

1365. When purple colored curtains mark the end of day, and heavenly shades of night are falling, it’s twilight time. ~Excerpted lines from a song written by Buck Ram, Morty Nevins, and Al Nevins

by

10

Screen Shot 2017-03-21 at 9.25.15 PM.png

Shadows creep stealthily across the lawn
Whilst night, unruffled, defies the dawn,
And the moon released from day’s embrace,
Smiling wakes up and shows his face
To this mystic world of the twilight hours.
~Excerpted lines from a poem
by 
Ernestine Northover

Screen Shot 2017-03-21 at 9.57.50 PM.png

Screen Shot 2017-03-21 at 9.54.34 PM.png
“Aaron must burn fragrant incense on the altar every morning when he tends the lamps. He must burn incense again when he lights the lamps at twilight so incense will burn regularly before the Lord for the generations to come…” ~Exodus 30:7-8  ✝

**Clematis photos taken by Natalie

***Image of poem by Mary Schofield found on the Internet

1247. September days have the warmth of summer in their briefer hours… ~Rowland E. Robinson

by

6

Suffering invites us to place our hurts in larger hands.
In Christ we see God suffering – for us.
And calling us to share in God’s
suffering love for a hurting world.
The small and even overpowering pains
of our lives are intimately connected
with the greater pains of Christ.
Our daily sorrows are anchored in a
greater sorrow and therefore a larger hope.
~Henri J.M. Nouwen

Screen Shot 2016-09-03 at 8.35.20 PM.png

As I grapple with summer’s still sweltering heat, I have to remind myself that humanity has observed adverse aberrations of nature millennium after millennium and that out of the chaos order eventually returns.  Author, Peter Saint-Andre, says  nature “can inspire, enlighten, send shivers up the spine, delight, anger, frighten; it can make one think, feel, shake one’s head in astonishment, cry, laugh out loud; it can evoke feelings of triumph, melancholy, light-heartedness, serenity, excitement, boredom, rightness, anxiety, joy, sorrow.”  And I agree with him on all counts but until some level of coolness settles, it is challenging for me to experience much excitement and serenity.  Only now when, in the midst of the feverish misery, the wild purple eryngo blooms does the melancholy begin to lift a little.

Even if He causes suffering, He will show compassion according to His abundant, faithful love. ~Lamentations 3:32  ✝

**Image taken by me along a country road in our area. These amethystine beauties can be found blooming  this time of year in fields ravaged by summer’s heat.

1239. Suddenly a bright surprise appeared, as just around the bend, stood a string of pearlescent, purple blossoms in the rising sun. ~Adapted lines from a poem by Alicia M Patti

by

10

A string of beautiful blossoms.
Purple blossoms.
Perky, purple blossoms at that.
A string of purple, roguchii blossoms.
Peerless and plentiful.
Provocative and phenomenal.
~Natalie Scarberry

Screen Shot 2016-08-26 at 7.55.21 PM.png

So shall we make a string of pearls
With the seeds of their purply glory
To honor God’s mercies
That are new every morning?
Endless mercies like:
Faithfulness
Steadfast Love
Forgiveness
Hope
Peace
Joy
And on and on they go!
Then afterwards why not
Give them to everyone
Because 
one size fits all.
~Natalie Scarberry

Because of the Lord’s faithful love we do not perish, for His mercies never end. They are new every morning… ~Lamentations 3:22-part of 23   ✝

1233. Of all God’s gifts to the sighted man, color is the holiest, the most divine… ~John Ruskin

by

12

There are not more than five primary colors,
yet in combination they produce
more hues than can ever been seen.
~Paul Klee

Screen Shot 2016-08-20 at 6.51.19 PM.png

We live, breath, and move on holy ground, and life’s experiences come to us by means of our God-given senses. Nature and its colors don’t just surround us like the walls of a house or a building; they move into our space and through our senses touching us in very discernible and meaningful ways.

The laws of color are unutterably beautiful
because they are not accidental.
~Vincent Van Gogh

Screen Shot 2016-08-20 at 6.41.21 PM.png

Terry T. Williams said that “All life is holy and daily prayers are delivered on the lips of (blue) breaking waves, the whispering of (green) grasses, and the shimmering of (autumn) leaves. I believe these prayers of which he spoke are real and meant to bring us into intimacy with the Lord, the singular and ancient author of the excellences we’ve been given like these beautiful rain lilies.

All the other colors are just colors,
but purple seems to have a soul?
When you look at it,
it’s looking back at you.
~Uniek Swain

Screen Shot 2016-08-20 at 6.47.40 PM.png

Nothing has life apart from God, and if we want to look for and find Him, we must start where He dwells and seek what He values. Colors, like these of the passionflower, as well as angelic hosts, miracles, and God’s grace, are the unmistakably visible and tangible elements emitted by Creation’s many sacred voices.

…for God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable. ~Romans 11:29  ✝

**All images taken by me in my yard but not all at the same time

1218. Flowers do not indulge in sentiment. They indulge in passion… Octave Mirbeau

by

6

Surely the flowers of a hundred springs
Are simply the souls of beautiful things!

Screen Shot 2016-08-05 at 6.56.27 PM.png

The poppies aflame with gold and red
Were the kisses of lovers in days that are fled.

Screen Shot 2016-08-05 at 6.13.40 PM.png

The purple pansies with dew-drops pearled
Were the rainbow dreams of a youngling world.

Screen Shot 2016-08-05 at 5.58.56 PM.png

The lily, white as a star apart,
Was the first pure prayer of a virgin heart.

Screen Shot 2016-08-05 at 6.37.32 PM.png

The daisies that dance and twinkle so
Were the laughter of children in long ago.

Screen Shot 2016-08-05 at 6.10.37 PM.png

The sweetness of all true friendship yet
Lives in the breath of the mignonette.

Screen Shot 2016-08-05 at 5.55.42 PM.png

To the white narcissus there must belong
The very delight of a maiden’s song.

Screen Shot 2016-08-05 at 6.04.12 PM.png

And the rose, all flowers of the earth above,
Was a perfect, rapturous thought of love.

Screen Shot 2016-08-05 at 6.10.18 PM.png

Oh! surely the blossoms of all the springs
Must be the souls of beautiful things.
~Lucy Maud Montgomery

My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms from the vineyards of En Gedi. ~Song of Songs 1:14  ✝

**All images via Pinterest; collage by Natalie

1154. The blousy, splendiferous hydrangeas are abloom and flourishing with life. ~Natalie Scarberry

by

8

Like the oak leaf hydrangea bud in May,
like squirrels that invade backyard  bird feeders
and like train whistles that echo in the hollow
rolling through white pines and serviceberry branches,
her trust, in the shape of soft smiles and morning kisses,
permeates his every breath.
~Edited lines in a poem written
by William A. Poppen

Screen Shot 2016-05-21 at 3.26.43 PM.png

Harmony followed Spring’s appearance
In the eternal bond of its adherence
Also came the birds and their choirs
And they too were dressed in spring’s attire
Bees covered the flowers, jasmine, the air
When fair was time and time was fair
Blissful daffodils, they bloomed in threes
Over by the hydrangea trees
In the tire swing, my feet brushed through clovers
For the Seraph’s peaceful weather had taken over
I danced in it; I loved the sweet jubilee
That made bloom the little hydrangea trees
The dandelions floated on the bottom of the sky
On days when ground squirrels forgot to be shy
And even butterflies came to enjoy the breeze
Fluttering beside the hydrangea trees
Their pink, blue, and purple blooms
Never appeared a minute to soon
They made life simple; they made life sweet
And so it is I’ve always admired the hydrangea trees
~Excerpted and edited lines from
a poem by Whitney Albright

Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. ~Romans 12:16  ✝

**One image via Pinterest; others via Pixabay; collage created by Natalie

1136. Each color lives by its mysterious life. ~Wassily Kandinsky

by

11

Mere color, unspoiled by meaning,
and unallied with definite form,
can speak to the soul
in a thousand different ways.
~Oscar Wilde

Screen Shot 2016-05-01 at 10.01.43 PM.png

Color… thinks by itself, independently
of the object it clothes.
~Charles Baudelaire

Screen Shot 2016-05-01 at 9.34.30 PM.png

Color, rather than shape,
is more closely related to emotion.
~David Katz

Screen Shot 2016-05-01 at 10.05.41 PM.png

Colour is, on the evidence of language alone,
very bound up with the feelings.
~Marion Milner

Screen Shot 2016-05-01 at 10.22.12 PM.png

Color is the language of the poets.
It is astonishingly lovely.
To speak it is a privilege.
~Keith Crown

Screen Shot 2016-05-01 at 9.55.50 PM.png

From the blue, purple and scarlet yarn they made woven garments for ministering in the sanctuary. ~Excerpt from Exodus 39:1  ✝

**All photos taken by me in my yard

1125. Flowers heal me. Clematis make me happy. I keep myself surrounded by it… ~Edited excerpt by Rebecca Wells

by

10

Screen Shot 2016-04-16 at 7.24.31 PM.png

Natalie, Natalie, oh so merry
How does your garden grow?
With a vine here, and another one there,
Of pretty clematis climbing on high.

Screen Shot 2016-04-16 at 7.50.26 PM.png

Clematis vine boasts vibrant hue,
now seeks acclaim for ocean’s blue,
and strives to catch the morning dew.
~Cona Adams

Screen Shot 2016-04-16 at 6.51.42 PM.png

If I had grown up in that house
I couldn’t have loved it more,
couldn’t have been more familiar with
the creak of the swing, or the pattern of the clematis
vines on the trellis, or the velvety swell of land
as it faded to gray on the horizon…The very
colors of the place had seeped into my blood.
~Donna Tartt

Screen Shot 2016-04-16 at 9.40.12 PM.png

On the warm stone walls, climbing roses
were just coming into bloom and
great twisted branches of honeysuckle and
clematis wrestled each other as they
tumbled up and over the top of the wall.
~Meg Rosoff

Screen Shot 2016-04-16 at 7.28.45 PM.png

Happiness is remembering my wild and lovely garden,
Arbors of white roses and purple clematis;
Pretty yellow daylilies and daffodils beside a rail fence,
Placing carefully flowers, I create a soul-soothing retreat.
In my beautiful garden all my old favorites grow,
No color does not have its place to welcome birds and butterflies;
Even wild flowers and vines, and kittens grow,
Seeding themselves the purple larkspur and rosy phlox;
Such beauty, O such beauty, had rested beneath the snow.
~Edited acrostic by Broken Wings

Screen Shot 2016-04-16 at 6.29.10 PM.png

Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. ~Psalm 37:4  ✝

1122. That we find a poppy beautiful means that we are less alone and that we are deeply inserted into existence than the course of a single life would lead us believe. ~Edited quote by John Berger

by

15

Flowers could be described as burst of colour,
pattern and infinite grace all governed by sacred geometry.
And so too are they perfectly woven into the fabric
of existence to brighten up our world.
~Cherie Roe Dirksen

Screen Shot 2016-04-13 at 7.38.35 PM.png

Today I witnessed the actual birth of a poppy. I saw the poppy push itself out of the shell, and then I watched the shell fall to the ground. The stem was trembling as it unfolded, and seeing that, I was reminded of times when I too trembled while attempting to do something courageous. I would be very afraid inside, but like the poppy, I would go ahead and do it anyway. It takes courage sometimes to come out of one’s shell and even more courage to actually bloom. Next I saw the flower begin to open, and watching it gradually unwinding itself was an amazing sight to behold. As I looked on, I thought to myself, “I wonder what it feels like to bloom?” Then a few moments later the poppy had completely opened, and there before my eyes was the most vivid, red-orange-colored flower I had ever seen. Because the poppy was so very beautiful and so radiantly alive, the sight of it brought great joy to my heart which I believe was its purpose. ~Edited excerpt from a passage by Veronica Hay

Screen Shot 2016-04-13 at 7.20.42 PM.png

Take that Poppy seed, for instance: it lies in your palm, the merest atom of matter, hardly visible, a speck, a pin’s point in bulk, but within it is imprisoned a spirit of beauty ineffable, which will break its bonds and emerge from the dark ground and blossom in a splendor so dazzling as to baffle all powers of description. ~Celia Thaxter

Screen Shot 2016-04-13 at 8.45.37 PM.png

How great is God–beyond our understanding! …stop and consider God’s wonders. The heavens are telling of the glory of God…~excerpts from Job 36:26, Job 37:14, and Psalm 19:1  ✝

1117. To rise above tree line is to go above thought, and after, the descent back into birdsong, bog orchids, willows, and firs is to sink into the preliterate parts of ourselves. ~Gretel Ehrlich

by

10

I was left alone there in the company of the orchids,
roses and violets, which, like people waiting beside you
who do not know you, preserved a silence which
their individuality as living things made all the more striking…
~Marcel Proust

Screen Shot 2016-04-08 at 9.14.32 PM.png

A Wild Orchid
We are all flowers in the garden of the world.
Some of us are daisies dainty and bright.
Some of us are poppies,with sweet contagious laughter.
If there was a flower for you,
You’d be a wild orchid,
So full of life, colors alive,
Sprinkled with scarlet and purple,
Explosions of colors racing through your petals.
~Lanie Costea

Screen Shot 2016-04-08 at 9.14.18 PM.png

Your lips are like a scarlet ribbon; your mouth is lovely… ~Excerpt from Song of Songs 4:3  ✝

**Images found on Pinterest