Sometimes a picture says it all. No words needed. Grateful for the gifts of summer.
Enjoy the season!
Until Next Time,
Tag Archives: flowers
The Fragrance of His Notice
A canopy of white blossoms rise high above as I sweep the sidewalk. I’m sweaty. Aching from hours of yard work. Dirt blackens the space beneath my fingernails.
A gentle breeze, cool and fragrant, teases my hair, and I straighten. Pause.
Those blossoms smell how I imagine heaven. I let the scent, the stirring of air, refresh my body and my soul.
God’s gift.
Did He stir the branches?
Send the breeze, the fragrance?
On purpose?
This moment?
For me?
Or it is just how the Creator planned it out years ago. Scientific.
Maybe both.
Maybe God is big enough to have planned out my encounters with nature even before I was born. Maybe when He set his plans in motion, spoke the seed for this beautiful tree into existence, He had me in mind even then.
Doesn’t the first chapter of Ephesians support this way of thinking? This God who plans with me in mind?
I choose to believe this moment is personal. He SEES ME. Wants to bless me. To cover my aching, weary body and soul with His perfume.
I’m reading Ann VosKamp again. She quotes Erasmus, a contemporary of Luther, “A nail is driven out by another nail; habit is overcome by habit.”
She admits the struggle for gratitude. Like her, my writing of over 1,000 thanks sometimes felt juvenile. I didn’t know then I was driving out a nail by another nail. That I was practicing what it is like to live a life of moments embraced and noticed with thanksgiving before they march on, lost in time, pushing me to hurry without living.
That noticing the little things and giving thanks to the One teaches me to live with Him. Notice Him. Trust Him. Slow down and embrace Him as I delight in His gifts.
i still practice. Choosing to hammer gratitude. Trust. Faith. For my soul. My mental and spiritual health.
And for my body I hammer healthier choices. Salad. Walks. Water.
Sometimes I awake fearful again. And which nail do I pick up? I want to practice trust. To drive out unbelief with faith. To grow as one who walks in peace with the Father. Believing He is personal. He sees. Me.
Sometimes, like the last six weeks or so, I curl in a ball instead of walking. Gaining a few pounds from not choosing the nail of activity.
And maybe that was ok, this drawing into myself to grieve. This wintering.
As long as I come out.
And there’s nothing like spring to draw me from winter, tempting me with fragrant breezes.
Reminding me that He sees.
He sees me.
Extraordinary Ordinary
Life’s simple pleasures come in the ordinary, especially when someone is intentional about eking extra good out of what’s in front of them. (After my sniffling momma post on Wednesday, I’m thinking I need to embrace the joys of the good days, not just wallow in “those” days.)
Extraordinary happened for me the end of July when Sam played a double-header. Jerry didn’t have to work until later in the day and got to come to the first game.
While the boys warmed up, he took my hand and led me on an adventure.
The games were played at Chatfield High, which is in the greater SW Denver area, close to the foothills. Just a few steps behind the school lay a golf course, tennis courts, and a soccer field. But best of all was an untamed area, wilder than my treks through the neighborhood with foliage more desert plain than what I’d enjoyed in the mountains.
It sung its own song, and despite prickly flowers and dry earth, we found much beauty (and a tennis ball and two golf balls, but that’s another story.)
As usual, I was especially drawn to the yellows,
pinks, and purples.
But even the dry browns held a unique artistry.
Our walk was brief, but the long, repeated flights of stairs back to the ball field made me feel I’d earned my lunch.
Working movement into our day was only part of the importance of this snapshot of living. It was really about grabbing hold of a little bit of life, a fleeting moment that could just as easily have been lost as I sat bored, waiting for the next game to start.
Instead my hubby invited me on a mini-date. We admired God’s creation. We held hands. We were together. We saw something new.
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Grabbing Joy
I’ll let you in on a secret. I’ve prayed for joy for at least ten years, yet I’m still processing the concept.
During a particularly down day a few months ago my Dad told me, “Well, Baby Doll, the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
I have a very sweet Daddy, but at that moment his words felt hollow. I bit my tongue really hard to keep the snide remark from bursting out.
Of course joy comes from the Creator of joy–but how do I access joy? How do I push through the crap of life to grab hold of it? What is it, really? Happiness? Something deeper? Is it like peace or hope? Does it always include laughter?
After ten plus years of thinking and praying about joy, I’m still not sure I get it. But I have figured out a few things:
- Joy can be attached to circumstances
- Joy isn’t only from circumstances
- Joy can be a choice
- Joy can be a supernatural gift
- Choosing to be grateful brings joy
- Choosing to be hopeful, to trust in Someone bigger than I, supports joy
- Worry, fear, doubt, anger are enemies of joy
- Taking a walk and eeling the sunshine on my face brings me joy
- Bright colored flowers are my joy language
- The stillness of a moon-lit night seeps joy into my soul
- Physical well-being can support joy
- You can be joyful without physical well-being
- Loving people bring me joy
- I can find joy when I’m alone
- A bubbling stream reminds me of joy
- Grabbing hold of the simple pleasures of life supports joy
The list could go on forever, and I still wouldn’t define joy. But this I know. Soon after I asked God for joy He asked me to trust Him through the next season of my life which He assured me would include a lot of CRAP.
It wasn’t exactly the answer I wanted.
And the crap of life came. During that period sometimes I had joy, and sometimes I didn’t. But while I recognize that joy can be easier to recognize in the easy, happy times, it can also be found in the bad.
In the 
last few years of the trying season I took advice from the book, One Thousand Gifts, and recorded gratitude.
When negativity was especially tangible (or joy especially accessible), I’d grab colored sharpies and write on the basement walls everything I could think of to be grateful for. I’d remember that every good gift comes from the One who created the good gifts. And I would remind myself that He cares, and I am loved and noticed.
This week I hit #900 on that gratitude wall. It lists everything from statements like, “The boys did their chores!” to “petals making a fairy carpet on sidewalk” to “Everyone together at Dairy Queen!”
Read with a discerning eye you can chronicle the joy I’ve found in the weight loss journey–comments like, “learning to walk in the neighborhood by myself” or “I lost 20 pounds” or “Jerry said I’m ‘stunning!'”
Maybe the biggest thing I’m learning is how all-encompassing joy is. Joy comes from a million different places, but has One source, for every good gift comes from the Giver. The emotion of joy is more easily grasped when I choose joy in my mind, spirit, and body. It is supported by how I take care of my mind (paying attention to the thoughts I deal on), my spirit (connecting with God), and my body (the foods I eat, how much movement is in my day).
And finally, while I have some responsibility for my joy, it is always, always, always a gift from Love.
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Another Sidewalk . . . Uh Road
Who would’ve thought a simple neighborhood walk could be a slice of heaven?
Then again, when the neighborhood is in Breckenridge, CO, maybe you’d expect it. Since one of my new life pursuits is seeing the world one sidewalk at a time, I couldn’t wait to pound the pavement near the cabin where I stayed with my girl friends a few weeks ago. The trek didn’t disappoint. It was a road, not a sidewalk, but the views were incredible.
After 25 years in Colorado I can honestly say there is only one other time I’ve seen wildflowers as prolific as they were that week. And these pictures are in town, not even on the mountains trails.
Of course even in Breckenridge some yards are more cultivated.
Seeing the world on foot has many benefits. Your skin drinks in the sunshine, which includes vitamin D and helps fight depression. Your body is moving, burning calories and releasing endorphins. Your heart and lungs get a great workout–especially at elevation! And there’s plenty of time to chat with a good friend. The cars whiz by in a hurry, but you are enjoying life, breathing deeply, enjoying the little things.
You also never know when you might bump into someone else’s creativity.
The great thing about mountain living is a home worth several million can be right next to one where a man can park his dinosaur AND his tractor right by the front door.
My friends and I walked this route several times. Each one revealed something new. Only once did I return wet and cold. So cold, in fact, I couldn’t move my fingers.
I don’t know where the sidewalk might take you today, but I hope you slip away on your lunch hour or stroll your neighborhood as the sun is sinking. I hope you see something you haven’t noticed before– cool shadows from a skyscraper, a child selling lemonade, a beautiful flower, or the sunlight on leaves. As you walk, take a snapshot with your mind or with your phone. Then tell me about it. I’d love to hear what YOU discover as you burn calories one sidewalk at a time.
Burning calories one sidewalk at a time
If you’re considering walking, check out my friend Marie’s blog. She is the queen of exploring her world on foot and a real inspiration for me.
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