calling

when she showed me her garden
she showed me
her soul


If you are a gardener, never underestimate the power of your calling. (Whatever it is you do with passion, share it.) Thank you Dana for sharing your garden with me. The sudden sight of the poppies lifted me.

a special place

ireland?

scotland?

tuscany in spring?

no

just boring kansas

cradled here in the crux 

of fly over

country

*Driving past this scene on I 70 last week awakened in me the strong sense of “place” i’ve been given.

"the sense that comes from working in a place in all weathers, making a living from it, suffering from its catastrophes, loving its mornings or evenings or hot noons, valuing it for the profound investment of labor and feeling that you, your parents and grandparents, your all-but-unkonwn ancestors have put into it.  He is talking about the knowing that poets specialize in."  ~From The Art of Geography

I'm grateful to be connected to flyover country. 

gift

sometimes
one is allowed
to see

straight to the heart
of
mystery


"The heavens declare the glory of God and the skies proclaim His handiwork."
                                                                                   Psalm 19:1

seeing you (said to a flower)

how can it be

that i saw you

today

in the prime of your

gentleness

as though you were

sent for this very moment

to soften my senses

one blossom

among millions

"Do you know how there are moments when the world moves so slowly you can feel your bones shifting, your mind tumbling?  When you think that no matter what happens to you for the rest of your life, you will remember every last detail of that one minute forever?  ~Jodi Piccoult

kansas thunderstorms (or miracles made manifest)

it's been said
that they "roll in"
like ocean waves

and they do

but before that happens
there is sometimes
complete calm

one can almost hear
butterfly songs
cross the way

then, in the time it takes a field mouse
to blink his innocent eye

the wind picks up

clouds roll
to a distant rumble
lightening bursts bright
as rain pelts down
on a dry land

by and by
tis calm
again


       


"A thunder-storm--the eloquence of heaven,
When every cloud is from its slumber riven,
Who hath not paused beneath its hollow groan,
And felt Omnipotence around him thrown?"
           ~Robert Montgomery, from The Omnipresence of the Deity

reminded in the garden

there are always

those among us

(sometimes, we ourselves)

bruised

but beyond beautiful

splashes of purple

in a tangerine world

*Of course we all know the world isn’t really tangerine. But to those who are hurting it sometimes seems like they are alone. As we all learn to share more of our true selves the loneliness can lessen. 

"Impart as much as you can of your spiritual being to those who are on the road with you, and accept as something precious what comes back to you from them."  ~Albert Schweitzer

unexpected loss

like an sudden
thunderstorm

it's darkness
leaves us

tremble


"There is a sacredness in tears.  They are not the mark of weakness, but of power.  They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues.  They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love."  ~Washington Irving