To Pause... To Reflect... To Renew

 Welcome to another Spiritual Journey post. This month is hosted by Carol Varsalona, who challenged us to Pause to Reflect and consider the worth and meaning of Pausing in our lives.  Find Carol's entry and links to others in the group HERE>  Thank you, Carol!

This is a quiet time for me. I have a month's pause from several of my usual activities, and I have been resting, reading, gardening and visiting family and friends. I'm grateful for this time. Pausing allows me to take in more of the wonder and beauty that the world offers. So often our eyes are blinded by our own thoughts, plans, and expectations. We forget to pause and really take it all in.

The other day my husband went out to start sprinklers on our lawn. When he came in we exchanged a few words and I barely glanced at him. When I looked more carefully, I noticed he had water splotched all over his shirt. I had completely missed it at first and I realized I had not paused to focus. We had a little laugh over his "shower," a bit of fun I would have missed had I not paused. 

How often do we pause to look a person in the eye, read their expressions, appreciate their beauty? How often do we pause to allow the world to surprise us?

I was reminded of Snow Geese by Mary Oliver, which seems an excellent example of pausing and reflecting.  Here are some quotes from it:

Snow Geese

by Mary Oliver

...

One fall day I heard
above me, and above the sting of the wind, a sound
I did not know, and my look shot upward; it was
a flock of snow geese, winging it
faster than the ones we usually see,
and, being the color of snow, catching the sun
so they were, in part at least, golden. I
held my breath
as we do
sometimes
to stop time
when something wonderful
has touched us

...

The geese
flew on,
I have never seen them again.
Maybe I will, someday, somewhere.
Maybe I won't.
It doesn't matter.
What matters
is that, when I saw them,
I saw them
as through the veil, secretly, joyfully, clearly.

Read the entire poem HERE.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we had the inclination and opportunity to pause and to reflect, to enjoy, to wonder and to be dazzled? How much more renewed and delighted we might be. How much more joyfully and clearly we might see the world.  I hope you will be so blessed.

A notice: Between software updates and my old computer, I can't add pictures to my blog today.  I'm disappointed and I apologize for the lack of color and interest. I hope to solve this issue!

Renewal

 Thanks to Fran Haley for hosting this month, and for providing the theme of Renewal for our consideration.  Find her post and links to others HERE.

We had our first hard frost last night, and this morning every twig and blade of grass is dressed in diamonds. In the realm of renewal, there is a cycle. This is the time of last harvest, a time to pull out the day lilies that didn't bloom and that I never liked, dig in some good compost, and let the garden rest over the winter. A fallow time. 

I love fall: the color change, the cooler days and brisk breezes. And this week, once again, the smell of candle flame on pumpkin flesh. I do love it. But over time, seasons offer new perspectives. We change, and our expectations change with them.  I don't jump into piles of leaves anymore. I gave that up years ago. I do like raking leaves: fresh air, crisp leaves crunching underfoot and the rake scritching music in my ears. Raking, I tell myself, is good exercise. 

Still, as I raked yesterday, I began to think a new thought. Raking is beginning to hurt my arthritic hands. Do I really need to do it? Maybe I could get someone to do it for me? Maybe I could give up my quiet protest against leaf blowers? Maybe I could be less stubborn? 

Maybe I'm giving in, but I'm calling it renewal. Each day is a gift, and with it comes change and the challenge of dealing with that change. I will probably resist for another season, but sooner or later I will have to accept changes. When I do, I'll call it healthy renewal.

For me, renewal is an aspect of our beings that points to the image of God. Our bodies aren't static, instead they constantly renew themselves. We have the capacity to learn and create. The patterns of nature give us a blueprint of renewal. Each drink of water and slice of bread renews us. Songs and stories renew us. Wind in the face renews us.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made... Psalm 139:14

Mary Oliver asks us, in the last line of her wonderful poem The Summer Day:  Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

I plan to keep writing, and reading, and trying to figure out what God is telling me. I plan to keep working on renewal. 

A Time of Blooms

 Happy Friday. It has been a crazy busy time here, and I've missed several Fridays. Alas!  I must make amends. And so, just to get my foot back in the door, I am posting some blooms from my garden, and some poetry to go with them.  Enjoy.

The poem I've chosen for this iris speaks to me of the May garden, which blooms gloriously and then is gone.  I wait all year for this...

Snow Geese

by Mary Oliver

Oh, to love what is lovely, and will not last!

What a task

to ask

of anything, or anyone,

yet it is ours,

and not by the century or the year, but by the hours.

Read the rest of Snow Geese HERE.

The peonies too, unfold their tight fists now with such elegance. Another of Mary Oliver's poems reminds me of this peony, her poem titled Swan, which speaks of "a perfect commotion of silk and linen."  You can read it HERE.

The peonies seem to demand some Japanese poetry... three haikus:

a rice bowl
filled to the brim
one peony
~ Buson

Dear, dear,

What a fat, happy face it has,

This peony!

– Issa

a bee

staggers out

of the peony

~Basho

My garden is doing well so far. I have hopes of peas soon, and salad turnips. More poems in the offing.

Poetry Friday is hosted this week by Patricia Franz at Reverie.  Don't miss her celebration of 40 years of marriage which includes a Doobie Brothers poem. Thanks, Patricia!

Summer Spiritual Journey: Time to Be Still

I'm a lake lover. I love to canoe and watch the wildlife along the shore. Before we had children, my hubby and I would go into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in northern Minnesota, camping, portaging and canoeing. I still love lake time, but the days of sleeping in a tent on a 1/2 inch pad, and portaging with a Duluth pack on my back, are over.  Now, when I get the chance, a cabin on a lake is the way to go.  

Sometimes we can finagle the whole family to join us for lake time... then we do some hiking, canoeing, exploring. Here are some bits of natural beauty that we found one day. It was fun to gather and arrange, and then put it all back into the woods. Later we had campfire, walked out on the dock and looked at the Milky Way. It is a memory I cherish.

Collection from a hike in the Adirondacks, 2018

The time spent quietly in nature fills my heart and soul. There is no pressure to be on a schedule, to look a certain way, or to perform a task. No traffic snarls. There is just calm and beauty. For me, lake time is time to "Be still and know that I am God."   - Psalm 46:10

The water was cool in September...

For me, a good lake vacation includes loons. I love their magnificent ruby eyes, their elegant tuxedoed bodies, their dignified profile. But most of all I love their eerie calls. I have heard them in the northern lakes in the fall, calling back and forth, wildly raucous deep into the night. I'm convinced they know how to party. And it is sometimes said, in the north woods, that the loon's call signifies that all is well in the woods. 

When I'm on a lake, listening to loons, I do feel that all is well. 

Check out this wonderful website about loons:  www.loon.org

And don't miss the various calls of the loons   https://loon.org/the-call-of-the-loon/

Who can put this feeling to words better than Mary Oliver?  Here is the beginning and end of her Morning Poem... you can find the rest here.

Morning Poem  by Mary Oliver

Every morning
the world
is created.
Under the orange

sticks of the sun
the heaped
ashes of the night
turn into leaves again

and fasten themselves to the high branches ---
and the ponds appear
like black cloth
on which are painted islands

of summer lilies.

...

each pond with its blazing lilies
is a prayer heard and answered
lavishly,
every morning,

whether or not
you have ever dared to be happy,
whether or not
you have ever dared to pray.

***

I wish you the peace of summer, the joy of burbling water, and the sweetness of laughter.

Thanks to Carol Varsalona for hosting today's Spiritual Journey group and for creating and sharing the beautiful image above.  Join her at her blog for some beautiful summer gratitude, and follow the links to other bloggers in the group.

Good Gifts and Curveballs

Mid-year update: Life offers some amazing good gifts along with a few curveballs.

Two deer jumped over a neighbor's fence and walked between my house and Peter's house. In his front yard they stopped to look around, and I imagined them thinking, "We must have taken a wrong turn somewhere."  I'm aware that deer have been in my yard, but this was the first time I'd seen them... graceful and effortless in their movements... poised... calm...

I've been reading Mary Oliver. Her poetry is amazingly honest and straightforward, and her thirst for God is a inspiration to me. Here are two quotes I've marked from More Beautiful Than the Honey Locust Tree Are the Words of the Lord:

It's close to hopeless

for what I want to say the red-bird

has said already, and better, in a thousand trees.

Part 6

Instead I prayed, oh Lord, let me be something useful and unpretentious.
Even the chimney swift sings.
Part 7

                                - Mary Oliver in Thirst

Time, energy and a pain in my back radiating down my arm have challenged me lately. Curveballs. I will see my doctor tomorrow, hoping for some relief.

Two beautiful grandkids are coming to spend the week. Here's a photo of them a few years back.  We will read and paint and play games and sew and cook together. I'm praying for a grand week.

Halloween 2015

A big event is coming up for us. This year will be our 50th wedding anniversary, and our two sons are treating us to a week with everyone together. We are so blessed. Plans are laid to go to a dude ranch and spa in Wyoming. No cooking or clean-up for a week! A beautiful lake to canoe on and enjoy, horses for the kids, lovely scenery. Good gifts.
 

And....my irises have bloomed profusely this year! 

Every good and perfect gift is from above.  James 1:17

My best wishes and prayers for you and yours. Thanks to Ruth who is hosting today's group at There is No Such Thing as a God-forsaken town. This week as thrown her some curveballs also, yet she flourishes.