My drive into work I see a few loam farms and a horse farm close by. I see the sun rising and today was a nice sunny day but chilly.
On my way home sometimes I will see deer in the fields but also a beautiful sunset this time of year!
My son was driving me to a medical appt at daybreak this morning and the sunrise was so awesome. Multiple oranges, yellows and blues filled the early morning sky. It was awesome and inspiring.
Right now I see the glorious mountain ash in my front yard. That tree, and its many brothers and sisters, has brought me peace and comfort and joy since I was a little girl living in a very dysfunctional family.
It’s not nature, exactly, but when I get up in the wee hours of the morning to you-know-what (common among us oldsters) the neighbor’s glorious Christmas lights always make me smile.
I have just returned from my early morning walk down by the water. In this part of the world, we are in full summer heat swing. The air is a little thick with humidity. It is hard to gauge the heat in some ways as the breeze has a cooling touch on the skin. There is a cyclone about to cross the coast about 1,000 kilometers to the north, but even here there is a sense of the looming storm in the north. Bella (my Australian kelpie dog) is busy this morning sniffing here, sniffing there, giving that other white fluffy dog a wide berth (I wonder sometimes if she thinks it might be some sort of weird looking sheep and there is an internal battle with her herding instincts). All the while, I bring mindfully my steps in the early morning air and my prayer.
The wonders in the natural world I can see right now are just nature. Despite our minds and our lives, there is still a whole other world that exists that flourishes without our involvement. It is making me appreciate the specialization and specification of my life, my personality, my purpose, but also in respect of the divinity at play in my life and the live’s of others.
Having a later start to my day. I keep a bouquet of fresh flowers on my meditation altar. It’s become a really interesting aspect of the start to my day changing the water, trimming them and really savoring them. Until I started this practice. Recently, I would see flowers, and then stop seeing them after a few days. But this is just made me pause and smell the roses—quite literally.
Good morning. I am sitting in my meditation room where I can be found each morning giving thanks for the miracle of another day of life. I love gazing out the windows as I enjoy my first cup of coffee. I say “Buenos dias” to my lovely tree Esperanza. She is bare of leaves now but no less beautiful to me as she takes her long winter nap. There are small pockets of snow but almost all has melted under the strong Colorado sun. This morning the sky is like a grey blanket…no sign of Brother Sun today. I’m reminded of a beautiful Celtic prayer by Norman MacLeod that I discovered years ago. In it he praises Creator God for all Life and prays “show to us the Glory in the grey”. Have a peace-filled day all. 🙏
I can see the San Gabriel mountains with the morning sun on them, casting shadows on the low points, and sun illuminating the higher elevations. I see people’s ornamentals in their yards, birds getting active for the day, and the sun peeking from behind the clouds. There are yellows, blues, and pinks. Something about sunrise and sunset on mountains is so special to me. I wrote a poem about it recently:
Sunrise on the San Gabriel’s
The shadows in the valleys
Of the early morning light
Remind me of myself
And all that have been blessed with life
The light that shines upon the peak
Is me when I’m at my best
The shadows cast in the valleys
The parts of me that I love less
But those valleys and those peaks
Are each an equal part of me
Even if the darkness in that pit
Is hidden and unseen
Just as god sees the whole picture
When the sun rises and it sets
He sees the light and dark in me
Yet doesn’t love me any less
And if I could do the same for myself
And do the same for you
Maybe I’d see the real me
And it would help me see the real you
Maybe the space between you and I
Could shrink just a bit more
Perhaps we could quit slamming closed
And start opening some doors
So lovely and heartfelt Christopher! Thank you for sharing your gift with us.
I recently moved to Colorado from the East Coast and am in constant awe and gratitude for having the Rocky Mountains as my backdrop so late in my life journey. They are such an inspiration and speak to me of Divine Presence.
It’s still dark since we’re approaching the longest night of the year. I know I’m surrounded by things I’ll see when the sun rises. I’m living near water I can’t see because it’s so dark. Outside my window streetlamps are lighting the branches of tall evergreens from the underside. The cat and I have already greeted each other and I watched him stretch up to scratch three different posts–part of his greeting to the day in general (and he also knows he gets a tiny treat for using the posts instead of the furniture).
Yesterday when I went for a short walk in the nearby park I saw mossy trees with baby ferns growing far up their trunks, fat ducks on the shore and entering the cold gray waters of the saltwater inlet, one tree in particular with big branches pointing up from the lower central trunk that made it look almost like a large open hand reaching toward the sky, splashes of color from autumn leaves still clinging to branches, and one color splash in particular that at first I took for a big scarlet butterfly that stopped me in my tracks until I looked more closely and realized it was an illusion created by pairs of leaves. Beautiful. I’m lucky to live where I do.
The sunlight is strong, skies are blue with just a few clouds. A lot of stillness out there this morning. Fallen leaves moving slowly. A few squirrels checking out the area. Halfway through December, it could be otherwise! Blessings on the day, my Friends!
‘May your day be filled with unknown blessings and may you be surprised with joy.’ I love this. I learn from so many of you, even new and beautiful sayings to say to one another 🙂
I can see my wife, sitting across from me.
Her beauty and kind spirit are a wonder.
Our two cats are cleaning themselves and
wondering why we get up so early.
And I can see my hands, tapping away
in front of me. These 59yr old hands.
Charlie, when young I was always intrigued by old men’s hands. Now at 66 I have my own. Various scars that have their stories, a bit crooked and most definitely wrinkled. Now, I get to be intrigued by my own.
I am sitting in my bed surrounded by my dog, Clancy and cat, Nora. Finn, my other cat is running about. My husband is in the kitchen making a cup of coffee. As I sit here and look out my windows, I at first see just the brown of the leaves…since we live almost in a forest…there are an abundance of leaves. The grass is still green and for that I am thankful. Upon first glance …the sky is gray…but I see a speck of sun shining through the trees….YAY!! The sun will really brighten my day. It has been raining and gray here for several days. The trees are all bare in the forest now…setting in for the winter.
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My drive into work I see a few loam farms and a horse farm close by. I see the sun rising and today was a nice sunny day but chilly.
On my way home sometimes I will see deer in the fields but also a beautiful sunset this time of year!
It is a rare, sunny day in the Pacific Northwest. It was a joy to walk in nature today and not get wet!
My son was driving me to a medical appt at daybreak this morning and the sunrise was so awesome. Multiple oranges, yellows and blues filled the early morning sky. It was awesome and inspiring.
Always love me a good sunrise, Carol. Thank you.
Right now I see the glorious mountain ash in my front yard. That tree, and its many brothers and sisters, has brought me peace and comfort and joy since I was a little girl living in a very dysfunctional family.
It’s not nature, exactly, but when I get up in the wee hours of the morning to you-know-what (common among us oldsters) the neighbor’s glorious Christmas lights always make me smile.
I have just returned from my early morning walk down by the water. In this part of the world, we are in full summer heat swing. The air is a little thick with humidity. It is hard to gauge the heat in some ways as the breeze has a cooling touch on the skin. There is a cyclone about to cross the coast about 1,000 kilometers to the north, but even here there is a sense of the looming storm in the north. Bella (my Australian kelpie dog) is busy this morning sniffing here, sniffing there, giving that other white fluffy dog a wide berth (I wonder sometimes if she thinks it might be some sort of weird looking sheep and there is an internal battle with her herding instincts). All the while, I bring mindfully my steps in the early morning air and my prayer.
The wonders in the natural world I can see right now are just nature. Despite our minds and our lives, there is still a whole other world that exists that flourishes without our involvement. It is making me appreciate the specialization and specification of my life, my personality, my purpose, but also in respect of the divinity at play in my life and the live’s of others.
Having a later start to my day. I keep a bouquet of fresh flowers on my meditation altar. It’s become a really interesting aspect of the start to my day changing the water, trimming them and really savoring them. Until I started this practice. Recently, I would see flowers, and then stop seeing them after a few days. But this is just made me pause and smell the roses—quite literally.
Avril…I love rituals. And yours is such a beautiful one! Thank you for sharing it.
Good morning. I am sitting in my meditation room where I can be found each morning giving thanks for the miracle of another day of life. I love gazing out the windows as I enjoy my first cup of coffee. I say “Buenos dias” to my lovely tree Esperanza. She is bare of leaves now but no less beautiful to me as she takes her long winter nap. There are small pockets of snow but almost all has melted under the strong Colorado sun. This morning the sky is like a grey blanket…no sign of Brother Sun today. I’m reminded of a beautiful Celtic prayer by Norman MacLeod that I discovered years ago. In it he praises Creator God for all Life and prays “show to us the Glory in the grey”. Have a peace-filled day all. 🙏
I can see the San Gabriel mountains with the morning sun on them, casting shadows on the low points, and sun illuminating the higher elevations. I see people’s ornamentals in their yards, birds getting active for the day, and the sun peeking from behind the clouds. There are yellows, blues, and pinks. Something about sunrise and sunset on mountains is so special to me. I wrote a poem about it recently:
Sunrise on the San Gabriel’s
The shadows in the valleys
Of the early morning light
Remind me of myself
And all that have been blessed with life
The light that shines upon the peak
Is me when I’m at my best
The shadows cast in the valleys
The parts of me that I love less
But those valleys and those peaks
Are each an equal part of me
Even if the darkness in that pit
Is hidden and unseen
Just as god sees the whole picture
When the sun rises and it sets
He sees the light and dark in me
Yet doesn’t love me any less
And if I could do the same for myself
And do the same for you
Maybe I’d see the real me
And it would help me see the real you
Maybe the space between you and I
Could shrink just a bit more
Perhaps we could quit slamming closed
And start opening some doors
Thanks for your thoughtful poem.
So lovely and heartfelt Christopher! Thank you for sharing your gift with us.
I recently moved to Colorado from the East Coast and am in constant awe and gratitude for having the Rocky Mountains as my backdrop so late in my life journey. They are such an inspiration and speak to me of Divine Presence.
It’s still dark since we’re approaching the longest night of the year. I know I’m surrounded by things I’ll see when the sun rises. I’m living near water I can’t see because it’s so dark. Outside my window streetlamps are lighting the branches of tall evergreens from the underside. The cat and I have already greeted each other and I watched him stretch up to scratch three different posts–part of his greeting to the day in general (and he also knows he gets a tiny treat for using the posts instead of the furniture).
Yesterday when I went for a short walk in the nearby park I saw mossy trees with baby ferns growing far up their trunks, fat ducks on the shore and entering the cold gray waters of the saltwater inlet, one tree in particular with big branches pointing up from the lower central trunk that made it look almost like a large open hand reaching toward the sky, splashes of color from autumn leaves still clinging to branches, and one color splash in particular that at first I took for a big scarlet butterfly that stopped me in my tracks until I looked more closely and realized it was an illusion created by pairs of leaves. Beautiful. I’m lucky to live where I do.
The sunlight is strong, skies are blue with just a few clouds. A lot of stillness out there this morning. Fallen leaves moving slowly. A few squirrels checking out the area. Halfway through December, it could be otherwise! Blessings on the day, my Friends!
Good morning my dear friend. May your day be filled with unknown blessings and may you be surprised with joy.
Namaste 🙏
‘May your day be filled with unknown blessings and may you be surprised with joy.’ I love this. I learn from so many of you, even new and beautiful sayings to say to one another 🙂
I can see my wife, sitting across from me.
Her beauty and kind spirit are a wonder.
Our two cats are cleaning themselves and
wondering why we get up so early.
And I can see my hands, tapping away
in front of me. These 59yr old hands.
Charlie, when young I was always intrigued by old men’s hands. Now at 66 I have my own. Various scars that have their stories, a bit crooked and most definitely wrinkled. Now, I get to be intrigued by my own.
I am sitting in my bed surrounded by my dog, Clancy and cat, Nora. Finn, my other cat is running about. My husband is in the kitchen making a cup of coffee. As I sit here and look out my windows, I at first see just the brown of the leaves…since we live almost in a forest…there are an abundance of leaves. The grass is still green and for that I am thankful. Upon first glance …the sky is gray…but I see a speck of sun shining through the trees….YAY!! The sun will really brighten my day. It has been raining and gray here for several days. The trees are all bare in the forest now…setting in for the winter.
I see bare trees. The sun is shining and making the bare trees glisten. I see the wind moving the flags.
Yram….I cannot explain it but the bare trees of winter speak to me in a very special way.
The sun is beaming thru the pine trees at the front of our property, and there’s a glisten of diamonds on the grass which is frosty in the cold air.