Friday, April 30, 2010

evidence

A garden is evidence of faith. It links us with all the misty figures of the past who also planted and were nourished by the fruits of their planting.

Gladys Taber

Thursday, April 29, 2010

anticipation

One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides.

Captain W.E. Johns, The Passing Show: A Happy Book for Gardeners, 1939

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

opens

When hope is not pinned wriggling onto a shiny image or expectation, it sometimes floats forth and opens.

Anne Lamott

Monday, April 26, 2010

dirt

In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.

Margaret Atwood

Sunday, April 25, 2010

pleasant

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.

Anne Bradstreet

Saturday, April 24, 2010

poems

Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Friday, April 23, 2010

forget-me-nots

Silently, one by one, in the infinite meadows of Heaven, blossom the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Thursday, April 22, 2010

blossom

Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

fly

Oh how the little things
Strengthen my tiny wings
Help me to take on the world
When you love me there's nothing I wouldn't try
I might even fly

Sara Groves, Fly

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

see



















The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.

Dorothea Lange

Monday, April 19, 2010

twice



















with every burden I have carried
with every joy it's understood
life with you is half as hard
and twice as good

Sara Groves, Twice as Good

Sunday, April 18, 2010

vanishing



















Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again.

Henri Cartier Bresson

Saturday, April 17, 2010

express



















The camera always points both ways. In expressing the subject, you also express yourself.

Freeman Patterson

Friday, April 16, 2010

artwork



















All this beauty exists so you and I can see His glory, His artwork. It's like an invitation to worship Him, to know Him.

Donald Miller, To Own a Dragon: Reflections On Growing Up Without A Father

Thursday, April 15, 2010

dawn



















Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don't give up.

Anne Lamott

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

wholeness



















Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

Philippians 4:6-7, The Message

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

beauty



















Redemption comes in strange places, small spaces
Calling out the best of who we are

And I want to add to the beauty
To tell a better story
I want to shine with the light
That's burning up inside

Sara Groves, Add to the Beauty

Monday, April 12, 2010

nature



















The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature.

Anne Frank

Sunday, April 11, 2010

mystery


















I do not at all understand the mystery of grace - only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.

Anne Lamott

Saturday, April 10, 2010

friendship



















Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: What! You too? I thought I was the only one.

C.S. Lewis

Friday, April 09, 2010

wonder



















And wonder is that feeling we get when we let go of our silly answers, our mapped out rules that we want God to follow. I don't think there is any better worship than wonder.

Thursday, April 08, 2010

open



















standing at this waters edge
looking in at God's own heart
I've no idea where to begin
to swallow up the way things are

everything in me is drawing in
closing in around this pain
I will lay my heart wide open
like the surface of a lake
wide open like a lake

Sara Groves, Like a Lake

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

freshness



















Then followed that beautiful season... Summer....
Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape
Lay as if new created in all the freshness of childhood.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Tuesday, April 06, 2010

story



















We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the setting and the climax and the resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn't it?

Donald Miller, Through Painted Deserts: Light, God, and Beauty on the Open Road

Monday, April 05, 2010

soul



















I have a body, but I am a soul
I see a fraction, it's not the whole
I cannot prove it, but still I know
I have a body…I am a soul

Carolyn Arends, I Am A Soul

Sunday, April 04, 2010

unforced



















Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly.

Matthew 11:28-30, The Message

Saturday, April 03, 2010

lights



















Then one day I was walking along Tinker Creek thinking of nothing at all and I saw the tree with lights in it. I saw the backyard cedar where the mourning doves roost charged and transfigured, each cell buzzing with flame. I stood on the grass with the lights in it, grass that was wholly fire, utterly focussed and utterly dreamed. It was less like seeing than like being for the first time seen, knocked breathless by a powerful glance.

Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Friday, April 02, 2010

thirsty



















"Come!" say the Spirit and the Bride. Whoever hears, echo, "Come!" Is anyone thirsty? Come! All who will, come and drink, Drink freely of the Water of Life!

Revelation 22:17, The Message

Thursday, April 01, 2010

spent



















How we spend our days is how we spend our lives.

Annie Dillard
The Writing Life