Happy New Year!

And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us:

and establish thou the work of our hands upon us;

yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.

(Psalm 90:17 KJV)

Autumn Beauty

Sunlight on Virginia Creeper

Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all.

- Stanley Horowitz

Made in Wisdom

Squirrel Nibbling on Mushroom

(Click to view full size.)

O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom you have made them all!

(Psalm 104:24)

Orchids and Light

Orchids in Different Light

The artist Evelyn Dunbar has said:

We are each gifted in a unique and important way. It is our privilege and our adventure to discover our own special light.

Your special light is not quite like anyone else's light.  When our particular light is a true light, it flows from and participates in the light of God. 

In an essay called, "The Light Within," the Quaker Thomas R. Kelly writes:

Eternity is at our hearts, pressing upon our time-torn lives, warming us with intimations of an astounding destiny, calling us home unto Itself. Yielding to these persuasions, gladly committing ourselves in body and soul, utterly and completely, to the Light Within, is the beginning of true life. It is a dynamic center, a creative Life that presses to birth within us. It is a Light Within that illumines the face of God and casts new shadows and new glories upon the human face. It is a seed stirring to life if we do not choke it. It is the Shekinah of the soul, the Presence in the midst. Here is the Slumbering Christ, stirring to be awakened, to become the soul we clothe in earthly form and action. And He is within us all.  (A Testament of Devotion)

Fractal Mandala

Mandala on Number Seven

(Fractal created with Mandelbulber, highly edited in PhotoShop)

I am departing from photography here to transform a Mandelbulber fractal into a sort of rose window mandala.  In the Bible the number seven (as in the seven petals of this rose window), is generally symbolic of completion. 

And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.  (Genesis 2:2-3)

For other mandalas, see:

"Urban Mandalas"

and on this blog, "Hubcap Mandalas."

Hawks in My Life

(Click to view full size.)

There have been hawks in my life the past couple of years.  This one was recently outside my window, sometimes watching me, sometimes ignoring me.  For others:

• Dignity and a Splashing Hawk 

• A Visitation of Hawks

O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom you have made them all!
(Psalm 104:24 )

Nighttime Interior

Playing with a simple interior scene...