Surface Tension

 

I find surface tension—which is a simple phenomenon, I suppose, as far as scientific phenomena go—fascinating and beautiful. So when I saw the water in my teacup hovering above the rim, I took some pictures.

How great are your works, LORD!
How profound your designs!
A senseless person cannot know this;
a fool cannot comprehend.

(Psalm 92:6-7 NAB)

How Manifold Your Works

Pepper and Tomato on Ledge

You cause the grass to grow for the cattle,

and plants for people to use,
to bring forth food from the earth,

and wine to gladden the human heart,
oil to make the face shine,

and bread to strengthen the human heart.

O Lord, how manifold are your works!

(Psalm 104:14-15, 24) 

What Is It?

Things are not always what they seem.  This forest of twisty trees is actually a highly edited picture of the pith from a clementine.  

Here it is just as it was extracted from the center of the clementine, and after I had eaten the sections:

Normally we discard such objects without much thought (and I did throw this one in the garbage after photographing it).  When we look closely, though, things – and people – have their own beauty that we may miss if we look away too quickly. 

Blossoming with Egrets

Our large Southern Magnolia trees (Magnolia grandiflora) have been having a good year, decorated all over with magnificent white blossoms a foot wide.  But they sometimes seem to bloom with something else as well — with egrets. 

Here is part of a cattle egret flock that settled high in one of the magnolias:

(Click to view full size.)

New Year 2013

Last night close to midnight I went out on the second-floor porch to watch the fireworks.  Although fireworks here (the New Orleans area) are habitually shot from all over our neighborhood, last night's display surpassed any I had seen, including those celebrating the turning of the Millennium. We had been hearing them, and occasionally seeing them, since late afternoon.  But when the clock struck midnight they were nothing less than awe-inspiring.  

I didn't know where to look, because they came from everywhere except the lake--even blossoming almost over my head!  I could imagine the Second Coming or the end of the world being something like this, with Glory coming from all around.

May the year ahead live up to this display. 


(Needless to say, the photos do not do justice to the experience.)

(Click to view full size.)

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)

To See Heaven in a Wildflower

Dune Flower

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

William Blake, "Auguries of Innocence"

Sunlight on Dried Flowers in Pencil Holder

All Beautiful the March of Days

Florida Fall Leaves

Leaves are beginning to turn here in North Florida. They will not reach their peak until sometime in December — but note that by "peak" I'm not talking about New England color. The change of seasons is much more subtle here, and if we are not paying attention, the reds of fall can be overpowered by the green that is always with us.

Nevertheless, the leaves remind me of the hymn by Frances W. Wile that begins,

All beautiful the march of days, as seasons come and go;
The Hand that shaped the rose hath wrought the crystal of the snow...

Although it is highly unlikely that we will see "the crystal of the snow," our understated autumn still speaks of the loveliness of God, "from Whose unfathomed law the year in beauty flows."

Gift from a Dragonfly

Dragonfly on Lantana
(Click on photo to view full size.)

I saw this dragonfly land on a Lantana bush in the back yard and rushed inside for my camera, hoping he (or she?) would stay around. He let me take five pictures before flying off. I felt as if I had been given a precious gift.

Note that we are viewing the flower (the pink floret) through his diaphanous wing.

O Lord, how manifold are your works!
In wisdom you have made them all.
The earth is full of your creatures.
(Psalm 104:24)

Urban Art

Yellow Garden Shed

See also "Hubcap Mandalas" and "More Urban Mandalas."

Bouquet of Fabric Remnants

A Bouquet of Fabric Remnants
(Click photo to view full-sized)

Fill your world with bouquets! Look for the beauty around you and inside you. If you don't have hyacinths or roses, use what life provides.

Lavish in Detail

Yellow-crowned Night Heron by Intracoastal Waterway

If you click on the photo to view it full sized, you will see the intricacies of the heron's feathers. Then gaze on the edge and the patterns in the huge sycamore leaf which dwarfs the bicycle seat on which it is resting.

Dry Sycamore Leaf on Bicycle

Whether in a bird's feathers or a leaf or the double helix of DNA, nature is not parsimonious where detail is concerned.

Lord, how thy wonders are displayed,
where'er I turn my eye,
if I survey the ground I tread,
or gaze upon the sky!

Isaac Watts, "I Sing the Mighty Power of God"

How Lovely Is Your Dwelling!

Cybernun's new video features Brahms' "How Lovely Is Your Dwelling Place" (Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen), from his German Requiem.

How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts!
My soul longs, yea, faints for the courts of the Lord.
My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.
Happy are they who dwell in your house,
Ever singing your praise!
(Psalm 84:1-2,4)

Not only the temple, not only the churches are God's dwelling, but all of creation -- and each of us is also the dwelling place of God. "Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16). How lovely is God's dwelling place!

Winter Beauty

A north Florida winter has its own beauty, just as every season of life is beautiful in its own way. Here are two pictures taken on Paynes Prairie:

Paynes Prairie in Winter
(click photo to view full size)


November Tapestry

Earlier in the season, the Paynes Prairie vegetation created a rich tapestry.

For everything there is a season,
and a time for every matter under heaven.
(Ecclesiastes 3:1)

Beauty in Simple Things

These are photos of pipes, taken in the Cenacle Retreat House in Lake Ronkonkoma, New York. The house was built in 1926 and will soon make way to a smaller, greener, more efficient building. Although there are obvious beauties in the old building (the stained glass windows, the dark wood doors and moldings, for example), beauty may also be found where we least expect it—wherever we walk during this day, if we have eyes to see.

Granted, the loveliness of exposed pipes is open to discussion, but I suspect you will agree with me, if not that these are beautiful, at least that they are interesting.

In Radiant Beauty

Basket and Christmas Balls
(Click photo to view full-sized.)

"The Lord will dawn on you in radiant beauty."
(from the Liturgy of the Hours)

House of Many Colors

(Click on photo to view full-sized.)

I haven't been back to this house to see if the owners have chosen to go with a single color. I rather hope not. I am reminded of Joseph, beloved of his father.

Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colors. (Genesis 37:3 KJV)

Hubcap Mandalas

How delighted I was to discover a community garden in Gainesville, with vegetables, flowers, and art. Here are some photos of painted hubcaps, found objects which have become in this setting a contemporary form of mandala.

For a reflection on mandalas and more photos, visit Caught Up in God: Urban Mandalas.

Hyacinths

Hyacinths
(Click on photo to view full-sized.)

If of thy mortal goods thou art bereft,
And of thy store two loaves are left,
Sell one, and with the dole,
Buy hyacinths to feed thy soul.

- Saadi (medieval Persian poet)
You will find many versions and translations of this poem. This is the version I remember by heart.