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)

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

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.

Dandelion Reaching High

Dandelion and Clouds

The prayer of the humble pierces the clouds,
and it will not rest until it reaches its goal.
(Sirach 35:21)

Spring as Lent Begins

Dogwood and Spanish Moss
(Click to view full size photo.)

LENTEN FLOWERS

Primrose, anemone, bluebell, moss
Grow in the Kingdom of the Cross

And the ash-tree's purple bud
Dresses the spear that sheds his blood.

With the thorns that pierce his brow
Soft encircling petals grow

For in each flower the secret lies
Of the tree that crucifies.

Garden by the water clear
All must die who enter here!

- Kathleen Raine

Welcoming Spring

March Flowers at the Thomas Center
(Click photo to view full size.)

My beloved speaks and says to me:
"Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away;
for lo, the winter is past,
the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth,
the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.
The fig tree puts forth its figs,
and the vines are in blossom;
they give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away."

Song of Solomon 2:10-13