The Cardinal

I heard a cardinal chirping in the morning and spotted him perched on the chain-linked fence separating the yard from the menacing-looking trailers next door. They, clearly ravaged by time and uncaring, stand in sick declaration of how lives gone off the rails might live.  I think they should be pulled away and burned, their land liberated from their oppression, but some are occupied and one in view through the privet sits empty.  The red-singing-glory sat on the fence, breaking my view of them and rousing a sense of awe in me.

Red-feathered-he had no prejudice of perch.  He lit on the fence much closer to the trailers than the cozy, sage house I was watching from.  

My God, your beauty is for us all.  It is found perching on the old and the new, the stigmatized and the glorified.  Beholding this scarlet-feathered-flame elevates us all. Your beauty and presence is for the reeking drug addicts, the demoralized among us who disgust with their behavior and waste, and it is for the sanitized, the rich, and the privileged.  It lights upon this green gable, the room in which I live, and offers the beauty of relationship, renewal,of communion and connection again and again in complete gentleness and humility.  You, God, have no prejudice while offering yourself to all.

Every Day...

Early in the morning, I gathered a basket of autumn up for inside the house.  Why should all of the free, fall decor be crunching under my boots? 



I loved them in the window.  My own little oak tree display. 

And I figured that since I did get up this morning, and since I had yet another full day with which to fill up, I may as well be intentional about the good parts, so I made a mental list.  I called it, 

"Things That Should be Done Everyday, if You are Me:

             1.  I should do something beautiful every day.  (leaves hanging in window)   2.  I should take time for a few photos.(...because that's just fun)

                  3.  Everyday, I will eat something from the garden, even if it is just a snippet.  

(.....because that's just exciting and, yes, plants grow there in December)  4.  Every day, I should spend a moment on creative ideas, whether planning or doing because that feels like living. (baking bread, arranging a vase with flowers or greenery, sketching or writing, or whatever)  5. Everyday, there is time for a walk. (walks are the best) 6. And last, but most exciting part that makes any day marvelous and must never be missed or else a desperate dullness will ensue over your day---at least I'm sure that is what would happen to mine;  I will visit that "Dreamy place that is ours and God's together". No day can measure up to much without Him being all rolled up in it! 

Not sure what this is, but it is hot and tastes like horse rashish! 

 And every day, I will treasure love in my heart. 

Today, I found a little blue card in some old things.  Inside it said, "I love you, Rosebud. Love, Mom."  My heart melted onto the floor and the card was promptly placed in the window where I can see it now, every day.   I, so, treasure the love.

Thanks, Mom. I love you, too.

All the best things seem to me to be the simplest things.

Thanks, Poppa (God), I love (heart) You, too.