Leaf by Elizabeth

Farewell, Christmas color week. This has been a blast! Thank you again to Annie for the wonderful idea.

Fortuitously enough for today's theme, there was a tiny bit of snow on the car this morning. :)

This day was especially fun- I love the vibrancy of red.

This is so fun. I'm loving the combination of seeking beauty and color.

A friend of mine is hosting a color week, where you post pictures each day with a different color theme. Here's the list: Monday- green; Tuesday- gold/yellow; Wednesday- red; Thursday- silver/white; Friday- plaid/stripes. I love this idea. Here are my contributions.

Just a month and a half (or so) until we meet our new little one. I thought I'd share this poem that I came across again recently; a friend had sent it to us before our first daughter was born. I especially love the ending. Upon Seeing an Ultrasound Photo of an Unborn Child by Thomas Lux Tadpole, it's not time yet to nag you about college (though I have some thoughts on that), baseball (ditto), or abstract principles. Enjoy your delicious, soupy womb-warmth, do some rolls and saults (it'll be too crowded soon), delight in your early dreams -- which no one will attempt to analyze. For now: may your toes blossom, your fingers lengthen, your sexual organs grow (too soon to tell which yet) sensitive, your teeth form their buds in their forming jawbone, your already booming heart expand (literally now, metaphorically later); O your spine, eyebrows, nape, knees, fibulae, lungs, lips... But your soul, dear child: I don't see it here, when does that come in, whence? Perhaps God

My deep thoughts are running a bit sparse lately, coming off of a 2-week cold and dealing with the new boundary-testing phase of our almost 3-yr old (we've been getting lots of shouted "no!"s with stamped feet, protests about every step of the bedtime routine, and I think she's laid down on the floor in almost every public place imaginable- bathroom, church lobby, library, parking lot, etc). So I will share with you some leaf pictures I took this past month. The trees are mostly bare already, but for a few weeks there was glorious color everywhere you turned.

I thought I'd give you a little tour of my desk area, where I keep a few fun things that help put a little glimmer into the occasional gloomy work day. I just recently discovered some of them in the basement (ah, the eternal Christmas that comes from still-unpacked boxes). Funnily enough, most of them are from my mom, who loves these sorts of things too. :) So starting at the bottom left corner, there's a paperweight from my alma mater; a Tanzanian carved letter opener; an intricately carved bookmark from our honeymoon; a very funky elephant tape dispenser (I forgot to put his trunk down- it's the green part); a pencil jar from North Africa; a "Love" stone from my mom; a rock with two intersecting white lines that I picked up on a hike once- it reminds me of the cross and of being connected to family even when we're geographically far apart; a card house from the "House of Cards" deck (more on that below); a white statue from Greece, a miniature set

So the subtitle for my blog was inspired by a comment a good friend of mine made when I was pregnant with our first. I was complaining about how I was so tired/sick all the time and didn't feel like I "had a life" and she replied, "well, right now you're nurturing the life within". That was so beautiful and encouraging for me to hear. I then adapted her comment to the purpose of this blog, with the idea that these posts on beauty/life/truth can nurture my inner (emotional, spiritual, intellectual, etc) life. And it has very much been doing so. However...the sudden drop in posting has been due to some literal inner-life nurturing that's been going on. Namely, I'm pregnant again! We're expecting our second (a girl) in January. The morning sickness for the first few months felt worse this time than before. Thankfully that's all faded away, and now I'm just plain tired. It's been a struggle for me to accept my limitations- that I need to

It has been a long time (way too long) since I've posted. There have been some interesting developments in my life recently which have played a role in this; I'll share about them soon. I've missed this blog and this part of my life, and apologize to my faithful readers- I hope to be more present here going forward. I've been reflecting recently about the mundane things I do every day. Or to be more accurate, the things I think about doing every day, and that sometimes get done. I can usually manage (barely) to do the basics (grocery shopping, cooking, washing dishes, laundry); then there are the things that bother me every day but that I will put off for weeks or even months (vacuuming, cleaning the bathroom, sweeping the kitchen floor, clearing junk off the dining room table). I like to be clean and to have food to eat (who doesn't?), but when I'm honest with myself, these chores are pretty much at the end of my priority list. If I have a choice between readi

"Above all, perhaps, I am indebted to a decidedly vegetative, often beautiful, and generally obscure group of marine animals, both for their intrinsic interest, and for the enjoyment I have had in searching for them." N.J. Berrill. 1955 Preface to "The Origin of Vertebrates"* That is one of the most wonderful acknowledgements/dedications that I've ever come across. I've decided, in a similar fashion, to dedicate this blog to an obscure group of beautiful ideas, both for their intrinsic interest, and for the enjoyment I hope to have in searching for them. *Note- I have no idea what group of marine animals he's referring to, though I'd love to find out- the picture is just one I took awhile back at the aquarium. :)

I did a little beauty-foraging out back the other day. I love the macro-focus setting on the camera. Now I just need to find out how to take nice pictures of big things! For this first one, just turn your head 90 degrees to the right (it's supposed to be horizontal, but I can't make it work!). These are little spores from moss.

I love how much beauty there is in the world, and how easy it is to find and take in. Mostly all you need to do is to stop and look. It reminds me of the excerpt of a poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees takes off his shoes. The rest sit by and pluck blackberries. Here are a few glimpses of some common bushes afire... Night sounds from the woods behind our house. I love the little tree frogs that chirp (or whatever the right word is for what they do) every evening starting in the spring. It's a very peaceful, summery sound. Brook music. I always think of brooks as friendly; I'm not sure why, but I do. And for the finale, mesmerizing sun ripples.

I've heard recently from a few friends of mine who have experienced loss or are facing the prospect of losing ones close to them. And I've had my own minor bouts of loss too, though nothing on that level (thankfully). I made this collage as a way to process one of my experiences of loss, and hope it might be an encouragement for others who are in this place. I think of the rock on the left as a "Jesus rock"- a safe, solid place where you can sit with Jesus as you process and heal. And below are the green pastures and quiet waters from Psalm 23.

(a dancer) Do you have any wild hopes, or tame ones for that matter? The possibility of acorns becoming towering oaks, or caterpillars blossoming into butterflies, or that dawn will chase away midnight fears? Wild hopes! That all creation will learn the dance of joy, and all humanity might taste the wine of peace, and that our loving God will become transparent through love. "Recast the earth, O Lord, and move our hearts with wild hopes." - From Resurrection to Pentecost by Robert F. Morneau I found this passage recently and love it. It speaks perfectly to this time of year; to the feeling of spring coming and the longing that we would experience Jesus coming to us in the same way. Almost every spring I re-read The Secret Garden . For the story, but also for the images of gardening, growth, transformation. I often have felt like those flowers, trying to push up in little points through the ground. It's a confusing time, wanting to be free and out in the open, but fearing

Over the past 5-10 years, I've been realizing that the way to my heart is not through black and white words. Don't get me wrong-- I love reading (always have), but I use it mostly for gathering information, learning about the world, or relaxing. All great things, but they generally don't involve my heart or emotions. And as I've had to learn (though this is probably obvious to most of you!), the heart is actually pretty important--vital, really--for relating to people, including God. The thing is, I grew up in a Christian protestant tradition (mainstream evengelical and then non-denominational- say that 5 times fast!) which emphasized reading (and studying and memorizing) the Bible as the main way to connect with God. These are all awesome things, but if the goal is nourishing a deep, emotionally-connected relationship with God, I would suggest they may not be the best tools for everyone (or at least, for me). And so that brings me to the world outside of words. Durin

Sometimes beauty is very close, nearly overwhelming in its rich presence. it lifts you in the wind stands boldly at your side ripples over you. Other times, beauty feels very, very far away. You know it is there, and that brings a limited comfort. But you are so inescapably on the ground, and it is soaring above you. You wish it would wrap around you like the softest down blanket, but all you feel is the cold wind on your outstretched hands. Where is the one who will walk beside me, on this dark road. I will keep reaching out my hand, waiting.

Ah! better far than this, to stray about Voluptuously through fields and rural walks, And ask no record of the hours, resigned To vacant musing, unreproved neglect Of all things, and deliberate holiday. William Wordsworth excerpt from The Prelude