Dear Reader:
Intuitively I knew as I glanced at the fence from the back deck yesterday morning that I was probably seeing the last morning glory blooms for the season…a cold front is approaching with temperatures around the freezing mark at night…so the late fall flowers that have been holding on tenuously will probably ‘let go.’
The two different colored- morning glories (holding on to each other) as if for comfort touched me. Suddenly one story and observation by Archibald Rutledge (from his book Life’s Extras) came flowing back to me.
He had visited a neighbor’s cabin to see if he could help since the family was going through troubled times. On the way to the cabin Rutledge noticed that “the rhododendrons were in blossom.” He commented: “There may be a more beautiful flower, but I have not seen it…to look at this wondrous flower and not to feel that God exquisitely designed it with precision and nobility of purpose is to me incredible. “
When Rutledge entered the cabin carrying food and other provisions he noticed on the humble mantel a small bottle that functioned as a vase. Inside it was a sprig of rhododendron blossom. Rutledge politely commented on its beauty.
The young hostess looked back at him and said, “I don’t know why but to have it there helps me. It ‘minds me of God.’
Rutledge commented on this response (that he never forgot) by saying:
“I have always loved the eloquence of simple people. What they say, coming from the heart, often goes straight to the heart. ‘It minds me of God.’ I never see a rhododendron without remembering that, and are not all of life’s extras reminders of the love and the yearning compassion of God?”
How true…don’t we find God in the simplest things throughout our daily lives? I will never forget the sight yesterday of the two morning glories holding each other…knowing their time to bloom is coming to an end…but also knowing what beauty they have given me/everyone since early spring…a lifetime of beauty.
So until tomorrow…As we apply these words of wisdom to finding God in simplicity…let us keep this thought through Advent and Christmas…keeping it simple this year by putting God’s “presence over presents.”
“Today is my favorite day” Winnie the Pooh
Today I return to the Comprehensive Wound Center to see how my foot did this week without the Wound Vac machine..I am praying that the wound did well and I can return the machine…that would be a wonderful early Christmas present.
Some more photos of the back yard in its waning stages…there is so much beauty even in nature on the way out…one last glorious hurrah!
ichaseferalcats
John Turner
Legally Ohm
Becky Dingle
“There is beauty in simplicity” (one of my stamp sendtiments). So true even in Nature.
Yep…I gotta have one of thos blue morning glories and maybe a confederate rose too.
I love them both….and I know you would love them as much as I have…next year awaits with more beauty.
These flowers simply make me happy to be alive….a little tattered for wear…but still loving life.
I pray all is well and you can say goodbye to the machine. I am so thankful that God made us resilient and that we don’t get thrown away with the first breakdown. There were days in my cancer journey when I said to people, “If I was a horse, I would be shot and put out of my misery.” But, I was glad that was not the case when I finally was healed. So glad you are still your wonderful self even through this ordeal.
Thank goodness when we enter the valleys of sickness and poor health…we are surrounded by professionals whose lives exist in these valleys ….so much so that this is their normal and they soon convince us that the medical problem we are going through is normal too…and that is so reassuring.