Windy Morning Musings

 

It’s a windy morning, the trees are trying to get my attention

Waving their arms

come here

listen

Rustling their leaves

I hear them whispering

ssp ssp ssp ssp ssp…

What secrets do you have to tell?

 

Oh, I see…

it’s the wind that wishes to speak to me.

Yes wind, what is it?  I’m listening…

 

Ah, yes, please, of course

 

play with my hair

caress my skin

fill my lungs with breath

and my soul with life

 

I will dance and sway with the trees to your soundless symphony

 

And later I’ll go fly a kite

and my heart will fly too

on the wings of your refreshing embrace

 

© Julie Rehnelt 2015

Photography by Gable Denims

 

The wind always makes me feel so alive…

And I really am going to fly kites later.  🙂

 

 

✿~Peace & Love~✿

Always There

 

“Around us, life bursts with miracles – a glass of water, a ray of sunshine, a leaf, a caterpillar, a flower, laughter, raindrops.  If you live in awareness, it’s easy to see miracles everywhere.  Each human being is a multiplicity of miracles.  Eyes that see thousands of colors, shapes, and forms; ears that hear a bee flying, or a thunderclap; a brain that ponders a speck of dust as easily as the entire cosmos; a heart that beats in rhythm with the heartbeat of all beings.  When we are tired and feel discouraged by life’s daily struggles, we may not notice these miracles, but they are always there.”

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

 

~

 

I love this thought and resonate with it so much.  It’s a good reminder for me when I’m ‘tired and feel discouraged by life’s daily struggles.’

 

May you notice some of life’s miracles today.

 

 

✿~Peace & Love~✿

Being Peace

 

“If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can smile and blossom like a flower, and everyone in our family, our entire society, will benefit from our peace.”

                                                                                                    ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

 

~

 

Does it sound strange to say that I crave peace?  Like, isn’t ‘craving’ something in and of itself, sort of the complete opposite of being peaceful?  Leave it to me to be a contradiction.  😉

But I do – crave peace.  And I have peace, much of the time.  But sometimes life just heaps so much weight onto my shoulders, there’s so much required of me, so many things to do, so many people that need me, my knees begin to buckle under the strain, until finally, my strength gives out.  Splat, there I am sprawled out on the ground, I’m not any good to anyone like that am I?

I don’t do it on purpose, I just pick up things along the way.  And sometimes I let the people I love put things on me too, because they have needs and I want to help.  But the best way for me to truly help, is for me to first have peace within myself, because then I ‘can smile and blossom like a flower, and everyone in my family, my entire society, will benefit from my peace.’

And I know what I need to do to have that, I just get caught up in all the other stuff sometimes.  Well, that, and my erratic hormones.  Maybe it’s really balance that I crave.  😉

 

Wishing you a day of balance, a bit of what you crave, and lots of…

 

 

 

✿~Peace & Love~✿

Where Flowers Bloom

 

Whether in my garden or in my hand

on my skin or on the land

Whether growing wildly or in places planned

where flowers bloom, life feels grand

 

© Julie Rehnelt 2015

~

 

I had a sad thing happen in my veggie garden recently – I lost my beloved zucchini plant to a storm that came through the area during the night.  When I awoke the next morning I found my lovely zucchini plant all sprawled out and smashed down from the strong winds and heavy rain.  As I was clearing some of it away, I picked up one of the little zucchinis that had broken off that still had its bloom attached to the end, and my first thought was ‘poor thing will never have a chance to become what it was meant to be.’  But as I turned it around in my hand, I thought ‘how beautiful it still is, even after all the trauma it had endured during the storm,’ and I went and grabbed my camera to take a picture of it.  As I was snapping, I thought ‘there’s got to be a metaphor hiding here somewhere for me in this… there always is.’  😉

Maybe it’s to realize how brief and fragile life can be, and what a gift it is regardless of the circumstances, and to keep on blooming even through life’s storms.  Or maybe it’s to see and appreciate the beauty that is always all around us, even in devastation, if we make the effort or pause long enough to notice it.  It’s all about perspective, isn’t it?

I choose to perceive that life is beautiful.  Even if I don’t get to eat my own zucchini.  😉

I’m still trying to salvage part of the plant, but I don’t know if it will produce anything.  I did get a few zucchinis before the storm came, and for that I am grateful.

 

I hope you find things to be grateful for today too.  Keep blooming, my friends!

 

 

✿~Peace & Love~✿

To Be A Butterfly

 

How wonderful it must be to be a butterfly

floating gracefully on the soft, gentle breeze of a warm summer day

on beautiful, magnificent wings that are your own

Alighting on the colorful petals of hundreds of flowers in full bloom

and feasting on sweet, delicious nectar all day.

Ah yes, how wonderful it must be to be a butterfly…

 

© Julie Rehnelt 2015

~

 

 

✿~Peace & Love~✿

Thursday Thought… Let Us Love

 

Let us love one another, be a support and stand beside each other through all life’s growing pains.

For together, we can become a field of beauty, and help make this world a lovelier place…

© Julie Rehnelt 2015

 

 

 

✿~Peace & Love~✿

Let us Love by NeedToBreathe

Weekly Photo Challenge: Symbol

 

The color of sunshine

 in warm hues of gold

Black-eyed Susan

symbol of summer

 

© Julie Rehnelt 2015

I’d have to say that sunflowers are actually more of a true symbol of a summer flower to me, but those aren’t blooming here just yet, so Black-eyed Susans are the next best thing.  And after all… they are in the sunflower family.  ☼

And this side of the family is breeding abundantly at the moment…

😉

 

 

✿~Peace & Love~✿

 

WPC: Symbol

Julie, Julie, Tell Me Truly, How Does Your Garden Grow?

With yellow bells

and pea pod shells

and tiny beans all in a row.

I’m just realizing that I haven’t posted anything about my vegetable garden yet this summer.  There’s been tons of stuff going on out there and I’m so thankful for how nicely everything is growing.  Well, I’ve had a few setbacks along the way, but for the most part, everything is flourishing.

Peas allow me to share a few of the highlights so far.  For instance, my peas…

I adore fresh raw peas straight out of the garden and never cook the ones I grow myself, I just pop them open and then pop them into my mouth, they’re so sweet and delicious!  🙂

They’re at the end of their peak now and I’m sad to see them go.  Here are a couple other photos I snapped of my peas as they were growing.  I only have a small amount of sunny space for planting, but I wanted more peas, so I planted them in two different areas this year.  Along the back side of the fence…

And along the side of the house…

Oops hi Mom!  🙂

I found that the peas grew way better in the area along the back of the fence.  But even though it’s technically our property, it’s basically in the neighbors yard, so I don’t really feel comfortable puttering around over there.  It’s a rental property though and the tenants are rarely outside, so it’s been fine.  There is also a nice strip of sun back there behind our garage and I’ve entertained the thought of growing corn back there, but I’m not sure I feel completely comfortable doing that.  I’ll have to ponder it some more…

Another crop that is sadly nearing its end is my lettuce.  I can’t even say how much I’ve been enjoying eating fresh salads each day, and I will miss going out there and picking my lunch every day…

But there are other things ready for the picking out there.  I just picked my first zucchini yesterday!  I don’t have a photo of it, but I have this one of when it was first developing…

Since I snapped this, there are 4 or 5 others that will be coming ready soon.  Yay, I love zucchini!

A few other things that will be coming ready soon are my beans…

And my peppers.  My yellow bells…

And my jalapenos…

I’ve also got tiny cucumbers developing…

And tomatoes…

A few of these are starting to change color now. They’re a yellow cherry variety of tomato and I can’t wait to try them.

Oh, I almost forgot about my strawberries.  They’re one of the setbacks I mentioned.  The fruits have been really sub-par, much too tart and also misshaped, but the blooms are pretty…

Strawberry blossoms are such delightful little things, so even though I’m not getting any sweet strawberries to eat, I am fully enjoying their sweet looks.  😉

There are other sweet looking blooms in the flower bed and in miscellaneous pots on the patio too, but I’ll save them for another time.  Thanks for letting me share about some of the things growing in my vegetable garden.  Growing my own food truly is so rewarding, and tending to the little growing things nurtures my own soul at the same time.

I’m about to head out there right now for some more nurturing.  I hope you’re enjoying your weekend, may it be filled some nurturing too!

 

 

✿~Peace & Love~✿

Thursday Thought

 

Amidst all the mayhem and troubles that life can sometimes bring, be on the lookout for the tiny treasures that may be hidden within each day, for there is always beauty to be found.

 

I spy with my little eye

a baby Oriole spying back at me…

Can you even see it?  I could barely spot it, and I knew it was there.  The color of the leaves is great camouflage with the color of its feathers.

 

Playing I Spy with that little baby Oriole camouflaged up in that tree makes me think of the I SPY book series.  I worked in a school library for 11 years and some of the students’ favorite books to sign out were those I SPY books.   They’re a sort of picture puzzle, riddle book, each page is overly crowded with pictures of every day objects and the reader has to find a specific item hiding in plain sight amidst all the mayhem.  Some of them can be a bit challenging, even for me as an adult, and I’m great at puzzles.  I once had to undergo a battery of grueling tests, one of which consisted of being timed at putting together a puzzle from random shaped, abstract pieces.  I not only immediately figured out what it was supposed be, but I put it together in a matter of seconds, and apparently I was the only one who had ever succeeded in assembling it at all.  I’m not sure what that means in the grand scheme of my intelligence or my personality type at large, but if nothing else, at least it means I’m good at certain types of puzzles.  😉

Anyway…

I guess what my thought is, is that sometimes life is like that – like an I SPY book.  Sometimes the pages of our lives may seem overly crowded with this or that, and it’s a challenge to find the little treasures hidden in plain sight amidst all the mayhem (or amidst the camouflage of tree branches), but keep a lookout, there is beauty to be found.

 

Wishing you a day of beauty and hidden treasures…

 

 

✿~Peace & Love~✿

Flowery Fireworks

 

A different type of bang

A different sort of boom

Bursting forth, summer’s blossoms shoot off a few fireworks of their own…

 

© Julie Rehnelt 2015

And they’re every bit as dazzling as the explosive variety.  Though… much more quiet in their display.  😉

 

To those of you here with me in the States, have a safe and happy 4th of July weekend!  To those of you elsewhere in the world… well, I hope you’re safe and happy too!  ❤

 

 

✿~Peace & Love~✿