There is such beauty and such promise in the milkweed. Beauty runs throughout the life of the milkweed as it quickly sprouts in the warm soil, flowers with bursts of color, weeps it milky sap if torn, nourishes Monarch butterflies, and sends forth those magnificent drifting milkweed seeds. Promise imbibes its very nature as the caterpillars spin their cocoons to change into those delicate butterflies and seed pods mature to burst open and release their seeds to drift in the late summer winds.
Beauty and Promise. We are not only like those milkweeds, we have the same essential nature. We have been created with beauty and promise. Allow yourself to see your beauty and promise today. Live the life you were created to live. I was so surprised when I walked this morning. I had my camera out and was angling it to get the shot of the moss on the tree (the above picture) when that hilarious laughing call of a loon erupted just 20 feet above my head. I was so startled I almost dropped the camera. I quickly looked up and saw three loons go shooting across the sky like arrows. They were moving far too fast for me to even think of getting the camera up and a picture of them. They did, however, prompt a thought. What a joy it is to be intent upon something, and then have something else totally surprise you. I had been so totally absorbed into the sights of the early morning, that I wasn't hearing a thing. Those loons sure did wake up my sense of sound. I know that one can't really plan to be surprised, but it is possible to celebrate the surprises. I hope you have a few surprises in store for you today. Maybe nature, or family, or friends, or God will throw a few surprises your direction today. I hope you can celebrate them.
Ever since I was a young child I have been mesmerized by loons: their haunting and hilarious calls, their grace and beauty, their amazing ability to swim underwater, and their mystical nature. You can get close to them, but only if they allow you to and if you are quiet and respectful.
I was blessed this morning to experience this again as I was canoeing at sunrise. I was doubly blessed because I had my granddaughter with me and I was able again to experience it through the eyes of a child. She said it all when she said, "This is awesome." So one loony person now becomes two people who are a little bit loony! Maybe you'd like to join us? Have an awesome day! |
AuthorJoel Kreger is a writer who grew up in Minnesota, spent many years of his life in Iowa and Wisconsin, and now lives in Minnesota. His life experience includes careers of serving 17 years as a Lutheran parish pastor, working 18 years as a public school teacher, and now writing as a novelist and blogger. Archives
April 2019
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