Celebrating the beauteous gift of simplicity!
Detail of Heath and Fir on Moss feature photo by Juliana, and shared along with a lovely verse from the Psalter.
The beauty of the wilderness shall grow lush… ~ 9th Kathisma, Psalter
Tag: Nature is the Secret Gospel
Heavenly Snowdrops
…but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf. ~ Proverbs 11:28
Yesterday’s walk was exhilarating!
Cheerful Snowdrops are springing up everywhere!
Old English names for Snowdrop flowers are Christ’s Flowers, Purification Flowers, Candlemas Bells, and Fair Maids of February. They are named as such, in honour of the ancient (upcoming) feast day of The Meeting of the Lord in the Temple! (February 15/2)
God’s Gift of Nature physically and spiritually nourishes us.
We rejoice in the sun’s warmth on our face and refreshing gentle breezes that sweep away cluttered, wintry thoughts.
Through a single flower, we remember all is God’s Handiwork, and that Nature is a Secret Gospel.
Spiritual Fragrance abounds! And… regardless of debris from recent storms, we notice it’s the new and verdant growth that bears the precious blooms in God’s Garden!
Sometimes – a glimpse of Paradise is right outside our back door!
Happy Saint’s Day Maximos, God grant you many years!
Shiny and New
Cleansing rain makes all seem shiny and new again! ~ Kilauea, Kauai 2023
Let my teaching drop as the rain,
My speech distill as the dew,
As raindrops on the tender herb,
And as showers on the grass.
~ Deuteronomy 32:2
Praise the Lord from the heavens;
Praise Him in the heights!
Praise Him, all His angels;
Praise Him, all His hosts!
Praise Him, sun and moon;
Praise Him, all you stars of light!
Praise Him, you heavens of heavens,
And you waters above the heavens!
~ Psalm 148:1-4
Praise the Lord… Even when its raining!
I love seeing raindrops spill off leaves and bead onto flowers like great globes of iridescent jewels! This beauty is reminiscent of Hope. For, amid afflictions and perhaps stresses of daily life, rest assured – our contrite tears that may fall, are gathered by angels and laid before our Creator’s Feet… Those same Precious Feet which trod Eden’s dusky paths – still fragrant with Petals from Paradise.
It’s said somewhere that we first need the rain before a rainbow appears.
Rain may fall as a gentle mist, or it can be bitingly painful. But, when God’s Beautiful Promise in the sky appears, when that rainbow holds out its shining hand to you, take it… And walk joyfully into the Sonshine of Divine Consolation.
It’s so easy to praise the Lord! For, God’s cleansing LOVE truly makes everything shiny and new again!
Forests Within Forests
Love all creation, the whole of it and every grain of sand within it. Love every leaf, every ray of God’s light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. ~ Staretz Zosima; The Brothers Karamazov – by Fyodor Dostoevsky
All created things are marked with the seal of the Trinity... The contemplation of nature has two correlative aspects. First, it means appreciating the “thusness” or “thisness” of particular things, persons and moments. We are to see each stone, each leaf, each blade of grass, each frog, each human face, for what it truly is, in all the distinctness and intensity of its specific being. As the prophet Zechariah warns us, we are not to “despise the day of small things” (4:10). “True mysticism”, says Olivier Clément, “is to discover the extraordinary in the ordinary.” ~ Metropolitan Kallistos Ware; The Orthodox Way
I discovered my first moss forest, around the age of 6, after attempting an exuberant cartwheel, and taking a nose-dive into a shady emerald pillow of puffy moss. Its mini forest seemed like a microscopic jungle, with perhaps millions of tiny tree-like spore stalks! If one were an actual fairy tale giant, this would be (no doubt) how one would view the world from on high.
When walking through nature I marvel at the many layers of forests. There are forests within forests. I may be in a forest, but, there on the nursing log laying beside the trail, is another kind of forest! Moss is an ancient organism, and has many uses. It’s amazing.
Truly, the so-called little things in life, when noticed, are actually Huge. Cosmic.
St. John Chrysostom says, “Nature is our best teacher.”
Indeed.
God’s Gift of Creation is intricately and mysteriously connected.
Let us open the noetic eyes of our heart to discover the extraordinary in the ordinary.
The world is more than we know.
Autumnal Prayer
Image by Joe from Pixabay
Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. ~ Psalm 90:14
November 27/14
Happy Eve of the Nativity Fast!
Tomorrow we begin our spiritual pilgrimage into the Advent season… to contemplate the upcoming Great Feast of Christ’s Incarnation.
Just like Great Lent is before Easter/Pascha, the ancient Nativity Fast is a reflective, joyful time for spiritual preparation – nourished with prayer, love of one’s neighbour, and generous almsgiving.
Each fast is fresh, new, and a collective reminder to shift focus away from oneself, and onto the needs of others, instead.
Together we’ll begin the late autumnal journey with sweeping the dried leaves and debris away from body and soul.
We fast before we feast, and the feasting aspect is saved to start on the actual Nativity Feast Day itself, including the following bright “12 days of Christmastide”.
May your Nativity Fast be peaceful and fruitful!
With love in Christ.
Blessings of Beauty
Collage of leaves and petals from last night’s storm, congregate in a corner outside my front door.
Blessed is God who uses corporeal objects continually to draw us close in a symbolic way to a knowledge of God’s invisible nature. O name of Jesus, key to all gifts, open up for me the great door to your treasure-house, that I may enter and praise you with the praise that comes from the heart. ~ St. Isaac of Syria
The blessings of beauty… It’s here. It’s there. It’s everywhere, and simply seen when we open the physical or spiritual eyes of our hearts.
This morning, I literally opened my front door to a windswept blessing of beauty by He Who walketh upon the wings of the wind.
Thank you, sweetest Jesus – for giving me this splendid morning!
Congratulations dear Anastasia, on your Saint’s Day! May God grant you many years!
May we all see the brightest blessings of Beauty today! It’s everywhere present – and sometimes found in the least likely of places!
A Prayer For Peace on this Remembrance Day…
Lord, have mercy!
Withinnan
Our garden’s Johnny Jump Ups (Winter Pansies) thrive and flourish in brilliant autumnal Sonshine.
Withinnan is an Old English word (before 1000 A.D.) referring to a motion “from within”.
The Cause of all things, through the beauty, goodness and profusion of His intense Love for everything, goes out of Himself in His Providential care for the whole creation… He relinquishes His utter transcendence in order to dwell in all things while yet remaining within Himself… ~ St. Maximos the Confessor (The Philokalia)
The Mystery of Creation is all around us!
By opening our noetic eyes, we see God – withinnan the Beauty of His Holiness.
Kinship of Creation
Scene from recent walk – ship sailing through diamonds.
When the night is dark
the stars shine brighter
here and ev’rywhere
The dawning Dayspring
connects all His Creation
through the Created
Flora, fauna, earth,
air, water – in us, in them –
a sacred kinship
What a beautiful day the Lord has provided!
May His glorious, Gladsome Light beam on you…
And through you…
Reflecting all the way…
To the other side of this amazing world!
With love in Christ.
Sweet Essence of Eden
Fragrant, plumeria blossom falls to rest on neighbouring Heliconia Rostrata leaf (Hanging Lobster Claw Flower) ~ Kauai 2023
Every flower is fragrant through the power of the Holy Spirit, in a delicate flow of aroma and tenderness of colour; the beauty of the Great contained in what is small. ~Akathist Glory to God for All Things, Kontakion 3
Without winter there would be no spring, and without spring there would be no summer. So it is also in the spiritual life: a little consolation, and then a little grief-and thus little by little we work out our salvation. Let us accept everything from the hand of God. ~St. Joseph the Hesychast
Everything that God has created is beautiful!
Even the flowers are full of grace!
Like so many places all over the world that are special to each one of us – to me, Hawaii is the Living Epitome of Heavenly Fragrance. It still contains the Sweet Essence of Eden with: Aromatic maile (MY-lee) leaves from the rainforest… Divinely fragrant, mangoes that hang as luscious, topaz jewels… Delightfully perfumed blooms of pikake, jasmine, lilies, and plumeria…
All of these and more, help awaken the numinous senses with Awe in Nature’s Mysterious Beauty of the Great.
When we perceive God’s Gift of Nature, how can we not admire it?
How can we not be grateful for consoling glimpses and reminders that Paradisiacal Eden – once our Original Home – is never very far away from us?
May we take time today to observe, touch and smell one flower!
May we listen to the still, small, voice of flowers that continue to magnify our Creator!
May we actively allow our day to be filled with the Sweet Essence of Eden and the Divine Fragrance of Christ!
May the Memory of Trees…
Rainbow Eucalyptus Trees in Lihu’e-Koloa’a Forest Reserve ~ Kauai 2023
Happy Saint’s Day matushka Nataliya! Congratulations, and may God grant you many years!
Casually, one day, she told us that every morning she was having a “little chat with her young tree”. Another time she said that if we got tired walking, we could stop near a tree and touch its trunk: “It will gladly give you some of the strength God gives it”… ~ Gerontissa Gavrilia
After many years I returned to Kauai, and stood once again in a wondrous, tropical Blisswood grove!
Stunning eucalyptus trees thrive in the Lihu’e Koloa’a Forest Reserve… and here, one may curiously discover how refreshing it is to touch those resplendent rainbow trunks.
As my gaze travelled skyward to the tree’s crowning branches, they seemed as graceful arms raised aloft in praise to Creation’s Planter.
Antiphonal Birdsong echoed throughout the forest arboretum. Delicate leaves attached to the trees’ twiggy fingers whispered to each other in the warm trade winds.
Some leaves were loosened, and as if seeming to accept that this was their time, fluttered down trustingly to the ground. A breeze quickly stirred them up again, and with apparent joyful abandon they tumbled away, end-over-end, deeper into the forest… a dance of affirmation and benediction.
I hope to carry this beautiful memory of God’s Creation in my soul, for a long, long, time.
These trees gladdened my heart. They gifted me anew with a peaceful, vibrant jewel of strength, to which I must carefully string yet one more gem of gratitude to the growing strand of a personal, noetic necklace which I sometimes forget to wear… or appreciate.
May we live in more awareness of the Divine Moment and Nature’s Numinous Wisdom – proving His Glorious Presence.
Let all the trees of the forest dance and sing, let all the trees clap their hands. ~ Sunday of the Cross
With Love in Christ.