Joining Ann today
Counting blessings
"Sometimes our thoughts turn back toward a corner in a forest, or the end of a bank, or an orchard powdered with flowers, seen but a single time on some gay day, yet remaining in our hearts and leaving in soul and body an unappeased desire which is not to be forgotten, a feeling that we have just rubbed elbows with happiness."
Guy de Maupassant
199 - galad (pronounced gah-lahd) - Elven for "light" A nod to Tolkien
200 - bird nests hidden in berry bowers
201 - river banks
202 - water babies
203 - the art of geometrics
204 - tomato juice running down my elbows
205 - jars of edible rubies
26 comments:
Beautiful pictures and I love that quote.
I wrote a blog post (a few weeks ago perhaps?) about once in awhile having a feeling of deep joy that we don't quite know where it comes from. That quote reminded me of the feeling. :)
Jodi
You captured the inexplicable joy like the small sparrow who survives the winter frost come spring -- Love the photos and the quote, so sweet the water baby and the tomatoes just perfect reflection on the taste of the good life lived in the moment.
.
Joanny
rubbed elbows with happiness... i love this.
Great pictures.
And like the others... "rubbed elbows with happiness" love it :]
Thank you for sharing this day. Am happy for you. May you find as I, that joining the gratitude community draws you nearer to Him as you purposely focus on the Giver of all gifts.
I am looking for happiness in this day. Thank you for sharing your list. It has been an amazing journey for me to read the gratitude lists and be reminded of the joy in every day.
Oh, I recognize the tomato pictures. :) I haven't canned in a couple of years, but I LOVE that smell. Mmmm. Smells like a thousand good meals already eaten, and a thousand more still to come.
Ohhh, are these places that you know? How blessed you are. And I love the quote by Guy de Maupassant. It reminds me of a C.S. Lewis quote from the last chapter of his book "The Problem of Pain," on desiring heaven. (It's a bit long, so I'll abridge it here and hope Lewis will forgive me, but its well worth reading in full if you can get hold of a copy.)
"There have been times when I think we do not desire heaven; but more often I find myself wondering whether, in our heart of hearts, we have ever desired anything else. ...that something that you were born desiring, which, beneath the flux of other desires and in all the momentary silences between the louder passions, night and day, year by year, from childhood to old age, you are looking for, watching for, listening for? You have never had it. All the things that have ever deeply possessed your soul have been but hints of it - tantalizing glimpses, promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that died away just as they caught your ear. But if it should really become manifest - if there ever came an echo that did not die away but swelled into the sound itself - you would know it. Beyond all possibility of doubt you would say, 'Here at last is the thing I was made for.' "
And Jodi, thanks so much for your lovely and heartening comments. You made my day!
jodi, what captured moments, these. from that soggy diaper to the tomatoes dripping, what a joy list!
What beautiful photos.
They bring joy to this typically english rainy summer day :)
Leslie, thank you for the Lewis quote. I'm totally a fan of C.S. Lewis. To answer your question, yes, these are places I know, not far from my home. My husband and I love wandering walks--especially on summer days.
i love each and every one of these sweet photos. the circles on the barn make me deliriously happy, as do the chubby rolls of that water baby (i should know what that's like; i've got two!), and while i don't know what a galad is (i'm looking it up!) it is beautiful. so glad i stopped in today to share in your counting. rubbing elbows with happiness indeed!
Misty, "galad"--Elven for "light". I'm a bit of a Tolkien geek :) <3
#200--beautiful and alliterative! Ate at the pub in Oxford where Lewis, Tolkien, and the Inklings met and discussed their writings with one another. Felt like I was rubbing elbows with greatness.
Oh I always love your photo-full blessing lists. Those tomatoes look devine! Your "water baby" is as cute as can be. :)
I'm thankful for your beautiful pictures and heart for GOD.
"Rubbing elbows with happiness" being the grand experience of the well executed art of perspective. Would we rather see "an orchard powdered with flowers" or a beastly wilderness that separates us from our true goal of reaching the other side as we hurriedly carry on with out day? This is a study in viewing the happenings and circumstances we find ourselves in not as an endless puddle in which we wade to find ourselves on the next rock awaiting living breath; but rather as a sparkling pool which gives life to that which soaks itself in the refreshment.
Of course, it is not possible to constantly maintain the perspective necessary to live a life "rubbing elbows with happiness." As such, perhaps finding a daily reminder will suffice to provide a chance at observing things for what more they have to offer than that which our original mood of circumstance perceived.
Compliments to your choice of prose, and waterbabies.
I enjoyed the photo documentation of your blessings..particularly the sweet water baby : )
Niamh, brilliant. Can I quote you? Granny loves her water baby.
fabulous,
and I can so feel the tomato juice dripping down my elbows...
It's been years since I've canned them.. I'm started to get the itch again ( no pun intended).
loved the simple earthy beauty here
I love the galad. There is a spot on one of our walks that has the same light. Now I know what to call it.
Oh, and the deep down satisfaction of capturing garden goodies for a time when there is nothing in the garden. I'm trying canning for the first time this year, instead of freezing everything.
Seeing as you are busy in the kitchen, I'm glad that you have delegated the watering to your sweet, sweet water baby. So gorgeous.
You may quote me if I may partake of your canned yummies I surveyed above.
You'll have to fix the typo: "[...] [a]s we carry on with out day" should read, in relevant part, "our day".
Jodi, you made me laugh with that comment about "Stranger Than Fiction." Thanks for being one of my Bavarian sugar cookies ; )
Beautiful list. I loved the picture of that nest. We have been staining our faces and hands because it is blackberry picking time! Those rubies look amazing!
As always I have enjoyed your pictures, now I am hungry for some tomatoes. Everything I have read today including your blog have been words straight from God, Thank~You
I am glad to have found a fellow Hobbit :-) those tomatoes look divine, I believe that summer ripe tomatoes are a taste of heaven and eating formerly summer-ripe tomatoes from a jar remind me of the verse "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."
Post a Comment