Celebrating Diversity…

Once a year at the church we attend, we hold a Flower Communion.  The Unitarian Universalist Association describes the service this way:

 

The Flower Ceremony, sometimes referred to as Flower Communion or Flower Festival, is an annual ritual that celebrates beauty, human uniqueness, diversity, and community.

Originally created in 1923 by Unitarian minister Norbert Capek of Prague, Czechoslovakia, the Flower Ceremony was introduced to the United States by Rev. Maya Capek, Norbert's widow.

In this ceremony, everyone in the congregation brings a flower. Each person places a flower on the altar or in a shared vase. The congregation and minister bless the flowers, and they're redistributed. Each person brings home a different flower than the one they brought.

I look forward to this service every year not only for the beauty of the flowers that people bring, but also for the way it celebrates our uniqueness and diversity, qualities I truly value.

Sharing with you all today the diversity of Mother Nature here in the Northeast USA.

We come in a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes.
Some of us grow in bunches.
Some of us grow alone.
Some of us are cupped inward,
And some of us spread ourselves out wide.
Some of us are old and dried and tougher than we appear.
Some of us are still in bud.
Some of us grow low to the ground,
And some of us stretch toward the sun.
Some of us feel like weeds, sometimes.
Some of us carry seeds, sometimes.
Some of us are prickly, sometimes.
Some of us smell.
And all of us are beautiful.
What a bouquet of people we are!

~Thomas Rhodes

Heading out on the road for a few days tomorrow morning.  Olive, the pug,  is staying home to take care of our son Evan while we are gone.  Hope you all have a great week ahead!

Scavenger Hunt on a beautiful day…

Here are this week’s prompts:  Happiness, Spring in Black and White, Family or Faith, Fuzzy and Gathering or Provide.

 

HAPPINESS for me is living comfortably in a beautiful place surrounded by nature and great neighbors.  We are so incredibly fortunate.

SPRING IN BLACK AND WHITE.

My FAITH lies in the beauty and resiliency of nature.  Our magnolia that was heavily damaged in a freak snowstorm a couple years ago is once again beginning to bloom.  I stand in awe of nature.

Once again, here is our magnolia showing off its beautiful FUZZY buds.

This is my current WIP (work in progress).  I am making an African Flower throw.  This entails crocheting a bunch of African Flowers and GATHERING them together to make one piece of fabric.  I learned a few things from this project.  First, I never have enough scraps to make a project, which is what this started out to be…a scrap busting project.  So now I have even more scraps to use up.  Second, it is really important to read all the directions before beginning a project.  I know that but don’t always do it.  And thirdly, if I ever make another African Flower throw, I will use the join-as-you-go method, which I would have known if I had read all the directions.  Whip-stitching these motifs together is a true pain.

LINKING TO ASHLEY SISK'S

SCAVENGER HUNT SUNDAY!

My heart’s a-clickin’…

“O, it sets my heart a-clickin’ like the tickin’ of a clock, when the frost is on the punkin

 and the fodder’s in the shock.”   ~James Whitcomb Riley

When I got up this morning to take my pooch Olive out for her walk, I noticed that there was frost on the pumpkin.  Well, not literally “on the pumpkin” since we don’t have any pumpkins around, but there was frost on the leaves and grass.  On a glorious, bright morning like we had today, I think the frost must just be the most beautiful thing going.  It’s nature’s version of spangles and sparkles.  Everything looks like it has been dipped in sugar.  But it is also a reminder of what is to come…soon.

We got an early and unwelcome taste of winter this fall and the damage from that is still visible almost everywhere one looks.  I will be glad to wake up some morning and not hear the now familiar sound of chainsaws being used in our neighborhood with folks still clearing fallen branches and trees.  But even with that rude awakening, I am looking forward to enjoying a “normal” winter.  This is my time of year.  The cold, clear mornings rev me up and make me feel lucid and alive.  So like James Whitcomb Riley, my heart’s a-clickin’ like the tickin’ of a clock ‘cause the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock

 (whatever that means...)

Hi!