June Prayers, Poems, & Praise

"Give away the things you don't need
Let it all go and you'll soon see
And you'll wash your spirit clean
Wash your spirit clean
Go and pray upon a mountain
Go and pray beside the ocean
And you'll wash your spirit clean
Wash Your spirit clean
Be grateful for the struggle
Be thankful for the lessons
And you'll wash your spirit clean."

"Wash Your Spirit Clean"

Tim Veazey, Jon Timothy Veazey

"Wash Your Spirit Clean"
Walela

"Give me good digestion, Lord,
and also something to digest;
Give me a healthy body, Lord,
and a sense to keep it at its best.
Give me a healthy mind, good Lord,
to keep the good and pure in sight;
Which, seeing sin, is not appalled,
but finds a way to set it right.

Summer Berries

  Give me a mind that is not bound,
that does not whimper,
whine or sigh.

Don't let me worry over much
about the fussy thing called I.
Give me a sense of humor, Lord;
give me the grace to see a joke,
To get some happiness from life
and pass it on to other folk."
"An Ancient Prayer"
Thomas H.B. Webb

"Water Lilies"
Claude Monet
(1922)









"The summer morn is bright and fresh,
the birds are darting by
As if they loved to breast the breeze
that sweeps the cool clear sky."
  -William C. Bryant 



 "Lean on, trust in,
and be confident in
the Lord
with all your heart
and mind
and do not rely
on your own insight
or understanding.
In all your ways,
recognize and 
acknowledge Him
and He will direct
and make straight and plain
your paths."
Proverbs 3:5-6 

Sing to the Lord a joyful song,

Lift up your hearts, your voices raise;
To us His gracious gifts belong,
To Him our songs of love and praise.
For life and love, for rest and food,
For daily help and nightly care,
Sing to the Lord, for He is good,
And praise His Name, for it is fair.
For strength to those who on Him wait,
His truth to prove, His will to do,
Praise ye our God, for He is great,
Trust in His Name, for it is true.
For joys untold, that from above
Cheer those who love His sweet employ,
Sing to our God, for He is love,
Exalt His Name, for it is joy.
For He is Lord of Heav’n and earth,
Whom angels serve and saints adore,
The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
To Whom be praise forevermore.

"Sing To The Lord A Joyful Song"
- John S. B. Monsell
Hymns of Love and Praise
(1863)




Over the shoulders and slopes of the dune
I saw the white daisies go down to the sea,
A host in the sunshine, an army in June,
The people God sends us to set our hearts free.

The bobolinks rallied them up from the dell,
The orioles whistled them out of the wood;
And all of their singing was,
 "Earth, it is well!"
And all of their dancing was,
 "Life, thou art good!"
"Daisies"
Bliss Carman

Pretty daises by the sea 
in Newfoundland

June: Sand & Star Dust

"I wonder what it would be like

 to live in a world where it was always June."
-  L. M. Montgomery

Summer Roses
Conrad Kiesel
(1846-1921)

"Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy
Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry
Sunshine on the water looks so lovely
Sunshine almost always makes me high..."
-John Denver
(1971)

June Sunshine
Joseph DeCamp
(1902)



"We'll sing in the sunshine
We'll laugh every day
We'll sing in the sunshine
And I'll be on my way..."
-Gale Garnett
(1966)

Children On The Beach
Corrine Hartley





"And now the purple dusk at twilight time,
Steals across the meadows of my heart..."
-Hoagy Carmichael
(1927)

Milky Way Over Three Sisters Monument
Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park
Oljato-Monument Valley, Arizona




"Tonight, Tonight,
The world is full of light,
With suns and moons all over the place..."
-Leonard Bernstein
"West Side Story"
(1957)

Moonrise at  Little Cedar Spirit Tree
Grand Portage, Minnesota

The Royal Roses

Queen Victoria

England

 Queen Marie Antoinette 

France

Queen Elizabeth II

England

Queen Beatrix 

 Holland

Princess Grace

Monaco

Princess Caroline
Monaco 

Empress Farah

Persia

Princess Diana

England

Empress Michiko

Japan

Empress Josephine

France

Princess Margaret 

England

Princess Alexandra of Kent

England

Princess Anne of England

"It's Midnight. Can You Smell The Rain?"

Once upon a midnight, dearies,
As I pondered, not weak, nor weary
Insomnia reigned...

But, alas there came...no ravens
Tap-tapping at the door or the pane,
Or tap dancing across my chamber floor
For that matter!

No ravens for sleeplessness' cure
Just good ole rain that
The heavens are gonna pour...
That's right, folks,

Rain, Rain, Rain,
Good ole steady rain for sure!

I think the rain 

Must be a real pain,

And surely a bane

To those who dwell

Beneath the swell

Bereft of a gutter

Or some kind of drain...

"It's Midnight. Can You Smell The Rain?"

A poem by Pamela Denise Brida

Chasing Lightning Bugs

Looking out the window the other night

I was surprised and delighted to see

my woods all aglow 
with the twinkling of

 lightning bugs.

A clear sign that summer

is fast approaching!

Some Enchanted Evening

Compliments of the

Lightning Bugs

I remember one of the greatest delights

of my childhood summers was

running around in the front yard

after dark trying to catch

the lightning bugs!

These mysterious little creatures

usually come out right after sunset,

in the time of the gloaming,

or twilight, 

flashing their greenish glow

in warm summer air

awash with the lingering fragrance

 of wild honeysuckle and flowering
Indian Cigar trees.

My mother always

 managed to hunt up 

a  few glass canning jars

 and helped us kids poke

 air holes into the metal lids

 with a kitchen knife.

However, catching these
elusive winged creatures
often proved to be a lot
more challenging then
it seemed.

Prancing about barefoot 
across the front yard
 in the balmy night air,

 the first stars appearing

with the receding red glow of sunset
still visible in the western sky,

I would be homing in for the capture,

my jar in one hand and lid in the other,

when suddenly the little glow bug
I was chasing after

would turn off his light
and seem to vanish
right before my very eyes!

 

It has always made me wonder

if those tiny winged insects
 somehow knew they

were being pursued by

a little girl eager to
capture them in a
Mason jar!

Of course, when I did

catch one or several of them,

making sure there was a nest of

soft green grass at the bottom of

the jar for the bugs to rest in,

I never kept them for more

than a few hours.

Watching them crawling
up the sides of their
glass trap to the
 air holes in the lid

made me realize that the
little creatures

longed to be free again.

So, after a while,

off came the lid and

the beautiful glowing bugs

 eventually flew away, 

into the night...

and into my memories

of simple summertime pleasures

and the innocence

of childhood.

This classic song reminds

me of those happy days!

The Real Life Runaway Princess Bride

The innocent Bavarian beauty

who became the Empress of Austria

and Queen of Hungary

was actually a tormented

free spirit who never

adapted to life at court...

Beautiful Empress 

Elizabeth of Austria

24 December 1837 – 10 September 1898

Although her husband, the

Emperor Franz Joseph I,
 loved his 

young wife dearly,
 their marriage

was deeply affected by his

meddlesome mother,

Princess Sophie, who

called Sisi,

"a silly young mother"

 and actually took control over

the upbringing of the 

couples' daughters, even forbidding

young Elizabeth to breast feed

her children.

As a result,

Elizabeth greatly suffered,

 for many years from

bouts of depression.

She internalized her

emotional pain by

becoming vain about

her appearance,

through starving herself

and vigorous bouts of exercise

to stay thin.  She even

resorted to wearing corsets

in order to maintain a

sixteen inch waistline.

However, 

after Elizabeth

 gave birth to

a son, Rudolph,

her standing in

the Austrian court seemed to

improve, but, she was often

too restless for 

the restrictive atmosphere.

Sisi developed

a lasting kinship with the

people of neighboring Hungary,

which she often liked to visit.

Perhaps the carefree lifestyle

of the Rom, or Gypsy folk of

Hungary,

not to mention her

eccentric father's

 love of following

after traveling circuses

when she was a child,

  contributed to

the Empress' own wanderlust.

After the sudden death of her son,

Elizabeth withdrew from 

court duties and traveled widely

around Europe.

It was while

visiting Geneva in 1898,

that Sisi's own life ended
through a senseless tragedy.

The Empress was stabbed to

death by an Italian anarchist.

Empress Elizabeth of Austria

Postage Stamp

(2010)

The Empress Sisi 
Barbie Doll
(1996)