Mucha, Mary, Mariposa Skies...

"In the marvelous month of May
when all the buds were bursting,
then in my heart did
love arise.
-  Henirich Heine

Alphonse Mucha

"May"





"My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit 

rejoices in God my Savior,

for He has been mindful of

the humble state of His servant.

From now on all generations 

will call me blessed,

for the Mighty One 

has done great things for me.

Holy is His name.

His mercy extends to those who fear Him,

from generation to generation."

Luke 1: 47-51

 L’innocence
 William Bouguereau,
 1893


Incarnation

The Lord is in His holy house

Oh, grace beyond describing,

That Christ in me should please to dwell,

Immanuel residing!

"My soul doth magnify the Lord,"

I sing with lowly Mary,

That God should choose to enter in

This humble sanctuary!

Not now in little Bethlehem,

As in the tender story;

Not now upon a mercy seat,

That bright Shekinah glory,

But in the body of His saint

He maketh His residing,

Both He in me and I in Him

In fellowship abiding.

Within my heart a burning bush,

Within, a mountain smoking;

This flesh of mine a temple veil,

The wondrous Presence cloaking;

Within this broken earthenware

A high and holy treasure;

Oh, mystery of mysteries!

Oh, grace beyond all measure!

"The Lord is in His Holy house"

Mysterious habitation!

I feel His presence here within

And offer my oblation.

Keep burning, incense of my soul!

Keep cleansing me, O Laver!

I want to serve and praise my God

Forever and forever!

-Anne Ortlund

One of my favorite

springtime flowers are the
lovely, delicately scented Iris,
which always bloom
in a striking profusion of color
during the month of May.

"Mariposa Skies"

Midnight Musings

"A good remedy for cynicism

and most other negative 

attitudes that can easily creep

into our hearts is humility."

-David Brickner

Executive Director of Jews For Jesus

"Ride The Wind" Irises

“You can never learn that Christ is all you need,

 until Christ is all you have.”

-Corrie ten Boom

Corrie ten Boom

15 April 1892 – 15 April 1983

 A Dutch Christian and righteous gentile,

Corrie and her family were imprisoned for

 helping Jews escape from the Nazis.  

 Corrie was later sent to the

Ravensbruck labor camp in Germany,

where, shortly before the end of the war,

she was released from the camp,

"by mistake" with a group of

younger women.

The story of her

 incredible faith and courage

in the face of appalling evil was

 later re-told in her book.

"The Hiding Place"

"He has made everything beautiful 

in it's time....

Zebra Swallowtail  and Lilacs

... He has also planted eternity

in men's hearts and minds,

a divinely implanted sense of purpose

working through the ages which 

nothing under the sun but

God alone can satisfy,

yet so that men cannot find out

what God has done from

the beginning to the end."

Ecclesiastes 3:11

"For me, prayer is a surge of the heart;

 it is a simple look turned toward heaven,

 it is a cry of recognition and of love, 

embracing both trial and joy.”

Saint Therese of  Lisieux

Marie Francoise Therese Martin

2 January 1873- 30 September 1897

Be a ray of sunshine everywhere you go,
Shining for the Savior with a steady glow;
Bringing smiles to sad ones, wiping tears away,
Make yourself a blessing every passing day.

Be a ray of sunshine everywhere you go,
Shining for the Savior with a steady glow;
Be a ray of sunshine filled with Heaven’s light,
Sending forth a message beautiful and bright.

Be a ray of sunshine everywhere you go;
Comfort bring to others, stoop to raise the low;
Kind words cost but little, smiles bring pleasures, too;
They may lift a burden; let them not be few.

Be a ray of sunshine everywhere you go;
Cheerfulness is needed, this you can bestow;
Help to chase the shadows from this world away,
Bringing joy and gladness like a shining ray.

Be a ray of sunshine everywhere you go;
Stars will shine the brighter in your crown, I know;
Sunshine brought to others will reflect on you,
Heav’n will be the sweeter—keep the end in view.

Anna B. Russell

May Poems & Praise

Hibiscus Syriacus

Rose of Sharon

The Lord is God, Who has shown

 and given us light,

He has illuminated us with grace,

freedom and joy.

You are my God,

and I will confess, praise,

and give thanks to You;

You are my God,

I will extol You.

O give thanks to the Lord,

for He is good; 

for His mercy and loving-kindness

endures forever.

Psalm 118: 27,28,29

Springtime In Israel

Flowers preach to us if we will hear...

The rose saith in the dewy morn:

I am most fair; 

 

Garden Rose 

 

 

Yet all my loveliness is born

Upon a thorn.

The poppy saith amid the corn:

Let but my scarlet head appear

And I am held in scorn; 

 

Scarlet Field Poppies

 

Yet juice of subtle virtue lies

Within my cup of curious dyes.

The lilies say: Behold how we

Preach without words of purity.

 

 

The violets whisper from the shade

Which their own leaves have made:

Men scent our fragrance on the air,

Yet take no heed 

 

Wild Violets 

 

Of humble lessons we would read.

But not alone the fairest flowers:

The merest grass

Along the roadside where we pass,

Lichen and moss and sturdy weed,

Tell of His love who sends the dew,

The rain and sunshine too,

To nourish one small seed.

-Christina Georgina Rossetti

 

Rose of Sharon

“Consider the lilies of the field…

even Solomon in all his glory

 was not arrayed like one of these.”

 Matthew 6:28-29

 Consider The Lilies

Consider the lilies—how stately they grow!
They toil not, they spin not, no seed do they sow;
Yet they bloom all the summer, so shining and tall,
The Father Who loves them takes thought for them all.

Consider the ravens—who gives them their food?
Who shelters their nest in the storm beaten wood?
Who guides the young sparrow? who watches its fall?
Their Father in Heaven takes heed for them all.

Our Father in Heaven, Thy children on earth
Than lilies or ravens Thou holdest more worth:
O guide us and guard us, be near when we call,
Uphold us, enfold us—we thank Thee for all!

Consider the lilies—how stately they grow!
They toil not, they spin not, no seed do they sow;
Yet they bloom all the summer, so shining and tall,
The Father Who loves them takes thought for them all.

Consider the ravens—who gives them their food?
Who shelters their nest in the storm beaten wood?
Who guides the young sparrow? who watches its fall?

Their Father in Heaven takes heed for them all.
Our Father in Heaven, Thy children on earth
Than lilies or ravens Thou holdest more worth:
O guide us and guard us, be near when we call,
Uphold us, enfold us—we thank Thee for all!
Alice W. Brotherton
(1905)

Teddy & Me

Go to sleep, my Teddy Bear,
Close your little button eyes,
And let me smooth your hair.
It feels so soft and silky that,
I’d love to cuddle down by you,
So...
Go to sleep, my darling Teddy Bear.

~ Author Unknown ~

April Enchanted

"The April wind is soft and sweet
Flying o'er meadows — kissing flowers
Flirting round maidens slippered feet
Before it drops in sprinkling showers."

"The April Wind and The Milk Maid"

-John Clare

Fresh Air

Winslow Homer

(1878)

 Pretty In Pink

Peach Blossoms

Let the rain kiss you
Let the rain beat upon your head

 with silver liquid drops
Let the rain sing you a lullaby
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk
The rain makes running pools in the gutter
The rain plays a little sleep song

 on our roof at night
And I love the rain. 

April Rain Song

-Langston Hughes

The wren and robin hop around;

The Primrose-maids my neighbours be;

The sun has warmed the mossy ground;

Where Spring has come, I too am found;

The Cuckoo's call has wakened me!"

"Song of the Dog-Violet Fairy

-Cecily Mary Barker

"The Dog Violet Fairy"

-Cecily Mary Barker

"I am inclined to think
that flowers we most love
are those we knew
when we were very young,
when our senses were
most acute to color
and to smell,
and our natures
most lyrical."
-Dorothy Thompson

Eloise Wilkins

Sing A Song of Spring

March wind, wild wind, blow this day.
Whirl the winter snow away. Dry the
ditches and the hollows-in tracks where
April follows. Clear a path for her advance.
Teach the daffodils to dance. Through your
ravings harsh and strong-thrushes thread
a golden song. Cleanse the air, Make fresh
the earth-for the season of rebirth.

-Winifred Emma May 

Spring Breezes

 Lee Stroncek

   The year's at the spring
    And day's at the morn;
    Morning's at seven;
    The hillside's dew-pearled;
    The lark's on the wing;
    The snail's on the thorn:
    God's in His heaven—
    All's right with the world! 

-Robert Browning 

"Hark, I hear a robin calling!
List, the wind is from the south!
And the orchard-bloom is falling
Sweet as kisses on the mouth.

In the dreamy vale of beeches
Fair and faint is woven mist,
And the river's orient reaches
Are the palest amethyst.

Every limpid brook is singing
Of the lure of April days;
Every piney glen is ringing
With the maddest roundelays.

Come and let us seek together
Springtime lore of daffodils,
Giving to the golden weather
Greeting on the sun-warm hills."
Spring Song

Lucy Maude Montgomery

Spring Trees In Bloom

New York Botanical Garden

Bronx NYC  

"The air and the earth interpenetrated
 in the warm gusts of spring;

 the soil was full of sunlight,
 and the sunlight full of red dust.  

The air one breathed 
was saturated with earthy smells,

 and the grass under foot 
had a reflection of the blue sky in it."
 -Willa Cather

  

 Spring in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge

 in Southwest Oklahoma

And Spring arose on the garden fair,
Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;
And each flower and herb on Earth’s dark breast
rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.
  "The Sensitive Plant"

 ~Percy Bysshe Shelley

Springtime Bluebells

Blakes Wood Danbury

Essex England 

Pearls of Wisdom

"But to man He said, "Behold, the reverential

and worshipful fear of the Lord-that is Wisdom;

and to depart from evil is understanding."

Job 28:28

Job is the story of one man's remarkable and

unshakable faith in the midst of adversity. 

"You shall love your neighbor

as you do yourself."

Matthew 22:39

 “I'm still discovering, right up to this moment,

 that it is only by living completely in this world 

that one learns to have faith.

 I mean living unreservedly in life's duties, problems,

 successes and failures, experiences and perplexities.

 In so doing, we throw ourselves completely

 into the arms of God.”

 -Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

1906-1945

German Lutheran Minister and

anti-Nazi dissident

 “Thou art my God: Thy Spirit is good.” 

 Psalm 143:10

Within the maddening maze of things,
When tossed by storm and flood,
To one fixed trust my spirit clings;
I know that God is good!

No offering of my own I have,
Nor works my faith to prove;
I can but give the gifts He gave,
And plead His love for love.

I know not where His islands lift
Their fronded palms in air;
I only know I cannot drift
Beyond His love and care.

And so beside the silent sea
I wait the muffled oar;
No harm from Him can come to me
On ocean or on shore.

I know not what the future hath
Of marvel or surprise,
Assured alone that life and death
His mercy underlies.

 "The Eter­nal Good­ness"

By John G. Whittier

" When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you."

"Footprints In The Sand"

By Mary Stevenson

"Forsake not Wisdom, and she will keep

defend, and protect you; love her,

and she will guard you."

Proverbs 4:6 

 God's Wisdom is always perfect!

Daffodils and Crocus

"The flowers appear on the earth;

the time of the singing of the birds has come,

and the voice of the turtledove 

is heard in our land."

Song of Solomon

2:12 

 

How would the robins and other birds

know it is time to migrate north once

again to eagerly anticipate 

visiting the bird feeders in my yard?

A Bird's Eye View

Robins perched in a flowering Dogwood Tree

Swept slightly by the south wind

The elm leaves softly stirred

And in their pale green clusters

There straightway bloomed a bird.

His glossy feathers glistened,

With dyes as richly red

As any tulip flaming

From out the garden bed.

But, ah, unlike the tulips,

In joyous strain, ere long,

This red-bird flower unfolded,

A heart of golden song.

"The Red Bird"

By Eveleen Stein

Papa Cardinal feeds his "blooming" babies!