One day you wake up and the forecast is gloomy,
for the weather and for your attitude alike.
One of those days steeped in the quagmire of melancholy
Wherever you look things are downright messy
and all you can do is pray helplessly for reprieve.
But just when you think you’re about to go down
God sends a helping hand
a listening ear… a shoulder to cry on
and all at once the sun emerges
and the flowers that had closed up tight
waiting for a softer light
open wide and smile at you.
and you smile too.
My girls decide to take mud baths. Gazania open to the sun’s rays on my porch. My spirits are lifted after a rough couple of days.
Blog Reading Essentials.
If for some strange reason you are prone to imagine the lifestyle portrayed herein as whimsically romantic and beautiful; I would urge you to keep in mind that at this very moment I am most likely traipsing around the yard in rubber boots, followed by a passel of noisy kids with dirt under their fingernails while crusty cereal fossilizes under my dining room table. My life is not a fairy tale by any stretch of the imagination. This place remains, nonetheless, a sanctuary of sorts for me; a place to draw out and capture the moments of peace, beauty, joy and depth in our noisy, crazy, messy, very, very ordinary life. These are the moments that matter to me, the ones I want to be mindful of.
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27 COMMENTS FROM THE PRAIRIE POSSE:
Your girls are more beautiful then those lovely flowers:) I love the pictures but I think I would be really stressed out if my kids did the same!
Summer time fun and beautiful blossoms. Blessings from above. Wishing you a joyful weekend.
I'm sorry you had rough days, but then the contrast when the joy returns! This week our family has felt sprinkled with the Heavenly pixie dust of the contrast - would this Friday be as joyful if last Friday had been a mundane good day?
Joy and I once took a mud bath as little girls, only our mom took a switch to us, We probably wished she would've took pictures, one day your girls will look back at those pics and be able to talk about all the fun they had. And your flowers are lovely, I miss all of my flowers, and can't wait to get more planted, I hope that you have a wonderful and restful time at the lake.
oh WOW!!! You are SUCH a better Mom than me *grin*
I think I may have had a meltdown (lol)
That looks like they had a ton of fun. and your flowers are so lovely, just like you. So sorry we didn't get that coffee in this week - I was really yearning to visit with you and just couldn't seem to get it to happen.
Loving you and your wonderful spirit :)
Your photography is so expressive! The pink Garbanzo (or whatever you called it :) just took my breath away... fantastic doesn't do justice. Sorry to hear you've had a few days, and feeling bad I haven't known about it. Glad to see the sun is peaking through the clouds again. Pourin' some loving on you!
Chris
This post touched me deeply. The mud has threatened to be deep around here, too, lately. But God . . .
My heart cries out for relief from an onslaught of muddiness -- not the BIG MUD, just lots of globs that attach to the boots and weigh me down. But God . . .
I squeeze in a few moments of blogging (maybe as much out of guilt as curiosity) and I am rewarded with the kindred hug of a fellow mud-slogger. Aaaahhhh . . . God you are sweet.
Oh, how I wish we lived as real-world neighbors so that shoulders and tears could be exchanged on occasion.
Your post speaks volumes. Thank you, dear friend.
Thanks for your comment. It sounds like a wonderful book. The blessings we have in Jesus just overwhelm the heart.
I love the picture story. He is indeed the lifter of our heads.
Becky, thank you. They are beautiful. They take my breath away.
Sue, you are so right. Victory wouldn't taste sweet if there were no sacrifice preceding it.
Brandie, yeah. I choose to not sweat the mud, dirt and messes, I'm much more concerned about the state of their hearts and minds. And the truth of the matter that is totally something I would have done as a kid =). My husband on the other hand...
B-Girl, I have to admit my heart did a flip when I first found them.... the good part about it is that they can and did clean up themselves up. =)
Chris, Garbanzo gave me a big chuckle, made me think of the bean. These flowers (Gazania) are new to me, and I am LOVING them. I was also very thankful to read your comment and see that I am not the ONLY person who pounds out a generous heaping of fragmentary sentences. I've been noticing it this week in my own writing and feeling secretly horrified about it, but now I see I am in very good company and breathe a sigh of relief. =) Personally, I really LIKE fragmentary sentences, I find them personable. So shoot me Grammar Police.
Debbie, so sweet. So glad you stopped in. One takes comfort just in knowing that when they're standing in the mud, they don't stand alone. I hope things look up for you today my California friend.
So glad to see you feeling better, spirits lifted.
WOW I guess some ppl would pay big bucks for a mud bath..dont' they already? ;) LOL
Yeah Brandie and I used to do the same only our mother didn't find it amusing! To bad because we thought is was the funniest thing to do! (well except for making mud pies with real eggs and launching them at cars as they drove by!)Oh the fun and blessings of living on a farm in the country!
Hope you have an awesome retreat away from home!
sending hugs your way
Joy
I loved the pictures of your girls covered in mud. Oh my, even my boys haven't tried that...yet. I bet they had a great time and made lots of memories within the mess.
I am glad things are looking up for you. How grateful I am that He makes all things new.
I love your photos...beautiful ...even the girls with the mud look beautiful! And my boys HAVE done that...many times! lol
God's help is always on time, He is so wonderful to us! When life overwhelms us he draws us up close to Him and comforts our weary soul. Praying comfort, peace, wisdom, joy & happiness for you dear girl!
Mud baths... hmmm... those are expensive. Maybe they should go into business.
As you know I can totally relate... I loved how you shared your heart and emotions through the pictures... they made me smile!
May you have a wonderful and glorious weekend!!
Blessings!
i LOVE your posts. you have again outdone yourself!!
PC..I am praying you have a great weekend and the pictures are amazing.
robin
You are a tremendous photographer...if I publish a book needing photos I may tap your talent!Thanks for sharing
What gorgeous photos! :)
Did you take them with this little story in mind?
Sending you a blessing today, Nichole.....
Maybe *you* need a spa day and a mud bath! =)
I'm glad you're "over the hump." And, I have to say... you must be much better at laundry than I am! LOL
My Dear Friend P.C.,
I stopped in to say hi and to thank you for your kind comments and prayers. Also, I needed to come here. You always make me smile when I read your posts and view your pictures.
Because of some of the days we have been having, I've felt like the one covered in mud and praying my way out. When I saw your daughter covered with mud, I wanted to be there to turn on the hose and shower her with a spray of fresh, clean water...I'm sure that's how He feels when we are in that place. He wants us to tip our faces up to Him and lift our voices and hearts to Him in prayer, adoration and thanksgiving so that He can shower us with His saving grace, love and tender mercies.
You have refreshed me today sweet friend. You always do.
Love you,
Alleluiabelle
You have a beautiful way of weaving photos and words. I'm always, always blessed here.
Glad you are feeling better. God is faithful ...
~Brenda
Praying helplessly...
I know what that is! And He does pull us out...
Those red boots haunt me.
I have eight sisters and 3 brothers; one brother is older. In days of yore, clothes were handed down, and since there was only one boy ahead of me, all of his clothes became mine.
In Catholic elementary school, boys wore black boots, girls wore red boots. I am sure this is in an obscure line of the Constitution, perhaps the Premable.
It was winter slush outside. My pre-owned boots had worn through and were worthless.
"PUT these boots on", mom declared as she handed me a pair of my older sister's RED boots.
"Those are GIRL boots!", I protested.
"You'll have to wear them today, there are no other boots and you have to wear boots in that weather".
School walk was 8 city blocks four times a day, since we came home for lunch from 12 to 1.
At first bell, the nuns at school made all students stand in line by grades level (1st through 8th) and I went to the end of the line so no one would see me in red boots. I would be mercilessly taunted until I was an old man of 27 if caught.
Catholic elementary schools once had nuns in full garb, and their own Constitution. Miranda rights had yet to be established. And, there were "Cloak Rooms", where respectable children hung their clothing and lined up their boots on the floor.
As soon as we got to our room, I kicked the boots under my chair and threw my coat over them. Once most of the girls were done in the cloak room, I mosied over, looked inside, and saw my chance to unload those red boots by "lining them up" near the doorway. I quickly hung my stuff in the boys area, in the next cloak room.
Because the weather was frightful, lunches were packed and no playing outside. Lunchtime boot emergency was forestalled.
At dismissal time, a nun inspected every child before sending them into the world. All of us were dressed when Sister Dolorosa came out of the girl's cloak room and exclaimed: "Which one of you girls forgot your boots?", while swaying my red boots in the air.
No one answered and I was sure an eternity of taunting would come from me getting those boots on my feet. The nun lined up every girl and inspected their feet. Every girl had red boots on.
She could not explain this dilemma in her head, and the ritual was so ingrained, it never dawned on the nun to check the boys. I walked out boot free all the way home.
Those red boots sat in the girls cloak room for the whole school year. They sat in that room for the next 7 years until I left for 9th grade at a new school. They sat in that closet until an insurance firm bought the school, as enrollment declined, and nuns died, and the church could no longer keep it open in a neighborhood with all new immigrants, poor immigrants.
The school closed, was sold, flattened with a ball and crane, and paved into a parking lot for insurance workers.
I drove by now and then decades after. My red boots are in there under that parking lot somewhere.
Only girls wear red boots.
My mother did not laugh much in her final year of life. She would die on her birthday after four score and seven years of life.
She asked me in the fall of 2007, to drive her to all the old home she grew up in, and I took her to our now flattened school too.
I told mom of the red boots from decades before and pointed to the parking lot where they rest like Jimmy Hoffa.
Rarely has a woman laughed as hard as my mom did that moment. It was as if God knew nearly 5 decades before, that mom would find a final laugh of a lifetime, by burying red boots in a school that would exist less than the boots. Mom died May 21, 2008 and I still see her laughing outside the school. I was glad I never admitted it before then.
The top picture of red boots will be in my dreams tonight.
I haven't died or cut my internet connection, we just got home last night from 7 days at the lake and are slowly fighting our way out of the laundry pile. I will post soon and be in touch with all of you who have commented and sent me private emails! I had the GREATEST week ever, thank you so much for those of you who loved me and prayed for me in my moments of miry melancholy. God is good. All the time. And as the Hero (5) has started to say everytime he hears that phrase; "He's BETTER than good!"
Wow. A photo devotional--this is glorious and you are gifted!
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