In a Wildflower

To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.
(William Blake)

These first four lines are likely the most recognized of William Blake’s much longer rhyming treatise on nature’s lessons and need for protection alongside human nature’s frailties and inescapable tethering to creation. It’s from the poem, “Auguries of Innocence.”  To me, it has always been the colossal urging to pay attention to the details. It’s so easy to miss the longevity of a single moment.

Little Drummer Boy and Bug have taken to bringing me “prizes” in the form of wildflowers (and sometimes grass, sticks or the occasional lizard) found around our lawn. They are quickly coming to realize that mommies always love flowers. This knowledge has something to do with the squeals I offer them in return every time.

They each presented half of this bunch to me last week and were eager to see the blossoms find a home in my “flower glass.” They seemed satisfied with this spice jar repurposed to showcase their treasure. And a treasure it is. It’s been way too long since I’ve buried my face in a mound of clover blossoms to enjoy their sweet and tender fragrance — it is summertime’s rite of passage in Mississippi. Last Wednesday, I was all too eager to poke my nose into the center of this bouquet at the insistence of the boys. “It smells!” they said with renewed discovery. It was a discovery for me as well. I had almost forgotten that these ever-present reminders of the grass’ need for mowing actually have a scent. How often I miss the sacred place found in something simple like a collection of white tiny-petaled “weeds.” How often I breeze past the pursuit of these treasures by pudgy, dirt-stained fingers just to get inside the door at the end of the day. How often I fail to embrace and really soak up the infinity of that moment as these prizes move from their sweaty palms to mine.

Yes, I’d like to get back in touch with that little girl who didn’t mind burying her head in a field of clover. In the mean time, although it wasn’t quite the same as lying facedown in the field of green shapes, to bury my head in each of their little bodies in a thank you embrace was most definitely heaven.

Tuesday Twenty: Counting Ways

This month (this week) brings much focus on love, often in the form of hearts and flowers and sweets. Love IS sweet to the soul. Love blossoms often in unexpected spaces. And, real love always encompasses the whole of a human heart, unshielded. So, I suppose those familiar trappings apply.

One of the most well-known pieces of literature ever written describing love is found in the Bible in First Corinthians 13. It presents a laundry list of love’s qualities surrounded by convincing arguments for its supremacy above all other virtues and pursuits.  And, the picture shown is not one as easily configured on a greeting card as one might assume. The descriptions are full of “not”s that are all too common and daily occurences for most of us. It’s a picture worthy of our pursuit, but not easily attained because of the self-sacrifice and self-revelation involved.

In honor of our culture’s penchant to pursue and acknowledge that greatest of gifts this week, I give you a boiled-down and scrunched-up version of love’s description from the famous Corinthian passage–another up-sized Tuesday Twenty: Counting the Ways of love. This one shows love’s most heart-challenging qualities expressed in those verses–words or the antitheses of “not”s found within. And, there’s eyecandy, too! I popped some of the enumerated words into this month’s tardy, but still relevant desktop calendar. Point-clicky the image above and enjoy!

LOVE IS….

1. essential

2. patient

3. kind

4. trusting

5. discreet

6. humble

7. polite

8. unselfish

9. good-natured

10. forgiving

11. just

12. truthful

13. tolerant

14. affirming

15. hopeful

16. enduring

17. unfailing

18. abiding

19. whole

20. supreme

Birth of Possibility

“Noone ever regarded the first of January with indifference. It is that from which all date their time and count upon what is left. It is the nativity of our common Adam.” ~ Charles Lamb

What is it about January that feels new? A new month, a new year, a new day. Although we experience time in close sequence, something about changing the number assigned to our year gives us renewed anticipation that the next day will offer us more promise than the one we’ve just lived. Regardless of one year’s events, when January 1st rolls around, we are filled with renewed hope that anything is possible. Change is possible. Prosperity is possible. Growth is possible. The impossible is possible. Suddenly, new is possible. That’s a lot of power for one little day, one 24-hour span.

It makes me think about the power of beginnings. I have an instigator in my life, #17, who reminded me recently that just the act of defining a new starting point–the turning of a single number–can be the unexpected catalyst needed for change and the resolve required to embrace it. Sometimes that’s all we need. Navity. The birth of possibility.

I’m looking forward to enjoying what 2010 has in store and to paying attention to those new possibilities. I have some new ideas for EyeJunkie and the little writing experiment going on here, and my goal is more intention, more transparency, more reality. In the mean time, I hope you’ll enjoy this month’s desktop wallpaper calendar with it’s reminder of January’s birth of possibility–and the eager hands that embrace it. [Just point clicky on the graphic above to get it.]

Let’s begin.

September

I spent most of the day at home today since my sweet Baby Girl is recuperating from a rough chest cold. Quiver and I tag-teamed her with kisses so that I could join in a couple of meetings at my office. Driving from work back home, I saw it. The brilliant blue sky that says September around here. It shows up revealing September’s spontaneity, it’s serendipity. Driving east, I was met with the faded and tired summer sky of August. But, turning north, peeking out above tree covered streets, there it was. The unmistakably deep and clear blue signaling that Autumn is on its way–in a month or two.

What a tease September is. You never know which season you’ll wake up to. It marks the transition to Fall, even in the South. Just this week, we are experiencing a welcomed relief from the summer heat. And even though I know it will return just as quickly, I can’t help but remark on the “touch of fall in the air” as I leave the house in the morning. The month of September brings expectations of cooler weather and breezy mornings. It brings a renewing anticipation of change from the doldrums of summer’s stagnating heat. Sometimes even the anticipation of change, having a change in sight makes all the difference.

September always recalls my memories of starting school. My children don’t notice as marked a difference between summer and the “school year” since they go to preschool year-round. But, for me September brought a big transition as a child since both my parents were public school educators. Summer meant my mother and I spent days at home playing and swimming. Going back to school was a big event. I still get a little pitter patter in my heart as I pass the “school supply” sections this time of year. Although the Charlie Brown, Suzy’s Zoo and Betsy Clark school box themes have given way to today’s Transformers, Nemo and Diego, the feeling of excitement is still the same walking through the aisles. Each new school year brought new lessons, new friendships, new teachers, new schedules, and new activities. It was a time to start fresh, to find focus again, to hunker down and learn. It still is, only in a much broader sense.

Fall has always been a time when my spirit feels fresh, when I’m eager to breathe in deeply and feel the wind in my face. Movement is inspiring. September brings spontaneity, transition and new start for our family. With Quiver laying aside his business and beginning a new job, we can already feel a deep breath coming on–a shift toward seeing more possibilities. It feels good. It feels fresh. It feels like September.

I love the poem Birches, by Robert Frost. It speaks of the triumph of play, of conquering the tree heights, of the freedom of flying matched by the security of swinging low to the Earth again. It’s the balance God graciously built into this world evident in the seasons, and in the bending of birch branches counterbalanced by a determined boy.

“I’d like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over”

“I’d like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.”

“One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.”

The poem–and September– inspired this month’s calendar desktop wallpaper, which includes a scratchboard illustration I did several years ago. Click the Junkie To Go box below and enjoy!

Freedom Rings

Welcome to July, the month in which we celebrate the American Independence Day! With the events of the last few weeks in Iran and around the world, it’s easy to see that indeed, people everywhere want to be free. And, they will exert all of their creativity and gumption in order to BE free–to freely speak, to freely move, to freely be the people they desire to be. When faced with obstacles, freedom-seekers and freedom-supporters are usually undeterred. We saw it in the explosion of proxy servers and “Tehran” Twitter locations through a remarkable multi-national outpouring in support of freedom.

I see it at home with my three gifts. Even at only 10 months old, Baby Girl quickly tires of the mesh confines of her play “pen” (the one that gives Mommy sanity) and sweetly demands the freedom of crawling through the house in search of new and better, more interesting objects to occupy her curious fingers. I see it in Squiggle and Little Drummer Boy in the constant thrill of taking “my turn” to choose the movie, the way home, the toy, or the hug and kiss. It’s the joy of not striving to remain content with another person’s choice, the satisfaction of choosing your own way.

The quote from Albert Einstein that served as the theme for this month’s calendar desktop wallpaper reminded me that creativity, energy and joy can most easily flourish in those who “labor in freedom.” Likewise, sorrow, frustration and silence can be most profoundly heard in those who are free to express them just as equally. To deny either end of the spectrum is to deny the blessing and right of freedom. For those of us who daily labor in freedom, may we spread it with joy. May we exercise it with compassion. May we defend it in even the tiniest of spheres with resolve. In this month, like no other, freedom rings.

Click the picture to download the July wallpaper!