Well it's been 24 days since we shuttered school and the President called a National Emergency due to a virus named COVID-19 or Coronavirus. This week would have been our Spring Break, and sadly, many families had to cancel their arranged trips and meet-ups and vacations and camping and all of it. I had not planned to go anywhere. I went to Atlanta for three days in January for the G3 Conference and that was super. I'm content at home, as you may already know if you read this blog.
I've always been an introvert and a loner. As a kid, my idea of a splendid passage of time is to nestle under the pine tree in the cemetery next door and read a Nancy Drew book. or to skip along the rock wall bordering the pond and the stream and then dip my feet into the cool running water and watch the tadpoles and look for pretty rocks. As a kid, using the word splendid sort of cut me from the herd, anyway, lol.
I've been reading, watching and listening to the birds outside, going for walks, watching Netflix, (Elementary and Home Town), and studying via online classes.
As a photographer I'd been itching to take photos of new places. I'd bought a State Parks pass and mapped out some parks that are under an hour from me. There are 6 or 7. But I'm hesitant to drive far these days, even though the State Parks remain open, because my car is acting up again. Calling for a tow? Getting a ride home and potentially exposing someone or being exposed? Is the mechanic even open or is the fenced lot locked down tight? Naw, I'll stay put unless I go to the grocery store, which I do every two weeks.
So the challenge is that as I walk the same short street every day, to find different things to photograph. As I take pictures I think about God and His creation and marvel at His creativity. I saw a yellow butterfly today that boy oh boy, can fly fast! I never did even get a chance to raise my camera. I saw it twice and each time he made tracks through the air and was gone in a blink. I admired his God-given speed and his strength.
I heard many birds, which I love. I play a game of 'spot the bird.' It's been easy to do lately because the buds haven't grown big yet. But now the leaves are filling in and it's harder to see the birds that are singing so beautifully. They don't know there's a pandemic. All they know is that the weather is fine and there's lots of worms turned up from tilled gardens and the nests are finished, and well, what else is there to do but sing?
Let's be that way. Sing praises. What are you grateful for?
Here are the scenes from today.
Crimson clover. When enough of it grows in the pasture it looks like the pasture is on fire, the tips are so red
Playing "spot the bird" I finally found him atop the highest pine tree in this stand of trees. Mockingbirds sing for lengthy periods, a variety of sounds in one set, going on for as long as 20 seconds, repeating it 5 or 6 times. Lucky for me, because it took a few seconds for me to spot him.
Looks like someone is putting in a garden.
This little guy was little, but the biggest songs were coming out of him! Was he happy it was sunny out? Only the bird knows!
The ants are certainly thrilled that it's sunny, dry, and warm!
But the worm isn't...RIP
3 comments:
It's so weird that you would post a picture of a dead worm - I took pictures just like that yesterday, only there were tons of dead worms in them...my driveway looked like a graveyard for my neighborhood's entire worm population.
Massacre in the driveway! LOL. I was thinking about how some creatures like the sun and others don't. and then thought about us humans that some like the sun and others don't, and how we aren't really so different from the creatures in some respects. Even the creatures groan for the coming of the Lord but many humans who aren't saved don't even do that. I thought about how the Bible calls false teachers brute beasts. Then I thought about how I'm a worm and deserve to be in a fiery hot place slowly dying, but His grace saved me from being worse than a worm, because worms don't defy God. The worm who ate the plant next to Jonah obeyed God. All the thoughts as I walk along... :) What else ya gonna do? lol
These are the verses I think of when I think of brute beasts:
Psalm 73:31-22
When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.
But the following few verses are such a blessed contrast:
Psalm 73:23-26
Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
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