nature art...

be still.... and KNOW.

-God

Wordless Wednesday

"Children and Nature"...

"Let them once get in touch with nature and a habit is formed which will be a source of delight and habit through life."

-Charlotte Mason

(A great article on what has been termed 'Nature Deficit Disorder' in kids is here..... a worthwhile read, especially for parents and educators. For more Wordless Wednesdays, go here.)

Wordless Wednesday
"Timeless"

"I think the extent to which I have any balance at all, any mental balance, is because of being a farm kid and being raised in those isolated rural areas."

- James E. Jones

(more wordless wednesdays here.)

"It is of the soul, and of the soul alone, that we can say with supreme truth that 'BEING' necessarily means 'being on the way'...."

-Gabriel Marcel

( photo taken on an appalachian backroad in fall.... and i will be taking a week or so off from blogdom to spend some much needed quiet time with my soul and heart, away from the distraction of the computer. much love, friends...... )

Happy Thanksgiving!

"Our rural ancestors, with little blest, Patient of labour when the end was rest, Indulged the day that housed their annual grain, With feasts, and off'rings, and a thankful strain."~Alexander Pope

"For, after all, put it as we may to ourselves, we are all of us from birth to death guests at a table which we did not spread. The sun, the earth, love, friends, our very breath are parts of the banquet.... Shall we think of the day as a chance to come nearer to our Host, and to find out something of Him who has fed us so long?" ~Rebecca Harding Davis

"To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven." ~Johannes A. Gaertner

"None is more impoverished than the one who has no gratitude. Gratitude is a currency that we can mint for ourselves, and spend without fear of bankruptcy." ~Fred De Witt Van Amburgh

"Perhaps it takes a purer faith to praise God for unrealized blessings than for those we once enjoyed or those we enjoy now." ~A.W. Tozer

"The unthankful heart... discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!" ~Henry Ward Beecher

"We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures." ~Thornton Wilder

And a little humor to top it off:

"Thanksgiving, man.... Not a good day to be my pants......" ~Kevin James

(We're heading to the Carolinas for the holidays..... Hope you all have a wonderful feast with family and friends as we acknowledge all the blessings in our lives....)

I was standing lost, sunk, my hands in my pockets,

gazing toward Tinker Mountain and feeling the earth reel down.

All at once I saw what looked like a Martian spaceship whirling towards me in the air.

It flashed borrowed light like a propeller. Its forward motion greatly outran its fall.

As I watched, transfixed, it rose, just before it would have touched a thistle,

and hovered pirouetting in one spot, then twirled on and finally came to rest.

I found it in the grass; it was a maple key, a single winged seed from a pair.

Hullo. I threw it into the wind and it flew off again, bristling with animate purpose,

not like a thing dropped or windblown, pushed by the witless winds of convection . . . .

And now when I sway to a fitful wind, alone and listing, I will think, maple key.

When I see a photograph of the earth from space . . . I will think, maple key.

When I shake your hand or meet your eyes I will think, two maple keys.

If I am a maple key falling, at least I can twirl.

-Annie Dillard

( This photo was found on the web.......but for an incredible, original nature photo and post, check out Fragments From Floyd today...."Carrion Without Me"- It's amazing what comes along when you take the time, like Fred, to lie on your back under the sky and wait.....)