Praise for the Morning

Like most days this summer, I took a walk in the neighborhood this morning. And I brought my camera with me. I find that I pay more attention to the beauty surrounding me when I have my camera in my hand.

Today I am offering

Praise for the Morning

by showing you the beauty that captured my heart this morning.

We had a very short rain shower about 9:00 this morning so I waited until about 10:00 to take my walk. The sun was shining and a gentle breeze cooled me as I walked. In the shade it was a perfect summer day.

“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Even though I walk the paths of my neighborhood almost every day, each time I walk I see something new. And always I see beauty. It often surprises me when I see something I hadn’t noticed before like this sign on a garden fence…

And everywhere I looked there was beauty. The lyrics of my favorite song ran through my mind as I walked.

Morning has broken like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken like the first bird
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning
Praise for them springing fresh from the Word

Sweet the rain’s new fall, sunlit from Heaven
Like the first dew fall on the first grass
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden
Sprung in completeness where His feet pass

Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning
Born of the One Light Eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise every morning
God’s recreation of the new day

Morning has broken like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken like the first bird
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning
Praise for them springing fresh from the Word

   — Cat Stevens

Here is a view of the pond behind our house. From the park area it nestles under the shade of many trees.

“Beauty is not caused. It is.”
― Emily Dickinson

I saw a mom out with her kids taking a bike ride to French Regional Park, which is just down the hill from this location. What you cannot see in this photo is her two sons who raced off ahead. The little girl in the pink shirt was learning how to apply the brakes on her bike. I heard her mom coaching her on when and how to apply the brakes.

“It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.”
― Maya Angelou

I know that many people think of wild morning glories as weeds, but I love these brilliant flowers. In the shade of the evergreen trees the centers of these flowers absolutely glowed.

“Beauty surrounds us.”
― Rumi

These leaves on the path may look ordinary to you. But I see color, lines, texture, grace and immense beauty in them.

“Live quietly in the moment and see the beauty of all before you. The future will take care of itself……”
― Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi

Doesn’t everyone love purple cone flowers? I love their spiky centers that glow in the sunshine and the grace of their pretty purple petals.

“A flower blossoms for its own joy.”
― Oscar Wilde

Grace, pure and simple.

“A miracle is when the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. A miracle is when one plus one equals a thousand.”
― Frederick Buechner, The Alphabet of Grace

The richness of color in these common purple phlox draws me in. And they remind me of my mother’s flower garden where lots of phlox bloomed every year.

“I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it. People think pleasing God is all God cares about. But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back.”
― Alice Walker, The Color Purple

Daisies, pure and simple, remind me of childhood games…he loves me, he loves me not, he loves me…

“I think us here to wonder, myself. To wonder. To ask. And that in wondering bout the big things and asking bout the big things, you learn about the little ones, almost by accident. But you never know nothing more about the big things than you start out with. The more I wonder, the more I love.”
― Alice Walker, The Color Purple

I wish you joy and praise for the morning.

May you walk in beauty.