Tag: trust me and refuse to worry.

One Can Hope

Standing at the kitchen sink, staring out the window I see God took care of one more thing in my life today. There’s a Bougainvillea hanging under one corner of the house, in hopes it will grow it’s way up onto the roof. It has a couple of long branches reaching that way, but this morning they had drooped from lack of water. It’s on my morning rounds with the watering hose.

After giving it some water I came in the house and started work. I didn’t give the Bougainvillea another thought until now. It soaked up the water and the long branches are tucked up under the roof again. I think it would be beautiful to have Bougainvillea blossoms all over the roof. I don’t know if that will happen, but that’s what came to mind when I hung it there.

God probably has something better in store, but I’m doing my part by keeping it watered. It’s in the right place for endless possibility, but we’ll have to wait and see what transpires. As I walk away from the window back to my desk I smile and think, one can hope.

We plan, but God decides.

Proverbs 16:9

The Good Life

I stopped by the Water Gardens and saw three of them sitting on the edge of a wood table. Two were in bloom and I don’t believe I’ve ever witnessed such delicate beauty making this loud of a statement.

Similar to the pillow mentioned in Feel the Music, there was no need for another plant, but if it could be happy in my yard, I’d literally stare in wonder at it while it bloomed. Three days later, I went back to the Water Gardens and made my way over to where they’d been sitting previously. It blended in with all the other plants on the table, but there was one left. It wasn’t in bloom, but I recognized the foliage and not being in bloom is how it was overlooked.

Curcuma-Siam-Sparkling-Tulip

Last year the yard was all about the bloom, but this year it’s about watching and waiting for that one spectacular moment. There’s nurturing in between every bloom, but the rewards far outweigh the attention given. In the book, Simple Abundance, the author has been talking quite a bit about gardening. This reading is titled The Good Life, and she shares an excerpt from the book, Loving and Leaving the Good Life, by Helen Nearing.

  • Do the best you can, whatever arises.
  • Be at peace with yourself.
  • Find a job you enjoy.
  • Live in simple conditions; housing, food, clothing; get rid of clutter.
  • Contact nature every day; feel the earth under your feet.
  • Take physical exercise through hard work; through gardening or walking.
  • Don’t worry; live one day at a time.
  • Share something every day with someone else; if you live alone, write someone; give something away; help someone else somehow.
  • Take time to wonder at life and the world; see humor in life where you can.
  • Observe the one life in all things.
  • Be kind to creatures.

I’ve been helping a woman water the flower beds at church once a week and noticed she didn’t have a sprayer on the end of the water hose, so I brought her my rain head to use. I attached it to the hose, turned it on and handed it to her. Just the sound of the water the rain head gives and watching it shower over the plants was such a peaceful moment she didn’t want it to end. It’s moments like that you know you’re standing in the good life.