Masterpieces

(Clicking on image will enlarge)

There are amazing worlds right before my eyes. Whether it's in a pot or in the ground, the beauty that surrounds me in what we often consider simple things mesmerizes me...and I feel like a child again.

I love the way leaves are patterned, and how the sun backlights stems, veins, tendrils, and petals of plants. I love the hiding places under umbrellas of leaf clusters...the places where lizards and shady things lurk in their busy semi-hidden worlds. I love the worlds of insects that go about their business, nonplussed by my presence, and the birds that fuss at me and then work up the courage to nip down to a favorite plant nearby for a juicy bug or chance seed.

I love how the earth drinks the water, from rain or from the hose, down...and how it pools slightly when it's had enough for the moment. I love the beads of moisture in the morning dews, or just after the rains, when all the blades of grasses and the leaf curves are jeweled with them.

I love the sounds, and knowing what birds are in the thicket even when I can't see them. I love the crunches, the soft swishes, the aliveness of walking among the garden, aware. I learn secrets. I learn where the velvet ants have their nests under the leaf mould, where the fire ants attempt to make towers of sand, where finger-sized lizards hide and play and court their mates. I watch tightly-rolled leaf blades unfurl as they grow towards the sun, and I see fuzzy pumpkin vines push past the limits of their boundaries, always questing for more places unknown.

I see where the armdillos rooted and tilled at night among the rows for juicy subterranean treats, without much consideration for my planting schemes. I also found the places, right in the middle of the nearly-mature pea patch, where two small deer must have nestled themselves one evening, content after the rain had cleared.

I hear the sticky, suction sound of tree frogs that climb our windows at night outside to make the most of the flying insects the light attracts, and their squeaky-toy songs.

The plants, the birds, the insects, the soil, the air currents, the moisture, the heat, the night sounds and smells, the fragrances...are a moving and living masterpiece, always changing.

I'm so grateful for such beauty, so thankful to God. It is all I need to know He is good.

I don't need much when there is so much to witness and be a part of, in these secret worlds in my own square of dirt...if it can even be said to be anyone's at all. Whomever's it is, I'm really glad to be welcomed into these moments. They feed me like the fullest table.

I hope you're finding the wonders in the worlds hidden nearby...the garden, woods, plants, animals.

I think contentment just may be the best sort of excitement around :)

Shabbat shalom