SIMPLY INTOXICATING

A cause for pause, a show stopping spectacular gem.

Though I might have seen them in previous years, this year has had its surprising moments, a perfect antidote to any dreary day.
Yesterday’s adventure is tomorrow’s ideas.  I can’t stop thinking!  I can’t make my mind settle.  My mind goes everywhere.

“From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised” Ps.113:3

Orchid colored blooms

 
Taking in the intoxicating beauty of the silk floss tree gives me pause to turn my thoughts to the creator.
My neighborhood represents a small fraction of the brilliance of God in creating the intricacy and depth of this eye-popping treasure.  I stop and pay homage to this magical display. 

This strange-looking tree.
I am drawn by its beauty and poignant reminders of God’s presence and loving care. 

Discovering nature

The delight of discovering this tree is a reminder of how God has gifted me with the delights of its beauty and its ability to thrive in the city.
My daily early morning routine seems to be slowly developing into an eye for aspects of city nature.
However, the most stunning, show-stopping is this spectacular gem, the silk floss tree.

Yesterday's Fabulous Floss Flowers

The spectacular display, you see, is a marvel, not only for displaying its intense-orchid-colored, pink flowering blossoms but its unusual plump seed pods that look like sausages dangling to dry which later crack open to expose balls of white cotton-like fiber stuffing, the size of a football

that drift to the ground looking like cotton candy.

A touch of fall

Wet with morning dew

Paying homage to this magical display

It’s most striking feature is the scary-looking,

Fluff on tuffs

wicked-looking, sharp thorns on its trunk with the ground below draped with fallen flowers and fluff that looks like polyester fiber fill.
I have often left this intense display of God, comforted by the reminders of God’s presence.

  It is one of the most astonishing things God has done for me.  I can’t help but think that God delights in us taking pleasure in his creative effort, his expression of his glory.

spines serve as water storage

Mind boggling is the thought of the incredible creation that is beyond my awareness and for God’s enjoyment and to think what a wonderful experience God grants for a moment in which I can marvel at the lavish demonstration of his cycles through seasons and waiting for the promised with the rest of creation.

WAITING

Mind boggling that God is constantly reminding us of his existence, in such silent, non-verbal ways.

Cuddles under the silk floss

BRUTAL END TO LIFE

Don't come to my house expecting normal.

The rhythms of my very early childhood revolved on hours of daylight in a culture where church and anything else commenced when most everyone got there.  
We were free and unfettered from access to electricity or running water in the bathroom.
Before dusk the kerosene lamps were ready to be lit for a limited time, however, by night fall basically everyone went to sleep.

Upon awakening, satisfying myself with the sounds of hand patted tortillas and the smell of coffee eminating from the outer kitchen at the crack of dawn, I was tempted to snuggle tightly under the covers.
Provisions were set out on the extra wide, adobe depth, window sill to keep cold or gotten by trundling down the mountain path on market days for fresh vegatables or meat.
My father brutally ended the life of the chickens as I grasped the beak,  then dunked in scalded water, plucked, disemboweled, and pressure cooked as I watched.
  After church, we often took home one of the tethered to the platform or wood bench chickens that had been offered as a tithe or offering as the proceeds contributed to the church budget.

For lack of refrigeration, our milk came in the commonly instant powdered form. Milk known as Nestle's Nido.  There's one problem...it tastes nasty.
Needless to say, it was quite an adjustment for entry into a more material, easier life and an appreciation of the gifts I enjoy today.