Flowers don't worry about how the're going to bloom. They just open up and turn toward the light and that makes them beautiful.
– Jim Carrey
That's my thought for the moment. Actually I have a lot of thoughts at the moment but that one sums up. I am reading Joyce Meyer's The Battle Belongs to the Lord this month. She says,
"I believe that the devil assigns demons every morning to sit on each of our shoulders and whisper in our ears,'What are you doing to do? what are you going to do? what are you going to do?'
It is so liberating to say, 'Lord I don't know what to do, and even if I did I couldn't do it. But, Lord, my eyes are on you. I am going to wait and watch for You to do something about this situation – because there is absolutely nothing I can do about it.'"
Ours isn't the worrying about how.
We just have to turn toward the light to find beautiful.
My husband and I snuck away to Lincoln overnight last weekend. It was a fantastic relaxing trip. The castle heights area near the cathedral was charming. We walked and walked that evening and ended up back up the hill as the sun was setting.
So, bagpipes. You either love them or hate them. I love them. LOVE them. With a passion. There was an outdoor performance in progress when we got into the courtyard. We took a short video with the phone. Hopefully it won't make you dizzy. : ) Videographers we are not.
Queen: What sport shall we devise here in this garden,
To drive away the heavy thought of care?
First Lady: Madam, we'll play at bowls.
Queen: 'Twill make me think the world is full of rubs.
And that my fortune runs against the bias
– Shakespeare, Richard II
The Castle Bowls (lawn bowling) club was in good form Sunday afternoon when my husband and I passed their way. There were lively jabs exchanged and a fair bit of advice offered from the onlookers. We found ourselves oddly transfixed and cracking up at regular intervals.
I should add that we apretty much know nothing at all about lawn bowling. So I haven't the foggiest idea who was winning, only that everyone was in high spirits. Wiki tells a fascinating story of the history of the game which made my eyes cross. So I still don't have the foggiest idea, just that it is charmingly British and made for a right jolly stop on a lazy afternoon out.
Ecologically minded media would have us think that the cultivation and preservation of natural resources are newly discovered concerns. Visiting the grounds of old manor houses indicates otherwise. In fact in the days before the state came on board, it was private collectors who painstakingly preserved rare bird and butterfly specimens or coaxed rare blooms in conservatories. Many of these collections remain in homes now in the care of the National Trust in Britain.
I loved how this child darted between the trees just as I focused and ended up looking like a little dryad. : )
And back out into the sun. Do you see that sun? Oh how we soaked it up. Having lived further south I don't think we noticed the change of seasons happening so definitely as we do now. The days are distinctly brighter and longer right after spring's official beginning per the calendar, just as they become distinctly darker and shorter in short order come fall. We are so glad to see blue skies again when we have them.
“I have the European urge to use my feet when a drive can be dispensed with.”
-Vladimir Nabokov
We have passed a long weekend walking in Lincolnshire. Up and down steep cobbled streets, up and down spiral castle towers, and wandering through old cemetaries. Too tired to post more. Putting my feet and the rest of me to bed. : )
Starry Sky Journal 