Monthly Archives: May 2015

Babies, Babies, Babies

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My daughter is due at the end of June. I will be a Grandmommie again. That is fun and exciting to me. What I can’t figure out is how my baby grew up so quickly. I know a lot of mothers ask that question. I’m no different. It seems like I blinked and she became a beautiful woman with a family of her own. Life truly is a miracle.

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We decided to give taking baby bump photos ago yesterday.

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And then we played with the editing. This one I will enter into Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge: Take A New Photo. Cee, I hope you don’t mind that I coupled the challenge with my color photo’s.

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We even threw a few fall leaves around but we unfortunately didn’t capture any in the air…maybe next time.

Broken

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  • deeclarknz.com A friend once gave me a beautiful glass friendship ball. I hung it in the window above my sink where the sun would shine through it lighting my kitchen with beautiful blue hues of colour. While mopping my floor one day, the mop handle hit and dislodged it from where it hung and it crashed to the floor breaking into a million pieces. My heart sank. I scooped up the pieces desperate for way to put the pieces back together. However, that was never going to happen. It was broken beyond repair.deeclarknz.comEvery time my heart has been shattered, I have felt certain that it could never be put back together. And every time , without exception, not only has my heart mended but it has become larger, stronger and more loving for the breaking. A wonderful truth in life is that we are stronger, gentler, more resilient and more beautiful than we imagine. The Psalmist David encourages us that The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit and heals their wounds. I have found this to be true. Each and every time.deeclarknz.comThe nature of being broken is that perspective is hard to maintain when we are in pain, when in fear, when confused or worried. Brokenness limits our view, for the moment. One of the purposes of love is to help each other not stay limited in our view of life. When helping each other move beyond our limited view of life, we are lifting each other above the pain and reaching for the feeling of health.  

deeclarknz.com“To be broken is no reason to see all things as broken.” -M. Nepo

In my life, I have found that my brokenness eventually became useful in reaching out to other broken hearts. Like seeds broken open and then bear fruit, we can use our broken places to meet each other and be touched by each other. When broken of all the “stuff” that gets in the way of being in touch with others, we begin to know each other outside of our differences in this strange, mutual place of the heart. This is why when we fall, we lift each other; or when in pain, we hold each other; or why when joy floods in, we dance together. It’s a way that the many pieces of the heart loves itself back together.

Lastly, I have come to know that hurting people hurt people. When I come across such a person, they are crying out for understanding, comfort and a safe place to heal. Fire doesn’t fight fire. Nor does pain heal pain. Hurting people need to know that they can trust again, love again and hope again. 

I want my brokenness to open my heart enough that I can reach the hurting with the truth that the Psalmist David shared, that wounds can be healed and that in brokenness there is someone near to help lift them above the painful moments.

The best way to heal a broken heart is not to isolate it and close it down. The best way to heal brokenness, strangely, is the art of continuing to open yourself up. To remember that all of life is not where you are at the moment. To find usefulness in the pieces that remain. To reach outward and yes, upward. 

Even if it doesn’t feel like it today, unlike broken glass, a broken heart will mend. 

D

WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: Broken  

Some Like It Hot

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I definitely am one of those people…I like it hot: steaming hot baths/showers, jalepanos, the heat of the sun and don’t even give me a lukewarm coffee (even worse -iced coffee). Hot is my preference.

At least once in life, we all experience the flame going out. But it doesn’t have to remain dim. All it takes is a little spark of hope and kindness and love and perseverance to fan the flame.

Here are a few quotes that I’m hoping spark a little inspiration for you:

Of all the fires, love is the only inexhaustible one.—Pablo Nerudadeeclarknz.com Great things never came from comfort zones. deeclarknz.com Decide you want it more than you are afraid of it. – Cosby deeclarknz.com No longer bereft, you blaze.—Emilydeeclarknz.com When eyes have died in its gaze, know the heart had died in its blaze. -unknown deeclarknz.com Love what you do so that it sets others ablaze with inspiration. deeclarknz.com Accept things as they are or accept responsibility for changing them.deeclarknz.com Be who you were created to be and you will set the world on fire. -St Catherine of Sienadeeclarknz.com The antidote to exhaustion isn’t rest. It’s wholeheartedness.—David Whyte

The tongue is a little member, and it can boast of great things. See how much wood or how great a forest a tiny spark can set ablaze! -James

One Word Photo Challenge: Hot

Enveloped, Rested But Reopened

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  In the midst of pain there is a tendency to want to curl up. It feels very much like protection to envelop the most sensitive parts from exposure to outward battering. 

After some of my most heart wrenching moments, I found myself curled in a ball clutching my heart in a desperate attempt to shield it. Enveloped in a few moments of solace.  The problem that developed was dependence on the place that felt safe and distanced from potential discomfort. Even a caccoon which is designed to swaddle the caterpillar during metamorphisis becomes a cage to the butterfly unless she is able to break herself free when it’s time to fly.   Everyone needs a place of respite. A safe place where we can go and rest and feel comforted, and protected, and secure.   But if we remain there too long our ability to function becomes atrophied like unused muscles. Withered. Wasting away.

While we think we are protecting ourselves, it’s easy to lose our ability to freely trust or love or hope. Protection can turn to entrapment. We might begin to feel insecure, doubt ourselves, or fear the pain more than we desire to live fully. At some point we have to allow ourselves to uncurl. 

Open up.

Re-enter our messy, beautiful life.

When the sting of pain begins to wain, extend, move and stretch. Reach for the fullness of life.

Pain is a part of life. We can’t escape it. 

And we can’t hide from it.  “Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid.” ~Buechner


Enveloped

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Enveloped within in each tiny seed is hope. There is more than a wish within its contents. There is promise and potential and grand purpose. 

We must reach beyond what we can see. 

Life is enveloped within the seed.

Humans.

Dandelions.

Oak trees.

Nourishment.

Dreams.

It’s hard to imagine the full potential in small beginnings.

But it’s there. 

Waiting.

Unfolding it is simple.

Don’t hold too tightly to what is.

Release.

Give in and accept change.

Allow time.

Reach for what can be.

WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: Enveloped

Liquids

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   Pour a liquid out of its container, and it changes shape, fills the space you give it. If you give children a lot of space, it may surprise you where they’ll go and the shape they’ll take.

Nancy Gibbs

   
 

Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.

Langston Hughes

  
  
  
  Good coffee is a pleasure, good friends are a treasure.

Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge: Liquids