day 4 of december...

day 4 square of advent calendar

one of the things the bohemian likes to collect are nativities. small to large. primitive to elegant. from all around the world. just to remind her what christmas is all about. what an amazing thing happened when God came to earth as a tiny baby...

Mary did you know that your baby boy will one day walk on water?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will save our sons and daughters?
Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?
The child that you delivered will soon deliver you.

Mary did you know that your baby boy will give sight to a blind man?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will calm a storm with His hand?
Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
When you kiss your little baby, you've kissed the face of God.

The blind will see,
The deaf will hear,
The dead will rise again.
The lame will leap,
The dumb will speak
The praises of the Lamb.

Mary did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will one day rule the nations?
Did you know that your baby boy is Heaven's perfect Lamb?
The sleeping child you're holding is The Great I Am.

words and music by Mark Lowry and Buddy Greene

the proper use of imagination...

"The proper use of imagination is to give beauty to the world... the gift of imagination is used to cast over the commonplace workaday world a veil of beauty and make it throb with our esthetic enjoyment." -Lin Yutang "If eyes were made for seeing, then beauty is its own excuse for being." -emerson "Beauty seen is never lost..." John Greenleaf Whittier morning page: play your heart out...

play your heart out: *with a friend

*in the backyard

*at the beach

*at the fair

*in the art room

*on the computer

a gratitude fling:

*coffee

*rain

*berries for picking

*home-canned vegies

*BBQs

news: 248-dimensional math problem solved!

(wow! it's a mind boggler, isn't it?) morning page: imaginary places to live:

morning page: aging

i grow more intense as i age...Florida Scott-Maxwell other aging-related quotes:

Gilda Radner: "I base most of my fashion taste on what doesn't itch."

Pearl S. Buck: "Ah well, perhaps one has to be very old before one learns to be amused rather than shocked."

anon.:"Age has given me what I was looking for my entire life - it gave me me."

Ralph Waldo Emerson said: "All my best thoughts were stolen by the ancients."

so here i have shared with you some of my thoughts which someone else besides me has written down. let's keep reading and enjoying each other's thoughts! my life has been blessed richly by other's sharing... thank you all!

joy is hiding in plain sight

half-hidden is the bohemian mountain's beauty today. half-hidden is the glory of the sun today. half-hidden is the bohemian's happiness today. not gloomy is she, but low...feeling low today. but there were moments of gladness... small, seemingly insignificant things. things that made her mouth turn up into a smile and her heart jump with a small stab of joy. hidden within the greenery of this bush were the buds of brilliant yellow flowers waiting for their glory moment... waiting...

waiting...

till on this day of half-hidden moments of joy,

came the full-bursting of its hinted splendor!

and yes, it made the melancholy bohemian smile with pleasure.

using the words of the poet John Greenleaf Whittier,

"Close to my heart I fold each lovely thing

the sweet day yields",

the bohemian savored the small remarkable moment.

on such a melancholy day, what soothes the heart better than poetry?

"Ink runs from the corners of my mouth. There is no happiness like mine. I have been eating poetry." -Mark Strand one last half-hidden moment of amusement... black cat made the bohemian laugh out loud. no small accomplishment on such a day as this one... seek the joy even on its hidden days... because life is soooo good.