Something amazing happened today.

But you will not read about it in any news headlines.  

Most people will never know about it.
Yet, today, this really happened. 

I saw it. 
I was there.

If I had been in a hurry, I would have missed it.  But I wasn’t.  
Today, I had time to breathe.  
Time to look.  
Time to see.  

Oh, in your busy, stressful day today, I wish you could have the chance to see this.

In the foggy gray expanse of the Northlands, the Canadian wind brought in fog, which kissed the tops of the branches in spikes of hoarfrost and chilled the woods.  And this very day, a simple, frozen field and forest were transformed into gleaming acres of Silver and Gold.

I shivered, captivated by the silver frost and the golden fields.  

Sometimes, when I see beauty like this, nothing seems the same.  It seems that God himself reaches out and gives me peace.  And that changes everything.  My troubles disappear, and stress melts like snow on a roof in May.  Dripping fast, gone for a long, long time.

I can’t solve the world’s problems.  I can’t fix a broken world.  But instead of adding to all the pain and sorrow, the troubles real and borrowed, I can give you, and the world, this silent moment: 

Silver Frost and a Golden Field.

Because this really happened today.  I saw it.  I was there.  

Maybe it will melt some of your troubles away, too.

Since I wrote about my love of the woods yesterday, it got me thinking…

I have lived in cities, I have lived in the desert.  I have lived in a field, I have lived in suburbia.  For a short while, I lived above a pizza restaurant.  No matter where I live, I always seem to long for the woods.  

Once, all alone in Ireland, I walked a woods that I’ll never forget.  It was a planting of trees, up a steep climb, on the edge of a salt marsh.  I climbed the hill, and stepped out of the sunshine and into a magical, soft shadowy place.  Parallel rows of a thousand trees surrounded me.  They were ancient spires, reaching up to heaven.  The cushion of thick pine needles gave a spring to my step and hushed all sound.  

I was alone… until the song of an unknown bird sparked the air, electrifying it with musical notes that were echoed far up into the branches.  I only saw the shadows of their wings flitting and darting away.  I watched the tide come in from the cliffside. It flooded the salt marsh with energy and life, but soon would leave again.  And the marsh would sleep once more, at the edge of the wooded hill, yellow blossoms bobbing their heads in the grassy places.  

This day, I am far from Ireland.  

Snow blankets my present world in a quilt of peace, and I want to share that peace with you.  If you had the chance today, I know you would leave the bustle and noise of the city and the desert, the field and even suburbia to share in this peace.  

So, these photos are for you…Peace.

Dear Readers,  
I'd like to give you a flower.  Actually, I'd like to give you a whole armload of them.  I am kind of obsessed with their beauty.  When I was a kid, I worked for years in a commercial flower garden.  I pulled weeds, and dug rain trenches and battled horseflies...it was hard and sweaty work.  But every time it rained, it was my job and incredible privilege to take off my shoes, and walk barefoot through the puddles of the soggy flower farm, gently shaking the raindrops off of the petals.  When the sun comes out after a rain, the sun's rays magnify through any droplets of water on the blossoms, and cause small burn spots.  No one wanted that!  So, I actually was paid to be the Rain Drops Shaken Off the Petals Girl.  What a glorious job.  Every person in the universe should have a task like that, at least once in his or her life.   
I may possibly have twenty years' worth of my flower photography hobby archived on my computer.  In honor of that, and my intense love of flowers, I will give you a bloom every Sunday...
Collect them.  Enjoy them!  They are just for you.

No profound thoughts today at all... It's just a hang in there day.  
However, I will share one of my all-time favorite photos with you.  How many faces can you find in the cliff?  Some days I feel like the tree in this cliff, but today I feel more like the rock faces...  I'd like to ask God and the universe, why is there a tree growing out of my face?    : )

Last week, a thousand ducks descended on a lake nearby.  Or so it seemed.  They were everywhere, flapping, calling, swimming, squawking… and not a hunter in sight.  Speckling the lake, splashing and dancing in migration preparations, they were leaving soon.

In marveling at their fleeting beauty, I almost ruined the moment.

“Ugh!”  I complained.  “They are so amazing, I can’t believe I don’t have my camera!”

Small One piped up. “Don’t worry, Mama.  I’ll take a picture of them!”  She opened her eyes wide, framed her hands and made a clicking noise.  “See?  I took a picture.  Now I’ll remember it forever, ‘cause I have a camera in my mind.”

Hey!  I’m the artist, why didn’t I think of that?

Autumn is here.  

This week I spent an afternoon teaching my teen daughter about photography.  We walked a path of leaves and silence, examining landscapes and logs and waves and thistle down about to take flight.  I am so grateful for that time with her.  The days are fleeting, like autumn, and you’ve got to cherish every lovely moment that you’re given.  I hope the wonders of nature are captured in her photographs, and that she’ll remember this day.  And maybe she will always take time to look at leaves and the small things in life that make all the difference. 

Just before dusk, a bald eagle flew overhead, landing on a branch above us.  It stayed with us just a short while, majestic and magnificent.  Then it was gone.  

Like Autumn will be.