Solstice to Solstice :: Light

Be a light unto the world, and hurt it not. Seek to build not destroy.

Bring My people home.

How?

By your shining example. Seek only Godliness. Speak only in truthfulness. Act only in love.

Live the Law of Love now and forever more. Give everything require nothing.
Avoid the mundane.
Do not accept the unacceptable.
Teach all who seek to learn of Me.
Make every moment of your life an outpouring of love.
Use every moment to think the highest thought, say the highest word, do the highest deed. In this, glorify your Holy Self, and thus too, glorify Me.
Bring peace to the Earth by bringing peace to all those whose lives you touch. Be peace. Feel and express in every moment your Divine Connection with the All, and with every person, place, and thing.
Embrace every circumstance, own every fault, share every joy, contemplate every mystery, walk in every man’s shoes, forgive every offense (including your own), heal every heart, honor every person’s truth, adore every person’s God, protect every person’s rights, preserve every person’s dignity, promote every person’s interests, provide every person’s needs, presume every person’s holiness, present every person’s greatest gifts, produce every person’s blessing, pronounce every person’s future secure in the assured love of God.
Be a living, breathing example of the Highest Truth that resides within you. Speak humbly of yourself, lest someone mistake your Highest Truth for boast. Speak softly, lest someone think you are merely calling for attention. Speak gently, that all might know of Love. Speak openly, lest someone think you have something to hide. Speak candidly, so you cannot be mistaken. Speak often, so that your word may truly go forth. Speak respectfully, that no one be dishonored. Speak lovingly, that every syllable may heal. Speak of Me with every utterance. Make of your life a gift. Remember always, you are the gift!
Be a gift to everyone who enters your life, and to everyone whose life you enter. Be careful not to enter another’s life if you cannot be a gift. (You can always be a gift, because you always are the gift—yet sometimes you don’t let yourself know that.) When someone enters your life unexpectedly, look for the gift that person has come to receive from you…I HAVE SENT YOU NOTHING BUT ANGELS.

~ from Conversations with God: An Uncommon Dialogue, Vol. 2 by Neale Donald Walsch
joining urban.prairie.forest for week thirteen of the thirteen weeks of autumn, the solstice to solstice project

Solstice to Solstice :: Still

"I said to my soul, be still, and wait...

So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing."

~ T. S. Eliot

response for week five of the thirteen weeks of autumn
the solstice to solstice project with urban.prairie.forest

Solstice to Solstice :: White

white wispy clouds moving swiftly overhead
white gravestones in the cemetery across the road
white family church peeking out of a blaze of autumn glory

week four of the thirteen weeks of autumn
the solstice to solstice project with urban.prairie.forest

Solstice to Solstice :: Color



A woodland in full color is awesome as a forest fire, in magnitude at least, but a single tree is like a dancing tongue of flame to warm the heart.

~ Hal Borland


response to week two of the thirteen weeks of autumn
the solstice to solstice project with urban,prairie.forest

Solstice to Solstice :: Change

"Autumn is the eternal corrective. It is ripeness and color and a time of maturity; but it is also breadth, and depth, and distance. What man can stand with autumn on a hilltop and fail to see the span of his world and the meaning of the rolling hills that reach to the far horizon?"  ~ Hal Borland

Change is coming to the mountains.

response to week one of the thirteen weeks of autumn
the solstice to solstice project with urban.prairie.forest

Solstice to Solstice :: Sweet

The summer sun is nearly done

Frost will follow soon

Asters and chrysanthemums

Light up the afternoon

The dew is on long after dawn
Mornings are a haze
One swallow's song is holding on
In these fading sweet summer days

~ excerpted from "Sweet Summer Days by Dennis Caraher

response to week thirteen of the thirteen weeks of summer
the solstice to solstice project with urban.prairie.forest

Solstice to Solstice :: White

white

white mist rises from the hollow

as if a plume of smoke

enveloping

developing

into a fog that moves across the meadow

and slowly encloses the farm

in a veil of moist white air

between storms

response to week twelve of the thirteen weeks of summer
the solstice to solstice project with Sarah Jean at urban.prairie.forest

Solstice to Solstice :: Gather

gather

during the heat of the day, the sheep gather

somewhat awkwardly on the side of the hill

taking advantage of the shade trees

each spending some time picking and choosing

what they think is the perfect spot

response for week nine of the thirteen weeks of summer

joining urban.prairie.forest for the solstice to solstice project

solstice to solstice :: light

"Sometimes just looking up and seing the light is enough."

~ Terri Guillemets

response for week eight of the thirteen weeks of summer

the solstice to solstice project with urban.prairie.forest

solstice to solstice :: rest

"Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time."
~ John Lubbock (English biologist, 1834-1913)

response to week seven of the thirteen weeks of summer
the solstice to solstice project at urban.prairie.forest

solstice to solstice :: bare

bare

one lonely bare branch

the favorite hang out for crows

and the occasional hawk

caught in a sunbeam

between storms

response to week five of the thirteen weeks of summer

the solstice to solstice project at urban.prairie.forest

Solstice to Solstice :: Color

~ color ~

response to week four of the thirteen weeks of summer
with urban.prairie.forest in the solstice to solstice project
(alternate caption - aestate lectio interrupta)

please don't forget to comment on Bella's post to enter her give-away!

solstice to solstice :: lazy

"Are cats lazy? Well, more power to them if they are. Which one of us has not entertained the dream of doing just as he likes, when and how he likes, and as much as he likes?" ~Fernand Mery

response to week three of the thirteen weeks of summer
the solstice to solstice project at urban.prairie.forest.

solstice to solstice :: hot

Like most of the rest of the country, we are experiencing extremely high temperatures for this time of year.  We are all seeking shade... wherever we can find it... a little patch here... a bigger patch there.  Every patch of shade has been filled with a resting animal, waiting for the sun to set for a little bit of relief.  We put a hook and eye on the big door of the small chicken coop so that it can be kept open for a little more air circulation.  This, of course, has been a great source of amusement for the chickens, at least those who are not hunkered down in the shade under the coop.
Appropriately enough, urban.prairie.forest chose HOT as the word for week one of the thirteen weeks of summer.  We're joining in today, and when you get a chance check out all the wonderful contributions in The Solstice to Solstice Flickr pool.

solstice to solstice

"Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come."
~ Chinese Proverb

response to week ten of spring
the solstice to solstice project with urban.prairie.forest
please visit the flickr pool for all the wonderful contributions to this project

solstice to solstice :: light

From within or from behind, a light shines through us upon things, and makes us aware that we are nothing, but the light is all.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

week eight of spring in the solstice to solstice project with urban.prairie.forest
please visit the flickr pool for more wonderful contributions

solstice to solstice :: joy

Smell of Fresh blossoms

Sounds of birds as they sing

Joy of life.. joy of being...

... Joy of Spring

~ from 'Joy of Spring' by David Whalen

response to week four of spring
the solstice to solstice project with urban.prairie.forest
many more wonderful responses to this project in the Flickr pool here

solstice to solstice :: rise

Just like moons and like suns,

With the certainty of tides,

Just like hopes springing high,

Still I'll rise.

~ from Still I'll Rise by Maya Angelou

response to week three of spring - rise

the solstice to solstice project with urban.prairie.forest

more responses in the flickr pool here

solstice to solstice :: color

'Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors,

there would be an unbelievable shreiking into the heart of the night.'

~ from Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke

response to spring week two of the solstice to solstice project
with urban.prairie.forest.
check out all the wonderful contributions in the flickr pool

solstice to solstice :: new

Earth is dry to the center,
But spring, a new comer,
A spring rich and strange,
Shall make the winds blow
Round and round,
Through and through,
Here and here,
Till the air
And the ground
Shall be filled with life anew.
~ from Nothing Will Die by Alfred Lord Tennyson