How happily we listen
A beautiful March day at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, 2012
“What can Spring say that other Springs have not already told us? And yet each year, how happily we listen!” — Joan Walsh Anglund
Familiar yet always new, springtime lures us outdoors with warming sunshine, budding trees and bright blooms. Whether your March weather has been more like a lion or a lamb thus far, I hope you will soon experience the mood-lifting promise of a mild, sunny day — the sort of day when almost anything seems possible.
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- Tagged: flowers, fountain, gardens, horticulture, nature, parks, springtime
Defeat Despair 
God Morning, BeLOVE Julia, your thoughts on Spring today reminded me of Jeremiah’s affirmation & praises to the Lord in Lam.3:22-23: “…the Lord’s mercies…They are new every morning; great is Your Faithfulness.” At the time the prophet wrote this; God’s mercies where not visiable, the people of God where suffering greatly; yet, Jeremiah held onto the promise ‘of Spring’ that after the ‘coldness of winter, bareness of earth & strong winds blew’. God had promised His people a glorious Spring to reveal His ‘Great Faithfulness’. Every Spring reminds me, what is hidden will be revealed [the plans He has for us]. In those discouraging ‘barren’ moments we may forget for a time what other ‘Springs’ have told us. God, who cannot lie, is Faithful. “Great is Thy Faithfulness” . Praying a ‘Spring-Filled’ heart for all this morning. agape LOVE.
Thank you Kate, I love the song taken from that passage and have sung it to myself so many times when things seemed impossible; mercies that are new every morning– what a hopeful thought! Thanks for being here and especially for your prayers!
Julia, early morning and I already have a little story of hope to share. We’ve had family visiting in Garden City from Lexington,NC for a week. This was a “bucket list” time for Russ,a cousin, who also is battling cancer and undergoing chemotherapy. He is 49 and determined to see his 50th. At least 30 of the family have driven here to see him this week, at different times. He told us he hopes for quality of life more so than length. He is living everyday to the fullest and the sunshine this morning is what he has given us! Thank you for letting me share that. I have often thought of Russ and Jeff and similarities, knowing they both are very courageous. With a prayer,Sheila
Thank you, Sheila. I am so happy to hear that many of your family were able to come see Russ. I admire his viewpoint and wish all the best for him; there are those who beat the odds, and perhaps he will be one of them. Though I am praying for quality AND length of life for Jeff, I do agree that the quality is what counts. When they first told us Jeff’s prognosis, I told him “even if you only have a year or two left, let’s make those the happiest years of your life.” Braver words than I feel in my heart, but we try to live them each day and I do have a new appreciation for every little and big gift each day. Thanks so much for your ongoing prayers.
Julia, we love a little deeper, don’t we?
Either that, our we are more aware of our love when the future is uncertain. I think so many of our deepest emotions are obscured by the rhythms of everyday life.
The folks in the northeast of our United States will rejoice when spring has truely arrived.
I can imagine that they will! Sometimes I think the reward of living in a really cold climate must be a greater sense of joy when the warm weather comes. Thanks so much for visiting here!
Came across Lam 3:21-23 last night. Again this morning but Katherine’s reply connects very beautifully with your remarks and these verses. Morning by morning new mercies I see. Thank you.
Thank you Victoria. Your words bring to mind another lovely hymn, which continues with the words “all I have needed thy hand has provided.” Thank God for the new mercies of each ! I appreciate your visits here.
Is that a Chihuly schulpture in the foreground? Prolific Seattle glass artist- Dale Chihuly- he has a whole museum size gallery now at Seattle center next to the Space Needle.
Pineapple express from Hawaii today with a warm rain, which seems more tolerable than the usual Artic blast.
Good eye, Mike – I looked it up and it is indeed the work of that artist. Next time I go to Seattle I’ll have to make a beeline for his gallery; the piece in the picture is stunning and I’d love to see more of Chihuly‘s work. I’m happy you are getting some warm weather!
Happy Wednesday to you Julia. Sunny here but still to cool for me. My health is still doing okay. I feel good and do a lot of walking to get my strength built back up. My last lab work showed that my tumer marker A was up again, but doctor said not to worry and I have lab work again the 26th and see the doctor on April 2nd. If it is still up he said maybe a CT scant. He told us that there are many things other than cancer that can make the markers go up. I will keep you up to date and please keep us
Thanks Carolyn. I also have read that the CEA (which is the type of marker they tested Jeff for) can be high for lots of reasons. I remember wondering why they didn’t just test everybody routinely for cancer markers rather than undergo all these invasive tests that don’t always help (Jeff had a clean colonoscopy less than four years before his tumor was found, with distant metastasis! Scary.) I guess the lab work isn’t all that accurate either. I’d much rather trust God than science, since science is so unreliable! But I’d still rather have the two working together as much as possible. We are doing OK and glad to hear you are too. I love walking, wish we lived closer to each other so we could walk together. 🙂
I done know what happened to my computer but I will finish. Please keep us up to date on Jeff. Hope things are better each day for him. Love and hugs to all.
The promise of time outdoors is such a treat after a long winter. I always wonder what it’d be like in a mild climate, do they get as giddy about spring as we do?
Truthfully, I doubt that we get quite as excited about it as you do. We are happy to see the spring come, of course, but in my younger years the main thing that excited me about spring was baseball starting up again! I think that we take warmth for granted in the South, and what I remember getting most excited about was FALL, that delicious time when the dog-day heat first breaks and the scent of autumn is in the air. Of course, on the California coast, we hardly had seasons at all, relatively speaking; flowers bloomed year round there.
Thanks for the hope anyways Julia, this morning…more snow with a rotten 7 day forecast of below -10 C and MORE snow…urg. First day of spring forecast -10C high and -16 overnight. This winter started in October which was unusual but sadly March goes like this most years. Thank goodness we have a holiday booked to California 😀
I’m sorry your weather is not cooperating with the calendar – the first day of spring is less than a week away! YES you will have a blast in CA and you will be there to see the hills in that beautiful green before the sun burns it away to gold. Are you going to keep us posted on your adventures there? I hope so!
Thanks Julia, I hope to post when I’m there. Alys has all kinds of fun adventure lined up! Maybe I’ll interview her in her garden. We’re thrilled to be invited…stay tuned 😀
That would be great fun. Maybe you could even do a video with your new computer! I will definitely stay tuned (assuming I can get up to speed on a different computer and/or get the old one back – Windows 8 is not my cup of tea so far!
I’m glad to know I’m not the only technically challenged individual. It’s hard when you’re used to one thing, I’m stumbling this week too. Kids just adopt things so fast. Just watched the news that reports 70% of grade schoolers have their own iPhone…..Say WHAT? I don’t even have one yet LOL.
I don’t have one either, and if I did, I wouldn’t know how to use it! Today I checked out a copy of “Windows 8 for Dummies” and it’s literally over 1000 pages long. I told Jeff, you know you’re in trouble when the “Dummies” handbook is as big as the LA phone book. I can’t believe 70% of elementary school kids have an iPhone. No wonder everyone is in debt.
A beautiful picture of one of our favorite places in Atlanta! I’ve taken many pictures here but none have turned out as well as this one! Must be the photographer…
Megan, thanks – it may have had something to do with the time of year we were there. What a beautiful place to enjoy spring! Thanks for visiting here.