Tag: creative nature

Rainy Day Happiness

It’s what most would describe as a dreary, drizzly, cold northwest day. I say praise and glory to God for such days. It soothes my soul like nothing else to see the bay blanketed in low-lying sky that makes the world monochrome shades of silver and gray.

To get off work early, drive along the waterfront, find a parking spot and run into the art market for a quick inventory check is happiness. To hear someone was just there asking to see me was pure joy. To sit in my favorite new cafe where everything on the menu is tasty AND healthy is blessed.

Planning to spend this dreary afternoon immersed in creating my next design, wearing my baggy shirt and glue pants – picking the next flower petal to place in just the right spot.. ah what blissfulness. To plan a weekend of reorganizing my space and installing new storage bins– oh my what a glorious time of year!

©Belindabotzong2018

First Best Friends

My daughter left today

My very best friend

Moving forward

Life’s journey

My mom is in the hospital

My first best friend

Moving forward

Life’s journey

I cleaned out my daughters room

Childhood memories and piles of artwork mixed with more piles of seventeen years of school assignments

Some I tossed without a care. Others I kept with a tear. Everything from journals to teeth to her final pacifier. Coins from around the world. Paint brushes to hair brushes. Invitations, celebrations. Report cards and note cards. Whispers of a treasured childhood and exclamations if struggles and victories.

She packed her car and drove away with multiple hugs lingering in my arms and sweet kisses on my face. I see her in my rear view mirror as that precious toddler who cried at my leaving for work. Now I lose a tear at watching her drive away a newlywed with big dreams and plans.

I am her biggest fan and her first best friend. My daughter.

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My mom is medically unstable and poorly responding to treatment, preparing for her journey home to Jesus. Sooner or later.

I imagine soon I will be going through her things and clearing out decades of memories and accumulated items that are profoundly important and those clearly meaningless in the scope of things.

Old bills, photos from a century past, documents and piles of memories and catalogs galore filled with trash and treasures for earthly pleasures.

And I see her in my rear view mirror holding my toddler in her arms and waving goodbye as I headed off to work and she stayed behind to help her grow up.

I will watch her go ahead of me as it should be and she will cheer me on from above as she always has. My biggest fan. My first best friend. My mom.

©Belindabotzong2018

Glorious Sunset Moonrise

The shoreline is quickly crowded with viewers rushing toward a dazzling sunset

Cameras snapping over and over as others sit quietly basking in the glow of red, orange, and yellow streaks across the sky

There is a holiness to the hush as the sun dips into the sea and as if on a pulley, the full harvest moon arises in sync with the sunset.

Without realizing, the crowd is being awed by the creator of all things —

light, darkness, seasons, change,

even the ability to appreciate the gift of nature’s art

All created by a living, loving, masterful artist.

He is the Lord God who has lifted the same moon over centuries.

He has pressed the same sun into the same ocean of millennia.

He has painted the same sky over and over for time infinitum.

He has turned the pages of the seasons repeatedly over generations.

And still his most beloved creation, you, me, the homeless, the wealthy, the weakest, the strongest, the worn down and the high and mighty, all stop to acknowledge the stunning beauty and majesty of a sunset. A moonrise.

Who ever said, “how boring” as the sun blazed brilliant colors across the sky?

Who ever didn’t gasp at the enormity of a harvest moon in all its glory?

Who says it’s all just a monotonous routine, the rising, the setting, the brilliance, the tides, the change of seasons, the ebb and flow of life?

The stunning beauty of it all should ignite a spirit of praise within us that leads to complete devotion to the most high God, to the most magnificent artist, to the creator of heaven and earth.

©Belindabotzong2018

Garden Fireworks

Garden fireworks ignited by radiant sunset beams

Bursting with vibrant arrays of red, pink, yellow, and orange

Garden candy sweetened with nectar for the honeybees to engorge their striped bellies, intoxicated

Dahlias delightful celebration of summer ending. Welcoming fall with flamboyance

©Belindabotzong2018

Welcome Back Autumn

The winds of change are blowing

Leaves tumble and twirl in delight

Autumn arrives with a wet kiss on summer’s cheek

Refreshing the earth, the air, my soul

Days darken sooner with a refreshing coolness

Night lingers longer with a crispness in the morning breeze

Welcome back Autumn!

©Belindabotzong2018

Sunrise

I sit and watch the river meander

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Twisting and turning down the path of least resistance

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Swirling past boulders to create a churning mosaic reflecting the sky

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Maples with floppy yellow leaves release helicopter seeds swirling and spinning in the gentle mountain breezes

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Dew drops sparkle, clutching the edges of the long, sharp needles of the dark drooping limbs of ponderosa pine

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Pine cones dropping with a plunk to the dry grassland beneath

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Startling mother Quail with her youngsters hiding in the bush and blue jays squawking opinions from above

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Buttermilk clouds filter the stream of morning sunlight

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Last sunrise of vacation

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©Belindabotzong2018

Seeking Serenity

Construction noise overrides the ripples of the river

Traffic sounds pulse over the chirping birds

I long for silent serenity

Not deafness to the world around me

Not solitude that separates me from loving Or creates insensitivity to the needs of others

But solace in the sitting and pondering and praying

Waiting for a peaceful surrender to serenity

As if I were the river with deep undercurrents of creative, passionate, and inspired ideas

As if I were the boulders in that river –strong, sturdy, solid — taking all the pressures and letting them roll right over me as I redirect their path

As if I were the pine tree planted beside that river with my feet steady, towering over the troubles that flow down that river, standing strong against the ever changing winds and enduring the storms that strengthen but don’t harden me

I find peace and serenity in the ever flowing, ever strong, and ever steady, continuous river, as it pours over boulders, surrounded by trees and mountains and I am compelled to praise their creator.

©Belindabotzong2018

Morning in Leavenworth

Bright face of sunshine rises above

Hues of pine, spruce, and fir against

Cerulean sky backdrop

Lazy, shallow, dark currents of river caress boulders and ripple over pebbles

Meandering toward the sea in no hurry to leave this place of rich beauty

Flocks of birds call out musical notes

Trills like flutes and squawks in deep baritone

Hawks swoop and soar like a maestro

Orchestrating another beautiful day in Leavenworth

©Belindabotzong2018