still out here…wandering… but blessedly not lost

“What is a vocation?
It is a gift from God, so it comes from God.
If it is a gift from God, our concern must be to know God’s will.
We must enter that path: if God wants, when God wants, how God wants.
Never force the door.”
St. Gianna Molla

(a little pearl crescent visits the black eyed susans/ Julie Cook/ 2022)

“Whenever anything disagreeable or displeasing happens to you,
remember Christ crucified and be silent.”
St. John of the Cross

Life has been busy…which is a good thing…
And yes, I’m still out and about wandering.
But what we do know is that all who wander, are not lost…
or so says Gandolf in his letter to Frodo from J.R.R Tolkien’s The Hobbit…

Blessedly, I’m slowly finding my way and feel lost no more.

So while I was out happily wandering… I wanted to share a few shots from around my new area.

I’ll be back here in Blogland on a more regular basis shortly,
but until then…here are a few images of God’s goodness—
please enjoy…

“Let us beware of complaints, resentments,
and evil-speaking against those who are ill-disposed to us,
discontented with us, or hostile to our plans and arrangements,
or who even persecute us with injuries, insults, and calumnies.
Rather let us go on treating them as cordially as at first,
or more so, as far as possible showing them esteem,
always speaking well of them, doing them good, serving them on occasion,
even to the point of taking shame and disgrace upon ourselves,
if necessary to save their honor.
All this ought to be done, first, to overcome evil with good,
according to the teaching of the Apostles; and secondly,
because they are our allies rather than our adversaries,
as they aid us to destroy self-love, which is our greatest foe;
and since it is they who give us an opportunity to gain merit,
they ought to be considered our dearest friends.”
St. Vincent de Paul, p.413

(a hungry bumble bee / Julie Cook/ 2022)

(a pollen encrusted bumble bee visits a rose of Sharon /Julie Cook/2022)

(a pollen encrusted bumble bee visits a rose of Sharon /Julie Cook/2022)

(knockout rose / Julie Cook / 2022)

(knockout rose / Julie Cook / 2022)

(a little skipper butterfly visits a joe pye weed/ Julie Cook / 2022)

(a little skipper butterfly visits a joe pye weed/ Julie Cook / 2022)

Good to the last drop

“We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean.
But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.”
Mother Teresa

(a fiery skipper works his charms on a butterfly bush / Julie Cook / 2015)

(a fiery skipper works his charms on a butterfly bush / Julie Cook / 2015)

I’m off to Dad’s today, a day which is now known as a Dad’s day. . .
We’re heading back to the doctor, again.
Just a follow up however or so says the doctor. . .with Dad asking if leaving the house is really necessary—
“Vitamin D dad, you know. . .as in the sun. . . that big hot yellow ball in the sky. . .
it might like to see you every once in a while. . .
You know those folks who suffer in the winter from SAD, that seasonal affective disorder which effects moods due to a lack of exposure to the sun, well. . .I think Dad has had a permeant very pale case. . .

I thought it would be nice to have happy thoughts today as one (in this case moi) never knows what one will find on the other end of the highway (aka at Dad’s). . .
The end of last week was not good—but things seem to be leveling back into place for the time being. . .hence the need for happy thoughts!!!

I just wanted to leave you today with the happy images of a little fiery skipper working hard at getting every last drop of nectar out of the butterfly bush. . .

Here’s to a happy Thursday to all!!!

(a skipper works his charms on a butterfly bush / Julie Cook / 2015)

Tiny treasures

Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.
Golda Meir

True life is lived when tiny changes occur.
Leo Tolstoy

(a tiny Gray Hairstreak tiptoes on the sedum / Julie Cook / 2015)

In all truth, it is in the tiny, the small and the demure where we are to find real strength and value.
It is not to be found in the grand, the exquisite, the large or the garish for that is too easily recognized and assumed.

Contrary to popular thought, the tiny and small will never be lacking–for within those often hidden tiny treasures is a wealth of wonder and joy. . .

(a tiny Gray Hairstreak tiptoes on the sedum / Julie Cook / 2015)

(fiery skipper amongst the heather / Julie Cook / 2015)

(a thread-waisted wasp visits the heather / Julie Cook / 2015)

(fiery skipper amongst the heather / Julie Cook / 2015)

(a most welcomed visitor to the heather, a honey bee / Julie Cook / 2015)

“But where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? “Man does not know its value, Nor is it found in the land of the living. “The deep says, ‘It is not in me’; And the sea says, ‘It is not with me.”Pure gold cannot be given in exchange for it, Nor can silver be weighed as its price. “It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, In precious onyx, or sapphire. “Gold or glass cannot equal it, Nor can it be exchanged for articles of fine gold. “Coral and crystal are not to be mentioned; And the acquisition of wisdom is above that of pearls. “The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it, Nor can it be valued in pure gold.
Job 28:12-19