{ DAY 398 }

“Mom will you take a walk with me?”  I grabbed a paper bag and some shears and we crunched up the gravel road.  We were off to gather the wildflowers that had been tempting me for days.  Days spent in a place where the river is just a skip, hop, and jump away and where lizards do pushups on any random stone or stump that is in your line of vision.  While the mid afternoon sun hung heavy and warm I snipped the lovely buds and bright colors and gently tucked them away in my bag.  Once home I laid out my treasures and contemplated how to make magic with the bits and pieces I had.  I had a vision in my head of exactly what I wanted.  Braiding long stems of dried grass I began weaving in sweet peas, queen Ann’s lace, other lovely blooms I didn’t know the names of.  Under my fingers a bit of whimsy began to take shape.  A crown of gentle petals and green forest.  A pink bow was the final touch.  And then I pulled on some rubber rain boots and placed the wreath on my head and went outside to chase the fading gold light.  “Whatever are you wearing?” my parents amused faces asked.  I have to admit it was random with the cutoff shorts, silky crumpled shirt, hunter green rain boots and a crown of blossoms but it made me perfectly happy and giddy.  In that moment I felt like a little girl all excited and ready to explore, without a care in the world, all the wonder around me.  Isn’t real life made up of the tiny pieces and bits woven together?  Maybe if we would stop and gather the wild and take the time to see the splashes of color all around us, the sweet peas would turn into sweet moments and the queen Ann’s lace would lace up the broken.  I want my life to be wreathed in pleasure and worship at the One who creates true magic with the word of His mouth.  Everything around us is sustained by His spoken word.  If He were to stop speaking it then it would simply cease to be.  So I swish through tall spears of earth carpet and I climb over the underbrush to get cradled in a tree and the wreath gently hugging my head releases a beautiful fragrance as I breath deeply of life and He speaks.  He has always been speaking and He is speaking now.  Will I listen?  Will you listen?  Let’s be people crowned by joy.

(More pics here…)