It was a beautiful day to be outdoors. It was just cold enough to see icicles in places. Not as many icicles as the very first time I was out there, but enough for me to enjoy.
There is something about the way the light shines through the ice that captures my attention. The glint and glow of the light is beautiful. The shape of the icicles and is another aspect that captures m attention. Some have jagged edges and points while others have rounded ones.
Icicles. Because they fascinate me, I decided to look them up and learn more about them. Icicles are truly more amazing then I had originally imagined. I found an article in the Washington Post from February 2014 about them that shared insight into this beauty of nature. I was intrigued to learn that icicles and mystery go hand in hand. For me, to learn that icicles contain an aspect of mystery and that they are part of God's creation that contains quite a bit of mystery. Well, for me, that is very cool! (No pun intended ☺.)
There were many blessings from the outing. Among them: walking along the path, listening to the sounds of nature, seeing the icicles, skipping rocks, taking in the beauty of the place, and sharing stories of graduate school and life with a friend.
It seems that each time I go there, I see something for the first time or find something.
At the "end" of the trail (where it is too cold to cross and get one's feet wet right now), we spent time at that "beach" area skipping rocks and just enjoying the sounds and sights. I looked down where the smaller creeks runs into the larger one and saw a small black rock barely covered by water. I picked it up. It is thin and almost perfectly round, approximately the size of a dime. It was as if I was blessed by one of God's dimes this time instead of a U.S. Treasury one. Hmmmm........ ☺
We stopped at the first "beach" area on the way back and the formation of the rock and the way the sand was layered on the top caught my attention.
Today, as rain gently drops and plops onto the roof, I'm glad that I got outside yesterday. It was good for my body, my mind, and my soul.
Today's rain is needed to replenish the earth, so I don't mind the drops. I do miss being outside. If it were warmer, I might be out in the rain. Just as we need both sunshine and rain for the growth cycle of all the creation surrounding us, we need "sunshine" and "rain" in our lives spiritually in order to nourish us toward growth. There are times when we are spiritually dry and thirsty and we need to be replenished by the living water through Scripture, worship, prayer, spending time with God. We can soak in the presence of God as one soaks in the sunshine for Vitamin D through prayer, silence, worship, reading Scripture. How we go about those different aspects depends on where we are in life, what amount of time we have, our personalities, whether or not we're willing to move out of our comfort zones.
Maybe it's because of my age and stage in life or that my brain stays "on" so much, but I find that what fills me up most these days when I'm hungry and thirsty is quiet time, reflective time, silence and solitude time. That "be" time where I can "be still and know".
What about you? When you begin to hunger and thirst, what fills you up?
Blessings on your journey,
Debra ☺
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