nature – Page 2 – Jenny Grace's Poetry and Creative Writing Techniques

Ladybug on a Leaf

This is a photograph of a ladybug that I saw resting on a leaf. I took this photo a few years ago. Just yesterday while I was planting flowers in my garden I saw a ladybug resting on the stem of flower. Resting. Resting beneath the lush petals of a flower.

Resting.

Like the ladybug, we all need to take time to just rest and enjoy the beauty that God has freely given us. God has surrounded us with an absolutely breathtakingly beautiful world.

This week, take some time to just rest and enjoy the beauty that God has so abundantly blessed us all with.

Have a blessed week.

Beautiful World

I was just over at a fellow WordPress blogger Stoner on a Rollercoaster’s site and I saw where she shared a beautiful photo of leaves.

It got me thinking about just how beautiful this world is if we just take the time to open our eyes and receive all the beauty that we are surrounded with.

So, I am sharing a beautiful photo I took a few years back at the local arboretum. It is of a monarch butterfly enjoying its day atop a lantana flower.

Rather than dwell on all the bad news in the world, please turn off your cell phones, I-phones, or whatever social media device that you spend way too much time with. Go out in the beautiful, warm sunshine and really, really observe this amazing world.

Share your photos of nature on WordPress. Just looking at nature can have a calming affect.

Also, I would like to encourage you to drop by Stoner on a Rollercoaster’s WordPress. I truly enjoy her writing. I think you might also, as well.

I hope you enjoyed my photo of the beautiful butterfly and flower.

I hope it gives you joy.

God’s world is indeed beautiful.

Go outside tomorrow and enjoy it.

Have a blessed week.

Path: A Poem

Rolling along a journey’s path,

shadows, shattered shards of pink calcite crushed,

scattered.

Blueberries bouncing off the soggy Georgia red clay; sweet lavender rain washes all the buried sins away.

Haiku: Meadow Song

Nestled atop world

Mockingbird flutters her wings

Misty meadow sings.

Memory Hawks: An Idea Poem

Two hawks soared across the pale blue sky.

Symphony of birds twittered in the oak branches.

A world of flight; nature alive.

Sun not too hot.

A beautiful first day of November.

Odd memory scratches inside my head, reminds me that once upon a time you and I soared across the sky like memory hawks; our feathers entwined.

Squirrel in Winter: Idea Poem

Chilly morning,

squirrel sits atop the wooden privacy fence,

and munches on an acorn.

His fat little cheeks vibrate with joy.

He drops it and jumps along the length of the wooden privacy fence.

The Present

Pictured here is a torii gate that the local arboretum has in its Japanese garden near the tea house. The arboretum is very peaceful with its winding paths, rocks, flowers, trees and shrubs. Traditionally, the torii gate is at the entrance of a sacred space.

This sprawling garden fits my definition of a sacred space.

It is a refuge. It is a place I can go and quietly sit beside the pond and watch the branches of the willow tree sweep into the water and watch the koi fish swim between the willow trees’ delicate, sweeping branches.

The pale blue sky above me and the chilly January breezes remind me of the simple beauty of this life. This life is such a priceless jewel and God has blessed each of us with this day to just bask in the sunlight and to breathe in the sacredness of this moment.

For the next couple of weeks, I am unplugging social media. I do not want to know about those things that trouble me. Yes, I am going to stick my head in the sand and look away.

Only God can change this trajectory of chaos and mayhem.

I can choose to take a deep breath, stay in the moment, go for a peaceful stroll among the ancient oak, pause beneath the red torii gate and consider the sacredness of this space in time.

God has blessed us with so much that we as a society have taken for granted.

I am thankful to God for the beauty of this day.

I am thankful and I give praise to my God for this gift of sacredness.

Pretty Pictures

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It’s been a very long four and half months since I’ve actually taught in the classroom. This morning I returned, but this time with a mask and social distancing. Trust me, that’s difficult when you’re trying to explain a concept and a student asks if you can check their grammar in the paragraph you’ve just assigned. My student and I giggled as we sprayed our hands with antibacterial spray and carefully handled the sheet of paper as if it were a grenade. Our masks obscured our noses and mouths. It felt as if we were either having an early Halloween, an educational masquerade ball, or were extras from the old television show Batman and Robin or the soap opera General Hospital.

While we both were a bit stressed about returning to face to face instruction, we both followed the protocol and actually enjoyed our class. I made sure to disinfect everything as much as possible. It was our first day back and it was successful.

Photography makes me happy. Looking at photos of nature and animals calm me. I wanted to share these with you all. The first picture is a beautiful white duck that used to live in a marsh next to the lake near my house. I love the calming effect of blue and white along with the orange bill of this duck.

The second photo is in Cobh, Republic of Ireland. I took this photo from the window of a tour bus. I thought it was so calming with the soft silvery shadows falling against the late afternoon sky and calm waters.

The third photo is a colorful window box attached to a a happy pink cottage in Bunratty Folk Park, Republic of Ireland.

The fourth photo is a sweet little donkey at Ring of Kerry, the Republic of Ireland.

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This fifth and final photo is of a beautiful white pony at Newtown Farm Guesthouse in Youghal, Republic of Ireland.

Looking at beauty lifts my spirits. As I said, these past few months have been challenging. I feel better getting back into my routine although it is modified. Looking back at these happy memories from my trip to the Republic of Ireland lifts my spirits. They remind me that there is still a beautiful world out there. I can go and see this beautiful world if I choose to. Protocol might be modified, but I have to believe that it will all be better sooner than later. I have to continue to hope and to believe in the future.

I thank all of you for your encouragement during these challenging months.

There is hope for tomorrow. I have to believe that. As soon as I can, I am going to return to the Republic of Ireland and retrace my steps and walk new paths to places I didn’t explore the last time I visited.

Here’s to tomorrow! Never give up hope. Never.

Edge of Summer

photo of tunnel — Photo by Johannes Rapprich on Pexels.com

Edge of Summer

Jasmine scented September morning,

heat lingers at the edge of summer’s dying.

Not defeated this clinging summer, sizzling, hanging on.

Refusal to quit.

At the bottom of my dark tunnel,

I struggle to glimpse the warmth waning like an ember dying.

Tea House

castle — Photo by Evgeny Tchebotarev on Pexels.com

Inside the Japanese tea house,

I listen to water slip over rocks; I am refreshed by the coolness of morning breezes rushing through the open windows.

Birds tweet high above on the delicate tree branches.

I snuggle into the familiar comfort of the sameness of my days.

Sunlight glints off dragonfly wings,

pine branches point God-ward towards the endless blue canopy above the tea house.

Yellow wings of butterflies flutter in the sunlight and alight on the edge of the red window sill, then flutter away like delicate lace in the early morning breezes.

Calmness.

Allowing myself to breathe my own breath.

My poetry book “Life at the End of the Rainbow” is available on Amazon. It is available on Kindle and in paper book. I look forward to receiving your feedback.

Thanks for reading.

-Jenny