I’m standing at the top of my steps taking a photo of the lawn to the driveway. This is usually covered with leaves, but the windy days have cleared the slope. The angle of the photo doesn’t clearly show the leaves at the bottom … see photo below.
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Wet eaves at the edge of the lawn/driveway just waiting for me to hurry to the car and slip and slide. My lawn to the driveway is my natures “slip and slide” year ’round.
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I love the sound of crunching leaves
under my feet….
When the leaves fall,
before they blow away,
I love to go out in the yard
and walk thru the red, yellow, orange
leaves that have fallen from my trees
or blown in from the neighbors yards.
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There always comes a time,
in the fall, when the rains come,
new leaves fall into the puddles,
and walker beware !
My yard is a steep slope
to the driveway.
At the end where I walk
down over the lawn covered
in crunchy leaves,
puddles lurk for walkers unaware.
The leaves crunched under my boots
until they didn’t:
I slipped and landed
sitting in a puddle !
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Candles and icons create the welcoming, quiet space for Taize, an ecumenical service at St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church, in Ellsworth, Maine. Taize need not be held in a church, but this night it was.
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This icon belongs to Carmen Greene, of Mount Desert Island.
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Diana Gazis provided an icon brought from Greece by her monther in law in the 1950’s. It is in a Gordon’s Gin Bottle. I am fascinated by what the process must have been to create this icon in a glass bottle.
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A second icon in a small bottle…you can compare to the tea lights at the sides of the photo. This also is over fifty years old and from Greece.
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Taize Worship
An Ecumenical Service
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” We need to find God,
and God cannot be found in
noise and restlessness.
See how nature –
trees and flowers and grass –
grow in silence.
See the stars, the moon
and the sun,
how they move in silence.
The more we receive in silent prayer,
the more we can give
in our active life.“
~ Mother Theresa
About Taize
(pronounced ta-zay)
The Village of Taize is the setting
for the monastery founded in 1940
by Brother Roger Scholz.
The monks and visitors there
formed an ecumenical community
living, working, and praying together,
and bringing a message
of peace and reconciliation.
The Taize service we use today
comes from this community.
It is a form of ecumenical Christian worship
centered on Scripture, prayer, and chant,
interspersed with periods of silence.
Over the years this service
has evolved into a style that is
meditative yet accessible to everyone,
even the un-churched.
There is no sermon, no reciting of creeds
and no members-only sacrament.
A darkened sanctuary, candles, and icons
help create a meditative mind.
Simple and quiet,
leaving plenty of room for reflection,
it requires only your prayerful presence.
This information was taken from
the service bulletin .
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These are two of my icons. The ornate icons are from Kiev, Ukraine brought to me, by a friends son, within the last ten years. The two smaller icons were a gift within the past ten years and are the plain, simple versions of the more ornate icons.
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You can’t see the wind, but you can see that it is blowing with the flag waving.
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The wind blowing the tops of the trees behind the house across the way from mine. You can’t see the wind, just the movement of the trees.
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Who has seen the wind,
neither I nor you.
Who has felt the windows
shudder at the strength
of an unseen force ?
Or heard the crash of a tree
as it splintered and fell,
as if an unseen hand
of some passing force
toppled it like a toothpick.
I know I have,
have you ?
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Who has seen the wind,
neither I nor you.
Who has felt a chill
to the bone or soul,
as if a message were
sent from above.
I know I have,
have you ?
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Who has seen the wind,
neither I nor you.
Who has felt the wind,
a gentle breeze,
a gust or great burst
and thought
they felt the breath of
a holy spirit,
speaking to one’s soul.
I know I have,
have you ?
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siggiofmaine 