wonder

enchantment: regaining our sense of wonder and awe

/ Joy Lenton / 8 Comments

enchantment - sky - trees - landscape - sunset - regaining our sense of wonder and awe @poetryjoy.com

“Practicing enchantment is a commitment to seeing the world through new eyes. It means shaking off our cynicism and numbness and rediscovering the world that shimmers behind the everyday.” — Christine Valters Paintner, Earth, Our Original Monastery: Cultivating Wonder and Gratitude through Intimacy with Nature

Life can quickly become humdrum and routine, can’t? Especially after several weeks of the same old same old of being in lockdown. The novelty of being at home full time soon wears off, as those of us used to being housebound know all too well.

With the disenchantment that sets in or the stress of life with covid-19, we can miss the ordinary wonders before our eyes. So as I browsed my poetry files, wondering what soul soothing words I could share with you, I found myself drawn to a poem which features the daily glory of sunset.

My nature poems remind me how dulled my mind has become over the last few weeks, and my heart neglectful in noticing the daily beauty that exists. Maybe you, too, could use a reminder to pay attention?

“Earth’s crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees, takes off his shoes – The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.” — Elizabeth Barrett Browning

It’s good to look outside the window or take a walk if you’re able to, and really notice sky, clouds, leaves, trees, birds and flowers, and appreciate each ordinary day, filled with holy enchantment, for the miracle of creation it actually is.

Evening

it begins
slowly, hushed silence reigns
twilight comes
the poet’s pondering hour
sky is midnight-blue wool skeined

it gives way
yields to misty dove-grey hues
dusk invites
lifting the thin curtain
listening to heaven’s news

I watch and sigh
sky gazing, looking lazy
magnetised
by all this night offers us
and let it amaze me

warm rose tint
seeps into my consciousness
filling clouds
I drink in pale burgundy
while tumbling into rest

ash and embers
tangerine glow tinged with red
a burning fire
vivid sky lit up for miles
I put my troubles to bed
© joylenton

enchantment - evening poem excerpt (C) joylenton @poetryjoy.com

“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.” — Rachel Carson

Relax, kick back, my friend, and enjoy these soul soothing sights of nature’s sunrise and sunset. May you regain awe and enchantment at the wonder of it all. 🙂 ❤

fireworks: an opportunity to experience wonder firsthand – snapshot #2

/ Joy Lenton / 14 Comments

fireworks: an opportunity to experience wonder firsthand - snapshot #2

Our local Lord Mayor’s Procession in July concludes spectacularly, with a brief but rather wonderful firework display. The best thing?  We have a direct view of the free light show it provides from our back garden, even if I have to try to balance on the rockery to see it properly.  🙂

Thankfully, there’s a pretty good view to be had from the front of the house as well. No gymnastics required! Several people line the street to ooh and ahh their way through the firework display. I often try to capture some of it on my phone, with mixed results.

Using a firework mode involves trying to hold the phone steady for the few seconds it takes to create the image. Patience is required. As it is for the best things in life. Though I can miss quite a bit by seeking to secure a memory.

Writing about an experience, especially when I pen the poetic, enables me to recover the magic and savour the joy for a bit longer. I actually took the firework images here and was so gratified by the way they turned out!

Fireworks appeal to all age groups. We enjoy the anticipation and delight that ensues. With showers of coloured light appearing out of nowhere. All of us love to experience a bit of wonder in our lives, especially when it’s unexpected and flares like neon in the dark.

God loves to give us unexpected blessings and graces. His hand on the minutiae of our lives is nothing short of miraculous and can often feel magical. Sometimes we see Him in fireworks. Sometimes He’s the quiet voice sitting by the fire with us.

Fireworks

night squiggles
neon bright, flaring sharp
colour dances
a ballet in the dark
we watch closely, entranced
© joylenton

fireworks tanka poem (C) joylenton @poetryjoy.com

our dark universe is a velvet eternity school for love #thedailyhaiku 10

/ Joy Lenton / 23 Comments

 

We watch diamond-bright stars glinting like tiny jewels set with precision and perfection in an inky, indigo velvet sky and it takes our breath away. Darkness of night always makes the light shine brighter than before. Every shaded thing makes brighter colours sing.

And as we gaze into the heavens, or look closer to home and observe tiny pearlescent beads of dew coating flowers and leaves,  and ponder just Whose caring hand is behind every created thing, we become filled with awe, wonder and gratitude towards our Creator-God for spilling His treasure so lavishly on earth.

Each plant and flower, every drop of rain that falls, all the shining stars and lustrous planets in the universe are tokens and expressions of God’s great Love being made manifest for us. There is spiritual intent behind the daily graces we often take for granted.

Earth can seem so dark at times, filled with so much sadness and pain, yet these symbols are significant in revealing God’s steadiness and faithfulness, as He holds them out to us as a holy offering again and again. In the seeing, with eyes renewed by faith, we begin to trace His love spilling forth in large ways and small, just as we are meant to do.

a velvet eternity

our dark universe

a velvet eternity

it’s a school for love

©joylenton

wonder: maintaining a child-like sense of wonder

/ Joy Lenton / 18 Comments

 

We begin, malleable as clay, newly minted, a wonder to behold. Childhood offers us an enviable openness and innocence that can quickly turn sour, depending on how our way of seeing things is perceived and responded to by our parents and carers.

I was a daydreaming child, prone to wondering (and wandering away). My impatient mother was apt to sigh, snap and tut at her head-in-the-clouds girl. I lived with eyes wide open, heart and mind engaged in a life beyond what adult eyes could see, lost in my own world, where anything was possible.

Dolls were real to me, so I cried when my sister carelessly tossed them down the stairs. They were my playmates, always firm friends, unlike my chameleon twin sister who blew hot and cold with the wind. Competitiveness took the edge off our companionship. Parents who constantly compared us—proverbial chalk and cheese in our character and interests—were of little help in fostering good relationship between us, or igniting wonder we could easily share.

Books soon became my escape route, a convenient hide-away when life became painful, a continual source of wonder and consolation to this day. Here’s the thing: God never meant us to lose our sense of wonder. That’s not what putting childish things behind us is supposed to mean. Child-like wonder is a precious gift we do well to maintain.

We are hard-wired for wonder, made to marvel and created to see and sense the holy beauty and joy that surrounds us each day. Sadly, our hearts can become hard, cynical and cold. We can fail to see that faith is the greatest wonder journey of them all.

I hope and pray the haiku below will help bring back a sense of awe to you during this Holy Week. May God soften and enliven our hearts, open our eyes, saturate us with His joy, fill us with fervent faith and an increasing ability to rejoice and to praise. Maybe then we will be better equipped to live a wonder-filled life.

Tuned to wonder

My heart is wired, tuned

to see wonder in each day

fired by what I spy

©joylenton2017

 

Daily marvel

We wonder, marvel

anew at all God can do

spy his handiwork

©joylenton2017

 

Risen—Holy wonder

Eyes are spying now

transfixed—seeing Jesus’ tomb

wondrously empty

©joylenton2017

 

Linking my haiku micropoetry with  our Poet Master, Ronovan, and fellow poets, as we share our take on this week’s prompt of ‘Wonder&Spy’. Just click here to join me there and read the great posts being shared.

How are you awakening to wonder as we walk this Lenten pathway? I’d love to hear in the comments below.  🙂

No resting place

/ Joy Lenton / 7 Comments

candle image

‘No resting place’

This ugly-beautiful world

wanted no part

of the dawning wonder

for human hearts

Preferring to rage cold

against the Light

Preferring their own darkness

instead of sight

Hope of glory, Hope of grace

the angels sang

While freed from Mary’s womb Your

earthly life began

No glory crown, no resting place

or kingly bed

But cross and nails and pain

ran berry-red

Death and resurrection

to the skies

Comfort of Your Presence in

Holy Spirit sighs

How blind, how hateful, how cruel

mankind can be

While You offer Love, Joy, Peace

to set us free

©JoyLenton2014

no resting place PJ poem pin file image

Come to Him

/ Joy Lenton / 4 Comments

advent WoJ file image

‘Come’

Come to the manger

Come empty

Come dry

You have no need

God cannot supply

Come see the Christ-child

Come wonder

Come kneel

Open your heart

and God will reveal

Come hear the angels

Come listen

Come bring

Your awe, amazement

as heaven’s hosts sing

Come witness Mary

Come ponder

Come pray

Her tender devotions

will show you the way

Come away slowly

Come Hope-filled

Come changed

As you give God your life

it becomes rearranged

©JoyLenton2014

**Unless God indicates otherwise, I am taking a brief blogging break to contemplate more closely the wonder of Christ’s coming to earth, to savour the season and spend quality time with my family. It is my hope and prayer to return early in January to share the words He lays on my heart, including the One Word 365 for 2015.**

I’d like to wish my dear readers and followers a very ‘Merry Christmas’ and a ‘Happy New Year’! Thank you so much for joining me on the journey. I really appreciate you all. Blessings and love, Joy 🙂

heart change PJ pin file image

Seeing beauty in the everyday

/ Joy Lenton / 3 Comments

countryside flowers ~ file image WoJ

Sometimes we don’t have to travel far at all to see the wonder of the world.

It’s right here, on our doorstep.

Well within our vision.

There is beauty in the everyday.

Cause to celebrate the commonplace.

Eyes enhanced by grace see more than meets the eye.

Blessings abounding for the discerning.

We learn to marry the marvellous with the mundane.

I have had my eyes opened to enchantment.

My soul woken to the wonder woven through each day.

Being housebound means that each opportunity and ability to leave the confines of four walls is reason to rejoice.

Yes, even in a hospital waiting room, a trip to the doctor or the dentist! Surprising encounters can lift our days if we look for them.

I record #beautyintheeveryday on my Instagram feed as memory markers for darker, gloomier days.

All around we are offered opportunities to see life and to see it whole, to witness the outpouring of God’s goodness, glory and grace.

A short journey gives me a chance to see abundance of new life as sap rises in Spring, sultry, hazy, lazy days of Summer unfold, Autumn reveals her golden-clothed splendour, and Winter creeps its silvery, icy fingers on the land.

The poem below is celebrating my brief trips out in recent months, with a wistful looking forward to future ones.

‘Sightseeing’

countryside view

I didn’t travel far

beyond my front door

Just sitting in the car

delighting in the things I saw

Landscapes, clouds and sky

spoke out God’s beauty

to me as I watched

and sighed. And trees

bloomed fresh and green

then shed their coat of leaves

in russet-gold of varied hues

midst fluffy-white and cobalt-blue

I didn’t get to see

or smell the salt-tanged air

of sea, or watch as

waves rose and fell

upon the sand

Though my heart desires

to see the coast

and ponder on eternity

as life swells forth

in ebbs and tides

amongst the surf

unto infinity

©JoyLenton2014

coast ~ PJ file pin image

On the cusp

/ Joy Lenton / 8 Comments

Here we stand. On the cusp of uncertainty. Hovering at the edge.

On the brink of possibilities, potential or pitfalls.

Where hope and fear meet. Expectation rises.

Here lies a blank sheet waiting to be inscribed like the pages of a new journal.

Our stories wait to be written.

Our lives stretching out before us in minutes, hours, days yet to be lived.

Our disappointments ready to be consigned to The Past.

For this is a new year approaching ~ opportunity beckons to do things differently.

Are you ready?

‘Anew’

Celebrated arrival cloaked

in virginal innocence

A blank sheet

clean slate

rose-kissed dawn

pregnant with possibility

Viewed with eyes

of wonder

intrigue

suspicion

awe

breath-held fear

and great curiosity

What if?

What if THIS ~

is the time

promises are kept

dreams come true

lessons are learnt

goals are met?

Will problems rule

and reign again?

Will love flourish

or die?

Will we rush

with open-armed embrace

or turn aside?

No easy answers

rise to our lips

This takes

steely determination

raw courage

blind optimism

great faith

As we plunge

into The Unknown ~

unfamiliar territory

enclosed by memory

of past victories

of battles won,

we too

will overcome

©JoyLenton2012

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland” ~ Isaiah 46:18 – 19

Little things count

/ Joy Lenton / 12 Comments

It’s so often the little things that count the most.

A smile at just the right time.

A squeeze of the hand.

A word in due season.

The look in a loved one’s eyes.

A surprise visit or gift.

We value what brings unexpected, unanticipated pleasure, joy and delight.

It’s all the more special for being a surprise.

Or even an everyday occurrence coming into sharper focus for us as we view it anew.

Yet we so often go through our days unheeding the tiny glimmers of grace which God has strewn along our way.

When our eyes are open to the world around us, we can live with a deeper sense of gratitude and praise for all that our Creator God has lovingly fashioned and made.

‘Little things’

Despise not the little things

dew-dappled leaves, hen’s eggs and sparrow’s wings

cumulus cloud now spread thin as entrailed cotton wisps

with no discernible hint of moisture within

Golden patch of sun, scent of rain, a new day begun

as earth shifts into motion once again

with rooster crowing bringing breakfast to mind,

for creatures of every kind clamour to be fed

and given swift their daily bread

Cooling breeze on our extremities as seasons

morph their mosaic coloured hand

upon this ever-changing land

Such things may not amount to much

in mind or eye for you and I

though God keeps careful count

And if we do take note with eyes wide open

to the daily grind we find expectation rise

and cease doing things so much by rote

as we pause afresh in wonder, marvelling

at God’s hand in all we’d cast asunder

when with averted, unconcerned gaze

going blithely dulled, ignorant and unaware

about our moments, hours and days

of all the beauty that little things can bring

to all our thoughts and ways

©JoyLenton2013