We live in a time when images continue to become more and more popular. We see them in such a variety of places now: ads, power point presentations, as logos to go with tag lines. In fact, visuals are so in demand now, we have to buy an increasing number of them for the privilege of using them! People have been yearning for this time of more images, I think, because “a picture really is, worth a thousand words.” So, here comes my plea. Don’t miss out on the visual invitations of spring. Get up, get outside, and look deeply there. It’s a visual feast in
California, (and likely soon to come to you if you are elsewhere), for anyone longing for nourishment from evidence of hope alive, new possibility coming, the promise of new life at hand. Flowers and the wider visual of creation is the most organic sacred gift to encourage, inspire and motivate us. With that fragrance we take in knowing such goodness for our lives, and the reminder to live bringing that same nourishment and scent into the lives of others.

And the best part about these image? Well, they are the most convenient and vivid ones we could ask for. They doesn’t have to be downloaded. They’re right outside our door all the time. The colors of these real deals beat any technology found in our best TV’s or cameras these days. And, access is free! Creation is designed like an incredible rotating digital picture frame at hand constantly, cycling forth beauty and connectedness, an unfolding of the consistent movement from death to life, from seeming nothingness to seedlings and then full GREEN leaves or colorful blossoms. Trees right now vary from being still closed to leaves unfurled in every shade of green. Wildflower are still coming some places and are a field of color like a Monet painting in others. All offers a mirror to us and the world as we vary in degree of closed or openness … as some yet yearn for life as others feel the fullness of life right now.

Ah Spring, ultimate image. God’s holy portal. Earth’s pop-up book for inspiration,
motivation, recalibration! With your active images those weary in the work of justice find the old Mexican proverb rising up in them, “They thought they would bury us, but they didn’t realize we were seeds!” In your multitude of active images, the color and fragrance of hope is hoist upon us! With the growing display of beauty, each day creation cries out “you, too, were made for this, given good seed in the ground if your being to rise up and ripen for reaping a harvest of love, justice, and peace in the garden of all! Ah Spring, saying with color and movement, “Savor me! Nourish the ground of your being, the soil of your soul; then notice and claim your own color and movement for the tending of your life, and the larger
community plot you share in. Together make a fresh pop-up book, for the inspiration, motivation, recalibration of yet others! As freely, and vividly as I have given myself, so give yourselves to further the greening movement.” Take flowers into your home, and then get the flower of your being outside. Both invite our stems to rise a little taller and our petals to find a little more color like a well-watered plant. It’s the kind of action that creates a domino affect, turning all creation one more click toward the fullness of life she was made for. Blessed be.