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All Sparkled Up

~ Like dew hanging from the tip of a leaf, a single bead or word adds sparkle where there was none. BE the bright!

All Sparkled Up

Tag Archives: nature

Don’t miss it

23 Monday Jan 2017

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, allsparkledup, color, encouragement, gardening, nature, photography, sparkling, sunlight

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encouragement, macro, nature, photography, sparkling, sunlight

Yesterday I took a poinsettia outside to shake out the dead leaves. One leaf from the poinsettia had fallen. And then it rained during the night.

The day was busy but from the dining room, the tiny sparkle caught my eye.

The poinsettia leaf was no longer on the plant. During the night, it rained.

The poinsettia leaf was no longer on the plant. During the night, it rained.

I looked closer and it was even sparklier.

The poinsettia leaf had fallen but it was still good for something. It held rain.

The poinsettia leaf had fallen but it was still good for something. It held rain.

What are you missing today? Is there something you need to look at? What is tiny and quiet that you forgot? Love it all. And if you’re what has fallen, collect light from where you are.

Even a fallen leaf can still be bright. Don't waste anything, even hitting bottom.

Even a fallen leaf can still be bright. Don’t waste anything, even hitting bottom.

Never give up.

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Eyes on Succulents

13 Sunday Nov 2016

Posted by Julia Monroe in funny, gardening, nature, photography, Uncategorized

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funny, gardening, nature, photography, succulents

All eyes are on succulents.

Today is a great day for #7 from the previous post. “Laughter can be The Best Medicine Ever. You’ve got to try it! Read humor, watch comedy, laugh with family and friends. Don’t just hope laughter might happen, deliberately make it happen.” – from 31 Wonderful Things Severe Pain Taught Me

Scruffy succulent.

Scruffy succulent.

We are gathered here together...

We are gathered here together…

Sopranos, go for the high notes... Bass, pick up the volume...

Sopranos, go for the high notes… Bass, pick up the volume…

Succulent solo.

Succulent solo.

Chirp, chirp.

Chirp, chirp.

Oooo, that's scary!

Oooo, that’s scary!

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31 Wonderful Things Severe Pain Taught Me

19 Wednesday Oct 2016

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, allsparkledup, encouragement, God, Inspirational, nature, Scoliosis, Uncategorized

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

All Sparkled Up, allsparkledup, encouragement, inspirational, nature, pain, photography

31 Wonderful Things Severe Pain Taught Me

He gave me a bouquet.

He gave me a bouquet.

1. Your mind is very powerful. “Mind over matter” makes sense when you’re dealing with crippling pain. Fill your mind with wisdom and knowledge. There is plenty of room for thoughts that aren’t related to your pain at all.

2. You’ve heard it said, but those who have been there truly know: You ARE much stronger than you ever thought humanly possible. If you think today’s pain is a 10, downgrade it to a six. Then rejoice that you’re still 4 away from max.

3. There may or may not be another day. But time is on your side. Time is not the enemy because God is in charge of your time. And God never makes mistakes.

4. You CAN adapt.

5. These statements are simultaneously true: Things can always get worse… AND… This is the worst it will ever get. Which means this moment, right here, right now, can be the most fantastic moment you’ve ever had. Make it that way.

6. There are many ways of coping with pain. If one way doesn’t work, try something different.

7. Laughter can be The Best Medicine Ever. You’ve got to try it! Read humor, watch comedy, laugh with family and friends. Don’t just hope laughter might happen, deliberately make it happen.

8. Distractions are valuable. Listen, taste, see, smell, feel something new. Enjoy it slow.

9. Friends are pure gold, whether they’re wearing skin or fur.

10. Don’t let the sick part of you stop the healthy part of you. Let pain take up only its own space. If your head hurts but your hands are fine, let your hands delight in the day.

11. It’s never too late to learn something new, even something challenging. Learn a new language, study geography, literature, science, art.

12. There is a time to fight pain and a time to roll with pain. When pain is an ocean, be a fish.

13. Always take a little less pain medication than you need. Learn to be comfortable with pain instead of always trying to banish it.

14. Be glad if you have identified your pain-bearing limit. Then work to stretch it further.

15. You CAN do this! You can live WITH pain. Don’t listen to any voices that say you can’t. Don’t listen to voices that only want to lay pity on you. They aren’t helpful and you end up stuck in a swamp.

sunset-beach-nc-6139

16. It’s OK to cry. Let your eyes express and acknowledge pain. But remember to let your mouth smile. Your mouth is good for that.

17. Pain is divisive. It will divide parts of your body from functioning together. It will divide people from functioning together. Fight against further dysfunction. Recognize the crevasses caused by pain and build bridges to go over.

18. Remember that this life is not the end. We were created to live after our bodies can’t go further. This life is the path to the next.

19. Pain is a heavy weight, sticky and personal. Don’t make your pain an issue that pulls others down into the stickiness. Let others help lift you up from it.

20. Pain is a noun. Give it a name… like Motivator, Teacher, or Police. Artist, Poet or Musician. Rest or Transformation. Never let pain become Politician, Spoiled Child, Bully or Tyrant. Make your pain the noun you want to live with.

21. Pain is a story, with a beginning, middle and end. Write the story you want pain to be.

22. If you face pain, face it fully. If you run from pain, don’t miss the scenery.

23. You do have a strong will. But maybe you let it get weak. Work at strengthening your will power.

24. Pain is dark. Find ways to add more light. There are always ways to add light. Find ways to “Be the Bright.”

25. There will always be something excellent that you can derive from pain. Don’t look for the damage pain caused, look for the benefit.

26. Don’t confuse fear with pain. Fear can be conquered even if pain can’t be.

27. Everyone has pain. You are NOT alone.

28. Pain can be ugly or beautiful. You’re in charge of that.

29. Don’t let pain get louder than it should be. Pain only has a voice if you give it one. If Pain needs to speak, try letting it speak through writing, through painting, through music. Some of the most beautiful art in this world was created with pain.

30. Listen to other people. Even if that’s all you can do, it’s ok to just listen.

31. God is here now and he knows everything about pain. Have some great discussions on the topic with him.

I’m praying for you. Sometimes it’s not about the completed painting, the final finish line. Today there is beauty in the brushstrokes, the breaths taken one after the other. Today the beauty is in the heartbeat and the single footstep, the eye contact and hand holding.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Every breath has enormous value.

You can do this!
sunset-beach-nc

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The Day the Baby Hawks Learned to Fly

23 Friday Sep 2016

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, encouragement, Inspirational, nature

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

birds, hawks, inspirational, nature, photography

The Hawk family lived in the trees in our backyard for over a decade. I never paid attention to them until 2014. During 2014, my recovery from spinal surgery meant most days were spent dealing with pain. So getting outside was still a big deal for me. And all that un-busyness gave me more time to notice details. Like the incessant squawking from little birds.

Every spring, the hawks make a terrible racket. But I never looked out my window. That fine day in 2014, I decided to look out the window. And I saw a very large bird on the ground in the backyard. I grabbed the camera and ever so slowly, crept up to the bird. I had no idea that the bird couldn’t fly. Which explains why it didn’t move and let me get very close.

1a-baby-hawks-2014

1b-baby-hawks-2014

1c-baby-hawks-2014
There was some kind of tissue in the bird’s beak so it must have been eating recently.
1d-baby-hawks-2014

1e-baby-hawks-2014
There was a second baby hawk over on the logs of the wood pile. Like the first one, it didn’t move.
2-baby-hawks-2014
I talked to the hawks, encouraging them to fly, so I could catch photos of those early flights. But the birds didn’t move. The one on the wood pile was silent, but the one in the yard made a lot of noise. I went back in the house in case I made the birds nervous. The one in the yard finally ran across the yard into the trees. But it didn’t get off the ground.

Hours later, I went back out to see where the birds were. One was still on the wood pile. The other one was climbing a tree, making a lot of racket and flapping wings, but not flying.
3a-baby-hawks-2014
The hawk then got stuck on some branches. I watched helplessly.
3b-baby-hawks-2014

3c-baby-hawks-2014

3d-baby-hawks-2014

3e-baby-hawks-2014

The bird would occasionally stop flapping its wings and just hang from the branches, wing extended. It looks so awkward, painful and frustrating!

I really related to that bird. So much pain and it seemed that I would never recover from surgery. It was over a year and a half since surgery. Why was I still in so much pain and so immobile? I spent weeks and weeks sitting still against a heating pad, pacing around the house, impatient to mend. But there was absolutely nothing I could do to hasten the healing. It just had to take time.

Looking through the camera lens was sometimes difficult, since I couldn’t look up very well. My eyes blurred with pain a lot.

I heard a very small squawk high in the trees, pointed my lens and took a picture. It had to be the mother. She stayed close and watched her babies like… well, like a hawk. She never took her eyes off them.
4a-baby-hawks-2014
When I looked at the photos later, I discovered that the mother hawk was holding a snake! That explained the shreds of tissue in the baby’s beak.
4b-baby-hawks-2014
I imagined the birds were making such a racket that the mother pushed them out of the nest mid-meal. “If you two don’t shut up, I’m kicking you out!” I imagined her saying. But she cared enough about them that she didn’t take her eyes off them, especially when they were on the ground, unable to fly.

All day long I frequently looked out the kitchen window, hoping to capture the first flight. But the birds took their time. One chattered incessantly, the other was mostly silent. At one point, the silent one was up in a tree and I was glad to see it had successfully gotten off the ground. It sat on the limb with one leg up. For a long time, one leg in the air, perfectly still.
5-baby-hawks-2014
The mother hawk ate more snake. But she didn’t come down from her high perch, where she kept an eye on the two.
6-baby-hawks-2014
Evening came and I checked the hawks again. The one that spent so much time stuck on a branch was no longer there. There was one on a favorite old tree, its head tucked tight under its wing for the night.
7-baby-hawks-2014
I prayed for the hawks, that the missing hawk didn’t get eaten by some wild critter in the woods.
The next morning, the mother hawk was in her high perch, watching closely over her babies.
8-baby-hawks-2014
Both the baby hawks were in their favorite tree. How glad I was to see them safe!
9a-baby-hawks-2014
They still must not have been good at flying or hunting. One hawk kept crying loudly all day long. I could just picture the conversation..
“I’m STARVING! I’m gonna die!!!” said the noisy hawk.
“Well, you shouldn’t have gotten us kicked out of the nest. We were right in the middle of breakfast!” said the other.
“We’re GONNA die. I know it! I’m Starved! STARVED, I tell you! I’m GOING TO DIE!!” said the noisy one.
“Oh shut up,” said the quiet one.
9b-baby-hawks-2014
Birds are so dramatic.

I marvelled over the hawks, and felt a keen gratitude that they let me into their special time of life. What an honor!

I wasn’t able to check on the birds again till the third day. High in the sky I saw one fly. Birds always learn to fly. It just takes time. And there are branches to get stuck in and a bit of hunger while learning to hunt. But birds always learn to fly.
10-baby-hawks-2014

The hawks built their nest in a new location the next year, high in the trees right near my bedroom window. They had never lived so close to the house. Even though the crazy squawking of the new peeps in spring was so annoying, I felt a warm kinship to these strong creatures.

It’s 2016, over three years since my surgery. I can now lightly jog short distances and can look up better. Things take time but time always changes things. Birds always learn to fly.

11-baby-hawks-2014

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A little snow and ice last week

01 Monday Feb 2016

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, allsparkledup, nature, photography, sunlight

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

beautiful, ice, nature, photography, sunlight, winter

Photos just can’t capture what the eye sees. I walked under the ice-coated branches and looked up through them. I wish everyone could experience the beauty of an ice storm. We lost power for a couple days so that wasn’t easy getting through but what I remember most is the crystalline beauty. Diamonds!
1 Winter Jan 2016
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20 Winter Jan 2016

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Ballerina in the Sunset

17 Saturday Oct 2015

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, ballet, beach, nature, photography, sparkling, sunlight, sunset, Uncategorized

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All Sparkled Up, ballet, beach, children, nature, peaceful, photo, photography, sunlight, sunset

For just a moment, she stood in the sunset.

For just a moment, she stood in the sunset.

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They walked in the gloaming

01 Thursday Oct 2015

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, family, nature, photography, sunset

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allsparkledup, Atlantic Ocean, family, gloaming, nature, photography, sea, sunset

Gloaming: that time of day when the brilliant sunset has passed and the sky softly darkens.

They walked in the gloaming by the sea.

They walked in the gloaming by the sea.

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I long for the beach

31 Friday Jul 2015

Posted by Julia Monroe in beach, nature, photography, sunset

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beach, nature, photography, sunset

So looking forward to the stunning sunsets at Sunset Beach, NC this fall.

These photos were taken last year.

Sunset Beach NC, 2014

Sunset Beach NC, 2014

Sunset Beach, NC

Sunset Beach, NC

Sunset Beach NC

Sunset Beach NC

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Roses peeking in the window!

15 Friday May 2015

Posted by Julia Monroe in All Sparkled Up, encouragement, flowers, gardening, God, Inspirational, nature

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

All Sparkled Up, allsparkledup, encouragement, flowers, gardening, God, inspiration, nature, New Dawn, roses, window

I can’t count the number of friends whose lives are really complicated right now. I’m included in that number. So many troubles are weighing heavy on our hearts. But through it all, God is still there and still in charge.

This year, he gave me a little surprise again. Several weeks ago, I noticed New Dawn rose buds in the window!

The New Dawn rose has grown all the way up to my second story kitchen window again.

The New Dawn rose has grown all the way up to my second story kitchen window again.

New Dawn rose buds peek in the kitchen window.

New Dawn rose buds peek in the kitchen window.

3 Rose New Dawn
My kitchen window is on the second floor and I don’t have planters in the windows. The patio isn’t finished, the paint is peeling, lots of things are falling apart.

The patio is still unfinished.

The patio is still unfinished.

Due to disability, I had to let a lot of things go, such as pruning and training the New Dawn rose bush. Just when it was getting to a good age to work with, my spine was collapsing so there were a half dozen years that disappeared.

The New Dawn rose bush is an untrained mess, tangled up with the honeysuckle bush.

The New Dawn rose bush is an untrained mess, tangled up with the honeysuckle bush.

Those were the thorn years. Lots of tangles and brambles.

We have to be careful walking down the stairs because the railing is lined with large, sharp thorns.

We have to be careful walking down the stairs because the railing is lined with large, sharp thorns.

Even then, good things keep growing. Never forget that… GOOD THINGS KEEP GROWING.

Look how far that rose has grown! All the way to the window!

Look how far that rose has grown! All the way to the window!

All the way up to my kitchen window, the rose bush reached.
8 Rose New Dawn
The roses didn’t care that the paint was peeling.
9 Rose New Dawn
10 Rose New Dawn

Does God know where we are? Does he know our dark space? Can he see our need for beauty and goodness?

Does God know where we are? Does he know our dark space? Can he see our need for beauty and goodness?

Yes, God is aware. He knows what we need. And all those little buds lined up in my window to say Good Things Keep Growing.
12 Rose New Dawn buds
The roses are blooming now. But the weight of them is pulling the vine over.
13 Rose New Dawn blooming
I put three nails and a loose wire up to hold the roses up so I can see them from the kitchen again.
14 Rose New Dawn blooming
Roses in the window!
15 Rose New Dawn blooming
And how fitting that the rose is called New Dawn. Even without a window box of nourishing dirt, 20 feet from the ground, never stopping, the roses are peeking in my window to remind me Good Things Keep Growing.

Good things keep growing.

Good things keep growing.

And the Lord shall guide thee continually and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. Is 58:11

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Snowflakes

18 Wednesday Feb 2015

Posted by Julia Monroe in nature, photography

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Tags

close up, macro, nature, photo, photography, snowflake, snowflakes, winter

This is what actually covers that beautiful field of white.
snowflakes
snowflakes
snowflakes
snowflake cluster
Click here for a shortcut to a larger image.
I only had a short time this afternoon to capture these. They were melting on landing so I had to catch them quick. Imagine entire fields, mountains and hills covered with snowflakes. Breathtaking!

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