Friday, March 28, 2014

Matricaria recutita: Chamomile

Matricaria recutita... For the love of Latin names... or Chamomile for the love of clarity!
I learned today that the word chamomile is of Greek roots meaning "earth-apple" so called because of the apple-like scent of the plant... This is just beautiful! Not only because I love etymology but this name could not fit her better!
It comes from the earth in such a sweet gentle way. It can instantly make someone have a brighter day just by her look, so delicate and simple yet so charming and blooming! 
Chamomile is like an elixir of apple scent and not her own! Her fragrance is of an amazing subtlety that one cannot but stand and wonder about the Creator of such beauty! 
(And it is was originally a "wild" flower!)
But it does not stop there... Dried by the heat and air, boiled and poured in a cup, Chamomile, in her tiny tiny body, hold the power to make people relax by a simple sip! It has power to calm the very soul of the sipper! Wow... And I thought drying and being boiled would damage someone beyond repair...
I think the mystery of this life lies there, in knowing how insignificant we are, remembering that from earth we sprouted... To be humble and yet to know how to receive the graces from the Hand of the Most High and to accept His Spirit blown in us... to be His fragrance, His reflectors in the midst of the calamity of this world, to bring His comfort and calmness... To dry and boil gracefully and hence channel miracles we never could do without that pain... To do it in modesty as does the Chamomile!!
It reminded me of a quote for St. Anthony the Great:
I saw the snares that the enemy spreads out over the world and I said groaning, "What can get through from such snares?" Then I heard a voice saying to me, "Humility."
Finally, I would like to thank you Chamomile for beside the lesson on humility you bestowed on me wonderful restful nights!!

Thursday, March 27, 2014

It's all about the Hat!

You know the saying cherry on top... I think if humans were a cake... the hat is that cherry. Not only because it's (well obviously) on top but because it's just one sweet beautiful addition to one fearfully and wonderfully made cake!
Hats... They do so many things! A hat to cover a bad hair day, a hat to protect from the sun or rain, a hat to beautify, a hat to just be there (as in hey! I'm wearing a hat right up here!)... Sometimes a hat really makes all the difference, you have the perfect everything but this one spice missing and there! the hat fixes it! 
I remember my very sweet friend once got me a hat for my birthday and the week after I wore it to church and I got so many smiles that day! Even at the end of the service, a lady came to me and told me that she thought I had an air of elegance (thank you hat for getting me a compliment I could never get otherwise!)  
And I think we are called to be that cherry on the top of another cake... A hat for a friend... To cover, to protect, to beautify, to defend, to just be there... To add an air of elegance to their day... to be that small spice that makes all the difference for them....
I know I have been blessed with a handful of wonderful beautiful hats that I would really not exchange for anything in the world and I pray God gives me the grace to be to them that hat, that cherry that they are to me and a bit more! 

Ps. Interestingly enough adding a hat to words make a huge difference too... Amazing grace... amazing grâce... 
Pps. Notice I did not say that I love hats? (But I do!)

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Vanity of Vanities... Earrings

Vanity of vanities! And I admit being so vain...
I love earrings so much!! (I have just realized how many things I just love so much... My downfall is nearer than I think!!)
For some reason (okay honest reformulation, for coffee reason) I was awake during the beautiful hours of the night and my mind was just wandering in the vast universe of thoughts... and with the super many options available to think about, solving minor daily problems to thinking about world changing solutions... All I was thinking about was earrings! Not that I wanted more or needed one or anything of the sort... I was just thinking about their being, (if that is a word we can use) about their existence. I had a beautiful silver pair that my dog helped widowing and I was sort of sad that it was left unmatched... I did not throw it for there seemed to be more life to it... it was not of any vibrant colour or of a particularly subliminal shape... Normal. Simple. And perhaps that is why it seduce me so much (anyway)... I left it in the box, on a shelf... And I prayed for her twin to show up somehow... but for weeks it was just there alone in the darkness of the box! Until the day I decided to liberate her from the bonds of a pair. I decided to wear it with another sister earring!  And as if that decision was a spell! last Saturday I found her little nice old pair stuck in between the bed and the mattress! 
A beautiful story of redemption! This was my thought last night... Bound we are with so many pairs, left in the darkness of a box, resentful maybe, grief-filled perhaps...  Or maybe just lamenting a past, a situation, a pair, a you name it... Chained with a standard, chained with an image, with an ideal that we may have never been born to live... And we sit on a shelf waiting for a miracle... and there He stands, come with me, come to the fullness of being with me, come to life... and we can choose to wait for that pair or dare to go take His hand and be worn on His heart and then see miracles unfolding before us like we never dreamed they would! And there we will be found!

Meet Olga

And after a long while... the snail arrived!! and so did my post!
I do not know if you have any idea about my snail obsession? I love them beyond reason!!

And the Creator of all things graced me with a visit from Olga! A snail that visited me in the salad the other day...(ummm that was not so good in the salad I mean but hey! a snail!) transparent and beautiful she was! I am not sure if you are able to see her on my hand in the picture!
Snails are carriers of hope! They are so slow and yet they still dare to get out of that shell and move and move to what? to dirt... and they just seem to carry with that shell the burden of  the world upon their shoulders and yet not a sound! I do not know but there is something miraculous with this creature... Olga brought so much joy to my heart! and a few lessons... to be meek and fragile, ready to go in the hands of the One who is more powerful... To be transparent, to be simple, to walk even if every step seems to bring more dirt and to aim higher with my eyes always in the right direction even if they are poked!!