Seeking Nuggets of Inspiration

My word for 2015 was seed.  This word continues to
pop up, inspire and lead me into learning journeys.
It starts something like this: read,
today it was from this book,
Desire to Inspire Using Creative Passion
to Transform the World.


Unlike the light reading I enjoy for pleasure, there are
books I read for nugget safari.  Safari is best achieved
with electronic books where passages may be highlighted,
comments written, and searches for text or highlighted
passages are easily performed.  Sometimes it can take me
years of contemplation to recognize a nugget but once it is found
I can easily locate the passage and my related thoughts. 
The nugget of information is only recognizable with openness
to the lessons, people or circumstances presented.

Here's my short list of books I use in this way:
The Bible
You're Made for a God-Sized Dream
This is the Story of a Happy Marriage
30 Lessons for Living: Tried and True Advice from the Wisest Americans
Life is a Verb
A Short Guide to a Happy Life

A single word or passages may spark a journey.
Today it was this sentence:


One small garden
spread seeds to a photographer from Guam,
a poet from Israel, a writer from Lithuania and
artists from all over the U.S.

From this passage I started an internet search for  
Amy Krouse Rosenthal's movement The Beckoning of Lovely
then I found Amy's Tedx on the subject.  From there...
Sam Bern's Tedx on My Philosophy for a Happy Life.

Amy shared this in her Tedx:

What you seek, you will find.
What you summon, will find you.


This is true in my life.
It happens all the time but is best illustrated by my
thrift store safaris.
Most of the time, I hunt without expectation.
It's enough to simply be open to finding a
treasure.  On occasion, I do seek specific things
with excellent results.
Months ago I was seeking curtain rings as
the base for creating ornament wreaths.
Found a one gallon zipper bag full for $5.
Still using these lovelies to make
ornaments.

Sought a specifically shaped bird house.
Found the very next day for $3.
Work is progress:

After Christmas, sought a blow up red
cardinal for 2016 Christmas garden display. 
Found on sale the following day.

Mr. Lee says bring $1 Million Dollars or
bags of cash to us. That's a story for another day.

Day 0: In Your Prayers

In December, I selected my
One Little Word for the
journey led by Ali Edwards.

My 2015 word:  Seed
At the time I couldn't have possibly
known how the year would unfold,
but here I am continually planting seeds.

If you plant goodness,
you will harvest faithful love.
Plow your ground, and you
will harvest with the Lord.
He will make goodness fall
on you like rain.

                   Hosea 10:12

Seed 2015: One Little Word

The love of gardening
is a seed once sown that
never dies. 

          Gertrude Jekyll

One Little Word  with Ali Edwards

Every thing I read, the music I select, and what I see is all
through my 2015 word: seed.

2015 One Little Word journey with Ali Edwards

Seed: my one little word.

Oh, what a journey my little word has taken me on.
Working on the assignment for July.
Seeking songs with my word in the lyrics, title or the band.

I discovered the Stella Sisters' song The Seed.
Lyrics that took my breathe away.

When you left your memory
And flew off into the stars
You know what that meant to me
Now I look with my heart 

 

Pumpkin Cottage's Garden

Kathy Mattea's Seeds 

We're all just seeds
In God's hands
We start the same
But where we land
Is sometimes fertile soil
And sometimes sand
We're all just seeds
In god's hands

Verses from the Bible

Mark 4:2-8 NIV

2He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said:
3“Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed.
4As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, 
and the birds came and ate it up.  
5Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. 
It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.
6But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, 
and they withered because they had no root.
7Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, 
so that they did not bear grain.
8Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and 
produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.


A blog to visit and ponder:  Seeds and Stitches 

On MANTRA making.  

Making Lists

I find that I have reached an age where
I should know what to do but I do not.

To distract myself, 
I watched Bridget Jones' Diary.
And thought of lovely things.

Collected seeds from this lavendar.

Plan to wrap thread on my word for 2015: seed.

Loving thoughts are little seeds...
let them blossom into deeds.

A Bright Idea

Come to me, all of you
who are tired from carrying
heavy loads, and I will give
you rest.  Matthew 11:28

2015 Seed Vision Board

2015 Holly's Vision Board

I had an epiphany yesterday.
It doesn't matter what anyone
thinks and even though I am
under close scrutiny and
tremendous pressure, it's a
job.  Nothing more.

My idea of self was
slowly deteriorating.
It's okay I am back.

planting seeds

In process with Ali Edward's One Little Word 2015

My original word was Purpose,
but I know my purpose.
To the depth of my being, I know.
I know my calling.
Yet, I hide under a pile of life.
A pile of excuses, fear, and pain.
Both emotional and physical pain.

Maybe God will forget or engage with a multitude
of others, other people who need Him,
much more.

Sweet Child.  The nails are not enough
to hold you here.  You can only 
live the life I'm
calling you to through the 
love that I have given you.  
The love that now has taken up 
residence in your very being 
and makes the wounds bearable.

                                  Jesus