Author: Chrisnurse53

Categories
Inspiration

I Have Two Fathers in Heaven

If my Dad were here on earth today, he would be turning 93 years old. Fact is, he is now one of two fathers I have in Heaven. Because of him, my heart has been fully persuaded that both he and my heavenly father absolutely adore me. It is not because he never made a mistake or lost his temper with me. He trusted a perfect father to cover him in his parenting of me and to fill in the gaps. That amazing love has covered a multitude of shortfalls and continues to ground my life. I miss you Dad. I love you forever. Your fathering lives on through my mothering of many. Happy Birthday.

So today is my Daddy’s birthday. It comes two days after my own. He told me more than once that throughout his life he had always wanted a daughter. During my mother’s pregnancy with me he told everyone he knew that he was sure the baby was a girl. When I arrived in the early morning hours two days before his own celebration, he felt he had received the best gift ever. Now that will make a daughter feel special indeed. It will also do wonders for her in approaching her heavenly Papa.

Maybe that is why this year I heard something extraordinary as I lay in bed in late evening, falling asleep on my birthday’s eve. Tender thoughts and impressions were being spoken and reaching out to me on the inside. “You know how expectant parents have hopes and dreams for their children? I always had dreams and hopes for you before I ever created you. The dreams were about you and for you, a very wide array of them. While I was creating you, the dreams were there with you. My joy is in watching you, living in/with you and seeing my dreams for you fulfilled.”

I was made aware that sixty-eight years ago when I was birthed, purposes, plans and dreams were set into motion in me and for me and on my behalf. I could sense their movement and continuing power in my life. It made me want to continue my life’s journey with new vigor, inspiration and renewed purpose. I felt like I was carrying a kind of torch or baton for my generation’s leg of the life relay. My earthly Dad handed it to me at his heavenly homegoing so that I could run into my heavenly Papa’s arms at the end of my own earthly trek.I was very aware those thoughts and feelings did not originate from me and I am forever changed by them.

So, dear Dad, I love you forever. I miss you every day but your birthday is a significant day of inspiration for me. You make me want to finish strong. You make me want to be fearless and excellent in every way. Most of all, you paved the way for me to know the adoration of my heavenly Daddy, my Abba. I may have been your birthday gift, but that is the greatest gift you ever gave me.

Thank-you, Dad. Happy Birthday.

Categories
Musing About Life

Into the Now of My Knowing

green and black hummingbird
Photo by Djalma Paiva Armelin on Pexels.com

Summer offers spontaneous surrealistic moments as gifts to us. Ready or not, they come. Having a heart to pause and take them in is a precious gift as well. Writing about them is my attempt to capture the encounter in time and share with other souls. Today I add this serendipitous event to my treasure trove of memories. Please enjoy.

Like a dream he appears,

my hummingbird friend

sent from another dimension

into the now of my knowing.

Of all summer’s gifts

he is most precious and tender

partaking of the nectar

I made and placed there, in hope.

Meek power suspended in air

heralds inspiration

deep unto deep a promise imparted

there will always be summer returned.

Like a dream he appears

my hummingbird friend

sent from another dimension

into the now of my knowing.

Categories
Inspiration

Exploding into the Night

man with fireworks
Photo by Rakicevic Nenad on Pexels.com

Tonight I was drawn and had to go outside as the sounds started, increasing and building upon one another into the night. Fireworks from everywhere, all at once. A great sense of unity and singularity of purpose washed over me in the atmosphere as I stood in the darkness and raised my hands with my heart toward Heaven imagining and seeing something extraordinary…

Near and far away I hear them exploding into the night.

Great ones, lesser ones, all works of fire launching up into the sky,

Spangled against the stars.

And I imagine a unity among them all, a common work

As if they were fiery prayers finding their explosive paths

Up into the heavens …

A great rushing together with singularity of purpose,

And simultaneous perseverance

With the passion of hearts afire.

Prayer missiles enroute to the keeper and sender of consuming flames,

Crying out for this country, on their mission to break through…

That Heaven’s fire be sent to hit its mark

in the corporate heart of this nation, igniting the truth of her identity.

Let true freedom burn in the darkness

Never…to be extinguished from within, a dimly smoking reed.

Near and far away I hear them. I am joined to them

As a great purposeful singularity of intensity is raised…

Prayer bombs exploding into the night,

Exploding into the night.

Categories
Remembering

Summer Night Sky Swim

northern lights over mountain and forest
Photo by Mohan Reddy Atalu on Pexels.com

Once upon a summer evening I slipped into the world of silent water for a swimming encounter in the late hours. I laid back into the aquatic starlight and gazed up through the trees at planet Mars amidst the majesty of the night sky. The quiet wonder was overwhelming and freeing. I will never forget it.

Like a hanging lantern

in the midnight sky,

The red planet

Through the trees

Peeks, winks,

Plays hide and seek with me.

Starlight on the night water

Wraps itself around me.

Lying back upon it,

I float. I’m held.

I’m free.

Categories
Inspiration

Encountering July

The month of July is like a gift to me. Being my birth month, it always brings poignant remembrances, gratitude and revisiting an evaluation of life. In midst of that, my husband and I journey every year to The Adirondack mountains where life becomes simpler and closer to the earth. We live under the stars, celebrate streaking meteorites and breathe in the regenerating pine scent after the rain. Morning sun streaming through the green woods overhead can bring simple, inspiring moments like word snapshots in time. This is about one of them.

July has put on her greenery and the luminescence of the Northern woods is brilliant upon her petals and peeking through her radiant boughs.

Adirondack sun has sought me out as he intentionally focuses on me, streaming down through cathedral pines that encircle my encampment.

I lean back, with my face turned upward, my senses taking in all the nuances of the moment when the favor of surreal beauty is meeting with me in a supernatural exchange of deep unto deep.

July has put on her Edenic greenery and I rest in her shadow, as together we behold true glory.

Categories
Musing About Life

Fireworks

multicolored fireworks on night sky
Photo by ViTalko on Pexels.com

Here in the Northeast we await Summer like a dear friend returned for a lovely visit. The days linger longer and life takes it’s time to be enjoyed. The 4th of July jubilantly ushers in this wondrous time when we can be like children again and take in the delight of the sight, sound and glory of fireworks. As a girl, I remember hearing the last ones of the night in the distance as I clung to the final moments of imagining their launches into the sky. In this reflection, past, present and future all run together in a timeless parade of fireworks in the now. Come… and celebrate Summer with me !

Fireworks in the distance,

Fireworks in the night,

Their magic grows more wondrous

Even when they’re not in sight.

And Summer makes her entrance

Upon the gentle breeze

While fireflies bow down to her

And flit around her knees.

Fireworks.

Categories
Poetry

My Firefly Friend

yellow and black butterfly perched on green plant
Photo by Flash Dantz on Pexels.com

The child’s heart in me stands on tiptoe every late June and early July evening, searching for the return of the fireflies. They come to decorate my yard and adjoining woods in a celebration of wonder that is unparalleled. There is something almost supernatural about them in their radiant simplicity and jubilant dance. I dedicate this childlike poem to them in the hope that you will go outside on this summer evening to imbibe their inspiration. Enjoy.

My firefly friend is such a sight.

He comes to visit me in the night.

Carrying his lantern on his tail

to attract the fancy of the flying female.

Winging upward on breezes afar

He shimmers in wonder, becoming a star.

My firefly friend is an enchanting delight

He comes to visit me in the night.

Categories
Remembering

The Supernatural Wonder of Summer Rain Storms

blue body of water with orange thunder
Photo by Johannes Plenio on Pexels.com

Summer rain storms. There is something extraordinary, healing, releasing, restorative and comforting about them.

A colorful stream of memories tumbles around itself and carries me back to a cozy front porch next door to my childhood home. My adopted grandmother, Mrs. Brundidge, invites me to enjoy a summer rainstorm with her. A green wicker rocker moves me back and forth to the rhythm of the showers, carrying me into the breathless wonder of thunder anticipated. Together, the two of us simply enjoy and marvel. Sometimes my sister joins us and the three of us are transported to a place of amazement, carried on the wafting rain-scented currents.

Life’s stories rolled on. As Nat King Cole sang about the “Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer,” our cottage on the water was transformed into an extraordinary nature observatory at the approach of a balmy storm. Sitting cozily in a screen-enclosed kitchen, I could breathe in the perfumed air and anticipate the coming light show. I watched the weather move intentionally across the sky over the limitless lake like a dark curtain sweeping the day away, decorating the humid air with brocades of lightning dancing from cloud to cloud.

In the growing up times of emotional turbulence, unexpected relief was to be found in the approach of a powerful rainstorm. A cathartic release happened on the inside of me as nature unharnessed her majestic presence in the atmosphere around me. My inner world made sense for a while as it rained and stormed on the outside. The weather mirrored what was in my soul. Somehow I felt understood as comfort soaked into and soothed my deep places.

As I journeyed into marriage and motherhood, there was nothing like an untamed Adirondack rainstorm to clean out all my soul’s senses. To be safely tucked in for the night with my little ones, listening to the tapping of the drops on the roof was a magical place to tell stories by flashlight and freshly released pine scented air. All of this was forever stored in the scrapbook of my imagination.

And tonight while I sit in twilight ‘neath a canopy on our deck, the birds are talking and taking cover in the trees in midst of a premier summer rain storm. Alone in my space with candles to keep me company, we revel in the approaching thunder while gentle soaking rain cleanses, feeds, heals, releasing life … and I write.

Yes. There is something almost supernatural about a good summer rain storm. Thank-you, Mrs. Brundidge.

closeup photo of green grass field
Photo by Johannes Plenio on Pexels.com
Categories
Musing About Life

Every May I Remember

Being pregnant and carrying my first child was a life-altering discovery for me at the tender age of 23 years. I did not grow up dreaming to be someone’s mother. The journey took me to a place of revelation and transformation that would surprisingly cause me to grow into the person I was meant to be. It would overflow into caring for hundreds, perhaps over a thousand of other women discovering the power of their own life-bearing and birthing journeys. It has been an honor and it all started in the Spring of 1977. Every May, I remember.

Every May I remember the fragrant season of promise

When first I walked in a blooming time

Carrying a ripened load of life, amidst Spring’s bright horoscope.

I wondered how my future, our future, would morph and change

Even as my body cradled the life within

That quickened and leapt with such infinite possibilities.

The young woman in me embraced the new

Even as all of nature seemed to anticipate and reflect

The imminent emergence.

Oh firstborn son of my youth, my heart muses on it still

For when I birthed you, I too was birthed once again.

Every May I remember.

Christine O’Riley

Categories
Poetry

Like

closeup photo of green grass field
Photo by Johannes Plenio on Pexels.com

Come share my quiet morning encounter that speaks for itself.

Like the morning dew

shimmering on grass so green

revealing jewels,

Your early presence dresses me

adorns me with refreshment

for this day.

As sacred sun caresses my face

Your brightness illuminates,

beholds my soul

in a clear, easy knowing

of deep unto deep.

Papa.