Leave. It comes with connotations of goodbyes, yet it need not. This verb can also mean "to put forth leaves." On the sidewalks I notice that Bartlett Pear leaves begin to pile in thick crimson piles, and on the crepe myrtle branches leaves are at once less frequent and more colorful. Gerard Manley Hopkins describes…
Noticing, Day 30: colors
Today I noticed how the morning came: splendid in salmon and gold with gauzy purple trimmings. And I wondered if people would consider purple and gold the colors of royalty if the sun had come and gone in shades of forest green and mud-brown from time immemorial. Think about it. ©2014 by Stacy Nott
Noticing, Day 29: at the piano
I used to wonder how my piano teachers knew: how they could tell which note in a complicated chord was wrong, how they could tell when I wasn't keeping properly relaxed wrists. Now a piano teacher myself, today I notice that I notice those things, too. It's a learned skill -- like the things that went…
Noticing, Day 28: pearl
Blackbirds congregated in rows on power lines under a fog worthy of The Hundred Acre Wood -- a fog which melted away to reveal a morning in pink and blue like the inside of an oyster shell. "The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl…
Noticing, Day 27: goodness. mercy.
Today it's hay bales standing in calm ranks on their new-mown fields. It's dogs frolicking in pairs in the ditches of the highways: a pair of tiny terriers, a pair of hounds, and -- most improbably -- a pair of Shih Tzus. The weather, apparently, brings out the joyous dogginess of all dogs. It's the breeze…
Noticing, Day 26: lovingkindness
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. His love does not depend on me or on my ability to compose thoroughly satisfactory blog posts every day of this month. (Or my ability to do anything at all -- praise the LORD!) Tonight,…
Noticing, Day 25: alone
Today I noticed the "thud" of my right foot answered by the "thud" of my left foot again and again as I marched down the dirt path in the woods carrying my backpack, a stick to ward off spider's webs, and a travel mug of tea. If you have to miss a wedding in order to read…
Noticing, Day 24 (and Five Minute Friday): dare
How should I presume to write about daring on a day which I have spent almost entirely in being afraid? Oh, I've done lots of things today, but woven through all of it is the stripe of fear: fear of disappointing other people, fear of not being enough, not being good enough, not accomplishing enough,…
Noticing, Day 23: counting graces
Today I noticed the wonderfulness of a two-days-old baby squirming and sleeping in my arms: long expected, but only so recently visible, new and perfect and so very loved. I noticed the way a student twirled a finger in his curly hair, so that he seemed like a much younger boy than he is, looking…
Noticing, Day 22: working backwards
Today I noticed how the sweetgums and poison ivies are taking their habitual lead in donning autumn attire, flaming out from among their more reticent deciduous neighbors. Is this a case, I wonder, of God giving more honor to those that lack honor? Whether it is or no, each fall I'm stunned by this glory of what…
Between Blue Rocks 