Winter Surprise
by elece hollis
It’s winter. Days are cold and often the sky is gray,
But wherever I roam, wherever my eye looks
There is life, beauty, color, design—-Signs of a living, breathing, caring, artistic god.
Christmas Cactus
By Elece Hollis
She’s called a cactus––but has no spines;
She speaks between her graceful lines.
She isn’t fir or coned´pine.
At Christmas time.
She isn’t Poinsettia bright
Not Amaryllis––that’s alright!
She bows her head––shy––out of sight
At Christmas time.
She brightens up the room each year;
Comes to bring us all good cheer.
I count her blossoming quite dear
At Christmas time.
Scarred but Beautiful
“We all have our scars––most gained by foolishness,
but the ones that count come from putting another’s safety above our own.” c.e.hollis
The Shape of Us
By Elece Hollis
Every leaf on every tree, every plant and flower bears its unique difference and yet is recognizable. With the help of a field guide to trees, we can tell most any tree by its leaf. These leaves are begonia––each alike, and yet each possessing a set of unique characteristics. Look at them––the veins, the colors, the edges, and the tears.
Every leaf is an individual of the plant colored by its soil and nutrients, healthy or pale, large or small, and each bears eventually some scars. We tend to want every leaf to be perfect and fit. We tend to call out for the boldest, the softest, the youngest, the straightest, the curviest. We tend to call beautiful what is the brightest, the slightest, the largest, the smallest (hypocrites we).
We call the finest and prettiest what has the least blemishes, the smallest and faintest scars. We don’t like our scars, our wrinkles, our gray hairs, our freckles. Oh, but aren’t they what makes us who we are? Don’t they show how much life we have experienced?
Jesus chose to keep his scars. His hands still have the marks where the nails were hammered through. Those scars are beautiful. True, many of our scars are there because we did foolish things or because another hurt us. Jesus’s scars are there because He loved us so. It’s the same love that chose to create each of us an original, each shape of us unique, and all of nature touched with the lovely essence of his hand.
Make Music
Here is an older piece I remembered posting when I saw Bonnie again recently at the Dripping Springs Rendezvous. She is a joy to speak to.
“One ought, every day at least, to hear
a little song, to read a good poem, to see
a fine picture, and if it were at all possible,
to speak a few reasonable words.”
a little song, to read a good poem, to see
a fine picture, and if it were at all possible,
to speak a few reasonable words.”
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Make Music
by Elece Hollis
Make music wherever you go;
That’s generosity.
Tap a rhythm—start the beat;
That’s leadership.
Hum and strum a melody;
That’s encouragement.
Laugh at false starts and off key notes;
That’s grace.
Sing the words out loud and bold;
That’s a gift to the world.
“Then those who sing,
as well as those who play the flutes, shall say,
‘All my springs of joy are in you.'”
as well as those who play the flutes, shall say,
‘All my springs of joy are in you.'”
Psalm 87:7
Cactus Blossom
The Color White
By Elece Hollis
Spring is yellow forsythia and daffodils, red of tulips, hyacinth purple, white crocus, lilies and all shades of bright.
Summer is every color under the sky-blue, it’s every shade of green, white clover, and red roses a picket fence.
Fall has crimson apples, sunflowers, leaves of orange, yellow, and Sweetgum purple, honeysuckle, and white of frost on the windows.
Winter is brown and gray, but holds white of the first falling snow, white of moon’s shine and sparkling stars.
White is a country church’s freshly painted steeple, white flesh of a river trout, of salt, of a lamb’s wool
White of new cotton socks, white of sifted bread flour, white of butterfly wings and angel robes in Christmas plays.
White is drifting clouds, white of pages between the lines, of coconut milk, a polar bear fur, of egret’s feathers.
White of a bride’s gown, a porcelain sink, powdered sugar, whipped cream for pumpkin pie, white of wave crests and thundering waterfalls,
I love white. White is every color, every place, every season––every rhyme.
Appealing Fruit
“If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” Carl Sagan
Lattice top pie made from ingredients provided by the inventor of the universe.
This blue bowl was shaped and crafted by a trained potter. This apple was shaped and handcrafted by the original potter.
“An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Why don’t doctors like apples?
“It wasn’t an apple from the tree that caused the trouble in the Garden of Eden; it was the pair on the ground.” unknown
“Anyone can count the seeds in an apple, but only God can count the number of apples in a seed.” Robert H. Schuller
“Just when we are certain we have seen everything wonderful in the world, God surprises us!” c.e.hollis
When Autumn Comes
When Autumn Comes
By Elece Hollis
The day comes on warm and wet wind from the south
The sun shines and then doesn’t again
The wind blows out of the north by late afternoon
Strengthening––it blasts and in the night brings clear cold air
Soon Winter will arrive
The sun disappear earlier every day
But Autumn sings to us
A sweet and fresh song
We snug our sweaters around us and unfold quilts onto our beds
Simmer soups and sip warm cider beside unnecessary fires
Autumn comes and brings reprieve from the heat
Rest from the long tiresome days
The plants turn eye-resting brown and scatter seeds on the wind
They are done with their fruit and seed bearing and are ready to lie down
To sleep awhile––then to change into cover to protect the ground from ice and snow
Next spring to be the fertilizer for this year’s seeds.
So autumn comes and with it rest
Geese fly off home––echoing fare-thee-wells into the dark
The sky rests in gray as the sun packs to vacation in other lands
