Joy to your world

A waterlogged Christmas tree.

Could that be what I need?

 Sea swirls shine,

Soothing days.

©2022JGA

Florida’s famous Christmas Trees on coral reef, courtesy of the U.S. NOAA

When I lived alone away from home & experienced Christmas for the first time in my new town, I visited a tree and plant seller space that showcased native, natural ideas.  I soaked up Holiday Spirit in their fragrant urban woods, which reminded me of how to feel wonderful in the outdoors. I saw how decorating the outdoors for feasting birds can bring  December joy even to apartment dwellers.And that even tying ribbons around a bare tree could make it yours.

Then, a visit to our downtown chain of parks brought me to look up at the row of Grandmother Live Oak Trees that parade, lit this month, block after block, giant candles in the night. A wave of warmth wrapped up my heart for this new hometown. I didn’t have a tree in my apartment, unlike the tradition all my child days, but Christmas arrived to me in so many lovely ways. When I returned to this town with my young family, we bought a little live cedar tree from that wonderful plant place, Native Nurseries, for our first Christmas here. Today it’s a 90-foot beacon of green, a fragrant wall of our back yard., a playhouse for squirrels & a food source for select birds who find bugs on branches. In season it shelters jays, cardinals, wrens, crows, sparrows, warblers, owls & an unknowable night creatures, especially those who forage on its needle softened ground in the night. I love that tree.

So how about that very wet Florida outdoor scene?   Perpetual underwater Christmas Trees! Many of them. In miniature. Created in a way that is unexpected! Although I’m not a snorkeler or SCUBA person, I love seeing images of this natural beauty [where there is healthy tropical salt water] existing day & night.   [link about the foto above, is below.]

Switching geography, I look at a different picture & smile at how the Heavens over North Earth bring an array of undulating sky lights. We are fortunate to have this gift of a photograph from Iceland, taken this year in chilly February by our adventuring daughter & wonderful son-in-marriage.

Air collects speeding

green shimmer

gift.

 

Sun’s Body Electric

soaring

down to Earth.

 

Welcome awe,

illuminating our

Wonder World.

©2022JGA

 As you celebrate your own holidays of this season, maybe you will be pleasantly outdoors & look down to peer through the ice glass beauty of a pond. Or perhaps. your look will be up, to collect sweet air, glance at your precious sky, feel that you want to treasure each breath of yours, Your Breath a holiday gift, given just to You. Wishing more Joys to your World.

Welcome to #PoetryFriday, a virtual celebration of words crafted into poems, hosted this time by MichelleKoganArt.  I’ve just received my order of her fabulous hand-painted note cards & paper bookmarks, which  float out the door today  in postal mail for #slowchristmas cheer.

my links today

Michelle Kogan Art

Native Nurseries

NOAA