God, FB … and me 😇

Funny I did not realise my Creator could be talking to me through FB😱 that is one hell of a thought… or one heaven of a thought😍 ….but when you think about it … why not? Here’s how it happened.

Only yesterday I looked at my Cherry blossom tree which is just bursting into flower and asked God “Please,  can you let me keep this tree without it toppling over.  I know it seems foolhardy,  but I really love these flowers. So ,  should I cut it or trust you to hold it up for me? I can trim it a bit more maybe …? ”   and I left my conversation open ended. I thought that I would have to take a decision soon.

I should explain that the tree next to it –  an older and  much more solid Ficus of double the girth  – came crashing down in heavy rains in November 2017.  We usually park our cars beneath them, but that evening a guardian angel nudged my brother to step out in the down-pour and move both cars further up the road to where there were no trees.   He had hardly returned when he heard a prolonged creaking sound … and whilst he watched, the Ficus slowly and carefully pulled away from its roots and fell right across the road. 

Writing this I realise,  why oh why did I  not see before that the tree,  guided by its Creator,  was gently untangling its roots to keep the boundary wall (which was just one foot away)  intact?   We all said it was a miracle but the more I think of it the more it astounds me.  You will see from the pictures below how close the tree was to the boundary wall and the house- and how huge!!  And yet it fell without even an inch of damage!!

Roots gently untangled to save boundary wall

The Girth. Had to be split in two to be hauled away. A part still remains.

Spanned a 40 ft road without downing high voltage wires!!.

And the connection between God and FB ?

Well after I whispered the prayer for my tree yesterday,  FB reminds me today about a post written three years ago to the very day : –  a post I had totally forgotten about titled Earth’s crammed with heaven and referring to – you guessed it – my Cherry Blossom tree.

And what is so uncanny is that FB never EVER has reminded me of posts on my WordPress blog,  but “chose” to remind me of this less than 24 hours after my whispered my prayer/question to God.

I had trimmed  the branches when brother Ficus came down as ‘Sherry’ was more exposed to heavy gusts but was still not sure if to take her down completely   ?

So through FB’s reminder  – incredible as it sounds – I believe God was reminding me that Sherry had been saved before and I should not worry.   I believe I can now keep her around some more to give glory to her Maker with the most beautiful and fragile of flowers that makes your heart sing.

Indeed as Elizabeth Barrett Browning  wrote ..  “Earth’s is crammed with heaven and every common bush afire with God.”   

Crocodile Alert !

My neighbour on Attidiya Lake – Lotus Grove in background.

My neighbour causes many passers-by to stop, to gaze, and to take his picture if possible.  You have to be a bit quick though because he tends to submerge himself if he thinks there are too many inquisitive eyes staring at him. 🙂

I myself have a bit blasé about having him for a neighbour.  He generally goes for a lazy afternoon stroll around 2 or 3.pm –

The Power of No

The Power of NO!

NO to the extra shirt, or pants, or blouse or household gadget,

NO to lavish and extra packaging … and the extra plastic bag.

NO to keeping up with the ‘Joneses’ with a consumer oriented materialistic lifestyle and

NO to the craving for speciality food from across the seas;

NO to driving short distances instead of walking or cycling,

NO to taking the elevator instead of the stairs.

NO to putting the air-conditioner on all night and

NO to that extra light I can do without.

NO to a manicured lawn in lieu of trees.

NO to throwing what I can recycle or reuse.

Would you imagine that these simple ‘NO’S” of mine, if said often enough will reduce my carbon footprint and alter the course of history?

I invite you to look around, be aware and alert, check the many ways your personal NO can alter the course of history.

And share them here if you like so that together we can care for our planet.

It is OUR World.  OUR Responsibility.

Source: ExtraCarbon, Pinterest

Plastic Alert. Heat Wave Alert.

Source: media3.washingtonpost.com 

“Plastic should be a high value material… [It] should be in products that last a long time, and at the end of the life, you recycle it.

To take oil or natural gas that took millions of years to produce and then to make a disposable product that last minutes or seconds, and then to just discard it–I think that’s not a good way of using this resource. (Robert Haley)”
― Susan Freinkel, Plastic: A Toxic Love Story

The planet is on fire.

Taking out all the fossil fuel to the surface is bound to end up in fire someplace, somewhere sometime.

Earth day April 22

Google mail icons today are colorful vibrant doodles to remind us that it is Earth Day – April 22nd.    Perhaps Google should also stamp Earth day across these beautiful doodles so that the millions who see them will be reminded that it is Earth Day.

.The Earth day logo which I have selected from the many non ‘Google’ images available reminds us that all life and activities need to be in harmony and balanced with each other for continued sustainability and JOY.

Happy Earth Day everyone  …  🙂

Please do a little something today for Mother Earth to minimise your footprint.   

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. http://www.greenenergysavingtips.com/reduce-reuse-recycle-facts/

 

 

 

Low flying clouds ….

Driving to the office today I noticed something unusual and slowed down to take a picture.

I wonder whether you can spot the peculiarity ?

This is a close up of the next click – minus the bonnet of the car 🙂

What struck me as unusual was the big cloud that seemed to be rising from the ground!  The road ahead was flat so you could not attribute it to a horizon that drops.  It was just a mundane cloud deciding to come down to earth.

and hoping I will share him with Jithin’s blogger community that finds beauty in the little things. 

How urban buffaloes beat the heatwave !

“Your door-step you said ?  Forget it.  We are not moving ....”

Water buffaloes enjoying the shade

“Ok .. no protests from me. You really are a beautiful specimen.  And the heat is almost unbearable so you stay … I’ll just park next door 🙂     Let me first get a picture of you though for the Mundane Monday community.   Done.   Now I’ll just wait here till you are ready to move .”   

Colombo has been experiencing a heat wave.  The animals are the hardest hit … as are those in drought stricken lands of Asia where humans too are succumbing to the heat.

One of the big questions in the climate change debate: Are humans any smarter than frogs in a pot? If you put a frog in a pot and slowly turn up the heat, it won’t jump out. Instead, it will enjoy the nice warm bath until it is cooked to death. We humans seem to be doing pretty much the same thing  – Jeff Goodell

Grumbling at the heat … but doing nothing to minimise our carbon footprint?  Guilty as charged.

Nature’s parachutes

hbhatnagar‘s picture of a seed pod last week, reminding me of a similar capture of mine -the same week ! – of a pod of a Stephanotis plant on my balcony.

Enter a caption

The parachute-like seeds are natures strategy for dispersal.  They float in the wind, land on soft ground and take root.   Man-made parachutes and most of man’s inventions – even the air-plane, have  all their design inspiration from nature.

Hope you enjoy these pictures.  I could not get the angles I wanted because the seeds kept spilling out each time I moved the plant for a better view.

Close up – Stephanotis pod and Nature’s parachute.

Posting in response to Jithin’s Mundane Monday challenge to find beauty in the mundane .. and  ..to make the mundane beautiful.

Posted for Mudane Monday Challenge hosted by Jithin.

Earth’s crammed with heaven

Woke up on a mundane Monday morning to the most awesome sight.  The tree outside my balcony had burst into bloom.

The sight that met my eyes !

I could just gaze and gaze and gaze at it for hours.

I looked up again and noticed the moon was still out .. perhaps hating to leave the scene of such beauty 🙂

Even the moon refused to move away 🙂

Delicate, paper thin, shadowy pink flowers so ephemeral they  would bruise to the touch. Some were floating down and I stretched out my hand for them to land on. The ground beneath was a carpet of pink.

The sight leaves you dazzled … wanting to burst into laughter,  scoop up the flowers, embrace the tree for giving you such a vision.

The tree which is just outside my front door poses a serious threat to my boundary wall and roof. You can see how close it is in this picture.

That’s the  roof jutting out on top left. Too close for safety ?

Many have advised me to cut it and yet I can’t bring myself to do this and and lose the glory of this sight when it blooms – once, sometimes twice, a year.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning must have been referring to such a vision when she wrote :

Earth’s crammed with heaven, 
And every common bush afire with God, 
….. But only he who sees takes off his shoes. 

Eventually, I tore my gaze away and looked across on the other side of the balcony.  There stood another tree that I really admire, a lone sentinel rising above its neighbours, in majestic competition with my flowering cherry blossom tree.                  

A solid and stable sentinel every day, unlike the ephemeral blossoming tree, I have to recognise this tree too or it will feel left out 🙂

Sharing with Mundane Monday challenge of Jithin though this is ‘cheating’ for it is anything by mundane. At least it was taken on a mundane Monday 🙂   and also sharing with Jacqueline’s Echoes of my Neighbourhood challenge which brings so many many places to your doorstep.