This is the day the Lord has made.
Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Psalm 118:24
It seemed appropriate to acknowledge one year of quarantine, so I offer you ingredients, flowers, and skies that graced me unannounced with their quiet splendor and reminded me of the sweetness and simplicity to be found in life with Jesus. Oh, and animals, how could I forget the animals?
Ingredients: Whole nutmeg on Holy Saturday, with their unassuming beautiful interiors; cross-sections of lemon, which carry a pattern like butterfly wings in their membrane; an actual no-joke for-real juicy peach in the NE, a swipe of red and gold; a whole walnut half in a bag of pieces (Why not make a nut shaped like a brain hemisphere, God? Why not?); a sweet potato I cooked to death in the microwave and then forgot, which caused its skin to attain the texture of supple leather, although I doubt sweet potato leather will be the next big fashion trend; extra squiggly red bell pepper slices; an extra round egg; the night and day contrast of shiitake mushroom slices.
Flowers (and a tree): Tulips as I waited anxious in the two-hour grocery line the first time I dared venture out; pansies the kind ladies at Domus gave me in May and my sweet dog; a tiny herb garden started from seeds in an egg crate, which flourished until I replanted them in a window box and subsequently overwhelmed with too-ambitious tomatoes; my favorite afternoon light on a mini bouquet at home; a second blossoming of a little kalanchoe a friend carried around in his pocket until I was selected to adopt it; a fantastic cherry blossom year; a completely unique species of rose I’d never seen before but later found had a cousin outside a favorite friend’s home in another borough; beautiful tree bark found opposite of the cherry trees on a different gray day.
Light and sky: sunrise in my office in January, which I often found beautiful but finally took a picture of, just in time; a high-contrast Hudson River; a rent in the clouds; all the pastels over a water tower; evening skyline returning from a perfect beach day, fall foliage just starting to peak.
Critters: A raccoon! on the pier! that became a good story!; a teeny mousy baby that my rat terrier mix somehow didn’t immediately swallow whole; a squirrel! laying out! while I was meeting a new fast friend; a dove sheltering from a summer thunderstorm on my fire escape, while connecting with another new friend in California over the phone.
There was also a spectacular white-crowned sparrow on my fire escape, but he left before I thought to take a picture. He was one cool little dude though, exactly like a normal house sparrow, but rockin’ that little striped hat of his. Google him. Trust me.
The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.
Psalm 24:1a
Fire and Whisper 