The whole world is full of unworked joy mines. Everywhere we go we find all sorts of happiness-producing material, if we only know how to extract it.” -Orison Swett Marsden
Some of the greatest joy mines are in the arts.
The arts help to teach and mold our hearts so we are better able to hear Jesus Christ. The arts aid in opening the channels through which the Lord can speak to us.
What are the arts what warm our hearts?
Nature (which contains all of the arts), Music, Art, Poetry, and Story.
I have learned a lot from Marlene over at Well-Educated Heart the past couple of years and the more I learn and apply to my life and our home, the more joy I find.
I thought I’d do a series of posts with how we are currently implementing the arts in our home.
I’m going to start with nature – the place where Mother Nature can nurture her children.
One reason why we go camping a lot every summer is to spend more time in nature. Nature can be so healing, peaceful, uplifting, spiritual, and educational. When I am in nature, I am filled with wonder, curiosity, amazement, and beauty. I feel close to God.
I have a deep and abiding dream to have our own piece of land and have access to more nature, right outside our door. We’re working toward that, but as I am still waiting for that dream to become a reality, I’ve tried to become more observant and notice the little bits of nature that currently surround us in the middle of suburbia.
So here are a ton of photos that I’ve taken over the past few months as I’ve worked to notice and appreciate the little things. Most of these photos were taken in our neighborhood. It’s amazing what can be found when I have my eyes opened to looking for it.
By the way, all of my posts about nature are here.
For even more about Nature for warming the heart, this is a great resource.
April:
April 9:
It took us a while to come home from the park today because Roxanne kept stopping every few feet to “take a picture” of all the pretty flowers that are blooming, with her imaginary camera.
She rode past some red tulips but then stopped, scooted her tricycle backwards and said “I don’t wanna miss that!” …. “I got to take a picture of that!”
At one point she even got off her tricycle just so she could squat down and smell a dandelion. haha.
May:
June:
July:
One Sunday in July (the 12th), we got home from church and happened to notice that there was a swallow nest in the corner above our neighbor’s front door. We looked more closely and saw little baby bird heads sticking out over the top of the nest! For the next couple weeks we would check on them almost every day and it was fun to watch them grow and get bigger until they were squished to the max in the nest. And then one day we came to check on them and they were gone. They were all grown up and ready to leave the nest.
Here’s something that I read about barn swallows. This totally happened to me one of the times that I was trying to take a video clip of them. They saw me as a predator and all joined together and went crazy in the air above me. Luckily they didn’t actually dive bomb me. haha.
“The barn swallow nests in colonies and hunt together. If the nest is approached by a predator or human, the entire colony will mob the intruder using aerial acrobatics. They hunt near the ground over open fields and near water. The favorite site to nest is of course in a barn, hence its name “Barn Swallow.” They also nest in other out buildings. During mating season, the male attracts the female by spreading his wings and singing and they often mate in the air. The Barn Swallow is the most widespread of all swallows.” (source)
August:
