The Tears of Nature – Rain and Flowers

Spring flowers laced with crystal tears…
the warmth of Summer nurturing her flora…

A lovely friend posted a couple of photos on Facebook this week
of her garden flowers in the rain, and as we’ve had a fair bit of rain this May
it made me think of my own flowers decorated with diamonds…

Aquilegia, Rose – Rhapsody in Blue, Geranium © Lisa Shambrook

It rains a lot in Wales, but that’s not a bad thing.
Taking photos of flowers in the rain offers a beautiful clarity and charm.

Aquilegia, Arum Lily, Belle Etoile – Philadelphus, Aquilegia © Lisa Shambrook

Water is the essence of life, watching thirsty plants flourish shows how vital it is to all of us.

Paeony, Geranium, Oriental Poppy, Tulip © Lisa Shambrook

Dewdrops, crystal, diamond rain, reflection, life, clarity,
nature’s mantle to beautify our lives…

Ladies Mantle, Rudbekia, Daffodil, Aquilegia © Lisa Shambrook

 What flowers have you enjoyed seeing laced with nature’s tears?

© Lisa Shambrook

Being Broken and the Kintsukuroi Art of Healing

There are times in my life when I know I’m broken
and I’m okay with that.

I have scars, scars that run across my skin and scars that run deep through my very being. Most of us do, from superficial scratches on our surface to deep canyons that reside in dark places. We all have history, and emotional pain stays with you, no matter how much you try to let go.

I’m not talking of forgiveness here; maybe I’ll post on that another day, but even when you can or have let go, the experience, the memory, will always be with you. You can’t erase the things you’ve been through, and it’s good that we can’t.  

Dawn’s gold rippling through the sky © Lisa Shambrook

I’m a firm believer in the fact that we are not perfect and nor should we worry about trying to be perfect. I want to be good, kind, loving, and harness many other beautiful characteristics, but I don’t need to be perfect. Along with my good qualities, I embrace rebellion, curiosity, cynicism, and other traits, as I believe you can’t know the good without the bad, and after all we are human.

This also means that though I would love to live on a fairly even keel, I am grateful that I don’t.

I’ve known pain. You’ve known pain. And whilst the levels of pain we’ve known may differ, they are powerful and good. The fact that we’ve known pain means we can enhance the joy that we feel too.

There is an exquisite extreme to emotions, sorrow and joy, and to know one you have to truly know the other.

Broken things still live – Greencastle old oak tree © Lisa Shambrook

I have felt broken, and I have been broken, but I am also mended.

Many things can fix you. Family, love, religion, nature, chocolate, even money – but know that despite being mended your scars still endure.

I used to worry about my scars; they still decorate my skin and remind me constantly of the times that have hurt. Right now they are white, and pink, and narrow and pale. They’ve filled in, healed, mended, but they’re still there. I live with them and I love them, because they are me.

We need to love our brokenness. We need to embrace the scars that have healed us, for they have made us who we are.

To bathe in sunset gold © Lisa Shambrook

The Japanese have a wonderful procedure called Kintsukuroi (golden repair) or Kintsugi (golden joinery) and they have beautified brokenness.

It is the art of repairing pottery with gold or silver lacquer and understanding that the piece is more beautiful for having been broken.   

My attempt at Kintsukuroi – though I don’t have gold so it was nail lacquer! © Lisa Shambrook (Check out the real thing on my Pinterest Page)

Is there anything more beautiful than someone who can embrace their flaws and know that they are worth more for what they have been through?

We are all broken, in a way, we all have scars, some more visible than others. And even when you are healed, those scars, those things you’ve been through have made you stronger. Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable, to be flawed, and to be broken.

My heart is made of stronger stuff than glass – Patrick Rothfuss © Lisa Shambrook

We don’t have glass hearts that can shatter beyond repair, we don’t have crystal spirits that can splinter beyond hope, we are made of stronger stuff, and even if we need repairing at times, we are all the more beautiful for it.  

Visual Dare: Enamoured

Source: Getty Images: by Constance Bannister Corp

Molly’s tangled mop of curls shook as she pirouetted beside the car. She jumped and twirled, and I couldn’t help but smile. She bounced and leaped with outstretched arms and balanced on her toes. Another spin with fingers extended, and then off balance, and she landed in a heap on the floor.

Giggles erupted and Molly gazed up at me. She rocked onto her feet and the glinting wheel hub caught her eye as she leaned against it to stand. Her fingerprints faded as she gazed at her reflection. Her mirror image grinned back and her delighted laugh rang out.

“Mummy, look, boo-ti-full me!”

“Yes, sweetheart, you’re beautiful, always beautiful.” My smile crinkled my eyes and warmed my soul. Tears prickled as her innocent recognition of beauty and confidence far surpassed my own, and I hoped it would last her lifetime.

(141 Words)

Enamour – verb: past participle: enamoured be filled with love for…

My first VisDare for Angela Goff in a while…go see the others, enjoy!

Five Sentence Fiction: Beauty

Photograph by Lisa Shambrook (Please do not use without permission)

Ice shimmered across the road and his feet struggled to stay upright; he winced as the stony trail threatened to cut through his thin soles and carve into the blisters holding his feet together. Bony fingers, wrapped in bandages to protect against the fierce northern chill, grasped a tiny, glass ampoule, as if life depended on it. His trek was almost over, and the sun had almost vanished behind the needle spikes of mountains beyond the village, and he was almost home.

In a tiny cottage far inside the village, a candle shone in the window, and the light in the traveller’s weary eyes flickered with the fullness of midday sun as he pushed through the doorway.  His blackened fingers held the flask steady as enchanted liquid slipped softly past her cracked lips; it only offered another mere few months, but he’d make that trek over, and over, and over, if it gave his wife even another single moment. 

I haven’t done  Five Sentence Fiction for a bit, but who can resist a word like Beauty? There is so much beauty around us, do we recognise it?

Check out all the other pieces at Lillie’s Five Sentence Fiction… 

Five Sentence Fiction: Whisper

Photograph by Bekah Shambrook (Please do not use without permission)

“Tell me, tell me what you see” she murmured, and I pulled the heavy fleece tighter around our shoulders as she relaxed into my arms, her grey hair tickling my stubbly chin.

“I see a huge ball of white flame, a golden orb, dancing on the horizon. The sky is on fire, and the few cotton clouds are bathed in molten bronze…” my words struggled to do the sunset justice, but she gripped my hand with such fervour, I continued to describe what I saw. “The sky’s turning indigo, from orange to violet to indigo, I can even see a few early stars, right up high…and the waves are lapping gently on the shore…”

“Ah, I can hear the ocean…” she spoke softly, her voice a reverent breeze, “What else can you see?” 

I stared at her, my hand brushing her cheek, I gazed right into her sightless eyes and whispered words formed in the soul of my heart, “I see beauty, perfect beauty…I’ve never, in my life, seen anything so beautiful…”

Lillie McFerrin’s Five Sentence Fiction – Whisper