sunday sermon

The principal thing in the world

is to keep the soul aloft.

Gustave Flaubert

feathers

I've been thinking about feathers a lot today. I love feathers. Wherever I go, I collect them. J picks them up for me and brings them home to me, also. We have quite a collection. There is a jar of feathers that sits on the shelf above my computer. They are not only beautiful but inspirational. They remind me of writing - of a time when people wrote with quill and ink - and through writing, connection. Feathers speak to my soul. I even had a dream once where the man who loved me - really loved me - planted a garden of feathers to tell me so.

They have been filling my mind today. I have been thinking about hope - that thing with feathers that perches in the soul - and of flying away. I created a photo of feathers - mostly blue jay and magpie with a few others - to remind me of this feeling...holding on to hope.

Here are a few favorite quotes about feathers...

Birds of a feather flock together.

Proverb

It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds.

Aesop

What is the jay more precious than the lark

because his feathers are more beautiful.

William Shakespeare

He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust

his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

Psalms 91:4

Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, 

and sings the tune without words, and never stops at all.

Emily Dickinson

And last, just for fun...

Chicken one day, feathers the next.

feathers and a fighter

On the day after Christmas, J and I visited the ocean. We drove out to Salmon Creek, one of the California Sonoma Coast Beaches, where we watched birds, enjoyed families enjoying each other, ran from the waves, and collected feathers. I love feathers and can't help but collect them when I see them - fallen feathers only, of course. J is the same. I don't know where she got that from! She is so sweet. Rarely a day goes by that she doesn't bring me a gift home from school - either a feather or a stone. I love rocks, too. Salmon Creek Beach is inhabited mostly by sea gulls. There are feathers everywhere. I was struck by the beautiful still lifes the feathers, driftwood, and sea weed formed. We left the feathers in the still lifes - too beautiful to disturb by human hands. We collected "stray" feathers. Lots of them!

... and a fallen soldier