Acer rubrum

A week ago Sunday, we traveled south to attend our granddaughter's First Communion--there is nothing so beautiful as to see one receive our Lord for the first time.  We're home now, but though we can't be there with family, we are joined each time we are at Mass--now even more so where she receives.

We left Maine in cool weather only to return to the same. But this weekend the temperatures have warmed--which brings with it the first flowering of the Red Maple.  The flowering produces a red haze--a contrast with the other trees that are just starting to show a dite of green.

Today was a good day to get pictures of the Red Maple, but it's the delicate flowers that can be easily overlooked.  Over the years I've tried to draw the maple from its start in the spring, to its vibrant color in the fall. 

Every day there's something to mentally record for its beauty--be it the joy on our granddaughter's face, or something as simple as the red maple's flower. 

Sempiternity

"When the barrier of Time pulls back to show us Sempiternity, the edge of that barrier is universally represented as making an unstable border, an undulating, shimmering, or pulsating zone of light around the doorway between the two dimensions."  ....

"The halo on images of angels and saints .... got its start as a little hole in the sky-shell through which sempiternal beings look down on us, and through which the everlasting light of Heaven shines around their heads as they do."*

* Rosary Mysteries, Meditations and the Telling of the Beads by Kevin Orlin Johnson

 I have not come across this explanation about halos in any of my icon books, nevertheless, the notion of angels venturing through that curtain is appealing. 

There's more to be done on these small pieces and recently as I've been working on them, I try to recall that God, the Saints, and the Holy Angels never abandon us. 

"We look to you to be our stable hope in a constantly changing world."

The Liturgy of the Hours