Let There Be Lights

A fierce debate often ensues when one person believes Christmas lights should be hung the moment the last trick-or-treaters leave their abode and another person believes the stroke of midnight on November 30^th is the earliest possible date any form of holiday decoration is allowable.
I pondered this as I recently walked among the holiday lights at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens.
Personally, I have never put up outdoor lights — perhaps because I spent almost twenty years renting and it just wasn’t “my territory.”
However, I do put up a Christmas tree that remains decorated until spring, most years.
The lights are so comforting, so enthralling, so enchanting, that I can’t seem to take the tree down (um, yes, it is artificial).
Even though I can be a Grinch at times, I don’t want to rob anyone of the wonderful feeling lights give me and potentially give others.
So, no matter what time of year it may be, let there be lights!

Photos © Sondra Sula.

Take a walk with me by reading my daily devotional book, Meditations on Mendocino by Sondra Sula. Available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle versions.

If you’d prefer a daily river walk, Reflections on the Fox River and Beyond by Sondra Sula, might just be the book for you.

God’s Mercy

Have you ever felt guilty about a prayer uttered from your lips? I have.
I recently asked God to get me out of a jam I had gotten myself into.
On top of that, the prayer involved a moral dilemma of which I was ashamed.
I was the “bad” person in this situation, and yet I was asking God for help.
I simply threw my hands up with a petition that sounded more like a yelp or cry.
I was willing to face the consequences; let the chips fall where they may, even if those chips fell into a dark abyss.
But after several months I was miraculously delivered, and this was part of God’s response to me: I love you. I do not want you to suffer so. I understand the strange constraints you are under. Do not mistake this for approval — simply understanding.
God is merciful.

Photos © Sondra Sula.

Take a walk with me by reading my daily devotional book, Meditations on Mendocino by Sondra Sula. Available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle versions.

If you’d prefer a daily river walk, Reflections on the Fox River and Beyond by Sondra Sula, might just be the book for you.

New Year’s Resolutions

It’s natural to want to make New Year’s resolutions. I do it every year.
I don’t fail until, hmm, week three?
Then I feel bad about myself.
Why did I set myself up for failure, I ask, half to myself, half to God.
The answer is… well if there is one, I don’t know it.
Every year I want to be a better person.
Every year I want to accomplish something meaningful.
Every year I want to be true to who I really am.
I’m not even going into the non-lofty goals: eat healthier, exercise more, say three things I’m grateful for each day, write birthday cards to all my friends, get the yard under control. Because, let’s face it, none of those things are really going to happen.
Who is judging all this potential accomplishment? I don’t think other people really care about my personal betterment goals, much less know about them. And from my many dialogues with God over the decades, I don’t think it’s God that’s judging me either.
That leaves me.
I guess my New Year’s resolution is: Let go of judgment and allow God to work in me and through me.
Maybe, just maybe, I can do that.

Photos © Sondra Sula.

Take a walk with me by reading my daily devotional book, Meditations on Mendocino by Sondra Sula. Available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle versions.

If you’d prefer a daily river walk, Reflections on the Fox River and Beyond by Sondra Sula, might just be the book for you.

Pondering Imperfection

As I walked past the magnolia pods at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, I pondered imperfection.
Ornamental horticulturists strive for floral perfection.
But sometimes malformations occur, like this cosmos that looks like a butterfly.
Or this cosmos with an oval center, rather than a round one.
Petals can be deformed, not unfurling as expected.
Why do we hold on so tightly to the idea of perfection?
We aren’t cookie-cutter images,
nor need we try to be.
We are allowed to be who we are,
with different facets to our personas.
We are an amalgam of genetics, environment and intention.
But we are also each amazing,
unique
and loved.

Photos © Sondra Sula.

Take a walk with me by reading my daily devotional book, Meditations on Mendocino by Sondra Sula. Available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle versions.

If you’d prefer a daily river walk, Reflections on the Fox River and Beyond by Sondra Sula, might just be the book for you.

Picture-Perfect Garden?

Many gardeners are after a picture-perfect look. But is that even possible? Flora, by nature, cohabits with fauna.

The buds atop a red hot poker (or should I say: a cool lime poker?) are just beginning their bloom cycle while the flowers below are ready to wither and make seed.

A group of rhododendron blooms have not yet opened, yet their leaves are already changing color and dropping.

Every garden is a mix of bright and blight; a symphony of beginnings and endings. When we step back and look at the entire garden, we see its true beauty.

When we step back and look at our own lives from our first memories of sentience to our present moment, much has been planted and pulled, cared for and neglected, cherished and ignored. We have learned to cohabit with others who have stepped into our “gardens” unbidden. If we can view our garden-lives without judging, we can appreciate their brilliant design, their colorful panorama. Perhaps our gardens are perfect after all.

All photos © Sondra Sula.

My most recent daily devotional book, Meditations on Mendocino by Sondra Sula, is available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle versions.

Judge Not

“Basic Instincts” by Sondra Sula

I came across a flower filled to the brim with activity: bees buzzing, bugs snacking on pollen, beetles mating. There was even a moth being eaten by a yellow spider that matched its petaled perch so well, I didn’t realize it was there until I viewed an enlargement of the photograph I had snapped. When I beheld the newly detailed scene on my computer screen, it seemed incredibly immoral: gluttony, sex, murder. But I soon realized this reflected my own human judgment. Every creature was behaving exactly as was intended by its creator.

“The End” by Sondra Sula

I began to consider my judgment of those belonging to the Homo sapiens species. The biblical command to “judge not” has followed me around for decades, tossing examples in my face at every turn. I have consciously been working on becoming a less judgmental person for the past thirty years and am continually amazed by the subtle judgments I continue to make.

Observing nature teaches me numerous lessons because it is a place without judgment. The spider is not passing judgment on the beetle or vice versa. Now if only I can do the same.

“Gorging” by Sondra Sula