Daphne Life

It’s the dead of winter. Flower beds are forlorn and forgotten, trees are stripped to skeleton sticks and the landscape is zipped up in a winter coat of frost. The garden has a cold shiver to it that seems to have snatched away all movement and stilled any life among things green. Is anything even alive out there? Can this garden live again? At first glance, it seems impossible that anything could grow, and yet, in my father’s garden, a burst of flowers has appeared. A wintery bouquet has come to life, sporting a creamy pink blush and a fragrance that envelopes, surrounds and chases you down in the garden. There’s no escape from its permeating presence. It wraps itself around everything in the garden and seems to shout out loud, “I’m flourishing! I’m alive!” New life has come into what appeared to be dead. If you inhale the heady aroma of a daphne odora in full bloom in the cold depths of February, it will take your breath away and make you believe in miracles again. You’ll realize that new life can come out of things that look as if they’re all dried up. Perhaps you’re walking through a dead of winter season with only dry bones on the landscape of your life. If so, let this daphne bush, that flowers and flourishes in winter, encourage you to remember that new life can be breathed into the most barren of landscapes. It’s a truth echoed in a story found in Ezekiel 37. Take a moment to read it and you’ll find new life being breathed into your circumstances. It will make you want to jump up and shout to the “dry bones” in your life to “Live again!” 

“I’ll breathe new life into you and you’ll live” Ezekiel 37:14

Laura 

P.S. A special thanks to my father, Clarence Skinner, for his photograph of the fragrant daphne blooming in his garden ...in February.

The Birds Knew

We wonder if the birds knew? Did they anticipate the arrival of the Savior? The stars knew He was coming. The Wise Men knew. The animals gathered at his birth knew. And his mother knew He had arrived within her. Surely the birds knew.

Creatures often seem to know ahead of time when a change is coming. Reports abound of animals taking actions prior to a change in climate or environment. Why wouldn't the greatest change, the greatest shift that ever occurred in history not alert little birds?

We think they knew.

Perhaps they looked a bit like this little bird. He's looking out over the bleak, harsh, cold environment surrounding him, to the spring. New life is coming! A new beginning is coming, a better way. He knows it and waits for it. And the calm assurance in his little face reflects this.

We think his ancestors may have looked like this just before Christmas Day. They had to know He was coming and they must have waited and watched with calm assurance, just like this little bird.

We hope the quiet expectation that the world and little birds held years ago on the starry nights before Christmas will envelope you and your family this season, as we wait to remember the greatest birthday ever.

The Velvet Lime Girls

The watercolor study of the Christmas cardinal is by Marybeth Wydock.

He Knows Your Name

This solitary flower still blooming in mid November holds an intimate love story in its petals. Created beautiful enough to stop a casual gaze across the barren pre-winter landscape, it creates a standstill when viewed up close. Intricate detail and exquisite color palettes reveal the work of a master. One who is interested in every single, solitary, tiny detail … down to the last star-studded stamen. Who would take time to sculpt such a petite fireworks display and place it in the heart of a flower? Someone with a connection to that flower… someone who knows it by name.

The flower served as a gentle reminder that God knows us by name. We have a connection with Him. We are not forgotten. The One who poured such creativity into a flower like this, pours infinite care, concern and attention into each of our lives. He actually says that He knows us by name. A powerful thought. Talk about name-dropping! The Creator of the universe… He knows my name. He actually calls me by my name, (Isaiah 45:3). It’s enough to create a little fireworks display in your own heart.

The Velvet Lime Girls

Run Your Race

“Let us throw off every weight and run with endurance the race marked out for us.” Hebrews 12:1

We’ve all been running a lot this summer and that makes us think of feet. Those wonderful workhorses of our body that move us through our journey here on earth. This photo of a magnificent sculpture in south Louisiana had a magnetic pull on me last summer. A swift runner captured in flight. Running her race with determination and tenacity. Sure of her course and the prize ahead. The sculptor fashioned the delicate feet with attention to detail and the layers of weathered years, moss and lichen, now etched into her surface, only added a depth to her message … "Run your race with diligence."

We’ve been running our races with diligence lately. Always checking to make sure we are hearing God clearly and doing exactly what he has created us to do on this earth. (We’re learning a clue to this is usually doing what we find great joy in… kind of what’s already in our DNA from God). This passage has been our running fuel and the sideline cheering force to some of our new artwork. We brainstormed about it recently and Marybeth began creating again … the result is a celadon and sea glass colored palette of artwork that just makes your spirit soar and with the sentiment attached, it is heavenly. It’s kind of under wraps now and will be peeking out in 2012, but you can take its inspiration below today and begin to run your race with new enthusiasm. Especially when you realize that your path has already been marked out for you.

As every runner knows, one of the great things about running is that exhilaration that infuses your entire body at the end of the race. You did it! You finished! What a great feeling! It’s the kind of feeling expressed years ago by a man shortly before he moved to heaven … “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” II Timothy 4:7

So find that path that’s been marked out just for you and enjoy your journey today… really enjoy it. Travel it knowing that it's been pre-arranged just for you. No one else can run this one except YOU.

Laura & the Velvet Lime Girls

Leftovers

“Leftovers” … that’s what the salesperson called them. The scraggly end-of-the season flowers left in a corner at the local gardening store. They were dry, brittle, and tossed on a refuse pile. I saw their potential and wanted to rescue them and give them a chance to flourish. I did. These leftovers are now the stars in my garden! Thick dark green succulent stems now hold buttery yellow faces that shimmer in the sunlight. They make me smile each time I look at them, because they remind me of the value and beauty that can be found in every “leftover”.

They also bring to mind a sentiment Marybeth expressed recently.

Marybeth has been a quiet inspiration to all of us over the past few years as she has said good-bye to three loved ones. She has traveled through these valleys of loss with her soul anchored to a strength that comes only from God … and journeyed on to mountains of joy with family, friends, faith and the creative expressions of Velvet Lime Designs. Recently she penned a few thoughts regarding the last good-by and they seem to fit in with the sentiment of finding beauty in leftovers that really matter. Here it is in her own words:

“I recently spent a few days helping go through what I term "the leftovers" -- what you leave behind when you are gone. This is the third time I've had to do it in my life and it never gets any easier. Sure, people make provisions for insurance policies, stocks, homes...that's all written on paper. It's the "leftovers" that bother me the most. Obviously, they meant something or they wouldn't have been kept. What about that high school track medal your son earned in 1974? Will he want it now? Or the mementos of your children's birth? Will it mean anything to them? What happens when you find that envelope with YOUR name on it and it contains mementos of YOU? Sometimes it's a little tough to swallow...these “leftovers." Deciding what stays and what goes.

I've decided when I am old and gray and it's my time to go, I will tell my family to happily throw it all away and remember me for the immaterial leftovers in my life. Keep what you must...but I want to be remembered for those things pertaining to the heart.”

“A good and honest life is a blessed memorial” Psalms 10:7

Marybeth & Laura

THIRSTY

Thirsty

Early each morning before the sun wakes up the elephant ears are still cradling little liquid jewels. They are nestled in the valleys of the broad plains of each green expanse. These diamond drops dance across the surface. Hovering, floating in a mercury motion, their slightly suspended form seems to shimmer a call to anyone who is thirsty … “drink me, I’ll quench your thirst!”

These water drops of morning dew make me thirsty each time I see them and remind me of Rebecca’s favorite verse, “As a deer thirsts for streams of water, so I thirst for you, God.” Psalms 42:1. We like the way The Message says it:

“A white-tailed deer drinks from the creek;

I want to drink God,

deep draughts of God.

I'm thirsty for God”

Thirsty. These little dewdrops carry a refreshing message. Our thirst can be quenched and filled with living water each day as we drink in time with God.

The Velvet Lime Girls

P.S. Thank-you to my sister-in-law, Sarah-Lynne, for reminding me of the beauty of dewdrops (and these photos taken in 2008).