Summer::August:full of sap and green...

August is summer's hump month--that's how I look at it anyway. It's halfway to cooler mornings and pleasant evenings and no mosquitoes; and if there's one word to describe Florida in August it's green. 

Mere days into the month, Louis is diagnosed with a detached retina and referred for surgery, and I'm scheduled for a remicade infusion, as well as my yearly series of pulmonology and rheumatology evaluations.   

It seems that we spend more days on the road and in waiting rooms and exam rooms than we do at home; and maybe that's why I've been more inclined to wander outside of our air-conditioned house, even if August holds some of summer's hottest and most humid days.

I'm desperate for sunlight, fresh air, and beauty...ever full of sap and green.  

Crepe myrtle, beautyberry, a downy woodpecker, magnolias, honeysuckle, a mama fox squirrel scurrying up an oak tree with her baby, and Casey's family coming to our rescue to mow and work outside when Louis can't. Dragon flies and blue skies, wildflowers, and Emily and her rescued chocolate lab.  

I'm so very grateful.

And goldenrod shoots continue to grow taller, reaching for cooler not-summer days.      

The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God. They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green, to declare that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

~Psalm 92:12-15

Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.

~Jeremiah 17:7-8

Creation sings the Father's song... a song of love and grace. [video]

31 Days::Day 24 - A yellow grace falling...

Down here in the land of swamp cabbage, alligators and skeeters, fall is so subtle and slow to creep in on the back of summer that except for the shorter days and longer nights....

...and the explosion of yellow goldenrod and wild daisies gracing the edges of our rural roads and dotting countryside fields...

...those who haven't lived here long {and even some of us that have} might miss it. 

We get behind the wheel of our days and take the same roads we've always traveled - so sure that we know what's out there that we don't even bother looking.

While I complain about the heat and skeeter bites, dentist appointments and dirty laundry, dogs that dig holes in our flower beds, and the same-ole-same-ole, I miss the glorious rising and setting of the sun, the clean air that fills my lungs, and the yellow grace falling all around me.  

{Golden rod has the bad reputation for aggravating our allergies, but in reality, its pollen is sticky and not air-born.}

Day 24 - Romans 10 {... For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” vs 13}, more fall decorating, more cleaning inside windows.