Walking and Waiting

October is finally here!

 In a bid to save my sanity and speed up the baby's arrival, I have been taking walks in the park. This last lap is really the hardest part of the entire pregnancy for me as I have to deal with full blown drive-me-crazy belly-itching as my stomach begs baby to stop stretching, untimely cramps and quite painful kicks to say the least. Time really seems to be crawling by.

But on the bright side, I have come to really like the park near our place. It's very tranquil and refreshing. I could waddle for a good mile and not feel it much. I also get to spend some quality time talking with my husband whilst enjoying the sunshine with the cold breeze.

Me, mid-waddle. Black hides alot. I am really big now.

Another lovely sight- squirrels scampering all over the place gathering their supplies for the impending winter I presume.

I really love Autumn colours. Coincidentally, last year I welcomed Autumn on this blog on the same day! Lovely poem in that entry to be reread and treasured. 

Autumn

Fall is here!

The crisp cold wind greets us with patches of wind and rain through the day. Burgundy leaves strewn on the pavements. The route we take to work always shows the changes of the seasons remarkably as it is down a hill. 

This morning, I looked up and admired the spire for the umpteenth time surrounded by the changing leaves.

 I want to share a wonderful poem with you that puts everything that I feel about Autumn perfectly into words:

The changing leaves of autumn colored brightly red and gold,
Also bring a warning of the coming winter cold.
As the wind is changing from the milder summer breeze,
You can feel the difference as it echoes through the trees.


As I shuffle down the path leading through the park,
As the days grow shorter now and soon it will be dark.
I realize that life is like the seasons we live through,
Life is like the changing seasons always changing too.


Basking in the warmth of life in the summer sun,
Never giving thought to when these summer days are done.
But before we realize the cold wind starts to blow,
And our basking summer sun turns colder with the snow.


Only then we realize that life has changed so fast,
Only then we realize that nothing ever lasts.
Life goes through the seasons as the years accumulate,
Many times we long for summer when it is too late.


Life is meant for living and enjoying each new day,
Life is meant for loving those you meet along the way.
Never spend your summer years just basking in the sun,
Unless each minute that you spend is with a special one.


People need each other to enjoy the trip through life,
A very special partner or a husband or a wife.
Alone you can enjoy the beauty that is everywhere,
But there is a special meaning when with someone you can share.


Life is like a changing tree with brightly colored leaves,
Your family and your friends and you can be compared to these.
In autumn when the leaves start changing colors, they will fall,
One by one until the branches have released them all.


If I be like a changing leaf among one of life's trees,
And all my friends and family were also such as these.
And autumn was not just for me as counted from my birth,
But autumn season spoken here was for the entire earth.


Then are we in the autumn season foretold from the past?
Could the colored leaves now falling be the very last?
Are the signs and wonders now upon us really true?
Or will there be another spring when all things will be new?


I as a single leaf will someday have my time to leave,
As those who went before me leaving me to sometime grieve.
But someday in that final autumn at the final call,
Should I still be clinging there when all the leaves will fall.


I only want to realize that in this autumn season,
I had a purpose in this would and my life had a reason.
To live and love and enjoy life for all that it is worth,
But only if the lives I've touched had meaning and a purpose.


No one knows whose life they touch or who they will embrace,
Just by actions that they do or being face to face.
But your life will be noticed as the brightly colored trees,
As either brilliant beauty or a pile of dried up leaves.

Changing Leaves

~ James A. Kisner ~

Tate Britain- The Romantics

This April Fools day was not foolish at all. Together with a friend, we decided to take a 20 minute sunny walk along the Thames and go to Tate Britain.

She decided to go for the Picasso exhibition while I decided to stroll along the gallery of the Romantics. She surprised me with a postcard of her favourite painting in the exhibition. So fascinating.

I spent the afternoon exploring the likes of Constable and JMW Turner. I only managed to go to 4-5 rooms in the end. With soothing music in my ears, I had one of the most enjoyable afternoons reading and delving into the paintings. I especially love paintings capturing nature and I lapped in Constable's Sketching from Nature. I was thoroughly fascinated by his depiction of the sea and the light hitting the waves. My favourite painting of all in that room was this. It looks much better in real life. The computer blurs the effect. I wish I could bring it home with me. I had the Narnia- Voyage of the Dawn Treader feeling of the sea flowing towards me. Ahhhhhhhh....

The ultimate work I fell in love with today was Constable's Cloud Study. He scribbled a beautiful, magnificent verse from The Farmer's Boy- A Rural Poem written by Robert Bloomfield which took my breath away.

Here it is:

With saunt'ring step he climbs the distant stile,

Whilst all around him wears a placid smile;

There views the white-rob'd clouds in clusters driven,

And all the glorious pageantry of Heaven.

Low, on the utmost bound'ry of the sight,

The rising vapours catch the silver light;

Thence Fancy measures, as they parting fly,

Which first will throw its shadow on the eye,

Passing the source of light; and thence away,

Succeeded quick by brighter still than they.

Far yet above these wafted clouds are seen

(In a remoter sky, still more serene,)

Others, detach'd in ranges through the air,

Spotless as snow, and countless as they're fair;

Scatter'd immensely wide from east to west,

The beauteous 'semblance of a Flock at rest.

These, to the raptur'd mind, aloud proclaim

Their MIGHTY SHEPHERD'S everlasting Name.

What a brilliant reminder this Palm Sunday of how amazing our Creator God is! 

Something to live by- The Farmer

THE FARMER

Without delay he's up each day

before the crack of dawn.

After breakfast, a kiss from his wife,

he yawns and pulls his work boots on.

Out the door he stands with pause

to smile at the gold-blue sky.

The rooster crows and the man steps off

with purpose in his stride.

There's livestock to feed and fences to mend,

till the soil and plant some seed.

His list of chores has no end

for there's a hungry world to feed.

This is what he's called to do

as steward of God's good Earth.

Like his father and the fathers before,

'twas passed to him by birth.

The sun has set and he's earned the right

to relax on his old back porch.

He shuts his eyes and breathes in the night

praying tomorrow he'll rise once more.