Joy & Poppieeeeeeeeees!!!!!!

O.K., so I know I'm a little off season here, but showing off Christmas decorations and such is going to take some time with the contents of two closets and a large book cabinet strewn about my little one bedroom. This will be the third day of Dave, the electrician, being here. I will perhaps get into that in another post!

So, to the poppies ... I love them. They are so delicate ... (They would never have survived the crazy winds we have had here in Southern California this week!) and the different varieties hold different memories and attach themselves to different places in my mind.

Orange California poppies remind me of Sunday drives and road trips growing up in California, listening to 8 track tapes in my Dad's '66 GTO. I'd look out the window and point them out and think how important they were, our state flower, that it was illegal to pick them! That was what I was told anyway. I'm not sure if it's even true.

The red poppies remind me of Umbria and especially Assisi ... bits of red painted among the olive trees.

The giant white Matilija poppies? Ojai and my sister's giant poppy plant next to her driveway that blooms every spring and welcomes you to her home.

Poppies look like joy to me. Little reminders of bits of happiness, sometimes found in unexpected places. Funny that the Wicked Witch of the West would use them against Dorothy and her pals, but you know, a little nap along your travels isn't really a bad thing. ;)

California Poppies

watercolor 2010

From joy I came,

For joy I live,

and in Thy sacred joy

I shall melt again.

~Paramahansa Yogananda

California Poppy in Ojai

Dorothy and her pals getting ready for a nap...

(The ones with a heartbeat that is!)

Poppies

Assisi, Italy

I have merged, like the bird, with the bright air,

And my thought flies to the place by the bo-tree.

Being, not doing, is my first joy.

~Theodore Roethke

Finding Deep Joy

Matilija Poppies, The Ojai Foundation 2011

The really happy person

is one who can enjoy the scenery when on a detour.

Anon

Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.

~Mother Teresa

Hope this weekend brings you unexpected joy and blessings!