April is very full of very good things. On the first week of April, I received my certificate in Spiritual Direction. On the second week of April, we are having a bridal shower for my oldest daughter, here at our home. On the third week of April, my oldest daughter is getting married. On the fourth week of April, my husband and I go away for a few days to celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary… and surviving April.

I didn’t want to miss out on our blogroll again, so I am posting these photos I took for a lens review I did for Viewfinders.   Because this month is so full of beginnings, I am including John O’Donohue’s lovely poem For a New Beginning.  

In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.

For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.

It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.

Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.

Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life’s desire.

Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.

My friend Alison, a talented photographer and a wonderful human,  photographed her day and has documented it on her blog. Check it out!

~Staci Lee