This is a peafowl feather, a peacock in particular. I have always thought them to be quite beautiful. I love their iridescent colors. This particular feather is one I bought at a yardsale once, for 25 cents (or something similar.) I have kept it many years.
I like birds. They fascinate me... especially when they are friendly but I am fascinated that they are what they are, and I am fascinated that they can fly, something we know about birds, but can easily take for granted; it's quite a miracle really, if you think bout it that they can fly.
Birds are rather messy creatures, especially if they are indoors in a cage, but even out doors they are rather foul beings, some like guineas smell really bad, if you ask me, which may be why they are known as such, you know, fowl.
Words are amazing.
Take for example, words like "read," " read" and "red." I wonder, "Why OH why," (and why do you suppose,) we read the morning news, or we might go to the library and read a book, but after we have read it, we have read it? And then there is the color, red.
I note Jesus, words, in my Bible are both read and red and I read them wondering to myself sometimes, wonder to God above, "What does it mean?"
And are words mean? I mean, after all we learn that they have meanings? I wonder too, "waht is the meaning of it all?"
Other words that are of interest to me are world and whirled....
and as you know the world whirls in circles, revolutions.... making its way through things we call time and space....These words, we say are homonyms; they are words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings.
There more of them too, like:
aloud and allowed,
bald and bawled, (which, for many people would make sense, since for them when the hair falls out, they cry.)
fain and feign... (clearly opposite by definition...)
build and billed, (and you know if someone else builds something for you, it is bound to cost alot)
And there is also words like their and they're and
where and ware and where...
and
earn and urn... (and you do know the Bible says that "the wages (what sin deserves) of sin is death.") and
waist and waste.... (reminding us what happens when we overeat?)
Homonyms are interesting, because they sound the same, but have different meanings.
There are these that I find interesting too, like:
verses and versus...
altar and alter,
vane, vain and vein...(Vein being the tubes through which our life blood flows)
vary and very...
you, ewe, and yew...
....blew and blue..... (And did you know...the blue color on the peacock feathers, (or any bird's fathers) are not "really" blue? (You can check this yourself by
looking at them when they are lit from behind.) .....and one more, already mentioned earlier,
foul and fowl, which refers to a bird, which coincidental, rhymes with bird.
Something, you just have to take the time to think about.... like words... and birds...
and feathers...for only then will one discover how truly remarkable things in this life are... only as you rest from all the business of life and take it in.... investigate, think, dream, wonder.....and consider. Paying closer attention to all the details, you might even discover the "nicety" of it all behind the meanings.... that is, if words are mean.
They do, you know have meanings, they make points in fact.... sometimes in conversations anyway, they do. An words give information... and birds fly that way... in formation... why? Perhaps so we will wonder.... about the things we can only imagine, things like God and the things we must know in our own hearts, the thing we believe about ourselves and about God.
Simple questions, like: Why do birds fly and how they do it all with such precision? How do plants grow? Like for example, a tree, and this simply from some earth and sunshine and some water from the clouds! And to think this all comes out of a tiny little seed. Bigger questions too, often asked by little people, children, like "How did life on earth begin?" and "Where do babies, (not to mention the first human babies,) come from?" Sometimes one just has to take a bit of a rest from all the business of life, and wonder. We may never ask the questions, really, if we do not take time to stop and think, to observe, take the time to look at details, take the time to play to think tio dream, to really rest.
We have to ask the questions and seek true answers. We will only discover what we really want to know, the answers to the questions behind our reason, when we ask.
I read a quote today that caught my attention. It was a quote of a man named
Paul Hawken. (Note the
Bird Name, and consider
the beauty of the Hawk as a bird. The hawk is a bird of prey, (hominyn to pray.) Paul Hawken, author and "naturalist" is the recipient of awards by Mikhail Gorbachev and his
Green Cross International organization, as well as the author of the book titled,
Blessed Unrest. It caught my attention, mostly because of his name, (both Paul, like the apostle Paul and the bird part, "hawk"en, but also because of what he said.
First, I want to note however, the name of this man's book, which he is famous for. It is called,
"Blessed Unrest."
"Blessed Unrest?" That is a catchy tne if you ask me. A little antithetical to the concept of "sleeping in heavenly peace." (You know what I mean.) .According to the Global
Zietgiest "missionary " himself, (Paul Hawkins,) this "blessed unrest" is a global movement, a big movement of democracy in the world that is working in every "tribe and race and culture." He also says that it is a movement of people who believe that "salvation,
(yes, 'salvation') is found in diversity." Unfortunately, it is antithetical to the belief in "blessed REST," which by the way is the gift to man from God, something known to the Jews as Sabbath.... as opposed to those heavy duty business oriented folks who work and expect their slave labor to work, 24/7.
Unfortunately for this man named Paul, and others like him, finding works and work not "rest" important, the most important thing of all, rest is not blessed, and as such such may never enter into the blessed rest of God.
It should be noted that the Christian concept of salvation is in Jesus Christ (who gives our souls "blessed rest,") and it was He who said, "Come to me all ye who labor and are heavy burdened and I will give you REST." But such notions are rejected in Hawkins circles. His idea of salvation originates and ends with man. And to say "blessed Unrest" makes that clear.
The true salvation of all mankind: is out of "every tongue and tribe and nation" (Revelation 5:9) Curiously, those, who, like birds, sing a new song, to the worthy one, (Jesus Christ.) Those who enter into his Sabbath and who are are "saved" by him, through and by his love. Justice is a good thing, and it is right and it is good, but salvation comes not by mere justice, but by justice AND the grace and mercy of Almighty GOD.
Paul Hawken, in his remarks, also referred to another famous author, naturalist, and transcendentalist, much like himself in this particular quote, Ralph Waldo Emerson. (But note also that
transcendentalism, is.. if you are unaware, rooted in the teachings of
Immanuel Kant) Transcendentalism, or as it is, the 19th century American transcendentalism of Emerson, was a move from the worship of God as God, by people who thought it wise to worship nature instead of the creator of nature. These people, sad to say, exchange the truth of God, his very Word, for something else, basically, a lie. (
Romans 1:25) Mr. Hawkens, as wise and as wonderful as he may be, is simply following in Emerson's footsteps and Emerson, as wise and as wonderful as he maybe, was simply wrong.
Hawken's words before his audience in a presentation said,
"Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do it the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night of course. The world would create new religions overnight. We Would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead the stars come out every night and we watch television." The funny thing is that he is right, and I agree, it shouldn't be that were would replace the nighttime stars with new stars on TV. We were made to look at the starry hosts of heaven with our eyes.
I wonder, and I would like to ask both Hawken and Emerson,( if I could, ) if we stop and look at stars above instead of television, what would we see? What would be our own conclusions if and when we do take time to look up at the stars? What questions do we dare to ask and answer? What thoughts and marvels linger when we consider the creation of the heavens and the Earth?
To whom do we give glory? Is it God?
Isaiah 53 says...
Verse 1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
Even Hawk's eyes are made for seeing.
Psalm 19 reads,
1
| The heavens declare the glory of God;
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and the firmament showeth his handiwork.
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2
| Day unto day uttereth speech,
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and night unto night showeth knowledge.
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3
| There is no speech nor language,
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where their voice is not heard.
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4
| Their line is gone out through all the earth,
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and their words to the end of the world. Rom. 10.18
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Some people are busy, never resting, their life focus is on making money, managing their own lives, taking care of their own needs, sometimes to the neglecting of the needs of others. They think they can be just and are willing to cast the first stone, because they see no problem with themselves. Dismissing God from their equations they look to help those who help themselves and to their own wisdom, the wisdom of the world and, not to God, believing that the benevolent heart of all humanity working in unison together for one goal and purpose some united world, united on important issues, a global mind and being, some land of united religion, will save them, sustain them; but they are wrong. They are wrong because Jesus is the way the truth and the life, and they are wrong because they reject this idea and the idea that Jesus Christ is God.
"Blessed Unrest, "is there such a thing?
What if human beings could take a day a rest? What if they had time to take a vacation, take some time away from work and the busyness of life? What if they could experience once more, the natural night to sleep in peace.... to dream; to look up and marvel at the workmanship of his hands, to gaze into the heavens, to look up in the night and see the stars...
Would they wonder about God, the creator of the universe?And if they looked out the window int he day, would they marvel at the birds? Would they wonder how birds do it, how they fly? Would they marvel at their hollow bones and feathers, or the how they get the colors in their plumes.wonder how such a marvelous creature came to being from an egg? When they marveled, if they did, would they wish that they, like them, could really fly?
More homynyms:
fly and fly.. (one is a tny flyig insect, one is what most (but not all) birds can do)
flu and flue and flu. (Flu is an illness, whereas a flue is a smoke or heat outlet on a chimney or a type of organ pipe. Flew is the past tense of the verb fly, such as "
Time flew past."
And as for peacocks.... they are beautiful to look at. Sometimes you ight even think the father on a peacock is looking back as you.
The peacock, like the hawk, has certain peacock characteristics. It is the national bird of India, and is one of the largest flying birds. It is known for it's beauty and beautiful feathers, some exhibiting a beautiful
"peacock blue." It is also known for it's like so "arrogance" as it struts about as if it knows it is very beautiful. "Proud as a peacock, "some will say. Like other birds, it eats most anything even poisonous snakes, and is messy, often noisy, and can be quite aggressive. As a bird, like all birds it's quite amazing, that such a bird has wings and wings were made to fly.
Not only are peacocks able to fly, (if only for short distances,) but peacocks, if their feathers are void of color pigment, reflect the light that gives them a brilliantly beautiful royal, almost heavenly, "peacock" blue. This would not be possible, as scientists have found, were it not for the intricate engineering marvel that is embedded in their wing's feather structure. This is, at least for some people on this planet, and much like the experience of looking at the nighttime stars, "evidence" that there is such a thing as God. Other marvel and dismiss the reality of God.
Evidence? It is what you see and what you gather from what you see. What you think and reason in your mind. What you reflect in your heart and in your soul.
JOHN CHAPTER 1
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
