FLOWER FRIDAY - WHAT DID YOU SEE FIRST?

Mr. HCB decided not to go to cricket today because the forecast wasn’t good and in fact, he did keep looking at the BBC Sport website, but they didn’t start play until almost 2 o’clock, so he was right not to go.  However, I benefitted because he took me out for breakfast, which was great and then we popped in to see some friends, so we had a good start to our day.

We are having our booster jabs tomorrow, so again he won’t be going to cricket - but he’s not unhappy about it.  In fact, between you and me, I think he is missing Keith more than he thought he would - when we chatted about it over breakfast, he said that Keith would have wanted to go whatever the weather and would have sat and waited patiently until the match started and then stayed until the bitter end!

Just lately I have been thinking about what we see when we meet people - do we see their natural beauty or do we see their flaws - in other words, do we judge them by their appearance or by their character?

I was reminded of the Bible verse that says “People judge others by what they look like, but God judges people by what is in their hearts.” (1 Samuel 16:7)

It really spoke to me because I know that sometimes I am guilty of not looking beyond what my eyes can see - so if perhaps someone serving me in a shop speaks sharply, I don’t stop to think that they might have had a bad start to their day but judge them on the way they have spoken to me, which I know is wrong.  After all, what happens in our home and family often spills out into our everyday life and sometimes affects others, even though we don’t mean it to.

When I looked at these flowers, which were sent to me last week by my grandson’s mother, and miraculously are still alive, I immediately saw that the orange rose was still quite beautiful - and until I looked closer, I didn’t see the “flawed” petal and the fact that some of the other flowers are not quite as beautiful as they were over a week ago.  So what did you see first - the beauty of the rose or the flawed petal?

I found a word for today that I had never heard of but might be useful in a pub quiz - and perhaps we all need to have this: 

EUNOIA : Noun
This little known word comes from the Greek εὔνοια, meaning “well or healthy mind” or “beautiful thinking.”
Eunoia is the shortest word in the English language that has each vowel in it.