Weekly Photo Challenge: Delicate

IN A NEW POST CREATED SPECIFICALLY FOR THIS CHALLENGE, SHARE A PICTURE THAT MEANS DELICATE TO YOU.  Delicate could be the tracings of frost on a window, a child’s tiny fingers and toes, the intricate pattern of a tree’s canopy, or something yet-to-be-discovered. So much of this challenge depends on your interpretation of “delicate,” and we look forward to seeing the range of images you capture.

When I hear the word “delicate” I think of things (or people) that are very sensitive and easy to damage.  The following 2 images on a recent hike made me think of how the word “delicate” is often used with the preventive idea of taking care of things/situations/relationships that appear “delicate” in order to avoid potential pain/loss/sorrow.

If we see plenty of healthy plants like the one I photographed above, we could loss sight of just how vulnerable and sensitive they actually are.

Another plant photographed on the same hike.  Like plants, we often only come to realize how delicate people are AFTER we see the damage.  After another bite of them is gone with bitter words.  After insensitive words have been fired and cannot be taken back.  After the damage, we think “If only I had treaded more carefully” but the damage is done.  We forget the truth that human beings with all our emotions can be very delicate and that one careless word could be “the straw that broke the camel’s back” in someone’s life, in the same way that one thoughtful word can be the word of balm and healing at the right moment.

May we (read “I) tread more carefully as we (read “I”) walk through the garden of life and consider the delicate souls that sway in the bitter winds of this world.  Delicate…