“Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.”
-May Sarton
Tag Archives: Flowers
Solstice
This summer solstice has been an embrace, an opening, a huge release and a tremendous expansion – inner and outer. What a gift!
Mother Earth in her wisdom, in her sustaining and nurturing power and love, is as ever, guiding, comforting, and expressing beauty in myriad ways.
The wild roses at home are radiating wonder holding rain drops as precious gifts.
It is all a gift to me.
Happy Summer Solstice!
“I too have known loneliness.
I too have known what it is to feel
misunderstood,
rejected, and suddenly
not at all beautiful.
Oh, mother earth,
your comfort is great, your arms never withhold.
It has saved my life to know this.
Your rivers flowing, your roses opening in the morning….”-Mary Oliver
When Great Trees Fall
When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.When great trees fall
in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses
eroded beyond fear.When great souls die,
the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile.
We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,
see with
a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened,
examines,
gnaws on kind words
unsaid,
promised walks
never taken.Great souls die and
our reality, bound to
them, takes leave of us.
Our souls,
dependent upon their
nurture,
now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed
and informed by their
radiance,
fall away.
We are not so much maddened
as reduced to the unutterable ignorance
of dark, cold
caves.And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.-Maya Angelo
“And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those that are friends.”
-Richard Bach
“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.”
-Richard Bach
“Death is the beginning of the soul’s new journey”
-Sri Chinmoy
Dedicated to Reza and Arlisa…
“How are you going to choose to spend this moment …this breath? It’s all there is. How much can you love? How will you choose to live today?
Let us drop the the bullshit, let go of the stories of who you think you are, the voices that keep you small and the misbelief that you are anything less than the absolute totality of LOVE. Claim your moment…NOW. It is really all there is…right here right now”-Arlisa Houston
“How our world has changed.
Apart but still together. Incredible.”
-Reza Darmono
Going to the Woods Alone
“Ordinarily, I go to the woods alone,
with not a single friend,
for they are all smilers and talkers
and therefore unsuitable.
I don’t really want to be witnessed talking to the catbirds
or hugging the old black oak tree.
I have my ways of praying,
as you no doubt have yours.
Besides, when I am alone
I can become invisible.
I can sit on the top of a dune
as motionless as an uprise of weeds,
until the foxes run by unconcerned.
I can hear the almost unhearable sound of the roses singing.
If you have ever gone to the woods with me,
I must love you very much.”-Mary Oliver
Promise Yourself
“Promise Yourself…
To be so strong that nothing
can disturb your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness, and prosperity
to every person you meet.To make all your friends feel
that there is something in them.
To look at the sunny side of everything
and make your optimism come true.To think only the best, to work only for the best,
and to expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others
as you are about your own.To forget the mistakes of the past
and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times
and give every living creature you meet a smile.To give so much time to the improvement of yourself
that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear,
and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world,
not in loud words but great deeds.
To live in faith that the whole world is on your side
so long as you are true to the best that is in you.”~ Christian D. Larson
Ground Beneath My Feet
“Time after time, I realized that everything I want or need – the living truth of life, love, beauty, purpose, and peace – is taught to me right here, no farther away than the ground beneath my feet.”
-Karen Maezen Miller
August
“Remember to be gentle with yourself and others. We are all children of chance and none can say why some fields will blossom while others lay brown beneath the August sun.”
-Kent Nerburn
“Breathe the sweetness that hovers in August”
-Denise Levertov
Bhutan – A Gallery of Photos
I had dreamed about Bhutan… mesmerized by the thought of its majestic mountains and mystery. Experiencing it finally in person, I found it to be full to brimming with radiance. Its people and environment warm and absorbing, magical. Gross National Happiness a real thing to strive for, not money and things. Spirituality and prayer, quiet, respect for elders and the land. Bhutan left a deep impression that walks with me still and always will. I treasure the time there and all it left inside me.
Click onto any individual image below to see a full size version… use arrows to see each in full size.
To Generate More Life
“What must I give more death to today, in order to generate more life? What do I know should die, but am hesitant to allow to do so? What must die in me in order for me to love? What not-beauty do I fear? Of what use is the power of the not-beautiful to me today? What should die today? What should live? What life am I afraid to give birth to? If not now, when?”
-Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Moving Through Nature
“I found myself wishing that we could live like the birds and move through nature without hurting it ourselves.”
-Ross Macdonald
“In those vernal seasons of the year, when the air is calm and pleasant, it were an injury and sullenness against Nature not to go out and see her riches, and partake in her rejoicing with heaven and earth.”
-John Milton
“Go out, go out I beg of you
And taste the beauty of the wild.
Behold the miracle of the earth
With all the wonder of a child.”-Edna Jaques
