The end

(Parhelion — sun dog — on a summer afternoon. Photo © 2009 by Robin)

When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.

~ Buddha

This is my last post here at Bountiful Healing.  I decided it would be easier for me to end it here and now rather than continue to drag things out with the occasional posting.  That’s too confusing for all of us.

I briefly considered making the blog private, but think it’s better to leave things as they are for now.  Even when I’m not posting I get the occasional visitor who was looking for a quote or a picture, who leaves a note saying, “Thank you for that quote.  I needed it today.”

Bountiful Healing worked the magic I intended, bringing me to where I am today.  It’s time for a new chapter in life.  You can find me at Life in the Bogs where I will still be posting photos and quotes along with my own voice/writing.  I’ll be working on some other projects as well, and it’s likely you’ll be hearing about them on the Bogs blog.  It’s a whole new adventure, leading (I hope) to more magic.

Thank you so much to all of you who have followed along on my Bountiful Healing journey.  Your visits and comments are and have always been very much appreciated.  Somehow I got lucky in the blogosphere, attracting a great group of other bloggers and friends and a mixture of both.

Wishing you all much love, joy, and magic.  And please, do join me at Life in the Bogs. 

(Pedal boat on the pond at sunset.  Photo © 2009 by Robin)

Inside view

(The inner lily.  Photo © 2009 by Robin)

The hidden harmony is better than the obvious.

~ Pablo Picasso

Tiger lilies

(Raindrops on tiger lilies.  Photo © 2009 by Robin)

Beauty awakens the soul to act.

~  Dante Alighieri

A welcome rain

(Deluge on the pond.  Photo © 2009 by Robin)

Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air and you.

~ Langston Hughes

We had a lot of rainfall in a short period of time yesterday.  It’s a wonder the rowboat, which once again escaped to wander the pond on its own, didn’t sink.  If we ever catch it again, it’s going to require a lot of bailing.

I’m going to be slowing down on the posts at Bountiful Healing over the next few months.  I have some other projects I’d like to work on, including a book in the works, and that means freeing up time.  You wouldn’t think posting a photo and a quote would take up much time, but it does.  It even surprises me how much time it takes to put the two together to my satisfaction.

I will still be posting at Life in the Bogs on a daily basis.  Eventually I’ll merge the two now that I’ve worked out how I wish to do it.  BH will still be around for a while.  The merger is on the list of things to do when the cold weather returns.

The flower girl

(In the rectory garden. Photo © by Robin)

Whenever I experience something beautiful, I am with Soul.  That moment of inward breath, that pause and awareness of “how beautiful this is” is a prayer of appreciation, a moment of gratitude in which I behold beauty and am one with it.

~ Jean Shinoda Bolen

Salad

(Spring salad*.  Photo © 2009 by Robin)

To make a good salad is to be a brilliant diplomatist — the problem is entirely the same in both cases.  To know exactly how much oil one must put with one’s vinegar.

~ Oscar Wilde

*The strawberries in this salad were picked by M and I at a local farm.  The lettuces are from my garden.  The garden, it should be noted, is doing very well so far this year.  We’ve had just the right amount of rain, sunshine, and warm temperatures.

I think this will be my last post here at BH until sometime next week.  The first of family and friends will be arriving tomorrow and that will put us into full wedding-celebration swing.  Since I’ve committed myself to a photo a day at Life in the Bogs, I’ll try to find time to keep up with that project.

Enjoy your weekend and I’ll see ya’all next week.

Gifts

(Peonies in a box; a gift from a friend.  Photo © 2009 by Robin)

Flowers leave some of their fragrance in the hand that bestows them.

~ Chinese Proverb

The peonies were a gift from a friend.  The vase in which the peonies are sitting was on loan from the same friend.  Yesterday we discovered that the peonies, the vase, and a pair of pruning sheers that were sitting on the porch near the peonies, were all stolen.  I don’t mind the loss of the pruning sheers so much.  They were old and didn’t work properly.  I’m glad for the excuse to buy a new pair.

What I do mind is that someone would just walk up onto our porch and then walk away with something without asking.  There has been a rash of such activities out here in the country.  Minor things stolen, ruts in yards from ATVs, and houses being egged.  I’m guessing the recent release from school has the local children feeling a little rambunctious.  That would explain why they played baseball bat tag with our mailbox on the way out.

I reckon we’ll go back to keeping our front porch plain and simple.  It was nice, though, to have the peonies for the day or so we had them.  They were beautiful and fragrant.  We were going to move them to the back porch but thought we’d share their beauty by leaving them out front where others could see them.

I hope whoever has them is enjoying them as much as we did.  It would be greatly appreciated if they’d return the vase.

Beginnings

(Getting married soon.  Photo © 2009 by Robin)

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.

~ Lao Tzu

I’m cross-posting again.  Life is hectic these days so finding time to post at all is a luxury.  Everything will be back to normal in a week or so.  In the meantime, I’m going to enjoy these moving-too-fast days as much as I can.

In the moment

(June sunset.  Photo © 2009 by Robin)

Hold every moment sacred.  Give each clarity and meaning, each the weight of your awareness, each its true and due fulfillment.

~ Thomas Mann

Lafayette Cemetery No. 1

(A tomb in Lafayette Cemetery No. 1.  New Orleans, Louisiana.  Photo  © 2009 by Robin)

One of the things I wanted to do while in New Orleans was visit the cemeteries.  I’ve read about them in various books (including Anne Rice’s vampire and Mayfair witch books) and seen them in movies.  Research done before the trip revealed that the cemeteries are not only popular with tourists, they are popular with criminals looking to lighten the load of  tourists by relieving them of some of their valuables.  Pretty much everything I read suggested that if I wished to visit certain cemeteries, I should join a tour group, be sure to stay with the tour group, and none of that falling behind just to capture a few shots or wandering off by myself.  One guide book even warned that you should “go with a tour group or a police escort” (emphasis mine).

To be honest, I was a little taken aback by some of the things I read regarding New Orleans and crime.  Having never been there before, I wasn’t sure if I should leave the hotel room and wander around on my own or not.  As it turns out, it wasn’t such a scary place to be after all.  I walked around the city on my own for the first three days while M was attending a conference.  I did, however, decide to join a tour group to visit one of the cemeteries.  We could have toured Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 on our own (it’s one of the relatively safe cemeteries), but that would have deprived us of the great tour guide we had who filled our heads with stories, legends, and her knowledge of burial symbols and rites in New Orleans.

(Gate into the cemetery.  Photo © 2009 by Robin)

Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 is located in the Garden District of New Orleans.  The Garden District in and of itself is an interesting area and we took a walking tour of the District on our own after the tour of the cemetery.  More on that in a later post.  This area of New Orleans used to be known as the city of Lafayette, where Les Americaines (the Americans) lived.  The cemetery is located on land that was once part of the Livaudais plantation.  It was established in 1833, and you’ll find more German and Irish names in this cemetery than you will in the older cemeteries located in what were the Spanish and French sections of New Orleans.

Hanging on the entrance gate of the cemetery is a dedication to musician Theodore Von LaHache, founder of the New Orleans Philharmonic Society.  Lafayette Cemetery No. 1 is the only cemetery in New Orleans dedicated to someone.

(Von La Hache tomb.  Photo © 2009 by Robin)

Lafayette No. 1 has been used in a few films, including Interview With the Vampire (which, I gather, brought in plenty of tourists after the film was released in 1994).  It is also featured in some of Anne Rice’s novels.  (For the record, I didn’t set out to follow an Anne Rice tour of the Garden District, but it worked out that way due to scheduling.  We’d have toured St. Louis  No. 1 — an older cemetery — if we’d had the time to do so on the only Sunday we were in New Orleans.  As it was, timing brought us to Lafayette No. 1 instead.)

(Warning on the gate.  Photo © 2009 by Robin)

If you’re planning a trip to New Orleans and want to tour the cemeteries, I recommend the Save Our Cemeteries tours.  You don’t need a reservation, the tour guides are knowledgeable, and your donation goes towards the protection, preservation, and promotion of the cemeteries.

More on Lafayette No. 1 in future posts.