There is a destiny that makes us brothers: none goes his way alone,
All that we send into the lives of others comes back into our own.~ Edwin Markham
Improving one’s lot in life is a sign of health and growth. But we’ve got to be careful about always demanding some nonexistent perfection and learn instead to appreciate, to enhance what is in hand.
~ Henry Miller
Our destiny changes with our thoughts; we shall become what we wish to become, do what we wish to do, when our habitual thoughts correspond with our desires.
~ Orison Swett Marsden
It’s quite possible to leave your home for a walk in the early morning air and return a different person — beguiled, enchanted.
~ Mary Chase
(Playing in Kidspace.)
Enjoyment is not a goal, it is a feeling that accompanies important ongoing activity.
~ Paul Goodman
Strange how a teapot can represent at the same time the comforts of solitude and the pleasures of company.
~Author Unknown
(Queen Anne’s Lace)
Sanctuary, on a personal level, is where we perform the job of taking care of our soul.
~ Christopher Forrest McDowell
In the language of flowers, Queen Anne’s Lace is said to represent sanctuary. Dictionary.com lists sanctuary as (along with the churches and temples) “a sacred and holy place; any place of refuge, asylum; and a tract of land where birds and wildlife, esp. those hunted for sport, can breed and take refuge in safety from hunters.”
At this time of the year, Queen Anne’s Lace is the most prominent flower in the meadows surrounding our pond. The amount of wildlife taking refuge in those meadows sometimes astounds me. There are spots where the grass has been beaten down by the deer where they sleep at night. Every year the number and variety of birds increase. (Prior to our time here on this property, the former owners mowed pretty much everything except the pond.) Turtles walk up from the pond and lay their eggs at the edge of the wildflower meadow where it’s lined with rocks. Killdeers lay their eggs in the rocks in the springtime. There are foxes, rabbits, snakes, lizards, toads, frogs, the dreaded groundhogs, and very likely a lot of creatures I haven’t yet seen. Or may never see.
Our newest sightings include cedar waxwings and an eastern king bird.
There are also a whole host of insects, including honey bees. One of the prettiest sights are the fireflies at night. Thousands upon thousands of them dance through the flowers and grasses beginning at dusk and lasting well into the evening.
And when the moon is shining, the Queen Anne’s Lace seem to glow right along with the fireflies.
Every moment is enormous, and it is all we have… Our life is a path of learning to wake up…
~ Natalie Goldberg
… it is always the simple that produces the marvelous.
~ Amelia E. Barr
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(At the edge of the wildflower meadow.)
Surely joy is the condition of life.
~ Henry David Thoreau
Bountiful Healing 