My Last Blog Post

I've had a hell of a lot of fun and I've enjoyed every minute of it.

~© Errol Flynn~

(If you're interested in looking at my new photographs, I'll be continuing posting them here.)

The Sweet, Simple Things

I am beginning to learn that it is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all.

~© Laura Ingalls Wilder~

Poetry

There is only beauty and it has only one perfect expression- poetry. All the rest is a lie, except for those who live by the body, love, and, that love of the mind- friendship. For me, Poetry takes the place of love because it is enamored of itself and because its sensual delight falls back deliciously in my soul.

~© Stephane Mallarm~

My Home

This is the place that I love the best,
A little brown house, like a ground-bird's nest,
Hid among grasses, and vines, and trees,
Summer retreat of the birds and bees.

The tenderest light that ever was seen
Sifts through the vine-made window screen--
Sifts and quivers, and flits and falls
On home-made carpets and gray-hung walls.

All through June the west wind free
The breath of clover brings to me.
All through the languid July day
I catch the scent of new-mown hay.

The morning-glories and scarlet vine
Over the doorway twist and twine;
And every day, when the house is still,
The humming-bird comes to the window-sill.

In the cunningest chamber under the sun
I sink to sleep when the day is done;
And am waked at morn, in my snow-white bed,
By a singing bird on the roof o'erhead.

Better than treasures brought from Rome,
Are the living pictures I see at home--
My aged father, with frosted hair,
And mother's face, like a painting rare.

Far from the city's dust and heat,
I get but sounds and odors sweet.
Who can wonder I love to stay,
Week after week, here hidden away,
In this sly nook that I love the best--
This little brown house like a ground-bird's nest?

~© Edna Wheeler Wilcox~

Just Let The Sun

Just let the sun
Shine on your face
Only the darkness blinds your way

You take it easy
You walk on your own
Look for the sunshine
You'll find your way home

Just let the sun
Find your way home

~© Skin, excerpted lyrics~

In The Light

Dwelling in the light, there is no occasion at all for stumbling, for all things are discovered in the light.

~© George Fox~

The Sensitive Plant

And Spring arose on the garden fair,
Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;
And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast
Rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.

~© Percy Bysshe Shelley~

Reverie

To lose one's self in reverie, one must be either very happy, or very unhappy. Reverie is the child of extremes.

~© Antoine Rivarol~

A Teachable Moment Of Clarity

Having long striven, having been driven
To amount to something- now I stand at
The crossroads of a teachable moment

This is a time in which fate would foment
Change to rearrange my reality
And now fate is doing precisely that

It is in the darkness I learn to see
At dusk I learn to hope for coming dawn
In winter I appreciate the spring
And see the light brightest when it is gone

Now fate offers me a challenge to grow
To seek and find the all in everything
And learn the more I know the less I know

To taste of the joy of simply being
And experience the peace of seeing
Not through rose-colored glasses nor through black
Embracing what I have not what I lack

A teachable moment of clarity
It is not too late for this gift of fate:
I rise now to my higher destiny

~© Steven Curtis Lance~

Following The Sun

Following the sun, to find the one
Who's giving you the wings to fly
Following the sun, the golden one
Losing sense for space and time

Can you feel the waves of life
Can you hear the sigh of love
Do you believe in it

Following the sun, just for the one
Till you'll find the door you thought
Following the sun, like everyone
Searching for a sign of hope

~© Enigma, excerpted lyrics~

Don't Fade Away

And so I stand at the crossroad,
Watching the sun sinking low...
With my cross of indecision,
Trying to find the way to go...

All in all its been a rocky road,
Twists and turns along the way...
But I still pray for tomorrow,
All my hopes, my dreams
Don't fade away

~© Whitesnake, excerpted lyrics~

Augeries Of Innocence

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

~© William Blake~

Wash

everything in the world was falling through
all I knew was to look to you
my sunshine

all my life never found my place
until I felt the sunlight on my face
my sunshine

never meant to waste your time
never meant to fall out of line
I always tried to get closer to you
now it seems with every step
feels like I'm losing my breath
I don't know what else I can do

but you wash over me
you wash over me like rain
and you wash over me
you wash over me like sunshine
and you wash over me
you wash over me like rain
and you fall into me
you crawl into me like sunshine
like sunshine
like sunshine
like sunshine

~© Lifehouse, Excerpted lyrics~

The Setting Sun

After a day of cloud and wind and rain
Sometimes the setting sun breaks out again,
And touching all the darksome woods with light,
Smiles on the fields until they laugh and sing,
Then like a ruby from the horizon's ring,
Drops down into the night.

~© Henry Wadsworth Longfellow~

Life

Life is the art of drawing without an eraser.

~© John W. Gardner~

Bridge To Cross

All is black and white
Wouldn't change even if I could
I'll take what I'm handed
Whether it's damned or if it's good
If it's good
If it's good

~© Black Label Society~

Every Day Miracles

People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child -- our own two eyes. All is a miracle.

~© Thich Nhat Hanh~

Spring

The air and the earth interpenetrated in the warm gusts
of spring; the soil was full of sunlight, and the sunlight full
of red dust. The air one breathed was saturated with
earthy smells, and the grass under foot
had a reflection of the blue sky in it.

~© Willa Cather~

The Violet

The splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not rob the little violet of it’s scent nor the daisy of its simple charm. If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, Spring would lose its loveliness.

~© Therese of Lisieux~

When My Heart Is Heavy...

When my heart is heavy, the sun helps make it light.

~© Astrid Alauda~

Meeting The Easter Bunny

On Easter morn at early dawn
before the cocks were crowing
I met a bob-tail bunnykin
and asked where he was going.
"Tis in the house and out the house
a-tipsy, tipsy-toeing,
Tis round the house and 'bout the house
a-lightly I am going."
"But what is that of every hue
you carry in your basket?"
"Tis eggs of gold and eggs of blue;
I wonder that you ask it.

"Tis chocolate eggs and bonbon eggs
and eggs of red and gray,
For every child in every house
on bonny Easter day."
He perked his ears and winked his eye
and twitched his little nose;
He shook his tail -- what tail he had --
and stood up on his toes.
"I must be gone before the sun;
the east is growing gray;
Tis almost time for bells to chime." --
So he hippety-hopped away.

~© Author Unknown~

A Lesson

Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn't know it, so it goes on flying anyway.

~© Mary Kay Ash~

The Dandelion

It gives one a sudden start in going down a barren, stony street, to see upon a narrow strip of grass, just within the iron fence, the radiant dandelion, shining in the grass, like a spark dropped from the sun.

~© Henry Ward Beecher~

The Sky

I have scarcely touched the sky and I am made of it.

~© Antonio Porchia~

Violets

Again the violet of our early days
Drinks beauteous azure from the golden sun,
And kindles into fragrance at his blaze.

~© Ebenezer Elliott~

Dewdrops

The dew-drop in the breeze of morn,
Trembling and sparkling on the thorn,
Falls to the ground, escapes the eye,
Yet mounts on sunbeams to the sky.

~© James Montgomery ~

I Will Be

I will be the gladdest thing
Under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers
And not pick one.

~© Edna St. Vincent Millay~

The Cloud

I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers,
From the seas and the streams;
I bear light shade for the leaves when laid
In their noonday dreams.

From my wings are shaken the dews that waken
The sweet buds every one,
When rocked to rest on their mother's breast,
As she dances about the sun.

I wield the flail of the lashing hail,
And whiten the green plains under,
And then again I dissolve it in rain,
And laugh as I pass in thunder.

~© Percy Bysshe Shelley~

'Tis True

As the flowers are all made sweeter by the sunshine and the dew, so this old world is made brighter by the lives of folks like you.

~© Bonnie Parker~

In Bloom

Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night.

~© Rainer Maria Rilke~

Do Not Let Your Fire Go Out

In the name of the best within you, do not sacrifice this world to those who are its worst. In the name of the values that keep you alive, do not let your vision of man be distorted by the ugly, the cowardly, the mindless in those who have never achieved his title. Do not lose your knowledge that man's proper estate is an upright posture, an intransigent mind and a step that travels unlimited roads. Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it's yours.

~© Ayn Rand~

Keep In The Sunlight

Do not anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.

~© Ben Franklin~

A Light Unto My Path

I'm not sure where I'm going
only where I've been
It's been sunny and it's been raining
there's been heat and there's been wind.

This path is so uncertain.
with each twist & curve & turn.
I don't know where I'm going.
But each new day, I learn.

~© forgtnrose (AKA Stephanie, a very good friend)~

Walking In The Clouds

When I do not walk in the clouds I walk as though I were lost.

~© Antonio Porchia~

No More Walls

I am an excitable person who only understands life lyrically, musically, in whom feelings are much stronger as reason. I am so thirsty for the marvelous that only the marvelous has power over me. Anything I can not transform into something marvelous, I let go. Reality doesn't impress me. I only believe in intoxication, in ecstasy, and when ordinary life shackles me, I escape, one way or another. No more walls.

~© Anais Nin~

Clouds And The Sunset Sky

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.

~© Rabindranath Tagore~

Happy Spring!

In springtime, love is carried on the breeze. Watch out for flying passion or kisses whizzing by your head.

~© Emma Racine deFleur~

Extraordinary

In the right light, at the right time, everything is extraordinary.

~© Aaron Rose~

Through The Rain

I know its hard
In a world gone mad
To find the truth
To understand
And I know its hard
To turn the page
To walk the line
To have the faith

But sometimes when its light
And you can see
Sometimes when this world
Just seems to be so cold
Sometimes when youre lost at sea
Drowning in your pain
Sometimes the sun shines through the rain

I know its hard
In a world so cold
To feel the love
I know its hard
And I know its true
That in the end
We all find our way
And thats life my friend

But sometimes when its light
And you can see
Sometimes when this world
Just seems to be so cold
Sometimes when youre lost at sea
Drowning in your pain
Sometimes the sun shines through the rain

World keeps turning
Nothing changes
Hope this time
We can rearrange the stars
It cant be that hard, no

Sometimes when its light
And you can see
Sometimes when this world
Just seems to be so cold
Sometimes when youre lost at sea
Drowning in your pain
Sometimes the sun shines through the rain

~© Cinderella lyrics~

Faith

Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark.

~© Rabindranath Tagore~

The Perfect Communion

The one who bows and pays respect,
And the one who receives the bow and the respect,
Both of us are empty.
That is why the communion is perfect.

~© Thich Nhat Hanh~

Secrets

She ain't waiting 'til she gets older
Her feet are makin' tracks in the winter snows
She got a rainbow that touches her shoulder
She be headed where the thunder rolls

She comes like the secret wind
She's as strong as the mountains, walks tall as the trees
She been there before, she'll never give in
She'll be gone tomorrow like the silent breeze

The question is not, "Does love exist?"
But when she leaves, where she goes?
I got the feelin' she don't know either
Wait like the wind, watch where she blows

~© Van Halen, excerpted lyrics~

Sunshine

Sunshine is my quest.

~© Winston Churchill~

In This Twilight

Watch the sun,
as it crawls across a final time
and it feels like,
like it was a friend.
It is watching us,
and the world we set on fire.
Do you wonder,
if it feels the same?

~© NIN, excerpted lyrics~

The Silent River

You and I can turn and look

at the silent river and wait. We know

the current is there, hidden; and there

are comings and goings from miles away

that hold the stillness exactly before us.

What the river says, that is what I say.

~© William Stafford~

Live Forever

Maybe I will never be
All the things that I'd like to be
Now is not the time to cry
Now's the time to find out why
I think you're the same as me
We see things they'll never see
You and I are gonna live forever

~© Oasis, excerpted lyrics~

In My Wildest Dreams

In my wildest dreams, you always play the hero. In my darkest hour of night, you rescue me, you save my life.

~© Bliss and Cerney~

Sugar Magnolia

Sugar magnolia
Ringin' that blue bell
Caught up in sunlight
Come on out singing
I'll walk you in the sunshine
Come on honey, come along with me

Sometimes when the cuckoo's crying
When the moon is halfway down
Sometimes when the night is dying
I take me out and I wander round
I wander round

Sunshine daydream
Walkin through the tall trees
Going where the wind goes
Blooming like a red rose
Breathing more freely
Light out, singing
I'll walk you in the morning sunshine
Sunshine daydream
Walk you in the sunshine

~© Grateful Dead, excerpted lyrics~

From "Song Of Myself"

Houses and rooms are full of perfumes, the shelves are crowded with
perfumes,
I breathe the fragrance myself, and know it and like it,
The distillation would intoxicate me also, but I shall not let it.

The atmosphere is not a perfume, it has no taste of the distillation,
it is odorless,
It is for my mouth forever....I am in love with it,
I will go to the bank by the wood and become undisguised and
naked,
I am mad for it to be in contact with me.
The smoke of my own breath,
Echoes, ripples, buzz'd whispers, love-root, silk-thread, crotch and
vine,
My respiration and inspiration, the beating of my heart, the passing
of blood and air through my lungs,
The sniff of green leaves and dry leaves, and of the shore
and dark-color'd sea-rocks, and of hay in the barn,
The sound of the belch'd words of my voice loos'd to the eddies of
the wind,
A few light kisses, a few embraces, a reaching around of arms,
The play of shine and shade on the trees as the supple boughs wag,
The delight alone or in the rush of the streets, or along the fields
and hillsides,
The feeling of health, the full-noon trill, the song of me rising from
bed and meeting the sun.

Have you reckon'd a thousand acres much? have you reckon'd the
earth much?
Have you practis'd so long to learn to read?
Have you felt so proud to get at the meaning of poems?

Stop this day and night with me and you shall possess the origin
of all poems,
You shall possess the good of the earth and sun, (there are millions
of suns left,)
You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look
through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in
books,
You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me,
You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self.

I have heard what the talkers were talking, the talk of the beginning
and the end,
But I do not talk of the beginning or the end.

There was never any more inception than there is now,
Nor any more youth or age than there is now,
And will never be any more perfection than there is now,
Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.

~© Walt Whitman~