"A disciple asks the rebbe, 'Why does Torah tell us to "place these words upon your hearts"? Why does it not tell us to place these holy words in our hearts?' The rebbe answers: 'It is because as we are, our hearts are closed, and we cannot place the holy words in our hearts. So we place them on top of our hearts. And there they stay until, one day, the heart breaks and the words fall in.'" - Hasidic tale

"It is better to love a little than to understand everything"

~ George MacDonald

Faith, a blind cow at The Gentle Barn

I am the voice of the voiceless
Through me the dumb shall speak
Till the deaf world's ear
Be made to hear
The wrongs of the wordless weak.

And I am my brother's keeper
And I shall fight his fight
And speak the word
For beast and bird
Till the world shall set things right.
-Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919)

the trunk of a beautiful tree at

The Gentle Barn

Santa Clarita, CA

(a very special place)

leafy love

“Some people grumble that roses have thorns; I am grateful that thorns have roses.” 

~ Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr

“Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our natural lives.” 
― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

“Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. "Pooh?" he whispered.

"Yes, Piglet?"

"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's hand. "I just wanted to be sure of you.”

  

~ A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh

"The artist speaks to that part of you which yearns for beauty and creativity.  

Your inner artist invites you to participate in the great work of healing the world by lifting out of your senses creative images, words, and actions that inspire others to live lives of wonder and surprise."

~ Macrina Wiederkehr, O.S.B.

Monk of St. Scholastica Monastery

Fort Smith, Arkansas

(from the Foreword in Artist's Rule, by Christine Valters Paintner)

"The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions - the little soon forgotten charities 

of a kiss or smile, a kind look, a heartfelt compliment, and the countless infinitesimals of 

pleasurable and genial feelings." ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart."
~ Washington Irving

"Tears are our holy water."

 ~ Jan Karon, "Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good"

"It opens the lungs, washes the countenance, exercises the eyes, 

and softens the temper - so cry away." 

~ Charles Dickens

"We are as prone to love as the sun is to shine." ~ Thomas Traherne

Regarding his upbringing, "I was given enough genuine intellectual and artistic and cultural openness (along with sincere spirituality) to eventually sort out the debris from the real gold that is actually there in a life of Christian faith." ~ Daniel Otto Jack Petersen

texture

"Then came...the contemporary notion that he couldn't possibly make someone else happy, such business was entirely up to the other person."

 ~ Father Timothy Kavanagh, in Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good, by Jan Karon

“Oh, the comfort — the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person — having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.” 
                                                                           ~ Dinah Maria (Mulock) Craik, A Life for a Life

"We shall have no need for one another now: we can begin to truly love."

~ from The Great Divorce, by C.S. Lewis

.he believed in her.

she dreamed

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” 

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You build on failure.  You use it as a stepping stone.  Close the door on the past.  

You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it.  You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space." ~ Johnny Cash

feel the coolness of the water

that roars down the mountain,

winds through the valley

and makes it way to the sea

feel the chill of the wave as it washes over you

making you clean

...and salty

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” ~  Jesus

“Land, then, is not merely soil; it is a fountain of energy flowing through 

a circuit of soils, plants and animals.”- Aldo Leopold

Camphor Tree berry-like fruit and leaves...

...and my feet. :)

irish mushroom
(somewhere in Co. Carlow)

tree debris

thought it was actually kinda pretty

:)

“'What makes the desert beautiful,' said the little prince,
 'is that somewhere it hides a well.'” 
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

"When I’ve gone the last mile of the way,
I will rest at the close of the day;
And I know there are joys that await me,
When I’ve gone the last mile of the way."

refrain from "The Last Mile of the Way", Johnson Oatman, Jr. (1908)

The Peace of Wild Things

BY WENDELL BERRY

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Wendell Berry, "The Peace of Wild Things" from The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry. Copyright © 1998. 

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171140

trying to learn from the burn
extract lessons from the pain
and allow myself time for healing...

"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength
that will endure as long as life lasts." ~ Rachel Carlson

soft

i love you to the moon and back 

touch

Faces 1 Pendant by sculpturist, George Wilhelm

Tatiana Gurina's art dolls (Russia)

“I discovered a version of the sinner's prayer that increased my faith far more than the one that I had said years earlier...In this version, there were no formulas, no set phrases that promised us safe passage across the abyss. There was only our tattered trust that the Spirit who had given us life would not leave us in the wilderness without offering us life again.” 

~ Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith, by Barbara Brown Taylor

Little Night Scenes, by Faryn Davis - Fernworks

cucumber shades mushroom

Kind words can be short and easy to speak, 

but their echoes are truly endless.

 ~ Mother Teresa

leafy love

Sequoiahhhs

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

LOVE

sunset hike

lessens stress in life