Monday, December 15, 2014




"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

Monday, December 8, 2014


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
Santa Clarita, CA
(a very special place)

Tuesday, October 28, 2014


“Some people grumble that roses have thorns; I am grateful that thorns have roses.” 
~ Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr

Monday, October 20, 2014


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

Tuesday, October 14, 2014


"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)

Tuesday, October 7, 2014


"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

Friday, October 3, 2014



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

Thursday, October 2, 2014


"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



Monday, September 29, 2014


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

Friday, September 26, 2014


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

Wednesday, September 24, 2014


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

Tuesday, September 23, 2014



“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) CraikA Life for a Life

Monday, September 22, 2014


"We shall have no need for one another now: we can begin to truly love."
~ from The Great Divorce, by C.S. Lewis

Monday, September 15, 2014

Friday, September 12, 2014



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

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Friday, September 5, 2014


"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

Thursday, September 4, 2014



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

Wednesday, September 3, 2014


“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 
circuit of soils, plants and animals.”- Aldo Leopold
Camphor Tree berry-like fruit and leaves...
...and my feet. :)

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Thursday, August 28, 2014

tree debris
thought it was actually kinda pretty
:)

Sunday, August 24, 2014

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

Thursday, August 21, 2014

"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

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...

Monday, August 18, 2014


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

Friday, August 15, 2014

i love you to the moon and back 

touch


“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.”