"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)