"Love is a madness most discreet."

William Shakespeare

"Never lose an opportunity for seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God's handwriting - a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Behind every flower stands God."

Japanese proverb

What is lovely never dies,
But passes into other loveliness,
Star dust or sea-foam, flower, or winged air.

Thomas Bailey Aldrich

I'm gonna miss you
Like I miss the ocean when I go to sleep
It's gonna break my heart

Mason Jennings - California

anne - snowsuit 1982

Crossways
Originally uploaded by lapidim

The romantic evenings. The cram sessions. The art projects. That nasty bug that's going around. The playdates. The group photos. The plumbing leak. The leftover pizzas. Marathon games of hide-and-seek. The holidays. Endless worry. Ceaseless dread. The rainy-day stir-crazies. The new puppy. The tantrums. The laundry. The slow dances. The important dinners. The naps. The alarms. the frantic mornings. And beneath it all, the underlying beauty of every single day.

To Live in the Mercy of God

To live in the mercy of God. The complete

sentence too adequate, has no give.

Awe, not comfort. Stone, elbows of

stony wood beneath lenient

moss bed.

And awe suddenly

passing beyond itself. Becomes

a form of comfort.

Becomes the steady

air you glide on, arms

stretched like the wings of flying foxes.

To hear the multiple silence

of trees, the rainy

forest depths of their listening.

To float, upheld,

as salt water

would hold you,

once you dared.

Denise Levertov

"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer."

Albert Camus

The past is beautiful
Like the darkness between the fireflies

Mason Jennings

affection, hans eder

"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful."

Norman Vincent Peale

"My idea is that there is music in the air, music all around us; the world is full of it, and you simply take as much as you require."

Edward Elgar