Hold everything dear

The faith and

the love and

the hope

are all in the waiting...

~T.S. Eliot

To live deep within your heart

A Franciscan Benediction:

May God bless you with DISCOMFORT at
easy answers, half-truths, and superficial
relationships so that you may live deep
within your heart.

May God bless you with ANGER at injustice,
oppression, and exploitation of people so that
you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with TEARS to shed for
those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation
and war so that you may reach out your hand
to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough FOOLISHNESS
to believe that you can make a difference in this world
so that you can DO what others claim cannot be done.

And a link that will touch your heart: the places we live

sincerity of heart.

Dance.

Dance, when you're broken open.

Dance, if you've torn the bandage off.

Dance in the middle of fighting.

Dance in your blood.

Dance, when you're perfectly free.

-RUMI

The Four, no. 7: Kristen's challenge

(more photos from New Orleans: Bywater)

Challenge no. 7 from The Four:

"April hath put a spirit of youth in everything."

William Shakespeare

What I remember by heart

This morning I rolled out of bed round five, threw on some layers and headed to the trail. Lily (my pup) and I climbed the overlook tower just as the sky began showing colors of pink. I lit three tea candles and stood wrapped in my orange hoody, breathing in this moment that once, so long ago, I had remembered by heart.

#57 Seedlings

TOMATO

BROCCOLI

It's rainy and cold here but watching these seedlings grow lifts my spirits!

And yesterday we received an order from Johnny's Selected Seeds: red romaine, bolero carrot, hansel eggplant, american slicing cucumber, smooth leaf spinach, echinacea, basil, chives, anise hyssop, sunflower, red bulb onion, watermelon, parsley, canteloupe, wild marjoram, bright lights swiss chard, long island cheese winter squash, zucchini squash, sweet peas, buttercup squash, butternut winter squash...

A bit much for the amateur gardener but I'm so excited for warmth and spring, for digging and growth that I could barely reel myself in!

#56 Glide

GLIDE

This photo, taken on my spring trip to New Orleans, reminds me of a scene from Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place. In Refuge, Terry Tempest Williams writes about the ways in which her life and understanding are changed by the cancer slowly killing the women in her family and the flooding of the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge, a Refuge she cares for, learns from and loves. Her experience of both beg the question: 'How can we find refuge in change?'

After heading to the Bird Refuge on an especially difficult afternoon Tempest writes:
"I love to watch gulls soar over the Great Basin. It is another trick of the lack to lure gulls inland. On days such as this, when my soul has been wrenched, the simplicity of flight and form above the lake untangles my grief. 'Glide' the gulls write in the sky--and, for a few brief moments, I do."
(quoted from Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place, 75)