Light

Live in rooms full of light. Cornelius Celsus

Aerial Dancer

Have you ever observed a humming-bird moving about in an aerial dance among the flowers - a living prismatic gem.... it is a creature of such fairy-like loveliness as to mock all description. W.H. Hudson

Sky

Knock on the sky and listen to the sound. Zen Saying

Cactus

A couple of days ago, I visited the Botanical Gardens in Phoenix. Being a recent newcomer to this area, it is still so interesting to see the plants that are native to this desert environment. The colors are more muted than those from the east coast and have a particular beauty.

Butterfly

The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough. Rabindranath Tagore

Risk

When in doubt, make a fool of yourself.

There is a microscopically thin line between being brilliantly creative and acting like the most gigantic idiot on earth. So what the hell, leap.

Cynthia Heimel

Doorway

Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world. John Muir

Roads

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

Illusion

Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth.
Ludwig Börne

Peace

In truth, to attain to interior peace, one must be willing to pass through the contrary to peace. Such is the teaching of the Sages. Swami Brahmanada

Love

Love is our true destiny.

We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone – we find it with another. Thomas Merton

Dreams

Dreams are today's answers to tomorrow's questions. Edgar Cayce

Reality

Reality is not only stranger than we suppose but stranger than we can suppose. J. B. S. Haldane

The View

I am presently living in my temporary home (is anything not temporary in my life right now?) in a beautiful part of Scottsdale. This is the view. I have discovered that no matter what I am going through, simply having the opportunity to gaze upon something beautiful makes a huge difference in my state of mind.

Here are some quail I saw when I was out for a walk a couple of days ago.

And some cactus: also so interesting and beautiful.

What a magical, colorful world this place is!

Uncertainty

She had been willing to inhabit uncertainty, to remain on the threshold where she didn't know what the outcome of her journey would be. Sally Kempton

Flowers

It is simply unbelievable how happy flowers are. Osho

Life

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair. Kahlil Gibran

The Present

There were times when I could not afford to sacrifice the bloom of the present moment to any work, whether of the head or hand. Henry David Thoreau

Happiness

Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same.

Francesca Reigler

Slow down

Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going to fast -- you also miss the sense of where you are going and why. Eddie Cantor

Prayer

Grow flowers of gratitude in the soil of prayer. Verbena Woods

Circular

The perfect journey is circular. Dino Basli

Opportunity

We are continually faced with great opportunities

which are brilliantly disguised as unsolvable problems.

Margaret Mead

Calm

I go to nature to be soothed and healed,

and to have my senses put in order.

John Burroughs

Butterflies

Butterflies are self propelled flowers. R.H. Heinlein

Balance and Beauty

Yesterday, I received an unexpected and welcome phone call from a friend asking if I wanted to go hiking north of Carefree. With a blue sky and temps in the upper seventies, I set my work aside and put on my hiking shoes.

This time of year is especially beautiful and, because of winter rains, the wildflowers are blooming almost everywhere you look. Delicate orange poppies cover the desert mountains and butterflies and bees are out in force admiring and pollinating the lovely blossoms.

The hiking trail led us to the top of a mountain where Indian ruins remain. The view was spectacular and it is not hard to imagine these people from not so long ago enjoying the same scenery: the valley below, the distant mountain ranges, the unusual rock formations and the red tail hawks circling above. There is a particular stillness at this elevation that adds to the majesty.

I am so grateful to live in a place where I can put down my work and so quickly be in this environment. The balance between work and play, between activity and stillness, and between close up and far away is so easily created.

Happiness

Purring would seem to be, in her case, an automatic safety valve device for dealing with happiness overflow. Monica Edwards

Friendship

What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies. Aristotle

Do it!

If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced. Vincent Van Gogh

Slow down

It is important from time to time to slow down, to go away by yourself, and simply be.

Eileen Caddy

Color

As the sun colors flowers, so does art color life. John Lubbock