Ahhh, to be a bee, and feel the soft inside of a flower-
breathe in the heady scent and take the sweet honey home to my queen!
Late blooming Cosmos, with Bee!
©LaineQuinn2023
Grateful as always for the wonders around me!
Mexican Sun Flowers, blooming now!
©2023LaineQuinn
At the risk of repeating myself,
we really do live in a beautiful world.
Nature persists.
In spite of what men do to each other and to the planet
to distract us,
Nature persists.
There is beauty and diversity and wonder
all around us.
And we,
who are a part of that wonder,
must insist on PEACE.
We must revel in the beauty and the possibility of Peace
in our hearts and in the world.
Sunrise, Vilano Beach September, 2023
2 different days!
This man was right next to our table at the very best restaurant in Tihany, Hungary.
He was fine, really.
Reprinted from LainesBlog October 2014
If life is "but a dream,"
then the paradox is
that the only way to realize the Dream,
is to
WAKE UP!
Spanish moss hanging from the trees in Blue Spring State Park, Florida.
Reprinted from my first year blogging, September, 2012
©LaineQuinn 2023
As I grow older and and can glimpse the end of my days,
there seems to be more time
or time is more expansive somehow.
Although the weeks zoom past with the years,
the present moment is huge!
You realize that you don't have to be in a hurry all the time.
That there is time. That that's all there is is time!
Time to smell the roses or listen to a friend - really listen;
time to tend the garden of your soul and spirit,
time for love.
Of course, this can happen at any age,
learning to take a step back,
take a beat
and pay close attention.
It's grand when we can master this even a little!
A rose is a rose!
©Laine Quinn 2023
Delicious sweet watermelon.
A gift from the gods.
(And a friend,
and a farmer in North Carolina!)
Thanks to all, and
to sun and rain and earth,
and to seeds that are so willing to grow.
Enjoying the fruits of summer.
Reposted from Laine's Blog, July 2014
©LaineQuinn2023
Last call, last chance
Last song, last dance
Sometimes you just don't know when that's gonna be
Hold me baby, give me a kiss
Like tonight is all there is
Cause there's a last time for everything
It's a Brad Paisley song that someone mentioned in a piece I found somewhere,
and it stuck with me.
Can we really cherish our days and nights like it's the last time?
Why not?
This is our life, our time, our blessings,
why not cherish them always?
"Last Time For Everything", by Brad Paisley.
Sunrise at Vilano Beach, St. Augustine.
Republished from LainesBlog, June 2017
©LaineQuinn2023
Is there a part of you that is the essence of who you are?
A part that is not corrupted by the culture that you grew up in
or the family that tortured you one way or the other?
I call it your core.
It is pure, whole, and located just below your heart, deep inside you.
It is incorruptible.
It's who you really are.
Getting there is a journey of acceptance,
a journey of non-resistance to loving yourself,
warts, craziness, lovliness and all.
This core is there all along.
It might take your whole life to uncover it,
but it's there guiding and protecting and loving you,
just as you are.
From the Archives, Laine's Blog, January 16th, 2012
©LaineQuinn2023
You Don't Have to Choose Between Happiness and Being Informed
We are living in an amazingly beautiful world and when you focus on that more than on the bad news of the day,
you begin to see that as confused and crazy as our civilization is
the world is crazy beautiful!
Her beauty is so much vaster and more ancient than all the conceptual dis-information that has been heaped upon the human experience.
You start to find joy in real things.
The thundering majesty of nature.
That spark of authenticity in people's eyes. The crackle of magic at the water's edge.
Something as simple as a Morning Glory catching the light just right can renew your faith in the universe.
And you learn to live from there.
You settle into an understanding that while the suffering and abuses of our world are very real and of immense consequence,
the fact that there is anything at all is immensely more significant than any of our tiny human problems.
The fact that we get to live in these bodies and inhabit these brains and move around on this amazing planet
and perceive it and think thoughts about it is a much, much bigger deal than any of our difficulties.
So, go ahead and "make good trouble"
but don't forget to see and hear and wonder at all the beauty behind your eyes and in your own back yard!
This Blog is mostly from a posting by Caitlin Johnstone on May 12, 2023 and edited and used with her blanket permission to share her work.
I thank her for her bravery and honesty and generosity!
And her husband Tim Foley.
Photos of Morning Glory by Laine!
Delicate clinging vines - this is a time when clinging is good.
Good for the vine and the wall benefits too, aesthetically.
Is clinging ever good for us? We humans?
Holding on to that good or bad feeling - joy or anger?
Being in the moment is preferred, but if you have to cling,
cling to the things that become more beautiful with your clinging,
like a baby's smile or the best day ever in the water with the boogie board.
It makes you more beautiful to do that!
Clinging vine and wall found in Old St. Augustine, Florida.
(This post is from October 4th, 2011, the first week of Laine's Blog.)
©LaineQuinn 2023
When we have long departed from this beautiful blue/green planet,
will we one day long for a glimpse of a new leaf in springtime,
missing the seasons and colors of Earth?
Perhaps that depends on the treasures that we find on the other side.
For now, a new green leaf in springtime is treasure enough.
Reprinted from LainesBlog, February, 2013
©LaineQuinn 2023
These two pelicans, flying and diving together in the shallow waters of Tampa Bay,
in time to their own music -
Reminded me of the two humpback whales dining together off Cape Cod,
and the pilot whales, cruising in perfect harmony.
Occasionally humans can, without a word, step together harmoniously to the shared music of life.
It's great fun when it happens,
and like the dance instructor said,
"Don't worry if you misstep, it's part of the fun!
Reprinted from LainesBlog February 2013.
©LaineQuinn2023
Sometimes it is impossible to remember
that we live on an improbable accidental planet
that might not have come into existence
without the perfect balance
of gravity and heat and cold and atmosphere and water
at the perfect distance from our star.
Spinning on its axis and orbiting around the sun
with the moon and our sister and brother planets,
and traveling with our Milky Way Galaxy
through space as our Universe still expands -
our little spaceship Earth is in perfect harmony
with the forces that made it all possible to begin with.
And here we are, the "children of flowers" on an evolutionary journey
65 million years in the making and still going strong.
So relax,
Earth is on auto pilot and won't fall from the sky anytime soon!
This is our time to revel in being alive in a world of wonder!
We do live in a beautiful world!
Photo: NASA, Earth Rise one of the first photographs of Earth from space.
Children of Flowers, borrowed from Maria Papova and her Marginalian.
Here comes the sun!
Sincere, unapologetic gratitude
goes a long way towards
opening our hearts.
And there is lots to be grateful for,
lots!
Maple tree in Baltimore.
©LaineQuinn2022
Love is why we came here
To learn how to love
Everything
Everyone
All the time
It's a lot to learn
But worth the effort
The beauty around us
No matter where you are
There is beauty around you!
The Inlet St. Augustine
©LaineQuinn 2022
Like snakes, lizards shed their skin.
This one is in the middle of that shedding,
frozen almost, not moving.
It must be a difficult process,
making them vulnerable,
like us when we go through changes -
shedding the layers of our defenses,
opening up to the world and love!
When I was much younger
I used to take vacation days from myself!
I would pretend to be the person that I really wanted to be!
It has taken most of my life
to shed the things that were in the way of my being that person.
But here I am, most days,
the person I always wanted to be!
(Too bad I couldn't get new skin too!)
©LaineQuinn 2022
Does anyone remember this?
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
That worthiness is the thing that was missing in my early years.
There is a book that has convinced me that I am equally deserving of my life
as anyone or anything in the universe -
that the universe spawned everything and everyone to this moment and beyond -
each of us unique and meant to be here!
The book, is THE GREAT WORK, OUR WAY INTO THE FUTURE, by Thomas Berry
In this book you find the amazing story of the indigenous peoples of the Americas and how they revered their place in nature and the universe, and had deep respect for all life.
"Desiderata" was translated by Max Ehrmann in 1927
Life longing for itself...
Quote from Sweet Honey on the Rocks quoting Kahlil Gibran.
Tadpoles, 2 generations, life goes on and on - no matter what the humans are doing!
Birds, bees, bugs, frogs,squirrells - all of it!
And Why not?
©LaineQuinn 2022
The way the light catches the sails
at a certain time of day...
it's irresistible,
delicious,
wonderful.
The Schooner Freedom returning to safe harbor.
©LaineQuinn 2022
I am a thing
among other things.
That line from the book The Alphabet of Grace,
seemed to me to equalize everything.
Me, the lizard, the leaf, you-
We are all just here,
doing what we do
with all of the rest of nature and things!
Why be so serious?
Relax.
Enjoy!
You are just a thing
among other things!
No better
and no worse either!
Book by Frederick Buechner.
Photo of lizard on a thing, at the edge of the garden, in St. Augustine Florida.
© 2021 Laine Quinn
Parts reprinted from Laine's Blog!
Sea oats in the breeze
Sun getting ready to set
One more wave - no two!
Vilano Beach, July 2022
©2022 LaineQuinn
What's up is down!
And what's down is up!
It stretches the mind...
Reflections
©LaineQuinn2022
Unfortunately, Monday, there was no photograph of the snails as I moved them into the grass and continued walking the dog.
So, to make up for it, here are another photo for you to enjoy!
A tiny frog, just graduated from the tadpole pond!
©LaineQuinn2022
Try not to resist an urge toward kindness -
kindness and compassion-
especially towards those closest to you.
Kindness has a way of smoothing the edges and easing the way.
Lucy the cat spreading the love!
©LaineQuinn 2022
There are songs that we sang forever
and perhaps never noticed the poetry of the lyrics,
like this line:
..a drop of golden sun.
From which song?
?
Thanks to J.M. Akers - The song is from "The Sound Of Music", ...do a dear a female dear, ray - a drop of golden sun!
Reprinted from June 2013 from LainesBlog
©LaineQuinn
"...flowering plants were revolutionary in their appearance on the earth
some two hundred million years ago,
are dominant on land from the arctic to the tropics,
and are crucial to our survival."
Since reading those lines in Rebecca Solnit's book, Orwell's Roses,
I haven't been able to look at a flower without a deep sense of wonder
and gratitude!
Without flowers and their seeds,
birds and humans would not have evolved.
Period!
Without flowers and their seeds,
birds and humans would disappear from the earth.
Amen!
Quote from Orwell's Roses by Rebecca Solnit
Flowers from Baltimore and St. Augustine, Mums, Lilies, Hibiscus
©LaineQuinn 2022
This solid chair, situated in a garden beneath a huge live oak tree is made up of trillions of bouncing molecules,
just like you and me.
Sometimes we feel as grounded as a boulder.
Other times scattered as the northern lights.
Most days fall somewhere in between.
Having unshakable faith that life is unfolding exactly as it is meant to do is difficult at times,
but worth whatever effort it might take to arrive there.
So, sit, and be grateful for who you are, no less than the moon and stars and the mighty oaks.
Photograph taken at the Cummer Museum and Gardens in Jacksonville, Florida