Laine's Blog, Thinking Out Loud

Messages...

 

They say that the Universe

is giving us messages all the time.

I think that I got one the other day.

 

I always sit at the back of a plane to get a window seat,

and waiting for my turn to depart

I was listening to some music that another passenger was playing,

and I heard these words:

 

"Just enjoy your life, stop trying to get it right."

 

My new mantra!

 

 

 

 

 

 

©LaineQuinn 2025

All One...

 

We are all made of the same star stuff.

Not only all humans on the planet,

not only all mammals, insects, reptiles,

but everything from the core of the earth

to the single cells that paved the way to you and me.

 

The first primitive plants

took the initiative to evolve

into the vast complex variety that we have today.

Look at the diversity of trees birds fish -

all interconnected and dependent

on sunshine and air and water.

 

The improbability of life on this little ball in space -

when we pay attention -

boggles the mind

and we begin to feel a kinship

with all things.

 

We are made of the same stuff, after all!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo: NASA, Earth Rise one of the first photographs of Earth from space.

©LaineQuinn2025

Five Little Words...

 

 

I like who I am

 

Puts you squarely in the present

No baggage from the past and no worries about the future

 

I like who I am

 

Cuts through the clutter in you mind

And brings you home to what really matters

 

I like who I am

 

 

 

©Laine Quinn 2024

Photo by Aden Fike

Bird Of Paradise...

 

Outside my door

this white Bird of Paradise

has been blooming since December!

 

First just one, then another and now 5 altogether!

My morning joy!

 

 

 

 

©LaineQuinn2024

Almost...

 

 

 

It's the birds' songs lately,

just before dawn (how do they know?)

that make me smile

and remind me of life's simplicity.

 

Then the ride over the river,

seeing the calm waters filling the marsh -

all of this soothing to the restless mind.

 

Deep breath in...

Deep breath out...

Ahhh, almost whole again.

 

 

Moultrie Creek, St. Augustine.

©LaineQuinn Reprinted from Laine's Blog, April 2014

 

It's the birds' songs lately,

just before dawn (how do they know?)

that make me smile

and remind me of life's simplicity.

 

Then the ride over the river,

seeing the calm waters filling the marsh -

all of this soothing to the restless mind.

 

Deep breath in...

Deep breath out...

Ahhh, almost whole again.

 

 

Moultrie Creek, St. Augustine.

©LaineQuinn Reprinted from Laine's Blog, April 2014

Say Yes!

 

 

Say yes to the unique individual self that you are

in this time and space.

 

You might have been here before

and you might come again,

but never as this particular person

in this particular time

and this particular space -

ever evolving

with our expanding universe.

 

Say yes!

To your place in the world of wonder!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo credit: Cosmos Eric Coles and Mel Helm 2015, from The Astronomy Picture of the Day, APOD.

 

Just Bee...

 

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

 

If Life Is But a Dream...

 

 

 

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

 

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

Time...

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

Your Core...

 

 

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

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

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

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

Make Good Trouble...

 

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!

 

 

 

Clinging Vines...

 

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

 

In Sync...

 

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

 

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

 

Remember?

 

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.

 

 

Gratitude...

 

 

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

Yesterday...

 

The beauty around us 

No matter where you are

 There is beauty around you!

 

 

 

 

The Inlet St. Augustine

©LaineQuinn 2022

Shedding...

 

 

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

 

Go Placidly...

 

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

 

 

 

 

That Light...

 

 

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

 

 

 

A Thing Among Others...

 

 

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!

What's Up is Down...

 

What's up is down!

 

And what's down is up!

 

 

It stretches the mind...

 

 

 

Reflections

©LaineQuinn2022

 

Wonder!

 

Small Wonders

 

Snails together on

the sidewalk, two tiny snails, one

larger - Mother and son? Sisters?  Brothers? Friends?

 

Where are they going?

Together?!

 

 

 

 

Kindness...

 

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

Golden Sun...

 

 

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

Flowers...

 

"...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

 

 

 

Rock Solid...

 

 

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

Reprinted from LainesBlog, January 4, 2012

©LaineQuinn2022

 

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

Earth Day!

 

There we are

on that little blue ball

happily floating through space

 

that gorgeous blue ball

we call our home planet

spinning out the seasons

and the days and nights

as we delight in the joys of being alive

 

seeing the flowers and birds and sunsets

oceans rivers mountains and valleys -

our very own earth.

 

 

 

 

 

NASA photo of the earth from outer space.

What Comes Next...

 

 

Collectively it is time that we imagine a better world.

No matter what happens in the next months or years,

it is time to put our minds on better things.

 Call it the power of positive thinking,

of visualizing,

of collective prayer -

it all works and can change the world.

 

Psychopathic leaders of politics and industry - be warned -

it is time for the Human takeover of our world.

Time to imagine a world where we live harmoniously with the earth,

harmoniously with each other - near and far,

harmoniously with all creatures -great and small.

A world in partnership.

A world of compassion and love and generosity.

 

If it fits in your mind,

it fits in your world.

 

We are more than what we can imagine.

 

Collectively it's time to imagine

what comes after -

to dream big and have faith in the human heart,

in the human desire for connection.

 

 

 

 

Photo of Park in Godollo Hungary, outside Budapest.

Reprinted from Laine's Blog, October 2020

©LaineQuinn2022

Peace of Mind...

 

 

An old Spring House in San Miguel, Mexico -

a reminder to be grounded -

in our friendship with ourselves,

with nature,

with each other.

 Grounded in uncertainty, and upheaval,

and accepting the times we find ourselves in.

Grounded in whatever way you get grounded,

for your very own peace of mind.

 

 

 

 

 

Reprinted from LainesBlog October 20, 2020.

©LaineQuinn 2022

What If?

 

 

What if you are here on this beautiful, physical, gravity based planet,

simply because you want to be here?

 

You like a challenge!

 

 

 

 

 

Reprinted from LainesBlog 

©LaineQuinn 2022

 

What if you are here on this beautiful, physical, gravity based planet,

simply because you want to be here?

 

You like a challenge!

 

 

 

 

 

Reprinted from LainesBlog 

©LaineQuinn 2022

The Language of Love...

 

 

Resembling luminescent jewels,

the colors of the ocean at sunset

on a calm evening,

raise the spirit,

like the sails of a great ship filling with a welcome breeze.

 

Filling the heart with Love!

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

 

 

St. Augustine Beach, 2.10.14.

Reprinted from Laine's blog, 2014, with additions!

©LaineQuinn2022