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
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
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.
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
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
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!
What's up is down!
And what's down is up!
It stretches the mind...
Reflections
©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
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.
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
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 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
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
Landing gear down...
Check.
Landing gear up...
Check.
These Brown Pelicans, up close enough to see the accordion wings against the sky,
are proof positive that we live in a very beautiful, complex,
and fascinating world.
You are clear for takeoff!
Saint Augustine Beach Pier, once again hosting the people who fish and the birds who love them.
Reprinted from LainesBlog, February 2015
©LaineQuinn 2022
Remember when people used to write letters to one another?
A lost art, to be sure.
Love letters on Flagler's Fishing Pier.
Reprinted from LainesBlog, February 2015, with additions from Laine!
©LaineQuinn2022
Does a pelican in the water ever doubt that he can raise his sails and take to the air?
In three powerful strokes, this huge bird is airborne and glides away.
©LaineQuinn 2022, Republished from LainesBlog January 2012.
My Christmas Tree this year is a Live Oak Tree!
The tinsel is silvery Spanish Moss.
The ornaments are Squirrels and Birds and Lizards!
The Star at the top is our very own Star, the Sun!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!
And this is my Christmas Card to Everyone!
With Love,
Laine
Sign created by Aden with Lizard lazing on top!
Birds are, Black and White Warbler, Red Bellied Woodpecker and unknown maybe sparrow or warbler!
©Laine Quinn 2021
It is a lie - any talk of God
that does not
comfort
you.
Poem by Meister Eckhart, 13th century mystic, translated by Daniel Ladinsky.
Grateful for all the people who have come and gone in my life
and helped me to become the person I am today -
for better or worse!
Grateful for all the things that are going right in my world -
and there are many.
Grateful as always for the sun and moon and stars,
for blue skies and rain and trees and flowers.
We are all made of the same star stuff -
the same stuff.
All one.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Sunrise, St Augustine Beach
©LaineQuinn2021