On a mushroom in a glade...

By: Juan Olivarez
On a mushroom in a glade,
Sat a pixie, in deepest shade.
Pondering the setting sun,
And the twilight, just begun.

Set the pear tree free!

  This is a picture of the wonderful pear tree we inherited with our house 8 years ago.  Heavily pruned, with branches curving to the ground, we decided to let the tree grow as it wished.  Today, we have people stop by to tell us they have never seen a pear tree as tall as ours.  I'm not sure if they are admiring it or criticizing us.

 Masanobu Fukuoka (福岡 正信), 2 February 1913 – 16 August 2008) was a Japanese farmer and philosopher celebrated for his Natural Farming method.  This was part of his implementation of the Tao-philosophy of Wú wéi translated in part as no-action (against nature), and he described it as no unnecessary pruning, nature farming or "do-nothing" farming, of fruit trees, distinct from non-intervention or literal no pruning. He ultimately achieved yields that were comparable to or exceeded standard/intensive practices of using pruning and chemical fertilisation.

Pink: the colour of universal love.

Put some pink in your life when you want:

• calm feelings
• to neutralize disorder
• relaxation
• acceptance, contentment

Every seed is a promise!

Every seed is a promise and these shining seeds are promising me 10-foot tall "Giant Russian" sunflowers.

Of course the sun will have to shine enough, and the squirrels will be trying to steal them, and the cutworms can't wait to chew through their stems, and the wind tries to topple them at every chance...


But if they survive all that, then I will have some magnificent 10-foot tall sunflowers!

Let the sun shine in!

From across the yard I spotted this beacon of light and ran to get my camera.


It was only when I looked at the picture on my computer screen that I noticed it was mud-spattered and slightly torn.

Too perfect?

It didn't change my opinion of how beautiful it was, but I reconsidered putting it on my blog.


Because, we prefer pictures of perfection, don't we?


Look more closely at my flawed daffodil.  It has a more authentic glow to it, don't you think?


In real life, we are all a combination of beauty and flaws.  We may get mud-spattered and torn, but this doesn't diminish our ability to be a beacon of light to ourselves and others!

We come to love

not by finding a perfect person,

but by learning to see

an imperfect person

perfectly.

Sam Keen