~
“The divine laws are quite simple –
they state that every ending is the new beginning.
This world isn’t ruled only by two forces –
the Creation and the Destruction.
The third force – Transformation –
the force of Nature, exists too,
and is, in fact, the blend of the other two.”
.
~
~
“What transforms this world is — knowledge.
Do you see what I mean? Nothing else
can change anything in this world.
Knowledge alone is capable of transforming the world,
while at the same time leaving it exactly as it is.
When you look at the world with knowledge,
you realize that things are unchangeable
and at the same time are constantly being transformed.”
.
~
~
“Scared and sacred are spelled with the same letters.
Awful proceeds from the same root word as awesome.
Terrify and terrific.
Every negative experience holds the seed of transformation.”
.
~
~
“He was trying to find his footing
in a world both familiar and foreign”
.
~
~
“Nobody really metamorphoses.
Cinderella is always Cinderella, just in a nicer dress.
The Ugly Duckling was always a swan, just a smaller version.
And I bet the tadpole and the caterpillar
still feel the same, even when they’re jumping and flying,
swimming and floating.
Just like I am now.”
.
~
~
“Light precedes every transition.
Whether at the end of a tunnel,
through a crack in the door or the flash of an idea,
it is always there,
heralding a new beginning.”
.
~
~
Photos by Woodland Gnome 2018
~
~
“We must live in the radiance of tomorrow,
as our ancestors have suggested in their tales.
For what is yet to come tomorrow has possibilities,
and we must think of it, the simplest glimpse
of that possibility of goodness.
That will be our strength.
That has always been our strength.”
.
~
Forest Garden 
Beautyberry!
The more I see of this, the more I want to try growing it. Someone posted a picture of it with white berries!
It is stunning in the autumn, Tony. Not the most attractive shrub the rest of the year, but a nice medium green mass. It is deciduous and a strong grower. We always cut ours back HARD in late winter to control them and to get more berries. They bloom on new wood. The white berried cultivar is the Asian Callicarpa dichotoma ‘Albifructus’. This shrub is smaller than our North American native, growing to only about 4′ high if what I’ve read is accurate. I’ve not grown it. I hope you are able to find one, Tony. The branches look great cut and used in fall arrangements.
They are available by mail order and online. I just have not tried it yet because of a lack of situations in which to put it. I can now put it into gardens at work, but there are so many other things that I want to try too, like the forsythia. When I do get a beautyberry, it will probably be the purple one first. If I get a white one, it will be for my own garden, and that probably will not happen.