Blossom XXVII: Life

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“You think that it’s not magic that keeps you alive?

Just ‘cause you understand

the mechanics of how something works,

doesn’t make it any less of a miracle.

Which is just another word for magic.

We’re all kept alive by magic, Sookie.

My magic’s just a little different from yours, that’s all.”

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Charlaine Harris

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“To love. To be loved.

To never forget your own insignificance.

To never get used

to the unspeakable violence

and the vulgar disparity of life around you.

To seek joy in the saddest places.

To pursue beauty to its lair.

To never simplify what is complicated

or complicate what is simple.

To respect strength, never power.

Above all, to watch.

To try and understand.

To never look away.

And never, never to forget.”

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Arundhati Roy

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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2017

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“It means much to have loved,

to have been happy,

to have laid my hand on the living Garden,

even for a day.”

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Jorge Luis Borges

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Asclepias incarnata

Sunday Dinner: Giving

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“You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.”

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Kahlil Gibran

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“You often say ; I would give , but only to the deserving,

The trees in your orchard say not so,

nor the flocks in your pasture.

Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and nights

is worthy of all else from you.

And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life

deserves to fill his cup from your little stream.

See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver ,

and an instrument of giving.

For in truth it is life that gives unto life-

while you , who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness.”

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Kahlil Gibran

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“Give freely to the world these gifts of love and compassion.

Do not concern yourself with how much

you receive in return, just know in your heart

it will be returned.”

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Steve Maraboli

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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2016

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“Behold I do not give lectures or a little charity,

when I give I give myself.”

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Walt Whitman

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Sunday Dinner: Acceptance

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“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes.

Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow.

Let reality be reality.

Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.”

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Lao Tzu

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“For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining

is let it rain.”

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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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“Let go of certainty. The opposite isn’t uncertainty.

It’s openness, curiosity and a willingness to

embrace paradox, rather than choose up sides.

The ultimate challenge is to accept ourselves

exactly as we are,

but never stop trying to learn and grow.”

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Tony Schwartz

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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2016

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My happiness grows

in direct proportion to my acceptance,

and in inverse proportion to my expectations.”

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Michael J. Fox 

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For the Daily Post’s

Weekly Photo Challenge:  Details

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Wildlife Wednesday

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“Mindfulness is not the path of chasing.

It is the path of beautification.

When flowers blossom, the fragrance spreads,

and the bees come.”

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Amit Ray

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“We need to return to harmony with Nature

and with each other,

to become what humans were destined to be,

builders of gardens and Shires,

hobbits (if you will),

not Masters over creatures great and small.”

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Steve Bivans

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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2016

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“Gardens are not made by singing ‘Oh, how beautiful!’

and sitting in the shade.”

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Rudyard Kipling

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“It is not reasonable that art should win

the place of honor over our great and powerful

mother Nature. We have so overloaded

the beauty and richness of her works

by our inventions that we have quite smothered her.”

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Michel de Montaigne

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Fly Away…

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“Don’t judge each day

by the harvest you reap,

but by the seeds that you plant.”

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Robert Louis Stevenson

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for Rickii....

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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2015

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Milkweed, Asclepias incarnata