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A flower from a funeral, is this all we have left after the death of a loved one? Why do we keep a flower from a funeral? Because, we need something material to remember the day. I don't need a flower from a funeral, because I remember every detail vividly of that day. But, having this flower gives me some sense of comfort. I guess because I don't want to let go. But eventually, that flower will dry up and blow away and I will move on. This flower from a funeral will let me know when it's time to let go.

" True wealth is the ability to fully experience life ". ~ Henry David Thoreau

MONEY DOESN'T EQUAL HAPPINESS: There's no doubt lack of money can make life harder. Money can bring power; it can give you options. But financial success does not guarantee happiness. Your happiness still lies with your choices and your actions. At the end, all you're left with is love and memories. You won't be counting your money then. ~ Patrick Lindsay

" Passion is in all great searches and is necessary to all creative endeavors ". ~ W. Eugene Smith

CONCENTRATE ON YOUR STRENGTHS: Most of the world's great achievers have done this. Don't waste energy worrying about your weaknesses. Hone your strong points. Master them and allow them to flourish. They will spark your passion and inspire you to greater heights. ~ Patrick Lindsay

" Have no fear of perfection, you'll never reach it ". ~ Salvador Dali

DON'T WAIT FOR PERFECT : Seeking the perfect start can paralyze you. It's far better to make a start, to get under way. Then make adjustments, or rewrite as you proceed. Once you've started, options will present themselves. And creativity will flow from the process. ~ Patrick Lindsay

" We acquire the strength we have overcome. "

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

YOU ARE STRONG - Your strength will surprise you. Most of us have an inner, untapped, high-tensile strength. It's there when you most need it. It will enable you to rise above your challenges. Allow yourself to trust it. Call on it with confidence. ~ Patrick Lindsay

" Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts. "

~ Albert Einstein

DO NOT ASSUME - On all the important issues, double-check your facts. Don't assume someone has already checked them. That's taking the easy way out every time. And it's fraught with danger. Assumption is the root cause of most disasters. Satisfy yourself before you act. ~ Patrick Lindsay

" If something is not beautiful, it is probably not true. "

~ John Keats

SAVOR THE BEAUTY - Look for the beauty in all you see and do. It will inspire and sustain you. It will make sense of so many puzzles. It's not always obvious. It's often obscured. But it always brings you closer to the truth. ~ Patrick Lindsay

" Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure. "

~ Paulo Coelho

" Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. "

~ Martin Luther King Jr.

" The Possible's slow fuse is lit By the Imagination! "

~ Emily Dickinson

" Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions. "

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

" I seldom think about my limitations, and they never make me sad. "

~ Helen Keller

" The Butterfly is a flying flower, the flower a tethered butterfly. "

~ Ponce Denis Ecouchard Lebrun

" All that is important comes in quietness and waiting. "

~ Rodney Collin

" To do two things at once is to do neither. "

~ Publilius Syrus

" A photo is usually looked at, seldom looked into. "

~ Ansel Adams

" The best place to seek God is in a garden. "

~ George Bernard Shaw

" Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you. "

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

" If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. "

~ William Blake

" Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. "

~ Confucius

" You will never "find" time for anything. If you want time, you must make it. "

~ Charles Buxton

" The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has occurred. "
~ George Bernard Shaw

" Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn".

~Harriet Beecher Stowe

" And in today already walks tomorrow ".

~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

" The only gift is a portion of thyself".

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

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"Be happy in the moment, that's enough. Each moment is all we need, not more."
~ Mother Teresa

"Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing."
~ Albert Schweitzer

"At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want."
~ Lao-Tzu

"Life is the sum of all your choices."
~ Albert Camus

"Freedom lies in being bold."
~ Robert Frost

"The future depends on what you do today."
~ Mahatma Gandhi

"Our life is frittered away with detail ... simplify, simplify."
~ Henry David Thoreau

"Dreams are the language of creation."
~ Bernie Siegel

"Patience and time do more than force and rage."
~ Jean De La Fontaine

"The trouble with most of us is that we would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism."
~ Norman Vincent Peale

"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."
~ Winston Churchill

"A person can grow only as much as his horizon allows."
~ John Powell

"The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend."
~ Henri-Louis Bergson

"Never miss a good chance to shut up."
~ Will Rogers

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."
~ Leo Tolstoy

"If you have, give. If you learn, teach."
~ Maya Angelou

"The hours that make us happy, make us wise."
~ John Mansfield

"The journey, not the arrival, matters."
~ Paul Theroux

"I shut my eyes in order to see."
~ Paul Gauguin

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life."
~ Steve Jobs

"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count it's the life in your years."
~ Abraham Lincoln

"The only gift is a portion of yourself."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."
~ Leonardo Di Vinci

"To live in hearts we leave behind
Is not to die"

~ Thomas Campbell

"The less you open your heart to others, the more your heart suffers."
~ Deepak Chopra

"Perfect kindness acts without thinking of kindness."
~ Lao-Tzu

"Live the life you've imagined." ~ Henry David Thoreau

"The question is not what you look at, but what you see."
~ Henry David Thoreau

"Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Time is what we want most, but what we use worst." ~ William Penn

"The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook." ~ Williams James

"When you possess light within, you see it externally." ~ Anais Nin

"The dream is an involuntary kind of poetry."
~ Jean Paul Richter

Spread Love

"It binds us together. It validates our lives. It gives us meaning. It brings compassion. It lets us see with new eyes."

"To love someone deeply gives you strength; being loved by someone deeply gives you courage."
~ Lao-Tzu

"One must live the way one thinks or end up thinking the way one has lived."
~ Paul Bourget

"In youth we learn; in age we understand."
~ Marie Ebner-Eschenbach

"The world is a fine place and worth fighting for."
~ Ernest Hemingway

"Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Be Patient

With experience we realize the importance of patience. Too many decisions are reflex actions. Take the time to ponder. Put things in perspective. Allow situations to develop. Sense the patterns of things. Wait until the moment is right. Then be decisive.

"Can you remain unmoving until the right action arises by itself?"
~ Tao Te Ching

Enjoy the Trip

No matter how far you travel or how long the trip --- across the city, across the country, across the world or through your life --- the journey matters more than the destination. Enjoy the journey.

"Each journey starts with the first step."
Chinese Proverb

Take the Path Least Traveled

It takes courage and confidence. It has some risks but it often brings great rewards: the challenge of the new, the thrill of exploration, growth from learning and self-confidence from success.

"We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run over."
~ Aneurin Bevan

Find Your Artistic Side

Every child has one. As we grow up, it may be denied, or diminished, or constrained, or mocked. But it's still there. Look for it. Discover it. Release it.

"One eye sees, the other feels."
~ Paul Klee

Look for the Inner Beauty

We all have it. Although some camouflage it very well. And some hide it deep inside. Take the time to search for it. It's always there.
And the reward is worth the effort.

"The most important things in life are not things."

"To understand where you are going you must understand where you come from."
~ Celtic Proverb

Enjoy the Silence

"In a world of constant clamor, silence can be pure pleasure. It can provide a haven and allow your own melodies to flourish. Seek out the quiet corners. Enjoy the liberating space they provide. Fill the silent space with calm thoughts and revive your spirits."
~ Patrick Lindsay

"Silence is golden."

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The hardest thing to see is what is in front of your eyes."
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"True life is lived when tiny changes occur."
~ LeoTolstoy

"Never complain, never explain."
~ Benjamin Disraeli

"Be an opener of doors."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Keep sowing your seeds, for you never know which one will grow --- perhaps they all will."
~ The Bible

"Live your beliefs and you can turn the world around."
~ Henry David Thoreau

"The heart has its reasons, which reason knows nothing of."
~ Blaise Pascal

"The beauty of nature demonstrates just how little humans really know in life. We can never create the constantly
evolving show of mother nature."
~ Frederick A. Babb

"Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower."
~ Hans Christian Anderson

"Flowers are like human beings... they thrive on a little kindness."
~ Fred Streeter

"If one daffodil is worth a thousand pleasures, then one is too few."
~ William Wordsworth

"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt."
~ Abraham Lincoln

"Work and play are words used to describe the same thing under differing conditions."
~ Mark Twain

"When the doors of perception are cleansed
Things will appear as they are:
Infinite."
~ William Blake

"Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering 'It will be happier'."
~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

"And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been."
~ Rainer Maria Rilke

"For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice."
~ T.S. Eliot

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"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
~ Winston Churchill

"Positive anything is better than negative nothing."
~ Elbert Hubbard

CALM IN CHAOS

In the midst of the flurry - clarity.
In the midst of the storm - calm.
In the midst of divided interests - certainty.
In the many roads - a certain choice.

~ Mary Anne Radmacher

"The pursuit, even of the best things, ought to be calm and tranquil."
~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

"The only way out is through."
~ Robert Frost

"If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we
belong to each other."
~ Mother Teresa

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power
the world will know peace."
~ Jimi Hendrix

One love, one heart, one destiny."
~ Bob Marley

"The most worth-while thing is to try to put happiness into the lives of others."
~ Robert Baden-Powell

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle".
~ Plato

"There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up."
~ John Holmes

"If you don't enjoy the journey, chances are you won't enjoy the destination. Start having fun NOW!".

"You don't stop having fun because you get old, you get old because you stop having fun."

"One day your life will flash before your eyes, make sure it's worth watching."
~ Gerard Way

"Accidents on big mountains happen when people's ambitions cloud their good judgement. Good climbing is about climbing with heart and with instinct, not ambition and pride."
~ Bear Grylls

"On the mountains of truth you can never climb in vain; either you will reach a point higher up today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb higher tomorrow."
~ Fredrich Nietzsche

"Mountains are earth's un-decaying monuments."
~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

"Most people have never learned that one of the main aims in life is to enjoy it."
~ Samuel Butler

"I have found that if you love life, life will love you back."
~ Arthur Rubinstein

"One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure."
~ William Feather

"Photography can only represent the present. Once photographed, the subject becomes part of the past."
~ Berenice Abbott

"The camera makes you forget you're there. It's not like you are hiding but you forget, you are just looking so much."
~ Annie Leibovitz

"There is an innocence in admiration; it is found in those to whom it has never yet occurred that they, too, might be admired some day."
~ Friedrich Nietzsche

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."
~ Martin Luther King Jr.

"The abstract has no emotional content... the abstract is more powerful the more abstract it is."
~ Cecil Balmond

"There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality."
~ Pablo Picasso

"Trapped in reality, freed by imagination."
~ Nicolas Manetta

"If it is to be, it is up to me."

"Somebody's boring me; I think it's me."
~ Dylan Thomas

"It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself."
~ Eleanor Roosevelt

"One person's craziness is another person's reality."
~ Tim Burton

"If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden."
~ Frances Hodgson Burnett

"It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view."
~ George Eliot

"When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves."
~ Viktor E. Frankl

"Reflect upon your present blessings -- of which every man has many -- not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some."
~ Charles Dickens

"Here Rests In Honored Glory An American Soldier Known But To God."


Memorial Day is a day to remember our fallen heroes and loved ones. Show pride, respect and kindness.

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened."
~ Dr. Seuss

"I often wished I could capture and share the sudden moments of beauty that I would see all around me."
~ Caroline Mueller

"Have patience. All things are difficult before they become easy."
~ Saadi

"Sometimes your light shines so bright that it blinds people from seeing who you really are."
~ Shannon L. Alder

"Every story has an ending. But in life, every ending is a new beginning."

"Never yet was a springtime, when the buds forgot to bloom."
~ Margaret Elizabeth Sangster

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."
~ Theodore Roosevelt

"The best things in life are unexpected - because there were no expectations."
~ Eli Khamarov

"The imagination is a palette of bright colors. You can use it to touch up memories - or you can use it to paint dreams."
~ Robert Brault

"And spring arose on the garden fair,
Like the Spirit of Love felty everywhere;
And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast
rose from the dreams of its wintry rest."
~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

"Every day is a new beginning. Treat it that way. Stay away from what might have been, and look at what can be."
~ Marsha Petrie Sue

"The beautiful spring came; and when Nature resumes her loveliness, the human soul is apt to revive also."
~ Harriet Ann Jacobs

"No place is boring, if you've had a good night's sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film."
~ Robert Adams

"While there is perhaps a province in which the photograph can tell us nothing more than what we see with our own eyes,
there is another in which it proves to us how little our eyes permit us to see."
~ Dorothea Lange

"Photograph: a picture painted by the sun without instruction in art."
~ Ambrose Bierce

"Spring is nature's way of saying, "Let's party!"."
~ Robin Williams

"Flowers are restful to look at. They have neither emotions nor conflicts."
~ Sigmund Freud

"Outer beauty attracts, but inner beauty captivates."
~ Kate Angell

Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart."
~ Kahil Gibran

"Life is a train of moods like a string of beads; and as we pass through them they prove to be many colored lenses,
which paint the world their own hue, and each shows us only what lies in its own focus."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Pray that your loneliness may spur you into finding something to live for, great enough to die for."
~ Dag Hammarskjold

"Work is not always required. There is such a thing as sacred idleness."
~ George MacDonald

"Slow down and everything you are chasing will come around and catch you."
~ John De Paola

"I feel that it is healthier to look out at the world through a window than through a mirror. Otherwise, all you see is yourself and whatever is behind you."
~ Bill Withers

"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished."
~ Lao Tzu

"Nature is my medicine."
~ Sara Moss-Wolfe

"Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit."
~ Edward Abbey

"Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad."
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself."
~ George Bernard Shaw

"Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and
imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary."
~ Cecil Beaton

"The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness."
~ John Muir

"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the
living room on Christmas day. Don't clean it up too quickly."
~ Andy Rooney

"Into each life some rain must fall."
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"I always like walking in the rain, so no one can see me crying."
~ Charles Chaplin

"Every day may not be good, but there's something good in every day."

"All great and precious things are lonely."
~ John Steinbeck

"Find a penny, pick it up and all day long
you'll have good luck...
See that penny, let it lie and
all that luck will pass you by."

"You can't depend on your eyes
when your imagination is out of focus."
~ Mark Twain

"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one
thinks of changing himself."
~ Leo Tolstoy

"Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the
past or present are certain to miss the future."
~ John F. Kennedy

"Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one's own sunshine."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"We are each gifted in a unique and important way.
It is our privilege and our adventure to discover our own special light." ~ Mary Dunbar

"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."
~ Winston Churchill

"A single rose can be my garden...a friend, my world."
~ Leo Buscaglia

"Don't pack up your camera until you've left the location."
~ Joe McNally

"The Earth is art, the photographer is only a witness."
~ Yann Arthus-Bertrand

"But he who dares not grasp the thorn should never crave the rose."
~ Anne Bronte

"For every beauty there is an eye somewhere to see it. For every truth there is an ear somewhere to hear it.
For every love there is a heart somewhere to receive it."
~ Ivan Panin

"Double, double toil and trouble;
fire burn and cauldron bubble."
~ Macbeth

"As spirits roam the neighborhoods at night,
Let loose upon the Earth till it be light...."
~ Nicholas Gordon

"Love is a peaceful feeling,
like a flower hugging a butterfly."
~ Jarod Kintz

"If you take a flower in your hand and really look at it,
it's your world for a moment."
~ Georgia O'Keeffe

"You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have."
~ Maya Angelou

"Trust that little voice in your head that says " Wouldn't it be interesting if..." And then do it.
~ Duane Michaels

"Some people grumble that roses have thorns;
I am grateful that thorns have roses."
~ Alphonse Karr

"Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up,
but a comedy in long-shot."
~ Charlie Chaplin

Jack O'Lantern

The jack o'lantern chuckled
Then winked his funny eye,
"I would rather be a pumpkin-face
Than be inside a pie!"

Jolly Wolly pumpkin-face
You're happy tell us why.
"I'd rather be a pumpkin-face
And not a pumpkin pie!"

"Butterflies are self propelled flowers."
~ Robert A. Heinlein

"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly, "one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower."
~ Hans Christian Anderson

May the wings of the butterfly kiss the sun
And find your shoulder to light on,
To bring you luck, happiness and riches
Today, tomorrow and beyond.

~ Irish Blessing

"Love is like a butterfly: It goes where it pleases
and it pleases wherever it goes."

"So, let us not be blind to our differences - but let us also direct attention to our common interests and
to the means by which those differences can be resolved."
~ John F. Kennedy

"Ambition can creep as well as soar."
~ Edmund Burke

"Pleasure for an hour, a bottle of wine; pleasure for a year, marriage; pleasure for a lifetime, a garden."
~ Chinese Saying

"I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps
a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning."
~ J.B. Priestly

"Creative people are curious, flexible, persistent, and independent with a tremendous spirit of adventure and a love of play."
~ Henri Matisse

"One of the most attractive things about the flowers is their beautiful reserve."
~ Henry David Thoreau

"Let us open our leaves like a flower, and be passive and receptive."
~ John Keats

"In joy or sadness, flowers are our constant friends."
~ Kozuko Okakura

"If you scratch a great photograph, you find two things: a painting and a photograph."
~ Janet Malcolm

"Solitude is needful to the imagination as society is wholesome for the character."
~ James Russell Lowell

"I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for."
~ Georgia O'Keeffe

"Imagination does not become great until human beings, given the courage and the strength, use it to create."
~ Maria Montessori

"For Beauty's tears are lovelier than her smile."
~ Thomas Campbell

"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty."
~ Maya Angelou

"Life is like a diamond in the rough, every cut or break only reveals more of the beauty and brillance we all have waiting to expose."

"You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?' " ~ George Bernard Shaw

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow.
Learn as if you were to live forever."
~ Mahatma Gandhi

"To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour."
~ William Blake

"Our memories of the ocean will linger on, long after our footprints in the sand are gone."

"The real beauty of a person comes from standing tall for what you believe in and showing confidence in yourself that you can make a difference!"

"The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach - waiting for a gift from the sea."
~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"Do not resent growing old. Many are denied the privilege."

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on." ~ Robert Frost

"Negative emotions like loneliness, envy and guilt have an important role to play in a happy life;
they're big flashing signs that something needs to change." ~ Gretchen Rubin

"The waters wear the stones."

"Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal."

In Memory of my best furry friend, my cat Pepper. Who lived 18 loved years. Animals do have unconditional love.

"The ocean stirs the heart, inspires the imagination and brings eternal joy to the soul." ~ Wyland

"The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever." ~ Jacques Yves Cousteau

"Break, break, break, On thy cold gray stones, O sea! And I would that my tongue could utter The thoughts that arise in me."
~ Lord Alfred Tennyson

" I have always been fascinated by the ocean, to dip a limb beneath it's surface and know that I'm touching eternity, that it goes on forever until it begins here again."
~ Lauren DeStefano

"Full many a gem of purest ray serene, the dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear."
~ Thomas Gray

"Your wealth is where your friends are." ~ Plautus

"Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence."
~ Henry David Thoreau

"The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are."
~ Joseph Campbell

"A great photograph is a full expression of what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense, and is, thereby,
a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety." ~ Ansel Adams

"Maybe because its entirely an artist's eye, patience and skill that makes an image and not his tools." ~ Ken Rockwell

"No matter how advanced your camera you still need to be responsible for getting it to the right place at the right time
and pointing it in the right direction to get the photo you want." ~ Ken Rockwell

"A picture is a poem without words." ~ Horace

"In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is
refreshed." ~ Khalil Gibran

"No matter how plain a woman may be, if truth and honesty are written across her face, she will be beautiful." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

"Remember when life's path is steep to keep your mind even." ~ Horace

"Forgiveness is the noblest vengeance." ~ H.G. Bohn

"How we remember, what we remember, and why we remember form the most personal map of our individuality." ~ Christina Baldwin

"Life is like a mirror. Smile at it and it smiles back at you." ~ Peace Pilgrim

The Squirrel

Whisky, frisky,
Hippity hop;
Up he goes
To the tree top!

Whirly, twirly,
Round and round,
Down he scampers
To the ground.

Furly, curly,
What a tail!
Tall as a feather
Broad as a sail!

Where's his supper?
In the shell,
Snappity, crackity,
Out it fell.

"There is in every true woman's heart a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity,
but which kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity." ~ Wasington Irving

"Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions." ~ Pablo Picasso

"Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall at last unveil." ~ John Ruskin

"Every individual has a place to fill in the world, and is important in some respect, whether he chooses to be so or not." ~ Alice Hawthorne

"Imagination disposes of everything; it creates beauty, justice, and happiness, which is everything in this world." ~ Pascal

"Imagination is the eye of the soul." ~ Joseph Joubert

"Solitude is painful when one is young, but delightful when one is more mature." ~ Albert Einstein

"Life beats down and crushes the soul and art reminds you that you have one." ~ Stella Adler

"May the sun in his course visit no land more free, more happy, more lovely, than this our own country! ~ Daniel Webster

"I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him." ~ Abraham Lincoln

"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain." ~ Maya Angelou

"The only way to have a friend is to be one." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"In nature there are neither rewards nor punishments - there are consequences." ~ Robert G. Ingersoll

"The Amen of nature is always a flower." ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

"Art consists of limitation. The most beautiful part of every picture is the frame." ~ G.K. Chesterton

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." ~ Scott Adams

"Art is the colors and textures of your imagination."

"Humanity does not pass through phases as a train passes through stations: being alive, it has the privilege of always moving yet never leaving anything
behind." ~ C.S. Lewis

"Every day you spend drifting away from your goals is a waste not only of that day, but also of the additional day it takes to regain lost ground." ~ Ralph Marston

"Nobody has a perfect past, but everyone has a clear future. It is up to us to take control and become pioneers of tomorrow. It's never
too late to jump off your train and head down a different track." ~ Kemmy Nola

Live well,
Love much,
Laugh often.

"Flowers are those little colorful beacons of the sun from which we get sunshine when, dark, somber skies blanket our thoughts." ~ Dodinsky

"Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him." ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower

"I'm innocent, still, inside me are stained glass windows that have never been broken, and when I see your light it stains my soul with color..."
~ John Geddes

The Pelican

A wonderful bird is the Pelican,
His bill will hold more than his belican.
He can take in his beak food enough for a week,
But, I'm damned if I see how the helican.

~ Dixon Lanier Merritt

"A horse gallops with his lungs, perseveres with his heart, and wins with his character." ~ Unknown

"The poetry of the earth is never dead." ~ John Keats

"All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today." ~ Indian Proverb

"A work of art cannot be satisfied with being a representation; it should be a presentation." ~ Jacques Revendy

"A photograph is a click away. A good photograph is a hundred clicks away and a better one, a thousand clicks away." ~ Kowtham Kumar

"When people look at my pictures I want them to feel the way they do when they want to read a line of a poem twice." ~ Robert Frank

"Photography is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality." ~ Alfred Stieglitz

"The painter constructs, the photographer discloses." ~ Susan Sontag

" I will not follow where the path may lead, but I will go where there is no path and I will leave a trail." ~ Muriel Strode

"Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads." ~ Henry David Thoreau

"Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you." ~ Monet

" I will be the gladdest thing under the sun, I will touch a hundred flowers and not pick one." ~ Edna St. Vincent Millay

"I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright." ~ Henry David Thoreau

"Came the Spring with all its splendor all it's birds and all it's blossoms, all it's flowers, and leaves, and grasses." ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"Love and happiness happen only when trust and loyalty get together."

"Tears are the silent language of grief." ~ Voltaire

"I've learned that making a "living" is not the same as making a "life"." ~ Maya Angelou

"Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there." ~ Will Rogers

To create more positive results in your life, replace "if only" with "next time".

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The beauteous pansies rise in purple, gold, and blue, with tints of rainbow hue mocking the sunset skies." ~ Thomas John Ouseley

"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better." ~ Albert Einstein

I caught myself smiling the other day when I was loading film into my camera. That's right, "film", you didn't miss read. I thought to myself, that out of all the digital technology available to me, I was still using the first 35mm camera that I ever purchased. It is an old friend who is reliable, always there, no high maintenance necessary and is as accurate as the photographers eye. It does not lie, it only shows what is true.

My camera is an early 80's model Yashica FX-D Quartz 35mm manual film camera. I use this camera for black & white and Infrared photography. The hide has peeled off, it has a dent in it from being dropped, and the arm to advance the film has to be pushed back into place after the film advances. My 300mm telephoto lens for it broke and I had to find another one. Which I did, on e-bay. Nowadays, I have to go on-line to purchase film and send off the film in the mail to have it developed, at a higher cost of course. But, I wouldn't change a thing. I still have a smile on my face. Quirks and all, my camera, this camera, is my best friend.

Keep "The Power of Imagination" alive.

Pamela S. Critchlow

All day long blew the daffodils,
Oh, what a sight to see,
A myriad gold-gowned daffodils,
moved to a rhythmic glee.

Teresa Hooley

"If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk in my garden forever". ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

The Daffodils

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils,
Beside the lake, beneath the trees
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
they stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay
In such a jocund company!
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
they flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And when my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

~ William Wordsworth

"The only way to have a friend is to be one." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

All Paths Leads to You

All paths lead to you
Were e'er I stray,
You are the evening star
At the end of day.

All paths lead to you
Hill-top or low,
You are the white birch
In the sun's glow.

All paths lead to you
Where e'er I roam.
You are the lark-song
Calling me home!

~ Blanche Shoemaker Wagstaff

"Always keep that happy attitude. Pretend that you are holding a beautiful fragrant bouquet." ~ Candice M. Pope

"One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor." ~ George Carlin

"Give me the liberty to know, to think, to believe and to utter freely according to conscience, above all other liberties." ~ John Milton

A Prayer For Genealogists

Lord, help me dig into the past and sift the sands of time,
That I might find the roots that made this family tree mine.
Lord, help me trace the ancient roads on which my fathers trod,
And led them through so many lands to find our present sod.
Lord, help me find an ancient book, or dusty manuscript,
That's safely hidden now away in some forgotten crypt.
Lord, let it bridge the gap that haunts my soul when I can't find,
The missing link between some name that ends the same as mine.
~ Curtis Woods

"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift of God, which is why we call it the present." ~ Bill Keane

"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." ~ Albert Einstein

"Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong." ~ Winston Churchill

"Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public opinion, can change the government, practically just so much." ~ Abraham Lincoln

"The feast of reason, and the flow of soul." ~ Alexander Pope

"That orbed maiden, with white fire laden, whom mortals call the moon." ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

"The optimist sees the rose and not it's thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivous to the rose." ~ Kahlil Gibran

"Know what you want, work to get it, then value it once you have it." ~ Nora Roberts

"My candle burns at both ends; it will not last the night; but ah, my foes, and oh, my friends - it gives a lovely light! ~ Edna St. Vincent Millay

"Everywhere I look and most of the time I look. I see photographs." ~ Bert Hardy

"Art is man's nature; nature is God's art." ~ P.J. Bailey

"Interpretation is the revenge of the intellect upon art." ~ Susan Sontaq

"Sometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter." ~ Ansel Adams

"Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the snapshot from the photograph." ~ Matt Hardy

"There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are." ~ Ernst Haas

"Tis my faith that every flower enjoys the air it breathes!" ~ William Wordsworth

"I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude." ~ Henry David Thoreau

"Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturbed." ~ Walt Whitman

My Pretty Rose Tree

A flower was offered to me.
Such a flower as May never bore.
But I said I've a Pretty Rose-tree.
And I passed the sweet flower o'er.

Then I went to my Pretty Rose-tree:
To tend her by day and by night.
But my Rose turnd away with jealousy:
And her thorns were my only delight.

William Blake

"When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence." ~ Ansel Adams

"Earth laughs in flowers." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The landscape belongs to the person who looks at it." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The greatest joy in nature is the absence of man." ~ Bliss Carman

"I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order." ~ John Burroughs

"Delight in the beauty that surrounds you."

"All seasons are beautiful for the person who carries happiness within." ~ Horace Friess

"Lose yourself in nature and find peace." ~ Unknown

"The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera." ~ Dorothea Lange

"There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer." ~ Ansel Adams

"Stop every now and then. Just stop and enjoy. Take a deep breath. Relax and take in the abundance of life."

"The best thing about animals is that they don't talk much." ~ Thornton Wilder

"The goal is not to change your subjects, but for the subject to change the photographer. ~ Unknown

"Flowers are heaven's masterpiece." ~ Dorothy Parker

"You don't take a photograph. You ask, quietly, to borrow it." ~ Unknown

"The course of nature is the art of God." ~ Edward Young

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." ~ Seneca

"Which of my photographs is my favorite? The one I'm going to take tomorrow." ~ Imogen Cunningham

"Boots of Another Me"

There they sit, right by the door,
Those boots of mine, don't fit no more,
Fit the feet of a younger me,
A shorter shade of a younger tree.

Those boots of mine, those leather cases,
They've tread with me, past prior faces,
Concrete, mud, rock, snow and rain,
Tempests, breezes, joy and pain.

Those boots of mine, and all these years,
Walked me through my path of fears,
To come out smilin' on the other end,
Gone through Hell and back again.

Now there they sit, don't make a sound,
Memories of footsteps on a younger ground,
But that's all talk of a different time,
Don't fit no more, those boots of mine.

L.P. Stribling

"In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous." ~ Aristotle

"Find your inspiration, leave all doubt behind." ~ Unknown

"Who Has Seen the Wind?"

Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.
Who Has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.

Christina Rossetti

"When I first open my eyes upon the morning meadows and look out upon
the beautiful world, I thank God I am alive." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature." ~ Gerard De Nerval

"Life is not about significant details, illuminated in flash, fixed forever, photographs are." ~ Susan Sontag

"Say it with flowers." ~ Patrick F. O'Keefe

"Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is
captured forever... it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything." ~ Aaron Siskind

"I love not man the less, but nature more." ~ Lord Byron

"Trees"

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

~ Joyce Kilmer

"Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still." ~ Dorothea Lange

"The virtue of the camera is not the power it has to transform the photographer into an artist, but the impulse it gives him/her to keep on looking." ~ Brooks Atkinson

"Flowers may beckon towards us, but they speak
toward heaven and God." ~ Henry Ward Beecher

"Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"You can't step in life's river and remain in the same place,
because we all begin as snow falling on mountains and end
as water in the ocean." ~ Unknown

"A true photograph need not be explained,
nor can it be contained in words." ~ Ansel Adams

"Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful.
They are sunshine, food, and medicine to the soul." ~ Luther Burbank

The Eagle

Rising effortlessly high
An eagle soars through the sky,
Wings spread wide in flight,
What a magnificent sight.
Galant, bold and shows no fear
As intruders wander near;
Head held high and chest puffed and round
Finds a perch and stands it's ground,
Watching curiously as do we
As to what the next move will be.
A warm peaceful feeling comes over me
When I see an eagle proud and free.

Pamela S. Critchlow

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost

"Chance favors the prepared mind." ~ Unknown

Hiker's Creed:

Take only pictures...
Leave only footprints...
Kill only time.