Friendship

“A true friend holds us lovingly accountable to our own ideals, but is also able to forgive, over and over, the ways in which we fall short of them and can assure us that we are more than our stumbles, that we are shaped by them but not defined by them, that we will survive […]

Photo by Nathan Lemon on Unsplash

Anger and a lesson learned

I am not sure if it’s the relentless  summer heat or if it’s part of aging, as suggested by my friend,  but my patience well has been quite dry lately.  In other words, I find myself way more easily irritated.  I couldn’t even stand hearing myself when I gave in to these petty annoyances as it’s impossible to shove angry words back in once they have been callously spat and sputtered out.Read More »

Photo by Dayne Topkin on Unsplash

Foxtrot in the kitchen

It is the most wonderful thing when a memory catches up with one unexpectedly.  Maybe it’s the balmy summer night air or maybe it’s the sight of a box of waffle ice cream cones that sat unopened on my kitchen counter top.  But, I found myself pulled into a dance that took place half a lifetime ago.Read More »

Photo by Michael Benz on Unsplash

Cruelty

“People talk sometimes of a bestial cruelty, but that’s a great injustice and insult to the beasts; a beast can never be so cruel as a man, so artistically cruel.”

~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

News of late have just simply been upsetting and are beyond my ability to comprehend.  I know that suffering is unavoidable, that unfairness exist in our lives.  But, to see human cruelty so blatantly executed and even defended leave me reeling in disbelief and anger.  Children so young were forcibly separated from their parents and put in cage-like confinements.  To even try and justify that is obscene. As a mother, as a woman…no, as a mere human being, I am beyond horrified.  Every day has been a test to the limit of our forbearance.  The decision to halt the separation provides a slight relief but I brace myself for the uncertainty of tomorrow.  Cruelty, after all, knows no bounds.

 

*Featured image by Michael Benz on Unsplash

 

A tree, enchanted - image by My Li'l Place

A tree, enchanted

“We never look deeply into the quality of a tree; we never really touch it, feel its solidity, its rough bark, and hear the sound that is part of the tree. Not the sound of wind through the leaves, not the breeze of a morning that flutters the leaves, but its own sound, the sound of the trunk and the silent sound of the roots.”

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

Today, I stumbled upon a tree, generous with its shade and a beauty to behold.  It beckoned imagination of mystical beings and wood fairies, of the likes of Oberon, Titania and Puck from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.  How I rued not bringing my regular camera with me but the phone would have to do.

 

 

 

*Featured image by My Li’l Place

When I am with you

Two cherry blossoms
Image captured by MyLi’lPlace

 

“I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you for the part of me that you bring out.”

~ Elizabeth Barrett Browning