On bad patches

"People who have only good experiences aren't very interesting. They may be content, and happy after a fashion, but they aren't very deep. It may seem a misfortune now, and it makes things difficult, but well--it's easy to feel all the happy, simple stuff. Not that happiness is necessarily simple. But I don't think you're going to have a life like that, and I think you'll be the better for it. The difficult thing is to not be overwhelmed by the bad patches. You must not let them defeat you. You must see them as a gift--a cruel gift, but a gift nonetheless."

by  Peter Cameron

When all is said and done

Here's to us, one more toast and then we'll pay the bill

Deep inside both of us can feel the autumn chill

Birds of passage, you and me, we fly instinctively

When the summer's over and the dark clouds hide the sun

Neither you nor I'm to blame when all is said and done

In our lives we have walked some strange and lonely treks

Slightly worn but dignified and not too old for sex

We're still strivin' for the sky, no taste for humble pie

Thanks for all your generous love and thanks for all the fun

Neither you nor I'm to blame when all is said and done

It's so strange when you're down and lyin' on the floor

How you rise, shake your head, get up and ask for more

Clear-headed and open-eyed with nothin' left untried

Standin' calmly at the crossroads, no desire to run

There's no hurry any more when all is said and done

Standin' calmly at the crossroads, no desire to run

There's no hurry any more when all is said and done

by ABBA

The courtship of Sun and Moon

Every morning the Sun knelt

in the courtyard of the Moon.

She would never let him see

quite all of her; cloud curtains

dropped at any sign of his advancement.

How he burned for her!

He compared her to seafoam, pearls,

hammered silver thin as rain.

He ached to marry her.

One day she agreed. 
"But you must bring me

a suitable gift which must fit

me precisely."

The next day he brought her a bracelet

made of red coral and dove feathers.

But it was too small!  He gave her a cloak

to wear after her bath:  It was too big.

He could never keep her constant.

They have never married.  Moon saddened,

for he never spoke of the one gift

without measure and yet the measure of all things:

Love.

by Anita Endrezze (based on a Yaqui story)

© Sun and Moon by PatrickSchappe-Art

On Eccentricity

"I am not eccentric. It's just that I am more alive than most people. I am an unpopular electric eel set in a pond of goldfish."

Edith Sitwell (1887-1964)

Façade

"This modern world is but a thin match-board flooring spread over a shallow hell. For Dante's hell has faded, is dead. Hell is no vastness; here are no more devils who laugh or who weep -- only the maimed dwarfs of this life, terrible straining mechanisms, crouching in trivial sands, and laughing at the giants' crumbling!"

by Edith Sitwell

For Katrina's sundial

Time is too slow

for those who wait,

too swift for

those who fear,

too long for

those who grieve,

too short for those

who rejoice,

but for those who love - 

time is Eternity.

by Henry Van Dyke

Sculpture by Bruno Torf - Image © Jennifer Phillips

Day in the life of a rose bush (photographic)

Beautiful yellowy orange "Amber Sun" variety roses in the garden

"Amber Sun" roses in the morning © Jennifer Phillips

A bee collecting pollen

Bee collecting pollen from "Amber Sun" roses © Jennifer Phillips

A butterfly visits an almost spent rose

Butterfly on "Amber Sun" rose © Jennifer Phillips

Roses in late afternoon rain

"Amber Sun" roses in the rain © Jennifer Phillips

 These roses close at night

Closed "Amber Sun" roses at night © Jennifer Phillips