I don’t know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day. Tell me, what else should … Read more
Augustby Elizabeth Maua Taylor August rushes by like desert rainfall,A flood of frenzied upheaval,Expected,But still catching me unprepared.Like a matchflameBursting on the scene,Heat and haze of crimson sunsets.Like a dreamOf moon and dark barely recalled,A moment,Shadows caught in a blink.Like a quick kiss;One wishes for moreBut it suddenly turns to leave,Dragging summer away.
A Moment’s Indulgence from Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) I ask for a moment’s indulgence to sit by thy side. The works that I have in hand I will finish afterwards. Away from the sight of thy face my heart knows no rest nor respite, and my work becomes an endless toil in a shoreless … Read more
Blessings to all the fathers on Father’s Day! And wishing everyone a most splendid Summer Solstice (and Yule, too, for our friends below the Equator!) Enjoy! Music by Damh the Bard, from the CD The Hills they are Hollow
Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.— His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Cancerian Cancer is the sign of the Summer Solstice, the beginning of the warmest season of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. It is also the birth sign of the United States of America. Cancer is the first water sign of the Zodiac, … Read more
Peace of Sonoma County © Dana HawleySeptemberHelen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885) The goldenrod is yellow;The corn is turning brown;The trees in apple orchardsWith fruit are bending down. The gentian’s bluest fringesAre curling in the sun;In dusty pods the milkweedIts hidden silk has spun. The sedges flaunt their harvest,In every meadow nook;And asters by the brook-sideMake asters … Read more
Summer Sunby Robert Louis Stevenson Great is the sun, and wide he goesThrough empty heaven with repose;And in the blue and glowing daysMore thick than rain he showers his rays. Though closer still the blinds we pullTo keep the shady parlour cool,Yet he will find a chink or twoTo slip his golden fingers through. The … Read more
Summer means promises fulfilled, objectives gained, hopes realized. The surge of doing and achieving, of watching and enjoying is finally replaced by a sense of quiet and floating and a certain fullness and repletion, as though one cannot absorb any more.— Sigurd F. Olsen This was one of those perfect New England days in late … Read more
A Night-Rain in Summer by James Henry Leigh Hunt Open the window, and let the airFreshly blow upon face and hair,And fill the room, as it fills the night,With the breath of the rain’s sweet might.Hark! the burthen, swift and prone!And how the odorous limes are blown!Stormy Love’s abroad, and keepsHopeful coil for gentle sleeps. … Read more
Mockingbirdsby Mary Oliver This morningtwo mockingbirdsin the green fieldwere spinning and tossing the white ribbonsof their songsinto the air.I had nothing better to dothan listen.I mean thisseriously. In Greece,a long time ago,an old coupleopened their door to two strangerswho were,it soon appeared,not men at all, but gods.It is my favorite story–how the old couplehad almost … Read more