Comfort Food
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Sometimes you just need to sit down
and eat a bowl of ice cream
as big as your face.
♥
the shadows we cast
What I see is my giant shadow engulfing my little niece as she sits in the grass. What I hope is that I have enough goodness in me that my example will cast half as great a shadow on her life as that literal one. What I fear is I’m falling far, far short of even half.
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You can preach
a better sermon
with your life
than with your lips.
– Oliver Goldsmith
♥
Itty Bitty Teeny Tiny
What I see are a bunch of pretty little flowers. What I know is that entire stalk was as big as my thumb.
.
If you cannot do great things,
do small things in a great way.
– Napoleon Hill
♥
Goin’ Fishin’
What I see is my niece heading out with her fishing tackle in tow. What I think is I like catching fish more than I like fishing.
.
If people concentrated on the
really important things in life,
there’d be a shortage of fishing poles.
– Doug Larson
♥
Unbloomed
What I see is a Water Lily bud. What I remember is it was open and huge and lovely when I first saw it, but then it was all sealed up when I went out later. What I think is we all have times when we need to close back in upon ourselves, rest – tap into the light within, so we’ll have strength enough to open back up again.
.
Deep in their roots,
all flowers keep the light.
– Theodore Roethke
♥
Use it or Lose it
What I see is a couple of Osprey who’ve built their nest on someone’s boat. What I know is I wouldn’t want to be the one who has to evict them.
.
There is nothing in which the birds
differ more from man
than the way in which they can build
and yet leave a landscape as it was before.
– Robert Wilson Lynd
♥
Holding On and Letting Go
What I see is my niece holding on to her cat. What I remember is that cat did not want to be held on to! What I know is I do the same thing all too often – hold on tight to things that want to be let go. And sometimes I don’t hold tight enough to the things I should. But it’s a brand new year, and a good time to evaluate what I hold dear, what I need to put more time and energy into, and what I need to just let go.
Cheers to a new year
and another chance
for us to get it right.
– Oprah Winfrey
♥
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all the ages we’ve been
What I see is my niece playing tea pots. What I think is, “I used to have hair like that. Golden and shiny and beautiful. (sigh) And now I don’t.” What I feel is old. What I hope is I’m not nearly as old as I’ll get.
The great thing
about getting older
is that you don’t lose all
the other ages you have been.
– Madeleine L’Engle
♥
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Don’t Fall
Yes, these are my niece’s feet; yes, they’re hanging over the balcony. BUT: my arm’s around her AND there is a metal railing across her chest. And no, she couldn’t have slipped underneath. Now that that’s out of the way… 🙂
I’m a Fall person. I love it! I love the cooler air and the changing colors of the leaves. There’s an excitement of returning tv shows, football and back to school (even though I don’t have a tv signal or kids). It’s a season of holidays, with the back to back of Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Fall is just great!
But…
I’m just not feeling it this year. It’s all going by so fast, and time just seems to be slipping out from under me.
Where did August go? Where did September disappear to? October is already a week gone.
This year I’m not ready for fall.
This year, right now, I’d love to jump off this picture and right into those inviting waters. I’d love a couple more days in the middle of that summer vacation.
♥
No Reason Needed
Here’s one just because I like it! I don’t know what kind of bug that is, but I’ve never seen one with wings like that. It looks like an optical illusion in some pictures, but I can see clearly here that the wings are split or there are four of them or something. Anyway, I like this photo.
.
No reason is needed
for loving.
~ Paulo Coelho
♥
Conflicting Desires
What I see is my niece looking at her dad and her sister. What I know is she was perfectly content to keep playing where she was in the shallows. But this picture fills me with a sense of longing, as though she is looking at them and wishing that’s where she was too. What I think is how often I am filled with conflicting desires. I want to live on my own terms and do exactly what makes me happy in the moment. But when I look around and see what other people are doing, I also want to be with them; I don’t want to be left behind.
.
If neurotic is wanting
two mutually exclusive things
at one and the same time,
then I’m neurotic as hell.
~ Sylvia Plath
♥
walking in the wreckage
What I see is my friend standing on the sloping upper floor of a collapsing farm house. We loved to walk around in that old house, and though we felt very safe, I know we’re lucky none of us ever got hurt. What I think is a lot of the things I’ve built in my life are kind of like that old wreck of a place we spent so much time exploring. What I wonder is if it’s better to hold on to the old dream as long as I can, or is it safer to walk away when things start to fall apart.
.
It ain’t over
till it’s over.
♥
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Some more pictures:
shell shocked
What I see is Louis checking out a turtle that’s nearly as big as he is. What I think is some of us are less sociable than others.
.
Society is no comfort to one not sociable.
– William Shakespeare
♥
storms that didn’t come
What I see is a brilliant sky. What I remember is this is all that became of some ominous looking clouds. What I think is that sometimes we spend so much time preparing for the worst that we don’t take the time to enjoy what is actually in front of us.
.
If you spend your whole life
waiting for the storm,
you’ll never enjoy the sunshine.
– Morris West
♥
standing in the light
Sometimes I feel like this, like I’m standing in the light.
.
The windows of my soul I throw
Wide open to the sun.
– John Greenleaf Whittier
♥
Something Borrowed
What I see is a woman being photographed before her wedding. What I feel is happy and hopeful. What I think is that, for just a moment, I’ve borrowed something from her life.
.
We keep passing unseen
through little moments
of other people’s lives.
– Robert M. Pirsig
♥
Depth
What I see is a fish and its reflection. What I think is if you look below the surface, you will find a treasure.
.
People say I make strange choices,
but they’re not strange for me.
My sickness is that I’m fascinated by human behavior,
by what’s underneath the surface,
by the worlds inside people.
– Johnny Depp
♥
different all at once
This picture made me think of my life right now. I’m trying to do all of these things, trying to grow and improve myself. Somehow I convince myself that I can grow in lots of different directions at once, and for a while it seems to work. But then I realize that even though they are growing from the same stem, the fruit is all different. They’re shaped different and colored different. They grow and ripen and shrivel and fall away at different rates. No matter how I try to make them grow together, to nurture them all at the same time, it just doesn’t work that way. I’ve crushed so much fruit beneath my feet on the way to understanding it’s okay to take it in turns. It’s okay to let one shrivel up and fall off because I’ve put my energies somewhere else. I have time to come back to it; another chance will grow in its place.
.
There’s a certain kind of beauty
in the chaos
of wildly growing fruits.
♥
beauty is a light in the heart
What I see is a great sky…with a bunch of ugly trailers in front of it. What I thought when I saw this in person was, “What a shame that I can’t get a better shot!” What I think now is those trailers don’t change the fact that the sky above them is lovely.
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Beauty is not in the face;
beauty is a light in the heart.
– Kahlil Gibran
♥
keeping his cool
What I see is a turtle keeping cool. What I think is that summer is almost over!
.
Being cool
is being your own self.
– Vanessa Hudgens
♥
Closed
What I see is a quaint little restaurant courtyard, cozy and quiet – that I can’t get to. What I think is, were these gates open to me, I probably wouldn’t have as much desire to get in.
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There are two tragedies in life.
One is not to get your heart’s desire.
The other is to get it.
– George Bernard Shaw
♥
good enough to eat
From The Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden’s Festival of Lights last year. What I see is a light display that makes me think of lollipops. What I think is they look good enough to eat!
♥
If My Eyes Were Cameras 