#by j marion brown

“I was in darkness, but I took three steps and found myself in paradise. The first step was a good thought, the second, a good word; and the third, a good deed.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

“No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden…But though an old man, I am but a young gardener.”   ~Thomas Jefferson

 “If, then, I were asked for the most important advice I could give, that which I considered to be the most useful to the men of our century, I should simply say: in the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.” ~Leo Tolstoy

 “Uninvited guests seldom meet a welcome.”  ~Aesop

Aesop was a Greek storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as Aesop’s Fables. Although his existence remains unclear and no writings by him survive, numerous tales credited to him were gathered across the centuries and in many languages in a storytelling tradition that continues to this day. Many of the tales associated with him are characterized by anthropomorphic animal characters.

“Life is a moving, breathing thing. We have to be willing to constantly evolve. Perfection is constant transformation.”~Nia Peeples

“In solitude is healing. Speak to your soul. Listen to your heart. Sometimes in the absence of noise we find the answers.”  ~Dodinsky 

cherry blossom

“The hummingbirds have arrived,
beating their invisible wings beyond the window
where buds are beginning to break.
They come bearing the light of Panama,
Colombia, Costa Rica, the red fire of the tropics…
I go out among them, in my red coat,
hoping they will mistake me for a flower.
They buzz close, hovering before my face.
If only one of them would touch me, I would
sprout feathers and take to the air, my wings
tracing infinity, my throat turning to rubies.”

by José A. Alcántara in ‘The Bitten World’

https://gwarlingo.com/2022/archilochus-colubris-by-jose-a-alcantara/

‘To a Red-Winged Black Bird on the Advent of Spring’, by Reid McGrath

For some a robin heralds in the Spring.
Others: a crocus or a daffodil.
My old man claims it’s when nightchirpers sing.
The farmer cites the rain, the barnyard rill.
I sense it when the maple-lines come down;
when pruning-ladders rise upon Fern Hill.
I sense it when the buds begin to crown;
but in completion it is not until
I see you perched upon a cattail-reed;
the reed, against your ebony, horse-brown.
The handsomest of birds, you seem to bleed
from daring deeds of triumph and renown.
Alone, among these humble reeds, you’re mellow,
with epaulettes of red and goldish-yellow.

“For nothing is fixed, forever and forever, it is not fixed; the earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock. Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have. The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.”  ~ James Baldwin