Another Last Day

It is the last day of the month of February.
The last day and then another beginning.
But then everyday might be a new beginning
if we but choose to begin again.
Enjoy the present moment.

LIGHT OVERCOMES DARKNESS

Wisdom From Sacred Scripture

A generous person will be enriched
And one who gives water will get water.
Proverbs 11:25

from Cross Creek

It seems to me that the earth may be borrowed but not bought. It may be used but not owned. It gives itself in response to love and tending, offers its seasonal flowering and fruiting. But we are tenants and not possessors, lovers and not masters. Cross Creek belongs to the wind and the rain, to the sun and the seasons, to the cosmic secrecy of seed, and beyond all, to time.
-Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

From Saint Columba

Alone with none but thee, my God,
I journey on my way.
What need I fear when thou art near,
Oh king of night and day?
More safe am I within thy hand
Than if a host did round me stand.
~St. Columba (521-597)

ex Albert Einstein

A human being is a part of the whole, called by us “universe,” a part limited in time and space He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest – a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. The delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal decisions and to affections for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its beauty.

Yeah?

It is hard to make a comeback when you haven't been anywhere.
-written in the dust on the back of a bus

2009 Garden Begins

Friday, February 13, 2008, I planted a turnip patch and a patch of mustard greens and it rained one half inch of gentle rain yesterday to get the greens going. I will plant a row of potatoes next week if the ground dries out enough.

Another one from Professor Bailey

Every family... may have a garden. If there is not a foot of land, there are porches or windows. Wherever there is sunlight, plants may be made to grow; and one plant in a tin-can may be a more helpful and inspiring garden to some mind than a whole acre of lawn and flowers may be to another.
-L. H. Bailey

from Carlos Castaneda, Peruvian Author

Look at every path closely and deliberately, then ask ourselves this crucial question: Does this path have a heart? If it does, then the path is good. If it doesn’t, it is of no use.

from Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey

That best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremembered acts
Of kindness and of love
William Wordsworth
ex Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey

Read the whole poem. It is all very beautiful.

from The Interior Castle

Our Lord does not care so much for the importance of our works as for the love with which they are done. When we do all that we can, His Majesty will enable us to do more everyday.
-Teresa of Avila

“So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.”
-Morrie Schwartz

On the Advantage of Not Having Everything Our Own Way

It is good that everything is not always to our liking; for adversity makes a man look into his heart in order to realize that he is an exile and must not put his hopes in any worldly thing.

It is good for us to run into opposition and to have others think badly of us, even when our intentions are good. For these things help us to be humble and rid us of pride. Then we seek God more earnestly, who alone knows our inmost self, when outwardly we are ignored and discredited by men.

2. Therefore, a man should rely so entirely on God that he has no need to look for human consolation when adversity comes. When a man of good disposition is afflicted or tempted, or distracted by evil thoughts, then he understands the need he has for God and that without Him he can do nothing.

Then too he grieves, while he sighs and prays because of the miseries he endures. He grows weary of this life and longs for death in order to be with Christ, his Lord. It will also be clear to hi that there is neither perfect peace nor security in this world.

THE IMITATION OF CHRIST
Thomas a Kempis
From Book 1: ADMONITIONS FOR SPIRITUAL LIFE
Chapter 12

My Kitchen Garden

What is a kitchen garden. A kitchen garden is a garden that primarily has vegetables and kitchen herbs growing in it. Occasionally some other plants might be grown but not in large quantities..

My kitchen garden is in the preliminary stage right now. I spent some of this morning tilling soil in preparation for the planting of potatoes and carrots next week. I will plant other kinds of vegetables as the year progresses and we get closer to springtime.

I love my kitchen garden because I am fed twice from its bounty. I am fed physically every time I eat from the harvest. I am spiritually fed every time I go to my garden to work. I am also spiritually fed when I share the harvest with others.

Picture this: I go out to my garden just after daybreak when it is still cool and I hear the neighborhood rooster crowing,the dogs barking in the yard next door, and the birds singing their morning choruses. Life doesn't get much better than that in my kitchen garden.

~Richard Burton

Garden Thought

One does not begin to make a garden until one wants a garden. To want a garden is to be interested in plants, in the winds and rains, in birds and insects, in the warm-smelling earth.
~Liberty Hyde Bailey

Once Again - A Thought for Spring

Problem - What can I do with the surplus vegetables from my garden? There is always more than I can use.

AN IDEA–
A Community Garden – individual plots for individual use and pooling of surplus for donation to organizations dealing with hunger issues – either direct donation of surplus food to food banks and/or organizations that prepare meals to feed others – or donation of funds raised from the selling of the surplus produce
A Multipurpose Activity – pursuit of one’s interest –fellowship with other people of like interest – helping

What is it?

MINDFULNESS comes to mind right now. Live each moment as it is given to you. Do not let yourself be swayed by the current of public opinion. Be who you are and not who anyone else wants you to be.
Do not live in the past. The past is dead.
Do not try to live in the future. The future is yet to be born.
Live each moment as it is given to you.
Realize that your life does not depend on the things that you possess.
Realize that your life does not depend on what philosophy or theology you can discuss.
Realize that your life does not depend on what you believe
and it certainly does not depend on what you do.
BE.

Realization

I am convinced that courage comes to each of us as we dare to share ourselves with others. One person can not face the world alone. We do need each other.

We are

We are indeed the world. Only if we have reason to fear what is in our own hearts need we fear for the planet. Teach yourself peace and pass it on.
-Alice Walker

Let me not pray...

Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers
but to be fearless in facing them.
Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain
but for the heart to conquer it.
Let me not look for allies in life's battlefield
but to my own strength.
Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved
but hope for the patience to win my freedom.
Grant that I may not be a coward,
feeling Your mercy in my success alone;
But let me find the grasp of Your hand in my failure.
- Rabindranath Tagore-Bengali poet