The practice of Grateful Living

Reveals that everyone belongs and everyone is valued,

Generates an experience of oneness and interconnectedness

Deepens love, compassion, and respect for all life

Cultivates a sense of sufficiency and abundance

Awakens kindness and generosity

Inspires the impulse to serve with humility

Contributes to the healing of body, mind, and spirit

Unleashes joy

Anchors hope and trust in life, especially in challenging times

Opens us to growth and opportunity

Offers pathways from conflict to peace

Is an engaged YES to a wholehearted life.

The core values of A Network for Grateful Living

I rarely think beyond the coffee pot to all of those who had a hand in its production. I am grateful for those who worked so hard to bring me this cup of coffee.

My feeble efforts warrant no praise. If anything worthwhile has come of my endeavors, it is because of the work of others who are inspired by the Holy Spirit. -- It is so much easier to grow plants than it is to grow one's self.

 ALL TO THE GLORY OF GOD

The Power of Love

If you discover that somebody really loves you, listens to you, then you begin to change. You come out from behind the barriers of fear that you have erected around your heart.

-Jean Vanier

SOLITUDE

I have been intensely and imaginatively happy in the quietest places. I have been filled with life from within in a cold waiting room in a deserted railway junction. I have been completely alive sitting on an iron seat under an ugly lamppost at a third-rate watering place. In short, I have experienced the mere excitement of existence in places that would commonly be called as dull as ditch-water.
-G. K. Chesterton

A Blessing of the Coffee - A Blessing for National Coffee Day

Endlessly New

As you came near the spring you would marvel, seeing that the water was endless, as it constantly grabbed up and poured forth. Yet you could never say that you had seen all the water. How could you see what was still hidden in the bosom of the earth? Hence no matter how long you might stay at the spring, you would always be beginning to see the water…. It is the same with one who fixes his gaze on the infinite beauty of God. It is constantly being discovered anew, and it is always seen as something new and strange in comparison with what the mind has already understood. -Gregory of Nyssa

On the outskirts of a small town, there was a big, old pecan tree just inside the cemetery fence. One day, two boys filled up a bucketful of nuts and sat down by the tree, out of sight, and began dividing the nuts. "One for you, one for me, one for you, one for me," said one boy. Several dropped and rolled down toward the fence.

Another boy came riding along the road on his bicycle. As he passed, he thought he heard voices from inside the cemetery. He slowed down to investigate. Sure enough, he heard, "One for you, one for me, one for you, one for me." 

He just knew what it was. He jumped back on his bike and rode off. Just around the bend he met an old man with a cane, hobbling along. 

"Come here quick," said the boy, "you won't believe what I heard! Satan and the Lord are down at the cemetery dividing up the souls!"

The man said, "Beat it kid, can't you see it's hard for me to walk." When the boy insisted though, the man hobbled slowly to the cemetery.

Standing by the fence they heard, "One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me."

The old man whispered, "Boy, you've been tellin' me the truth. Let's see if we can see the Lord...?" Shaking with fear, they peered through the fence, yet were still unable to see anything. The old man and the boy gripped the wrought iron bars of the fence tighter and tighter as they tried to get a glimpse of the Lord.

At last they heard, "One for you, one for me. That's all. Now let's go get those nuts by the fence and we'll be done...."

They say the old man had the lead for a good half-mile before the kid on the bike passed him.

From Life Quotations

PRINCIPLES ARE WHAT people have instead of God. To be a Christian means among other things to be willing if necessary to sacrifice even your highest principles for God's or your neighbor's sake the way a Christian pacifist must be willing to pick up a baseball bat if there's no other way to stop a man from savagely beating a child. Jesus didn't forgive his executioners on principle but because in some unimaginable way he was able to love them. "Principle" is an even duller word than "religion."                             -Frederick Buechner

Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better to take things as they come along with patience and equanimity.                                                   -Carl Gustav Jung

Instead of going to heaven at last, I’m going all along.                                                                                                               -Emily Dickinson

Sometimes my efforts seem too small to be of any value and I want to quit the task that I have been given and then I read a quotation such as this and know that I must go on.

'People say, "What is the sense of our small effort?" They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time.'           Dorothy Day

Life is a song - sing it.

Life is a game - play it.

Life is a challenge - meet it. 

Life is a dream - realize it. 

Life is a sacrifice - offer it. 

Life is love - enjoy it.

-Sai Baba

That man is successful who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much, who has gained the respect of the intelligent men and the love of children; who has filled his niche and accomplished his task; who leaves the world better than he found it, whether by an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul; who never lacked appreciation of earth's beauty or failed to express it; who looked for the best in others and gave the best he had. 

     -Robert Louis Stevenson?

WHY?

Why must I?
Because it will be better if I do.

Wisdom

A Lesson Learned While Gardening

– If I put the seed in the ground, I might fail to produce a successful crop. If I don't put the seed in the ground, I will certainly fail to produce a crop of any kind.

I was afraid to put the carrot seed in the ground until I realized that the worst that could happen would be that the seed wouldn't grow and I would be out the few dollars that I spent on the seed. It took me three years to realize this. I finally put the seed in the ground and they produced two beautiful rows of carrots. – I experienced this parable several years ago but I didn't see beyond the practical implications of it until just now. This is very much like the story of the men who were given the funds to invest while their boss was off on a trip. The one who, as I with my seed, held on to it for fear of losing it, ultimately lost what he was given anyway. I would have lost my seed and had nothing to show for it because they don't last forever in the packet. 

​

If I had my life to live over again, I would ask that not a thing be changed, but that my eyes be opened wider.
Jules Renard

Let us dance down the hall and out the door and into the fields. -T. J. Grey

DIGGING

To-day I think

Only with scents, - scents dead leaves yield,

And bracken, and wild carrot's seed,

And the square mustard field;

Odours that rise

When the spade wounds the root of tree,

Rose, currant, raspberry, or goutweed,

Rhubarb or celery;

The smoke's smell, too,

Flowing from where a bonfire burns

The dead, the waste, the dangerous,

And all to sweetness turns.

It is enough

To smell, to crumble the dark earth,

While the robin sings over again

Sad songs of Autumn mirth.

- Edward Thomas, Collected Poems

I think the true gardener is a lover of his flowers, not a critic of them. I think the true gardener is the reverent servant of Nature, not her truculent, wife-beating master. I think the true gardener, the older he grows, should more and more develop a humble, grateful and uncertain spirit.

~Reginald Farrer, In a Yorkshire Garden, 1909

“If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present.” - Lao Tzu

“Let us so live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.” Mark Twain

“The most pitiful among men is he who turns his dreams into silver and gold.”   Kahlil Gibran

Just Some Thought

The garden continues to be too wet. It is imperative that we get more raised beds ready for planting. If we continue to get rain as we have gotten it for the last month, raised beds will be the only way that we can grow anything. 

Maybe ---

Maybe this blog will become an all purpose blog. I want somewhere that has been ongoing to put garden related items as well as items of value to those parts of my life that are not directly related to the physical act of gardening. I hope to be posting more garden pictures also.
MAYBE it will happen this year.

I am struck by some people who want to enter community. Their energies are so taken up by this objective that they are unable to hear the cry of the poor and to see those near them who need their attention, their love and their presence. Their desire to enter community seems to blind them. The best way for them to prepare for community life is to love and be present to those near them. Then the passage to life in community will come quite naturally.  -Jean Vanier

I am so busy “creating” community that I do not recognize the community that is present. – I am so busy trying to save the world that I do not have an appreciation for the world that still exists. I run away from death. I am so afraid of dieing that I am afraid to live. -T. J. Grey                                                                                             

whatever

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone. -Audrey Hepburn