Doug and I went to the U of M Matthaei Botanical Gardens in search of butterfly pics on Saturday. We had a pleasant walk and saw lots of beautiful flowers, but the photo above was actually taken in our own garden after we got home!
On Sunday, Doug and I went to the University of Michigan Botanical Gardens hoping to get some butterfly photos. As you can see from the picture above, the gardens were in full bloom, but we were disappointed to find only bees buzzing around the flowers. We took a few photos, whining a good deal of the time about the lack of the lovely winged insects, and then we set out for home. As we were driving down the freeway there was a sudden loud “plunk” as a large insect hit the windshield. When I turned and looked over at Doug he simply said, “Yes…it was a butterfly.” The irony continued at home when while sitting out on the deck the swallowtail pictured below fluttered and flapped and feasted leisurely on the flowers growing in our own backyard pots. As I looked at the photo of Doug on my computer the next day, surrounded as he was by masses of beautiful flowers, I realized how foolish we were that afternoon not to be grateful for the present moment just as it was, even if it did happen to be butterfly free. So I guess our lesson for the day was – You don’t necessarily need to wander far from home to find your heart’s desire, but if you do, for heaven’s sake – stop and smell the flowers along the way!
Happiness is like a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but, if you will sit down quietly, it may alight upon you. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne
See other (nearly) Wordless Wednesday participants here.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. ~Albert Einstein
See other Wordless Wednesday participants here.
| You Are Blooming Flowers |
 You are an optimistic person by nature. In even the darkest times, you are hopeful about the future.You feel truly blessed in life and can sometimes be overwhelmed with emotions.You have an artist’s eye. You are always looking for beauty in the mundane.You have a good sense of aesthetics, especially when it comes to shapes and color.
|
Shot this a few minutes ago out my bathroom window, my Bradford Pear tree is budding, getting ready to officially announce spring. It’s sunny and fairly mild today, when it warms up a bit I think I’ll go walk around the yard and look for more signs of spring, maybe cut back some of the plants I didn’t get to last fall. I feel like I’m a little out of balance lately. I think I’m watching too many cable news shows and worrying too much; about the economy, about Meagan and baby Brooklyn, about how my dad is dealing with being alone, about my ginormous Visa bill…etc. Things that are basically out of my hands (except my darn Visa bill, if only I’d actually kept that card out of my hands in the first place!). Worrying really is just a bad habit, isn’t it? It accomplishes nothing, changes nothing. I remember my mom doing her spring cleaning every year when we were kids, washing walls, wiping away dangling cobwebs, cleaning out closets and moving furniture so she could vacuum up the hidden dust and crumbs that accumulate after a long, dark winter. I feel like I need to that with myself this spring, cut away some of that cluttered old growth and give my spirit a good sprucing up:)
I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which never happened. ~Winston Churchill
Nature often holds up a mirror so we can see more clearly the ongoing processes of growth, renewal, and transformation in our lives. ~ M. A. Brussat
See other Wordless Wednesday participants here…
Winter Sky
It finally feels like the holidays are over today and a new year has begun. Over the past couple of weeks, as 2008 wound down, I started to feel that big bad cloud of sadness and regret gathering over my shoulders and at first I let it, I figured I deserved it, didn’t I? A little wallowing, a few what-ifs? I mean, this has been one helluva year of stress and loss and heartache around here. But after a few days of it (and a few sleepless nights too) I realized that I was going to have to make a conscious effort to choose between sorrow and happiness, between gloom and optimism. And I knew that there might even be days when I would have to fake it to make it, but that’s okay, I can do that. Because I’ll be damned if I’m going to feel sad and only remember the bad days every time I look at a photograph of my mom, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to believe anything other than the fact that come July 1st I will be holding a healthy little grandbaby up to my face and breathing in the sweetness of a new life, a new beginning.
