Gratitude

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.

It turns what we have into enough, and more.

It turns denial into acceptance, chaos
to order, confusion to clarity.

It can turn a meal into a feast,
a house into a home,
a stranger into a friend.

Gratitude makes sense of our past,
brings peace for today,
and creates a vision for tomorrow.


Melody Beattie

New Beginnings

Since it is the beginning of a new year,
I wanted to post this thoughtful writing
by Henri J. M. Nouwen.

FlowerLady

******

A New Beginning

We must learn to live each day,
each hour, yes, each minute
as a new beginning,
as a unique opportunity to make everything new.


Imagine that we could live each moment as a moment pregnant with new life.

Imagine that we could live each day as a day full of promises.

Imagine that we could walk through the new year
always listening to a voice saying to us:
"I have a gift for you and can't wait for you to see it!"

Imagine.

Is it possible that our imagination can lead us to the truth of our lives?

Yes, it can!

The problem is that we allow our past,
which becomes longer and longer each year, to say to us:
"You know it all; you have seen it all, be realistic;
the future will be just another repeat of the past.
Try to survive it as best you can."

There are many cunning foxes jumping on our shoulders
and whispering in our ears the great lie:
"There is nothing new under the sun . . .
don't let yourself be fooled."

When we listen to these foxes,
they eventually prove themselves right:
our new year, our new day, our new hour
become flat, boring, dull, and without anything new.

So what are we to do?

First, we must send the foxes back to where they belong:
in their foxholes.

And then we must open our minds and our hearts to the voice
that resounds through the valleys and hills of our life saying:

"Let me show you where I live among my people.
My name is 'God-with-you.'

I will wipe away all the tears from your eyes;
there will be no more death, and no more mourning or sadness.
The world of the past has gone"
(see Revelation 21:2-5).

We must choose to listen to that voice,
and every choice will open us a little more
to discover the new life hidden in the moment,
waiting eargerly to be born.

******

Rose blooms on 1 Jan 2009

Good morning everyone.
Hope your new year is off to a great start.
Here are some pictures I took yesterday.
Enjoy ~ FlowerLady

******


Mutabilis

La Marne

Homere

Old Blush

Duchesse de Brabant

Duchesse de Brabant

Enjoy the little things,

for one day you may look back

and realize they were the big things.

Robert Brault

Happy New Year Friends


I was going to look for an appropriate thought for today,
and found it in my mailbox, from a friend.
Here it is below.

FlowerLady

******

We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room,

drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched.

Maybe this year, to balance the list,

we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives...

not looking for flaws, but for potential.

Ellen Goodman