Sun-day

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Just a few days ago, there was this ...

Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today? Today is a gift. That’s why we call it the present.

– B. Olatunji

... and today, this.

One day at a time–this is enough. Do not look back and grieve over the past for it is gone; and do not be troubled about the future, for it has not yet come. Live in the present, and make it so beautiful it will be worth remembering.

– Author Unknown

The sun is out, sharpening the mind ...

Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless.

– Jamie Paolinetti

What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but, scattered along life’s pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.

– Joseph Addison

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

Look at everything as though you were seeing it either for the first or last time.
– Betty Smith
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow.

– Mary Anne Radmacher

The first peony of the season blooms in the shade beneath the kitchen window ...

Tough and funny and a little bit kind:  that is as near to perfection as a human being can be.

– Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic’s Notebook, 1966

God grant me the serenity to accept the people I cannot change, the courage to change the one I can, and the wisdom to know it’s me.

– Author unknown, variation of an excerpt from “The Serenity Prayer” by Reinhold Neibuhr

Toss your dashed hopes not into a trash bin but into a drawer where you are likely to rummage some bright morning.

– Robert Brault

... and there is industry tucked into beauty everywhere I look.

I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it…. People think pleasing God is all God care about.  But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back.

-Alice Walker,The Color Purple, 1982

Nature gave men two ends – one to sit on and one to think with.  Ever since then man’s success or failure has been dependent on the one he used most.

– George R. Kirkpatrick

And today, as a surprise, a purple iris blooms in an unexpected place.


7 thoughts on “Sun-day”

  2. Thank you so much for this post today. The timing was perfect. I needed these quotes at this point. I am going to “steal” the Melodie Beattie quote tomorrow for my facebook status.

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  3. Thank you for the wonderful quotes and great photos. What a fabulous post!

    Irises already? I don’t figure mine will flower for another month yet. Hope you’ve had a terrific weekend.

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  4. Laurie: That quote by Alice Walker is one of my very favorites, and so fitting after I found so many purple things in the garden this morning. Hands are acting up as the afternoon passes, but no complaints. Thanks for the thought. Hope all is well for you, too.

    Jules: Be my guest! I’m glad they helped you through your busy, stressful day.

    WS: You’re welcome, and thank you, too! The iris was a total surprise. I’d seen some yellow ones blooming at the village park the other day, but had no idea one had tucked itself under the dogwoods in my garden. Matt’s parents will be here soon; it’s his mom’s birthday, so he’s the chef tonight, grilling tri-tip steaks (his best thing!) to have with baked potatoes and stir-fried green beans, and an apple-cinnamon cake I baked this morning for the desert. I’m looking forward to their company, and best of all, I don’t have to cook tonight! 😉

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  5. What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but, scattered along life’s pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.

    – Joseph Addison
    I had a great weekend with my family and was reminded how much good smiling does for the body. Thanks for sharing all this beauty.

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  6. how do you get peonies, iris, and snow all at once?? we’ve had gorgeous warm days here and none of those are blooming yet in my yard…

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  7. Cathy – Thank you, what a lovely quote. I’m so glad you had such a great weekend with your family. Happy birthday, Alexander!

    Clare: Spring is schizophrenic everywhere, but even more so in the mountains. We’re lucky and live in a very fertile strip in the mid-mountain area, and our little plot of land is on a downward sloping hillside, so we benefit from the daytime warmth but cool down fast at night. The weather was in the mid-50s-60s most of April, except for when those really cold storms blew through off the Pacific by way of Alaska. The snow fell, built up a little, then melted within 12 hours, so it didn’t harm any but the most tender plants. And the storms moved on. I don’t think we’ll be getting any more of them (knocks wood), and even rainstorms are a pretty unusual around here from May through late October. I hope your flowers start opening this week!

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