Change From Inside

But, for all that, they had a very pleasant walk. The trees were bare of leaves, and the river was bare of water-lilies; but the sky was not bare of its beautiful blue, and the water reflected it, and a delicious wind ran with the stream, touching the surface crisply. ~Charles Dickens

Wealth, the beauty of youth and flowers are guests for only a few days. Like the water-lily, they wither and fade and finally die. ~Sri Guru Granth Sahib

I think that the best kind of change, is the change that comes from the inside and begins it's way until it emerges on the outside; a change that is born underneath then continues and spreads until it has reached the surface. That's true change. A powerful change. And I have found that while we are emerging, changing into something glorious; it is actually us becoming who we really are... 

A water lily is born underneath the water,

 inside the soil at the bottom of the river or lake. 

And the water lily has always been a water lily for that whole time that it was sprouting out of the wet soil, reaching up through the dark water toward the sunlight, stretching and grasping for the surface; where it then buds and blooms on the outside in the sunshine. It doesn't bud and bloom on the surface and then try to reach down below into the soil. ~C. JoyBell C.

Leaves & Roses

It is the month of June,

The month of leaves and roses

When pleasant sights salute the eyes,

And pleasant scents the noses.
~N.P. Willis

I question not if thrushes sing,

If roses load the air;

Beyond my heart I need not reach

When all is summer there. ~John Vance Cheney

I know I am but summer to your heart, and not the full four seasons of the year. ~Edna St. Vincent Millay

Blessed be the Lord for the beauty of summer and spring, for the air, the water, the verdure,
and the song of birds.  ~Carl von Linnaeus

June

Butterflies drifting across it,

Bees that go humming by,

The rose belongs to a June day

In gardens that smile at the sky...

Swaying to summer's music

On its gracefully slender stem,

It wears in a queenly manner

A dew-spangled diadem...

Folded within its soft petals, 

Lie dreams that are long unfilled;

Heartbreak, dear memories and rapture,

Along with its perfume are spilled. ~Ada B. Childs

Summer Sunset

When the sun has set, no candle can 

replace it. ~George R.R. Martin

Dusk is just an illusion because the sun is either above the horizon or below it. 

And that means that day and night are 

linked in a way that few things are;

 there cannot be one without the other 

yet they cannot exist at the same time. ~Nicolas Sparks

There's a sunrise and a sunset every single day,
and they're absolutely free.
Don't miss so many of them. ~Jo Walton

Never waste any amount of time 

doing anything important when there is 

a sunset outside that you should 

be sitting under! ~C. JoyBell C.

A large drop of sun lingered on the horizon and then dripped over and was gone, 

and the sky was brilliant over the spot 

where it had gone, and a torn cloud, 

like a bloody rag, hung over the spot 

of its going. And dusk crept over the sky from the eastern horizon, and darkness crept over the land from the east. ~John Steinbeck

Mine is the sultry sunset when the skies

tremble with strange, intolerable thunder:

And at the dead of a hushed night, these eyes

Draw down the soaring oracles winged 

with wonder. ~Lionel Johnson

Moonlight

A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world. ~Oscar Wilde

Moonlight is sculpture. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

Inside you there's an artist you don't know about.
He's not interested in how things
look different in moonlight. ~Auguste Rodin

If the Sun and Moon should ever doubt, they'd immediately go out. ~William Blake

Super Moon  June 2013

It's Officially Summer

Last day of Spring,

ripe purple plums drop--

form is emptiness.

First day of Summer,

ditch completely dry--

emptiness is form. ~Mike Garofalo

Love is to the heart what the summer 

is to the farmer's year.

It brings to harvest all the loveliest 

flowers of the soul. ~Billy Graham

The serene philosophy of the pink rose is steadying.  Its fragrant, delicate petals open fully and are ready to fall, without regret or disillusion, after only a day in the sun.  It is so every summer.  One can almost hear their pink, fragrant murmur as they settle down upon the grass: 'Summer, summer, it will always be summer.' ~Rachel Peden  

Dirty hands, iced tea, garden fragrances 

thick in the air and a blanket of color before me, 

who could ask for more? ~Bev Adams

I walk without flinching through the burning 

cathedral of the summer.  My bank of wild grass 

is majestic and full of music.  It is a fire 

that solitude presses against my lips. ~Violette Leduc

Down In The River

As I went down in the river to pray 
Studying about that good old way 
And who shall wear the starry crown 
Good Lord, show me the way ! 

O sisters let's go down, 
Let's go down, come on down, 
O sisters let's go down, 
Down in the river to pray. 

As I went down in the river to pray 
Studying about that good old way 
And who shall wear the robe and crown 
Good Lord, show me the way ! 

O brothers let's go down, 
Let's go down, come on down, 
Come on brothers let's go down, 
Down in the river to pray. 

As I went down in the river to pray 
Studying about that good old way 
And who shall wear the starry crown 
Good Lord, show me the way ! 

O fathers let's go down, 
Let's go down, come on down, 
O fathers let's go down, 
Down in the river to pray. 

As I went down in the river to pray 
Studying about that good old way 
And who shall wear the robe and crown 
Good Lord, show me the way ! 

O mothers let's go down, 
Let's go down, don't you want to go down, 
Come on mothers let's go down, 
Down in the river to pray. 

As I went down in the river to pray 
Studying about that good old way 
And who shall wear the starry crown 
Good Lord, show me the way ! 

O sinners let's go down, 
Let's go down, come on down, 
O sinners let's go down, 
Down in the river to pray. 

As I went down in the river to pray 
Studying about that good old way 
And who shall wear the robe and crown 
Good Lord, show me the way !

~Alison Krauss

Fields of Gold

What is one to say about June, the time of perfect young summer, the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade. ~Gertrude Jekyll

But thy eternal summer shall not fade

Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;

Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou growest:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, 

So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

~William Shakespeare

T'is now the summer of your youth.
Time has not cropt the roses from your cheek, 

though sorrow long has washed them. ~Edward Moore

Little Wing Morning

Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragonfly 
Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky. 
~Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Summer afternoon - summer afternoon;
to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language. ~Henry James

Oh, the summer night

Has a smile of light

And she sits on a sapphire throne.

~Barry Cornwall

Ah, summer, what power you have 

to make us suffer and like it." ~Russel Baker