Passion in the Garden

There is no passion to be found playing small
in settling for a life that is less than the one
you are capable of living.
~Nelson Mandela

Passion rebuilds the world for the youth.
It makes all things alive and significant.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
 

If passion drives you, 

let reason hold the reins.

~Benjamin Franklin

It is obvious that we can no more explain 

a passion to a person who has never experienced
it than we can explain light to the blind.

~T. S. Eliot

Sun Wings

May the wings of the butterfly kiss the sun

And find your shoulder to light on,

To bring you luck, happiness and riches

Today, tomorrow and beyond.

~Irish Blessing

Beautiful and graceful, varied and enchanting, small but approachable, butterflies lead you to the sunny side of life. And everyone deserves a little sunshine. ~Jeffrey Glassberg

But these are flowers that fly and all but sing:

And now from having ridden out desire

They lie closed over in the wind and cling

Where wheels have freshly sliced the April mire.

~Robert Frost

"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly,
"one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower." ~Hans Christian Andersen

Independence Blues

The beauty of independence, departure,
actions that rely on themselves. ~Walt Whitman

True character of liberty is independence,
maintained by force. ~Voltaire

Do not destroy that immortal emblem of humanity,
the Declaration of Independence. ~Abraham Lincoln

Independence in the end is the fruit of injustice. ~Voltaire

Life, Liberty & Happiness...

Liberty, according to my metaphysics 

is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. 

It implies thought and choice and power. ~John Adams

Liberty is slow fruit. It is never cheap; 

it is made difficult because freedom 

is the accomplishment and perfectness 

of man. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Liberty, when it begins to take root, 

is a plant of rapid growth. ~George Washington

Liberty will not descend to a people; 

a people must raise themselves to liberty; 

it is a blessing that must be earned before 

it can be enjoyed. ~Charles Caleb Colton

Seeing Freedom in Colors

Freedom is the last, best 

hope of earth. ~Abraham Lincoln

There can be no real freedom without 

the freedom to fail. ~Eric Hoffer

Freedom is nothing else but a chance 

to be better. ~Albert Camus

We, and all others who believe 

in freedom as deeply as we do, 

would rather die on our feet 

than live on our knees. ~Franklin D. Roosevelt

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