Under God

I wrote "Under God" a few years ago, but now seems a good time to share it.

It's sort of patriotic. It's mostly about God. It's about a world that needs to relook at itself and maybe, just maybe put themselves under God.

We are desperately in need,
To put ourselves under God,
Not alter what has been established,
Or cater to our own rules and laws,
Only then will all people unite as one,
Until then, we'll suffer the damage already done,
We are desperately in need,
To put ourselves under God.

Copyright 2004, Brantage Publications

To read the whole thing, go here.
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Fourth of July

God Bless America!

We can't all be Washingtons, but we can all be patriots.  ~Charles F. Browne

Where liberty dwells, there is my country.  ~Benjamin Franklin

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
(Last verse of the Star Spangled Banner) 

Still June

Look what is peeking through in a pretty June backyard corner. Yes, it is still June, at least for a few more hours.

Little Free Library

I adore this idea! Will definitely try setting one up one day. What a great way to share books. These can be bought at their website, or why not just make one of your own.

Little Free Library

Little Free Library

Wheels are turning...what else could be shared this way? 

Sky is the limit, I dare you!

Daydreaming

June calendar quote. 

See May's quote here.

Tis June

From the book, "Country Diary of An Edwardian Lady"

Sneak Peek

A sneak peek here of the new Les Miserables with Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway..., but I think they mixed up who is Valjean and who is Javert. I would have put them the other way. I hope I'm wrong when it comes out this December.

Jean Valjean

Inspector Javert

Eponine

Revolution

I think my favorite version of LM is the one with Anthony Perkins as Javert.

I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it yet, if you can look past its unsophisticated ways compared to movies of today. Here is trailer from 1978.

My Wars Are Laid Away in Books

After quite a long dry spell from reading, yes reading, I suddenly want to start up again. I've plenty of material to begin, the question is which one to begin with.


 
"The New Cookbook For Poor Poets"
"Becket"
"My Wars Are Laid Away in Books" (how appropriate!)
"The Young Bronte's"

This is just my starting list, but there's a dozen more I could add to it.

Better get at it right away!

Cabbages and Kings

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--

from -- The Walrus and The Carpenter

by Lewis Carroll

(from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)


What a delightful world we live in with many things to talk of ---

...of  moonlight~~

...of  Monet~~

Claude Monet -- "Weeping Willow"

...of music~~

What's on your mind?

A Dozen Little Arrows

Clouds hang grey and heavy with condensation,
A windy setting, anything but calm.
Above me proves an alluring scene,
A school of birds weaving invisible lines in the sky.

Longing to be there with them, I watch their dance,
Tracing patterned paths with eager russet eyes.
Back and forth they soar, streaking like shooting stars,
A dozen little arrows hitting their mark. 

Born free and winged for this very moment,
For this timeless world all their own.
Flying bold and content in the face of wind,
An enchanted game between gusts and wings.

Reluctantly, eyes are torn away from the serendipitious scene,
Tracing the path ahead with oblivious glances.
One step, and then another, leads further away,
Yet the enchantment lingers, as a final gust pushes me inside.

Lavender Will Do

The walkway to heaven, maybe? Or just a bit of heaven on earth.

Anthology Magazine

Talk about, "walking in bluebells." Lavender will do just as well.

Original Photo Source

Just Me and the Birds

 It's a windy and blowin' kind of day here. As I started off on a walk, it was just me and the birds. The birds were riding the wind. If I could ride it, I would, for that is the playground I love most. As it was, I settled for two feet on solid ground, but the whispy bursts were still good from that vantage point. Warm and windy is truly something to behold.

There are many playgrounds we hold dear.... soft sandy beaches, smooth or stormy lakes, picnics on thick blankets in the woods, cozy book nights, tracing patterns in the night sky, and gathering leaf bouquets in the fall.

I remember playgrounds from far away, too. A chocolate crepe on a French avenue, standing in awe of the Louvre contents, walking the lovely streets of Bath, England, and the breathtaking hills of Stonehenge, if I dare call those mounds my playground. One of the most favorite playgrounds of all, the playground of a lifetime, in fact, was a lighthouse on the very edge of the sea where the wind never ceased for a moment. Just me and the birds then too.

 The memories we look back on, and the ones that are still to be made, bring the best pleasures. The world is a playground, yet so is our own backyard.

 Pleasure is the flower that passes; remembrance, the lasting perfume.  
                                ~Jean de Boufflers

So whatever is blowing in your neck of the woods, make it a good playground today, for tomorrow it is only a memory. Until you discover a new playground, and it all begins again.

Babette's Feast

It usually hits in the bleak mid-winter time, but sometimes even in early spring, you find yourself running low on your beauty fix. All that's necessary to fill up on it, is to step outside, ...walk a few steps, ...close your eyes, then breathe in deeply the scent of open lavender buds that fill the yard with their one-of-a-kind perfume.

One thing I know for sure, is that beauty waits patiently. In times such as this, the remembering thought that it's waiting, stumbles me forward to action, and I'm suddenly out the door for a walk, or sitting outside to stare at a big bright moon staring right back at me.

Suddenly, the world is a lovely place again, your spirits having been strengthened on a nourishing manna as splendid as Babette's feast. Step up to the table, the feast awaits.

Babette's Feast, 1987

When the Page Has Been Turned

My 2012 calendar, pictured above, is not my traditional London calendar. 

I went a different route this year. 

Last month quoted Thoreau, but May is all Emily.

I vow not to turn ahead a month to peek, even though it's tempting!

I am guessing Shakespeare. Guess I'll see if I am right in about four weeks time.

I'll post the June quote when the calendar page has been turned. 

 

 

To the Wind

Don't you want to go back to being a kid sometimes.
Like the days when you could blow willowy white dandelions straight to the wind and not feel a bit of guilt about it.
There they were for the grasping and always better than bubbles could ever be.
At their most beautiful, so transparent and light, an amazing creation that was magical. Just like childhood, summer vacations, and ice cream were magical.

                                       
                                               I swear,

 ...the answers are "blowin in the wind."