Weekend Inspiration

Trunk of a Triangle Palm

"The purpose of Zen is the perfection of character."
_____ Yamada Roshi

Friday's Inspiration

"Do not conquer the world with force. For force only causes resistance. Thorns spring up when an army passes. Years of misery follow a great victory. Do only what needs to be done, without using violence."
_____ Lao-Tzu

Happy Birthday To Me

Another year older and definitely a year wiser. It has been a rough year but I survived it and am looking forward to the challenges and blessings the next year will bring. I am looking forward to being able to post better quality pictures as Gregg bought me a new camera for my birthday.

The camera is a Fujifilm S1800 and it is 12mp with 18X zoom. I am really looking forward to playing with this.

" 'Feeling good' is your way of telling yourself that your last thought was truth, that your last word was wisdom,
that your last action was love."
_____ Neale Walsch

Wednesday's Inspiration

"Truth is in things, and not in words."
_____ Herman Melville

Tuesday's Inspiration

"Do not turn away what is given you, nor reach out for what is given to others, lest you disturb your quietness."
_____ The Dhammapada

Monday's Message

This is a new plant that we have never seen before called a Persian Shield. The intensity of the purple is amazing.

"Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty."
_____ Socrates

Weekend Inspiration

A view of my front porch.

"In struggling against anguish one never produces serenity; the struggle against anguish only produces new forms of anguish."
_____ Simone Weil

Friday's Inspiration

"Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as an enlightened person. There is only enlightened activity."
______ Shunryu Suzuki

Thursday's Inspiration

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"Meditation is not an escape from life, but preparation for really being in life."
_____ Thich Nhat Hanh

Wednesday's Inspiration

"Although gold dust is precious, when it gets in your eyes, it obstructs your vision."
_____ His-Tang

Monday's Message

Orchid display at the Montreal Royal Botanical Gardens.

"To set up what you like against what you dislike, this is the disease of the mind."
_____ Seng-T'san

Weekend Inspiration

Montreal Royal Botanical Gardens

"Each of us literally chooses, by his way of attending to things, what sort of universe he shall appear to himself to inhabit."
_____ William James

Friday's Inspiration

"He who is of a calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age, but to him who is of an opposite disposition youth and age are equally a burden."
_____ Plato

Thursday's Inspiration

"The person of superior integrity does not insist upon his integrity. For this reason, he has integrity. The person of inferior integrity never loses sight of his integrity; for this reason, he lacks integrity."
_____ Lao-Tzu

Wednesday's Inspiration

Bonsai from the Royal Botanical Gardens in Montreal.

"The prayer of the monk is not perfect until he no longer recognizes himself or the fact that he is praying."
_____ Saint Anthony

Tuesday's Inspiration

"The true value of a human being can be found in the degree to which he has attained liberation from the self."
_____ Albert Einstein

Monday's Inspiration

"Calm is the morn without a sound, calm as to suit a calmer grief, and only through a faded leaf the chestnut pattering to the ground."
_____ Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Weekend Inspiration

"In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don't try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present."
_____ Tao Te Ching

Friday's Inspiration

Every garden should have palm tree's

"At the centre of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want"
_____ Lao-Tzu

Thursday's Inspiration

This is a picture of another area of our backyard. All tatters are welcome to come and relax and enjoy the view and we can have a tatting get together. I would be happy to cook a special meal for those who come and for our chocolate fix how does a chocolate liquor Tiramisu sound.

"The sublime vision comes to the pure and simple soul in a clean and chaste body."
_____ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Time for a Change

This is how our garden used to look. It was very nice, but it was a lot of work.


This is how the garden looks now. It is still a beautiful garden but now it is a lot less work.


"Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.
_____ Alan Watts

We are Melting

I do not know about everyone else where they are living but we are in a major heatwave that is going to last for at least the 4 next days. Yesterday the temperature reached 44C or 111F. With temperatures like this I think even the concrete wants to melt.
Today's inspiration is one I strongly believe in. Hope you enjoy it also.

"Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Joy follows a pure thought like a shadow that never leaves."
_____ Buddha

MMonday's Message

Hosta's and a Twisted Lady fern.

"We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us."
_____ Albert Einstein

Weekend Inspiration

Foxtail Ferns and Dwarf Hinoki Standard

"I do not cut up my life into days but my days into lives: each day, each hour, an entire life."
_____ Juan Ramon Jimenez

Thursday's Inspiration

"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished."
_____ Lao-Tzo