Tuesday's Inspiration

"Worldly ups and downs should be treated as lightly as clouds gathering and breaking up."
_____ Anonymous

Monday's Message

Picture of the Grand River that flows through Brantford.

Sometimes the qoutes that are on my calender make no sense to me. Unfortunately today is one of those day's.

"Events and hopes seldom agree. Who can step back does not worry. We blossom and fade like flowers, gather and part like clouds. Worldly thoughts I forgot long ago, relaxing all day on a peak."
____ Stonehouse

Weekend Inspiration

"If you fail to achieve freedom in this life, when do you expect to achieve it?"
_____ Wu-hsin

Friday's Inspiration

"The only wisdom we can hope to acquire is the wisdom of humility: Humility is endless."
_____ T. S. Eliot


"Zen opens a man's eyes to the greatest mystery as it is daily and hourly performed; it enlarges the heart to embrace eternity of time and infinity of space in its every palpitation; it makes us live in the world as if walking in the garden of Eden."
_____ D. T. Suzuki

Wednesday's Inspiration

"When you are guided by compassion and loving-kindness,
you are able to look deeply into the heart of reality and see the truth."
_____ Thich Nhat Hanh

Tuesday's Inspiration

"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better."
_____ Albert Einstein

Monday's Message

"We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny."
_____ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Friday's Inspiration

Sorry I missed yesterday but here are two today to make up for it.

"When we act out of our negativity, the effect is like carving it into stone. The imprint remains for a long, long time."
_____ Genpo Merzel

"We can sense the ever-changing waves around us, and breathe and relax. We can rest in the eternal present, the still point. We can learn that no matter what happens, we are home."
____ Jack Kornfield

Thursday's Inspiration

"Develop a mind that is vast like the water, where experiences both pleasant and unpleasant can appear and disappear without conflict, struggle, or harm. Rest in a mind like vast water."
_____ Buddha

Post Number 300

WOW. This is post 300. I find it amazing that my blog has gone on this long. When I started it my thinking was I might do a post twice a month and when I saw other blogs and saw they had 25,000 visitors I never thought it would happen with mine. I would like to thank everbody for there support and so far I have had over 25,000 visits.

"He who has no faith in himself can never have faith in God."_____ Vivekananda

Tuesday's Inspiration

"....I have nothing to report, my friends.
If you want to find the meaning,
stop chasing after so many things."
_____ Ryokan

Monday's Message

"Like a child in a beautiful park with his eyes shut tight, there's no need to imagine trees, flowers, deer, birds and sky; we merely need to open our eyes and realize what is already here, who we already are- as soon as we stop pretending we're small or unholy."
_____ Bo Lozoff

Weekend Inspiration

For the next little while the pictures that I will be using on my blog will be pictures of some of the beautiful flower beds in my town of Brantford, Ontario, Canada. Hope you enjoy.


"Let life happen to you. Believe me: life is in the right, always."
_____ Rainer Maria Rilke

Friday's Inspiration

Here are a couple more pictures from Niagara Falls. One that impressed me the most was the picture of the hanging planter. These must have been at least 4 feet across.

"As you walk and eat and travel, be where you are. Otherwise you will miss most of your life."
_____ Buddha

Tuesday's Tatting

I am starting to progress a little faster with the doily I am working on and am now at the point where I only have one more row to do. I don't know where the time goes each day but it seems I just wake up and then it is time for bed. Oh well, better than being bored.


Here is today's inspiration.

"To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders."
_____ Lao-Tzu

Tuesday's Inspiration

These are more pictures of the gardens and flowers that we saw on the weekend. I did not get a chance to tat yesterday so you will have to wait till tomorrow for some tatting pictures.






"Without freedom from the past, there is no freedom at all, because the mind is never new, fresh, innocent."
_____ Krishnamurti

Monday's Message and Niagara Falls

Happy Monday everyone. This weekend my daughter Shannon, Gregg and I went to Niagara Falls. For those who are not familiar with this place, it is one of the wonders of the world. It is an amazing place to visit and will definitely hold your interest. Part of the city which sits on the border with Canada and the United States is a real tourist town with streets packed with souvenir shops, restaurants, attractions, casino, and hundreds of hotels and is the Honeymoon capital of North America.
The other part is natures wonder of one of the worlds largest waterfalls highlighted with beautiful gardens gracing the pathways.
There are the American falls.

Then there are the Canadian Falls.

Here are some of the gardens.



More pictures and some tatting tomorrow.

"Try as much as possible to be wholly alive, with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell, and when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough."
_____ William Saroyan

Weekend Inspiration

This is how Gregg my partner planted the turtle mosaic sculpture for this year. To give you a better understanding of how big it is the main shell measures 27 feet by 17 feet and contains over 5,000 plants.




"The mind is never right but when it is at peace with itself."
_____ Seneca

Friday's Inspiration

"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion."
_____ Dalai Lama

Thursday's Inspiration

"Well-being means to be fully born, to become what one is potentially is; it means to have the full capacity for joy and sadness or, to put it differently, to awake from the half-slumber the average man lives in and to be fully awake."
_____ Erich Fromm

Wednesday's Inspiration

Part of our front garden.

"Everything we do is infused with the energy with which we do it. If we're frantic, life will be frantic. If we're peaceful, life will be peaceful. And so our goal in any situation becomes inner peace."
_____ Marianne Williamson

Tuesday's Inspiration

"Happiness is a quality of mind. It is something we possess within.....
If we do not have it within, nothing outside can give it to us."
_____ Paramananda

Monday's Message

``Believe nothing because someone else believes it. But believe only what you yourself judge to be true.``
_____ Buddha

Weekend Inspiration

"Everything you do right now ripples outward and affects everyone. Your posture can shine your heart or transmit anxiety.Your breath can radiate love or muddy the room in depression. Your glance can awaken joy. Your words can inspire freedom. Your every act can open hearts and minds.

_____ David Deida

Friday's Inspiration

Lantana blooms and seed head.

"The universe is sacred. You cannot improve it. If you try to change it, you will ruin it. If you try to hold it, you will lose it.
_____ Lao-Tzu

Thursday's Inspiration

"The soul that is attached to anything, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of the divine."
____ St. John of the Cross

Wednesday's Inspiration

I managed to get some tatting done yesterday which was nice as I always feel better when I accomplish goals I have set for myself.
This picture will give you a better view of our backyard. I would like to extend an open invitation to all tatters to join me here for some tatting. Any takers?



"People cling to their worldly possessions and selfish passions so blindly as to sacrifice their own lives for them. They are like a child who tries to eat a little honey smeared on the edge of a knife. The amount is by no means sufficient to appease his appetite, and he runs the risk of wounding his tongue."
_____ Sutra of Forty-Two Chapters

Tatting Tuesday and Inspiration

Here is a photo update of the doily I am working on. I don't seem to have a lot of time to tat right now. With my new camera I have been taking a lot of pictures, about 400 so far, and in the evenings when I would normaly tat Gregg and I have been enjoying our back yard. I am going to try and set some time aside for tatting today and maybe take part in the tat and chat.


"The wholeness and freedom we seek is our true nature, who we really are. Whenever we start a spiritual practice, read a spiritual book, or contemplate what it means to live well, we have begun the inevitable process of opening to this truth, the truth of life itself."
_____ Jack Kornfield

Monday's Message

"The only Zen you find on tops of mountains is the Zen you bring there."
_____ Robert M. Pirsig

Weekend Inspiration

Our front garden.

"The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be."
_____ Bruce Lee

Friday's Inspiration

"To understand the immeasurable, the mind must be extraordinarily quiet, still."
_____ J. Krishnamurti

Thursday's Inspiration

"The superior person is modest in his speech but exceeds in action."

Wednesday's Inspiration

Double Mandavilla

"Where ever my travels may lead, paradise is where I am."
_____ Voltaire

Tuesday's Inspiration

This is our new hammock stand and it sure is nice to lay in it at the end of the day. The only bummer is that we cannot leave the hammock out as the birds are eating berries right now and they are leaving purple stains everywhere.

"If there is to be any peace it will come through being, not having."
_____ Henry Miller

Monday's Message

One of the rocks surrounding our pond. They all have fossils in them.

"From time to time, to remind ourselves to relax and be peaceful, we may wish to set aside some time for a retreat, a day of mindfulness, when we walk slowly, smile, drink tea with a friend, and enjoy being together as if we are the happiest people on earth."
_____ Thich Nhat Hanh