Monthly Archives: March 2018

A Blushing Sunrise

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Sunrise Nov. 2, 2016, 7:12 a.m., Central Illinois

Blessed to be alive

Enjoying a spectacular sunrise

Giving thanks to the Creator

In all ways bounteous and wise.

New beginning, new day

New shades of pink and gray

In the heavens a feast

Never tire of the splendor

Glorious gobstoppers of color

Sticking around for mere seconds.

Note: This is my take on Rise/Set, WordPress’s Photo Challenge for the week. We’re supposed to feature either a sunrise or a sunset, trying to show what that time of day means to us. I’ll be taking a few days off to celebrate the upcoming holiday — Happy Easter, my friends!

Now It’s Spring

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When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other. ~Chinese Proverb

Look who decided to bloom!!

Shamrock (Oxalis) plant

And remember this one?

Geranium overwintered indoors

Flowers don’t worry about how they’re going to bloom. They just open up and turn toward the light and that makes them beautiful. ~Jim Carrey, Canadian-American actor and comedian

Maybe we should do more of the same — Happy Spring, everyone!

Favorite Place … to Pray

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Come humbly to pray

Ask for faith, light a candle

Leave in complete peace

Note: This is my interpretation of Favorite Place, this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge theme. The idea is to share a photo of our “happy place” or a spot we love returning to over and over again. Officially called the Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes, this shrine at the University of Notre Dame is one-seventh the size of its French counterpart. I took this shot when my son was a freshman there, and I never failed to visit it when I came to campus thereafter. I’m told it’s the site of many a marriage proposal, an urgent prayer for help on exams, and daily Rosary.

Sunday’s Gem — Aquamarine

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

The traditional birthstone for March is the beautiful Aquamarine, a transparent bluish member of the beryl family.

Thanks to healingcrystals.com for this photo of an uncut chunk of Aquamarine

From the Latin for “water of the sea,” Aquamarine once was valued as a green stone; today, it’s traditionally heated to bring out the blue hues the public demands.

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Wishing, Hoping

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Hope is the physician of each misery. ~Irish Proverb

Fed up with winter

Longing for warm sandy beach

Need a vacation!

Note: This is my rendition of I’d Rather Be…, WordPress’s Photo Challenge for the week. We’re supposed to photograph something we’d rather be doing, or a place we’d rather be, right now. Mine is on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and I suspect I’m not the only one eager for a change in seasons!

New Season Emerging

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Adopt the pace of nature:  her secret is patience.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, American poet

My Daffodils are peeking through, and I find myself eagerly awaiting the arrival of Spring! Yes, it will be weeks before these babies bloom and the temperatures stay consistently warm, but now that I see progress, it’s easier to be patient.

I found the following quote in a publication I was reading and decided it was appropriate for ALL of us (but especially those of us trying to write a book!) Have a beautiful Sunday, my friends!

Have patience with all things — but first with yourself. Never confuse your mistakes with your value as a human being. You are a perfectly valuable, creative, worthwhile person simply because you exist. And no amount of triumphs or tribulations can ever change that. — St. Francis de Sales, patron saint of authors, writers, and journalists

Storied Tradition

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On football weekend Fridays, guests of the University of Notre Dame Fighting Irish can walk — for free! — the tunnel every Irish football player has taken into Notre Dame Stadium since the Knute Rockne era in 1930.

View the hanging national championship banners, take a photo with the field in the background, and imagine what it’s like to race into the stadium to the rousing Notre Dame Victory March and the cheers of thousands of fans!

Note: This is my take on Story, this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge topic. The idea is to use a photograph to convey a story. Kind of relates to the English idiom, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” don’t you think?

Sharing the Sorrow

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A suburban mother’s role is to deliver children obstetrically once, and by car forever after. ~Peter De Vries, American editor and novelist

We’ve got to find a better way of teaching our kids how to drive.

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