Seek Nature...Seek Self

I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.  ~John Muir, 1913, in L.M. Wolfe, ed., John Muir, John of the Mountains:  The Unpublished Journals of John Muir, 1938

Nature is man's teacher.  She unfolds her treasures to his search, unseals his eye, illumes his mind, and purifies his heart; an influence breathes from all the sights and sounds of her existence.  ~Alfred Billings Street

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

I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes.  ~e.e. cummings

The poetry of the earth is never dead.  ~John Keats

 You can't be suspicious of a tree, or accuse a bird or a squirrel of subversion or challenge the ideology of a violet.  ~Hal Borland, Sundial of the Seasons, 1964

I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright.  ~Henry David Thoreau

In some mysterious way woods have never seemed to me to be static things.  In physical terms, I move through them; yet in metaphysical ones, they seem to move through me.  ~John Fowles

The sun is the epitome of benevolence - it is lifegiving and warmthgiving and happinessgiving, and to it we owe our thanksgiving.  ~Jessi Lane Adams

The human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man.  ~Author Unknown

Goin to the chapel and she's gonna get married...

Melodie's gonna get married! Hitched! Ahh, Love...L.O.V.E.  A year from now, these two folks will have solidified a bond that has long since existed.  They'll be husband and wife to all of mankind, not just their family and friends that have thought of them as such anyway.  I stand in awe of love and in happiness of their union, because everyone doesn't find the love of their life or upon finding it seize the precious opportunity that has been granted in that person.  It takes courage, selflessness, persistence and laughter to keep love alive.  I see all of these qualities in Melodie and Jeff!  They love.

Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.  ~Henry Van Dyke

Happiness is...Melissa

William Inge stated that "The happiest people seem to be those who have no particular reason for being happy except that they are so."  I can't think of more appropriate words to describe Melissa's heart and soul.  On the occasion of her bridal shower, it was never more evident.  Cheers to a wonderful girl who shows her heart and soul in her smile.