What I learned in my time away

I recently stepped away from this blog for a couple of months. Looking back, I wonder how I ever found the time to spend here in the first place. The minutes that had been allocated to blogging were filled with other things almost immediately, like water rushing in to fill a canyon and soon obscuring what lies below. Time is finite, and whether we realize it or not, we’re constantly making choices with every minute that goes by.

Don’t get me wrong: this space has been a labor of love, and I’m not leaving it behind. I’ll continue to post, albeit infrequently, and I’ll drop in now and then to visit the wonderful bloggers I’ve discovered.

However, I won’t be spending as much time here.

Like everyone, I have responsibilities. I have hobbies I take pleasure in. There are also a multitude of things I’d like to learn, places I’d like to visit, and people I’d like to spend more time with. Improving my mind, honing my skills, trying new things, and lending a hand in the community are important to me. In short, my ambitions are far greater than the available hours in the day.

Do you ever experience this conflict? Do the things you love compete against each other for your attention and your time? Do you wonder how you’ll ever fit a new interest into your day?

I think it’s a struggle that every individual faces and deals with in their own way.

Stop and smell the flowers

This summer is proving very busy for me. So today, I am posting this sunny little flower along with a heartfelt wish that each of you will chance upon a free moment here and there to enjoy beauty and simple pleasures.

Keep an eye on the place, will ya?

I will not be blogging for a couple of weeks. All comments will be held in moderation until my return; I certainly don’t want to end up indirectly selling pharmaceuticals and mortgage refinances during my absence.

While I’m gone, feel free to sit down and enjoy the view, or poke around in the archives – just watch out for the dust bunnies in there!

Brief time in the sun

“After sleeping through a hundred million centuries we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with color, bountiful with life. Within decades we must close our eyes again. Isn’t it a noble, an enlightened way of spending our brief time in the sun, to work at understanding the universe and how we have come to wake up in it? This is how I answer when I am asked—as I am surprisingly often—why I bother to get up in the mornings.”

-Richard Dawkins

Happiness is a warm blanket

So, my cat is a little strange…

“Cats are connoisseurs of comfort.” -James Herriot

From the heart

Thanks for stopping by. Rather than candy or greeting cards this Valentine’s Day, I offer you the beauty of this patch of living blooms and a heartfelt wish that you will enjoy many moments of genuine kindness and love, not just today, but always.

Not by bread alone

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.”

-John Muir