June

"What is one to say about June,

the time of perfect young summer,

the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months,

and with no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty

will ever fade."- Gertrude Jekyll

Even More

"Aging is not 'lost youth' but a new stage of

opportunity and strength."

— Betty Friedan, author of "The Feminine Mystique"

The Inward Voice

Straight to Your Heart

image by Karen Havey Cox

"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;

and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind."

We Never Know Until

"We never know how high we are

Till we are called to rise;

And then, if we are true to plan,

Our statures touch the skies." — Emily Dickinson, American poet

Happy Summer Everyone

photograph: "the Sweeper" by Alfred Stieglitz

"From this hour I ordain myself loos'd of limits

and imaginary lines." -Walt Whitman

Classics

All photos: Mark Shaw

Jean Shrimpton as captured by Mark Shaw

Mark Shaw began working for LIFE in 1952. In his 16 years with the magazine, he shot 27 covers, more than 100 stories which included the magazine's European fashion collections. As a leading fashion photographer, he also worked for Harper's Bazaar, Mademoiselle and a host of other publications. He was one of the first photographers to use color when shooting the runways and "backstage" at the couture shows. In 2004, some of these photographs were featured in an exhibit at the Andrew Wilder Gallery at Svenska Mobler in Chicago. The show sold out in less than two weeks. Subsequent exhibitions of these images in New York and Los Angeles, were equally successful—a testament to Mark Shaw's reputation as one of the top fashion photographers of his era.

I Want the "A" Ticket Ride Please

Take Time To Do This

"Smile,

Breathe,

and go

Slowly." -Thich Nhat Hanh

A Good Defense

"The human race has only one effective weapon,
and that is laughter."-unknown


image via flickr

Sweet Peas Remind Me of My Father

image: painted lady antiques

I love sweet peas. Every year my father would plant sweet peas by the side of our house. The kitchen window would face the fence where they grew. I could wash dishes and look out the window and see the lovely delicate flowers blossom in a wonderful array of colors. Those flowers always fill me with a sense of summer. They remind me of my dad.

Image via flickr

image via flickr

image via flickr

"Poetry is a rich, full-bodied whistle, cracked ice crunching in pails, the night that numbs the leaf, the duel of two nightingales, the sweet pea that has run wild, Creation's tears in shoulder blades." ~Boris Pasternak

Happy Father's Day Dad!

Un Giorno Si, Un Giorno No

19

"Never put off til tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow."*
-Mark Twain

A Wise Choice

"I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naive or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman."-Anais Nin

Holy E-mail

One day God was looking down at Earth and saw all of the rascally behavior that was going on. So he called one of His angels and sent the angel to Earth for a time.
When he returned, he told God, 'Yes, it is bad on Earth; 95% are misbehaving and only 5% are not..

God thought for a moment and said, 'Maybe I had better send down a second angel to get another opinion.'
So God called another angel and sent him to Earth for a time.
When the angel returned he went to God and said, 'Yes, it's true.
The Earth is in decline; 95% are misbehaving, but 5% are being good.'

God was not pleased.
So He decided to e-mail the 5% that were good,
because he wanted to encourage them,
and give them a little something to help them keep going...
Do you know what the e-mail said?

Okay, I was just wondering, because I didn't get one either.

Have a Nice Day

The Necessities

"Dreams are necessary to life."
-Anais Nin

Tag "You're It!"

I have been tagged to play this game by :"My Life is Just A Journey" at
http://shawnyswaofthinkin.blogspot.com/
So these are the questions I'm supposed to answer:


1. If I could live anywhere in the world it would be?
Somewhere by the blue blue ocean. I have always found a sense of peace and
true joy within when I am sitting and gazing out on a scene such as this.

2. Who is your favorite band or singer?

I don't care if this dates me I will always love Johnny Mathis.
All time favorite song: "Chances Are"

3. If you could be anyone for a day who would it be?

Audrey Hepburn, on this day, in this dress, looking like a million dollars, in my dreams!



4. Concert or a Broadway show? I have a weakness for Broadway musicals!

5. Do you have a theme song for your life?

"What a Wonderful World"

I see trees of green,

red roses too

I see them bloom for me and you

And I think to myself what a wonderful world.

I see skies of blue and clouds of white

The bright blessed day,

the dark sacred night

And I think to myself

what a wonderful world.

The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky

Are also on the faces of people going by

I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do

They're really saying I love you.

I hear babies cry, I watch them grow

They'll learn much more than I'll never know

And I think to myself what a wonderful world

Yes I think to myself what a wonderful world.

6. Would you choose a fancy dinner at an expensive restaurant or a picnic in the park? (note: though I love a picnic in a park I would never pass on a chance for this.)

7. Favorite place to shop: Whenever I'm there I never miss a chance to shop at

"Falsi Gioelli" , Florence Italy

Falsi Gioielli, via de’Ginori 34r & via dei Tavolini, 5r

8. Favorite movie?

"Something's Gotta Give" Diane Keaton, Jack Nicholson

My favorite movie and house!

Now I'm to tag 4 others and pass this on. I am tagging the following bloggers:

Eden's Wanderings and Wonderings

http://www.slowtrav.com/blog/eden/

Ojo from Noho

http://matildamutterings.blogspot.com/

JustABeachkat

http://justabeachkat.blogspot.com/

Syncronicity

http://pono12.blogspot.com/

Cultivating Love

"Bearing and nurturing,

Creating but not owning,

Giving without demanding,

Controlling without authority,

This is love."
Tao Te Ching, Chapter 10

A Helpful Reminder

image via flickr

"Envy is a waste of time.
You already have all you need."-Regina Brett

My Heart Is As Open As The Sky

"Knowing love I allow all things

to come and go,

to be as supple as the wind, and

to take everything that comes

with great courage,

love,

kindness,

goodness, and

patience.

Life is right in any case.

My heart is open as the sky."-Kama Sutra

Tomorrow Is A New Day

Miracles in Lower Case

“Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.”
—C.S. Lewis

Delicious Ambiguity

Silence is Golden

"Silence reveals itself in a thousand inexpressible forms: in the quiet of dawn, in the noiseless aspiration of trees towards the sky, in the stealthy descent of night, in the silent changing of the seasons, in the falling moonlight, trickling down into the night like a rain of silence, but above all in the silence of the inward soul."
Max Picard

Two Types of People

"There are basically two types of people.
People who accomplish things,
and
people who claim to have accomplished things.
The first group is less crowded." -Mark Twain

Act of Kindness

image: Claire Wise

"too often we underestimate

the power of a touch, a smile,

a kind word, a listening ear,

an honest compliment,

or the smallest act of caring,

all of which have the potential

to turn a life around." -Leo Buscaglia

Self-Confidence

"Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained."
-Marie Curie

Living Large

"The biggest adventure you can take

is to live the life of your dreams." -Oprah Winfrey

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

"Don't wait for your ship to come in. Row out to meet it."
—Unknown

Last But Not Least

image via fffound

Don't get discouraged; it is often the last key in the bunch that opens the lock.
—Unknown