I took this photo after a big storm. The oak leaf had been torn from its branch by the never ending rain and wind, and a piece of it was gone.

Yet it was so beautiful and green laying on the pebbled blacktop..

Many think they are used up and have no purpose.

You are wrong. As long as you are alive God has a purpose for you. You may be torn by the pain of life. Beaten down by bad choices, and trying to figure out how to remedy it. I have been there. Turn to God.

He is the only way I make it day by day.

There are moments of anguish so strong in my life that the only way I make it out of bed is by praying. I battle physical pain daily. And it wears me down completely at times.

But God always helps me through.

I leave you with this scripture tonight.

Ecclesiastes12:13

I am asking for a special prayer request tonight. My Dad starts radiation tomorrow please pray it goes well.

~Nita~

{borrowed photo}

There was an orange tree outside her kitchen window she could never bear to pick.

She would sit in the evenings after a long day of work and take in its beauty. The roundness of its fruit, the color, the smell...

Its fruit would eventually fall to the ground where the birds would eat their fill. And then the bees and wasps would eat their fill. Then the other insects would finish the fruit.

She was a careful observer in the world around her.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings is the woman who loved the orange tree outside her window.

She lived at Cross Creek, Florida when the swamps still flourished in wild beauty.

I would have loved to have lived then and been her friend. To have gone with her at midnight to look for blue crabs, and to dig up sea turtle eggs.

Every time she would sell a story she would fix something in her house at Cross Creek. One time putting in running water and a rest room. Having only had an outhouse.

I have read her life's story and it enthralls me. She was a bigger than life person. Living her life to the fullest. Living passionately.

I am struck by how a piece of land can change someones life. Really, it's not only the land, I guess it is the people who came with it.

Without them she would have had no stories.

Haven't most of us searched our whole lives for that link to another person? That invisible bond that binds kindred hearts together?

The shared love of art, music, words...nature, life.

Someone who gets us. Someone who loves to live life to the fullest as we do? Who sees the beauty in the everyday simple things. Who delights in the simple joys of life.

I remember one chapter of the book where she talks about going off to explore the everglades with a friend of hers. She wanted to see them before they were gone. They had started land development as far back as the 1940's. She took a woman friend who knew the Everglades very well and off they went. If memory serves me right they were gone for almost a week.

They camped under the stars on dry land. They slept in the boat. They found an abandoned cabin and slept in it one night.

Can you imagine doing that?

It would be scary but thrilling at the same time.

I want to live life to the fullest whatever time I have left here. What about you?

~Nita~

Tonight's song, Shimmer by Shawn Mullins

This is my favorite song. Out of all songs I have ever heard I love this one most. If you have a chance please listen to it.

1st video, 1st clip

We were born to shimmer, we were born to shine...We are born not to hate.

The Rose...

Bette Midler - The Rose
This is lyrics from http://www.lyrics007.com/

Some say love it is a river
that drowns the tender reed
Some say love it is a razor
that leaves your soul to bleed

Some say love it is a hunger
an endless aching need
I say love it is a flower
and you it's only seed

It's the heart afraid of breaking
that never learns to dance
It's the dream afraid of waking that never takes the chance
It's the one who won't be taken
who cannot seem to give
and the soul afraid of dying that never learns to live

When the night has been too lonely
and the road has been too long
and you think that love is only
for the lucky and the strong
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows
lies the seed
that with the sun's love
in the spring
becomes the rose"

Tonight if you are afraid of taking a chance of making your dreams come true, don't be. Make your dreams come true. You can do it. Start by making a plan.

If you are afraid of loving someone, don't be. It is better to have loved than never to have loved at all, even if you get hurt. Take the chance.

Learn to dance even if you look foolish, it is fun.

Stop being afraid to die so you can learn to live.

Be encouraged tonight...

Sending love to you all..

~Nita~

Tonight's song, The Rose

1st video, 2nd clip

{The rose bud is from my rose bush in the front yard}

After the Rain...

Every spirit builds itself a house, and beyond its house a world, and beyond its world a heaven. Know then that world exists for you.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

I took this picture a few days ago after a big rain.

I planted this lavender rose bush last week right in front of where John use to park. When he opened his door that would have been the first thing he saw.

Thank you all for the comments... You comfort my heart. I will get back to everyone in a day or two. I have been really busy.

~Nita~

I Don't Know How to Let You Go....

What ravages of spirit conjure this tempestuous rage...



Fate has lead me through it... You do what you have to do.

But I have a sense to recognize that I don't know how to let you go....

I try to escape this desire... The yearning to be near you...I do what I have to do.

I don't know how to let you go...
Every moment marked with apparitions of your soul... I'm ever swiftly moving trying to escape this desire...this yearning to be near you...I do what I have to do.

But I have a sense to recognize that I don't know how to let you go..

A glowing ember burning hot burning slow...
Deep within me I'm shaken by the violence of existing only for you...

Sarah McLaughlin


This is how I feel about John... Today is rough. Thoughts of him have just been running through my mind all day.

Thoughts of him come to me at the worst possible times. Driving down the street, while at the store, doing the dishes, and mopping the floors.

The loneliest part of the day is every hour without him....

Knowing he will not be here again is a burden almost too great to bear.

But he is gone and I am here...

Days seem to be getting easier than I have the rug pulled out from beneath me. Just little things that seem to haunt me. Finding a shirt of his in my closet. Finding notes he wrote and hid in the house for me to find...

~Nita~

John loved Snowball bushes... He would have loved this one.

Today's song, Do What You Have to Do by Sarah McLaughlin

1st video, 1st clip

Photo Challenge....

I went back and read some more about the photo challenge.. It was supposed to be shiny things, sorry. Silly me. I found this picture I took a few months ago. I had borrowed my Dad's marble collection to do this shot. I then filled the red tin heart with sequins... I hope you like it.

Beautiful Donna at Made in Heaven is hosting a photo challenge today please check out the other participants. I forgot to write this last night!

I can't seem to get her link to work on my post but her site is on my favorites.

Why do we love certain houses, and why do they seem to love us?

It is the warmth of our individual hearts reflected in our surroundings.

-T.H. RobsJohn-Gibbins

The gazing ball and ivy photo I took in my Mother's yard. The ivy was a present from my sister and I many years ago. It was a small piece that Mom planted on a Red Bud tree stump. It has flourished.

The Gnome and the flowers are in my front yard. Elizabeth got the Gnome for me a few weeks ago. I love it...

I captured the photo of the Mourning Dove in my front yard. She let me get within a foot of her. I just adore her sweet little face...

~Nita~

Tonight's song, New Soul

1st video, 1st clip

.

I took these photos yesterday. It was a rainy dreary day and I asked Elizabeth if she would blow some bubbles for me from this huge bubble container she had gotten as a gag gift from her boss. She said sure. So we went out in the driveway and she blew bubbles and I am snapped photos. It was fun.. The beauty of the bubbles amazes me. I love to see the different colors that each one has. Elizabeth had a good time blowing them. It reminded us of all the times I spent on the porch with the kids when they were little blowing bubbles with them.

It isn't the big things that kids or people remember. We remember moments not days.

It the silly fun times we take out of our dreary days that remain.
I have a couple of quotes I want to share with you.


The ordinary acts we practice everyday at home are of more importance to the soul than their Simplicity might suggest. Thomas Moore
Irish Poet {1779-1852}

"Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless." Mother Teresa


A gentle word, Like Summer rain, may soothe some heart and banish pain. What joy or sadness often springs from just the simple little things. Willa Hoey

I carry this card in my pocket everywhere.

Prayer for Peace

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace

Where there is hatred...let me sow love

Where there is injury...pardon

Where there is doubt...faith

Where there is despair...hope

Where there is darkness...light

Where there is sadness...joy

Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled....as to console,

to be understood....as to understand

to be loved...as to love,

for

it is in giving....that we receive

it is in pardoning, that we are pardoned

it is in dying....that we are born to eternal life.

I say a little prayer for all of you tonight that no matter what you are going through that God will help you.

Sending love to all....

~ Nita~