Strangler Figs

 Meditation is a patient process.  What we need is a cup of understanding, a barrel of love, and an ocean of patience.  Bring yourself back to the point of your concentration quite gently.  And even if you do nothing during the whole of your hour but bring your heart back a thousand times, though it went away every time you brought it back, your hour would be well employed.  St. Francis de Sales

They never ran out of beer, wine, or spirits on the ship. Never did. THAT they always had.

Hope The Dog is still my expression of pure love. That dog is my favorite living thing, animal or vegetable, walking this planet. Or growing on this planet, as the case may be, although the Strangler Fig is up there pretty high.

The Cherokee Lady once more: "Our friendship has been strong through many seasons, but this time brings you to mind so vividly.  Why must we rely on such changes (she's talking about the fall turning to winter landscape) to remind us that we are friends, not acquaintances.  All is important - the way we laughed together, the times we comforted each other, the tears we shared and the deep understanding.  It surely must be the hope, the vibrant life of power unused - the power of love to transcend time and space and lost connections.  It is the same power that is all good, all peace, all ours by divine right.  It is a precious partnership between friends."