2024 has been a challenging year for many.
Be proud of all you’ve accomplished.
All your hard work will support your efforts in 2025.
Choose you;
choose the people who truly see you
and love you as you are.
Happy New Year.
Looking to 2025
kindness
Happy Christmas …
Whatever “happy” you celebrate – Christmas, Solstice, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa – I hope yours is just that … truly happy.
The kindness you bring into the world, in both large and small ways, truly does make this a better place to live. Thank you for that on behalf of all creatures great and small. Cheers.
Press Play
Everything is change. The secret is still love and kindness.
And we’re here to press play.
There are so many negative, non-loving, hateful energies in play right now. But still, the only way through is love, kindness, respect. Let’s keep pressing Play.
Being Kind
You don’t want to hear the story
of my life, and anyway
I don’t want to tell it, I want to listen
to the enormous waterfalls of the sun.
And anyway
it’s the same old story —
a few people just trying,
one way or another,
to survive.
Mostly, I want to be kind.
– Mary Oliver
Beginning Early in Life
My love of nature and animals began when I was very, very young. I give some of the credit to my Dad, who was the gardener in the family, and who was always so kind and considerate to all creatures, including the bumblebees and wasps that occasionally got in the house.
People were often surprised that I knew the names of so many flowers and plants at such an early age. Generally, it was because my Dad had planted them somewhere around the house or in the yard, and I followed him with endless questions. At other times, it was because our family visited places like the Bronx Botanical Gardens, or the Bronx Zoo (now the Bronx Zoological Park). I consider myself very lucky to have had my innate love of animals and nature nurtured as I did.
For many of us, it’s not really all that far to walk someplace to appreciate the beauty of nature. Being in nature is so healing, so restorative, to mind and spirit. I am reminding myself – and you, too, if you’d like a reminder – to take a little time among the trees, flowers, and greening earth.
The day goes quickly and we can miss the chance. Life goes quickly, and we can miss the chance.
Photo credit of me: William Spohn (my Dad)
Still A Dreamer 