An embarrasment of riches!

A lovely surprise this morning, and a first for me. In my e-mail, a note from jaihn at truly spacious telling me she was bestowing the Sweet home blogger award upon me and my blog. This award is for sharing beauty, love and joy. Wow! Such an honor, and coming from someone whose work I value so much. I love what jaihn does with textiles, and she's multi-talented so she shares her wonderful drawings too. Thank you, jaihn!

The title of this post is because I also received this award today from Rayela at Fiber Focus! I love Rayela's blog. It has a wonderful international perspective and she really takes the time to explore her subjects. I've learned a lot from her and I am so honored she chose to bestow the award on my blog! Thank you, Rayela!

Now it is my pleasure to pass this award along to five people whose blogs inspire me. Here they are:

Thank you all!

"The voice that passionately seeks life's purpose."


The Invitation

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. . .
I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life's betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
"Yes."

It doesn't interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied,
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.

~ Oriah

From Oriah's book THE INVITATION (c) 1999. Published by HarperONE, San Francisco. All rights reserved. Presented with permission of the author. www.oriah.org

Best thing about spring? Nature wears her bling.

I never had any other desire so strong, and so like to covetousness, as that one which I have had always, that I might be master at last of a small house and a large Garden. ~Abraham Cowley, The Garden, 1666
My fabulous daughter, Adeline, wandered around the yard and captured these beauties. How do these colors, and these shapes, with their attendant dizzying fragrances come to exist?


People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us. ~Iris Murdoch, A Fairly Honourable Defeat  
 

If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom. ~Audra Foveo   
 

I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers. ~Claude Monet