Dear Reader:

Kaitlyn came over yesterday and we had a wonderful girls’ day out! We visited all the shops on Short Central….they all offer unique ideas and sayings… like the one in the title photo.

This saying finally put into words what my new love in life….my garden…is all about now. It is simply leaving the world more beautiful than it was before our arrival. This can be accomplished in hundreds of different ways but a beautiful garden has to be in the top ten category I think.

I fixed Kaitlyn a happy basket filled with “senseless acts of beauty and fun” for a girl who exhibits both..

We ate at the Continental Corner….our favorite girls out restaurant and split a baklava for dessert….down to the last bite!

We so often hear the expression “Senseless acts of violence” on the news. But what if we switched this pattern around….and instead devoted our lives to “senseless acts of beauty.” If we put half the effort into making this world more beautiful than we do destroying it with weapons of mass destruction….just think what a wonderful world we would have for ourselves, children, grandchildren and all those who follow behind us?

My garden is my “senseless act of beauty“… along with my children and grandchildren.!

All it takes is coming across a very old Mother’s Day card (Tommy was in first grade) to remember the special bond between ourselves and our children…no matter the age. All mothers remember the reasons why raising children is the hardest thing they ever did and the best! (This “portrait” had to be done a long time ago because….a dress and heels.…Go Tommy!)

Tomorrow….thoughts on taking time to remember family and friends who helped us raise our children and say “Thank you”….in my case I didn’t need a “village”…. I needed a “city!” It’s all about “Togetherness.”

Kaitlyn read me a beautiful saying that I thought about when I saw my butterfly bush blooming today in all its glory!

After looking at the blooms, that popped up over night on the butterfly bush, I remembered a saying Kaitlyn read to me:

“It’s a beautiful day to be a butterfly!”

Speaking of beauty…Look at this arrangement I made after Lisa cut off the stems and blooms on this Chinese Indigo plant (for planting purposes for Vickie.)  I took the cut-off sections and made this arrangement. Beauty manifested in beauty.

Ernie took down the old (burnt-out) lights around the oak tree and reassembled new strands of lights for garden evening enjoyment. I have spent the last two evenings listening to the fountain and enjoying the beauty of the white lights….a “senseless act of beauty.”

And finally the last beauty of the day…a gorgeous coleus aptly named Sedona for its colors. I placed a candle by it last evening and remembered my visit to that enchanting place….Sedona, Arizona is breath-takingly alluring.

So until tomorrow….Let us look for ways to make this world more beautiful and fight for ‘senseless acts of beauty over destruction and violence.’

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh