Dear Reader:

The garden is just going crazy with new life, new buds, and new growth. As I walked by Eva Cate’s green Japanese Maple (the other day) a bright spot of red caught my eye….new growth… and goodness gracious  it was  letting me know it was there…so bright against the green.

Next my attention was caught when I realized that Rutledge’s dark red Japanese Maple had even brighter red growth sprouting around the older leaves.

Even the sassafras bush has new growth on it too!

Nature never disappoints…the best teacher in the world. Just when you think you know something about something…you learn something new….there are a lot of “somethings” out there in this world of ours.

However, mother nature dictates when growth takes place…in this case for the Japanese Maples…both in the spring and fall with the most growth taking place now in May (this month is quickly starting to feel like summer!)

We humans, however, have been given ‘free will’ to grow inwardly and outwardly whenever we want to do so…we don’t have to wait on a particular season to expand our own horizons and perceptions. Yet don’t too many of us keep putting off that new growth because it is easier to just stick to what we know and how we have always been and done things?

‘Free Will” is a slippery slope isn’t it? While we were children we all wanted to be free of school, rules and regulations, but once out realized (most of us) that we actually sort of missed the routine…it provided a stability in our lives… we had someone else to make decisions for us. Once out…we knew, for better or worse, our choices would dictate the quality of life we would live…financially, socially, and most importantly spiritually.

A surprising percentage of inmates end up right back in prison… incarcerated within five years. There are several different reasons for this sad statistic but the saddest revolves around the ones who purposefully do something to get themselves back inside the system…so they can get three square meals, be told what to do  and when to do it…in other words…they have someone to make all the decisions for them.

Freedom is something we all yearn for, fight and even die for…but it is also one of the hardest entities to completely manage. What we do learn, however, through life experiences, is that new growth in humans, that leap of faith  to be the best we can be, is well worth the leap. We know it, we feel it…we have let God into our lives…not to make choices for us but to guide us in making the best choices for us…to give us direction.

So until tomorrow….

Life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make makes you.” —John C. Maxwell

Isn’t this lily gorgeous? I think I got it as a gift last year…if somebody recognizes it…please let me know because it is breathtakingly beautiful…there are seven more buds about to bloom…(thinking it might be an Asiatic lily)…but not sure…any ideas?

* After a short shower (unfortunately too short) I went out to the fountain to clean out leaves and caught up in the bamboo shoots coming through the fence I saw two flowers blooming out of nowhere. I ran to go look (certainly had not planted anything over there) …the flowers looked just like the title picture lily….now the new thought is tiger lilies… (moved along by birds in their new location)

I was as so happy to find these plants hidden behind the garden…as blissful as Bliss the statue with her day lilies blooming around her.

Eva Cate looks pretty blissful herself…yesterday was “Idiom” Day at school and the students had to dress up to reflect an idiom (well-known expression)…What a fun, creative idea!….Any body got any guesses on Eva Cate?

Did  Eva Cate have “butterflies in her tummy”?

*This is too funny….Anne told me that when she and Nala go to bed now…Nala wants to brush her teeth too….even floss…so it has gotten to be their nightly ritual…I had to laugh. Nala definitely thinks she is just one of the girls.