Dear Reader:

So glad it has “cooled” off somewhat here the last day or two. (Of course cool/heat are relative terms… depending on where you live in this country during the summer time…the low country is not just hot…it is humid…which truly ” exponentiates” the misery.)

*When Pam Stewart found this visual message (title image) she said she thought of me immediately and forwarded it on….(Thanks Pam) !!!

If I stayed outside in the garden…during all the news on the regular channels (not even counting cable news) I would be completely sunburned every day! Why do the networks think we need to be undulated with information that we can do little or nothing about…but worry more than we already do? It is a lesson in futility.

But yet…we keep getting more of it….sometimes I think the news channels must think all Americans are slow learners…that we just can’t understand it well enough following the early morning news (6-9) or later between (11:30 to 1) when the noon news comes on various channels…but we have to be subjugated again from (4- 7) every afternoon and evening? Really…we need almost 10 showings per day to “get the news.” (And then there is the 11 o’clock news…I won’t even go there…too exhausted!)

And of course…television is just one medium…we get the news via our smart phones, Google, computers…ETC… ad nauseam. And if the news is too much for us adults…think what it must be like for children…none of my grandchildren like to hear it or be around it…they think it’s scary…they’re right…it is. Young children need to be away from the news these days…it can rob one’s childhood quickly.

This is not to say that I would ever want to curb the First Amendment…the Freedom of Speech…(quickest way to achieve a dictatorship) but we must be vigilant of the amount of news necessary to be informed citizens and set time limits on repetitive news shows… like we do our children on computers.

The transformation really is amazing…when we pull ourselves off the sofa or recliner…go outside and cut the grass, or weed in the garden…especially plant new life or check on the progress of seed plants climbing trellises. A calmness enters one’s soul and peace finds its way into our hearts. We are One again with the Universe…the soil, the seeds, our hands.

I turn on my fountain each evening…turn off my iPhone (except to take a photo) watch the sun set and the moon rise…God’s two most precious gifts to His children…water the plants…be surprised and delighted by new blooms and sit and rock in the garden swing…listening to neighborhood children play and laugh…remembering my own childhood carefree long summer days and feel that  all is right with the world …when I’m surrounded by love and life.

Secret places in nature help us distinguish between the feeling of captivity these days or the feeling of being completely captivated and in love with every precious breath of life within us. The choice is ours. Getting out in large, open spaces…pastures, fields, valleys, beaches, and mountains…open up our respiratory systems and we feel like we can finally breathe in clean air again.

So until tomorrow…Take time daily to turn off the world and concentrate on personal moments and memories….surrounded by the beauty of nature…wherever your special hiding place is!

This is what Walsh, Mollie, Rutledge, Lachlan and even Eloise (piggy back riding) are doing this week in the mountains…hiking with nature…hiking with family…hiking with life. (Keeping as far away from the news as possible to clear the ole’ cobwebs out!)

Linville Falls- July 2020

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

Here are my latest garden “Delights” to release my heart from a troubled world in my garden sanctuary…It brings about a cleansing of mind and finding what is still good and honest in it..Things like dignity, compassion and kindness…we must all be the “charming gardeners who make our souls  and others blossom.”