life began in a garden...

life began in a garden

"God made a beauteous garden
With lovely flowers strown,
But one straight, narrow pathway
That was not overgrown.
And to this beauteous garden
He brought mankind to live,
And said "To you, my children,
These lovely flowers I give.
Prune ye my vines and fig trees,
With care my flowers tend,
But keep the pathway open
Your home is at the end."

“God's Garden”

- Robert Frost

breakfast...

breakfast at the Dormer House
(Cape May, NJ)

With a breakfast this good
and so plentiful,
who needs lunch?

What a wonderful way to start the day.

"One consequential change is that people
used to get most of their calories
at breakfast and midday,
with only the evening top-up at suppertime.
Now those intakes are almost exactly reversed.
Most of us consume the bulk...
a sadly appropriate word here...
of our calories in the evening
and take them to bed with us,
a practice that doesn't do any good at all."

- Bill Bryson

end of time...

end of time

"In the end, it's not the years in your life that count.
It's the life in your years."

- Abraham Lincoln

refreshing...

refreshing

This was refreshing in a way...
to find a couple sharing the newspaper over breakfast
instead of using an iPhone or whatever.

"This life is for loving, sharing, learning,
smiling, caring, forgiving, laughing, hugging,
helping, dancing, wondering, healing, and even more loving.
I choose to live life this way."

Steve Maraboli

Ohhh, this is SonRays 10th year anniversary!

roses and thorns...

roses and thorns

Every flower photographer
has at least one red rose in their portfolio
and is always trying to capture the "perfect" one.

“He picked up one of Lorna's roses
and set it in my lap. 'Here.'
I picked it up and smelled it.
He poked me in the shoulder.
"See what I mean?
Thorns don't stop you from sniffing.
Or putting them in a vase on the kitchen table.
You work around them....
Cause the rose is worth it...
Think what you'd miss.”
- Charles Martin

security...

WWII lookout tower
(Cape May, 2016)

Where should we turn for our security
and our hope?

Where should we turn for our direction
and our strength?

How long can we rely on our own
strength and in our own wisdom?

How safe are we and for how long?

"The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;

my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,

my shield and the horn of my salvation.

He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior—

from violent people you save me."

- 2 Samuel 22:2,3 NIV

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight."

- Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV

breakfast...

breakfast area
(Dormer House)

Even on a rainy day this
is a bright and cheerful place
to eat your breakfast.

"'When you wake up in the morning, Pooh,'
said Piglet at last,
'what's the first thing you say to yourself?'

'What's for breakfast?" said Pooh.
"What do you say, Piglet?'

'I say, I wonder what's going to happen
exciting today?' said Piglet.

Pooh nodded thoughtfully.
'It's the same thing," he said.'”

- A.A. Milne

peaceful...

the front porch
(Dormer House in Cape May)

"All God wants of man is a peaceful heart."

- Meister Eckhart

memories...

memories
(Dormer House, Cape May)

"Memory is a child walking along a seashore.
You never can tell what small pebble it will pick up
and store away among its treasured things."

- Pierce Harris

dismal and lost...

dismal and lost
(Cape May)

"Who so beset him round / With dismal stories, /
Do but themselves confound; / His strength the more is."

- John Bunyan

freedom...

freedom
(Cape May)

"Freedom is a place, an area. It's a higher place.
There are some other people that are here,
and things that are here which are unseen.
But you first have to set yourself free
and believe in what you cannot see,
believe that there is something more out there.
In freedom can be found many devotions:
a devotion to love, a desire to believe,
a willingness to be happy, a perseverance to have peace.
All these unseen things breathe and grow in the unseen soul.
A free person is not an uncommitted person,
but in a free person you will find a deep devotion,
and a desire to be devoted to even more."

- C. JoyBell C.

birthday flower...

birthday flower

"The Lily of the valley,
breathing in the humble grass
Answer'd the lovely maid and said:
"I am a watry weed,
And I am very small,
and love to dwell in lowly vales;
So weak, the gilded butterfly
scarce perches on my head;
Yet I am visited from heaven,
and He that smiles on all
Walks in the valley and each morn
over me spreads his hand,
Saying: 'Rejoice, thou humble grass,
thou new-born lily flower."

- William Blake

self portrait...

self portrait

"For the wise have always known
that no one can make much of his life
until self-searching has become a regular habit,
until he is able to admit and accept what he finds,
and until he patiently and persistently
tries to correct what is wrong."

- Bill W.

creativity...

creativity

"To be creative means to be in love with life.
You can be creative only
if you love life enough
that you want to enhance its beauty,
you want to bring a little more music to it,
a little more poetry to it,
a little more dance to it."

- Osho