August of another summer, and once again I am drinking the sun and the lilies again are spread across the water. I know now what they want is to touch each other. Each of us wears a shadow. But just now it is summer again and I am watching the lilies bow to each other, then slide on the wind and the tug of desire, close, close to one another, Soon now, I’ll turn and start for home. And who knows, maybe I’ll be singing.

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"There are a hundred paths through the world that are easier than loving. But who wants easier?"

- Mary Oliver

Love

"to live in this world / you must be able / to do three things / to love what is mortal; / to hold it / against your bones knowing / your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, / to let it go"

- Mary Oliver

Love

"It is a serious thing – just to be alive – on this fresh morning – in this broken world."

- Mary Oliver

Awareness

"To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work."

- Mary Oliver

Awareness

"It is a serious thing–just to be alive–on this fresh morning–in this broken world."

- Mary Oliver

Awareness

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"Christmas is a time when you get homesick, even when you're home."

- Carol Nelson

Nature

"We count down the days just to experience it nearly exactly as we always have. It is so comfortable, familiar and perfectly nostalgic that, frankly, we have no desire to improve upon it at all."

- Joanna Gaines

Nature

"The smells of Christmas are the smells of childhood."

- Richard Paul Evans

Nature

"Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmastime."

- Laura Ingalls Wilder

Nature

"We count down the days just to experience it nearly exactly as we always have. It is so comfortable, familiar, and perfectly nostalgic that, frankly, we have no desire to improve upon it at all."

- Joanna Gaines

Nature