{borrowed photo}

There was an orange tree outside her kitchen window she could never bear to pick.

She would sit in the evenings after a long day of work and take in its beauty. The roundness of its fruit, the color, the smell...

Its fruit would eventually fall to the ground where the birds would eat their fill. And then the bees and wasps would eat their fill. Then the other insects would finish the fruit.

She was a careful observer in the world around her.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings is the woman who loved the orange tree outside her window.

She lived at Cross Creek, Florida when the swamps still flourished in wild beauty.

I would have loved to have lived then and been her friend. To have gone with her at midnight to look for blue crabs, and to dig up sea turtle eggs.

Every time she would sell a story she would fix something in her house at Cross Creek. One time putting in running water and a rest room. Having only had an outhouse.

I have read her life's story and it enthralls me. She was a bigger than life person. Living her life to the fullest. Living passionately.

I am struck by how a piece of land can change someones life. Really, it's not only the land, I guess it is the people who came with it.

Without them she would have had no stories.

Haven't most of us searched our whole lives for that link to another person? That invisible bond that binds kindred hearts together?

The shared love of art, music, words...nature, life.

Someone who gets us. Someone who loves to live life to the fullest as we do? Who sees the beauty in the everyday simple things. Who delights in the simple joys of life.

I remember one chapter of the book where she talks about going off to explore the everglades with a friend of hers. She wanted to see them before they were gone. They had started land development as far back as the 1940's. She took a woman friend who knew the Everglades very well and off they went. If memory serves me right they were gone for almost a week.

They camped under the stars on dry land. They slept in the boat. They found an abandoned cabin and slept in it one night.

Can you imagine doing that?

It would be scary but thrilling at the same time.

I want to live life to the fullest whatever time I have left here. What about you?

~Nita~

Tonight's song, Shimmer by Shawn Mullins

This is my favorite song. Out of all songs I have ever heard I love this one most. If you have a chance please listen to it.

1st video, 1st clip

We were born to shimmer, we were born to shine...We are born not to hate.

The Rose...

Bette Midler - The Rose
This is lyrics from http://www.lyrics007.com/

Some say love it is a river
that drowns the tender reed
Some say love it is a razor
that leaves your soul to bleed

Some say love it is a hunger
an endless aching need
I say love it is a flower
and you it's only seed

It's the heart afraid of breaking
that never learns to dance
It's the dream afraid of waking that never takes the chance
It's the one who won't be taken
who cannot seem to give
and the soul afraid of dying that never learns to live

When the night has been too lonely
and the road has been too long
and you think that love is only
for the lucky and the strong
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows
lies the seed
that with the sun's love
in the spring
becomes the rose"

Tonight if you are afraid of taking a chance of making your dreams come true, don't be. Make your dreams come true. You can do it. Start by making a plan.

If you are afraid of loving someone, don't be. It is better to have loved than never to have loved at all, even if you get hurt. Take the chance.

Learn to dance even if you look foolish, it is fun.

Stop being afraid to die so you can learn to live.

Be encouraged tonight...

Sending love to you all..

~Nita~

Tonight's song, The Rose

1st video, 2nd clip

{The rose bud is from my rose bush in the front yard}

After the Rain...

Every spirit builds itself a house, and beyond its house a world, and beyond its world a heaven. Know then that world exists for you.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

I took this picture a few days ago after a big rain.

I planted this lavender rose bush last week right in front of where John use to park. When he opened his door that would have been the first thing he saw.

Thank you all for the comments... You comfort my heart. I will get back to everyone in a day or two. I have been really busy.

~Nita~