Hidden

And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. 

Those who don't believe in magic will never find it. 

~ Roald Dahl 

More of my Dragonfly Images - HERE 

Everything Is Possible

When nothing is sure, everything is possible.
- Margaret Drabble 

A slightly different version available - HERE 

Snowing On A Blue Jay

We only have this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand...and melting like a snowflake.  Let us use it before it is too late. 
~ Marie Beynon Ray 

From head to tail - the entire Blue Jay - HERE 

and
More Winter Birds - HERE 

Let Go and Float

 Today I know that I cannot control the ocean tides.  I can only go with the flow.... When I struggle and try to organize the Atlantic to my specifications, I sink.  If I flail and thrash and growl and grumble, I go under.  But, if I let go and float, I am borne aloft.

- Marie Stilkind

See more of my Butterflies in Flight - HERE 

   

With Reverent Attention

Song falls silent, music is dumb, 

But the air burns with their fragrance, 

And white winter, on its knees, 

Observes everything with reverent attention.

― Anna Akhmatova

Print Available - HERE 

Sparrow In the Snow

Gentleness towards self and others makes life a little lighter.

~ Deborah Day

~

Sparrow in the snow

I know your feet are very cold

Little boots required

~

Gladness

I'm glad the sky is painted blue; 

And the earth is painted green; 

And such a lot of nice fresh air 

All sandwiched in between.

~ Anonymous 

~

Hiding behind the flower

A Butterfly Wing

~

Snowflakes on a Tufted Titmouse

Simply being kind brings happiness every time ...

 ~ Ian Tucker

Mockingbird Has a Snow Beak

Happiness, not in another place but this place...not for another hour, but this hour.

~ Walt Whitman

Print Available - HERE 

~

Finding Happiness

Just Outside The Door

Birds Play In The Snow

~ 

Snowflake Cardinal

Learning to appreciate the beauty that surrounds you is one of the keys to your happiness.

~ Tom Giaquinto

Print Available - HERE 

 

Mourning Dove in the Snow

...sometimes we enter art to hide within it. It is where we can go to save ourselves, where a third-person voice protects us.

~ Michael Ondaatje

Mourning Dove sitting on a tree branch in my front yard as the snow fell 

Positive Thinking

  

  Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will. 
- Zig Ziglar 

 Hope you are thinking Positive  Thoughts today!

More of my Motivational Art - HERE 

Little Secrets

may my heart always be open to little birds who are the secrets of living

~ E.E. Cummings  

 Hummingbird - Izaak Walton Park 

Christiansburg, Virginia

Survival

We each survive in our own way.
- Sarah J. Maas 

Feathers of the Kinglet

Take a walk outside - it will serve you far more than pacing around in your mind.

~ Rasheed Ogunlaru

In a previous post I showed you the  

face of the Golden-crowned Kinglet

Rewarded By Nature

Tufted Titmouse Take-off 

"All those who love Nature she loves in return, and will richly reward, not perhaps with the good things, as they are commonly called, but with the best things of this world-not with money and titles, horses and carriages, but with bright and happy thoughts, contentment and peace of mind." 

~  John Lubbock

More Tufted Titmouse Images - HERE 

Mockingbird Watches Me

 Keeping his eye on me!

I wonder why it is we are not all kinder than we are! How much the world needs it. How easily it is done. How instantaneously it acts. How infallibly it is remembered. How superabundantly it pays itself back --for there is no debtor in the world so honourable, so superbly honourable as Love.

~Henry Drummond

 

Full Of Opportunities

Do you see the heart?

Is life not full of opportunities for learning love? Every man and woman every day has a thousand of them.

~ Henry Drummond  

You see the heart, right?  I just LOVE finding hearts made by nature!

Not only is life full of opportunities for learning love - but it is also full of opportunities to show kindness!  I wish you a day filled with LOVE and KINDNESS!

Squirrel Sweetness

So Much Truth in This Quote!

I've learned... . That being kind is more important than being right.

~ H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Artsy Version - HERE 

Golden-crowned Kinglet

From Cornell's All About Birds Website:  A tiny, continuously active bird, the Golden-crowned Kinglet is most frequently found in coniferous woods. Despite being barely larger than a hummingbird, the kinglet winters northward to Canada and Alaska. 

Continuously active = hard to get a good shot!  This was the best I could do.

  Bisset Park - Radford, Virginia  

A Lesson To Be Learned

~

 So little to hold onto 

yet his grip is firm 

a lesson to be learned 

~

Artsy Version - HERE 

Tangled

The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the Eyes of others only a Green thing that stands in the way. Some see Nature all ridicule and deformity, and by these I shall not regulate my proportions; and some scarce see Nature at all. But to the Eyes of the Man of Imagination, Nature is Imagination itself.  

~ William Blake

Think Happy Thoughts

“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.” 

 ― Marcus Aurelius

Squirrel Sense

We live on the leash of our senses. 

~ Diane Ackerman 

~

Paws clasped

Smelling and sensing

A human in his midst

~

Print Available - HERE 

Get Excited Over Little Things

I still get wildly enthusiastic about little things... 
I play with leaves. 
I skip down the street 
and run against the wind.

~  Leo F. Buscaglia 

Limitless Potential

there is no planet, sun, or star could hold you if you but knew what you are.

~  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Artistic Version available - HERE 

Little Legs

No matter what the results, the act of searching will always enrich my work. 

~ Doug Dawson

Of course this shy little sparrow had to turn away the moment I took the shot on this VERY foggy morning.
I think his little legs are so adorable!

Print Available - HERE 

Dare to Imagine

How beautiful can life be? 
We hardly dare imagine it.

~ Charles Eisenstein

One Tiny Heart

ob·ser·va·tion 

 /ˌäbzərˈvāSHən/ 

Noun 

1.  The action or process of observing something or someone carefully or in order to gain information. 

2.  The ability to notice significant details. 

Do you see it?

Seeing is the consequence of optics; observing is the consequence of imaginative contemplation. 

~ Ian Semple 

Discovery

dis·cov·er·y

 /disˈkəvərē/ 

Noun 

 1. The action or process of discovering or being discovered. 

2. A person or thing discovered. 

 ~

Focusing on Discovery

will I find

or be found 

~

Tricolored Heron Grabs A Bite

The belly rules the mind. 

~ Spanish proverb

A Version of this Available As a Print - HERE 

Make the Most of Today

Print Available - HERE 

Worth Remembering

Make today worth remembering.

~ Zig Ziglar

Find Your Focus

Find your focus 
by seeking all that is good in your life.

~ Lorii Myers 

Broken

The wound is the place where the Light enters you.

~ Rumi

 Bisset Park, Radford Virginia 

My Soul Stands Ajar

The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience. 

~ Emily Dickinson

~ 

Sometimes I get really lucky

~ 

Celebrate Creativity

Creativity is contagious. Pass it on.

~ Albert Einstein

Woven Around the Heart of Wonder

May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder. 

~ John O'Donohue

Touch us Gently

TOUCH us gently, Time!

 Let us glide adown thy stream 

 Gently,—as we sometimes glide 

Through a quiet dream. 

Humble voyagers are We, 

Husband, wife, and children three—

 (One is lost,—an angel, fled 

 To the azure overhead.)

Touch us gently, Time!

 We ’ve not proud nor soaring wings: 

 Our ambition, our content, 

 Lies in simple things. 

Humble voyagers are We, 

 O’er Life’s dim, unsounded sea, 

Seeking only some calm clime;— 

Touch us gently, gentle Time!

 ~ Barry Cornwall

About the image:  A winter wildflower 

About the poem:  Barry Cornwall is the pseudonym for Bryan Procter an English poet.

This is my first exposure to his poems and this one has captured my heart.  

A Bit of Nutty Fun

White-breasted Nuthatch - Bisset Park - Radford, Virginia 

Is a smile a question? 

Or is it the answer? 

~ Lee Smith

Begin and Be Bold

Carolina Chickadee in the berries

Begin, be bold, and venture to be wise.

~ Horace

More of my Chickadee Images - HERE