Susanishness: Monarch Beauty

Wise Words

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity...It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.

~Melodie Beattie

Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn, or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.

~Denis Waitly

On a long journey of human life, faith is the best of companions; it is the best refreshment on the journey, and it is the greatest property."

~Buddha

Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife.

~Kahlil Gibran

The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time.

~Bertrand Russell

We start with gifts. Merit comes from what we make of them.

~Jean Toomer

There is no such thing as a problem without a gift for you in its hands.

~Richard Bach

If we fill our hours with regrets over the failures of yesterday, and with worries over the problems of tomorrow, we have no today in which to be thankful.

~unknown

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Monarch Beauty

On Friday October 23rd I was at my kitchen table thinking about my dear friend's only daughter's wedding I would be attending in a few hours when I noticed this gorgeous Monarch butterfly dipping into the blooms of a pot marigolds on my back deck. Of course I couldn't resist the opportunity to photograph this amazing thing of beauty. I was thinking about how Monarchs are often released at weddings in lieu of throwing rice or other traditions and so I did a little research (Googled, of course) and learned that there is a sweet Native American legend associated with the Monarch.

"If anyone desires a wish to come true, they must first capture a butterfly and whisper that wish to it. Since they make no sound, they can't tell the wish to anyone but the Great Spirit. So by making a wish and releasing the butterfly, it will be taken to the heavens and be granted."

In "capturing" the Monarch on my camera and "releasing" it on my blog here I send out all the best wishes to the bride and groom for a wonderful married life together, full of much love and lots of laughs along the way.