The Fred Winston Poltroon

2012-01-01T07:25:00.001-08:00

Impermanence

Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. But unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it. Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer.
~Shunryu Suzuki

2011-12-30T14:50:00.000-08:00

It's about time

Time is the most undefinable yet paradoxical of things; the past is gone, the future is not come, and the present becomes the past even while we attempt to define it, and, like the flash of lightning, at once exists and expires.
~Charles Caleb Colton

2011-12-29T05:57:00.000-08:00

Transparent

With all your science - can you tell how it is, and whence it is, that light comes into the soul? ~Henry David Thoreau

2011-12-24T16:04:00.000-08:00

Destiny

As she has planted, so does she harvest; such is the field of karma.
~Sri Guru Granth Sahib

2011-12-01T12:35:00.000-08:00

Heart

Every day you either see a scar or courage. Where you dwell will define your struggle. ~Dodinsky

2011-11-15T04:56:00.001-08:00

Clear vision

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. ~Henry S. Haskins

2011-11-12T07:32:00.000-08:00

Blowing in the wind

But what minutes!
Count them by sensation, and not by calendars,
and each moment is a day.
~Benjamin Disraeli

2011-11-07T03:36:00.001-08:00

Quiet brunch

Silence is a sounding thing, to one who listens hungrily.
~Gwendolyn Bennett

2011-11-05T08:07:00.000-07:00

That way
If we are facing in the right direction,
all we have to do is keep on walking.
~Buddhist Saying

2011-11-03T09:13:00.000-07:00

Stuffed?

Be moderate in order to taste the joys of life in abundance. ~Epicurus

Everything in moderation, including moderation. ~Author Unknown

2011-10-24T07:19:00.000-07:00

Relaxation

Don't just do something - sit there! ~Author Unknown

2011-10-22T11:07:00.000-07:00

Au Revoir

They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom. ~Confucius

2011-10-15T09:39:00.000-07:00

A dirty game

The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.
~Henry David Thoreau

2011-10-09T12:29:00.000-07:00

Change to spare

A woodland in full color is awesome as a forest fire, in magnitude at least, but a single tree is like a dancing tongue of flame to warm the heart. ~Hal Borland

2011-10-07T11:24:00.000-07:00

Is a rose?

I didn't want to tell the tree or weed what it was. I wanted it to tell me something and through me express its meaning in nature.
~Wynn Bullock

2011-10-06T11:50:00.000-07:00

Closely

Normally, we do not so much look at things as overlook them.
~Alan Watts

2011-10-03T05:15:00.001-07:00

Homeless pumpkins

The light is what guides you home,
the warmth is what keeps you there.
~Ellie Rodriguez

2011-09-28T14:58:00.000-07:00

Here today

Dewdrops, Nature's tears, which she
Sheds in her own breast for the fair which die.
The sun insists on gladness; but at night,
When he is gone, poor Nature loves to weep. ~Philip James Bailey

2011-09-22T06:07:00.000-07:00

Missing

If you don't get lost, there's a chance you may never be found.
~Author Unknown

2011-09-16T11:30:00.001-07:00

Enchanted berries

The moment one gives close attention to any thing, even a blade of grass it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself. ~Henry Miller

Harvesting

2011-09-06T06:46:00.000-07:00

Thoughts

To a mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders. ~Chuang Tzŭ

The end or. . .

2011-09-02T05:42:00.001-07:00

The beginning

The foliage has been losing its freshness through the month of August, and here and there a yellow leaf shows itself like the first gray hair amidst the locks of a beauty who has seen one season too many. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

2011-09-01T06:57:00.000-07:00

Take flight

For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together. For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad. ~Edwin Way Teale

The Looking Glass

2011-08-12T17:36:00.000-07:00

Reflections

“Untilled soil, however fertile it may be,
will bear thistles and thorns;

and so it is with man's mind.”

~Saint Teresa of Avila

2011-08-06T05:19:00.001-07:00

Living

As we struggle to make sense of things, life looks on in repose.
~Author Unknown

2011-08-01T14:29:00.001-07:00

Chicken

Here's looking at you

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

2011-07-25T06:41:00.000-07:00

Lessons

When the student is ready, the master appears. ~Buddhist Proverb

2011-07-23T08:08:00.000-07:00

Say "Cheese"

She gave me a smile I could feel in my hip pocket.
~Raymond Chandler

2011-07-22T05:42:00.000-07:00

Solar power

There is a muscular energy in sunlight corresponding to the spiritual energy of wind. ~Annie Dillard

2011-07-07T05:12:00.001-07:00

Awakening

We become aware of the void as we fill it.
~Antonio Porchia, Voces, 1943

2011-07-06T04:58:00.000-07:00

Exhale, relax

What art offers is space - a certain breathing room for the spirit.
~John Updike

2011-07-05T13:11:00.000-07:00

Togetherness

Happiness is a bowl of cherries and a book of poetry under a shade tree ~Astrid Alauda

2011-07-04T06:12:00.001-07:00

First chair

If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking. ~Buddhist Saying

2011-06-27T06:18:00.000-07:00

Alike likes

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. ~e.e. cummings

2011-06-20T07:55:00.001-07:00

Beauty

The flower offered of itself
And eloquently spoke
Of Gods
In languages of rainbows
Perfumes
And secret silence...
~Phillip Pulfrey

2011-06-15T12:18:00.001-07:00

Diva

But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end.
~William Shakespeare

2011-06-12T05:02:00.000-07:00

Sploit
Everything in creation has its appointed painter or poet and remains in bondage like the princess in the fairy tale 'til its appropriate liberator comes to set it free. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

2011-06-09T12:30:00.001-07:00

Winging it

You haven't seen a tree until you've seen its shadow from the sky.
~Amelia Earhart

2011-05-22T05:44:00.000-07:00

Courage

Faith is the bird that sings when the dawn is still dark.
~Rabindranath Tagore

2011-05-05T09:43:00.000-07:00

Anticipation

If you've never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom. ~Terri Guillemets

2011-05-04T19:23:00.000-07:00

2011-05-04T19:17:00.001-07:00

Nourishment
The happiest of all lives is a busy solitude. ~Voltaire

2011-04-30T14:45:00.000-07:00

Standing tall

Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow. ~Mary Anne Radmacher

2011-04-18T07:00:00.000-07:00

Surprise

April Showers??

Spring makes its own statement, so loud and clear that the gardener seems to be only one of the instruments, not the composer. ~Geoffrey B. Charlesworth

2011-04-14T13:24:00.000-07:00

Impressions of Cabo 2011

2011-04-03T11:01:00.000-07:00

No Waiting

The flowers of early spring occupy places in our hearts well out of proportion to their size. ~Gertrude S. Wister

2011-03-26T13:27:00.000-07:00

Wonder

I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.
~Albert Einstein

2011-03-26T08:47:00.000-07:00

Soon

Patience is the companion of wisdom. ~St. Augustine

2011-03-17T10:01:00.000-07:00

Spring, sproing, sprung
The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers. ~Basho

2010-12-15T12:34:00.000-08:00

Woulds

Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. ~Albert Einstein

2010-12-10T13:27:00.000-08:00

Winter

There is a muscular energy in sunlight corresponding to the spiritual energy of wind. ~Annie Dillard

2010-12-06T07:23:00.000-08:00

Cover girl

Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart. ~Kahlil Gibran

2010-10-22T11:12:00.001-07:00

Wake up

Could we change our attitude, we should not only see life differently, but life itself would come to be different. ~Katherine Mansfield

2010-10-10T12:24:00.000-07:00

Sleeping beauty

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

2010-10-10T06:15:00.000-07:00

Late bloomer

If you would attain to what you are not yet, you must always be displeased by what you are. For where you are pleased with yourself there you have remained. Keep adding, keep walking, keep advancing. ~Saint Augustine

2010-10-05T14:54:00.000-07:00

Yin meets yang

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns. ~George Eliot

2010-09-29T05:47:00.000-07:00

Friend

One reason a dog can be such a comfort when you're feeling blue is that he doesn't try to find out why. ~Author Unknown

2010-09-23T17:11:00.000-07:00

Boys of Summer

Putting lights in Wrigley Field is like putting aluminum siding on the Sistine Chapel.
~RogerSimon, 1988

When we played softball, I'd steal second base, feel guilty and go back.

~Woody Allen

What is both surprising and delightful is that spectators are allowed, and even expected, to join in the vocal part of the game.... There is no reason why the field should not try to put the batsman off his stroke at the critical moment by neatly timed disparagements of his wife's fidelity and his mother's respectability. ~George Bernard Shaw

2010-09-21T14:01:00.000-07:00

Take five

Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn. ~Elizabeth Lawrence

2010-09-20T06:31:00.000-07:00

Harvest 2010

Music is the wine which inspires one to new generative processes, and I am Bacchus who presses out this glorious wine for mankind and makes them spiritually drunken. ~Ludwig van Beethoven

2010-08-16T09:15:00.000-07:00

Chicago Air & Water Show 2010

Impressions from the North Side

2010-08-13T18:45:00.000-07:00

Shhhhh
In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in an clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth. ~Mahatma Gandhi

2010-08-06T05:29:00.000-07:00

When you possess light within, you see it externally. ~Anaïs Nin

2010-07-12T13:48:00.000-07:00

Comfort

But if the while I think on thee, dear friend, All losses are restored and sorrows end. ~William Shakespeare

2010-07-01T06:25:00.000-07:00

Bee busy

Thank God every morning when you get up, that you have something to do that day which must be done, whether you like it or not. Being forced to work and forced to do your best will breed in you temperance and self-control, diligence and strength of will, cheerfulness and content, and a hundred virtues which the idle never know. ~Charles Kingsley

2010-06-25T06:41:00.000-07:00

Who are you?

I can’t go back to yesterday - because I was a different person then.“
~Lewis Carroll

2010-06-12T06:22:00.000-07:00

Twenty after
Flowers... are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty out values all the utilities of the world. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

2010-06-11T14:01:00.000-07:00

Drink

"A rose tree may be a rose tree may be a rosy rose tree if watered."

~Gertrude Stein

2010-06-06T07:24:00.000-07:00

Sustenance

Cutting stalks at noontime. Perspiration drips to the earth. Know you that your bowl of rice each grain from hardship comes? ~Chang Chan-Pao

2010-06-04T06:27:00.000-07:00

Scratch n sniff

Pleasure is the flower that passes; remembrance, the lasting perfume.

~Jean de Boufflers

2010-05-21T18:06:00.000-07:00

Sun session

Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering.

How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then to rest afterward. ~Spanish Proverb

2010-05-19T13:02:00.000-07:00

Surprise

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. ~Henry David Thoreau, 1854

2010-05-07T07:40:00.000-07:00

Small wonder

It is good to be alone in a garden at dawn or dark so that all its shy presences may haunt you and possess you in a reverie of suspended thought. ~James Douglas

2010-05-01T11:00:00.000-07:00

Dandy Lyin'

Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad. ~Aldous Huxley

2010-04-17T16:51:00.000-07:00

Purpose

We all possess the thunder of pure fury and the calm breeze of tranquility. If it wasn't for tomorrow, how much would we get done today? Whatever your purpose... embrace it completely. Get lost in the clouds every now and then so you never lose sight of God's wonder. ~Paul Vitale

2010-04-16T13:52:00.000-07:00

Fruit

In training

The pink flowers are apples blossoms, the white one's are cherry blossoms. These pictures were taken at the Lemon Creek Winery and Fruit Orchards in Berrien Springs, MI. Farmers say that by the looks of the flowers this years harvest should be healthy and plentiful.

2010-04-15T10:46:00.001-07:00

Nectar

We do not remember days; we remember moments. ~Cesare Pavese

2010-04-02T05:22:00.000-07:00

Eat
Never work before breakfast; if you have to work before breakfast, eat your breakfast first. ~Josh Billings

2010-03-31T06:46:00.000-07:00

Caliente

How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains! ~John Muir

2010-03-21T13:53:00.000-07:00

Return engagement

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade. ~Charles Dickens

2010-03-18T16:42:00.000-07:00

Curiosity

To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom. ~Bertrand Russell