Flow

It makes a huge difference where we’re planted “Going with the flow” is an expression that suggests it’s a better life strategy is to align with rather than resist what’s happening. As guidance for individual behavior, paddling with the “current”—in the context of home, work and relationships—is certainly easier than paddling against it. In this […]

There’s More to Exchanging Gifts Than Meets The Eye

The art of making someone happy and celebrating the relationship This is our grandson, Ethan Miller. He was five-years-old. I choose this image because it represents the kind of joy we’d all like to see on someone’s face when they receive a gift from us. The subtitle indicates that there’s an art to gift-giving because […]

Scottish Pine: Symbol Of Responsibility

In 1753 Carl Linnaeus classified pine trees in the Pinus genus. Until then, they were called “fir” based on the Germanic word  fyr, which meant fire, light and the rising sun. The word “pine” derives from the Latin word pinus and the Sanskrit word pituh meaning “sap, juice or resin.” Their evolutionary story begins in the early Jurassic […]

The Purple Iris: Symbol Of Wisdom

There are roughly 300 species and more than 50,000 varieties of the iris flower, beardless and bearded, the latter with a fuzzy petal that hangs down. They range from plants up to five feet tall and dwarfs of only eight inches. The bearded variety reproduces through swollen roots, while the beardless iris has a rhizome, […]

The Magnolia Tree: Symbol Of Endurance

“Southern” Magnolia Blossom The Magnolia genus is at least 100 million years old. Bees and butterflies didn’t exist then, so the trees relied upon beetles for pollination. Their early ancestors, one of the first flowers on earth, lived on the supercontinent of Pangaea 250 million years ago, then spread to Laurasia (Europe and Asia) 200 […]