Kalanchoe and a few thoughts...

I like Kalanchoe. It is bothersome to me that when I visit a garden that is supposedly desert (really meaning that most of the plants are low water and they are going to use a lot of wood chips and rocks in the place of plants) that there is so little color. Often just a bunch of tumbleweed type things. As a westerner, I crave color. There are times of the year around here where we look at dry brown fields and dry brown mountains for months. Kalanchoe is a low water succulent however, but it has a lot of color. Actually it comes in 2 of my favorite pinks and a gorgeous yellow and a few other colors. It makes a great houseplant because it doesn't require tons of care. I soak them good twice a week and let them drain before putting them back in their pots. They last a long time.
I'm allergic to animals... and I don't like to clean up poo, so flowers are my thing instead. I used to not like to have them around because you get those little fruit fly bugs, but if you just put a few drops of liquid dish soap in a spray bottle and fill the remainder with water ... you will have the perfect bug spray and it really works. I even spray around my front door to keep the box elder bugs and midges down to a minimum. I don't know what to do about the froggys in the window well however.

I feel like life is passing at lightening speed right now. In all of the things that must be done, I am desperate to accomplish goals. I guess that one of those things is to live with flowers and lots of color. I also want to spend tons of time with c and C and my family. And, I want to paint tons of boxes. I want to learn to be a good friend.

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross was an interesting person. She was a psychiatrist who moved to the United States in 1958 and became a champion of the terminally ill. She wrote the landmark book, On Death and Dying. She taught people about the 5 stages of grief and how to care for people at the end of their lives. I have not read her book. I'd like to sometime, but she is a person who is often quoted and I run across her quotes frequently. She has amazing perspective as those who care for the dying often do. She said all of these things:

People are like stained - glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.

We need to teach the next generation of children from day one that they are responsible for their lives. Mankind's greatest gift, also its greatest curse, is that we have free choice. We can make our choices built from love or from fear.

Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself, and know that everything in life has purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from.

It's only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth - and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up, we will then begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had.

A few years ago I read one of those books that stays with you. It was written by the mother of 12 children. As you can imagine, she was a very busy lady. One day she told her daughter that she would like to be an author someday but did not know how to do it time wise. Her daughter made the suggestion that she write a few words everyday and eventually it would become a book. I think that it has actually become 5 books or maybe more. Two of them are fantastic: Things I Wish I'd Known Sooner: Personal Discoveries of a Mother of Twelve & Celebration!: Ten Principles of More Joyous Living. The author is Jaroldeen Asplund Edwards. (I think they are out of print, but Amazon may have some used copies). They are two of my favorite books. The writing is incredibly beautiful.

I spend hours on most days working to make my dreams come true.. not minutes, but the time still seems short. However, I am inspired by Jaroldeen and hopeful that even though things take more time than we'd like ... every moment that we spend working toward our dreams and even the moments that just give us more experience are moments that bring us closer to the things we really want.