And There's Cherries . . .

*Disclaimer:  I am not a photographer.  This is not a blog where you'll be blown away by the photography because I'm not a photographer.  I'm a . . . (struggling with what to type here . . . I'm a mother?  No, that sounds boring.  I'm a rancher?  Ha!  Well hardly, sufficing the state of my orchard presently . . . I'm a . . . glancing at the beer can . . . no, that sounds drunken . . .  )  I'm not a photographer, I'm a chocolate eater.

I mentioned in my earlier blog that I heard something on the radio about self-actualization and Abraham Maslow's work on the subject.  This was so inspirational to me, that I tried to find a link to the program to post here on the blog, but was unable to find it on NPR or CPR, so clearly, this was a message piped into my psyche, especially for me from God or Aliens or my Mom.  Most likely my mom.

But in the vein of finding the beauty in the world, and not approaching life as if its a bag of problems, here are five beautiful things:  

1)  Julian performing for the camera, a free-style piece of life philosophy:

2)  Julian again:

 3)  Life wants to live.  I carried a basket of eggs into the house and upon setting the basket on the counter, noticed a tiny, tiny white speck at the top.  Upon closer inspection, it looked like a spider's egg.  I gently scooped it into my hand and took it outside and wiped it on the side of the house.  As soon as I did this, the mama spider appeared (she hitched a ride on my hand) and immediately began making a nest for her disheveled, beloved egg.  Everything wants to live.  Its in our nature.

4)  Beer makes everything beautiful.

5)  Gluten free chocolate cupcakes.  So THAT'S good.

I think accepting that life is suffering is what is such a huge turn off about the Buddhist religion.  But then again, if we can accept the bad as if its the wind, whispering in our ears then we have more time and energy to appreciate the taste of life's sweetest things, such as cupcakes, cherries, strawberries, beer and our very own lives themselves.