Forever Young

Last weekend, some of us were blessed by spending time with my parents at the Cloisters at Sea Island in celebration of my mother's 90th birthday. As usual, my mother and father inspired us by their stories, energy, resilience, good humor, love, and curiosity. The birthday girl received cards and notes and gifts from family and friends, far and wide.

We presented Mother with a combined gift from the family, a bench in her honor for downtown Winter Park in the Rose Garden near the bench inscribed to our father in honor of his 90th birthday, five years ago. We want many people to sit on those benches and feel similarly inspired by their enduring beauty and youthfulness.

My First Flip Video

Tea Reflections

Drinking a daily cup of tea will surely starve the apothecary.
~Chinese Proverb

Tea is drunk to forget the din of the world.
~T'ien Yiheng

If man has no tea in him, he is incapable of understanding truth and beauty.
~Japanese Proverb

Green tea is preferred to other beverages because of its subtlety. In order to appreciate it fully, the mind must be quiet and free from distracting thoughts.
~The Venerable Sonhae Sunim

Tea does our fancy aid, repress those vapours which the head invade, and keeps that palace of the soul serene.
~Edmund Waller, "Of Tea"

In the taste of a single cup of tea you will eventually discover the truth of all the ten thousand forms in the universe. It is difficult to put this taste into words, or even to catch a hint of it.
~The Venerable Kyongbong Sunim

Tea is liquid wisdom.
~Anonymous

Remember the tea kettle - it is always up to its neck in hot water, yet it still sings!
~Author Unknown

"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me lay an invincible summer."

--Albert Camus

Magic, Mystery, Miracles

Magic:

"I don't want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic!"

--Blanche DuBois from A Streetcar Named Desire

Mystery:

Philip Henslowe: Mr. Fennyman, allow me to explain about the theatre business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.

Hugh Fennyman: So what do we do?
Philip Henslowe: Nothing. Strangely enough, it all turns out well.
Hugh Fennyman: How?
Philip Henslowe: I don't know. It's a mystery!

--From Shakespeare in Love

Miracles :

"There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle."

--Albert Einstein

Do you believe?