The Flowers

All the names I know from nurse: 

Gardener's garters, Shepherd's purse, 

Bachelor's buttons, Lady's smock, 

And the Lady Hollyhock. 

Fairy places, fairy things, 

Fairy woods where the wild bee wings, 

Tiny trees for tiny dames-- 

These must all be fairy names! 

Tiny woods below whose boughs 

Shady fairies weave a house; 

Tiny tree-tops, rose or thyme, 

Where the braver fairies climb! 

Fair are grown-up people's trees, 

But the fairest woods are these; 

Where, if I were not so tall, 

I should live for good and all.

~ Robert Louis Stevenson

The Wild Flower's Song

As I wandered the forest,

The green leaves among,

I heard a Wild Flower

Singing a song.

'I slept in the earth

In the silent night,

I murmured my fears

And I felt delight.

'In the morning I went

As rosy as morn,

To seek for new joy;

But oh! met with scorn.'

~ William Blake

Ah! Sunflower!

Ah Sun-flower! weary of time.

Who countest the steps of the Sun;

Seeking after that sweet golden clime

Where the travellers journey is done.

Where the Youth pined away with desire,

And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow:

Arise from their graves and aspire.

Where my Sun-flower wishes to go.

~ William Blake

Leaves Compared with Flowers

A tree's leaves may be ever so good,

So may its bar, so may its wood;

But unless you put the right thing to its root

It never will show much flower or fruit.

But I may be one who does not care

Ever to have tree bloom or bear.

Leaves for smooth and bark for rough,

Leaves and bark may be tree enough.

Some giant trees have bloom so small

They might as well have none at all.

Late in life I have come on fern.

Now lichens are due to have their turn.

I bade men tell me which in brief,

Which is fairer, flower or leaf.

They did not have the wit to say,

Leaves by night and flowers by day.

Leaves and bar, leaves and bark,

To lean against and hear in the dark.

Petals I may have once pursued.

Leaves are all my darker mood.

~ Robert Frost

Wind and Window Flowers

LOVERS, forget your love,

And list to the love of these,

She a window flower,

And he a winter breeze.

When the frosty window veil

Was melted down at noon,

And the cagèd yellow bird

Hung over her in tune,

He marked her through the pane,

He could not help but mark,

And only passed her by,

To come again at dark.

He was a winter wind,

Concerned with ice and snow,

Dead weeds and unmated birds,

And little of love could know.

But he sighed upon the sill,

He gave the sash a shake,

As witness all within

Who lay that night awake.

Perchance he half prevailed

To win her for the flight

From the firelit looking-glass

And warm stove-window light.

But the flower leaned aside

And thought of naught to say,

And morning found the breeze

A hundred miles away.

~ Robert Frost

Enjoy Book Review

Title: Enjoy

Author: Trillia J. Newbell

Genre: Christian, Nonfiction, Women, Self-Help

Plot: Have you ever found yourself enjoying a delicious piece of dark chocolate and then feeling guilty about it later? And then your guilty feelings prompt you to eat more chocolate, less enjoyably this time around? Well, Trillia Newbell's new book will help you to break that cycle by offering you this one radical new thought: God wants you to enjoy that chocolate. Heaven is a long ways away but once we're there, no earthly chocolate will ever compare. Till then, those little bits of chocolate or walks in the sun or the pride you feel in your newly cleaned house or sex with your husband - all of that are just tiny tastes of the joy to come, and they are God's little gifts to us to remind us of His love and to help us get through each trying day till we get to heaven's door.

So grab that box of chocolate, a notebook and a pen, and dive right on in to discover how you can enjoy God's daily gifts and become a happier, more content person today.

Likes/Dislikes: Drawn in by the luscious raspberry on the cover, I figured this book would be a fun little thing to spend a week reading. It was actually quite surprising, very encouraging and I'll have to read it again to further absorb this slice of enjoyment and encouragement that I so thoroughly needed. I particularly enjoyed the food chapter. Some of the chapters started out well and then bogged down in the middle before trying to wrap up and conclude but most were interesting. I told my husband he has to read this book. Th sex chapter was aimed mainly at singles so I got nothing from it but that's okay; I already enjoy sex with my husband. *wink*

Rating: PG-18 and up, mainly for reading level and content.

Date Review Written: April 28th, 2017

I received a copy of this book courtesy of Blogging for Books for my honest opinion. I wasn't required to write a positive review and the opinions expressed in the above review are my own.