Happy New Year....

....to our friends around the world. 

We're so glad you stop by from time to time and hope that 2013 brings you all the best there is.

We wish you....

...a most wonderful holiday and the best of family and friends time together as 2012 draws to a close.

This past year has been filled with amazing, special times to remember, both with joy and with sorrow.

We are trusting that the new year brings healing and blessing to all of us, but most especially those who lost their loved ones in the recent tragedies here in America. 

Glad tidings!!

Shawn & SGTex, Seamus & Sebastian

Remembering...

...those ones we loved and lost at Sandy Hook Elementary School. 

Tis the season....

....in Malaysia!!!

~Shawn & SGTex~

Our blue marble....

This famous "Blue Marble" shot represents the first photograph in which Earth is in full view. The picture was taken on December 7, 1972, as the Apollo 17 crew left Earth’s orbit for the moon. With the sun at their backs, the crew had a perfectly lit view of the blue planet.



Nationalgraphic.com  Milestones In Space Photography   Photograph courtesy NASA Johnson Space Center



It's been 40 years since this picture was taken, and I have to think:  How nicely have we been playing with our blue marble? 
Since 1972, we've learned a lot about the environment and have a better idea of what we can do to preserve the planet and make our air and water and soil more pure.  We've got a better idea of what we can do politically.  We're able to know, as it happens, what happens.  If I were to stick a pin in this picture, I could pin the spot where people were caring and giving help and aid to preserve wildlife.

 I could pin the spot (Taiji cove in Japan, for example) where people are ignoring those who care and are herding, chasing, tormenting, trapping and slaughtering dolphins and whales....mostly for food and once in awhile for the sport and entertainment of others.  (Hey, Japan!  How'd you like that earthquake?  Everybody okay over there?  You've had 2 warnings from the planet to knock it off.....Pay attention!!)

Or how about Syria?  Would someone please explain to me the mentality behind making war on your own people, please.  Oh.  It just cannot be explained.  I thought not.

Yeah, there are a few things happening around this world which give me some grief, but that's NOTHING like the grief the perpetrators who make war on this planet and those who live upon it will be receiving when their time comes.

And it will.

Mark my words.

Shawn
****

December Moon....

Before going to bed

After a fall of snow

I look out on the field

Shining there in the moonlight

So calm, untouched and white

Snow silence fills my head

After I leave the window.



Hours later near dawn

When I look down again

The whole landscape has changed

The perfect surface gone

Criss-crossed and written on

Where the wild creatures ranged

While the moon rose and shone.



Why did my dog not bark?

Why did I hear no sound

There on the snow-locked ground

In the tumultuous dark?



How much can come, how much can go

When the December moon is bright,

What worlds of play we'll never know

Sleeping away the cold white night

After a fall of snow.



~May Sarton