William Wordsworth said it most eloquently:

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.–Great God! I’d rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

I’m pretty sure we are not “designed” to accomodate as much horror and strife as is offered to us on a daily basis. I feel so, well, assaulted and nearly overwhelmed on an almost daily basis by so much ugliness in the world that I’ve been searching for ways to counteract my disgust with something that is life-affirming and positive. As part of that effort, I have decided that every day I will find at least one thing that will make me really laugh (old reruns of The Nanny are especially good for this, particularly is Yetta is in a scene) and at least one thing that I find truly beautiful.

When I permit myself the time to slow down enough to truly see, it is in nature where I am most awed and most often moved. I’ve committed to spending at least five minutes in my yard in the morning, if at all possible, to find one of my anodyne images. Here are today’s …

Have you seen these new Sunset echinaceas? They have orange/red/pink flowers and are a surprising twist on the old purple variety.

We’ve had pansies planted in three window boxes and several pots for more than a month now. They will fail soon – they can’t take the kind of heat we’ve been having. But they’ve been a joy for days and before they come to their end, I figured I had better take a picture of some of them. I love the near-riotous color.

Our neighbor Margaret has this splendid burgundy clematis growing on a trellis next to our driveway. Fresh with the drops from an early morning rain, it is lovely isn’t it?!