Gifts from the universe to us
 

There are wonderful things in the world, when you have sober senses:

My brother-in-law, in recovery from another deadly disease, gave me a piece of lilac lepidolite. Lepidolite, the gods of the internet say, "brings hope in dark times by lending a sense of balance and calm." This image shows lepidolite with pink tourmaline.

https://s32.postimg.org/edzwm31dh/to...dolite_2_2.jpg

It is beautiful and a beautiful gesture...sobriety is full a lovely gifts.

Really beautiful, Courage.

Really sweet Courage :hug:

What a wonderful gift :)

D

This is the wing of a butterfly, Boloria euphrosyne, the pearl-bordered fritillary.

https://s32.postimg.org/o3njxmy5h/bo...phrosyne_2.jpg

Of the three Graces, Euphrosyne is the goddess of Mirth and Joy.

So beautiful - thank you! :tyou

Very nice thought. I love collecting semi-precious stones...they're all supposed to have some meaning or other. Yours is gorgeous.

This is a "pocket park" in my neighborhood -- a small oasis tucked away between skyscapers. I visited it today. I thank the city, but the sound and beauty of falling water is a gift from nature.

https://s32.postimg.org/bqdgyo4l1/b3...7adb19f88f.jpg

Looks wonderful Courage :)

D

I was hanging my head out a train window today counting phone poles and watching the clouds. Wish'd I could show it to you. Reminded me of old summers where I come from.

Wonderful gifts to share Courage :tyou
:grouphug:

-- Coleridge? (attributed)

Indeed! That reminds me of a story I wrote when I was a kid about going to bed and having a dream wherein aliens took me on a tour in their spaceship and shared candy with me.

And when I awoke I was all 'woah, such an amazing dream' and began getting dressed for school… Only to find the same candy wrapper in my pocket (a mars bar I think). Thanks! :)

Now I think it's a gift that time flows only in one direction. I don't have to relive my past or repeat my mistakes.

This painting is called The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory.

https://s31.postimg.org/cpyb1ne6j/da..._of_memory.jpg

Is that a Dali?

The butterfly post/image was stunning. This is a very good idea, this thread. :)

Hi bim. Yes, it's Dali. He painted his most famous work, the Persistence of Memory, in 1931, and painted its Disintegration 20 years later. I think as an older man he realized that sometimes the loss of the past is the more wonderful thing.

I hope anyone who reads this thread will sometimes contribute a gift. We're all here together. :)

Humor!
 

Humor is such a great gift from the universe for all of us, certainly.
Nice thread idea C2!! We are not a glum lot........

LOL FnB -- & thx

Hi courage. A lovely thread indeed! :)

Dali... If you ever visit the Barcelona area in Spain, I would really recommend the Dali Museum that is near the city, in Figueres. They have created it to be a complex sensory experience of Dali's work with visuals, sounds, smells, whatnot. I was there about 15 years ago and still recall as a wonderfully intoxicating experience, without any substance but the environment itself.

I am posting a picture of lava from the Big Island of Hawaii from a vacation I spent there about 8 years ago, from a hike through lava fields that flow into the Pacific Ocean. I have been reminiscing about that vacation because it was probably my last sober vacation before my alcoholism took over my life massively -- I want to get back into traveling the way I did when I was young or, better yet, in brand new ways :)

Thx, Aellyce. Makes me think of amber. Much as I appreciate the disintegration of memory, it's also wonderful to see things preserved.

https://s31.postimg.org/o55e7648r/64...ymenoptera.jpg
--By Anders L. Damgaard http://www.amber-inclusions.dk, 40-50 million year old ant

The pocket park is beautiful, Courage. Reminds me a little of the park where my husband and I were married. It was a little patch of green with a water feature and was sort of plopped down in the middle of some skyscrapers downtown. :)

I have no name;
I am but two days old.'
What shall I call thee?
'I happy am,
Joy is my name.'
Sweet joy befall thee!

https://s31.postimg.org/qe704lycr/gt...0601_wmain.jpg

Starting the day with Songs of Innocence. . . well done courage :)

These are some of the things that amaze me. The pic is Abell 1689 taken with the Hubble telescope. Each cluster of light is an entire galaxy as big or bigger than our Milky way. The light you see is over 2 billion years old.

thx jd.

More light-sights, closer to (my) home. On a rainy night in the city, these construction lights bob around like fairy lanterns.

https://s31.postimg.org/8cgz4of97/co...lights_nyc.jpg

A multitude of generations have flapped their way forth from this bush - year after year after year. The song of regeneration is manifested hope and a gift for us all!

Fabulous thread :c011:

Love the star picture. :)

I love this thread :)

And I love exploring the swamp. Have done it in different continents and I can never get bored with the richness of it

It's wonderful how we intersect here. Aellyce loves the swamps and she posts a picture of mist rising in a swamp -- I walk down 1st Avenue on a foggy night. The coincidence of our experiences makes me investigate fog, and I learn about foghorns. High frequency, short-wavelength sounds travel poorly in fog -- the waves get lost bouncing back and forth against all the tiny droplets of moisture in the fog. Hence, the low voices of foghorns: