Dimming light from the sun,
almost touching the horizon.
Dusk settles over the earth -
the most magical of moments!
To witness the garden -
when all appears to glow
with an inner light.

This is the time of day,
colors take on a new intensity.
Whites fairly illuminate -
reds seem to dance with more glee,
blues command great strength.
All together within this short time,
their beauty is beyond imagination.

But one must hurry to see it all…
to catch each corner and path,
before the sun dips past the brink.
For the span of moments is short.
Visible only to the naked eye.
A camera cannot find the lighting,
to show this magic moment in Eden.

The view cannot be shared with others -
unless they are present in that space.
No photograph can ever display it.
The camera is blind to such intensity!
Instead, it must be etched in memory.
A marvel tucked away in the mind…
to be remembered when gray skies hang low.

The hosta and iris glow from within.
The beebalm sways loud red with the breeze,
and hummingbirds drink deep of delphinium.
White alyssum scent erupts along the path -
after baking all day in the sun light.
I am delighted at this rich reward…
be it ever so fleeting, this magic is strong.

Mother Earth silently waves her wand -
over each and every dweller of the soil.
She bids them share - give back the rays…
soaked up through the hot sultry day!
They gladly obey with such gleeful abandon.
A gift of unequaled splendor and grace.
Miracle to those keepers of gardens.

Dirty knees, broken nails - now forgotten.
Sweating toil in the heat matter no more.
Days of snipping and clipping and weeding.
The watering and feeding and scratching…
repeated endlessly through the season.
All is forgotten now, in this instant.
Glorious beauty shows at day’s end.
Harvest soulful joy, reaped as the night falls.

Read more great Gardening articles at:
http://www.lostintheflowers.com

About the author:
Raised by a highly respected & successful landscape contractor in the metro Detroit area, Clayton wanted a career in anything but landscaping! Now an award-winning landscape designer, Clayton runs Flowerville Farms, a mail-order nursery in Michigan. Read more at LostInTheFlowers.

War bombs may explode demolishing man and land.
Hurricanes may devastate and leave us entirely bare.
Earthquakes may devour and swallow up old landmarks.
But nothing is as destructive as a world that doesn’t care.

Smog may be an atrocious bother in our daily living.
We all suffer significantly from pollution in the air.
Intoxicants may be debilitating to those who will imbibe.
But nothing is as troublesome as a world that doesn’t care.

Embezzlers may run off with money not their own.
A spouse may engage in an extra-marital affair.
Some folks may be malicious, evil, mean and rude.
But nothing is as tragic as a world that doesn’t care.

The rich may all get richer as the poor languish behind.
The aged may find their last days are lived in solitaire.
The young may be lost in a confusing world maze.
But nothing is as dreadful as a world that doesn’t care.

Diabetes may be incurable and challenge the appetite.
Cancer may be ubiquitous, creating turmoil and despair.
Kidneys may suddenly fail and require dialysis.
But nothing is as fatal as a world that doesn’t care.

Our world has many problems for solutions to be found.
Great trials and tribulations on mankind can overbear.
But hope remains alive however small the sparks may be,
If the world does not let leave of its capacity to care.

Rev. Saundra L. Washington, is an ordained clergywoman, social worker, and Founder of AMEN Ministries, http://www.clergyservices4u.org. She is also the author of two coffee table books: Room Beneath the Snow, Poems that Preach and Negative Disturbances, Homilies that Teach.

You make me smile
like I’ve seldom done before
You give me a reason
to want more and more…

Of you - of us
any time - any where
It doesn’t matter
as long as you’re there…

In your heart and in your soul
as much as in mine
We have a connection
that escapes time…

And probably logic
as some people would say
But it does not matter
if we cannot be us today…

Or tomorrow
for everyone to see
because what we share
is between you and me…

We cannot turn back time
to another place
when our lives were
different and we didn’t face…

The challenges of being
together today…
Our obstacles only lead
us to find new ways…

To share a special moment
or steal a little kiss…
Something so special
that many people miss -

Out on for their entire lives
Not lucky enough to find
That one person who satisfies
their body and their mind…

We are truly special
because we found each other
no matter how hard it
is to be together…

Right now atleast -
We will find a way
to see each other
almost every day…

Until the time comes
when we are free
from our past decisions
we will still be…

One incredible pair
of people who
share a special love
and friendship too..

Unlike anything
most people dream
of achieving just once
in this life it seems…

Resource Box - © Danielle Hollister (2004) is the Publisher of BellaOnline Quotations Zine - A free newsletter for quote lovers featuring more than 10,000 quotations in dozens of categories like - love, friendship, children, inspiration, success, wisdom, family, life, and many more. Read it online at - http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art8364.asp

Link up two of man’s uppermost quests and you’ve got is a craze named a sportsbook bets Web property. What could be more imaginative… If you picture a troop of sports devotees clapping to support any local team, and almost regularly lays will be reckoned tied to the din. Wishing to catch more of the anticipation, on-lookers normally strive to guess who will prevail the coming meet. At the end of the day, this eventually turns into a warmhearted meet named sportsbook bets Web property.

Admittedly it can sound quite compulsive but, instead, sports betting is really purely an entertainment and of forging a bond with your fellow fans. You can bet a any negligible budget of mazuma and still have an ultra cool time. Below, you’ll find some tips to get you started sports betting.

In order to wager, you will visit a sportsbook bets Web property, that’s to say a place which receives sportsbook bets Web property. In the U.S.A., we have four states where people can do sports betting absolutely legally, but if you don’t care for legality, you may try it anyplace assuming that you can pin down a bookie and happen to be legally of age. Amongst the games you’ll be able to wager on are professional including, additionally, college football + college basketball, professional hockey, professional hockey, including, additionally, betting on both horse and dog racing. Visitors may choose to risk some money on the general score of a game or fight, when exactly the contestant will go under, and even if a given tossed coin in a game or fight will come out heads or tails.

The bookies bank on their figures be of assistance to you discern which team you judge will prevail. There is the spread, that’s point lead tallied to a trailing contestant presumed to take a licking by a defined number points. We can find many categories of lays– straight bets, parlays i.e. combined antes on some track-and-field events, teasers including, too, over-unders, the straight bets, where you merely quote the contestant which you guess is most likely to win or be defeated being the most prevalent in sports betting.

So, why not give it a runover and have a lot of fun in the process… Only take care that you won’t get overwhelmed and exhaust your total retirement pension on a caprice. Else, you’re likely to be caught bemoaning it till the end of your life. Wow your friends: Learn to play sports betting and wagering like the pros!

If you are one of the many people this Christmas season who have absolutely no idea what to buy for the people in your life that won’t end up returned after Christmas, this is the article for you. It would be a great idea to get them a gift card and let them choose what they really want and then you can spend the rest of the day enjoying each others company.

Christmas gets more over-blown and expensive with each passing year. Despite everyone saying that next year will be different, it seems like Christmas is spent cleaning up piles of wrapping paper and trying to fit stuff into cars. When we are gift buying for adults, do we really need to go bonkers? Kids get excited for gifts, but adults buy for themselves what they want to have most of the time.

Unfortunately, the majority of the population are unaware of what most people would like. The theory espoused is apparently that if you buy a lot of things, eventually you will hit on something that pleases the receipient. It it best to do research before you put the time and effort into going all out for someone. Check with people who know what they want and need. In the course of the year, make a few subtle inquiries so when the gift occasion arises you won’t be stumped. Hopefully, this will keep you from buying them useless trinkets and gadgets. If all these ideas do not work then there is nothing wrong with gift cards. You can make this personal in any number of ways. How about adding home made biscuits, or a card with a personal message that means something uniquely to them? The gift of getting to spend time with family and friends is way greater than any gift can give you.

While gift cards may be considered a bit impersonal, it is better than getting that loved one a gift they do not need or like. When you cannot determine the perfect gift through any means, gift cards are the ideal solution. Musch of the time people won’t admit to what they want even if they know. This group can also be pleased in a variety of ways. Here is a great site for some personalize gift ideas for everyone.

Lost in Time

We seem to be lost in time

busy with our commerce;

making money and building towers,

waging wars and reaping flowers.

What did our old folks do

in their lazy old lifetime

to bring forth such a generation

of humanity that seems to be

totally lost in time?

=====

SHIPS
Just a brief
conversation, over dinner;
Two Worlds had spun!

Two hearts, spoke
across a table;
Had so much fun!

Is it love,
or a loneliness;
that brings us together?

From up above,
He provides us;
A sweet scented savor!

We reach out,
so blindly, moving;
Away, out of sight!

Like two ships,
passing each other;
Through a stormy night!

====

Nuwara Eliya

Rail me back to Nuwara Eliya,

There’s where the tea and the pears and berries grow.

There’s where the streams trickle sweet in the springtime.

There’s where the mist in the morning hangs low.

Drive me round the vast open spaces,

There’s where the dairy and the meat and veggies grow.

There’s where the horses neigh snorting in the sunshine.

There’s where the flowers bloom brightly from their bough.

Walk me up old Piduru-tala-gala,

There’s where the fauna and the wily old fox roams.

There’s where the rocks are hewn all over nature.

There’s where true peace reigns calm in our home.

Take me down to the lush green Plains.

There’s where the birds and the bees and fauna go.

There’s where the world seems to end in its lifetime.

There’s where the beauty of life seems to flow.

[Note: Nuwara Eliya is a high altitude hill station town in the Central Province of Sri Lanka where temperatures are typically cool and where some of the best teas in the world are grown]

Family grows and moves on, but yet our hearts are always together. Getting ready for a family reunion, this poem was written with the heart and soul of a mother waiting for the return of her family from far away places. A son from the danger of war in Iraq, a daughter off in a far away place making a new life for herself waiting for the love of her life also to return from the war, a new grand daughter she has yet to meet.
While nestled in the mountains of Colorado, the horizon is big and far and the pull of the heart will bring the family back to her side, if even for a short while.

Watching

Watching the horizon

Feeling the distance between us

Pounding Heart, Tearful Soul

Watching

Sleepy little eyes,

Struggling to see the world

Make your mark, Leave your prints

Pounding Heart, Tearful Soul

Watching

Tonka trucks and care bears,

Kindergarden, 4th Grade

High School Dances, dreams being made

Growth and Adventure, Walking down the raod

Make your mark, Leave your prints

Pounding Heart, Tearful Soul

Watching

Returning to my side

Always coming home

Family

Root of Love, Root of Life

Watching the horizon

Feeling the distance between us

Pounding Heart, Tearful Soul

Watching

Victoria Blatzer

Victoria Blatzer, while living in the beautiful Rocky Mountains, finds serenity and inspiration through nature and family. She has been a published poet since 1985 and has recently turned to creating Gift Baskets to extend her creativity and unique style of giving from the heart. The purpose of this company is to make that special person feel just that way, and Victoria specializes in personal requests for gifts.

You have an individual invitation to visit my work at http://www.giftbasketsuntamed.com. Rather than the traditional baskets full of tiny food packages, these gift baskets are individual and are full of wonderful gifts that can be used many times over.
Give from the heart, it’s what life is all about!

Past life regression might unearth the reasons why we have problems with people in our present life or why we are concerned of certain things. You have work colleagues around you in your current life that you will have extraordinarily met with before, now just imagine being competent to find out what happened and what your relationship was to them at that time and lift blocks that plague you in your current time and even learn talents and bring them into your present time. Past lifetime regression, aka PLR, is awesome.

When you are having a past lifetime regression, also known as PLR, session you go back to the lifetime you will most need to learn about in your current lifetime. This is tremendous and will often point out a large deal about your current life and help you will to go forward with your life with a greater understanding of yourself, your life and the friends around you. Discover Past Life Regression with Anne Jirsch.

You could also unearth why you are the individual that you are, now that is fantastic. If you delight in nature perhaps you were once working on a farm, if you enjoy to travel perhaps you were an explorer. Instead of ignoring our strengths we should embrace every single one of them.

Each respective experience is great and unique. Other people have discovered places they had lived in before and ?knew? where to go.

I cannot bear to think
of when you will be gone.

I do not understand
how I will get along.

Your love has been my resting place,
the place that I would go,
no matter what,
no matter where
your love would always flow.

A simple call
a quick hello,
Where have you been?

What do you know?

Just to touch base
and share a laugh
a smile or two,
a joke or gaffe.

What will I do when you are gone?

Who will I call?

There is no other quite like you
no other love that’s half as true.

no one could do the things you’ve done,
no other one could be my sun,
shining brightly as I get your call,
“I’m home now dear,
what’s going on?”

Copyright August 2003
Fran Watson

For more poetry and stories you can go to Fran’s webpage http://www.franwatson.ca

When you get your last working years of your career you don’t have to draw your retirement fund straight away. Instead, you could well choose to put off procuring an annuity until the age of seventy-five and if you do so you may perhaps find you will get a more lucrative offer. It’s branded as income draw down. Get Independent Pension Drawdown advice at http://www.firstplacefinancial.co.uk.

When you are aged between 50 and seventy-five years old you are automatically allowed to put-off the control of your pension from one of a number of insurance businesses. Instead, you are allowed to draw as much as one-hundred-and-twenty percent of the retirement fund that could have been obtained by means of the Government Actuary rates, leaving the remaining funds invested until you call for it. On your side, all you must do is to make sure you purchase a pension annuity by the instance you are seventy-five years old.

Although, what would result if you wished to take the income draw down choice, and then died? If this did come about then your surviving companion or those legally responsible would then have 3 selections: either to take a lump sum, following tax at 35%, or otherwise maintain with income withdrawal, or paying for an annuity with the investments. Your surviving other half has until they get to sixty years old to suspend the purchase of an annuity, however no benefits are allowed to be given in the meantime.

Why pick income drawdown? Well mostly because it can mean you will earn a more prosperous retirement wage from your existing pension by doing so. You can also select specifically when you want to acquire the annuity, thus if you give up work at an occasion when the annuity rates are low, waiting might well be a wiser option. If the outstanding stocks improve as hoped for, then simultaneously with the truth that annuity rates grow with age, you might in the end be able to purchase an improved pension than you perhaps would have obtained previously.

In addition, it also means that when you depart this world your wife or husband or those responsible will benefit monetarily, as they are legally entitled to the outstanding stocks & shares, as discussed above.

Like all investments, there are perils as a consequence though. If venture performance on the remaining stocks is poor, then the level of wage provided can reduce. And it is essential to be aware that there is no reassurance that the pension purchased will eventually be higher than the whole figure that could have been got at the start.