“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.” -Helen Keller

 

 

This past week has been a chaotic and heart-breaking one, in terms of the world around us. From the terrifying scenario playing out in Ferguson, Missouri, to the war-torn Middle East, Iraq, and Ukraine, to the awful havoc wreaked by Ebola in Western Africa, and a quake in California, the earth and the humans who inhabit it are having a bit of a time. It is heart-breaking.

And yet, there is still beauty to be found.

For all the chaos, there is order. For all the hatred, there is kindness. For all the darkness, there is light.

It is up to us to find that beauty, to hold onto it, and share it.

For in finding beauty, we find healing.

And in healing, we find peace.

I spend a lot of time in the warm months outside in my garden. I love the breeze as it sways in the trees, the sunlight as it sets and paints the flowers gold, and the beat of the hummingbirds as they zip around the flowers to find the sweetest nectar.

Yes, there is much beauty to be found. Some of my favorites? My garden roses …

10 Favorite Garden Roses

Here are some of my favorite photographs I’ve taken of my favorite roses, along with quotes I love.

 “Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

 “Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.” – John Muir

 “We need beauty because it makes us ache to be worthy of it.” – Mary Oliver

 “One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today.” – Dale Carnegie

“The fragrance always stays in the hand that gives the rose.” – George W. Curtis

 “A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in–what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.”  – Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

“The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body, but the soul.” – Alfred Austin

 “The earth laughs in flowers.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

 Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God’s handwriting — a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, and thank God for it as a cup of blessing. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

What are your favorite roses? Do you have one you grow which you love, fragrance, form, or color? (Roses are my favorites. Thanks for sharing!)