I wonder Sandra, if you had known his story already, whether you would have stopped to talk to him about the roses? I'm sure you would have, but so many of us shy away from the bereaved because we don't know what to say. I'd like to think I wouldn't now, but I haven't been challenged.
 
That's a lovely story....bless him.
 
Jude

Love is the only way

Sandra Dear, am I correct in assuming that some of the pictures of roses you have posted
were roses in his garden?  If this is true, I will pray that you see him once more so that you can tell him about posting pictures of his roses and what a gift their beauty has been
to people all over the world.Please let him know how much richness and peace he and his wife have added to so very many lives.

I do hope you see him once more.

Hugs and prayers,

Yesterday is gone forever.Tomorrow may not come. Live Fully each moment today. Look for Good Things that Happen to you Every Day.

Dear Sandra,
 
thank you so much for your story about the gentleman and his roses! True stories like this are better than fiction! The roses are beautiful and so is this man!
 
Much love,
Edda

Peace and joy!

Sandra,
 
That is such a touching and beautiful and tender story....you just never know where another's heart is or how it is important to always keep reaching out to others in the everyday. Tears of sweetness, my dear.
 
Peace, Love and joy,
Diane

Grateful to be here!
What a gift and connection builder!
Love and Gratitude,
Love who You Are

I wonder Sandra, if you had known his story already, whether you would have stopped to talk to him about the roses?

 
Hello Ladies
 
Jude I have to confessI did know his wife passed on
 
because the lady I work for told me a while ago.I did not know
 
how precious his roses were though.Well I did for me but not
 
for him.Jude I would have crossed the road one time from someone who
 
would have been hurting from grief this was my up bringing as I was
 
told it's rude to say something as you may hurt them
 
but thank heavens you and I know different now.Jude you don't shy away
 
you help other me included ..Thank you.
 
 
 
 

Sandra Dear, am I correct in assuming that some of the pictures of roses you have posted were roses in his garden?

 
Yes they are you know me  dear Betty I snap and run.
 
Betty I will be sure to tell him this ..what a lovely thing to say
 
bless your kind heart...
 
 
 

True stories like this are better than fiction! The roses are beautiful and so is this man! Much love,

 
Indeed they are Dearest Edda indeed they are....
 
My Dear Diane

That is such a touching and beautiful and tender story....you just never know where another's heart is or how it is important to always keep reaching out to others in the everyday. Tears of sweetness, my dear.

 
Yes this is so true and you help me daily my Friend..thank you..
 
Love to all ,gotta dash
 
        
 
 
 
 
 
 

The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love~and be loved in return♥♥  


 

A Memorable Wedding
      When Lily Friedman and her fiance Ludwig were incarcerated in the Bergen Belsen concentration camp during World War II, she told him that she always dreamt of being married in a beautiful white wedding gown.
     In such dire circumstances, such a request seemed fantastic - but Ludwig was resourceful. He found a former German pilot working in the food distribution center, and had a parachute he wasn't using. Ludwig traded the man two pounds of coffee and a couple of packs of cigarettes for the parachute.
    Miriam the seamstress spent two weeks transforming the parachute into a long-sleeved gown with a collar and a lovely cascading veil. A bow in the back completed the unique creation.  She took the remaining material and created a matching shirt for the happy groom.         
   On January 27, 1946, four hundred people marched 15 miles in the snow to the synagogue in the little town of Celle to participate in this wedding crafted by love. In the months and years that followed, at least 17 other women were married in that dress.
     Eventually the dress found its way to the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C., and then to the Bergen Belsen museum, where it now stands preserved as a testament to love, ingenuity, and phenomenal resourcefulness.  

Read more details of the wedding dress story
 
     My mentor Hilda Charlton used to say, "Take what you have and make what you want."  Many of us feel that we are limited by the economy, a relationship partner, or some other external circumstance. Yet Ludwig and Lily demonstrate that there is ALWAYS a way to achieve your heart's desire if you are willing and creative.
   This month let's astound ourselves and each other by taking what we have and making what we want.
 
 
        Alan  Cohen
 
 
 
 
 

Love is the only way

Thank you Sandra,
for sharing this lovely story.
. . . so early in the morning
to have tears already
in my eyes
with love . . .
sparrow

everything counts... ♥

Talking to a dear, dear friend  this morning,
I got to thinking about 'skin hunger' . . .
I had heard it mentioned in a book years ago,
and could not remember if it was a term
that was simply confabulated by an author
or if it was an 'official' term.
But the phrase had stayed in my head,
and has become a part of my own internal vocabulary.
So of course I googled it.
Below is a quote from one of the links I found . . .

Skin hunger is a relatively new term that has been applied to the emotional response engendered by the loss of touch in our society. One of the five basic senses, touch is the only one deemed essential to human life. During WWII babies in orphanages developed Failure to thrive or even died when deprived of human contact. In a classic study by Harry Harlow, newborn monkeys were taken from their biological mothers and given surrogates made of either wire or soft terry cloth. The baby monkeys consistently chose the soft mother even when deprived of nourishment. The need for bonding outweighed even the basic necessity of food.

Here is a link to the whole article . . .
http://everything2.com/node/1516458
 
Many of us
in our busy lives forget to touch those we love.
Is it so difficult
to take just a little extra time
to touch a friend on the arm,
or to offer a hug
for no other reason
than to say,
"I honour you" . . .
"you are important to me" . . .
"your presence in my life matters" . . .
 
I have been guilty of conversations on the run,
but I think that today
I will try to relearn the art of touch,
so that I might nourish myself
and also give a little to someone else
with love . . .
(((((((♥)))))))

everything counts... ♥

(((((((♥))))))) Back to you!!!
Sparrow, Dear, Thank you for posting this. 

"One of the five basic senses, touch is the only one deemed essential to human life. During WWII babies in orphanages developed Failure to thrive or even died when deprived of human contact."

This is truly profound. It is also a wonderful reminder of how a simple little touch from us can create new life in human beings and reading it only makes one realize how very true it is in one's own life.   I can remember reading somewhere that human beings need
5 to seven hugs a day for good health.  Thank you for giving me one to start my day.
Know that I send it back to you with much love and hope you can "feel" it.  What a very special gift of "skin candy" you have given each of us for breakfast this morning.  May
you receive many more than the minimum amount of hugs today and may your
week be "well fed" with the gift of touch.

Yesterday is gone forever.Tomorrow may not come. Live Fully each moment today. Look for Good Things that Happen to you Every Day.

 
(((((((♥)))))))
For you...
Sparrow...I'm overwhelmed.♥♥♥

Love is the only way

"To those who see this world as part of God's Creation of the Earth's evolution, death will come naturally and gently."
 
Robert Muller

Grateful to be here!
What a gift and connection builder!
Love and Gratitude,
Love who You Are

Hi everyone!
As I am catching up around here...hope ya don't mind it.
This really caught my attention!
 
     Eventually the dress found its way to the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C., and then to the Bergen Belsen museum, where it now stands preserved as a testament to love, ingenuity, and phenomenal resourcefulness.  

Read more details of the wedding dress story
 
     My mentor Hilda Charlton used to say, "Take what you have and make what you want."  Many of us feel that we are limited by the economy, a relationship partner, or some other external circumstance. Yet Ludwig and Lily demonstrate that there is ALWAYS a way to achieve your heart's desire if you are willing and creative.
   This month let's astound ourselves and each other by taking what we have and making what we want.
 

Grateful to be here!
What a gift and connection builder!
Love and Gratitude,
Love who You Are

Hello
I havent been here in a while. I have read back to the story of
Sandra's Rose.  What a beautiful way this mans heart was touched by your words.  Your words to him were such nourisment.  Food for the heart.  (later on Sparrow talked about food for the skin)
It is a great gift when we are recognized.  His roses meant to much to him.  And the person who recognized that part of him, the keeper of the roses, the one who is one with the roses,  she died.  You saw that in him.  you recognized the roses.  What a great gift you gave to him.  No wonder his gifting you of the rose is so powerful.  It represents the gift you gave to him.  A gift he had been without for years since his wife died.  The rose is beautiful, as is the story and the photo. 
 
5 days ago my neighbor told me that a gent from Florida would be staying at her condo next door to me.  She and her husband stay at their "summer camp" on the lake.  The gent would be coming to spread his wife's ashes.  He and his wife spent a month or two renting the condo next door many years ago.  I liked her a lot. She was in her mid or late 80s.  She was lots of fun. A "firecracker".  She had me over for wine one day, and I recriprocated.  They did not return because he really did not like Vermont even though they had  offsprings who live here.  And she was most fond of Vermont, he was not.
 
today I saw her husband and son. I conveyed my deepest sympathies to them.  I had been weeding for a couple of hours. My hands were a dirty mess.  Yet I didnt even think about that when I extended my hands to them while i was conveying my condolences.   It means so much to people to hear others recognizing their loss.  To extend a hand, dirty as it may be, or arms, in recognition. 
 
Jude, I seem to remember the story of the wedding dress.  But I did not think, at the time it was real. But rather one of those inspirational stories I  enjoy reading but know it is meant to inspire regardless of its actual validity.   But it is true !!!  What a good example of how resourseful people were when they need to be.  
 
Sparrow you talked about Skin hunger.  I knew without reading another word what this was.  I live alone and often feel it.  So many live alone. I think its rather odd that we do not all get together and ease that hunger.  I knew well about failure to thrive syndrome.   Such a profoundly sad horrible thing for a baby to go through. 
 
Thank you Sparrow for the beautiful hug.  Thank you Betty for the beautiful hug.  I will add that here also and then add another one that is a bit different.  A picture of an earth angel with 4 legs whose very beingness welcomes wonderful hugs and eases the burdon of heart's longings.
(((((((♥))))))) for all
 
Diane, you wrote
"To those who see this world as part of God's Creation of the Earth's evolution, death will come naturally and gently."  
Robert Muller  
I do believe this.  Yes I do. 
Thank you all for your beautiful wonderful words. photos, stories, hugs and more.  Liliwings

No need to spend endless hours, days, weeks searching for the rainbow.  Open your heart and your eyes to see and know you are the rainbow you seek.  Rejoyce in the beauty of the co-creation of you.

Goodness . . .
I came here to post a poem,
and found a continued conversation
that I have somehow missed.
Thank you all for hugs in return
and for shared  beautiful stories.
I too, am overwhelmed.
The image of your 'dirty' hands
extended to your friend
stands out to me . . .
I am sure his heart was warmed
whether your hands were dirty or not . . .
truly,
our skin  hungers for touch
as our hearts hunger for love
and understanding.
Coming here,
to this place
satisfies a hunger in me . . .
(((((((♥)))))))
Consider yourselves hugged . . . 
 
I came upon this poem today,
and thought to share it . . .
it speaks of trust in a more universal way
than I had really thought about . . .
 
Trust
Oh we’ve got to trust
one another again
in some essentials.
 
Not the narrow little
bargaining trust
that says: I’m for you
if you’ll be for me. -
 
But a bigger trust,
a trust of the sun
that does not bother
about moth and rust,
and we see it shining
in one another.
 
Oh don’t you trust me,
don’t burden me
with your life and affairs; don’t
thrust me
into your cares.
 
But I think you may trust
the sun in me
that glows with just
as much glow as you see
in me, and no more.
 
But if it warms
your heart’s quick core
why then trust it, it forms
one faithfulness more.
 
And be, oh be
a sun to me,
not a weary, insistent
personality
 
but a sun that shines
and goes dark, but shines
again and entwines
with the sunshine in me
 
till we both of us
are more glorious
and more sunny.
D. H. Lawrence, 1885 – 1930
 
   ♥

everything counts... ♥

Sparrow, thank you for this beautiful poem!
 
Jude ♥

Love is the only way

I am glad that you like the poem,
Jude . . .
the more I read it
the more important
is what it is saying to me.
Even after I read it
and liked it
and posted it here . . .
coming back to read it again,
it is all the more profound
in its message
for me 
   ♥

everything counts... ♥

Thank you, dear Sparrow,

 for sharing this valuable poem. You are so right: when something is profound, it gets more profound each time one reads and ponders it!

Juliana

"Speak Peace in a World of Conflict" (M.B.Rosenberg)

till we both of us are more glorious and more sunny.

 
This is a beautiful poem Lilsparrow!
Thanks for sharing it!
 
Peace, love and joy,
Diane

Grateful to be here!
What a gift and connection builder!
Love and Gratitude,
Love who You Are

Grateful to be here!
What a gift and connection builder!
Love and Gratitude,
Love who You Are

Grateful to be here!
What a gift and connection builder!
Love and Gratitude,
Love who You Are