love is like a precious plant

 

We've got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant. 

You can't just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it's going to get on by itself. 

You've got to keep watering it. 

You've got to really look after it and nurture it.

John Lennon

the frog

Be kind and tender to the Frog,
And do not call him names,
As "Slimy skin," or "Polly-wog,"
Or likewise "Ugly James,"
Or "Gap-a-grin," or "Toad-gone-wrong,"
Or "Bill Bandy-knees":
The Frog is justly sensitive
To epithets like these.

No animal will more repay
A treatment kind and fair;
At least so lonely people say
Who keep a frog (and, by the way,
They are extremely rare). 

Hilaire Belloc

swan lake

And over the pond are sailing
Two swans all white as snow;
Sweet voices mysteriously wailing
Pierce through me as onward they go.
They sail along, and a ringing
Sweet melody rises on high;
And when the swans begin singing,
They presently must die. 

Heinrich Heine, Early Poems

changing times

 

 New thoughts and hopes were whirling through my mind, and all the colours of my life were changing.

Charles Dickens, David Copperfield