Buddha of Suburbia

Sunset near Thorp Spring

A merry heart doeth the spirit good like a medicine:
but a broken spirit drieth the bones.

Bert asked where that quote came from. I guessed it was a Proverb. The Book of Proverbs, put together or created by wise old Soloman. I wrote: "...sounds like a proverb out of the Bible.... could be just in the "style" of such a proverb...." and sent it on to friends: Shirley wrote: "Isaiah 28-31, The Bible Somewhere along in there I think?"
Ronnie actually looked it up: "It is in the Bible in the book of Proverbs 17:22.
and added:
Here's another 'Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones'.
Proverbs 16:24"

Some people like my ideas. I will become the Buddha of Suburbia.... gather the faithful and bestow blessings... distribute my weight in words to the poor......

to a friend on OM early this morning:

.......Keeping positive is the main thing. There is so much to learn and enjoy about this amazing life of ours, this improbable and unique world, with its wonderful, seemingly infinite aspects.

I think many religions agree: The first question in the Westminster Catechism of the Presbyterian church, I grew up in, almost literally, is:

What is Man's chief end? the answer: To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

The river that formed the lake below me was named Los Brazos, by the Spaniards first Whites to encounter it... brazos means "arms" and the full name was Brazos de Dios, arms of God. I like to think I live above those, in those, and praise Him for that. I am not near as religious as I sometimes sound, though...

I set up my bird feeder in a clearing, well not exactly, but among shrubs and trees, here in North Central Texas, 30 miles south-west of Ft Worth, in rolling limestone hills, I built my cabin above canyon-like gullies, covered with thickets of oak, elm, sumac, hack-bury. I have a good view of Lake Granbury, an impoundment of the Rio Brazos, which cuts the town, 8 miles away, in two, the lake being very thin, with a mesa formation, called Comanche Peak just to the south, over the town... which dates from the 1870's (the town that is) and is quite "charming". I prefer to live in the woods, 9 miles north, 20 acres, but I ramble off into a thicket of TMI...

...all the birds have not found my new site, after 2 years, but maybe if is a change in the food I give them. I get a lot of cardinal, chicadee, tit-mouse activity, but cannot get the finches. I think they need a more open area like before. Plenty of doves, at least two breeding pairs of road runners, who are like chickens who hang around wherever they like. One likes to perch on my roof peak and sing a plaintive song. I fancy a sad soul who cannot find a mate. They are beautiful birds, improbably goofy looking at the same time!!!! If I leave a glass or mirror outside they will come and admire themselves.

Some white-throats and rufus crowned sparrows are here, but the latter along with the bob-white quail, I do not see anymore, recently, and guess that the exploding fire-ant population is the culprit, getting the babies, since they nest on the ground. Road runners do too, but they may be a lot tougher... I can sometimes hear, occasionally see one of the virios, and some summers, the painted buntings come to the feeder. I mean to add some more feeder locations. Would love to get the goldfinches coming back.... Down on the lake there are the usual shore birds. ducks and egrets... and every now and then big bunches of white pelicans with their 8 ft wing span.... recently during dry times, there were sand-pipers. Oh and some little ruby crowned kinglets and junkos in the winter...

birds birds birds.... love them all.....