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Henry Ford (1863-1947) said,
“If you think you can,
or if you think you can’t,
you’re right.”

He also said other great things like...

"Any customer can have a car (Model T) painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black."

and

"If I'd asked consumers what they wanted, they would have asked for faster horses."

no good reason not to take that risk, then. and do what you think you cannot do. speaking of which I better go and write.

(photo: Madrid, 1933--Cartier Bresson)

(doorway of an old Sussex church, England)

"A vision without a task is but a dream.
A task without a vision is drudgery.
A vision with a task is the hope of the world."
-- From a church in Sussex, 1730

At my prep school in the New Forest (Hampshire, England), we had a wood where the flowers took turns coming out: first the crocuses came, then the snowbells, then the daffodils, then the blue bells. It was all very polite. And British (even the flowers queue up).

And wonderful, too, because it was like having four different woods: a crocus wood, a snow bell wood, a blue bell wood, a daffodil wood. The flowers seemed to hover over the forest floor, like a mist. Purple, white, blue, yellow. Much as you see in this photo.

That's the thing about Spring in England, it's so beautiful and long and drawn out, stretching from March into May and forever.

In the States (at least where I live on the East Coast), there is none of this ambling, luxuriating, British Spring business. Spring is so short the flowers can't possibly wait their turn and come out all together at once like the Hallelujah Chorus. And for three weeks straight they're all out together waving at you in a startling parade of joy.

I love Spring in whichever way it comes--the English ramble or the American sprint--it's such the show off time of year. All finery and lace and dancing on tip toes. The cherry trees, the bright green early leaves, all the tiny budding things--everyone is dressed to the nines, in their best easter outfits and hats and scarfs and shoes. No expense is spared.

And to think, it's all part of a Heavenly Song of praise...

"The Heavens are singing about how great God is;
and the skies are shouting it out,
'See what God has made!'
Day after day... night after night...
They are speaking to us."
Paraphrase of Psalm 19:1-2, from The Jesus Storybook Bible