The Touch Of Christmas ~

"I'll hold out my hand and my heart will be in it."

Nat King Cole

*  *  *

"Have a heart that never hardens,

and a temper that never tires,

and a touch that never hurts."

Charles Dickens

*  *  *

Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/touch.html#KiutBXff2zAtAqbH.99

Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/touch.html#KiutBXff2zAtAqbH.99

Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/touch.html#KiutBXff2zAtAqbH.99

Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/touch.html#KiutBXff2zAtAqbH.9*  *  *

Through His Eyes ~

"It is good to be children sometimes,

 and never better than at Christmas,

 when its mighty founder was a child himself."

Charles Dickens

*  *  *

may the wonder

of the Christ

bless you anew

Approach ~

the summer

is almost spent

 autumn advances

 nearer the threshold

*  *  *

Nature gives to

 every time and season

 some beauties of its own;

 and from morning to night,

 as from the cradle to the grave,

 it is but a succession of changes

 so gentle and easy that

 we can scarcely mark

 their progress

Charles Dickens

*  *  *

October's Amen ~

"On the motionless branches of some trees,

 autumn berries 

hung like clusters of coral beads,

 as in those fabled orchards where the fruits were jewels."

 Charles Dickens

*  *  *

thinking of those

for whom October has brought

devastation and loss

An Appetite Subdued ~

subdue your appetites

my dears

and you've conquered

human nature

Charles Dickens

* * *

miniature

crab apples

on an

ornamental flowering

crab-apple tree