"People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child -- our own two eyes. All is a miracle."

-- Thich Nhat Hanh

From a book called "The Divine Feminine" by Andrew Harvey and Anne Baring, out of a book of prayers called "Prayers for Healing: 365 Blessings, Poems and Meditations from Around the World" edited by Maggie Oman.

Beehive source
Trellaced womb
Mother of all beginnings

Hold me
Gather me
Feed me
With the honey-nectar
From the hive

Nourished
I will sing
The Bee-song
The long forgotten threnody
Of praise to Thee.

- by Anne Baring

You know you're from Vermont when:


1. Your idea of a traffic jam is ten cars waiting to pass a tractor on the highway.

2. "Vacation" means going to Burlington for the weekend.

3. You measure distance in hours.

4. You know several people who have hit moose more than once.

5. You often switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day.

6. You use a down comforter in the summer.

7. Your grandparents drive at 65 mph through 13 feet of snow during a raging blizzard, without flinching.

8. You see people wearing hunting clothes at social events.

9. You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.

10. You think of the major food groups as deer meat, beer, fish, and berries.

11. You carry jumper cables in your car and your girlfriend knows how to use them.

12. There are 7 empty cars running in the parking lot at the Derby store at any given time.

13. You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.

14. Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow.

15. You think sexy lingerie is tube socks and flannel pajamas.

16. It takes you 3 hours to go to the store for one item even when you're in a rush because you have to stop and talk to everyone in town.

17. You actually understand these jokes.

The beginning of the new crop is a time to pause and give thanks. We will gather this special honey for three or so days, depending on how many yards have the combination of flowers, precipitation, temperature, bee flight and all of the mysterious factors that bring on the crop. This is the lightest honey of the season, and it will stay liquid the longest. As this is less than 5% of the crop, the supply is limited and available until sold out. Each jar of the First Fruits honey has a label on the cap indicating this.

2 Chronicles 31: 5

As soon as the order went out, the Isrealites generously gave the first fruits of their grain, new wine, oil and honey and all that the fields produced.

Pleasant words are as honeycomb, sweet to the soul. Proverbs 16:24

Question: How come one side of a "V" formation of geese flying south is always shorter than the other?

Answer: Less geese

From Bill Engelhardt, Antwerp, New York

President Calvin Coolidge was a native of Plymouth, Vermont. When visiting his home state in September 1928, he delivered this speech from the back of a train in Bennington. Vermont was struggling to recover from a devastating flood at that time.
Vermont is a state I love.
I could not look upon the peaks of Ascutney, Killington, Mansfield, and Equinox without being moved in a way that no other scene could move me.
It was here that I first saw the light of day; here I received my bride; here my dead lie pillowed on the loving breast of our everlasting hills.
I love Vermont because of her hills and valleys, here scenery and invigorating climate, but most of all, because of her indomitable people. They are a race of pioneers who have almost beggared themselves to serve others. If the spirit of liberty should vanish in other parts of the Union and support of our institutions should languish, it could all be replenished from the generous store held by the people of this brave little state of Vermont.