They flew to my hat, then my shoulder and finally to where you see them here. A coupled pair of Gorgeous butterflies, Eastern Black Swallowtail butterflies. I was paralyzed with Joy! We were at the Butterflies and Blooms Briar Patch Habitat in Eatonton, Georgia. 886 miles from my birthplace in Brooklyn, New York. These were wild butterflies. Sylbie was there too, and she took this photograph of me, teared-up and all. Frieda A”H (OBM) was gone some 8 years by then, and my life was challenged, that day.

Those Brooklyn streets, no food in the house, G-d sent Frieda, teaching, H.S. Dean (not for the ‘good’ kids), NYARNG ARTY & OCSchool. much success in NYNY real estate . . . treacherous partners, no more bricks, Pittsburgh, children and grandchildren, Frieda gone . . . searching. Always the lone rider, so to speak. Gardening since back in 1975, those dirty fingernails for 1/2 a year.

Georgia? Only superlatives. Today, remnants of a nasty ‘cold.’ The sun is shining this morning on my sizable Georgia natives garden. It will begin to awake in February. February! Not late April, but February!

This photo, my one in a Billion, evokes this famous thought shared by Ralph Waldo Emerson:

What is Success?  To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate the Beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a Healthy child, a Garden Patch or a Redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

I sat here this morning, dwelled here at this image of me, and this is what I share.

Jeff