Bashful

Peonies, in the Victorian Language of Flowers have several meanings.  Bashful being one of them.  To capture this delicate flower on a breezy morning just after a rain shower I used the following settings: SS 1/800 F 5.0 ISO 400.  As always, the shallow depth of field produced a magical and ethereal effect.

2013 Peony Series – 09

“Once my heart was captured, reason was shown the door, deliberately and with a sort of frantic joy. I accepted everything, I believed everything, without struggle, without suffering, without regret, without false shame. How can one blush for what one adores?” – George Sand

Blush of Innocence

2013 Peony Series – 08

Seeking the Beyond

2013 Peony Series – 06

“The dew of compassion is a tear.” – Lord Byron

Compassionate Joy

2013 Peony Series – 05

 “Blushing is the color of virtue.” – Diogenes Diogenes

Bashful

2013 Peony Series – 04

“The way you overcome shyness is to become so wrapped up in something that you forget to be afraid.” – Lady Bird Johnson

Wrapped

2013 Peony Series – 07

“Experts on romance say for a happy marriage there has to be more than a passionate love. For a lasting union, they insist, there must be a genuine liking for each other. Which, in my book, is a good definition for friendship.” – Marilyn Monroe

Layers of Marriage

Layers of Happiness

Because it really does take more than passion to make marriage a success.  It really does take one layer of relationship after another to make it work.

2013 Peony Series – 03

“A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying… that he is wiser today than yesterday.”- Jonathan Swift

No Shame

2013 Peony Series – 02

“For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

60 Seconds of Happiness

Why the above quote?  In my post titled  “2013 Peony Series – 01” I provided the meanings of the Peony.  Anger was one of the meanings.  I chose this quote and image not because the image makes me feel angry, but because if you look closely at the image there is a Peony hiding in the background as though perhaps it is angry, or has caused anger.

I love the quote because it is so true and there is no value in holding onto anger, only in letting it go.

 

2013 Peony Series – 01

“I confess that I love him, I rejoice that I love him, I thank the maker of Heaven and Earth that gave him to me. The exultation floods me.”-

– Emily Dickinson

 

Heavenly

As an introduction to the Peony series I must share with you the meanings of the Peony in the language of flowers.  The meanings vary and include a wide range of emotions.

Peony: Shame, happy marriage, compassion, anger, bashfulness

The image posted above is titled heavenly because it appears that the flower petals float off into infinity, or heaven.  It is dreamy, like pink clouds. The quote links the meaning of the peony, happy marriage, with the title of the image.  Love and heaven united.