The Garden of Content

"It depends on how much love we give out, as to what tune we hear, for if we love well, we live well and happily, stepping briskly to an inspiring tune." -Emily Ridgway

I ordered this wonderful old book from abebooks and the description noted that there was a handwritten dedication on the first page. I was just as excited to receive the book itself as I was to read what some person unknown to me had written for a loved one almost 100 years ago. Holding the same book in their hands as me. 

The inscription reads like this:

Ethel Moss

With love & every good wish

From G. Ellis

April 19, 1916

Be True

Thou must be true thyself

If thou the truth wouldst teach

Thy soul must overflow if thou

Another's heart wouldst reach

It needs the overflow of heart

To give the lips full speech.

Think truly and thy thoughts

Shall the world's famine feed

Speak truly and each word of thine

Shall be a fruitful seed

Live truly and thy life shall be

A great and noble deed.

Doesn't it make you wonder who G. Ellis was? And who Ethel Moss was, as well? Do you also wonder what the occassion was, and what their relationship was? We'll never know. All we know is that after many years, this copy was placed in my hands, and I shall pass it down one day, too.

The other day on a walk in the fields something caught my eye. Could it be? Two five-leaf clovers, growing right beside one another. I picked them and pressed them between book pages. Now they are safe in my Emily Ridgway book, a small treasure which may hold meaning; after all, people have speculated for a long time that I will one day bare twins. So what do you think, are the twin five-leaf clovers a sign?