The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.

It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass
and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth
and of death, in ebb and in flow.

I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.
And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.

~Rabindranath Tagore

According to the National Pet Owners Survey conducted by the American Pet Products Association (APPA), in 1988, 56 percent of all U.S. households owned a pet. In 2009, the APPA reported that 62 percent of U.S. households own a pet.

Today, 77 million dogs and 94 million cats live with Americans and more than half of these pet owners identify their pets as members of the family.

Read the full article:

Must Love Dogs Greater Houston Weekly Top Of The Week Archives Houston Community Newspapers Online – News Around Town.

“Thank you Diane, Sunday was beautiful and healing in so many ways. I admire what you do for a living and I wish you all the best.”

One of Canada’s oldest and still surviving Victorian cemeteries is Ross Bay. When I was a kid, many stories were told about ghost sightings and spooky activity on dark nights. Even now, Victoria is reputed to be a place where paranormal activity occurs. People have reported sightings of the spirit of Isabella Ross, the woman who owned the land where the cemetery was built. Other reports include the eerie vision of a lady in white, the ghosts of a couple, and a distressed woman looking for a lost child.

One could not think up a more perfect setting for hauntings! Huge old headstones and ornate mausoleums, tall pillars and monuments of angels with wide outspread wings, tall trees bending in the wind…all fueled our imaginations!

Ross Bay Cemetery is located directly alongside Dallas Road, and was named after the bay that is across from it. In the early days, the cemetery actually extended all the way to the beach, and during heavy weather, the waves would crash right into the cemetery. Stories are told of coffins floating out to sea, and the bones of the dead being found on the beach. Eventually, Dallas Road was extended and a sea wall was built. However, I remember some stormy days when the waves crashed over the seawall, flooding Dallas Road, and threatening to flood the cemetery.

Many of British Columbia’s Premiers and famous citizens are laid to rest at Ross Bay: Sir James Douglas the founder of Fort Victoria and chief factor of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and one of my heroines, artist and writer Emily Carr amongst them.

One of the last times I visited my home town, I joined some of my classmates from Oak Bay High’s 1960 graduation class for a long walk. We cut through the cemetery to reach our lunch destination. As I walked through the well-travelled winding pathways and green spaces, I experienced Ross Bay Cemetery in a whole new way. I marveled at the absolute beauty of the Victorian monuments and statuary, the many mature trees and ever-changing blooms, and the spectacular setting looking south over the bay to the Olympic Mountains. To my eyes now, it is a place of restfulness and history. A true Victoria treasure.

This beautiful new gravestone was erected on Emily Carr’s gravesite in Ross Bay Cemetery in September 2001, and honors Emily Carr using her own words. The stone reads:

Dear Mother Earth!
I think I have always specially belonged to you. I have loved from babyhood to roll upon you, to lie with my face pressed right down on to you in my sorrows. I love the look of you and the smell of you and the feel of you. When I die, I should like to be in you uncoffined, unshrouded, the petals of flowers against my flesh, and you covering me up.