I Shall be Released . . .or not

I want you to take a good look at this picture and tell me what you see. Okay?



It's an emergency trunk release in case you're loading groceries in the back of your car and a snowplow barrels by, knocking you into the trunk and slamming the lid. Snowplows in this part of the country are formidable machines. They scare everthing out of the way.



I had forgotten the trunk had an emergency release until the other day. Guess I don't spend much time hanging out in there, thank goodness. I suppose that handy gadget was invented either by Jack Bauer's crack team of spy tech/terrorism prevention folks, or the kid that had the sad misfortune of attending a drive-in movie with a group of his teenage friends(The Professor being among them). That was back in the day when boys of a certain age would attempt petty larceny by implementing the trojan horse routine at a drive-in movie. (The driver pays, the rest hide out in the trunk until the coast is clear).

As The Professor tells the tale(and he is a very eloquent tale teller), on this occasion all had money for a ticket except this one guy. He rode in the trunk. But one can never be assured that charity courses purely through the veins of teenage boys. His "friends" held the hapless lad hostage in the trunk until after the movie was over. I think surely that would be the kind of traumatizing event that births either great genius or serial killers.

Of course, I may be wrong.

The moral of this story is. . .cheaters never prosper. And don't willingly crawl into a car trunk.

(The preceding was brought to you by The Professor. He is the one with whom I've shared the last thirtysomething years. My husband, friend, and protector. A man of wisdom, patience, and courage. And although he was a big city lawyer in another life, at one time harbored a speck of petty larceny in his teenage heart.

DISCLAIMER: No teenage boys were harmed in the telling of this story. Iron Acres neither condones nor endorses locking people in a car trunk.)

Two Roads

It started out very promisingly. Our itinerary included food shopping in a huge outdoor city market an hour away, and a trip to the airport for the lucky one who was blowing this icicle stand for a brief stay in the promised land (Texas). There were five of us, two over 35, and three under 24. Here is where you need your imagination. Pretend this is one of those movie trailers where you see flashes of picture and dialogue:

"Don't look to the right." "I looked already." "He caught MY attention!"

"Don't start with me, I'll have you arrested".

"Are we parking like this?" Long pause. "Oh, I see (the no parking sign)." Freeze frame.

Now drop all of this into the milieu of a downtown major metropolis, crowds of people, vehicles, and street vendors. Did I mention crowds of people? And don't forget the olfactory overload from all the exotic ethnic food shops. Maybe add in a soundtrack composed by. . . James Horner.

We were about 30 minutes into our outing. Having fun. Teasing each other. Being jostled by the crowds. Carrying bags of goodies we had purchased from the Asian market--for me it was fresh lemongrass and sesame seed cakes.

[Here I digress to explain how you, too, can have the lemony goodness of lemongrass in your home.

1. Buy a few fresh bundles of lemon grass from an Asian market. Go here to see what it looks like and follow steps 1-3 at that site.

2. Place in a recycled jelly jar or beautiful thin vase.

3. Fill container about 1/4 full with water. Refresh water daily. Roots will appear quickly.

4. Plant in a wet place in your garden in the spring. The lemongrass will multiply rapidly.

5. You are now ready to revisit this website for steps 4 and beyond on how to use lemongrass in Thai cooking.

We now bring you back to your regularly scheduled programming.]

For the others it was rice,



and a longing glance at a package of dried multi legged sea creatures.



That was definitely NOT on my list. I adhere to a strict diet that prohibits the consumption of anything with eyes still intact, or possessing more than four legs. The only exception is shrimp. I don't care HOW many eyes or legs they have. Shrimp fried, shrimp boiled, shrimp cocktail, shrimp gumbo . . . sorry, I flashed on the wrong movie. Where were we?

If I had indulged in those multi-legged dried delicacies, I would probably have needed this:


(The detox tea.)

Next stop was a small biscotti shop brimming over with people and baked goodies. Fresh biscotti, chocolate radical cookies, and hearty artisan breads all enticed me with their beautiful textures and aromas. Now THIS is MY kind of food. No eyes or legs, just lots of flour, chocolate and sugar. Yummo!





We dodged this bus--


to cross the street and get this picture (I wonder what that wonderful little old building has seen in its lifetime).


Nearby was a Polish shop. What do Polish people eat that I don't? Evidently, lots of jelly. And they have their own parking signs at sporting events.




Then on to the Italian shop. It was there, surrounded by a horde of people jockeying for their turn at the cheese deli counter that I made the horrifying discovery. (horrifying discovery music, please-- dundunduh).

MY CAMERA WAS MISSING!!!!

I hurriedly searched through my bags(which were numerous by now). I replayed the events in my mind. Two of my friends dashed back to the biscotti shop where I remembered taking my last picture. Nothing. No camera.


Where WAS it? My mind was numb. I was moving in slow motion. Had someone taken it? That camera was like a child to me. Had the dingo eaten my baby? (name that film)



I resigned myself to the fact that there was nothing left to do but leave a phone number and name at the two shops, then continue on our way.

I prayed my precious bundle of digitalisciousness was not languishing with a tiny gag wrapped around its lens in the trunk of a nearby car. I hoped little Lumix remembered family emergency procedures.



Two hours later, as we approached the bakery on our way back down the street, I stopped in for one more hopeful query. The baker greeted me. He tenderly handed the camera to me and said, "I'm glad they brought it back."

Insert Handel's Hallelujah Chorus sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

Party time!!! We headed across the street for the Spanish market to buy a humongous bag of fresh tortilla chips(it was still warm when I picked it up), the best guacamole I had ever tasted outside of Texas, and some Mexican soda. I still have some chips. It was a BIG bag, but the guac was gone quickly.




We filled the trunk with all sorts of non perishable culinary delights and headed for the airport.



(No, I do NOT consider dog food a non perishable culinary delight, that is, unless you are a dog. THAT found its way to the trunk prior to our big city adventure.)

After saying goodbye to our traveling friend, we began the hour and a half drive home. There was a reflective mood in the car. (We couldn't believe we'd eaten the WHOLE guacamole!)




As we neared home, the sun was setting. I was grateful to have left the chaos and crowds far behind.

I was grateful for my friends.

I was grateful for my camera.

But mostly, I was grateful for that stranger who faced temptation and walked away a better person. He or she made a good choice.

For both of us.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.--Robert Frost

Deceased Squirrel, with Apologies to Rocky the Flying

I kid you not (name that talk show host), the following is attributed to the Washington Post:
"Why do people give each other flowers? To celebrate various important occasions, they're killing living creatures? Why restrict it to plants? "Sweetheart, let's make up. Have this deceased squirrel."

What would you prefer to receive from your sweetheart today, a deceased squirrel(please use your imagination here, this is a violence free site) . . .



or this?


While I wait for your answer, here are a few flower quotes to ponder.


We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.
Abraham Lincoln


I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck.
Emma Goldman


Where flowers bloom so does hope.
Lady Bird Johnson, Public Roads: Where Flowers Bloom

Even though he was tempted this year to throw caution to the wind and offer up a unique, recycled, earth (but not rodent) friendly expression of affection like the aforementioned; cooler heads prevailed, tradition triumphed, and the love of my life these thirtysomething years(The Professor) presented me with these:



I must admit, I agree with Emma--I'd rather have roses, too.

Whatever your relationship status this Valentine's Day, go take a gander at this expression of love: the Free Hugs Campaign.

And grab your hankie, you're gonna need it.

There's no place like Texas

There's no place like home. Especially when home is huge, warm, and a little . . . reality challenged. There's a saying that the difference between the south and the north is that in the south, we take pride in our, uh, "eccentric" relations whereas in the north, they hide them in the closet.

How else can you explain a region that advertises everything under the sun either wrapped in a humongous state flag or in the shape of the state itself?

Snack crackers in various flavors, tortilla chips, pasta, ice cubes, cake pans, potholders, and more all can be found pressed into the identifiable Texas shape.

The flag flies literally everywhere. And in mythic proportions. It finds its way into every graphic imaginable, including well know logos.

Major US auto makers Ford and Chevrolet, and even Nissan produce several Texas edition vehicles.

Texans are independent folk and like their politicians colorful. The chief qualification for a governor is ownership of a ranch(if you are busy working your ranch, less time can be spent messing things up in the state capitol), or star quality.

I'm sure there were those diehard Texans that thought we missed a great opportunity a few years ago just to have the bragging rights that our governor was Kinky.


People outside of Texas expect us to live in an altered state of reality, too. I remember my junior high math teacher, a gentleman from Pennsylvania, relating to our class how his family had expected him to return from Texas sporting cowboy boots, a ten gallon hat, and driving a cadillac with longhorns mounted to the hood.

Cows and cowboys are an important part of Texas history.

My favorite part of Texas, next to Blue Bell ice cream, good Tex Mex cuisine, warmer weather, and my family, is a certain place under the gnarled and twisted canopy of a liveoak tree in Washington County. My own little part of Texas where I can dream, live large, and gracefully become one of those, uh "eccentric" relations.

Hopefully it won't have to wait too long.

Panic Attack!

Yesterday the winds came. They blew loudly all night long. I just love it when the weather changes abruptly. It brings to the day all kinds of adventure that the gods of electronic gaming can only dream of replicating. REALLY wild adventures . . . like chasing the garbage can lid down the street while dodging speeding school buses and wearing only a long flannel robe and a pair of floppy house shoes, or firing up my computer only to find my internet service is NOT WORKING!!!!!

Hey, I've become a master at dodging school buses, no sweat. But the idea of a day without the internet causes an immediate panic attack. What am I going to do? I've been mainlining instant information on a daily basis for almost 17 years! I can get by without tv, the usb hamster wheel, the considerate toilet seat , but I HAFTA have my internet fix! I immediately assumed the fetal position (and for a sixtysomething mother, grandmother, wife and spiritual friend in training who eschews exercise that is no easy position to assume.)

How did this happen? I can remember life before tv, before cable, before disposable diapers, before aerosol cheese(and what gourmet chef came up with that idea?). But life before the internet, in Greenland? Inconceivable! (name that movie*.)

So, I did the next best thing to calling Jack Bauer. I called my friendly neighborhood internet provider. The problem was quickly resolved (resetting my wireless router thingie, a persistent internet terrorist). Disaster was averted. And I only spent ten minutes huddled in the fetal position. Of course, I had to call the local volunteer fire and rescue service to help me get up off the floor . . .

Are you a net addict, too? Click on the title above to test yourself.

*The Princess Bride

Swallowing the sun

Have you ever swallowed the sun? We all share the same concerns about our mortal frailties and the fear that others will discover them. But on rare occasions, a fleeting burst of brilliance will overtake us, then vanish, leaving us to wonder what just happened--did we experience an alien encounter?

Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love(no, I have not read the book, and evidently am in the minority on that) in a TEDTalk* describes the difficulty of creative process(when frail humanity meets fleeting genius) as "swallowing the sun". It's a wonderful metaphor for transcendence, and transcendence is more common to the human experience than most of us will admit.

Teilhard de Chardin wrote, “You are not a human being in search of a spiritual experience. You are a spiritual being immersed in a human experience.” We feel most real, most alive, when we touch the spiritual.

If you want to view Gilbert's talk for yourself, just click on the title above.

*"TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. . .TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts."

Tuesday Morning Confession...

I LOVE the internet and chasing information rabbit trails. I can waste TOO much time sitting in front of my computer clicking away. Can you relate?

I submit for your review(name that tv show) Flickr, a free(limited) or paid site to post your videos and photographs. Your own parking garage for all the images you want to share with family, or you can join interest specific groups and invite others to comment on your artistic endeavors. Flickr has a group for everything, literally: empty chairs, vanishing points, toilets-over 1400 groups, fingers-1800+(one has to wonder why "things getting the finger" merits a group of its own!), teeth-almost 1800, water-61K(that's THOUSANDS). You get the, ahem, picture. (I'd better stop here or I'll spend the next two hours trying to find something for which Flickr DOESN'T have a group! See how easily I get distracted?)



So... I recently found this group, Project 365. A picture a day for a year. Today we are experiencing what yankees* call the February thaw, that delightful couple of days break in the ice and snow for warmer temps, fog and mud immediately followed by ice and more snow for a few more months. Ahhhhh, the joys of living in a climate with four seasons as opposed to my native country of Texas, where there are only two: hot and hotter.

*(I apologize if anyone was offended, but I was raised in a household where Gone With the Wind was displayed proudly on the coffee table along with the Bible, a Yankee is the proper name for anyone born north of the Mason Dixon line, and y'all is the proper second person plural.)

Christmas Music

James Taylor, "In the Bleak Midwinter"



Aled Jones, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel"



Michael W Smith, "Gloria"



Amy Grant, "Breath of Heaven"



 Christ Church Choirs, "Mary Did You Know"



Michael Crawford, "O Holy Night"



Celtic Voices, "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring"



Random Acts of Culture, Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus"
It is customary to stand at the end of The Messiah as this song is performed. What a wonderful experience this must have been, to hear the glorious hallelujahs in the contemporary marketplace. Breathtaking!




And then there are the sentimental favorites:

Trans-Siberian Orchestra, "Christmas Canon"



from the animated film, The Snowman, "Walking in the Air"



Mannheim Steamroller, "Silent Night"
I remember listening to this as I walked through knee deep snow delivering newspapers in Central New York. I experience again the quiet and beauty of a snowy evening each time I hear this.



Mannheim Steamroller, "Pat a Pan"



Bing Crosby with David Bowie, "Little Drummer Boy/Peace On Earth"



Michael Buble, "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas"



Bing Crosby, "White Christmas"



Ray Conniff Singers, "Christmas Bride"
I first heard this song when I was 12 years old. Sixteen years later, 5 days before Christmas, I married My Dear Professor.




Harry Connick Jr, "When My Heart Finds Christmas"

Quotes

This is not a list of random quotes, they are words that have brought me personal illumination. I hope they touch you as well.


If you are looking for an excellent selection of general quotes, try bartleby.


For quotes on spirituality, try Christian Quotes, Beliefnet, or Spurgeon Gems.

"All that is gold does not glitter, 

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost."

JRR Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

"Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.
Mother Teresa

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle."
Philo of Alexandria

"We have prioritized our comforts over the needs of the world around us,
and we need to repent.  We need to repent and risk it all." 
David Platt


"The question we have with the glory of God in our hearts ...the mammoth needs of a lost and dying world in front of us, and a mission to make the glory of God known in that world is-- are we going to die in our religion, or are we going to die in our devotion?  God, may your grace enable us to choose the latter."
David Platt


"O Lord that lends me life,
Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness."
William Shakespeare


"Seek to cultivate a buoyant, joyous sense of the crowded kindnesses of God
in your daily life."  
Alexander Maclaren


"And the Spring comes slowly up this way."  
Samuel Taylor Coleridge


"We can complain because rose bushes have thorns,
or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses."
Abraham Lincoln


"I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck."
Emma Goldman


"Where flowers bloom so does hope. "
Lady Bird Johnson,
Public Roads: Where Flowers Bloom


“Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees, takes off his shoes - The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.” 
Elizabeth Barrett Browning


"The earth is what we all have in common."
Wendell Berry


“If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things in nature have a message you understand, Rejoice, for your soul is alive.” 
Eleanora Dusa


"The best place to seek God is in a garden. "
GB Shaw


"Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads." 
Henry David Thoreau


"The reason birds can fly and we can't is simply because they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings." 
JM Barrie


"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul." 
John Muir

“They say that every snowflake is different. If that were true, how could the world go on? How could we ever get up off our knees? How could we ever recover from the wonder of it?”  
Jeanette Winterson

"Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure." 
George Eliot


"It is never too late to be who you might have been." 
George Eliot


 "Self-denial means knowing only Christ and no longer onself.
It means seeing only Christ, who goes ahead of us, and no longer the path that is too difficult for us.Again, self-denial is saying only: He goes ahead of us; hold fast to him."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer



"God wants your heart, not just your hands, because if he has your heart he has everything."
John Piper
 
 "We do not need the grace of God to withstand crises—human nature and pride are sufficient for us to face the stress and strain magnificently. But it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours of every day as a saint, going through drudgery, and living an ordinary, unnoticed, and ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is ingrained in us that we have to do exceptional things for God—but we do not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things of life, and holy on the ordinary streets, among ordinary people—and this is not learned in five minutes."  
Oswald Chambers


“Time is a relentless river and it rages on, respecter of no one.
And the only way to slow time is this: 
Enter fully into the current moment and the stream of time slows — slows — 
with the weight of a soul’s full attention. 
We slow the torrent by being all here. "
Ann Voskamp


 "We can walk without fear, full of hope and courage and strength to do His will, waiting for the endless good which He is always giving as fast as He can get us able to take it in." George MacDonald


"However much we may know God, the great lesson to learn is that at any minute He may break in. We are apt to overlook this element of surprise, but God never works in any other way." 
Oswald Chambers


"While there is perhaps a province in which the photograph can tell us nothing more than what we see with our own eyes, there is another in which it proves to us how little our eyes permit us to see." 
Dorothea Lange


 "Love is proved in the sacrifices it's willing to make." 
Robertson McQuilken


"To become rich is easy. Much harder is to solve the riddles of of the heart."
Syrus (Publilius Syrus)


It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.  
James Thurber


You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions. 
Naguib Mahfouz


“If you attempt to act and do for others or for the world without deepening your own self-understanding, freedom, integrity and capacity to love, you will not have anything to give others.  You will communicate to them nothing but the contagion of your own obsessions, your aggressivity, your ambitions, your delusions and ends and means…”   
Thomas Merton


"The Bible tells us that we are God's masterpieces (poiema in Greek); not only creatures, but His creations, His poems (Eph 2:10). We are living epistles (2 Cor 3:3).  And so, our lives are meant to be listened to, because it is God who is speaking into and out of and through the symphony of the years, and the masterpiece of a lifetime."  
Michael Card




"Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is...There is no event so commonplace but that God is present within it, always hiddenly, always leaving you room to recognize him or not to recognize him." 
Frederick Buechner


 "Relinquishment takes us into rugged terrain.  The climb is steep, the rocks are sharp, and the trail passes by precarious ridges.  From every human viewpoint at times it looks like we have fallen over the precipice into our death.  But we know better. We know that we are only falling into the arms of  Jesus, fully at rest."  
Richard Foster


 "Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars." 
Kahlil Gibran


“If God doesn’t rule your mundane, He doesn’t rule your life.  Because the mundane is where you live.”         
Paul David Tripp


"Give yourself fully to Jesus, He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in His love than in your weakness." 
Mother Teresa


"The season of silence is the best preparation for speech with God." Samuel Chadwick


“I’d rather see a sermon than hear one any day; 
I’d rather one should walk with me 
than merely tell me the way.” 
Edgar Guest


"Where there is fear, there is buried treasure. Something important lies hidden--something that matters--like the angel waiting in the stone that Michelangelo began to carve." 
Pat Schneider


"I thank Thee for Thy grace which waits while I laboriously acquire the soul Thou wouldst have me acquire." 
Oswald Chambers


"I pray with all my heart that I will be weary of everything else but...communion with Him." 
John Owen


"Spirit of God, free me to creatively paint the story of God's klingdom with the brush of my life. Provide the colors and guide the strokes." 
Larry Crabb
Real Church


"We are justified, not by giving anything to God, ---what we do, --- but by receiving from God, what Christ hath done for us." 
William Gurnall


"You have been used to take notice of the sayings of dying men. This is mine: that a life spent in the service of God, and communion with Him, is the most comfortable and pleasant life that anyone can live in this world." 
Matthew Henry


"Your Kingdom come around and through and in me;
Your power and glory, let them shine through me.
Your Hallowed Name, O may I bear with honor,
And may Your living Kingdom come in me.
The Bread of Life, O may I share with honor,
And may You feed a hungry world through me." 
Gloria Gaither
"I Then Shall Live"


"Solitude--The creation of an open, empty space in our lives by purposefully abstaining from interaction with other human beings, so that, freed from competing loyalties, we can be found by God." 
The Life With God Bible


"The Christian life is what you do when you realize you can do nothing." 
Dallas Willard


"Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither." 
CS Lewis


"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world." 
CS Lewis,
The Problem of Pain


"What we do on earth echoes in eternity."
The Gladiator


"A little thing is a little thing, but to be faithful in a little thing is a big thing."
Hudson Taylor


"If God sends you down a stony path, may he give you strong shoes."
An Irish Blessing


"Death is not extinguishing the light; 
it is putting out the lamp because the dawn has come." 
Rabindranath Tagore


“I slept and dreamt life was joy, 
I awoke and saw life was service, 
I acted and, behold, service was joy.” 
Rabindranath Tagore


"Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say infinitely when you mean very; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite."
CS Lewis


"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."
Jim Elliot


"It is not the act of a good disciple to flee from the cross
in order to enjoy an easy piety." 
St. John of the Cross


"Every one has a choice--to face the darkness or be consumed by it."
Spiderman 3


"Whatever comes our way, whatever battle raging inside us, we always have a choice..it's the choices that make us who we are, and we can always choose to do what's right." Spiderman 3


"Every increased possession loads us with new weariness. "
John Ruskin


"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." 
Annie Dillard


"And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference." 
Elie Wiesel


"No man can tell whether he is rich or poor by turning to his ledger . . . He is rich according to what he is, not according to what he has."
Henry Ward Beecher


"Lord, what we know not, teach us
what we have not, grant us
what we are not, make us,
for Jesus' sake, Amen"
Alistair Begg


"Did you ever find a spider's nest just when the young spiders have all come to life? It is a city of spiders. Now, such is any one sin. It is a colony of iniquities, a living mass of offense. You have but to stir it, and you will see countless sins running out of it. It is an aggregation of evils." 
Charles Spurgeon


"Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others. "
Cicero 


"Now is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It won't last forever. We must take it or leave it."
CS Lewis
The Case for Christianity


"We do not truly see light, we only see slower things lit by it, so that for us light is on the edge - the last thing we know before things become too swift for us.."
CS Lewis
Out of the Silent Planet


"Where, except in the present, can the Eternal be met? "
CS Lewis 
Christian Reflections


"A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell. "
CS Lewis


"Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours."
CS Lewis


"Until you have given up your self to Him you will not have a real self... "
CS Lewis
Mere Christianity


"It was when I was happiest that I longed most...The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing...to find the place where all the beauty came from."
CS Lewis,
Till We Have Faces


"There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, 'Thy will be done', and those to whom God says, 'All right, then, have it your way.'"
CS Lewis


"If you ask me what I came to do...I will answer, I am here to live out loud. "
Emile Zola


"You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?' "
George Bernard Shaw


"Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men."
Goethe


"One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time." 
Andre Gide


"I think computer viruses should count as life. I think it says something about human nature that the only form of life we have created so far is purely destructive. We've created life in our own image. "
Stephen Hawking


"Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps, for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are and what they ought to be."
William Hazlitt
English essayist (1778 - 1830)


"Let my worlds be few with the world and many with the Lord" 
Angie Smith


"Deep is not a place we visit in our search for God, it's what happens to us when we find him."
Calvin Miller


"The imagination needs time to browse. "
Thomas Merton


"I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies; for the hardest victory is the victory over self."
Aristotle


"In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors." 
William Blake


"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." Ralph Waldo Emerson


"And the day came when the wish to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."
Anais Nin


"People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering. "
St. Augustine (354-430)


"It is with words... as with sunbeams. The more they are condensed, the deeper they burn. " Robert Southey

"If you want to change the world, pick up your pen and write." 
Martin Luther

"In the end, more than they wanted freedom, they wanted security.  They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all -- security, comfort, and freedom.  When ... the freedom they wished for was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free." 
Sir Edward Gibbon

 

"The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first, the love of soft living and the get rich quick theory of life." Teddy Roosevelt

 "A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both."   
Dwight D. Eisenhower

"The truth must dazzle gradually, or every man be blind." 
Emily Dickinson


"Refuse to be average.  Let your heart soar as high as it will." 
AW Tozer


"Sometimes you have to let go to see if there was anything worth holding onto." Anonymous


"He who would search for pearls must dive below."  
John Dryden


"One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak."  
GK Chesterton


"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."  
Martin Luther King, Jr


"When it is darkest, men see the stars."  
Ralph Waldo Emerson


"Above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around, because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places."  
Roald Dahl


"The only way to fail is to stop." 
Teresa of Avila


"Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted;
nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed,
and some few to be chewed and digested:
that is, some books are to be read only in parts,
others to be read, but not curiously, and some few
to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention."
Francis Bacon


"Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures." Henry Ward Beecher
Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit, 1887


"The wonderful thing, whether we [my husband and I] are together or apart, is to know that he is in the world and we belong together. And what I must learn is to love with all of me, giving all of me, and yet remain whole in myself."
Madeleine L'Engle


"Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well."
Voltaire


"It is a wise father that knows his own child."
William Shakespeare


"Children require guidance and sympathy far more than instruction."
Annie Sullivan


"How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these. "
George Washington Carver


"Bitter are the tears of a child: Sweeten them.
Deep are the thoughts of a child: Quiet them.
Sharp is the grief of a child: Take it from him.
Soft is the heart of a child: Do not harden it. "
Pamela Glenconner


“Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away.” 
George Eliot


"By friendship you mean the greatest love, the greatest usefulness, the most open communication, the noblest sufferings, the severest truth, the heartiest counsel, the greatest union of minds of which brave men and women are capable. "
Jeremy Taylor


 “Every moment and every event of every man’s life on earth plants something in his soul. For just as the wind carries thousands of winged seeds, so each moment brings with it germs of spiritual vitality that come to rest imperceptibly in the minds and wills of men.” Thomas Merton


"Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without words, and never stops at all."
Emily Dickinson

"If  you would know strength and patience, welcome the company of trees."
Hal Borland

"Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower!"
Albert Camus

"Life is an echo; what you send out comes back."
Chinese Proverb

"Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful.  Welcome it in every face, in every sky, in every flower."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The wisdom of nature speaks to the hear, and nature's first language is beauty."
Tim McNulty






Christmas
“I heard the bells on Christmas Day; their old familiar carols play, and wild and sweet the word repeat of peace on earth, good-will to men!”  
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


“I am not alone at all, I thought. I was never alone at all. And that, of course, is the message of Christmas. We are never alone. Not when the night is darkest, the wind coldest, the world seemingly most indifferent. For this is still the time God chooses.” 
Taylor Caldwell


"The earth has grown old with its burden of care But at Christmas it always is young, The heart of the jewel burns lustrous and fair And its soul full of music breaks the air, When the song of angels is sung."
Phillips Brooks


"Christmas, my child, is love in action."
Dale Evans


"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas... perhaps... means a little bit more."
 Dr. Seuss


"Are you willing to forget what you have done for other people, and to remember what other people have done for you ... to remember the weakness and loneliness of people who are growing old ... Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest ting in the world ... stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death... Then you can keep Christmas! But you can never keep it alone."
Henry van Dyke


"At this festive season of the year, Mr Scrooge," said the gentleman, taking up a pen, "it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. ... We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices."
Charles Dickens 
A Christmas Carol


"Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love."
Hamilton Wright Mabie


"Christmas Eve was a night of song that wrapped itself about you like a shawl. But it warmed more than your body. It warmed your heart...filled it, too, with melody that would last forever".
Bess Streeter Aldrich


"Christmas hath a beauty ... lovelier than the world can show."
Christina G. Rossetti


"Gloria, Gloria! they cry, for their song embraces all that the Lord has begun this day: Glory to God in the highest of heavens! And peace to the people with whom he is pleased! And who are these people? With whom does the good Lord choose to take his pleasure? The shepherds. The plain and nameless--whose every name the Lord knows well. You. And me."
Walter Wangerin Jr. 
Preparing for Jesus


"He was created of a mother whom He created. He was carried by hands that He formed. He cried in the manger in wordless infancy, He the Word, without whom all human eloquence is mute." 
St. Augustine


"Rejoice, that the immortal God is born, so that mortal man may live in eternity." 
John Huss


"For a beggar to live at court is not so much as the King to dwell with him in his cottage." William Gurnall


"Jesus was God and man in one person, that God and man might be happy together again." George Whitefield


"This is Christmas: not the tinsel, not the giving and receiving, not even the carols, but the humble heart that receives anew the wondrous gift, the Christ". 
Frank McKibben


"On Christmas Day two thousand years ago, the birth of the tiny baby in an obscure village in the Middle East was God’s supreme triumph of good over evil." 
Charles Colson


"Let's approach Christmas with an expectant hush, rather than a last-minute rush."


"Christmas is the one day of the year that carries real hope and promise for all mankind." Edgar Guest








The Bible 
"Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." 
Psalm 16:11 (KJV)


"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end." 
Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NIV)www.bartleby.com