Food for Thought

 "Courage is doing what your afraid to do.  There is no courage unless your scared."  Eddie Rickenbacker ShadowShotSunday2

Winter Solstice

"So the shortest day came, and the year died,

And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world

Came people singing, dancing,

To drive the dark away.

They lighted candles in the winter trees;

They hung their homes with evergreen;

They burned beseeching fires all night long

To keep the year alive,

And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake

They shouted, reveling.

Through all the frosty ages you can hear them

Echoing behind us - Listen!!

All the long echoes sing the same delight,

This shortest day,

As promise wakens in the sleeping land:

They carol, fest, give thanks,

And dearly love their friends,

And hope for peace.

And so do we, here, now,

This year and every year. Welcome Yule!!"

Susan Cooper, The Shortest Day


This is a re-post from December 22, 2011

Better Late Than Never

Usually I put this up on the first day of October, but like the title says...😉

An Autumn Quote

"Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting, and autumn a mosaic of them all."  Stanley Horowitz

A Quote for Thurday

"I've been thinking of heaven recently.  Not the heaven of avarice - a heaven full of mansions and streets of gold - but heaven as a real, physical place.  There is something about clear nights in the winter, the perfection of snow and ice in the light from the stars and the moon that always reminds me of the existence of God.  When it's cold enough, the sky seems to empty and there is an infinite darkness, a sense that there is something unreachable and never-ending, something past the idea of heaven."  from "Touch" by Alex Zentner, photo by Joni Niemelda

It's snowing here again today.  What a wonderful winter this has been so far!  I hope there's lots more snow and rain in Southern California's winter.

Imagining

I am one of those who has no trouble imagining the sentient lives of trees, of their leaves in some fashion communicating, or of the massy trunks and heavy branches knowing it is I who have come, as I always come each morning, to walk beneath them, glad to be alive and glad to be there. ~~ Mary Oliver 

I took this photo on a particularly beautiful morning in April of 2011.  It's nowhere near as green here now. 

A Sunday Quote

A house without a cat, and a well-fed, well-petted, and properly revered cat, may be a perfect house, perhaps, but how can it prove its title? ~~  Mark Twain 

Photo is of Lucy at five months old; she's two now, still just as cute...

A Quote for Monday

Logic will get you from A to Z, but imagination will get you everywhere.  Albert Einstein

A Quote

To be overcome by the fragrance of flowers is a delectable form of defeat. ~ Beverly Nichols 

Thursday's Quote

When you reach a certain age you realize that life is finite.  You can be depressed by that...or you can say, "I'm going to appreciate every minute to its maximum potential."  Gordon Sumner (Sting)

Tea and a Quote

Brew me a cup for a winter's night, for the wind howls loud and the furies fight. ~~ M.T. Antrim 

Last night ~ well, really, this morning ~ I couldn't sleep.  I came down and made a pot of tea in one of my favorite pots.  I didn't realize it was that late ~ or that early ~ until I was settled and looked at the clock.  I decided that, since I probably wouldn't be able to return to sleep, I'd go ahead and make a fire to keep me company through the wee hours.  Then, looking around at the sleeping cats, I thought I'd get my camera and get some photos.  As soon as they heard me getting into the camera bag they took off for upstairs!  So, I took a photo of the teapot and cup instead.  I've always wondered why I wake up on nights like these at exactly 3:00 a.m.  Never mind the "witching hour," I heard someone say once that 3 a.m. is the hour of the demons.  I think that's more appropriate; it seems like that's when my demon, also known as "worry", visits me.  Hopefully, I'll sleep tonight...

Monday's Quote

There is nothing in the world more beautiful than the forest clothed to its very hollows in snow.  It is the still ecstasy of nature, wherein every spray, every blade of grass, every spire of reed, every intricacy of twig, is clad with radiance.  ~~  William Sharp

Monday's Quote

"One can dream so much better in a room where there are pretty things."  L.M. Montgomery

Photo from Pinterest.

Monday's Quote

There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want. ~~ Bill Waterson

A Quote for Monday

"Would you like an adventure now...

...or would you like to have your tea first?"  ~~ J.M. Barrie

Monday's Quote

I was uplifted above a world of love, hate and storms of passion, for I was calm amidst the eternal silences, bathing in the living blue.  Peace rested that one bright day on the mountaintop.  ~~ Isabella Bird,  "A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains" 

Monday's Quote

Photo from Pinterest

Monday's Quote

Pay heed to the tales of old wives.  It may well be that they alone keep in memory what was once needful for the wise to know.  J.R.R. Tolkien

Monday's Quote

The true nature of the world is veiled, and if you shine a bright light on it, you can't expose that truth; it melts away with the shadows in which it was cloaked.  The truth is too awesome for us to stare directly at it, and we are meant to glimpse it only at the periphery of our vision.  If the landscape of your mind is too dark with fear or doubt or anger, you are blind to all truth.  But if your mental landscape is too bright with certitude and arrogance, you are snow-blind and likewise unable to see what lies before you.  Only the moonlit mind allows wonder, and it is in the thrall of wonder that you can see the intricate weave of the world of which you are but one thread, one fantastic and essential thread.  Dean Koontz, The Moonlit Mind

Monday's Quote

"It was the season of ghosts.  They had gathered themselves, building up their strength to wander the fields and roads of October and speak to those who would listen."    From "Boy's Life" by Robert R. McCammon