Happy New Year

There are years that ask questions, and years that answer.

~© Zora Neale Hurston~

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

~© Rudyard Kipling~

Certainty

I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of certainty about different things, but I'm not absolutely sure of anything, and many things I don't know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask why we're here, and what the question might mean. I might think about it a little bit, but if I can't figure it out, then I go on to something else. But I don't have to know an answer.... I don't feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in the mysterious universe without having any purpose, which is the way it really is, as far as I can tell, possibly. It doesn't frighten me.

~© Richard Phillips Feynman~

Everyone Needs Someone

People need people and friends need friends
And we all need love for a full life depends
Not on vast riches or great acclaim,
Not on success or on worldly fame,
But just in knowing that someone cares
And holds us close in their thoughts and prayers-
For only the knowledge that we're understood
Makes everyday living feel wonderfully good,
And we rob ourselves of life's greatest need
When we "lock up our hearts" and fail to heed
The outstretched hand reaching to find
A kindred spirit whose heart and mind
Are lonely and longing to somehow share
Our joys and sorrows and to make us aware
That life's completeness and richness depends
On the things we share with our loved ones and friends.

~© Helen Steiner Rice~

Remember

Remember that a little love goes a long way.
Remember that a lot... goes forever.
Remember that friendship is a wise investment.
Life's treasures are people... together.
Realize that it's never too late.
Do ordinary things in an extraordinary way.
Have health and hope and happiness.
Take the time to wish upon a star.
And don't ever forget... for even a day...
How very special you are.

~© Douglas Pagels~

The Heart Prefers...

The heart prefers to move against the grain of circumstance; perversity is the soul's very life.

~© John Updike~

A Sense Of Humor

Nobody says you must laugh, but a sense of humor can help you overlook the unattractive, tolerate the unpleasant, cope with the unexpected, and smile through the day.

~© Ann Landers~

The Gift Of Christmas

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

It carries the torch of brotherhood.

It is the one day in the year when most of us
grow big of heart and broad of mind.

It is the single day when most of us
are as kind and as thoughtful of others
as we know how to be;

When most of us are as gracious and generous
as we would like always to be;

When the joy of home is more important
than the profits of the office;

When peoples of all races speak cheerfully
to each other when they meet;

When high and low wish each other well;

And the one day when even enemies forgive and forget.

~© Edgar Guest~

Let Every Day Be Christmas

Christmas is forever, not for just one day,
for loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away
like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.
The good you do for others is good you do yourself.

~© Norman W. Brooks~

I Am Sure

But I am sure that I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round... as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely.

~© Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol~

Challenge to Winter

Come, Winter! Blow!
Your winds, with all their chill,
Do not scare me.
The power in your frost
Burns hot, impossibly, in my flesh.
I do not fear you, Winter,
For your might may thaw
Under the glow of the sun.

~© James Grengs~

Those Moments...

There are moments in life, when the heart is so full of emotion
That if by chance it be shaken, or into its depths like a pebble
Drops some careless word, it overflows, and its secret,
Spilt on the ground like water, can never be gathered together.

~© Henry Wadsworth Longfellow~

Nostalgia

Christmas - that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance. It may weave a spell of nostalgia. Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance - a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved.

~© Augusta E. Rundel~

Isn't It Funny...

Isn't it funny that at Christmas something in you gets so lonely for - I don't know what exactly, but it's something that you don't mind so much not having at other times.

~© Kate L. Bosher~

Our Hearts Grow Tender...

Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.

~© Laura Ingalls Wilder~

What's It All About

Life isn't about keeping score.
It's not about how many friends you have.
Not about if you have plans this weekend or if you're alone.
It isn't about who you're dating, who you used to date,
how many people you've dated,
or if you haven't been with anyone at all.
It isn't about who you have kissed, it's not about sex.
It isn't about who your family is or how much money they have.
Or what kind of car you drive.
Or where you went to school.
It's not about how beautiful or ugly you are.
Or what clothes you wear, what shoes you have on,
or what kind of music you listen to.
It's not about if your hair is blonde, red, black, or brown.
Or if your skin is too light or too dark.
Not about what grades you get, how smart you are,
how smart everybody else thinks you are,
or how smart standardized tests say you are.
It's not about what clubs you're in or how good you are at "your" sport.
It's not about representing your whole being on a piece of paper
and seeing who will "accept the written you."

But, life is about who you love and who you hurt.
It's about who you make happy or unhappy purposefully.
It's about keeping or betraying trust.
It's about friendship, used as a sanctity or a weapon.
It's about what you mean and say, maybe hurtful, maybe heartening.
About starting rumors and contributing to petty gossip.
It's about what judgments you pass and why.
And who your judgments are spread to.
It's about who you've ignored with full control and intention.
It's about jealousy, fear, ignorance, and revenge.
It's about carrying inner hate or love, letting it grow, and spreading it.

But most of all, it's about using your life to touch or poison other people's hearts in such a way that could have never occurred alone. Only you choose the way those hearts are affected, and those choices are what life's all about.

~© Author Unknown~

Friendship

A ruddy drop of manly blood
The surging sea outweighs;
The world uncertain comes and goes,
The lover rooted stays.
I fancied he was fled,
And, after many a year,
Glowed unexhausted kindliness
Like daily sunrise there.
My careful heart was free again-
O friend, my bosom said,
Through thee alone the sky is arched,
Through thee the rose is red,
All things through thee takes nobler form
And look beyond the earth,
The mill-round of our fate appears
A sun-path in thy worth.
Me too thy nobleness has taught
To master my despair;
The fountains of my hidden life
Are through thy friendship fair.

~© Ralph Waldo Emerson~

The Sun's Couch

. . . feathery curtains,
Stretching o'er the sun's bright couch.

~© Percy Bysshe Shelley~

You...

You listen to so much more than I can say. You hear consciousness. You go with me where the words I say can't carry you.

~© Kahlil Gibran~

Risk

To laugh is- to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is- to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out is- to risk involvement.

To expose your feelings is-
to risk exposing your true self.
To place you ideas, your dreams before the crowd is-
to risk their loss.

To love is- to risk not being loved in return.
To live is- to risk dying.
To hope is- to risk despair.

To try is- to risk failure.
But risks must be taken,
because the greatest hazard in life
is to risk nothing.

The person who risks nothing,
does nothing, has nothing, and
is nothing.
He may avoid suffering and sorrow,
but he simply cannot learn, feel,
change, grow, live- love.

Chained by his certitudes,
he is a slave,
he has forfeited freedom.
Only a person who risks is free.

~© Author Unknown~

From "The Stranger"

Well we all have a face
That we hide away forever
And we take them out and
Show ourselves
When everyone has gone
Some are satin some are steel
Some are silk and some are leather
They're the faces of the stranger
But we love to try them on

Well we all fall in love
But we disregard the danger
Though we share so many secrets
There are some we never tell
Why were you so surprised
That you never saw the stranger
Did you ever let your lover see
The stranger in yourself?

You may never understand
How the stranger is inspired
But he isn't always evil
And he is not always wrong
Though you drown in good intentions
You will never quench the fire
You'll give in to your desire
When the stranger comes along.

~© Billy Joel~

A Welcome Surprise

As I rounded the corner, there he was, shining in all his glory.
An overwhelming warmth rose from within, flooding my cheeks with color.
Then, he smiled upon me, acknowledging my presence, and I nearly lost control.
How I do love the Sunshine.

~© Alis Volat Propiis~

Winter

For the man sound in body and serene of mind there is no such thing as bad weather; every day has its beauty, and storms which whip the blood do but make it pulse more vigorously.

~© George Gissing~

The Simple Things

I find pleasure in things that are simple.

~© Stephan Jenkins~

From "Fear Nothing"

Sometimes I dream that I am walking on a Caribbean beach in a rain of sunshine, and the white sand under my feet seems to be a cushion of pure radiance. The warmth of the sun on my skin is more erotic than a lover's touch. In the dream, I am not merely bathed in the light but pierced by it.

~© Dean Koontz~

The West

We are from the West. The world we suggest should be of a new wild West, a sensuous, evil world, strange and haunting-the path of the sun.

~© Jim Morrison~

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

You may have thought I didn't see,
Or that I hadn't heard,
Life lessons that you taught to me,
But I got every word.

Perhaps you thought I missed it all,
And that we'd grow apart,
But Dad, I picked up everything,
It's written on my heart.

Without you, Dad, I wouldn't be
The woman I am today;
You built a strong foundation
No one can take away.

I've grown up with your values,
And I'm very glad I did;
So here's to you, dear father,
From your forever grateful kid.

~© Joanna Fuchs~

Emotions

If emotions had shape,
they'd look like clouds.

Happiness would wander across deep blue.
Small and fluffy
with no grey hue,
just bright and white
and light with the joy of it all.

Sadness would be dull and flat,
Covering all with deadpan still.
Heavy and low.
An oppressive pall
that stills and removes the reason for all.

Anger would billow up mighty and high,
both screaming white and threatening black.
Flashing and roaring
and threatening the world,
diminishing all in it’s track.

Love would be smeared across calm grey blue
like watercolour smudged with tears.
With tints of orange, pink and red
as the fiery sun finally calms
and leaves us to be content.

Hatred would be roiling low
with turbulent tones of black and grey.
Rumbling past at tree top height,
spitting and glowering
and dulling the light.

Jealousy would be hazy and thin.
Oppressive, confusing with Turner sun
corrupting the light,
distorting our sight
and leaving truth limpid.

Compassion would settle gentle and still.
A quiet white mist
on the valleys and hills
and cause us to stop
and consider the ills of the world.

Hope would be high and textured and white.
Bright lacy ribbons stretched across blue.
Threads of potential
with definite shape
that hold new promise of change in the wind.

Fear would be fog, silent and dark.
Obscuring the truth, sly moving stillness,
drifting around us to get round behind us.
Sinister spirits that steal our judgement
and make us like fools, lost.

~© David Kitching~

The True Harvest

The true harvest of my life is intangible - a little star dust caught, a portion of the rainbow I have clutched.

~© Henry David Thoreau~

Hitting The Mark

Unexpected til we came & saw it
Unbelievable as soon as seen
Hit the mark despite not aiming for it
Isn't that how things have always been?

~© Bertolt Brecht~

Inside Out

Though outwardly a gloomy shroud,
The inner half of every cloud
Is bright and shining:
I therefore turn my clouds about
And always wear them inside out
To show the lining.

~© Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler~

The Forerunner

You are your own forerunner, and the towers you have builded are but the foundation of your giant-self. And that self too shall be a foundation.

And I too am my own forerunner, for the long shadow stretching before me at sunrise shall gather under my feet at the noon hour. Yet another sunrise shall lay another shadow before me, and that also shall be gathered at another noon.

Always have we been our own forerunners, and always shall we be. And all that we have gathered and shall gather shall be but seeds for fields yet unploughed. We are the fields and the ploughmen, the gatherers and the gathered.

When you were a wandering desire in the mist, I too was there a wandering desire. Then we sought one another, and out of our eagerness dreams were born. And dreams were time limitless, and dreams were space without measure.

And when you were a silent word upon life's quivering lips, I too was there, another silent word. Then life uttered us and we came down the years throbbing with memories of yesterday and with longing for tomorrow, for yesterday was death conquered and tomorrow was birth pursued.

And now we are in God's hands. You are a sun in His right hand and I an earth in His left hand. Yet you are not more, shining, than I, shone upon.

And we, sun and earth, are but the beginning of a greater sun and a greater earth. And always shall we be the beginning.

You are your own forerunner, you the stranger passing by the gate of my garden.

And I too am my own forerunner, though I sit in the shadows of my trees and seem motionless.

~© Kahlil Gibran~

Strength

You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.

~© Marcus Aurelius~

Imagination

Those who fear the imagination condemn it:
Something childish, they say, something monsterish, misbegotten.
Not all of us dream awake,
But those of us who do, have no choice.

~© Patricia McKillip~

The Importance Of Photography

The camera can photograph thought.
~© Dirk Bogarde~


When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.
~© Ansel Adams~


The goal is not to change your subjects, but for the subject to change the photographer.
~© Author Unknown~


A great photograph is a full expression of what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense, and is, thereby, a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety.
~© Ansel Adams~


The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.
~© Dorothea Lang~


The virtue of the camera is not the power it has to transform the photographer into an artist, but the impulse it gives him to keep on looking.
~© Brooks Anderson~


I never question what to do, it tells me what to do. The photographs make themselves with my help.
~© Ruth Bernhard~


A Ming vase can be well-designed and well-made and is beautiful for that reason alone. I don't think this can be true for photography. Unless there is something a little incomplete and a little strange, it will simply look like a copy of something pretty. We won't take an interest in it.
~© John Loengard~


Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face, the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited, and the wealth and confusion man has created. It is a major force in explaining man to man.
~© Edward Steichen~


Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again.

~© Henri Cartier-Bresson~


If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn't need to lug around a camera.
~© Lewis Hine~


All photographs are there to remind us of what we forget. In this - as in other ways - they are the opposite of paintings. Paintings record what the painter remembers. Because each one of us forgets different things, a photo more than a painting may change its meaning according to who is looking at it.
~© John Berger~


I didn't want to tell the tree or weed what it was. I wanted it to tell me something and through me express its meaning in nature.
~© Wynn Bullock~

Scattered Clouds

When scattered clouds are resting on the bosoms of hills, it seems as if one might climb into the heavenly region, earth being so intermixed with sky, and gradually transformed into it.

~© Nathaniel Hawthorne~

My Kingdom

A little kingdom I possess,
Where thoughts and feelings dwell;
And very hard the task I find
Of governing it well.

~© Louisa May Alcott~

Happy Thanksgiving!!

It is a glorious privilege to live, to know, to act, to listen, to behold, to love. To look up at the blue summer sky; to see the sun sink slowly beyond the line of the horizon; to watch the worlds come twinkling into view, first one by one, and the myriads that no man can count, and lo! the universe is white with them; and you and I are here.

~© Marco Morrow~


There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude, a quiet joy.

~© Ralph H. Blum~


Life is huge! Rejoice about the sun, moon, flowers, and sky. Rejoice about the food you have to eat. Rejoice about the body that houses your spirit. Rejoice about the fact that you can be a positive force in the world around you. Rejoice about the love that is around you. If you want to be happy, commit to making your life one of rejoicing.

~© Author Unknown~

One Year Today...

Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.

~© Auguste Rodin~

Absence

Absence diminishes little passions and increases great ones, as the wind extinguishes candles and fans a fire.

~© Francois Duc de la Rochefoucauld~

The Dream Begins

The dream begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called 'truth.'

~© Dan Rather~

The Doors

I offer images- I conjure memories of freedom that can still be reached- like the doors, right? But we can only open the doors, we can't drag people through. I can't free them unless they want to be free. Maybe primitive people have less bullshit to let go of, to give up. A person has to be willing to give up everything- not just wealth. All the bullshit that he's been taught- all society's brainwashing. You have to let go of all that to get to the other side. Most people aren't willing to do that.

~© Jim Morrison~

...And Silly People

The sun shines and warms and lights us and we have no curiosity to know why this is so; but we ask the reason of all evil, of pain, and hunger, and mosquitoes and silly people.

~© Ralph Waldo Emerson~

Necessity

The mere sight of the Sun
instantly reignites the fire
within my soul,
flooding the hollow darkness
that has crept inside.

His warm radiance
dissipates each
of the dreary, dark clouds
which have taken residence
in my grey matter.

As necessary
as oxygen is to the body,
so is your light
to my innermost being,
great Sun.

Break through
the thick, grey clouds
which stand between us,
and grace me
with your presence.

I beg of you...
find your way
to where I am.
Lay your healing powers
upon my heart.

~© Alis Volat Propiis~

Snow Broken

When night still stars dangle
Skies open
moon faints and
sun births

She flashes into darkness
Her shadow dreams

Wolves bare the forest away
all the clear cold moon long

Fiery mouth
breath freezes then
trickles in dawn air

Golden time lets her play
She dances nakedly
in the white snow white

Silver birds croon lullabies
She waltzes all the sun long
laughs sky blue

Snow twirls to air
then lies like broken angels on forest ground

Time holds her ignorant
She slides into the
wind winter grey
Sun sets

~© Celine Berghmans~

The More I Think About It

The more I think about it, the more I realize there is nothing more artistic than to love others.

~© Vincent Van Gogh~

Truly...

Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun.

~© The Holy Bible~

Thought

As fletchers make their arrows straight,
the wise make straight their wavering and unsteady thought,
which is difficult to guard and difficult to restrain.
Like a fish taken from its watery home
and thrown on the dry ground,
our thought quivers all over
in order to escape the dominion of Mara.

It is good to control the mind,
which is difficult to restrain, fickle, and wandering.
A tamed mind brings happiness.
Let the wise guard their thoughts,
which are difficult to perceive, tricky, and wandering.
Thoughts well guarded bring happiness.
Those who restrain their mind,
which travels far alone without a body, hiding in a cave,
will be free from the restrictions of death.

If a person's mind is unsteady,
if it does not know the true path,
if one's peace of mind is troubled,
wisdom is not perfected.

There is no fear for the one whose thought is untroubled,
whose mind is not confused,
who has ceased to think of good and bad,
who is aware.

Knowing that this body is like a jar,
and making one's thought strong as a fortress,
attack Mara with the weapon of wisdom,
protect what is conquered and stay always aware.
Before long, unfortunately, this body will lie on the earth,
rejected, without consciousness, like a useless log.

Whatever an enemy may do to an enemy,
or a hater to a hater,
a wrongly directed mind will do greater harm.
Neither a mother nor a father
nor any other relative will do so much;
a well-directed mind will do us greater service.

~© Buddha~

Everything Is Determined

Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for insects as well as for the stars. Human beings, vegetables or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance.

~© Albert Einstein~

All That We Are

Like the wind crying endlessly through the universe, Time carries away the names and the deeds of conquerors and commoners alike. And all that we are, all that remains, is in the memories of those who cared we came this way for a brief moment.

~© Harlan Ellison~