Author Archive: Julia
Know who you are
“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” ― Maya Angelou Nobody likes to lose. Loss hurts, sometimes irrevocably. But there are …
A running flame
“Autumn burned brightly, a running flame through the mountains, a torch flung to the trees.” — Faith Baldwin If you live in the northern hemisphere, I hope you are close enough to visit some area where the torch of autumn is lighting up the forests. Not all of us live near mountains, but anywhere there …
Courage, cheerfulness and…
“Courage, cheerfulness, and a desire to work depend mostly on good nutrition.” — Jacob Moleschott The author of this quote lived more than 100 years ago, but he probably would get as much or more agreement with this statement today than he did when he first said it. Though the average diet has undergone substantial …
Courage undaunted
“Of courage undaunted, possessing a firmness and perseverance of purpose which nothing but impossibilities could divert from its direction, careful as a father of those committed to his charge, yet steady in the maintenance of order and discipline, intimate with the Indian character, customs, and principles; habituated to the hunting life, guarded by exact observation …
The soul is healed
“The soul is healed by being with children.” ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky “A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on.” ― Carl Sandburg What a difference one short year makes in the life of a baby! When I compare the photo above to the one posted one year ago today, which was taken …
To look ahead
“A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead.”― Graham Greene “Be willing to be a beginner every single morning.” ― Meister Eckhart Today is my 700th daily post, and that number rather amazes me. Nearly two years ago, …
Books break the shackles
“One glance at [a book] and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one …
Sit silently
“We sit silently and watch the world around us. This has taken a lifetime to learn …silence is pure. Silence is holy. It draws people together because only those who are comfortable with each other can sit without speaking. This is the great paradox.” ― Nicholas Sparks In keeping with the truth of this quote, …
Delicious
“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.” — George Eliot The scene pictured above is one of my favorite places in our neighborhood. There is a pond just to the left, where you can’t see it in …
These four words
“I bring you the gift of these four words: I believe in you.” — Blaise Pascal I might never have met you face to face. In fact, I may not even know who you are, or that you are reading this blog at all. But I still believe in you. I believe in you because …
They have the best
“Everyone thinks they have the best dog. And none of them are wrong.” — W.R. Purche Years ago I saw an adorable cartoon that showed a little puppy excitedly informing his friends, “Guess what everyone? I am the world’s best dog! My human just broke the news!” The older dogs are looking at one another …
A kind of introduction
“History is a kind of introduction to more interesting people than we can possibly meet in our restricted lives; let us not neglect the opportunity.” — Dexter Perkins It’s not surprising that the people who tend to show up in history books are interesting types. But as I’ve often said here, I think everybody is …
Autumn has seized the countryside
“The magic of autumn has seized the countryside; now that the sun isn’t ripening anything it shines for the sake of the golden age…” ― Elizabeth Coatsworth I would miss so much if I didn’t get out and walk. This neighbor’s yard, like so many, would be harder to appreciate through the windshield of a …
Defiance of the contemporary
“A hobby is a defiance of the contemporary. It is an assertion of those permanent values which the momentary eddies of social evolution have contravened or overlooked. If this is true, then we may also say that every hobbyist is inherently a radical, and that his tribe is inherently a minority.” – Aldo Leopold This …
It is all there
“London has the trick of making its past, its long indelible past, always a part of its present. And for that reason it will always have meaning for the future, because of all it can teach about disaster, survival, and redemption. It is all there in the streets. It is all there in the books.” …
Bright and demanding
“She liked anything orange: leaves; some moons; marigolds; chrysanthemums; cheese; pumpkin, both in pie and out; orange juice; marmalade. Orange is bright and demanding. You can’t ignore orange things.” — Catherynne M. Valente Though I’ve never thought of orange as one of my favorite colors, I love the way it brightens this time of year. …
Forgetting where you put it
“Moi does not recommend dieting. The only way you can lose weight is the same way you lose anything – by forgetting where you put it…A very common oversight in most weight-limitation programs is to pay excessive attention to the calories you consume rather than to the enormous numbers of calories you routinely avoid…You can …
What counts
“What counts is what you learn after you know it all.” – Earl Weaver Sometimes it seems that life is one long series of reaching the top of one hill only to start all over again at the bottom of another one. After awhile, we realize that we never stop needing to learn. Most of …
The full value of trees
“I never before knew the full value of trees. My house is entirely embosomed in high plane-trees, with good grass below; and under them I breakfast, dine, write, read, and receive my company. What would I not give that the trees planted nearest round the house at Monticello were full grown.” — Thomas Jefferson Because …
A natural affinity
“Children have a natural affinity towards nature. Dirt, water, plants, and small animals attract and hold children’s attention for hours, days, even a lifetime.” — Robin C. Moore and Herb H Wong One of the best ways to enjoy nature is to tag along with a child or two. They notice things we have forgotten …
We more than gain
“Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.” ― Samuel Butler Happy first day of fall! I hope this season is full of delightful gifts for you. What do you most look forward to at this time of year? Feel free to share some of your …
One of those
“It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life.” — P.D. James Perfect autumn days might be more numerous in our memory than in reality., but they can happen anywhere, and they aren’t just about foliage or pumpkins. The photo above was taken on a beautiful …
Outdoors in
“Bring the outdoors in. Plants make for a happy home.” – Mr Jason Grant There were a lot of ways my mother created a happy home for us, and one of them was the way she loved plants, indoors and out. She was often joked about spoken of in regard to her composting and organic …
To find the beautiful
“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.”― Ralph Waldo Emerson A year ago today I wrote about Drew’s beloved toy raccoon Gludgey, who went along with our family everywhere we traveled. Books, favorite snacks, and comfortable shoes are other things we …
Defeat Despair 