Tag Archives: changes
A happier state of mind
“To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.” — George Santayana Here in the northern hemisphere, we are enjoying the colors of the foliage and the cooling weather. Meanwhile, our neighbors south of the equator are enjoying the end of winter and …
You know how it is
“The sun was warm but the wind was chill. You know how it is with an April day. When the sun is out and the wind is still, You’re one month on in the middle of May. But if you so much as dare to speak, a cloud comes over the sunlit arch, And wind …
A curious paradox
“There is a curious paradox that no one can explain. Who understands the secret of the reaping of the grain? Who understands why Spring is born out of Winter’s laboring pain, or why we must all die a bit before we grow again.” — Tom Jones (playwright) from The Fantasticks Today I send virtual flowers …
Different kinds of weather
“In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four and twenty hours.” — Mark Twain Until this year, I might have accused Twain of exaggerating with this statement. Now? Maybe not. It’s easy to forget that last spring seemed equally erratic at the time. I was searching …
Under the giving snow
“Under the giving snow blossoms a daring spring.” — Terri Guillemets I find it hard to believe that as I’m writing this (on March 7, two weeks before publication) I STILL see snow on the ground outside! It’s melting in places, but most of the grass is still covered with it, and those nasty-dirty drifts …
A fork in the road
“When you come to a fork in the road, take it!” — Yogi Berra This post was first published seven years ago today, and it is a special post because it was my 365th consecutive daily post, marking my one year anniversary of the blog. In the post linked within the comments below (originally titled …
All gates
“The world is all gates, all opportunities, strings of tension waiting to be struck.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson One of the best ways to defeat despair is to see the opportunity that lies in almost every situation. When I am able to view a difficult time as a gateway to something new, I am better …
Primitive purity
Originally posted on Defeat Despair:
A cozy cabin room at a northern California bed and breakfast inn, 2003 “How has it come about that we use the highly emotive word ‘stagnation,’ with all its malodorous and malarial overtones, for what other ages would have called ‘permanence?’ Why does the word ‘primitive’ at once suggest to…
The moment’s impermanence
“What solidity of sentiment it takes not to let an awareness of the moment’s impermanence dilute its richness, its sweetness, but purify it and saturate it with the utmost ‘fullness of being’.”― Maria Popova There’s a brief interval each year when many of the flowers, though fading, are still in bloom, and the weather is …
Time-machine powers
“Books have always been time machines, in a sense. Today, their time-machine powers are even more obvious – and even more inspiring. They can transport us to a pre-internet frame of mind.” – Michael Harris It’s really a bit frightening how quickly the widespread use of the internet, for everything from business to education to …
But you knew
“You expected to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintery light. But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again after it was frozen.”― …
Of reflection
“Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection.” — Winston Churchill Merry Christmas! Chances are, this will be a busy day for you, coming on the heels of a busy season. For most of my adult life, it was that way for me, anyway. I love the Christmas season, with all the festive activities and joyful sharing. But it can …
True and appropriate
“It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: ‘And this, too, shall pass away.’ How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! — …
Like of each thing, 2016
This seems a most fitting post for me to re-blog, as I try to see through tear-dimmed eyes whatever gifts are there for me in this season of my life. Ann, the photo of Pasha is for you! And Happy Birthday to my dear friend Nancy, whose home was always open to Jeff and me …
Illumination comes to our rescue
“But sometimes illumination comes to our rescue at the very moment when all seems lost; we have knocked at every door and they open on nothing until, at last, we stumble unconsciously against the only one through which we can enter the kingdom we have sought in vain a hundred years – and it opens.” …
A happier state of mind
“To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.” — George Santayana Here in the northern hemisphere, we are enjoying the colors of the foliage and the cooling weather. Meanwhile, our neighbors south of the equator are enjoying the end of winter and …
You know how it is
“The sun was warm but the wind was chill. You know how it is with an April day. When the sun is out and the wind is still, You’re one month on in the middle of May. But if you so much as dare to speak, a cloud comes over the sunlit arch, And wind …
A curious paradox
“There is a curious paradox that no one can explain. Who understands the secret of the reaping of the grain? Who understands why Spring is born out of Winter’s laboring pain, or why we must all die a bit before we grow again.” — Tom Jones (playwright) from The Fantasticks Today I send virtual flowers …
Different kinds of weather
“In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four and twenty hours.” — Mark Twain Until this year, I might have accused Twain of exaggerating with this statement. Now? Maybe not. It’s easy to forget that last spring seemed equally erratic at the time. I was searching …
Under the giving snow
“Under the giving snow blossoms a daring spring.” — Terri Guillemets I find it hard to believe that as I’m writing this (on March 7, two weeks before publication) I STILL see snow on the ground outside! It’s melting in places, but most of the grass is still covered with it, and those nasty-dirty drifts …
A fork in the road
“When you come to a fork in the road, take it!” — Yogi Berra So here we all are, the 365th daily post of the most eventful and difficult year Jeff and I have ever endured. It’s time to celebrate survival, coping, and all the blessings woven into the pain and sorrow of the past …
All gates
“The world is all gates, all opportunities, strings of tension waiting to be struck.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson One of the best ways to defeat despair is to see the opportunity that lies in almost every situation. When I am able to view a difficult time as a gateway to something new, I am better …
Defeat Despair 
Illumination comes to our rescue
Julia ♦ November 9, 2021 ♦ 4 Comments
“But sometimes illumination comes to our rescue at the very moment when all seems lost; we have knocked at every door and they open on nothing until, at last, we stumble unconsciously against the only one through which we can enter the kingdom we have sought in vain a hundred years – and it opens.” …
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