Dignity

Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain but it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving.

- Dale Carnegie

In Victorian times, Magnolias symbolized dignity.
Photo: www.morguefile.com

Poetry

It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there.

-                     William Carlos Williams

Asphodel, That Greeny Flower

Photo: www.morguefile.com

Brick Walls

The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. [They're] there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.

-         ­Randy Pausch

The Last Lecture

Photo: Tree and Stone Wall, Petr Kratochvil, www.publicdomainpictures.net

Faith

Faith is knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof.

-         Khalil Gabran

Photo: www.morguefile.com

Never Die Easy

I want to be remembered as a person who … left everything he had out there on the football field, did everything he possibly could for the team to win, not for himself. For the team to win.

Never die easy. Why run out of bounds and die easy? Make that linebacker pay. It carries into all facets of your life. It's okay to lose, to die, but don't die without trying, without giving it your best.

- Walter Payton

Delicious Autumn!

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

Photo: Autumn Fire by Mark Coldren www.publicdomainpictures.net

What Heaven Is

The connections we make in the course of a life – maybe that’s what heaven is.

- Mister Rogers

Photo: Lovin my baby John John in Rothenburg, Germany
July 2009

The World Is A Great Mirror

The world is a great mirror. It reflects back to you what you are. If you are loving, if you are friendly, if you are helpful, the world will prove loving and friendly and helpful to you. The world is what you are.

-         Thomas Dreier

Photo: www.morguefile.com

Those Pslams ARE Depressing

God: What are you doing now?
King Arthur: Averting our eyes, oh Lord.
God: Well, don't. It's just like those miserable psalms, always so depressing. Now knock it off!

-         Monty Python and the Holy Grail

God?

Writing Is Its Own Reward

That thing you had to force yourself to do – the actual act of writing – turns out to be the best part. It’s like discovering that while you thought you needed the tea ceremony for the caffeine, what you really needed was the tea ceremony. The act of writing turns out to be its own reward.

-         Annie Lamott

Bird by Bird

Photo: www.publicdomainpictures.net

Two Silly Bulls!

Prince: Two what?

Edmund: Two syllables.

Prince: Two silly bulls? I don't think so, Blackadder -- not in The Bible. I can remember a fatted calf, but, as I recall, that was quite a sensible animal. Oh, ah! It's it, um, er, Noah's Ark, with the, er, two pigs, two ants, and two silly bulls? Is that it?

Edmund: Two syll- A-bles.

Prince: What?

Edmund: Look, we're getting confused; let's start again, shall we?

Prince: No, let's not, Blackadder. I think the whole game's getting a bit sylla, to be honest.

-         Blackadder’s Christmas Carol

Two Silly Bulls indeed! Love Hugh Laurie.

Appreciate How Far You've Come

...You also need to look back, not just at the people who are running behind you but especially at those who don't run and never will...
Those who run but don't race...
Those who started training for a race but didn't carry through...
Those who got to the starting line but didn't get to the finish line...
Those who once raced better than you but no longer run at all.
You're still here.
Take pride in wherever you finish.

- Joe Henderson

Victory! You have conquered!

Prufrock

In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.

- T. S. Eliot

Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock


Photo: http://www.morguefile.com/

Herds of Wildebeest

Basil: May I ask what you expected to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically...?

Mrs. Richards: Don't be silly. I expect to be able to see the sea.

Basil: You can see the sea. It's over there between the land and the sky.

Mrs. Richards: I'd need a telescope to see that.

Basil: Well, then, may I suggest you move to a hotel nearer the sea? [mutters] Or preferably in it.

Fawlty Towers

Photo: (Herd of?) Wildebeest
www.morguefile.com

I Miss You, Uncle Jess

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.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

-         J. R. R. Tolkien

The Fellowship of the Ring

I know you would have preferred a scantily clad cheerleader, Uncle Jess. And I'm sure
you're having a good giggle that I was momentarily uncomfortable even considering it.

Did I Ever tell You How Lucky You Are?

Be grateful you’re not in the forest in France
Where the average young person just hasn’t a chance
To escape from the perilous pants eating plants.
But your pants are safe, you’re a fortunate guy
You ought to be shouting how lucky am I!

- Dr. Seuss

Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?

Boo does a hilarious rendition of this picture.

Poetry

It is strange how a scrap of poetry works in the mind and makes the legs move in time to it along the road.

-         Virginia Woolf

A Room of One’s Own

Photo: www.morguefile.com
rygers@hotmail.co.uk

Good advice from a silly old bear

Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.

-                     A. A. Milne

Christopher Robin to Pooh

Put this quote on a note in Boo's lunchbox today.
Here's Boo on his 5th birthday.

Good ol' Papa

There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.

- Ernest Hemingway

Photo: www.morguefile.com

Read Them Fairy Tales

If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.

- Albert Einstein

http://www.morguefile.com/

I Have a Cunning Plan!

Blackadder: Am I jumping the gun, Baldrick, or are the words "I have a cunning plan" marching with ill-deserved confidence in the direction of this conversation?

Bacldrick: They certainly are, sir!

Blackadder: Well, forgive me if I don't do a cartwheel of joy. Your record in this department is hardly 100%. So what is it?

Baldrick: We do nothing.

Blackadder: Yup, it's another world-beater.

Baldrick: No, wait. We do nothing ... until our heads have actually been cut off.

Blackadder: And then we ... spring into action?

-                     Blackadder

Nob and Nobility

Winning!

The best team doesn’t always win; the team that plays the best wins.

– Jim Fassell

Former NY Giants Coach

Photo: www.morguefile.com

They Grow So Fast

 You have to be happier for them than you are sad for yourself.

-Charlotte King

My Amazing Mom

I look awful but I love this picture because it captures one of the
happiest moments of my life: holding both of my boys for the first time.

First day of preschool and first day of kindergarten
at our beloved Cardinal Montessori School!

Cheers to a New Year!

Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.

 -         Oprah Winfrey

Take Responsibility For Yourself

Men at some time are masters of their fates:
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

- William Shakespeare

Julius Caesar

Photo: NASA

Stand In Someone Else's Shoes

You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.

-         Harper Lee
To Kill a Mockingbird

Photo: www.morguefile.com

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.

- Marilyn Monroe

Some days you just need a little...

Faith. Trust. Pixie Dust.

Need A Reason To Run? Here Ya Go...

RUN because you have to. RUN because you love it. RUN because you want to be fast. RUN because you want to be skinny. RUN to find some quiet time. RUN to sweat. RUN to eat. RUN hear your heart pound in your ears. RUN because you're a runner. RUN because you gotta keep the streak. RUN because you don't know why the hell you're running. RUN because you fought with your partner. RUN because your job is s****y. RUN because you got no money. RUN for the sunrise. RUN for a race. RUN because it's impossible. RUN because it's easy. RUN instead of doing the laundry. RUN instead of watching TV. RUN because no one else understands. RUN because the cool kids do it. RUN because you're tired of talking. RUN for numbers. RUN for feel. RUN to prove something. RUN because it f******g hurts. Or don't run. If you got something better to do.

- Jeff Edmonds

An excuse for every pair. My Marine Corps Marathon 2010 pals are top center.

Beauty in Strength

I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss. I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld, or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.

-         Charlotte Brontë

Jane Eyre

Photo: www.morguefile.com



Missing Switzerland

In the mountains, there you feel free.

– T. S. Eliot

The Wasteland

Photo: Appenzel, Switzerland
 www.ryderwalker.com

True Love

Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken

It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

- William Shakespeare

Sonnet 116

Yoda Said It Best

Do or do not; there is no try.

-         Yoda

Together

Zusammen durch dick und dünn gehen.

(Together through thick and thin.)

-         German Proverb

Photo: An, Oma and Me
Hofbrauhaus, Munich 2009

Lobbest Thou Thy Holy Hand Grenade

King Arthur: How does it... um... how does it work?
Sir Lancelot: I know not, my liege.
King Arthur: Consult the Book of Armaments.
Brother Maynard: Armaments, chapter two, verses nine through twenty-one.
Cleric: [reading] And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, "O Lord, bless this thy hand grenade, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy." And the Lord did grin. And the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths, and carp and anchovies, and orangutans and breakfast cereals, and fruit-bats and large chu...
Brother Maynard: Skip a bit, Brother...
Cleric: And the Lord spake, saying, "First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it.
Brother Maynard: Amen.
All: Amen.
King Arthur: Right. One... two... five.
Galahad: Three, sir.
King Arthur: Three.

Photo: Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Inspiration

Sometimes it’s brilliance all around me
Sometimes it’s light I barely see
And though I utilize its grandeur
It does not belong to me
'Cause all I can do is vague description
As I do my best to share
The smooth perfection I can only dream of
The flow of all the life that's there
Life that's there

- Blues Traveler

Crystal Flame

Know When to Hold 'Em

You gotta know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ‘em,
know when to walk away, and know when to run.
You never count your money when you’re sittin’ at the table.
There’ll be time enough for countin’ when the dealin’s done.

-         Kenny Rogers

The Gambler

Photo: www.morguefile.com

Unanswered Prayers

Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.

-         ­Garth Brooks

Unanswered Prayers

Photo: www.morguefile.com

Hope Springs Eternal

Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never Is, but always To be blest:
The soul, uneasy and confin'd from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.

-Alexander Pope,
An Essay on Man, Epistle I, 1733

Photo: www.morguefile.com

Are You Ready For Some...

To me, there is nothing better than taking the family out and tossing around the old pig skin. The squealing scares the kids, but it's a good warm-up for football.

-         Stephen Colbert

Photo: www.morguefile.com

Don't Complain, Try Again

 Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.

- Marie Curie

Photo: www.morguefile.com



Happy Birthday, Annie Fannie!

A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves - a special kind of double.

- Toni Morrison

Photo: Charlevoix, Michigan