One to ponder...

"What ought one to say then as each hardship comes? I was practicing for this, I was training for this."

- Epictetus

Monday Thought: On Hope

"Hope never abandons you; you abandon it."

- George Weinberg

Nursery, 11:00 p.m.
By Robyn Sarah

Asleep, the two of you,
daughter and son, in separate cribs,
what does it matter to you
that I stand watching you now,
I, the mother who did not smile all day,
who yelled, Go away, get out, leave me alone
when the soup-pot tipped over on the stove,
the mother who burned the muffins
and hustled bedtime, tight-lipped.
You are far away,
beyond reach of whispered
amends. Yet your calm
breathing seems to forgive,
unwinding
into the air to mesh
like lace, knitting together
the holes in the dark.
It makes of this dark
one whole covering
to shawl around me.
How warm it is, I think,
how much softer
than my deserving.

Sunday Thought: Is It Your Moment?

"The right man is the one who seizes the moment."

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

One to ponder...

"For the American Indian, the ability of all creatures to share in the process of ongoing creation makes all things sacred."

- Paula Gunn Allen

Miracles flock everyday life. It happens everyday. Observe. Believe. And then, give in to them.

Source: Steven Pinker

On friends...

"A friend is a person before whom I may think aloud."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

"What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?"
--George Eliot

Saturday Thought: As You Venture Down New Paths

"Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision."

--Ayn Rand

On second thought...

"I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree."

--Joyce Kilmer

Friday Thought: You are a Flower

"Each flower is a soul opening out to nature."

--Gerard de Nerval

Right On!

"That which we persist in doing becomes easier - not that the nature of the task has changed, but our ability to do has increased."

--Emerson

Thursday Thought: Battling the Mind

"Our greatest battles are that with our own minds."

--Jameson Frank

Finding light at the center of a pansy.

Source: NC State University Imaging Center

You're not as smart as you think you are...

"A warrior of light who trusts too much in his intelligence will end up underestimating the power of his opponent."

--Paulo Coelho

One to ponder...

"The two worst strategic mistakes to make are acting prematurely and letting an opportunity slip; to avoid this, the warrior treats each situation as if it were unique and never resorts to formulae, recipes or other people's opinions."

--Paulo Coelho

Wednesday Thought: Life Balance

"Most people struggle with life balance simply because they haven't paid the price to decide what is really important to them."

--Stephen Covey

One for the road...

"Our greatest natural resource is the minds of our children."

--Walt Disney

Tuesday Thought: Let Your Imagination Carry You There

"Close your eyes and imagine where you want to be. Imagine the complete journey you need to take in order to get there. Now go pack. Your reservations have been made."

--Michelle C. Ustaszeski

My dear friend Dan Shimp lost his mother this weekend. This is a time to honor our mothers and give thanks for their love.

One to ponder...

"Here is a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished. If you're alive it isn't."

--Richard Bach

Monday Thought: Consider the Consequences

"If you scatter thorns, don't go barefoot."

- Italian Proverb

The Dharma Wheel
Dharma = Divine law; the law of being; defined broadly as the way of righteousness or "that which holds one's true nature." The fulfillment of an inherent nature or destiny. To "follow dharma" means to act in accordance with divine law.

Sunday Thought: On Spiritual Growth

How does spiritual growth occur? Seesm like a reasonable question to ponder on this "day of rest."

I decided to ask an expert and here is what they said. Click here.

Consider the possibilities beyond the possibilities.

Saturday Thought: Choosing How We Live

All men and women are born, live, suffer and die;
what distinguishes us one from another is our dreams,
whether they be dreams about worldly
or unworldly things,
and what we do to make them come about...
We do not choose to be born.
We do not choose our parents.
We do not choose our historical epoch,
the country of our birth, or the immediate circumstances of our upbringing.
We do not, most of us, choose to die;
nor do we choose the time and conditions of our death.
But within this realm of choicelessness,
we do choose how we live.”

Source: Joseph Epstein

Don's Dad (in Middle), Benwood, WV, 1930s
Probably singing a Jimmie Rodgers favorite.
Courtesy of Aun Jean

Don's Dad (Middle), WW II
Compliments of Aunt Jean

Aunt Jean (Hereforth known as Scannin' Auntie!)

Perky white astors

...standing at attention

...waiting for their orders--

to ship out.

Friday Thought: Let Yourself Out to Play

Lounge about in the warm early morning sun
...like the lazy grimalkin at my feet.
Reflect upon your life
...with all the reverence of Buddha at the circus.
Smile.
Laugh.
Make a silly face at yourself.
Let yourself out to play!

Iannone Family Picture, 1942, Rock Hill, Bellaire, Ohio
Grandpap Vito Iannone, Aunt Jean [Iannone] Sexton, Don's Dad [Also Don]
Courtesy of Aunt Jean in Columbus, Ohio

Your compass is your heart. Navigate life in line with the coordinates your heart feeds you. You're never lost if you can find your heart.

Thursday Thought: You Are the World

"What you are, the world is. And without your transformation, there can be no transformation of the world."

--J. Krishnamurti

Wednesday Thought: Life Paths

What is your life path? Look at your feet and what they follow. For better or worse, that is your path.

Is it the right path? Does your heart feel at home on the path? If not, that may be a sign this path is not the right one for you.

How do you find the right path? Ask your heart to help you find the right path. Then, watch where your feet lead you.

At any cost, find a path guided by and filled with heart. You are never alone when you walk with your heart. Just ask Don Quixote.

What is your path? Does it carry you in the direction of life? Does it open you to new possibilities not visible at the onset of your journey?
Photo source: Sue Jones

Imagine the door to your heart. How does it appear to you, and how does it appear to others?

On forgiving...

"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."

--Mahatma Gandhi

Tuesday Thought: Great and Small

"There is no great and no small, To the Soul that maketh all; And where it cometh, all things are; And it cometh everywhere."

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Congratulations Mary! Remember this..."A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." Source: Lao Tzu

Monday Thought: Love

"Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies."

--Aristotle

Sunday Thought: Shed What You Don't Need

"Autumn is the perfect time of the year to shed your leaves and prepare for new growth."

Do you know people who are this way?

See change as beauty,
See life as change
...like the morphing leaves of autumn,
that patiently remind us--
to lead a colorful life.

One to ponder...

"A person can fail many times but it isn't a failure until he begins to blame others."

--Source Unknown

Saturday Thought: Smile

"A smile is a light in the window of the soul indicating that the heart is home."

Source Unknown

White Towels
By Richard Jones

I have been studying the difference
between solitude and loneliness,
telling the story of my life
to the clean white towels taken warm from the dryer.
I carry them through the house
as though they were my children
asleep in my arms.

Friday Thought: Wake Up, Fess Up

"Why does no one confess his sins? Because he is yet in them.It is for a man who has awoke from sleep to tell his dreams".

--Seneca

Bringing out the ancient within us,
Seeing the future before it arrives,
Allowing the arms of time--
to hold me up high--
above the everyday struggles of life,
where spirits soar, and
hearts shine bright.

How To Be a Poet
(to remind myself)
By Wendell Berry

Make a place to sit down.
Sit down. Be quiet.
You must depend upon
affection, reading, knowledge,
skill-more of each
that you have-inspiration,
work, growing older, patience,
for patience joins time
to eternity. Any readers
who like your work,
doubt their judgment.

Breathe with unconditional breath
the unconditioned air.
Shun electric wire.
Communicate slowly. Live
a three-dimensioned life;
stay away from screens.
Stay away from anything
that obscures the place it is in.
There are no unsacred places;
there are only sacred places
and desecrated places.

Accept what comes from silence.
Make the best you can of it.
Of the little words that come
out of the silence, like prayers
prayed back to the one who prays,
make a poem that does not disturb
the silence from which it came.

It Is Not the Fact That I Will Die That I Mind
By Jim Moore

but that no one will love as I did
the oak tree out my boyhood window,
the mother who set herself
so stubbornly against life,
the sister with her serious frown
and her wish for someone at her side,
the father with his dreamy gaze
and his left hand idly buried
in the fur of his dog.
And the dog herself,
that mournful look and huge appetite,
her need for absolute stillness
in the presence of a bird.
I know how each of them looks
when asleep. And I know how it feels
to fall asleep among them.
No one knows that but me,
No one knows how to love the way I do.

Autumn takes your breath away...

One for the road...

"Worry is spiritual short sight. Its cure is intelligent faith."

--Paul Brunton

One to ponder...

"Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life."

--Buddha

Tuesday Thought: Music

"Music is mediator between spiritual and sensual life."

--Ludwig Van Beethoven

This is what makes Ohio special in autumn

Source: Ohio Dept of Natural Resources

One to ponder...

"All wisdom can be stated in two lines:What is done for you - allow it to be done.What you must do yourself - make sure you do it."

--Khawwas (Essential Sufism)

Monday Thought: What You Think

"Not out of right practice comes right thinking, but out of right thinking comes right practice. It matters enormously what you think. If you think falsely, you will act mistakenly; if you think basely, your conduct will suit your thinking."

--Annie Besant

More on love...

"Love me little, love me long,
Is the burden of my song."

--Robert Herrick

Sunday Thought: Love

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.

--Kahlil Gibran

Source: University of Wisconsin Physics Department

You can take this one to the bank...

"What a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence is an index into his desires -- desires of which he himself is often unconscious. If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way."

--Bertrand Russell

Saturday: Belief

"There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything; both ways save us from thinking."

--Alfred Korzybski

Beyond the World We Know
Source: Gemini Observatory

Friday Thought: How We Experience Who We Are

"A human being is part of a whole, called by us the “universe,” a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few people near us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

— Albert Einstein

Source: TrekEarth

One to ponder...

We would rather be ruined than changed,
We would rather die in our dread
Than climb the cross of the moment
And let our illusions die.

— W. H. Auden

Thursday Thought Change

"Even those who fancy themselves the most progressive will fight against other kinds of progress, for each of us is convinced that our way is the best way."

— Louis L'Amour
The Lonely Men

Wednesday Thought: Where Happiness Enters

"Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn't know you left open."

--John Barrymore

Every door is an invitation to open...
Source: Picture-Newsletter.com

Tuesday Thought: Educating Yourself

"Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom."

--George Washington Carver

Source: Gary Tonhouse (Master with a Camera!)

Monday Thought: Love

"Love takes up where knowledge leaves off."

--Saint Thomas Aquinas

Yes, it's coming...

And across the desert he did trek,
At times we feel washed up on deck.

Sunday Thought: The Wisdom of Tolkien

Perhaps like me, you feel this way at times...

"The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began,
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursing it with weary feet,
Until it joins some larger way,
Where many paths and errands meet,
And whither then? I cannot say."

On February 24, 1874 John Peter "Honus" Wagner was born in Mansfield, Pa. (I've actually been there.) When he grew up, he was drafted by the Pirates. (My favorite team growing up.) In 1936, he was one of the first 5 people to be elected into the Hall of Fame. He also was an 8 time National League Batting champion. Honus played for 20 years, and was nicknamed the "The Flying Dutchman." Honus thought that one of the best plays he ever made was a pickoff double play. Honus Wagner played into his 40's, which is old for any sports player to still be playing. On December 6, 1955 he died. He lived to be 81 years old.

One to ponder...

"I am a part of all that I have met."

--Alfred Tennyson

Saturday Thought: Second Blooming

"I have enjoyed greatly the second blooming that comes when you finish the life of the emotions and of personal relations; and suddenly find - at the age of fifty, say - that a whole new life has opened before you, filled with things you can think about, study, or read about...It is as if a fresh sap of ideas and thoughts was rising in you."

--Agatha Christie