Having your mom write a book about parenting is absolutely terrifying.
When my mom started working on her second book, I knew I wanted to be involved. I think she assumed I was helping her because writing is one of my passions and because, for me, getting my hands a little messy in the production of a book is like getting a little taste of ecstasy. Or maybe she thought I wanted to make sure that the ideas she was going to provide would make sense in the eyes of a teenager.
What I really wanted to do was save my name. Sure, Mom said she wouldn’t write anything that would embarrass me . . . but this just might be the one thing I will never fully trust her on. This was coming from the woman who thinks it’s okay to tell my friends naked baby stories.
I was going to be sneaky. I had a plan. I told her I was going to check for typos and make little suggestions about the wording of things. And I did. But, secretly, I was also making sure nothing got said that I didn’t want said.
I think she caught on. She has a way of doing that. It’s like moms can read minds sometimes. I can’t wait until I’m a mom and I can read minds . . . but that’s beside the point. The point is that as I was scanning the pages of her book, I realized why my mom is a superhero. (You can’t blame me for being cheesy and saying things like she’s a superhero. She says cheesy things, too and I am her daughter. Besides, even when we say cheesy things, we mean them.) My mom is a superhero because her heart is in the right place, and because when she finds things that make her come alive, she goes and does them.
You see, the way I see it, the world has two problems.
The first is that we all let our hearts get wrapped up in the wrong places and when we do, we forget about the things that really matter. The second problem is our fear, or timidity, or whatever it is that keeps us from chasing after the calling of our hearts once they are in the right place. My mom decided that the value of a strong family matters to her, and she does everything in her power to preserve that value. My world is a better place because she and my father dedicated themselves to providing my brothers and me with the best they could. They gave us everything we needed as kids, as maturing teenagers and young adults, as part of humanity, and as unique individuals.
I believe the most important thing my parents gave us is their example. They showed us how to live, how to love, and what it means to have faith. I’m not sure if I could put to words why I believe their strong example has been so influential in my life, but one of my all-time favorite quotes does an amazing job of it. In his book, Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller wrote, “. . . I was outside the Bagdad Theater in Portland one night when I saw a man playing on the saxophone. I stood there for fifteen minutes, and he never opened his eyes. After that I liked jazz music. Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself.” I have grown up witnessing undying love and persistent belief. They come easy for me because I have seen them at work. My parents would never have had to tell me what those words, love, and faith meant, but they did that too.
Art comes from the soul of the artist. It doesn’t shy away from challenging culture, and it doesn’t try to match the standards of society. Art represents what the artist is trying to convey, but it never reaches perfection. Parenting is a strange and beautiful art form. I admire all parents who take up the role of the artist, eagerly pursuing their own potential and trying to become an example for their children. I hope you will read this book and find inspiration, encouragement, technique, and an appreciation for the power of your own influence in the lives of your children.
Chances are that even though I tried to prevent it, I’ll turn a page in this book after it’s published and blush. But I’m guessing I’ll get over it pretty fast because it’s really not that bad being embarrassed by a superhero.
And Mom, that’s not an invitation.
(a blurb I wrote for her book coming out in May, 30 Ways in 30 Days to Save Your Family )
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Quote Book
"Outside the window, there was so much to see, and hear, and touch- walks to take, hills to climb, caterpillars to watch as they strolled through the garden. There were voices to hear and conversations to listen to in wonder, and the special smell of each day."
-Phantom Toll Booth, Norton Juster
"I think I am most fond of the unseen part. I mean that the various cultural experience that I go through, and the behavioral aspects of getting the work done, are just as important as the installation and the photograph."
-Sandy Skoglund
"I want to be famous to shuffling men who smile while crossing streets, sticky children in grocery lines, famous as the one who smiled back."
"There will, at least be no bitterness and no envy, so long as I have a couple of dogs and a garden and that huge stock of adventures and memories."
-Pleaseant Valley, Louis Bromfield
"We cannot deny the existence of the helpless as their presence grows. It is impossible to insulate ourselves against what is at our very doorstep."
-On Compassion, Barbara Lazear
"With the Lord's help and with a little understanding, we can't miss."
- Papa John
"I took my time walking home, let the heat of the night melt the creamsicle all over my hand. At three in the morning I could act just as young as I wanted to act. There was no one around to ask me to grow up."
-Sherman Alexia
"If I go down, at least I'll go in flames. I'll sing it out at the top of my lungs. The choir is small, but it sings a big song. And if I go down, at least you'll know my name."
-One Small Step, Sparky's Flaw (Parachute)
"Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death;
its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
it burns as a blazing fire. like a mighty flame."
-Song of Solomon 8:6
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."
-Dr. Seuss
"You see us as you want to see us, in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. You see us as:
a brain, an athlete, a basketcase, princess, and a criminal. Correct?
That's the way we saw each other at 7 o'clock this morning.
We were brainwashed."
-The Breakfast Club
"People have weaknesses because God meant for them to focus their attentions elsewhere."
"I see myself as a huge firey comet, a shooting star. Everyone stops, points up and gasps, "Oh look at that!" Then- woosh, and I'm gone... and they'll never see anything like it ever again, and they wont be able to forget me -- ever."
-Jim Morrison
"An author doesn't necessarily understand the meaning of his own story better than anyone else."
"I dare you to live. Don't look back and look on all those opportunities where you dind't step out. Live from your heart. You know what you want to do... do it."
"I don't want to have to do this living. I just walk around. I want to be swept off my feet, you know?? I want my children to have magical powers. I am prepared for amazing things to happen. I can handle it."
"My soul has horizons further away than those of early mornings, deeper darknesses than the nights of earth, higher peaks than any mountain peaks, greater depths than any sea in nature. You who are God of all these, be my God. I cannot reach to the heights or to the depths; there are motives I cannot discover, dreams I cannot realize. My God, search me."
-My Utmost for His Highest
"I understand about indecision, but I don't care if I get behind. People living in competition... all I want is to have my peace of mind."
-Peace of Mind, Boston
"I'll walk right out into a brand new day, insane and rising in my own weird way."
-Santa Monica, Everclear
"We can live beside the ocean, leave the fire behind, swim out past the breakers, and watch the world die."
-Santa Monica, Everclear
"I never lived the dreams of the prom kings and the drama queens. I'd like to think the best of me is still hiding up my sleeve."
-John Mayer
"I want to run through the halls of my highschool. I want to scream at the top of my lungs. I just found out there's no such thing as a real world, just a lie you've got to rise above."
-John Mayer
"You learn a lot about people when you listen to the songs that mean something to them."
"My heart bursts at its banks overflowing with beauty and goodness. I pour it out in a poem to the King, shaping the river into words."
-Pslam 45:1 (The message paraphrase)
"If you smile at me I will understand, because that is something everybody everywhere does in the same language."
"If you live to be 100, I hope to live to be 100 minus 1 day, so I never have to live without you."
-Winnie the Pooh
"If there ever comes a day when we can't be together, keep me in your heart. I'll stay there forver."
-Winnie the Pooh
"I close my eyes-only for a moment, and the moment's gone. All my dreams pass before my eyes, a curiosity. Dust in the wind. All they are is dust in the wind. Same old song, just a drop of water in an endless sea. All we do crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see... Now don't hang on. Nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky. It slips away, and all your money won't another minute buy."
-Dust in the Wind, Kansas
"If I find myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."
-C.S. Lewis
"Call to me, and I will answer you. I'll show you marvelous and wondrous things."
-Jeremiah 33:3
"Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous, it does not brag, and it is not proud. Love is not rude, it is not selfish, and does not get upset with others. Love does not count up wrongs. Love is not happy with evil, but with the truth. Love patiently accepts all things. It always trusts, always hopes, and always remains strong. Love never ends."
-1 Corinthians 13:4-8
"Color is my day-long obsession, joy, and torment."
-Claude Monet
"There is nothing more practical in the end than the preservation of beauty, than the preservation of anything that appeals to the higher emotions of man."
-Teddy Roosevelt
"fix it or forget it."
"God is not impressed by the greatness of our desires; but disappointed by the weakness of them. We ask for so little."
"I will allow no man to drag me down so low as to make me hate him."
"Opportunities never come a second time, nor do they abide our leisure. The years come but once, and swiftly pass on, bearing the ineffaceable record we put upon them. If we make them beautiful years, we must do it moment by moment as they glide before us."
-Three Weeks with my Brother, Nicholas Sparks
"You're not listening to me, little brother. Never forget that anticipation is an important part of life. Work's important, family's important, but without excitement, you have nothing. You're cheating yourself if you refuse to enjoy what's coming."
-Three Weeks with my Brother, Nicholas Sparks
"I think musicians and photographers are fairly similar- they like to get crazy. They hang onto the child within themselves longer probably than, say, men who are accountants or bankers. They have to remain young at heart in order to be creative."
-Boyd
"Even if she spits in your face, you've made the effort to preserve the unity of the spirit. You can't live in fear of how other people will react."
-Ashleigh Hall
"I want to keep my soul fertile for the changes, so things keep getting born in me, so things keep dying when it is time for things to die. I want to keep walking away from the person I was a a moment ago, because a mind was made to figure things out, not to read the same page recurrently."
-Through Painted Deserts, Donald Miller
"No, life cannot be understood flat on a page. It has to be lived; a person has to get out of his head, has to fall in love, has to memorize poems, has to jump off bridges into rivers, has to stand in an empty desert and whisper sonnets under his breath..."
-Through Painted Deserts, Donald Miller
"...I was outside the Bagdad Theater in Portland one night when I saw a man playing on the saxophone. I stood there for fifteen minutes, and he never opened his eyes. After that I liked jazz music. Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself."
-Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller
"Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."
"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature... Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."
-Helen Keller
"With travel, our minds become more curious, our hearts more powerful, and our spirits more joyous. And once the mind is stretched like that, it can never return to its original state."
-1,000 places to see before you die
"I'm pretty good at inventing phrases- you know, the sort of words that suddenly make you jump, almost as though you'd sat on a pin, they seem so new and exciting even though they're about something hypnopaedically obvious. But that doesn't seem good enough. It's not enough for the phrases to be good; what you make with them ought to be good too."
-Brave New World, Huxley
"Let's just say I was testing the bounds of reality; I just wanted to see how far I could go."
"I still get wildly enthusiastic about the little things... I play with leaves. I skip down the street and run against the wind."
"Why sometimes I believed as many as six impossible thing before for breakfast!"
-The Queen of Hearts, Alice in Wonderland
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."
-The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost
"Huge waves which would frighten an ordinary swimmer produce a tremendous thrill for the surfer who has ridden them."
-My Utmost for His Highest
"When you stumble... make it part of the dance."
"Let the past sleep, but let it sleep in the sweet embrace of Christ, and let us go on into the invincible future with Him... Never let the sense of past failure defeat your next step."
-My Utmost for His Highest
"...all that matters is the raw material, the stuff itself, and you can't clutter it up with your own half-baked commentary. That just breaks the spell. It destroys the magic. What you have to do, Sanders said, is trust your own story. Get the hell out of the way and let it tell itself."
-The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien
"Sometimes I put on dance music when I'm in the shower and I dance too hard... so I have to get out of the shower and finish my dance before I fall over."
-Katie Randazzo
"I am glad to the brink of fear."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
"These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or better ones; they are what they are; they exist with God to-day. There is no time to them. There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence. Before a leaf-bud has burst, its whole life acts..."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
"I do not wish to expiate, but to live. My life is for itself and not for a spectacle. I much prefer that it should be of a lower strain, so it be genuine and equal, than that it should be glittering and unsteady. I wish it to be sound and sweet and not to need diet and bleeding.... I know that for myself it makes no difference whether I do or forbear those actions which are reckoned excellent."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The health of the eye seems to demand a horizon. We are never tired, so long as we can see far enough."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone."
-Thoreau
"I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived... I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life."
-Thoreau
"I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love. I felt in myself a superabundance of energy which found no outlet in our quiet life."
-Family Happiness, Leo Tolstoy
"If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal,- that is your success."
-Henry David Thoreau
"But we little know until tried how much of the uncontrollable there is in us, urging across glaciers and torrents, and up dangerous heights, let the judgment forbid as it may"
-The Mountains of California, John Muir
"A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do."
-Bob Dylan
"Because it is there."
"I have remained a kid at heart and appreciate the gamble involved, and the pleasure of the unknown."
-Jean-Marc Boivin
"My advice for climbers or photographers is to really tune into your own passions and not just what other people are doing or aren't doing. Figure out what works for you, what turns you on, what gives you the greatest amount of energy and feeling of satisfaction."
-Galen Rowell
"The real meaning of eternal life is a life that can face anything it has to face without wavering. If we will take this view, life will become one great romance- a glorious opportunity of seeing wonderful things all the time."
-My Utmost for His Highest
"How alluring the world outside the cage appeared to Lily, as she heard its door clang on her! In reality, as she knew, the door never clanged, it stood always open; but most of the captives were like flies in a bottle, and having once flown in, could never regain their freedom. It was Selden's distinction that he had never forgotten the way out."
-The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
"My idea of success," he said, "is personal freedom."
"Freedom? Freedom from worries?"
"From everything- from money, from poverty, from ease and anxiety, from all the material accidents. To keep a kind of republic of the spirit- that's what I call success."
- The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
"When I no more can stir my soul to move, and life is but the ashes of a fire; when I can but remember that my heart used to live and love, long and aspire- wake in me... boundless desire."
-George MacDonald
"Life's like an hourglass glued to the table"
-Breathe, Anna Nalick
"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
-Dare to Desire
"We want to elongate days, distill memories, make them last. Yet, we know beauty is in the evanescence. Every wave comes in, then retreats. Every day promises then turns its back and slips away. Every joy has a little tease in it, a give and a take, and leaves a wake of longing."
-Sandy Gingras
"Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something."
-Thoreau
"We wanted to write books so good that readers threw them against the furniture."
-It Never Rains in Tiger Stadium
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
-Mark Twain
"God's voice thunders in marvelous ways. He does great things beyond our understanding. He says to the snow, 'fall on the earth' so that all men He has made may know His work, He stops every man from his labor."
Job 37:5-8
"According to God's grace that was given to me, as a skilled master builder I have laid a foundation, and another builds on it. But each one must be careful how he build on it, because no one can lay any other foundation than what has been laid- that is Jesus Christ."
1 Corinthians 3:10-11
-Phantom Toll Booth, Norton Juster
"I think I am most fond of the unseen part. I mean that the various cultural experience that I go through, and the behavioral aspects of getting the work done, are just as important as the installation and the photograph."
-Sandy Skoglund
"I want to be famous to shuffling men who smile while crossing streets, sticky children in grocery lines, famous as the one who smiled back."
"There will, at least be no bitterness and no envy, so long as I have a couple of dogs and a garden and that huge stock of adventures and memories."
-Pleaseant Valley, Louis Bromfield
"We cannot deny the existence of the helpless as their presence grows. It is impossible to insulate ourselves against what is at our very doorstep."
-On Compassion, Barbara Lazear
"With the Lord's help and with a little understanding, we can't miss."
- Papa John
"I took my time walking home, let the heat of the night melt the creamsicle all over my hand. At three in the morning I could act just as young as I wanted to act. There was no one around to ask me to grow up."
-Sherman Alexia
"If I go down, at least I'll go in flames. I'll sing it out at the top of my lungs. The choir is small, but it sings a big song. And if I go down, at least you'll know my name."
-One Small Step, Sparky's Flaw (Parachute)
"Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm;
for love is as strong as death;
its jealousy unyielding as the grave.
it burns as a blazing fire. like a mighty flame."
-Song of Solomon 8:6
"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."
-Dr. Seuss
"You see us as you want to see us, in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. You see us as:
a brain, an athlete, a basketcase, princess, and a criminal. Correct?
That's the way we saw each other at 7 o'clock this morning.
We were brainwashed."
-The Breakfast Club
"People have weaknesses because God meant for them to focus their attentions elsewhere."
"I see myself as a huge firey comet, a shooting star. Everyone stops, points up and gasps, "Oh look at that!" Then- woosh, and I'm gone... and they'll never see anything like it ever again, and they wont be able to forget me -- ever."
-Jim Morrison
"An author doesn't necessarily understand the meaning of his own story better than anyone else."
"I dare you to live. Don't look back and look on all those opportunities where you dind't step out. Live from your heart. You know what you want to do... do it."
"I don't want to have to do this living. I just walk around. I want to be swept off my feet, you know?? I want my children to have magical powers. I am prepared for amazing things to happen. I can handle it."
"My soul has horizons further away than those of early mornings, deeper darknesses than the nights of earth, higher peaks than any mountain peaks, greater depths than any sea in nature. You who are God of all these, be my God. I cannot reach to the heights or to the depths; there are motives I cannot discover, dreams I cannot realize. My God, search me."
-My Utmost for His Highest
"I understand about indecision, but I don't care if I get behind. People living in competition... all I want is to have my peace of mind."
-Peace of Mind, Boston
"I'll walk right out into a brand new day, insane and rising in my own weird way."
-Santa Monica, Everclear
"We can live beside the ocean, leave the fire behind, swim out past the breakers, and watch the world die."
-Santa Monica, Everclear
"I never lived the dreams of the prom kings and the drama queens. I'd like to think the best of me is still hiding up my sleeve."
-John Mayer
"I want to run through the halls of my highschool. I want to scream at the top of my lungs. I just found out there's no such thing as a real world, just a lie you've got to rise above."
-John Mayer
"You learn a lot about people when you listen to the songs that mean something to them."
"My heart bursts at its banks overflowing with beauty and goodness. I pour it out in a poem to the King, shaping the river into words."
-Pslam 45:1 (The message paraphrase)
"If you smile at me I will understand, because that is something everybody everywhere does in the same language."
"If you live to be 100, I hope to live to be 100 minus 1 day, so I never have to live without you."
-Winnie the Pooh
"If there ever comes a day when we can't be together, keep me in your heart. I'll stay there forver."
-Winnie the Pooh
"I close my eyes-only for a moment, and the moment's gone. All my dreams pass before my eyes, a curiosity. Dust in the wind. All they are is dust in the wind. Same old song, just a drop of water in an endless sea. All we do crumbles to the ground, though we refuse to see... Now don't hang on. Nothing lasts forever but the earth and sky. It slips away, and all your money won't another minute buy."
-Dust in the Wind, Kansas
"If I find myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."
-C.S. Lewis
"Call to me, and I will answer you. I'll show you marvelous and wondrous things."
-Jeremiah 33:3
"Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous, it does not brag, and it is not proud. Love is not rude, it is not selfish, and does not get upset with others. Love does not count up wrongs. Love is not happy with evil, but with the truth. Love patiently accepts all things. It always trusts, always hopes, and always remains strong. Love never ends."
-1 Corinthians 13:4-8
"Color is my day-long obsession, joy, and torment."
-Claude Monet
"There is nothing more practical in the end than the preservation of beauty, than the preservation of anything that appeals to the higher emotions of man."
-Teddy Roosevelt
"fix it or forget it."
"God is not impressed by the greatness of our desires; but disappointed by the weakness of them. We ask for so little."
"I will allow no man to drag me down so low as to make me hate him."
"Opportunities never come a second time, nor do they abide our leisure. The years come but once, and swiftly pass on, bearing the ineffaceable record we put upon them. If we make them beautiful years, we must do it moment by moment as they glide before us."
-Three Weeks with my Brother, Nicholas Sparks
"You're not listening to me, little brother. Never forget that anticipation is an important part of life. Work's important, family's important, but without excitement, you have nothing. You're cheating yourself if you refuse to enjoy what's coming."
-Three Weeks with my Brother, Nicholas Sparks
"I think musicians and photographers are fairly similar- they like to get crazy. They hang onto the child within themselves longer probably than, say, men who are accountants or bankers. They have to remain young at heart in order to be creative."
-Boyd
"Even if she spits in your face, you've made the effort to preserve the unity of the spirit. You can't live in fear of how other people will react."
-Ashleigh Hall
"I want to keep my soul fertile for the changes, so things keep getting born in me, so things keep dying when it is time for things to die. I want to keep walking away from the person I was a a moment ago, because a mind was made to figure things out, not to read the same page recurrently."
-Through Painted Deserts, Donald Miller
"No, life cannot be understood flat on a page. It has to be lived; a person has to get out of his head, has to fall in love, has to memorize poems, has to jump off bridges into rivers, has to stand in an empty desert and whisper sonnets under his breath..."
-Through Painted Deserts, Donald Miller
"...I was outside the Bagdad Theater in Portland one night when I saw a man playing on the saxophone. I stood there for fifteen minutes, and he never opened his eyes. After that I liked jazz music. Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself."
-Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller
"Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."
"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature... Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."
-Helen Keller
"With travel, our minds become more curious, our hearts more powerful, and our spirits more joyous. And once the mind is stretched like that, it can never return to its original state."
-1,000 places to see before you die
"I'm pretty good at inventing phrases- you know, the sort of words that suddenly make you jump, almost as though you'd sat on a pin, they seem so new and exciting even though they're about something hypnopaedically obvious. But that doesn't seem good enough. It's not enough for the phrases to be good; what you make with them ought to be good too."
-Brave New World, Huxley
"Let's just say I was testing the bounds of reality; I just wanted to see how far I could go."
"I still get wildly enthusiastic about the little things... I play with leaves. I skip down the street and run against the wind."
"Why sometimes I believed as many as six impossible thing before for breakfast!"
-The Queen of Hearts, Alice in Wonderland
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I- I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."
-The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost
"Huge waves which would frighten an ordinary swimmer produce a tremendous thrill for the surfer who has ridden them."
-My Utmost for His Highest
"When you stumble... make it part of the dance."
"Let the past sleep, but let it sleep in the sweet embrace of Christ, and let us go on into the invincible future with Him... Never let the sense of past failure defeat your next step."
-My Utmost for His Highest
"...all that matters is the raw material, the stuff itself, and you can't clutter it up with your own half-baked commentary. That just breaks the spell. It destroys the magic. What you have to do, Sanders said, is trust your own story. Get the hell out of the way and let it tell itself."
-The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien
"Sometimes I put on dance music when I'm in the shower and I dance too hard... so I have to get out of the shower and finish my dance before I fall over."
-Katie Randazzo
"I am glad to the brink of fear."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
"These roses under my window make no reference to former roses or better ones; they are what they are; they exist with God to-day. There is no time to them. There is simply the rose; it is perfect in every moment of its existence. Before a leaf-bud has burst, its whole life acts..."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
"I do not wish to expiate, but to live. My life is for itself and not for a spectacle. I much prefer that it should be of a lower strain, so it be genuine and equal, than that it should be glittering and unsteady. I wish it to be sound and sweet and not to need diet and bleeding.... I know that for myself it makes no difference whether I do or forbear those actions which are reckoned excellent."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The health of the eye seems to demand a horizon. We are never tired, so long as we can see far enough."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone."
-Thoreau
"I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived... I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life."
-Thoreau
"I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love. I felt in myself a superabundance of energy which found no outlet in our quiet life."
-Family Happiness, Leo Tolstoy
"If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal,- that is your success."
-Henry David Thoreau
"But we little know until tried how much of the uncontrollable there is in us, urging across glaciers and torrents, and up dangerous heights, let the judgment forbid as it may"
-The Mountains of California, John Muir
"A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do."
-Bob Dylan
"Because it is there."
"I have remained a kid at heart and appreciate the gamble involved, and the pleasure of the unknown."
-Jean-Marc Boivin
"My advice for climbers or photographers is to really tune into your own passions and not just what other people are doing or aren't doing. Figure out what works for you, what turns you on, what gives you the greatest amount of energy and feeling of satisfaction."
-Galen Rowell
"The real meaning of eternal life is a life that can face anything it has to face without wavering. If we will take this view, life will become one great romance- a glorious opportunity of seeing wonderful things all the time."
-My Utmost for His Highest
"How alluring the world outside the cage appeared to Lily, as she heard its door clang on her! In reality, as she knew, the door never clanged, it stood always open; but most of the captives were like flies in a bottle, and having once flown in, could never regain their freedom. It was Selden's distinction that he had never forgotten the way out."
-The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
"My idea of success," he said, "is personal freedom."
"Freedom? Freedom from worries?"
"From everything- from money, from poverty, from ease and anxiety, from all the material accidents. To keep a kind of republic of the spirit- that's what I call success."
- The House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
"When I no more can stir my soul to move, and life is but the ashes of a fire; when I can but remember that my heart used to live and love, long and aspire- wake in me... boundless desire."
-George MacDonald
"Life's like an hourglass glued to the table"
-Breathe, Anna Nalick
"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive."
-Dare to Desire
"We want to elongate days, distill memories, make them last. Yet, we know beauty is in the evanescence. Every wave comes in, then retreats. Every day promises then turns its back and slips away. Every joy has a little tease in it, a give and a take, and leaves a wake of longing."
-Sandy Gingras
"Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something."
-Thoreau
"We wanted to write books so good that readers threw them against the furniture."
-It Never Rains in Tiger Stadium
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
-Mark Twain
There is no such thing as an empty space or empty time. There is always something to see, something to hear. In fact, try as we may to make silence, we cannot.
-John Cage
Do something every day, regardless. Nothing will happen unless you first initiate a process of cause and effect. This starts with an action. Reawaken the possibility of possibility. Reawaken it with play.
- David Horvitz
When your life flashes before your eyes, make sure you've got plenty to watch.
the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes ‘Awww!’
-Jack Kerouac
But he's already made it plain how to live, what to do; It's quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, and don't take yourself too seriously, take God seriously.
-Micah 6:8
-John Cage
Do something every day, regardless. Nothing will happen unless you first initiate a process of cause and effect. This starts with an action. Reawaken the possibility of possibility. Reawaken it with play.
- David Horvitz
When your life flashes before your eyes, make sure you've got plenty to watch.
the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes ‘Awww!’
-Jack Kerouac
But he's already made it plain how to live, what to do; It's quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor, be compassionate and loyal in your love, and don't take yourself too seriously, take God seriously.
-Micah 6:8
"Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things..." Isaiah 40:26 We will see God reaching out to us in every wind that blows, every sunrise and sunset, every cloud in the sky, every flower that blooms, and every leaf that fades...
-February 10
"The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve..." Matthew 20:28
If our devotion is to the cause of humanity, we will be quickly defeated and brokenhearted.... But if we are motivated by our love for God, no amount of ingratitude will be able to hinder us from serving one another.
-February 23
"'What do you want Me to do for you?' He said, 'Lord, that I may receive my sight'" Luke 18:41
"If it is an impossibility, it is the very thing for which we have to ask."
-February 29
"Did not our heart burn within us...?" Luke 24:32
We cannot stay forever on the "mount of transfiguration," basking in the light of our mountaintop experience. But we must obey the light we received there; we must put it into action.
-March 22
"While you have the light, believe in the light..." John 12:36
We must bring our everyday life up to the standard revealed to us on the mountaintop when we were there... Act immediately- do something.... Don't give up because you have been blocked and confused once- go after it again. Burn your bridges behind you, and stand committed to God by an act of your own will...be sure to make your decisions in the light of what you saw and learned on the mountain.
-April 16
"...it has not yet been revealed what we shall be..." 1 John 3:2
To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, not knowing what tomorrow may bring. This is generally expressed with a sigh of sadness, but it should be an expression of breathless expectation. We are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God... When we become simply a promoter or a defender of a particular belief, something within us dies. That is not believing God- it is only believing our belief about Him.... when we have the right relationship with God, life is full of spontaneous, joyful uncertainty and expectancy.
-April 29
"Look at the birds of the air....Consider the lilies of the field..." Matthew 6:26, 28
those who live their lives like the stars in the sky and the lilies of the field-simply and unaffectedly. Those are the lives that mold and shape us.
-May 18
The baptism of the Holy Spirit does not make you think of time or eternity- it is one amazing glorious now. "This is eternal life, that they may know You..." (John 17:3). Begin to know Him now, and never finish.
-May 27
"...Peter...walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid..." Matthew 14:29-30
Be reckless immediately- totally unrestrained and willing to risk everything-by casting your all upon Him.... be determined to recklessly abandon yourself, surrendering everything to Him.
-June 18
-February 10
"The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve..." Matthew 20:28
If our devotion is to the cause of humanity, we will be quickly defeated and brokenhearted.... But if we are motivated by our love for God, no amount of ingratitude will be able to hinder us from serving one another.
-February 23
"'What do you want Me to do for you?' He said, 'Lord, that I may receive my sight'" Luke 18:41
"If it is an impossibility, it is the very thing for which we have to ask."
-February 29
"Did not our heart burn within us...?" Luke 24:32
We cannot stay forever on the "mount of transfiguration," basking in the light of our mountaintop experience. But we must obey the light we received there; we must put it into action.
-March 22
"While you have the light, believe in the light..." John 12:36
We must bring our everyday life up to the standard revealed to us on the mountaintop when we were there... Act immediately- do something.... Don't give up because you have been blocked and confused once- go after it again. Burn your bridges behind you, and stand committed to God by an act of your own will...be sure to make your decisions in the light of what you saw and learned on the mountain.
-April 16
"...it has not yet been revealed what we shall be..." 1 John 3:2
To be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, not knowing what tomorrow may bring. This is generally expressed with a sigh of sadness, but it should be an expression of breathless expectation. We are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God... When we become simply a promoter or a defender of a particular belief, something within us dies. That is not believing God- it is only believing our belief about Him.... when we have the right relationship with God, life is full of spontaneous, joyful uncertainty and expectancy.
-April 29
"Look at the birds of the air....Consider the lilies of the field..." Matthew 6:26, 28
those who live their lives like the stars in the sky and the lilies of the field-simply and unaffectedly. Those are the lives that mold and shape us.
-May 18
The baptism of the Holy Spirit does not make you think of time or eternity- it is one amazing glorious now. "This is eternal life, that they may know You..." (John 17:3). Begin to know Him now, and never finish.
-May 27
"...Peter...walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid..." Matthew 14:29-30
Be reckless immediately- totally unrestrained and willing to risk everything-by casting your all upon Him.... be determined to recklessly abandon yourself, surrendering everything to Him.
-June 18
"Success is waking up in the morning, whoever you are,wherever you are, however old or young, and bounding out of bed because there's something out there you love to do, that you believe in, that you're good at - something that's bigger than you are, and you can hardly wait to get at it again today"
Whit Hobbs
"If you remove the yolk from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking of wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom will become like midday and the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places."
Isaiah 58: 9-11
"Perfection is a road, not a destination. Every time i live, i get an education"
"I want to be famous, like the pulley, or the buttonhole. Not because it did anything spectacular, but because it never forgot what it could do."
Whit Hobbs
"If you remove the yolk from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking of wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom will become like midday and the Lord will continually guide you and satisfy your desire in scorched places."
Isaiah 58: 9-11
"Perfection is a road, not a destination. Every time i live, i get an education"
"I want to be famous, like the pulley, or the buttonhole. Not because it did anything spectacular, but because it never forgot what it could do."
In the right light,at the right time,everything is extraordinary.
- Aaron Rose
I never saw an ugly thing in my life:for let the form of an object be what it may- light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful.
- John Constable (1776 - 1837)
- Aaron Rose
I never saw an ugly thing in my life:for let the form of an object be what it may- light, shade, and perspective will always make it beautiful.
- John Constable (1776 - 1837)
"It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.
It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.
It doesnt interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human."
".... where we would move, pulled by the heart, to care for the poor, the ill, the dying and despairing without debating whether they are deserving, without fear of contamination, seeing ourselves in each person."
"When I imagine myself as an old woman at the end of my life and ask myself how I will evaluate my time here, there is only one question that concerns me: Did I love well? There are a thousand ways to love other people and the world- with our touch, our words, our silences, our work, our presence. I want to love well. This is my hunger. I want to make love to the world by the way I live in it, by the way I am with myself and others every day. So I seek to increase my ability to be with the truth in each moment, to be with what I know, the sweet and the bitter. I want to stay aware of the vastness of what I do not know. This is what brings me to the journey. I do not want to live any other way."
"I am compelled by some deep hunger of the soul, driven by a desire that will not leave me alone, to live life to the fullest. And I know this does not mean working endlessly, accomplishing the most, or consuming the greatest amount and variety of things and experiences. It means tasting each mouthful, feeling each breath, listening to each song, being awake and aware of each moment as it unfolds. "
It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.
It doesnt interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human."
".... where we would move, pulled by the heart, to care for the poor, the ill, the dying and despairing without debating whether they are deserving, without fear of contamination, seeing ourselves in each person."
"When I imagine myself as an old woman at the end of my life and ask myself how I will evaluate my time here, there is only one question that concerns me: Did I love well? There are a thousand ways to love other people and the world- with our touch, our words, our silences, our work, our presence. I want to love well. This is my hunger. I want to make love to the world by the way I live in it, by the way I am with myself and others every day. So I seek to increase my ability to be with the truth in each moment, to be with what I know, the sweet and the bitter. I want to stay aware of the vastness of what I do not know. This is what brings me to the journey. I do not want to live any other way."
"I am compelled by some deep hunger of the soul, driven by a desire that will not leave me alone, to live life to the fullest. And I know this does not mean working endlessly, accomplishing the most, or consuming the greatest amount and variety of things and experiences. It means tasting each mouthful, feeling each breath, listening to each song, being awake and aware of each moment as it unfolds. "
He who believes in Me... out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. -John 7:38
"A river reaches places which its source never knows... God rarely allows a person to see how great a blessing he is to others." - My Utmost for His Highest
"There is something about leaving comfort zones behind, surrounding ourselves with God's creation, and meeting obstacles together that strips away pretentions and barriers."
"He looked at me and daily I was His delight."
"I don't think there is any better worship than wonder."
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!"
Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices;
together they shout for joy.
When the Lord returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes.
Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalmen,
for the Lord has comforted His people,
He has redeemed Jerusalem,
for the Lord will lay bare His holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.
-Isaiah 52: 7-10
"People are more influenced by our walk than they are by our talk. I pray my actions will speak to people without me ever having to move my own lips."
I pray that your love will overflow more and more and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding."
-Philippians 1:9
My heart pounds as I think of this.
It trembles within me.
Listen carefully to the thunder of God's voice as it rolls from His mouth...
the tremendous voice of His majesty...
God's voice is glorious in the thunder.
-Job 37: 1-5
"...I realized, late that night, that other people had feelings and fears and that my interactions with them actually meant something, that I could make them happy or sad in the way that I associated with them. Not only could I make them happy or sad, but I was responsible for the way I interacted with them."
-Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller
"Your responsibility is availability to Jesus Christ, to be who you are in terms of who He is. 24 hours a day, 1 day at a time." -Danny Iverson
"A river reaches places which its source never knows... God rarely allows a person to see how great a blessing he is to others." - My Utmost for His Highest
"There is something about leaving comfort zones behind, surrounding ourselves with God's creation, and meeting obstacles together that strips away pretentions and barriers."
"He looked at me and daily I was His delight."
"I don't think there is any better worship than wonder."
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!"
Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices;
together they shout for joy.
When the Lord returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes.
Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalmen,
for the Lord has comforted His people,
He has redeemed Jerusalem,
for the Lord will lay bare His holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.
-Isaiah 52: 7-10
"People are more influenced by our walk than they are by our talk. I pray my actions will speak to people without me ever having to move my own lips."
I pray that your love will overflow more and more and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding."
-Philippians 1:9
My heart pounds as I think of this.
It trembles within me.
Listen carefully to the thunder of God's voice as it rolls from His mouth...
the tremendous voice of His majesty...
God's voice is glorious in the thunder.
-Job 37: 1-5
"...I realized, late that night, that other people had feelings and fears and that my interactions with them actually meant something, that I could make them happy or sad in the way that I associated with them. Not only could I make them happy or sad, but I was responsible for the way I interacted with them."
-Blue Like Jazz, Donald Miller
"Your responsibility is availability to Jesus Christ, to be who you are in terms of who He is. 24 hours a day, 1 day at a time." -Danny Iverson
"So it is right that I feel as I do about you, for you have a special place in my heart. You share with me the special favor of God, and you are partners with me in Grace..."
Philippians 1:7
Philippians 1:7
"God's voice thunders in marvelous ways. He does great things beyond our understanding. He says to the snow, 'fall on the earth' so that all men He has made may know His work, He stops every man from his labor."
Job 37:5-8
"According to God's grace that was given to me, as a skilled master builder I have laid a foundation, and another builds on it. But each one must be careful how he build on it, because no one can lay any other foundation than what has been laid- that is Jesus Christ."
1 Corinthians 3:10-11
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)