April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.
~ William Shakespeare, Sonnet XCVIII
”
The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.
~ Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mysteries, Yes
by Mary Oliver
Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous
to be understood.How grass can be nourishing in the
mouths of the lambs.
How rivers and stones are forever
in allegiance with gravity
while we ourselves dream of rising.
How two hands touch and the bonds will
never be broken.
How people come, from delight or the
scars of damage,
to the comfort of a poem.Let me keep my distance, always, from those
who think they have the answers.Let me keep company always with those who say
“Look!” and laugh in astonishment,
and bow their heads.
#maryoliver
“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day. You shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
”
I am old, Gandalf. I don’t look it, but I am beginning to feel it in my heart of hearts. Well-preserved indeed! Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean: like butter that has been scraped over too much bread. That can’t be right. I need a change, or something.
~ J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings
”
Exercising the imagination, experimenting with talents, being creative; these things, to me, are truly the windows to your soul.
~ Bob Ross, The Joy of Painting
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It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.
~ Charles Dickens
”
The secret of life is
patch patch patch
Thread your needle, make a knot,
find one place on the other piece
of torn cloth where you can make
one stitch that will hold.
And do it again. And again. And again.
Anne Lamott, Stitches
”
We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.
Toni Morrison (Nobel lecture, 1993)
”
I have ultimate power here on this canvas.
Bob Ross (via zenofbobross)
”
Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.
Sometimes, Mary Oliver
”
No flowers wear so lovely a blue as those which grow at the foot of the frozen glacier; no stars so bright as those which glisten in the polar sky; no water so sweet as that which springs amid the desert sand; and no faith so precious as that which lives and triumphs in adversity.
C.H. Spurgeon, 1864, from Sermon No. 585
”
Practice any art … no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what’s inside you, to make your soul grow.
Kurt Vonnegut, 2006 Letter to Ms Lockwood’s class at Xavier High School, NYC