Kindness is the oil that takes the friction out of life. —Author Unknown

The man and woman who can laugh at their love, who can kiss with smiles, and embrace with chuckles, will outlast in mutual affection, all the throat-lumpy, cow-eyed, couples of their acquaintance. Nothing lives on so fresh and evergreen as the love with a funnybone. —George Jean Nathan

God is who He says He is
God can do what He says He can do
I am who God says I am
I can do all things through Christ
God's Word is alive and active in me
I believe God!
—Beth Moore

Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation. —Kahlil Gibran

Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning. —Thomas Alva Edison

The difference between fiction and reality is that fiction has to make sense. —Tom Clancy

Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine. — Anthony J. D'Angelo, The College Blue Book

A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people. — Thomas Mann

Here's to matrimony, the high sea for which no compass has yet been invented! —Heinrich Heine

A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes. — Mahatma Gandhi

Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way. —E. L. Doctorow

Certain thoughts are prayers. There are moments when, whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees. —Victor Hugo

GONNA BE BUSY....

I'll be too busy to post for the next few days, so here's (almost) a week's worth. Make it last.... Don't make pigs of yourselves!

I have no use for cranks who despise music, because it is a gift of God. Music drives away the Devil and makes people happy;they forget thereby all wrath, unchastity, arrogance and the like. Next after theology, I give to music the highest place and the greatest honor. —Martin Luther

Romantic love is mental illness. But it's a pleasurable one. It's a drug. It distorts reality, and that's the point of it. It would be impossible to fall in love with someone that you really saw. —Fran Lebowitz

The grass is always greener...where you water it. —Author Unknown

Sleeplessness is a desert without vegetation or inhabitants. —Jessamyn West

In spite of illness, in spite even of the archenemy sorrow, one can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways. —Edith Wharton

A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor's book. —Irish Proverb

If your project doesn't work, look for the part that you didn't think was important. —Arthur Bloch

However well organized the foundations of life may be, life must always be full of risks. —Havelock Ellis

There's no place like home, except Grandma's. —Author Unknown

When you have completed 95 percent of your journey, you are only halfway there. —Japanese Proverb

The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns, as it were, instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink. --George Orwell

When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money. —Susan Heller

Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words. —Mark Twain

He that raises a large family does, indeed, while he lives to observe them, stands a broader mark* for sorrow; but then he stands a broader mark for pleasure, too. —Benjamin Franklin

*broader mark = larger target, a reference from dueling

Graduation—>Commencement—>Beginning

What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from. —T.S. Eliot

Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is! —Anne Frank

Watching your daughter leaving with her date feels like handing over a million dollar Stradivarius to a gorilla. —Jim Bishop

Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished. If you're alive, it isn't. —Richard Bach

Power is so characteristically calm, that calmness in itself has the aspect of strength. —Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

The best doctors in the world are Doctor Diet, Doctor Quiet, and Doctor Merryman. —Jonathan Swift

We climb to heaven most often on the ruins of our cherished plans, finding our failures were successes. —Amos Bronson Alcott (Louisa May Alcott's father)

Remember, the Ark was built by amateurs; the Titanic by professionals. —Unknown

When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure. —Peter Marshall

He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist. —St. Francis of Assisi

Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one. —Jane Howard

The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together. —Erma Bombeck

The most basic of all human needs is the need to understand and be understood. The best way to understand people is to listen to them. —Ralph Nichols

When you travel, you experience,...the act of rebirth. You confront completely new situations...and on most journeys you don't even understand the language...you are like a child just out of the womb. You begin to attach...more importance to the things around you because your survival depends on them. You begin to be more accessible to others because they may...help you...you accept any small favor...with great delight, as if...you would remember [it] for the rest of your life. —Paulo Coelho

Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquillity. —James Thurber

An ethical person ought to do more than he's required to do and less than he's allowed to do. —Author Unknown

After all it is those who have a deep and real inner life who are best able to deal with the irritating details of outer life. —Evelyn Underhill

I used to think I was indecisive, but now I'm not so sure. —Author Unknown

There is a strength of a quiet endurance as significant of courage as the most daring feats of prowess. —Henry Tuckerman

Not all those who wander are lost. —J.R.R. Tolkien

Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh. —George Bernard Shaw

But Christ has been raised to life! And he makes us certain that others will also be raised to life. —The Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians 15:20

Choices are the hinges of destiny. —Edwin Markham

There are moments in your life when you really miss someone, that you want to pick them from your dreams and hug them for real. Hope you dream of that someone. — Author Unknown

Maybe surrounded by
A million people I
Still feel all alone
I just wanna go home
Oh I miss you, you know
—from "Home",
performed by Michael Buble

Those who are in the Lord never say goodbye for the last time. —Scottish Proverb

Kissing is like drinking salted water: you drink and your thirst increases. --Chinese Proverb

Much of the distress we experience as Christians comes not as the result of sin, but because we are ignorant of the laws of our own nature. For instance, the only test we should use to determine whether or not to allow a particular emotion to run its course in our lives is to examine what the final outcome of that emotion will be. Think it through to its logical conclusion, and if the outcome is something that God would condemn, put a stop to it immediately. —Oswald Chambers

Do caterpillars know they are going to be butterflies, or does God surprise them? — Bil Keane, Family Circus

A Blast From the Past

Got a quote today--a long one! Last night, I suddenly remembered this classic poem that my dad used to read to me when I was a kid. He wasn't real demonstrative when I was growing up, (He got better!) but there was never any doubt what he was saying when he read this to me.

-------------------------------

The Children's Hour
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Between the dark and the daylight,
When the night is beginning to lower,

Comes a pause in the day's occupations,

That is known as the Children's Hour.



I hear in the chamber above me

The patter of little feet,

The sound of a door that is opened,

And voices soft and sweet.



From my study I see in the lamplight,

Descending the broad hall stair,

Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra,

And Edith with golden hair.



A whisper, and then a silence:

Yet I know by their merry eyes

They are plotting and planning together

To take me by surprise.



A sudden rush from the stairway,

A sudden raid from the hall!

By three doors left unguarded

They enter my castle wall!



They climb up into my turret

O'er the arms and back of my chair;

If I try to escape, they surround me;

They seem to be everywhere.



They almost devour me with kisses,

Their arms about me entwine,

Till I think of the Bishop of Bingen

In his Mouse-Tower on the Rhine!



Do you think, o blue-eyed banditti,

Because you have scaled the wall,

Such an old mustache as I am

Is not a match for you all!



I have you fast in my fortress,

And will not let you depart,

But put you down into the dungeon

In the round-tower of my heart.



And there will I keep you forever,

Yes, forever and a day,

Till the walls shall crumble to ruin,

And moulder in dust away!

--------------------------------

I love you too, Daddy!

The longer I live, the more faith I have in Providence, and the less faith in my interpretation of Providence. -- Jeremiah Day

Love at first sight is easy to understand; it's when two people have been looking at each other for a lifetime that it becomes a miracle.--Sam Levenson

Our wedding was many years ago. The celebration continues to this day. -- Gene Perret

Perhaps they are not stars, but rather openings in heaven where the love of our lost ones pours through and shines down upon us to let us know they are happy. -- Eskimo Proverb

You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them. -- Desmond Tutu

When you live with another person for 50 years, all of your memories are invested in that person, like a bank account of shared memories. It’s not that you refer to them constantly. In fact, for people who do not live in the past, you almost never say, “Do you remember that night we...?” But you don’t have to. That is the best of all. You know that the other person does remember. Thus, the past is part of the present as long as the other person lives. It is better than any scrapbook, because you are both living scrapbooks. - Federico Fellini

Repeat - hope you understand

Life has become a little less sweet, death a little less bitter, heaven a little more real. — Puritan Proverb (variation)

When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years. -- Mark Twain

My father didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it. -- Clarence B. Kelland

PRAY FOR MY MOM!

PRAY FOR MY FAMILY!!

My parents were in a car wreck today. My dad didn't make it. My mom's being lifelined to a major hospital.

PRAY!!

thank you

If suffering brought wisdom, the dentist’s office would be full of luminous ideas. — Mason Cooley

Every man should be born again on the first day of January. Start with a fresh page. Take up one hole more in the buckle if necessary, or let down one, according to circumstances; but on the first of January let every man gird himself once more, with his face to the front, and take no interest in the things that were and are past. — Henry Ward Beecher

God gave us memories that we might have roses in December. — J.M. Barrie

At every party there are two kinds of people -- those who want to go home and those who don't. The trouble is, they are usually married to each other. — Ann Landers

It is easy to love the people far away. It is not always easy to love those close to us. It is easier to give a cup of rice to relieve hunger than to relieve the loneliness and pain of someone unloved in our own home. Bring love into your home for this is where our love for each other must start. — Mother Teresa

Know you what it is to be a child? It is to be something very different from the man of to-day...it is to believe in love, to believe in loveliness, to believe in belief; it is to be so little that the elves can reach to whisper in your ear; it is to turn pumpkins into coaches, and mice into horses, lowness into loftiness, and nothing into everything, for each child has its fairy godmother in its own soul. — Francis Thompson

Anxiety is the rust of life, destroying its brightness and weakening its power. A childlike and abiding trust in Providence is its best preventive and remedy. — Unknown

I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. — Abraham Lincoln

Christmas is the day that holds all time together. — Alexander Smith

I am not alone at all, I thought. I was never alone at all. And that, of course, is the message of Christmas. We are never alone. Not when the night is darkest, the wind coldest, the world seemingly most indifferent. For this is still the time God chooses. — Taylor Caldwell

Despair is most often the offspring of ill-preparedness. — Don Williams, Jr

People need trouble -- a little frustration to sharpen the spirit on, toughen it. Artists do; I don't mean you need to live in a rat hole or gutter, but you have to learn fortitude, endurance. Only vegetables are happy. — William Faulkner

There cannot be a crisis today; my schedule is already full. — Henry Kissinger

Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the grateful and appreciating heart. — Henry Clay

When you have a great and difficult task, something perhaps almost impossible, if you only work a little at a time, every day a little, suddenly the work will finish itself. — Isak Dinesen (Baroness Karen Blixen)

There are times when a battle decides everything, and there are times when the most insignificant thing can decide the outcome of a battle. — Napoleon Bonaparte

Some businessmen are saying this could be the greatest Christmas ever. I always thought that the first one was. — Art Fettig

Shopping is a woman thing. It's a contact sport like football. Women enjoy the scrimmage, the noisy crowds, the danger of being trampled to death, and the ecstasy of the purchase. — Erma Bombeck

One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it's worth watching. — Unknown

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. — Herm Albright

It always rains on tents. Rainstorms will travel thousands of miles, against prevailing winds for the opportunity to rain on a tent. — Dave Barry

In the opinion of the world, marriage ends all, as it does in a comedy. The truth is precisely the opposite: it begins all. — Anne Sophie Swetchine

Probably the reason we all go so haywire at Christmas time with the endless unrestrained and often silly buying of gifts is that we don't quite know how to put our love into words. — Harlan Miller

Poisons and medicine are oftentimes the same substance given with different intents. — Peter Mere Latham

When we walk to the edge of all the light we have, and take that step into the darkness of the unknown, we must believe that one of two things will happen—there will be something solid for us to stand on, or God will teach us to fly. — Leiden ‘94 (?)

Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge we make promise only; pain we obey. — Marcel Proust

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.
You're on your own.
And you know what you know.
You are the guy who'll decide where to go.
— Dr. Seuss

A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person. — Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966

He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist. — St Francis of Assisi

External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty. — Charles Dickens

When I walk by the wayside, He is along with me. When I enter into company amid all my forgetfulness of Him, He never forgets me. In the silent watches of the night, when my eyelids are closed and my spirit has sunk into unconsciousness, the observant eye of Him who never slumbers is upon me. — Thomas Chalmers

Most grandmas have a touch of the scallywag. — Helen Thomson

The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow