Nightlight

See the light in others and treat them as if that's all you see.

~ Wayne Dyer

- - - - -

I try to do this. Everyone has gifts and things to offer the world. I do run into struggles sometimes, though, when the lights I see in others is fire accompanied by brimstone. (pause) You know who you are.

Wayne

People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

~ Proverb

- - - - -

I just realized my friend Wayne Glass will ALWAYS live in a glass house.

(pause)

Keep your behavior in check, Wayne. 

(pause)

Actually, my friend Wayne is one of the least proverbial stone-throwing people I know.

Chicken

The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg. Not by smashing it.

~ Arnold H. Glasgow

- - - - -

You can also get the chicken at a drive-thru. And there are a LOT of chicken places here in South Carolina. And if things take too long and you have other things to do, just honk your horn a lot. That helps people hurry up and they appreciate you letting them know you're in a hurry.

Proof

I love it when people doubt me. It makes me work harder to prove them wrong.

~ Derek Jeter

- - - - -

Those who doubt me don't know me, don't know my heart, and don't know my definition of success. If they knew those things, they would never doubt me. Also, they should probably spend more energy on their own success. They have a lot more control over that than they do over me. They are not the boss of me. I am the boss of me. 

(pause)

I should get me a nice gift for boss's day.

Font

Nooooooooooooooo!

~ Deborah Huelsbergen 
(response to Times New Roman)

- - - - -

Once again I found a blog draft and I have no idea what I was talking about. Here is what it says:

I love everything about this.

The font.
The tone.
The pumctuation.

The elefont in the room is spelling on that last word. I imagine whatever the ideas was, it was going to be a pretty fontastic blog. My blogs tend to be the type of blogs that are fontastic, however, it is possible I am not write about that. 

Karma

If you give a good thing to the world, then over time your karma will be good, and you'll receive good.

~ Russell Simmons

- - - - -

Someday I want to post something on Facebook that gets all hearts and none of the plain thumbs ups. You might tell me to post "I want only hearts on this post, no thumbs up, please." But if you think that would work, you don't know anything about my Facebook "friends."

Beach

Every time I stand before a beautiful beach, its waves seem to whisper to me: If you choose the simple things and find joy in nature's simple treasures, life and living need not be so hard.

~ Psyche Roxas-Mendoza

- - - - -

Every time I stand before a beautiful beach, its waves seem to whisper to me: CRASH!!!!! SWISH!! ROAR!!

Travel

Because the greatest part of a road trip isn't arriving at your destination. It's all the wild stuff that happens along the way.

~ Emma Chase

- - - - -

When I was a child, and my parents were planning our family vacations (if we weren't renting a cabin and fishing somewhere), we would drive somewhere far away, look at something, and then drive back home again. 

That is why I like to travel by getting in a car and driving until I don't feel like driving and then exploring for as long as I want and then driving until I see something else that is interesting and exploring that. I may not go as far as other travelers, but I think I see more things.

(pause)

Maybe I don't see more things, but maybe I pay more attention to more things which ultimately is important to seeing them, right? So I guess I see more things. Like sometimes I see how my traveling companions get annoyed if I want to stop and look at something. I wouldn't see that if I didn't stop as often, now would I?

Being

What you are is what you have been. What you'll be is what you do now.

~ The Buddha

- - - - -

I wonder if anyone used to call the Buddha "Bud" for short.

(pause)

Probably not.

Journey

Memory is the basis of every journey.

~ Stephen King

- - - - -

I believe that life is a journey every day that makes a larger journey called life. I hope on my journey that I get to be friends with Stephen King so I can write a book and call it The King and I. On a completely unrelated note, I hope I get to be friends with Stephen King's literary agent, too.

Sky

The brain is wider than the sky.

~ Emily Dickinson

- - - - -

This is particularly true in the dictionary because it has two more letters.

Condensation

We live in the condensation of our imagination.

~ Terence McKenna

- - - - -

Moist.


(I just wrote that because I know a lot of people who don't like that word. And that's just how I am.)

Stop

Stop. At least for today. Just stop. Be still.

~ The Daily Stoic

- - - - - -

Stopping is something I am very good at when I plan for it. It is not something I am good at doing when I am busy - which is when I usually need to stop the most.

You too, I bet.

No need to respond. Just stop. Be still.

That's what I'm about to do.

Up

Look up always, look back never.

~ karen quan

- - - - -

One morning Leslie and I went to the lake so she could swim while I journaled. When we left, I spotted a squirrel carrying something. It looked like some kind of animal and the squirrel had started eating it, but squirrels don't generally eat other animals. Turns out it was a big piece of watermelon rind. I watched the squirrel eat part of it and then it scampered up a tree. The squirrel, not the watermelon rind - though if that had happened I definitely would have blogged about that, too.

Anyway, the squirrel went up pretty high - maybe 12-18 feet. We watched it eating the rind. Then it dropped it. I was very sad for the squirrel. But Leslie said, "Well, now it's in two smaller parts, so it will be easier for the squirrel to carry."

I like that Leslie.

Art

Art never responds to the wish to make it democratic; it is not for everybody; it is only for those willing to undergo the effort to understand it.

~ Flannery O'Connor

- - - - -

Leslie: So I guess one brand of glue stick is not the same as the next, huh?

Me: Nope.

Leslie: Some are better than others?

Me: Yep. 

Leslie: (holding up a skinny glue stick with glue glob balls on the end) And this is not one of the better ones, right?

Me: Yep.

Leslie: (murmuring to herself) I hate crafts.

But she loves reading and writing. Those are her forms of art. Also puppetry, but I try not to talk about that too much. If I do, she gets out the puppets and leaves them around the house and I get startled. 

I don't like being startled. Even though there is art in stARTled, too.

Watercan

We're like a gardener with a hose and our attention is water - we can water flowers or we can water weeds.

~ Josh Radnor

- - - - -

I saw a bumble bee trying to get pollen from the plants on Leslie's empty water can. 

The earth is doomed.

Time

The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.

~ C. S. Lewis

- - - - -

In case you were wondering, I can write about 50 haiku an hour. That translates to two okay haiku an hour or one great haiku every 18 months. In fact, I am inspired to write a haiku about that right now:

50 in an hour
In case you were wondering.
You likely were not.

This is not that ONE
GREAT HAIKU in eighteen months
Neither of these are.

Happy

It is the smile of a baby that makes life worth living.

~Debasish Mridha

- - - - -

And if you're a grandparent, it doesn't even matter if it's one of those gas smiles that babies have sometimes.

Tree

Love the trees until their leaves fall off, then encourage them to try again next year.

~ Chad Sugg

- - - - -

I wonder if you are a tree at the beach if you feel a little bit "less than" palm trees. Do you think palm trees are the best trees at the beach? Do you think palm trees think they're the best trees at the beach? Do you talk to the trees, but they never listen to you? Then you probably aren't at the beach. You're probably in "Paint Your Wagon."

Grandma

If nothing is going well, call your grandmother.

~ Italian Proverb

- - - - -

You try to find quotes about grandmothers and they are all sweet and nice. Trust me, if you knew some of these women before they became "grand" you would know the truth. Most of them were mean, mean, mean.

Medicine

Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which is why several of us died of tuberculosis, I guess.

~ Jack Handy

- - - - -

I see old medications and powders and liniments and stuff like that in antique stores sometimes. I wonder who buys that stuff. I am guessing probably oldsters who remember "Back in the good old days when they put REAL medicine in the medicine!" REAL medicine like opium, arsenic, morphine, mercury, and heroin, Grandma?

Shrimping

Why is a rat not as good as a rabbit? Why should men eat shrimps and neglect cockroaches?

~ Henry Ward Beecher

- - - - -

I would probably decline an invitation to one of Henry Ward Beecher's dinner parties for three reasons.

1. I don't really think of myself as a "dinner party" kind of person.

2. Based on the quote above, I wouldn't trust the menu.

3. Henry Ward Beecher died in 1887, so the invitation would 

    clearly be a fake.

Roads

God made the world round so we would never be able to see too far down the road.

~ Isak Dinesen

- - - - -

I was doing a crossword puzzle and the clue was: "The Good Samaritan, in trying to alleviate poverty, set an example of a good one." It was a four-letter word beginning with the letter "D." 

I thought the answer was "Dude."

(pause)

It was "Deed."

(pause)

I really like my answer better.

Lights

Fond memory brings the light of other days around me.

~ Thomas Moore

- - - - -

This house in our neighborhood decorates for every holiday. Their lights for Labor Day are just a bunch of hammers and the outlines of factories.

Midwest

Don't just give hams to the neighbors who are nice to you, give them to the ones who aren't happy with you, too. 

~ Drew Mogler, Iowa Pork Congress

- - - - - 

I was doing a crossword puzzle and the clue was "Like much of the heartland inhabited by The Middle Americans."

I guessed "flat" and then "friendly" and then "corn" but the answer had five letters. It was "rural." 

(pause)

While there are lots of questions in the world there are even more answers because each question has lots of right answers.

Amusement

We are not amused.

~ Sharilynne Boettcher

- - - - -

My mom used to say this to us a lot when I was growing up. Two things:

1. I like how she used to use the "royal we."
2. I think she actually really WAS amused.

Bobber

Many men go fishing all of their lives without realizing it is not fish they are after.

~ Henry David Thoreau

- - - - - -

I probably posted about this before, but I LOVE seeing bobbers hanging around like this. Not MY bobbers, but other peoples'. Not that I wish them ill. I've just been there and I feel a deep sense of connection to other people when I see things like this.

I feel a deep sense of disconnection from my bobber when I see my own bobbers like this. 

Books

A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest.

 ~ C. S. Lewis

- - - - -

I admire Leslie a lot. When she and I went into social isolation lockdown, she decided she would start reading stories to Ezra and Aurora. Most of the money we spent during the pandemic has been on children's books. Now, I have always wanted a great library of children's books, so I've been all for this.

I just am amazed at the ways she shows care for other people in a crisis. She does stories for the grandkids, plays Bingo with her mom, schedules time to check in with friends. And she lets me pretend to be the boss of us when we both know that isn't the case at all.

The only downside is that when I am filming her reading the stories, sometimes I start to fall asleep. It feels like bedtime stories and so I get sleepy.

I'd maybe be more critical of myself for that, but I think sometimes Leslie listens to her stories as her own bedtime stories so she can fall asleep, too. 

I need to remind her to add "reading bedtime stories really, really well" to her CV. 

Moonshine

I am not the same having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.

~ Mary Ann Radmacher

- - - - -

Sometimes, just looking up and knowing someone important to me is looking up and seeing the same moonshine helps me understand how we both ended up on the floor.

Sky

I believe that if one always looked at the skies, one would end up with wings.

~ Gustave Flaubert.

- - - - -

When I look up, I see the sky.
I see it's blue with my eye.
Sometimes it's gray, when I look up
Sometimes it's the color of a buttercup.

And that means seek shelter. If the sky is yellow there is probably a tornado soon.