The Value of the Valley

The Value of the Valley

“What stands in the way becomes the way.”  ~Marcus Aurelius ♦♦♦ Standing on the hillside, she could see a very long distance. She could see another hill just across the way. Low and behold, there was the building she was trying to reach. Wrong hill. Or was it? Between this hill and that was a […]

Read More

Taste and See — Life is Good

“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt ♦♦♦ The call came, “Hey! I’ve ended up with two extra tickets to a great show. I know it’s last minute, but do you want to […]

Read More

Freedom Begins at the Bottom

“And the turtles, of course…all the turtles are free, as turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be.” ― Dr. Seuss, Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories ♦♦♦   Holding the little lightning bug in her cupped hands, she waited for the glowing to happen again. It was such a spectacular sight to see the lights popping up […]

Read More

It Takes Two

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller ♦♦♦ Just one more push and the desk would be at the top of the stairs. She was sure she could do it by herself. That is until she ran out of steam and knew for certain that she would […]

Read More

Who Am I?

What a liberation to realize that the ‘voice in my head’ is not who I am. ‘Who am I, then?’ The one who sees that. ~ Eckhart Tolle ♦♦♦ The voice in his head yelled as he walked out of the interview. “Why did you answer that way? You are such an idiot!” He was […]

Read More

Run Run Away

“No matter how far you travel, you can never get away from yourself. It’s like your shadow. It follows you everywhere. -Komura”― Haruki Murakami, After the Quake ♦♦♦ The little boy wasn’t happy with things at home. At nine years of age, his frustration with the rules in his house, the expectations of his keeping a clean […]

Read More

20 20 20

“While there is perhaps a province in which the photograph can tell us nothing more than what we see with our own eyes, there is another in which it proves to us how little our eyes permit us to see.” ― Dorothea Lange ♦♦♦ 1987. Bruce Hornsby and the Range. Tennessee Performing Arts Center. Sitting at […]

Read More

If You’re Happy and You Know It…

“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossoms.” ~ Marcel Proust ♦♦♦ Looking back at old photos, the discussion turned to the woman who had done so much for everyone there. She had been the one to show up with a hot meal, […]

Read More

Time to Think

“silence is the language of god, all else is poor translation.” ― Rumi Standing at the podium in front of his adoring fans, the man began to speak as he had so many times before. The room grew still as he stood saying nothing. Once a great speaker, the man had suffered a stroke and now […]

Read More

The Power of the Pen (or pencil)

When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love. ~ Marcus Aurelius *** Coming down early in the morning, I would usually find my mother sitting at the kitchen table writing in her calendar book. She had a separate place in which she […]

Read More

Thoughts to Encourage

Joy is the will which labors, which overcomes obstacles, which knows triumph.~ William Butler Yeats

Whether you think you can or think you can’t you’re right. - Henry Ford

The best way out is always through. ~ Robert Frost

Real difficulties can be overcome, it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable. ~ Theodore N. Vail

Success consists of getting up just one more time than you fall. ~ Oliver Goldsmith

You must be the change you want to see in the world. - Mahatma Gandhi

Nothing helps like a good nap…

Birds are Beautiful

A Dog is Faithful…