Rain

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

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

New Beginnings

There are things that we never want to let go of,

people we never want to leave behind.

But keep in mind that letting go isn’t the end of the world,

it’s the beginning of a new life.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Throw Open the Windows

The windows of my soul I throw

Wide open to the sun.

~John Greenleaf Whittier

Full Heart

In a full heart there is room for everything,

and in an empty heart there is room for nothing.

- Antonio Porchia

Helping Hand

The best place to find a helping hand
is at the end of your own arm.

- Swedish Proverb

Weeds

A weed is simply a plant that wants to grow

where people want something else.

In blaming nature, people mistake the culprit.

Weeds are people's idea, not nature's.

~Author Unknown

Travelling Our Path

I see my path, but I don't know where it leads.

Not knowing where I'm going is what inspires me to travel it.

- Rosalia de Castro

Set Your Sights

Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.

- Andre Gide

Decide ...

The doors we open and close each day

decide the lives we live.

- Flora Whittemore

Isolation

The person who tries to live alone
will not succeed as a human being.
His heart withers if it does not answer another heart.
His mind shrinks away if he hears only
the echoes of his own thoughts
and finds no other inspiration.

- Pearl S. Buck

Beauty

Never lose an opportunity of seeing

anything that is beautiful,

for beauty is God's handwriting --

a wayside sacrament.

Welcome it in every fair face,

in every fair sky,

in every flower,

and thank God for it

as a cup of blessing.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Optimist

An optimist is the human personification of spring.

- Susan J. Bissonette

Food

Food is our common ground, a universal experience.

- James Beard

Means and the End

Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit

cannot be severed;

for the effect already blooms in the cause,

the end preexists in the means,

the fruit in the seed

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Success

There is only one success -

to be able to spend your life

in your own way.

- Christopher Morley

Choose

Choose
The single clenched fist lifted and ready,
Or the open hand held out and waiting.
Choose: For we meet by one or the other.

- Carl Sandburg

Flowers

Earth laughs in flowers.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Easter ...

Easter is not a time for groping through dusty, musty tomes or tombs to disprove spontaneous generation or even to prove life eternal. It is a day to fan the ashes of dead hope, a day to banish doubts and seek the slopes where the sun is rising, to revel in the faith which transports us out of ourselves and the dead past into the vast and inviting unknown.

- Author Unknown

My Sunset Sky

Clouds come floating into my life,
no longer to carry rain or usher storm,
but to add color to my sunset sky.

- Rabindranath Tagore

Live Fully

Live life fully while you're here.

Experience everything.

Take care of yourself and your friends.

Have fun, be crazy, be weird.

Go out and screw up!

You're going to anyway, so you might as well enjoy the process.

Take the opportunity to learn from your mistakes;

find the cause of your problem and eliminate it.

Don't try to be perfect;

just be an excellent example of being human.”

- Anthony Robbins

Difference Between Dog and Man

If you pick up a starving dog

and make him prosperous,

he will not bite you;

that is the principal difference

between a dog and a man.

- Mark Twain

The Most Precious Gift

The most precious gift we can offer others

is our presence.

When mindfulness embraces those we love,

they will bloom like flowers.”

- Thich Nhat Hanh

Empty Pockets

Empty pockets never held anyone back.
Only empty heads
and empty hearts
can do that.

- Norman Vincent Peale

Peace

Peace,
to have meaning for many who have only known suffering
in both peace and war,
must be translated into bread or rice, shelter, health and education,
as well as freedom and human dignity.

- Ralph Johnson Bunche

Return of Spring

Spring has returned.

The Earth is like a child that knows poems.

~Rainer Maria Rilke

The Universe Conspires

When you want something,
all the universe conspires
in helping you to achieve it.

- Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist)