start small

You aspire to great things? Begin with little ones.

-Saint Augustine

response to landscape

bodyscape II, originally uploaded by McBeth.

We are the children of our landscape; it dictates behavior and even thought in the measure to which we are responsive to it.

-- Lawrence Durrell

hello? hello?

beeting hearts, originally uploaded by McBeth.

There are things you just can't do in life. You can't beat the phone company, you can't make a waiter see you until he's ready to see you, and you can't go home again.

-- Bill Bryson

that which you can, you do

(hospital) room with a view, originally uploaded by McBeth.

There are two big forces at work, external and internal. We have very little control over external forces such as tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, disasters, illness and pain. What really matters is the internal force. How do I respond to those disasters? Over that I have complete control.

-- Leo Buscaglia

brother

quinn , originally uploaded by McBeth.

The highlight of my childhood was making my brother laugh so hard that food came out of his nose.

-- Garrison Keillor

let's do lunch

bright eyes, originally uploaded by McBeth.

I'm sick of following my dreams. I'm just going to ask them where they're going and hook up with them later.

-- Mitch Hedberg

masked

settle down kitty, originally uploaded by McBeth.

We were that generation called ''silent,'' but we were silent neither, as some thought, because we shared the period's official optimism nor, as others thought, because we feared its official repression. We were silent because the exhilaration of social action seemed to many of us just one more way of escaping the personal, of masking for a while that dread of the meaningless which was man's fate.

-- Joan Didion

purple

fresh breath, originally uploaded by McBeth.

I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.

-- Alice Walker

stand up

protest in madison: 02/26/11, originally uploaded by McBeth.

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.

-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

to be fair

Above all., originally uploaded by McBeth.

Though force can protect in emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration and cooperation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace.

-- Dwight D. Eisenhower

once upon a time

swerve, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Solid stone is just sand and water, baby
Sand and water, and a million years gone by.

-- Beth Nielsen Chapman

high height

Mad Rollin' Dolls 2011: Bout 3, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Ah, women. They make the highs higher and the lows more frequent.

-- Friedrich Nietzsche

if you look closely

over there, originally uploaded by McBeth.

When you are describing
A shape, or sound, or tint;
Don't state the matter plainly,
But put it in a hint;
And learn to look at all things
With a sort of mental squint.

-- Lewis Carroll

interrelated

chair boss, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Acquiring a dog may be the only opportunity a human ever has to choose a relative.

-- Mordecai Wyatt Johnson

darned if you don't

this that, originally uploaded by McBeth.

What then after the medications, psychiatrist, despair, depression, and overdose? All those incredible feelings to sort through. Who is being too polite to say what? Who knows what? What did I do? Why? And most hauntingly, when will it happen again? Then, too, are the bitter reminders..... medicine to take, resent, forget, take, resent, and forget, but always to take.

-- Kay Jamison

take a seat and wait

swimming is not advised., originally uploaded by McBeth.

I saw a human pyramid once. It was very unnecessary. It did not need to exist.

-- Mitch Hedberg

draggin' wagon

Davina DeVille, originally uploaded by McBeth.

As an artist, all I need is my paints and brushes - and someone to drag me away when the canvas is done.

-- Pablo Picasso

opened up

washington state, originally uploaded by McBeth.

We all experience many freakish and unexpected events - you have to be open to suffering a little. The philosopher Schopenhauer talked about how out of the randomness, there is an apparent intention in the fate of an individual that can be glimpsed later on. When you are an old guy, you can look back, and maybe this rambling life has some through-line. Others can see it better sometimes. But when you glimpse it yourself, you see it more clearly than anyone.

-- Viggo Mortensen

inflate your life raft

persimmon's art, originally uploaded by McBeth.

I don't understand people who like to work and talk about it like it was some sort of goddamn duty. Doing nothing feels like floating on warm water to me. Delightful, perfect.

-- Ava Gardner

Mister Owl, how many licks does it take?

three tomatoes, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.

-- Buddha