celebration

two left over, originally uploaded by McBeth.

The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.

-- Oprah Winfrey

commitment

bouquet, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Onion soup sustains. The process of making it is somewhat like the process of learning to love. It requires commitment, extraordinary effort, time, and will make you cry.

-- Ronni Lundy

rest

lights off, originally uploaded by McBeth.

He who sleeps in continual noise is wakened by silence.

-- William Dean Howells

the quiet ones

paoli, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Do not assume that she who seeks to comfort you now, lives untroubled among the simple and quiet words that sometimes do you good. Her life may also have much sadness and difficulty, that remains far beyond yours. Were it otherwise, she would never have been able to find these words.

-- Rainer Maria Rilke

fun

night vision specs, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Fun is good.

-- Dr. Seuss

ignorance

cannot just ignore it, originally uploaded by McBeth.

An ignorant person is one who doesn't know what you have just found out.

-- Will Rogers

gather around

rocking the firehouse, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.

-- May Sarton

transmogrification

grape hyacinth, originally uploaded by McBeth.

The fool inherits, but the wise must get.

-- William Cartwright

broken places

bug guts, originally uploaded by McBeth.

The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.

-- Ernest Hemingway

mortality

gumbutt tree seedlings, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is one hundred percent.

-- R.D. Laing

sundown

sundown, originally uploaded by McBeth.

What a nice night for an evening.

-- Steven Wright

try it

tentacle salad, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will.

-- James Stephens

unfashionable

in here, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Fashion is gentility running away from vulgarity and afraid of being overtaken.

-- William Hazlett

hold please

michael graves design, originally uploaded by McBeth.

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.

-- George Bernard Shaw

limitless

spirits among us, originally uploaded by McBeth.

In the material world, there are limitations. We always want more, but in the spiritual world, just a short prayer and you're infinitely content.

-- HH The 14th Dalai Lama

thank you, and safe passage

leaning into light, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Neither fire nor wind, birth nor death can erase our good deeds.

-- Buddha

rebuke the darkness

rear view mirror, originally uploaded by McBeth.

I speak of peace, while covert enmity under the smile of safety wounds the world.

-- William Shakespeare

a little faith

face it, originally uploaded by McBeth.

I still say a church steeple with a lightening rod on top shows a lack of confidence.

-- Doug McLeod

jammed up

overflowing, originally uploaded by McBeth.

There's the given and the expected
I count my blessings while I eye what I've neglected
Is this for better is this for worse
You're all jammed up and the dam's about to burst.

I hear the owl in the night
I realize that some things never are made right
By some will we string together here
Days to months and months to years
What if everything we have adds up to nothing.

-- Indigo Girls

the best things

a watched pot, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Don't despair too much if you see beautiful things destroyed, if you see them perish. Because the best things are always growing in secret.

-- Ben Okri

virtue isms

the other way, originally uploaded by McBeth.

The excessive regard of parents for their children, and their dislike of other people's is, like class feeling, patriotism, save-your-soul-ism, and other virtues, a mean exclusiveness at bottom.

-- Thomas Hardy

well seasoned

harbinger, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Summer makes me drowsy.
Autumn makes me sing.
Winter's pretty lousy,
but I hate Spring.

-- Dorothy Parker

prodigy

two tracked mind, originally uploaded by McBeth.

If I was the protagonist of a movie, she said, I’d be they lady who, no matter how many times she tries, could not remember the differences between the movie theater that offers terrific afternoon matinee prices and that other one.

what are you suggesting

bean juice, originally uploaded by McBeth.

If I asked for a cup of coffee, someone would search for the double meaning.

-- Mae West

one out of four

gravity holds us down, originally uploaded by McBeth.

The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they're okay, then it's you.

-- Rita Mae Brown

directionals

reading leaves, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Painful as it may be, a significant emotional event can be the catalyst for choosing a direction that serves us-and those around us - more effectively. Look for the learning.

-- Louisa May Alcott

making plans

princess daydreams, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.

-- Gloria Steinem

surprises

red shutter, originally uploaded by McBeth.

The remarkable thing is that it is the crowded life that is most easily remembered. A life full of turns, achievements, disappointments, surprises, and crises is a life full of landmarks. The empty life has even its few details blurred, and cannot be remembered with certainty.

-- Eric Hoffer

choices

possibilities, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Remember to be gentle with yourself and others. We are all children of chance and none can say why some fields will blossom while others lay brown beneath the August sun. Care for those around you. Look past your differences. Their dreams are no less than yours, their choices no more easily made. And give, give in any way you can, of whatever you posses. To give is to love. To withhold is to wither. Care less for your harvest than for how it is shared and your life will have meaning and your heart will have peace.

-- Kent Nerburn

watching for signs

mum, originally uploaded by McBeth.

I used to wait for a sign, she said, before I did anything. Then one night I had a dream & an angel in black tights came to me & said, you can start any time now, & then I asked is this a sign? & the angel started laughing & I woke up. Now, I think the whole world is filled with signs, but if there's no laughter, I know they're not for me.

Brian Andreas, Story People

fleet

steadfast foundations, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Being noticed can be a burden. Jesus got himself crucified because he got himself noticed. So I disappear a lot.

-- Bob Dylan

theirs to ours

wanilla wodka, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Maybe it's other people's reactions to us that makes us who we are.

-- Fox Mulder

un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq

five cubes, originally uploaded by McBeth.

He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever.

-- Chinese proverb

weapons down

getout 'n stayout, originally uploaded by McBeth.

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

-- Mahatma Gandhi

costume change

coming alive, originally uploaded by McBeth.

If death meant just leaving the stage long enough to change costume and come back as a new character...Would you slow down? Or speed up?

-- Chuck Palahniuk

remember this day

remember this day, originally uploaded by McBeth.

These things that leave you so frustrated will pass.
They will.
When a day like this happens again you will know what it feels like because you've been here, before, today.
Even though you will cry and feel just horrible, because that's what you do, it will pass.
And you'll feel a whole lot better knowing that ,
at least,
you're trying to do something you believe in.
That's something.

to the library boys, who will never read this

fidget works her warm fuzzies, originally uploaded by McBeth.

First of all: I'm old enough to be your mother. Even if I wasn't I am a fellow student who wants to just get through this time so I can move along to what comes next. You don't have to be a dick when someone asks you to not do something annoying. Try using some of the manners that I hope I am not wrong to assume your guardians taught you.

When I asked you to please lower your voices because I couldn't concentrate you were awfully attentive to my needs, like that cosy little moment when you suggested that I go into the 'Quiet Room' section of the library if I want quiet. Really, the way you are looking out for me nearly brings a tear to my eye it is just that touching. But c'mon dudes, look at the situation! I am seated at a school computer - in a LIBRARY. It's not like I can yank the cables out from the back of the Dell and drag computer guts into the Quiet Room to do this non-interactive online work. I have to sit at one of the school computers where it is set up and plugged in, to do this thing I'm doing. You don't have to be in a library to share the best secret hunting spots you've discovered across the tri-state area. Go somewhere else to yack.

Yes I concur with you, the library is indeed a public place. But it is also a LIBRARY, where people are doing homework and research and reading and studying. Were you raised in a barn or something? Did nobody every teach you the concept of indoor voices? Use them. Trust me on this one... annoying and interesting are two very different animals. You're not that interesting. If I squint a little I can understand why you'd think you have every right to carry on a loud conversation about hunting and blowing up crows with inappropriately large guns, but the thing is not all of us think you're awesome or that your immaturely gruesome hunting stories are exciting. Not everyone else seated around you wants to hear what you expect you should have every right in the middle of a LIBRARY to chortle over. Want to hear about my menstrual issues? Mmhmm, thought not. Context, my little friends, context.

And try some freakin' manners. Sheesh.

solid footing

inaugural socks, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Set your expectations high; find men and women whose integrity and values you respect; get their agreement on a course of action; and give them your ultimate trust.

-- John Akers

back home

crawfish , originally uploaded by McBeth.

When I get away from home for too long I start to get crazy, so I need to get back, ... We have to get back just to get our feet in the mud, in that crawfish juice, or something.

-- George Porter

headed there

as the crow flies, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Life begins at 40 - but so do fallen arches, rheumatism, faulty eyesight, and the tendency to tell a story to the same person, three or four times.

-- Helen Rowland

a one and a

on a scale of one to ten, originally uploaded by McBeth.

According to most studies, people's number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.

-- Jerry Seinfeld

small medium and large

available at fine retailers everywhere, originally uploaded by McBeth.

You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.

-- Mark Twain

ten inches deep

scarletta's snow day, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Worry is as useless as a handle on a snowball.

-- Mitzi Chandler

preferences

anticipation, originally uploaded by McBeth.

We do not belong to those who only get their thought from books, or at the prompting of books, -- it is our custom to think in the open air, walking, leaping, climbing, or dancing on lonesome mountains by preference, or close to the sea, where even the paths become thoughtful.

-- Friedrich Nietzsche

Test

This is a test

stillness in action

meditation, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Activity conquers cold, but stillness conquers heat.

-- Lao Tzu

those lessons are finally paying off

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

don't hold back

buffalo pilgrim, originally uploaded by McBeth.

Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.

-- William Arthur Ward

close your eyes. listen.

This song is a childhood memory that surfaces from time to time. My older sister was in the Luther College Nordic Choir, as was my uncle Buzz. When I was young I dreamed about being in Nordic. I used to hit that soprano 1 note 4:23 in. But never ever will anyone be able to direct it like Weston Noble directed it. He was a elf of a man, slightly built and quiet. With Weston you got huge direction from his barely-there direction. It was like a magic trick you thought you'd see coming but each time you'd be surprised all over again. I say this like I know him well, ha. I did participate in a few choral events under his direction in my pre-college days. I didn't know him well and wasn't his student per se, but he knew my family and was so kind to the weird kid I was so, believing he took a special liking to me, I took a special liking to him too.

Each time I saw this piece performed by Nordic it was at the beginning of this song that I remember Weston's slim frame sort of hunched over forward as though burdened, or tired. Then, as the song unfolded he'd physically open up, raise his spinal colum, raise his chin, his arms, widen his posture until the shivery place there at the end of the piece, each time, when I realized I had just watched a man transcend.

it is coming

first of the season, originally uploaded by McBeth.

There is no terror in a bang, only in the anticipation of it.

-- Alfred Hitchcock

clarity

vanilla sunshine, originally uploaded by McBeth.

This is the mysterious world which is available to you if you can pass the jungle of questions and doubts and reach into the clear, where there are no questions and doubts, and no answers either. Just you are in utter silence, with immense clarity, with tremendous sharpness.

-- Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

how does this thing work

bus stop, originally uploaded by McBeth.

We are forced to participate in the games of life before we can possibly learn how to use the options in the rules governing them.

-- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe