Our Heaven on Earth

Happy Valentine's Day!

2012-02-14T05:50:00.001-07:00

Love Much

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Love much. Earth has enough of bitter in it;
Cast sweets into its cup whene'er you can.
No heart so hard, but love at last may win it;
Love is the grand primeval cause of man;
All hate is foreign to the first great plan.
Love much. Your heart will be led out to slaughter,
On altars built of envy and deceit.
Love on, love on! 'tis bread upon the water;
It shall be cast in loaves yet at your feet,
Unleavened manna, most divinely sweet.
Love much. Your faith will be dethroned and shaken,
Your trust betrayed by many a fair, false lure.
Remount your faith, and let new trusts awaken.
Though clouds obscure them, yet the stars are pure;
Love is a vital force and must endure.
Love much. Men's souls contract with cold suspicion,
Shine on them with warm love, and they expand.
'Tis love, not creeds, that from a low condition
Lead mankind up to heights supreme and grand.
Oh, that the world could see and understand!
Love much. There is no waste in freely giving;
More blessed is it, even, than to receive.
He who loves much, alone finds life worth living;
Love on, through doubt and darkness; and believe
There is no thing which Love may not achieve.

2012-02-01T04:17:00.000-07:00

"One must maintain a little bittle of summer, even in the middle of winter."
— Henry David Thoreau

2012-01-05T14:25:00.001-07:00

Having said this before, it's still true. I have so much fun looking at blogs. I was looking at one today - which came from another's friends' list (like I don't have a long list of things to do!) The pictures were beautiful. This person was reviewing their Christmas season. I will post some pictures one of these days - promise! Meanwhile, I just have to say that I have a ton of Kodak memories that are written on my heart. It was a wonderful Christmas season - starting with a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving - actually it really started right around Halloween. It was wonderful. We love our family more than words can express. They give beauty and luster to our lives. What would we do without family - we don't even want to think about it. This includes a number of friends who fit into the category of "family", too. Here's a quote that I like which expresses my thoughts on this very subject: "The best part of life is when your family becomes your friends, and your friends become your family." ---Danica Whitfield

And - so far - it's a pretty amazing new year, too! Here's to a glorious 2012!

2011-12-31T12:26:00.001-07:00

This great list has been passed around the internet. The correct contributor was Charles Sykes, author of the book, "Dumbing Down Our Kids; Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can't Read, Write or Add". I like this list and decided to add it to my blog for future reference. Happy New Year!!

Rule 1: Life is not fair – get used to it!

Rule 2: The world doesn’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault, so don’t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they’ll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.

Rule 12: Smoking does not make you look cool. It makes you look moronic. Next time you're out cruising, watch an 11-year-old with a butt in his mouth. That's what you look like to anyone over 20. Ditto for "expressing yourself" with purple hair and/or pierced body parts.

Rule 13: You are not immortal. (See Rule No. 12.) If you are under the impression that living fast, dying young and leaving a beautiful corpse is romantic, you obviously haven't seen one of your peers at room temperature lately.

Rule 14: Enjoy this while you can. Sure parents are a pain, school's a bother, and life is depressing. But someday you'll realize how wonderful it was to be a kid. Maybe you should start now. You're welcome.

2011-12-10T13:57:00.000-07:00

I love this quote from Martin Buber - "The outward form of whatever we do is not as important as the content we bring to it. The primary question is not what we are doing but who we are being."

I'm so grateful for the 1st Presidency Christmas devotionals. I appreciate what I heard this year about not being so caught up in the activities of Christmas that we forget what we are celebrating. If Christmas is really about the Savior we will go and do the work that he would do if he were here. Nothing else really matters. That's my thought for today ~ and I hope we all are enjoying this beautiful season ~ with real purpose and meaning ~ with joy and peace!

2011-11-29T13:39:00.000-07:00

I love reading everyone's blogs. I have noticed that there are some blogs that haven't had anything new on them in a while - like mine! So I decided today I would write on my own, rather than to put up a quote.

Thanksgiving has come and gone and it's time to look forward to the Christmas season. I don't want to ignore the feelings of my heart and the gratitude that I have for this beautiful time of the year. As always, if it weren't for a loving Heavenly Father and for our Savior, I don't know where I'd be - so that goes without saying that this is the #1 thing I am always thinking about and have much to ponder. I am deeply grateful for my life and how it has unfolded. I am thankful for good health and for a wonderful family. I stand in awe of how much I keep learning about being a wife, a mother, a grand mother, a friend, a sister, and the list goes on. So many facets of my life have continually evolved. It's been a great blessing to me that nothing has stood too still for very long.

I hope that we all have a joyous Christmas season! God bless us, every one!!!

2011-09-24T05:25:00.002-06:00

True Charity

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

I gave a beggar from my little store
Of well-earned gold. He spent the shining ore
And came again, and yet again, still cold
And hungry, as before.

I gave a thought, and through that thought of mine
He found himself, the man, supreme, divine!
Fed, clothed, and crowned with blessings manifold.
And now he begs no more.

2011-09-15T05:37:00.001-06:00

Trust

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Once Pain beat on my heart,
And well-nigh killed it.
I shuddered at the smart,
But said God willed it.

And down and down again,
With awful power,
Fell the great hand of Pain,
Hour after hour.

While, like a mighty flail,
The fierce blows hurt me,
I cried God doth prevail:
He'll not desert me.

Blow upon cruel blow,
The great hand gave me,
Yet I cried He doth know,
And he will save me.

I did not loudly cry,
And ask God's reason;
I knew He'd tell me why,
In his own season.

In His good time, I said,
In trusting blindness,
And I was not afraid
To wait his kindness.

I did not trust in vain.
God drew me nearer,
And whispered Smile again!
The way is clearer.

And lo! my mortal sight
Could reach to heaven,
My faith dispelled the night,
And light was given.

This is my birthday present to myself

2011-09-08T05:04:00.002-06:00

Now

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

One looks behind him to some vanished time
And says, Ah, I was happy then, alack!
I did not know it was my life's best prime --
Oh, if I could go back!
Another looks, with eager eyes aglow,
To some glad day of joy that yet will dawn,
And sighs, I shall be happy then, I know.
Oh, let me hurry on.
But I - I look out on my fair To-day;
I clasp it close and kiss its radiant brow,
Here with the perfect present let me stay,
For I am happy now!

2011-09-07T05:02:00.000-06:00

Belief

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

The pain we have to suffer seems so broad,
Set side-by-side with this life's narrow span,
We need no greater evidence that God
Has some diviner destiny for man.
He would not deem it worth His while to send
Such crushing sorrows as pursue us here,
Unless beyond this fleeting journey's end
Our chastened spirits found another sphere
So small this world! So vast its agonies!
A future life is needed to adjust
These ill-proportioned, wide discrepancies
Between the spirit and its frame of dust.
So when my soul writhes with some aching grief,
And all my heart-strings tremble at the strain,
My Reason lends new courage to Belief,
And all God's hidden purposes seem plain.

2011-09-04T09:28:00.004-06:00

Grandparents bestow upon their grandchildren the strength and wisdom that time and experience have given them.

Grandchildren bless their Grandparents with a youthful vitality and innocence that help them stay young at heart forever.

Together they create a chain of love linking the past with the future. The chain may lengthen but it will never part . . .

Author Unknown

2011-09-02T05:43:00.004-06:00

Being the genealogist that I am, I just have to say that there are certain kinds of "the past" which are good. But, for the most part I agree with Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

Keep Out Of The Past

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Keep out of the Past! for its highways
Are damp with malarial gloom;
Its gardens are sere and its forests are drear,
And everywhere moulders a tomb.
Who seeks to regain its lost pleasures
Finds only a rose turned to dust;
And its storehouse of wonderful treasures
Are covered and coated with rust.
Keep out of the Past! It is haunted:
He who in its avenues gropes
Shall find there the ghost of a joy prized the most,
And a skeleton throng of dead hopes.
In place of its beautiful rivers
Are pools that are stagnant with slime;
And these graves gleaming white in a phosphoric light
Hide dreams that were slain in their prime.
Keep out of the Past! It is lonely,
And barren and bleak to the view;
Its fires have grown cold, and its stories are old --
Turn, turn to the Present -- the New:
To-day leads you up to the hilltops
That are kissed by the radiant sun,
To-day shows no tomb, life's hopes are in bloom,
And to-day holds a prize to be won.

2011-09-01T05:40:00.000-06:00

Be Not Content

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Be not content -- contentment means inaction;
The growing soul aches on its upward quest;
Satiety is twin to satisfaction;
All great achievements spring from life's unrest.
The tiny roots, deep in the dark mould hiding,
Would never bless the earth with leaf and flower
Were not an inborn restlessness abiding
In seed and germ, to stir them with its power.
Were man contented with his lot forever,
He had not sought strange seas with sails unfurled,
And the vast wonder of our shores had never
Dawned on the gaze of an admiring world.
Prize what is yours, but be not quite contented.
There is a healthful restlessness of soul
By which a mighty purpose is augmented
In urging men to reach a higher goal.
So when the restless impulse rises, driving
Your calm content before it, do not grieve;
It is the upward reaching of the spirit
Of the God in you to achieve -- achieve.

2011-08-31T05:36:00.001-06:00

Duty's Path

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Out from the harbour of youth's bay
There leads the path of pleasure;
With eager steps we walk that way
To brim joy's largest measure.
But when with morn's departing beam
Goes youth's last precious minute,
We sigh 'Twas but a fevered dream --
There's nothing in it.
Then on our vision dawns afar
The goal of glory, gleaming
Like some great radiant solar star,
And sets us longing, dreaming.
Forgetting all things left behind,
We strain each nerve to win it,
But when 'tis ours -- alas! we find
There's nothing in it.
We turn our sad, reluctant gaze
Upon the path of duty;
Its barren, uninviting ways
Are void of bloom and beauty.
Yet in that road, though dark and cold,
It seems as we begin it,
As we press on -- lo! we behold
There's Heaven in it.

2011-08-30T23:05:00.000-06:00

Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small;
Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds he all.

From Poetic Aphorisms by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

From the Sinngedichte of Friedrich Von Logau. -- Seventeenth Century,

Translations from the German.

2011-08-03T07:37:00.001-06:00

"In the tempestuous ocean of time and toil there are islands of stillness where man may enter a harbor and reclaim his dignity."

Abraham Heschel

2011-07-29T10:13:00.000-06:00

Love is not indulgence. It has nothing to do with indulgence. Love expects the very best of people and it does what will benefit the other person even if the other person perceives it to be hard or even cruel. That is what love is.

Terry Warner (The Arbinger Institute)

2011-07-17T21:18:00.002-06:00

All of us want love. All of us need love. Everything else is a consolation prize.

Lloyd Newell, Music and the Spoken Word (today)

2011-07-16T11:16:00.000-06:00

I like things that are black and white. And since the world likes things grey, I'm especially happy to find things that are black and white. It's great to find quotes that do just that and here is one of them:

“The scriptures remind us, ‘And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’ (John 8:32.) Our job is to search for the full truth and apply it in our lives. Though we are free to act, we are not free to decide what is right or wrong. That was determined eons ago. We can scoff at sacred things, rationalize our behavior, spout our own ideas, agree or disagree, but it doesn’t change anything. We cannot alter God’s laws, his truth. We can choose to use truth wisely and reach our goal, or we can refuse to learn truth, to live it, and then pay the inevitable penalty.”

Elaine Cannon

2011-07-14T15:43:00.000-06:00

I just got done reading an excellent book entitled, "Weakness is Not Sin" by Wendy Ulrich. It changed the way I view myself and my fellow human beings. I'm going to post some of my favorite quotes from that book.

Here's one: "Weakness and sin are very different. Weakness and strength are not".

Amazing, isn't it! There's more. ".......weakness can actually contribute enormously to our spiritual progress and joy if we respond to it with humility and the ability to learn."

These quotes are from chapter 1. Great book, I promise!

2011-07-12T05:38:00.000-06:00

"Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes. You must look into that storm and shout...do your worst, for I will do mine."

-Edmund Dantes

2011-07-11T05:37:00.000-06:00

"Our heavenly Father is more liberal in His views, and boundless in His mercies and blessings, than we are ready to believe or receive; and at the same time more terrible to the workers of iniquity, more awful in the executions of His punishments, and more ready to detect in every false way, than we are apt to suppose Him to be."

-Joseph Smith

2011-07-10T05:36:00.000-06:00

"Consecration is the only surrender which is actually a victory."

-Neal A. Maxwell

2011-07-09T05:33:00.000-06:00

"No, God does not need us to love Him. But oh, how we need to love God! For what we love determines what we seek. What we seek determines what we think and do. What we think and do determines who we are—and who we will become."

-Dieter F. Uchtdorf

2011-07-08T12:33:00.002-06:00

"Character is revealed...in the power to discern the suffering of other people when we ourselves are suffering; in the ability to detect the hunger of others when we are hungry; and in the power to reach out and extend compassion for the spiritual agony of others when we are in the midst of our own spiritual distress. Thus, character is demonstrated by looking and reaching outward when the natural and instinctive response is to be self-absorbed and turn inward."

- Elder David A. Bednar

2011-07-06T10:45:00.000-06:00

“The Savior’s atonement reminds us that real freedom is freedom of attitude. One may be bound in chains, whipped, enslaved, or mocked. He may lose freedom of movement, expression, and religion. But there is one freedom that no man on earth has power to control or to confiscate—each person’s freedom to determine his reaction or response to a given circumstance.”

Carolyn G. Depp, Ensign, February 1986

2011-07-03T11:45:00.002-06:00

The abundant life is to face trouble with courage, disappointment with cheerfulness and triumph with humility.

President Thomas S. Monson

2011-07-02T18:47:00.000-06:00

"It is, therefore, paradoxical that those bitter, humbling experiences that seem to indicate that the Lord has forsaken us may be the very experiences that prove that he has not. To be "pruned" by God is an evidence of his faith in us."

Rodney Turner
Studies in Scripture, Volume 5, The Gospels - page 417

2011-06-30T07:30:00.000-06:00

Elder Orson F. Whitney said: “No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. … All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable. … It is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire.”

2011-06-28T16:13:00.002-06:00

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)

2011-06-28T07:28:00.000-06:00

“God gave us memories, that we might have June roses in the December of our lives”

(paraphrasing James Barrie, in Laurence J. Peter, comp., Peter’s Quotations: Ideas for Our Time [1977],

a good reminder

2011-06-27T07:35:00.001-06:00

To do without to be is hypocrisy, or feigning to be what one is not—a pretender.

Conversely, to be without to do is void, as in “faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone”. Be without do really isn’t being—it is self-deception, believing oneself to be good merely because one’s intentions are good.

Do without be—hypocrisy—portrays a false image to others, while bewithout do portrays a false image to oneself.

Elder Lynn G Robbins, April 2011 conference

2011-06-26T07:05:00.000-06:00

To live without gratitude is to live with an inflated view of ourselves.

2011-06-25T18:47:00.001-06:00

The flowers that follow the sun do so even on cloudy days.

2011-05-13T15:12:00.001-06:00

I am so impressed with this quote from the Arbinger Institute: Arrogance is a form of fear. I don't brag or claim superiority unless I doubt. Insisting on being right comes from doubt... How do I get out of this? Reflect on the truth of the story I've been telling myself.

2011-05-01T05:24:00.000-06:00

Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that people who have the most, live the longest.

2011-04-30T04:21:00.000-06:00

There is little chance that meteorologists can solve the mysteries of weather until they gain an understanding of the mutual attraction of rain and weekends. ~Arnot Sheppard

2011-04-29T04:24:00.001-06:00

It was an ideal spring day, a light blue sky, flecked with little fleecy white clouds drifting across from west to east. The sun was shining very brightly, and yet there was an exhilarating nip in the air, which set an edge to a man's energy. ~Arthur Conan Doyle

2011-04-28T05:23:00.000-06:00

They who meet on an April night are forever lost in love, if there's moonlight all about and there's no moon above. ~E.Y. "Yip" Harburg and Fred Saidy, dialogue just before the song "Old Devil Moon" in the musical Finian's Rainbow

2011-04-27T04:55:00.000-06:00

April is a promise that May is bound to keep.

~Hal Borland

2011-04-26T05:23:00.000-06:00

I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes.

~Author Unknown

2011-04-25T05:17:00.000-06:00

A celebrity is a person who works hard all his life to become well known, then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized. ~Fred Allen

2011-04-24T04:42:00.000-06:00

On Easter Day the veil between time and eternity thins to gossamer. ~Douglas Horton

2011-04-23T04:31:00.000-06:00

Awake, thou wintry earth -
Fling off thy sadness!
Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth
Your ancient gladness!

~Thomas Blackburn, "An Easter Hymn"

2011-04-22T05:02:00.000-06:00

Now let the heavens be joyful,
Let earth her song begin:
Let the round world keep triumph,
And all that is therein;
Invisible and visible,
Their notes let all things blend,
For Christ the Lord is risen
Our joy that hath no end.

Saint John of Damascus

2011-04-21T05:08:00.000-06:00

Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in spring-time.

Martin Luther

2011-04-20T05:09:00.000-06:00

Angels, roll the rock away;
Death, yield up thy mighty prey:
See, He rises from the tomb,
Glowing with immortal bloom.

Thomas Scott

2011-04-19T05:29:00.000-06:00

A late Easter
A long, cold spring.

French proverb

2011-04-18T05:12:00.000-06:00

People who snore always fall asleep first. ~Author Unknown

2011-04-17T04:35:00.001-06:00

Science has never drummed up quite as effective a tranquilizing agent as a sunny spring day.
~W. Earl Hall

2011-04-16T05:10:00.000-06:00

The splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily do not rob the little violet of ti's scent nor the daisy of its simple charm. If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness.

Therese of Lisieux

2011-04-15T05:53:00.000-06:00

The taxpayer - that's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination. ~Ronald Reagan

2011-04-14T04:05:00.001-06:00

There is no child so bad that he/she can't be used as an income tax deduction.

2011-04-13T05:04:00.000-06:00

Never cut a tree down in the wintertime. Never make a negative decision in the low time. Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst moods. Wait. Be patient. The storm will pass. The spring will come.

Robert H. Schuller

2011-04-12T05:23:00.001-06:00

The year's at the spring
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hillside's dew-pearled;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in His heaven -
All's right with the world!

~Robert Browning

2011-04-11T05:00:00.000-06:00

Autumn arrives in early morning, but spring at the close of a winter day.

Elizabeth Bower

2011-04-10T05:59:00.000-06:00

The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day.

Robert Frost

2011-04-09T05:57:00.003-06:00

April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.

William Shakespeare

2011-04-08T05:52:00.000-06:00

It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!

Mark Twain

2011-04-07T05:50:00.000-06:00

I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden.

Ruth Stout

2011-04-06T05:47:00.000-06:00

The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another. The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month.

Henry Van Dyke

2011-04-05T05:48:00.000-06:00

In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four and twenty hours.

Mark Twain

2011-04-04T05:37:00.000-06:00

Sonnet 03: Mindful Of You The Sodden Earth In Spring by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Mindful of you the sodden earth in spring,
And all the flowers that in the springtime grow,
And dusty roads, and thistles, and the slow
Rising of the round moon, all throats that sing
The summer through, and each departing wing,
And all the nests that the bared branches show,
And all winds that in any weather blow,
And all the storms that the four seasons bring.

You go no more on your exultant feet
Up paths that only mist and morning knew,
Or watch the wind, or listen to the beat
Of a bird's wings too high in air to view,—
But you were something more than young and sweet
And fair,—and the long year remembers you.

2011-04-03T05:29:00.000-06:00

Spring comes on the World -- by Emily Dickinson

Spring comes on the World --
I sight the Aprils --
Hueless to me until thou come
As, till the Bee
Blossoms stand negative,
Touched to Conditions
By a Hum.

2011-04-02T06:56:00.000-06:00

Conference weekend! I love conference weekend!!

2011-04-01T05:55:00.002-06:00

Here's a funny April Fool's Day joke that happened in 1998. I like it mostly because I'm left handed.

The Left-Handed Whopper

Burger King published a full page advertisement in USA Today announcing the introduction of a new item to their menu: a "Left-Handed Whopper" specially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans. According to the advertisement, the new whopper included the same ingredients as the original Whopper (lettuce, tomato, hamburger patty, etc.), but all the condiments were rotated 180 degrees for the benefit of their left-handed customers. The following day Burger King issued a follow-up release revealing that although the Left-Handed Whopper was a hoax, thousands of customers had gone into restaurants to request the new sandwich. Simultaneously, according to the press release, "many others requested their own 'right handed' version."

2011-03-31T05:25:00.001-06:00

Winter's End by Howard Moss

Once in a wood at winter's end,
The withered sun, becoming young,
Turned the white silence into sound:
Bird after bird rose up in song.
The skeletons of snow-blocked trees
Linked thinning shadows here and there,
And those made mummy by the freeze
Spangled their mirrors on cold air.
Whether they moved — perhaps they spun,
Caught in a new but known delight —
Was hard to tell, since shade and sun
Mingled to hear the birds recite.
No body of this sound I saw,
So glassed and shining was the world
That swung on a sun-and-ice seesaw
And fought to have its leaves unfurled.
Hanging its harvest in between
Two worlds, one lost, one yet to come,
The wood's remoteness, like a drum,
Beat the oncoming season in.
Then every snow bird on white wings
Became its tropic counterpart,
And, in a renaissance of rings,
I saw the heart of summer start.

2011-03-30T04:29:00.000-06:00

"An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day."
— Henry David Thoreau

2011-03-29T04:27:00.000-06:00

"The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it."
— Henry David Thoreau

2011-03-28T04:26:00.000-06:00

"As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives."
— Henry David Thoreau

2011-03-27T04:25:00.000-06:00

"One is not born into the world to do everything but to do something."
— Henry David Thoreau

2011-03-26T04:23:00.000-06:00

"If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment."
— Henry David Thoreau

2011-03-25T04:20:00.000-06:00

"Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake."
— Henry David Thoreau

2011-03-24T04:19:00.000-06:00

"Never look back unless you are planning to go that way."
— Henry David Thoreau

2011-03-23T04:18:00.000-06:00

"...be yourself- not your idea of what you think somebody else's idea of yourself should be."
— Henry David Thoreau

2011-03-22T04:13:00.000-06:00

"We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us even in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavour. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts."

— Henry David Thoreau

2011-03-21T16:11:00.002-06:00

"Humility and humor share the same root. When we see ourselves in a lovingly humorous light, it becomes more difficult to see ourselves and our accomplishments as the measure of all things."

Wayne Muller

2011-03-19T22:53:00.000-06:00

Last weekend we were in Provo and we got to attend the BYU 2nd stake conference with Ryan. We loved it. The visiting general authority was Elder Lowell Snow, of the Seventy. He made several good points - one of our favorites is that the gospel is engineered for 8 year olds. So anyone over 8 should be able to understand it. What a great point! Another good point was that there are no tragedies - except one - un-repented sin. And Elder Snow elaborated. He said that sometimes we make repentance way too hard and too complicated. It's easy enough for an 8 year old to do it so it should be easy enough for all of us.

One more point - he said more than once, "Don't over-think things!" I agree!

2011-03-18T05:59:00.000-06:00

Love is much like a wild rose, beautiful and calm, but willing to draw blood in its defense.

~Mark Overby

2011-03-16T05:33:00.000-06:00

A friend knows the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails.

~Donna Roberts

2011-03-15T05:44:00.000-06:00

Nothing but heaven itself is better than a friend who is really a friend.

~Plautus

2011-03-14T05:45:00.000-06:00

If instead of a gem, or even a flower, we should cast the gift of a loving thought into the heart of a friend, that would be giving as the angels give.

~George MacDonald

2011-03-13T05:50:00.000-06:00

Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive.

~Anäis Nin

2011-03-12T05:34:00.000-07:00

Hold a true friend with both your hands.

~Nigerian Proverb

2011-03-11T05:31:00.000-07:00

A loyal friend laughs at your jokes when they're not so good, and sympathizes with your problems when they're not so bad.

~Arnold H. Glasgow

2011-03-10T05:38:00.000-07:00

You can always tell a real friend when you've made a fool of yourself because he doesn't feel you've done a permanent job.

~Laurence J. Peter

2011-03-09T05:46:00.000-07:00

It takes a long time to grow an old friend.

~John Leonard

2011-03-08T05:58:00.000-07:00

Blessed be thou for all the joy
My soul has felt today!
O let its memory stay with me
  And never pass away!
I was alone, for those I loved
  Were far away from me,
The sun shone on the withered grass,
  The wind blew fresh and free.
Was it the smile of early spring
  That made my bosom glow?
'Twas sweet, but neither sun nor wind
  Could raise my spirit so.
Was it some feeling of delight,
  All vague and undefined?
No, 'twas a rapture deep and strong,
  Expanding in the mind!
Was it a sanguine view of life
  And all its transient bliss–
A hope of bright prosperity?
  O no, it was not this!
It was a glimpse of truth divine
  Unto my spirit given
Illumined by a ray of light
  That shone direct from heaven!
I felt there was a God on high
  By whom all things were made.
I saw His wisdom and his power
  In all his works displayed.
But most throughout the moral world
  I saw his glory shine;
I saw His wisdom infinite,
  His mercy all divine.
Deep secrets of his providence
  In darkness long concealed
Unto the vision of my soul
  Were graciously revealed.
But while I wondered and adored
  His wisdom so divine,
I did not tremble at his power,
  I felt that God was mine.
I knew that my Redeemer lived,
  I did not fear to die;
Full sure that I should rise again
  To immortality.
I longed to view that bliss divine
  Which eye hath never seen,
Like Moses, I would see His face
Without the veil between.

Anne Bronte

2011-03-07T05:40:00.000-07:00

A friend is one of the nicest things you can have, and one of the best things you can be.

~Douglas Pagels

2011-03-06T05:35:00.000-07:00

A friend can tell you things you don't want to tell yourself.

~Frances Ward Weller

2011-03-05T05:36:00.000-07:00

A friend accepts us as we are yet helps us to be what we should.

~Author Unknown

2011-03-04T05:37:00.000-07:00

Friends are relatives you make for yourself.

~Eustache Deschamps

2011-03-03T05:48:00.000-07:00

A true friend unbosoms freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably.

~William Penn

2011-03-02T05:43:00.000-07:00

The language of friendship is not words but meanings.

~Henry David Thoreau

2011-03-01T05:55:00.000-07:00

The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.

~Mother Teresa

2011-02-28T05:54:00.000-07:00

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.

~Marcel Proust

2011-02-27T05:53:00.000-07:00

No road is long with good company.

~Turkish Proverb

2011-02-26T05:52:00.000-07:00

I felt it shelter to speak to you.

~Emily Dickinson

2011-02-25T05:52:00.000-07:00

Shared joy is a double joy; shared sorrow is half a sorrow.

~Swedish Proverb

2011-02-24T05:49:00.000-07:00

The friend who holds your hand and says the wrong thing is made of dearer stuff than the one who stays away.

~Barbara Kingsolver