|
Post by Quettalee on Jan 1, 2008 10:33:18 GMT -5
If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; there is where they should be. Now put foundations under them.[/b] ~Henry David Thoreau
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.[/b] ~Eleanor Roosevelt
|
|
|
Post by gams on Jan 2, 2008 19:12:35 GMT -5
"We knock down and rebuild as we expect to be knocked down and rebuilt. It is an impulse that makes for creation and fertility. Discovery is stimulated and invention on the alert." ~ Virgina Woolf
I think this is a great quote for the new year. It appears in Oxford Street - The Tide, part of a series of essays Ms. Woolf wrote in 1931 for Good Housekeeping describing London life. In Oxford Street, she talks about ever-changing building facades, walls being demolished, and that "the charm of modern London is that is it not built to last; it is built to pass." But she's also speaking of people, no?
I like to think so. We discover, we rebuild, and the evolution of our "Selves" is the result.
|
|
|
Post by Quettalee on Jan 8, 2008 8:38:34 GMT -5
Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but she did it backwards and in high heels. ~Faith Whittlesey
|
|
|
Post by Quettalee on Jan 21, 2008 8:31:06 GMT -5
The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But... the good Samaritan reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?" ~Martin Luther King Jr. Means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek.~MLK Jr. Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.~MLK Jr.
|
|
|
Post by gams on Feb 7, 2008 23:43:42 GMT -5
"A closed mouth keeps a foot from entering." ~ LX
"You are a little princess. I am the Queen....of Melodrama." ~ LX, explaining sibling hierarchy to BP.
|
|
|
Post by Quettalee on Feb 8, 2008 9:24:06 GMT -5
Just wait...it gets better. To express the emotions of life is to live. To express the life of emotions is to make art.~Jane Heap People who keep journals have life twice~Jessamyn West Spending more than just a passing thought on the topic of memoirs and journals... After all, the second part of that childhood dream was "composing my novel under the big umbrella". No reason it can't be from the veranda of the cafe on the river...
|
|
|
Post by gams on Feb 11, 2008 9:13:56 GMT -5
And of course, reading an autographed copy of that novel from the veranda of a cafe on a river would be just too sweet!
Hope that journaling works for you, Q. I have a lot of friends who keep journals, but as much as I've given it thought, I'm just too disorganized and haphazard to do it. Sometimes hear or think something, and say to myself, 'I ought to write that down before I forget', but rarely do. Sometimes I remember; sometimes I don't. Sometimes it comes back to me days later.
Like that quote up there of LX's....
"A closed mouth gathers no foot" is what she actually said.
|
|
|
Post by Quettalee on Feb 14, 2008 10:38:58 GMT -5
"Have a heart that never hardens; a temper that never tires; and a touch that never hurts."~Charles Dickens
|
|
|
Post by Quettalee on Feb 14, 2008 10:45:10 GMT -5
Hope that journaling works for you, Q. I don't know, Gams. Sometimes I can sit down and the words just flow...other times, I have trouble composing a sentence that makes any sense. I guess every writer or would-be writer goes through that. Mary had an idea of providing a "memory book" at the shop for visitors to sign or leave a message in. We get so many people from all over the world, it's silly not to try and keep something together for just that purpose. Then it would no doubt help me should I feel compelled to work on that novel...
|
|
|
Post by gams on Feb 15, 2008 8:20:24 GMT -5
I think, if you're going to write in a journal, that your thoughts are more important than your sentences; if they make sense to you, then that's all that matters. You can always go back and expand on your thoughts later; the important thing, I think, is to get them down on paper, (or computer), while they're still fresh in your mind. How many times have you thought you'd like to write about something - even if it's just something you want to remember for yourself - but didn't do it, only to find when you had time, you couldn't remember WTF you wanted to remember?
I think Mary's idea of a "memory book" is a great one! I actually had a "guest book" in my hands around Christmas, with you guys in mind. I set it down though, thinking that because this is your dream venture, that everything should be just as you do it - everything that goes into it should be all your thoughts and ideas.
The act of putting pen to paper encourages pause for thought, this in turn makes us think more deeply about life, which helps us regain our equilibrium. ~ Norbet Platt
Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. ~ William Wordsworth
Ink and paper are sometimes passionate lovers, oftentimes brother and sister, and occasionally mortal enemies. ~ Emme Woodhull-Bäche
....and, possibly written with just you lately in mind....
The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes. ~ Agatha Christie
|
|
|
Post by gams on Feb 21, 2008 8:07:12 GMT -5
"Live! Life's a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!" ~ Rosalind Russell as Auntie Mame
|
|
|
Post by Quettalee on Feb 26, 2008 8:44:49 GMT -5
“...Depression is not sobbing and crying and giving vent, it is plain and simple reduction of feeling...People who keep stiff upper lips find that it's damn hard to smile.”~Judith Guest
OK, a smile seems as good a place as any to start.
|
|
|
Post by gams on Mar 1, 2008 10:04:44 GMT -5
I laughed at the irony of this from Hubs.
"Where did I put my Ginko tablets?"
|
|
|
Post by Quettalee on Mar 1, 2008 10:25:11 GMT -5
What were we laughing about??
|
|
|
Post by gams on Mar 15, 2008 9:49:00 GMT -5
LX and I watched the movie "Becoming Jane", about the life of young Jane Austen and a love that supposedly inspired her to write "Pride and Prejudice". Regardless if this story might be mostly fiction - it is based on only a few letters Jane wrote to her sister - I loved this movie, and so did LX. Not a dry eye on the couch, where we sat snuggled in a quilt watching it.
After tears were wiped away, I gave LX a book I have of Ms. Austen's quotes, which she eagerly devoured for the rest of the afternoon, writing down the page numbers of quotes she wanted to remember. The book has funny little headings above each quote, such as "Jane on Faking It", "The Necessity of Complaining", "Jane on Being a B!tch", and "Jane being a Total Bitch".
LX ended up with about a hundred favorites, and spent the next day, (she's been sick and home from school, so she's had plenty of time), typing them into the computer to print her own book, which I had to read, even though I've read the book she got them from numerous times.
This one she had starred...
The timelss Skill of Sucking Up and Why to Never Fall for It...and Why You Always Do...
It is happy for you that you possess the talent of flattering with delicacy. May I ask whether these pleasing attentions proceed from the implulse of the moment, or are the result of previous study?
What one means one day, you know, one may not mean the next. ...it requires uncommon steadiness of reason to resist the attraction of being called the most most charming girl in the world. - from Pride and Prejudice & Northanger Abbey
And this one....she laughed hysterically while typing, and when I asked what she thought was funny, all I got was "you'll see".
On Being Embarrassed by One's Mother...
My mother means well, but she does not know no-one can know how much I suffer from what she says. - from Pride and Prejudice
Underneath the quote, LX typed a smiley face, and the words, "Sorry Mom - I couldn't resist. And besides embarrassing me is your job, right?"
She's learned well.
|
|
|
Post by Quettalee on Mar 21, 2008 15:14:00 GMT -5
And Spring arose on the garden fair, Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere; And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.[/b] ~Percy Bysshe Shelley, "The Sensitive Plant"
In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.[/i] ~Margaret Atwood
Does that last one get you a little bit antsy, Gams?
|
|
|
Post by gams on Mar 21, 2008 16:02:39 GMT -5
Oh, you know it does, Quetta! Especially, sitting here looking outside my window. A quick glance at the seasonal thread should give you a good idea why. Sigh.
|
|
|
Post by gams on Mar 27, 2008 23:58:12 GMT -5
"What fresh hell is this?" That's one of my favorite quotes and one I often repeat to the girls when I walk into a mess they've made. It was said by Dorothy Parker, when supposedly she was interrupted from whatever she was doing, answered the phone that way, and from then on used it as her telephone greeting. "Excuse my dust" is another of my favorites from her; it is what she wanted as an epitaph on her headstone.
Parker is often regarded as one of the best female American authors of sarcastic humor. I'm reading a collection of her short stories - "Here Lies" - everything she had previously published before 1930. One of the stories, “Here We Are”, about a newlywed couple taking a train to New York for their honeymoon, contains the following line:
“There was a silence with things going on in it.”
I think that’s such a cool sentence; it has things going on in it.
|
|
|
Post by Quettalee on Mar 30, 2008 19:48:37 GMT -5
Bravissimo! (is that a word) I love them both. But I especially like the first one and I can't wait to use it. It seems like every time we walk in and the girls have been here alone for any length of time, that's exactly what it feels like. Or everyday with the oldest one. She is soooo doing the teenager thing right now. I almost thought we were going to have it easy with her because after all, she is almost 17. Not so lucky. She's just finding her "mode" later because Mare has been so...uhm...(let me choose my words carefully here)..."overnurturingly protective" of them their whole lives. Now that we are so busy seven days a week and she has her little job, the independence has given her...uhm, again...ovaries the size of basketballs.
Enough said.
All of that and I don't even have a quote at this time. Oh well, I'm sure there's one in there somewhere. Pfft.
|
|
|
Post by gams on Apr 6, 2008 7:22:35 GMT -5
"Whether you think you can or think you can't, you are right." ~ Henry Ford
Oh, and I just read this one somewhere; I like it. Smile.
"Yep, days like today happen in full bloom and surround sound!"
|
|