Winter Ocean

This busy, puzzling stirrer-up of doubt, That frames deep mysteries,
then finds "em out.
~John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester
"A satire Against Mankind"

Memories

Life brings simple pleasures to us every day. It is up to us to make them wonderful memories.
~ Cathy Allen

Whatever you feel

Whatever you think, be sure it is what you think; whatever you want, be sure that is what you want; whatever you feel, be sure that is what you feel.
~T. S. Eliot
British (US-born) critic, dramatist & poet (1888 - 1965)

View from the side of the road

And all my days are trances,
And all my nightly dreams,
Are where thy dark eye glances,

And where thy footstep gleams
In what ethereal dances
By what eternal streams.

E.A. Poe, To One in Paradise

Happiness

Happiness is essentially a state of going somewhere, wholeheartedly, one-directionally, without regret or reservation.

~William H. Sheldon

SeaStars

If the point is sharp, and the arrow is swift, it can pierce through
the dust no matter how thick.

Bob Dylan (1941 - )

Dune grass

Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints
his own nature into his pictures.

~Henry Ward Beecher (1813 - 1887), Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit, 1887

Value

Surely there comes a time when counting the cost and paying the price aren't things to think about any more. All that matters is value - the ultimate value of what one does.

~James Hilton (1900 - 1954)

Joy

He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in Eternity's sunrise.
~William Blake

Time

When you encounter difficulties and contradictions, do not try to break them, but bend them with gentleness and time.
~Saint Francis de Sales (1567 - 1622)

Truth

Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for truth.
~Benjamin Disraeli (1804 - 1881)

Tree Frog

You've got to be original, because if you're like someone else, what do they need you for?

~Bernadette Peters, Inside the Actors Studio

Mare and foal

When you encounter difficulties and contradictions, do not try to break them, but bend them with gentleness and time.

~Saint Francis de Sales (1567 - 1622)

Wonder

Wonder is what sets us apart from other life forms. No other species wonders about the meaning of existence or the complexity of the universe or themselves.

~Herbert W. Boyer, co-founder of Genentech, Inc.

I like living

I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.

~Agatha Christie (1890 - 1976)

Foxglove

Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.

~George Sand (1804 - 1876)

Growing older

It is a sadness of growing older that we lose our ardent appreciation
of what is new and different and difficult.
~Elizabeth Aston
The Exploits & Adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy, 2005

Red-shouldered Hawk

Convinced myself, I seek not to convince.
~Edgar Allan Poe, Berenice
US short story author, editor, & poet (1809 - 1849)

Boardwalk

Little by little, one travels far.
~J. R. R. Tolkien
British scholar & fantasy novelist (1892 - 1973)

Bump

Even with the best of maps and instruments,
we can never fully chart our journeys.
~Gail Pool

The Lady Washington

Slow down and everything you are chasing will come around and catch you.

~John De Paola

Great Horned Owls

Life is made up, not of great sacrifices or duties, but of little things, in which smiles and kindnesses, and small obligations, given habitually, are what win and preserve the heart and secure comfort.
~Sir Humphry Davy

Sunset walk

He not busy being born is busy dying.

~Bob Dylan (1941 - )

Bushtit Nest

Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing.

~Albert Schweitzer

Eastern Grey Squirrel

I don't know what I am thinking
I don't know what I am drinking
I don't know what pills I swallow
I don't know that inside I'm hollow
I don't know that I am speaking
I don't know that my brain is leaking
I don't know that they cant see
I don't know, especially me

~Tim Burton

Rufus Hummingbird

If my hands are fully occupied in holding on to something,
I can neither give nor receive.
~Dorothee Solle

Stream

Because you are in control of your life. Don't ever forget that. You are what you are because of the conscious and subconscious choices you have made.
~Barbara Hall,
A Summons to New Orleans, 2000

Sunset

Nobody can tell you if what you're doing is good, meaningful or worthwhile. The more compelling the path, the more lonely it is.

~Hugh Macleod,
How To Be Creative: 5, 08-22-04

Golden-crowned Sparrow

We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a
journey that no one can take for us or spare us.
~Marcel Proust
French novelist (1871 - 1922)

Chestnut-backed Chickadee

You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.
~Abraham Lincoln
16th president of US (1809 - 1865)

Momentum

The world is wide, and I will not waste my life in friction
when it could be turned into momentum.
~Frances Willard (1839 - 1898)

Tule Elk

You're alive. Do something. The directive in life, the moral imperative was so uncomplicated. It could be expressed in single words, not complete sentences. It sounded like this: Look. Listen. Choose. Act.

~Barbara Hall, A Summons to New Orleans, 2000

Riding

It's true that we don't know what we've got until we lose it, but it's also true that we don't know what we've been missing until it arrives.
~unknown

Sunrise

You cannot live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.

~John Wooden (1910 - )

Duckling

We may run, walk, stumble, drive, or fly, but let us never lose sight of the reason for the journey, or miss a chance to see a rainbow on the way.
~unknown

Washington Coast

I have often wished I had time to cultivate modesty...
But I am too busy thinking about myself.
~Edith Sitwell, As quoted in The Observer (30 April 1950)
English biographer, critic, novelist, & poet (1887 - 1964)

Truth

As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand.
~Josh Billings, 'Affurisms from Josh Billings: His Sayings,' 1865
US Humorist (1818 - 1885)

Clouds

To accomplish great things, we must dream as well as act.
~Anatole France
French novelist (1844 - 1924)

Friends

Friends are born, not made.
~Henry Adams
US author, autobiographer, & historian (1838 - 1918)

Sunrise

“When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and
life stands explained.”
~Mark Twain

Succulent

Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you.
~Walt Whitman

Gulls on the Oregon Coast

It's always been about the experience of life and of not being passive. If something so excites my curiosity, I want to go there, be a part of whatever it is that's either pushing me or pulling me toward it. That desire for experience has made me very rich in life experience.
~Tish Grier, love and hope and sex and dreams, 04-12-2006

Spring

You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need.
~Vernon Howard

Shadows

So you see, imagination needs moodling - long, inefficient, happy idling,
dawdling and puttering.
~Brenda Ueland

Sunset

The greatest danger to our future is apathy.
~Jane Goodall
English ethologist & zoologist (1934 - )

Garter Snake eating slug

Little by little, one travels far.
~J. R. R. Tolkien
British scholar & fantasy novelist (1892 - 1973)

Sea anemone

Follow your instincts. That's where true wisdom manifests itself.
~Oprah Winfrey

Bridges

When you build bridges you can keep crossing them.
~Rick Pitino
Lead to Success

Red-legged Frog

When I'm not doing something that comes deeply from me, I get bored. When I get bored I get distracted and when I get distracted, I become depressed. It's a natural resistance, and it insures your integrity.
~Maria Irene Fornes

Bald Eagle

Convinced myself, I seek not to convince.
~Edgar Allan Poe, Berenice
US short story author, editor, & poet (1809 - 1849)