"Sweet, refreshing rain!"

Rain has visited often, lately. The smell is lovely.

Home

Last week was spent once again in the arms of my dear husband. It was so wonderful to see each other after a whole month of nothing but phone-conversations! Any longer and I may have forgotten the look of his smile.

Early this morning when I returned "home" to my house the thought struck that though the environment was familiar and comfortable I was farther away from home than I had been all week. "Home," a lovely Broadway ballad sung by Belle in Beauty & The Beast says

"Home will be where the heart is. Never were words more true!
My heart's far, far away--home is too,"

and I find it hard not to sing it repeatedly in dramatic fashion while I unpack my suitcase.

History Rhymes

Jason Powell has done remarkable work with his "Looking Into the Past" set on Flickr. Using Library of Congress photos, he has gone to where they were taken and posed their images over where the present now stands. It's incredible.


This one is my favorite.

Music is What Feelings Sound Like

Dream When You're Feelin Blue

Photo by diehappy-x

I [don't] think that "reality" is as bad as people keep claiming it to be. Why must "dreams" always be intangible and "reality" always be based on the lowest most miserable parts of life that we all dread?

--Joni Marie Newman, best friend

Prose Master

"He would make a lovely corpse."

"Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many - not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some."

"There are books of which the backs and covers are by far the best parts."

"This is a world of action, and not for moping and droning in."

"It opens the lungs, washes the countenance, exercises the eyes, and softens down the temper; so cry away."

"Papa, potatoes, poultry, prunes and prism, are all very good words for the lips."

"There are strings in the human heart that had better not be vibrated."

"There are dark shadows on the earth, but its lights are stronger in the contrast."

"We forge the chains we wear in life."

(and my personal favorite) "To conceal anything from those to whom I am attached is not in my nature. I can never close my lips where I have opened my heart."

Charles Dickens

Philosopher Emperor

Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, "The Wise"

"Anger cannot be dishonest."

"Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also."

"Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present."

Best of the Tonys: PARADE

I loathe finals. I detest formal schooling for all of its expectations, and I don't welcome its presence in my life. Too bad I have to take that ugly, stupid, drasted bitter with the batter and the schummina shhlemick kuh flattz.... 

I take great relief in telling myself that no matter what happens, no matter how I screw up, the outcome doesn't matter. The past few days I've summoned a particular lyric line to memory simply remind me of this fact; amends can always be made. 

If you've ever felt the same way, that your life is one huge mess and you're the only one to blame for it all, this is my message to you--no matter what you've done, you haven't "screwed things up beyond redeeming." And neither have I. 

From the musical PARADE, by Jason Robert-Brown. What a great show!*

"No! This isn't over!
No, the date's not set!
No, I won't wake up tomorrow
Drowning in my sweat!
Somehow I haven't, with my scheming,
Screwed things up beyond redeeming. 
The journey ahead may get shorter;
I might reach the end of my rope;
But suddenly loud as a mortar 
There is hope!

This is not over yet." 

*Parade has some of the best music I've ever heard in theater. 

Top songs: All the Wasted Time (duet that knocks the socks off of a thousand relationships), It Don't Make Sense ("Did you ever see her smile? Her smile was like a glass of lemonade."), People of Atlanta, Old Red Hills of Home, and Picture Show (the one Mom heard me sing in the car a gazillion times...). 

That Wise Guy

Cheers to the man who so wisely and wittily wrote; with a smile that great he must have been quite someone.  

“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.”

"Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one."

"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." 

"Adults are just obsolete children."

"You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room."

“Shorth is better than length.”

Be More

The best part about life is that it's never too late to work harder; it's never impossible to succeed beyond past achievement. No matter what you once were, rise above it tomorrow and become more. 

We are a great nation

"Aren’t we the people who brought the world the light bulb, the car, the telephone, the movie, the assembly line, the artificial heart, the computer, bifocals, the sewing machine, the refrigerator, the internet, air conditioner, safety pins, the television, cash registers, crayons, power tools, the oil well, the water tower, the popsicle, blue jeans, the elevator, the repeating rifle, the laser, polio vaccine, microwave ovens, the copy machine, fiber optics, cotton candy, and scones?"

--Glenn Beck

Maurits Cornelis Escher

You will likely recognize "Relativity," one of MC Escher's most famous works. Underneath it are duplications of it, both in 3D--which is kinda cool,  and in Lego form-- which is awesome. 

 

"We live in a beautiful and orderly world, not in a chaos without norms, even though this is how it sometimes appears." 

"I don't grow up. In me is the small child of my early days."

"So let us then try to climb the mountain, not by stepping on what is below us, but to pull us up at what is above us, for my part at the stars; amen."

"Only those who attempt the absurd... will achieve the impossible. I think it's in my basement... Let me go upstairs and check."

Happy Presidents Day

Who said which quote? Do you know?

"It is better to be alone than in bad company."

"Those who deny freedom to others do not deserve it themselves and under a just god cannot long retain it."

"Laws made by common consent must not be trampled on by individuals."

"I had rather be on my farm than be emperor of the world."

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."

"It is difficult to make a man miserable when he feels worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him."

Quotes From Mr. President

"One man with courage makes a majority."

"Partial injuries and occasional mortifications we may be subjected to, but a million of armed freemen, possessed of the means of war, can never be conquered by a foreign foe."

"A firm reliance on the goodness of that Power whose providence mercifully protected our national infancy, and has since upheld our liberties in various vicissitudes, encourages me to offer up my ardent supplications that He will continue to make our beloved country the object of His divine care and gracious benediction."