Quotable Sunday - Kerry

I am. We are. Our life is. God is. And it is good. 

- Kerry, author of mnyoungones.blogspot.com

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Quotable Sunday - Charles Dickens

 

I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.  ~Charles Dickens

Quotable Sunday - Autumn

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Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.

~ George Eliot in a letter to Miss Lewis , October 1, 1841 "A warming trend"

Quotable Sunday - Sylvia Ashton Warner

Truth has beauty, power and necessity.

-  Sylvia Ashton Warner

Quotable Sunday - it's gonna be 10:10

"Tomorrow morning at 10:10 it's gonna be 10:10 on 10/10/10.

 I'll be really mad if I miss that."

- J.Gelberg, teenager

Quotable Sunday - John Knox

You cannot antagonize and influence at the same time.

- John Knox

Quotable Sunday - The Good Samaratin was a 6th grader

Teacher: How can we help?

Jairo, Julio, Gloria, Sarah, Nick, Kenneth:  We can make sandwiches.

VBS 2010

- There's more to the story, later.

Quotable Sunday - THE HELP

"I watched Lou Anne slip away in the parking lot, thinking, There is so much you don't know about a person. I wonder if I could've made her days a little bit easier, if I'd tried. If I'd treated her a little nicer. Wasn't that the point of the book? For women to realize, We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I'd thought." 
- Kathryn Stockett, THE HELP

I must say, I loved this book and it's unique voicing.

Quotable Sunday ~ Friendship, again.

If I had a single flower for every time I think about you, I could walk forever in my garden.

-- Attributed to Claudia Ghandi

I am blessed, beyond blessing with the friends God has given me. Those close at hand and those close in heart. I am more blessed than I can find language to express.

And I am grateful for my lovely friendship garden.

Quotable Sunday ~ Friendship

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.  
- C. S. Lewis

My darling Jemma took this and emailed it to me. Now, there's friendship.

Quotable Sunday ~ Henri Nouwen

The Dignity to Give and Receive

"Nobody is so poor that he/she has nothing to give, and nobody is so rich that he/she has nothing to receive." These words by Pope John-Paul II, offer a powerful direction for all who want to work for peace. No peace is thinkable as long as the world remains divided into two groups: those who give and those who receive. Real human dignity is found in giving as well as receiving. This is true not only for individuals but for nations, cultures, and religious communities as well.

A true vision of peace sees a continuous mutuality between giving and receiving. Let's never give anything without asking ourselves what we are receiving from those to whom we give, and let's never receive anything without asking what we have to give to those from whom we receive.
-Henri Nouwen

Quotable Sunday ~ The Name is Mom

"The ordinary arts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest."

- Thomas More

Quotable Sunday ~ The Name is Mom

"What am I supposed to do with my life?  The question of how to live our lives especially presses on those of us who sense we are not merely humans trying to be spiritual, but are deeply spiritual beings endeavoring to live as fully human."

- Brent Bill, The Sacred Compass

Spiritual motherhood might be more interesting a consideration than I have, well, considered. It isn't the intentional teaching of the theological thought, the Bible story, the scripture. It is the glasses I loan to my boy or my girl who, standing in the yard, declares to the beauty of the night's sky -- "Wow!," when I simply say, "Yes -- He is that amazing."

Quotable Sunday & In Search of Spring

The artist cannot do anything slovenly -- Jane Austen

There it is, the dipping art of the Western Redbud tree. Random beauty from the Artist who delights my eye and my soul.

Quotable Sunday - Simplicity

"Everything should be made as simple as possible and no simpler." - Albert Einstein

This quote has found it's way into my life three times recently. So I'm paying attention. The third time way yesterday, as the chapter quote in the book I'm starting, Simplicity,  by Mindy Caliquire, on care of the soul. (It's one of a four part series from Renovare.)

If I hold this up next to my realization that I lean into the complex to get to the simple, I'm encouraged. I'm seeking simple. But in honesty,  I can spend more time in the complex or even seek or see complexity when I simply don't need to.

I'm seeing such value in this ideal. Simplicity. And I'll put it the terms that make it work for me: while opening a can of tomato soup and adding milk or water is simple; combining whole tomatoes, sweated onions, chicken stock, a bouquet garni and a bit of rice for soup just might be as simple as it should be and no simpler.

Are you with me?


Oh! And check out the sweet Lisa Leonard giveaway at A Journey to a Simple Life.

I Love:: 28 and Quotable Sunday

"You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body."
—C. S. Lewis

and I Love:: a quiet Sunday where I'm a little alone, a little not and knowing that very soon, all my people will reappear to "set the week," play a board game or two, find a giggle and a story.

Oh! I also love this wonderful month of I Love::. Thanks to Kerry, Mary and all the writing gals whose words crossed over and into my life. I look forward to more.