A room hung with pictures is a room hung with thoughts.--Joshua Reynolds

"Christmas Eve was a night of song that wrapped itself about you like a shawl. But it warmed more than your body. It warmed your heart... filled it, too, with melody that would last forever."
~Bess Streeter Aldrich

"Christmas gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect."
~Oren Arnold

"A part of you has grown in me. And so you see, it's you and me together forever and never apart, maybe in distance, but never in heart."
~Unknown

We die only once, and for such a long time.


-Molière

I once bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas with a note on it saying, toys not included. --Bernard Manning

Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. --Calvin Coolidge

“I know you're tired but come, this is the way.” ― Rumi

When you love you wish to do things for. You wish to sacrifice for. You wish to serve.” ― Ernest Hemingway

“We're taught that in life, we should try to look on the bright side, over look things. Not in this case. In this case you must ask yourself , are you the exception or the rule? Is it just a relationship of convenience to him ? I realize it's hard to face the truth,even harder to act upon it. He's just not that into you” ― Greg Behrendt

haiku
 

a cloud of questions
somehow transforming into
rainfall of answers

“...time is the most valuable thing that we have, because it is the most irrevocable.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison




“The people who stand before kings may look like they did it all by themselves. But in fact they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot. It makes a difference where and when we grew up. The culture we belong to and the legacies passed down by our forebears shape the patterns of our achievements in ways we cannot begin to imagine. It's not enough to ask what successful people are like, in other words. It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn't.”
― Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success




“My expectations were reduced to zero when I was 21. Everything since then has been a bonus.”
― Stephen Hawking

"The core question is always, "Am I ok? Is it OK to be gay, to be an English major, to want to have a baby without a husband?
I tell them, "You have to trust who you are and live that out, even if it's difficult". It sounds simple, but it's not".


~Cheryl Strayed

“You are where you are right now because of the actions you've taken, or maybe, the inaction you've taken.” ― Steve Maraboli

“The worst thing: to give yourself away in exchange for not enough love.”
― Joyce Carol Oates

“No matter what your history has been, your destiny is what you create today. What are you going to create?” ― Steve Maraboli

In memory of Bear...
 

"Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." - Groucho Marx

"You think dogs will not be in heaven? I tell you, they will be there long before any of us." - Robert Louis Stevenson

"He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion." - Unknown

"The one best place to bury a good dog is in the heart of his master." - Ben Hur Lampman

"Uncertainty and mystery are energies of life. Don't let them scare you unduly, for they keep boredom at bay and spark creativity."
~R.I.Fitzhenry

"You must train your intuition - you must trust the small voice inside you which tells you exactly what to say, what to decide."
~Ingrid Bergman

"An idealist believes the short run doesn't count. A cynic believes the long run doesn't matter. A realist believes that what is done or left undone in the short run determines the long run."
~Sydney J. Harris

I am only ashamed of myself for having at one time been ashamed.
- Ralph Ellison

The idea that fame transforms all problems is true financially and in many other ways, but no glass slipper can quiet the ghosts that haunt the psyche.


~Jewel Kilcher

What happened to Bear?

I poured spot remover on my dog. Now he's gone. --Steven Wright

The sky lovingly smiles on the earth and her children.--Henry Morton Stanley

"A tramp, a gentleman, a poet, a dreamer, a lonely fellow, always hopeful of romance and adventure."
~Charlie Chaplin

"Purpose is what gives life a meaning."
~Charles H. Perkhurst

"We have to Appreciate with Gratitude, the Precious Moments that Life Bestows us With, Each Day, Moment by Moment." - Vashi Ram Chandi

“There is only one success-to be able to spend life in your own way.”-Christopher Morley

“Stop allowing your day-to-day life to be clouded by busy nothingness.”
― Steve Maraboli

“While intent is the seed of manifestation, action is the water that nourishes the seed. Your actions must reflect your goals in order to achieve true success.” ― Steve Maraboli

Our bodies are our gardens...our wills our gardeners.


~Shakespeare

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it. --Confucius

“Stepping onto a brand-new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation, which is not nurturing to the whole you.” ― Maya Angelou

“There is a candle in your heart, ready to be kindled.
There is a void in your soul, ready to be filled.
You feel it, don't you?” ― Rumi

“People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.” ― George Bernard Shaw

We cannot teach people anything; we can only help them discover it within themselves.--Galileo Galilei

"A child becomes an adult when he realizes that he has a right not only to be right but also to be wrong."
~Thomas S. Szasz

"Love and magic have a great deal in common. They enrich the soul, delight the heart. And they both take practice."
~Unknown

While hopping around in You Tube listening to music I came across a post by a random user;

"Sometimes I feel if the right music was played in some key places around the globe, then the world would have to change, just by having the "energies" created. Humans must be forced to FEEL the world."


Nice concept....

Katniss~~

“I can't sleep, I can't eat, I can't do anything but think about him. At night I dream of him, all day I wait to see him, and when I do see him my heart turns over and I think I will faint with desire.” ― Philippa Gregory

“She didn't belong anywhere and she never really belonged to anyone. And everyone else belonged somewhere and to someone. People thought she was too wonderful. But she only wanted to belong to someone. People always thought she was too wonderful to belong to them or that something too wonderful would hurt too much to lose. And that's why she liked him-- because he just thought she was crazy.” ― C. JoyBell C.

“If you send out goodness from yourself, or if you share that which is happy or good within you, it will all come back to you multiplied ten thousand times. In the kingdom of love there is no competition; there is no possessiveness or control. The more love you give away, the more love you will have.” ― John O'Donohue

When you love someone all your saved up wishes start coming out.--Elizabeth Bowen

Couldn't have read this at a better time
 

Life continues after death as long as you remember the warmth of another's smile, the gentleness of their touch, the meaning the brought to your life. In your remembrance of another, death cannot overtake life.

~~~Iyanla Vanzant

“Although wherever you are going is always in front of you, there is no such thing as straight ahead.”
― Jeanette Winterson, The Passion

THE JEWELER


If a naive and desperate man
Brings a precious stone
To the only jeweler in town,
Wanting to sell it,
The jeweler's eyes
Will begin to play a game,
Like most eyes in the world when they look at you.

The jeweler's face will stay calm.
He will not want to reveal the stone's true value,
But to hold the man captive to fear and greed
While he calculates
The value of the transaction.

But one moment with me, my dear,
Will show you that there is nothing, nothing that I want from you.
When you sit before a Master like me,
Even if you are a drooling mess,
My eyes sing with Excitement
They see your Divine Worth. :candle:


~Hafiz

They must often change, who would be constant in happiness or wisdom.
--Confucius

Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.
--Eleanor Roosevelt

Happiness is like those palaces in fairy tales whose gates are guarded by dragons: we must fight in order to conquer it.
--Alexandre Dumas