I miss you Sam!!

I miss you Sam!!
I miss you Sam!!

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Evening, Wisdom and Beauty

Love is an endless mystery,
for it has nothing else to explain it.
Rabindranath Tagore



Music fills the infinite between two souls.
Rabindranath Tagore



A poet never takes notes. You never take notes in a love affair.
Robert Frost



Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up.
Robert Frost



Education doesn't change life much. It just lifts trouble to a higher plane of regard.
Robert Frost



Education is hanging around until you've caught on.
Robert Frost

Shadow Shot Sunday!

Hey! all you shadow sleuths! Time once again to display the results of your detective labors. Shadow Shot is hosted each week at Hey Harriet click there to sign up and become another Shadow Sherlock!



After finding the vase down in the basement last week, I returned to get a favorite wine glass out of storage and decided to see how it would look in the same window. Not as vivid as the green, but a nice color shot anyway.



Mojo the Most -- wondering, 'was it a bird, a plane or super dog???'



We've about seen the last of the lush, foliage shadows, so one last look!



And soon the colors will change, the shadows won't always be as sharp and clear, but more like these reflections in this pond near the beach. The ducks don't seem to mind what season it is as long as there's something to catch! This was taken last fall. You can always click to embiggen and see the details more clearly.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Evening, Wisdom and Beauty

Don't grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.
Rumi



Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. Rumi



Look for the answer inside your question. Rumi



Everyone has been made for some particular work, and the desire for that work has been put in every heart.
Rumi



Let the beauty of what you love be what you do.
Rumi

In Memory



For those we lost, for their families, for our country.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Evening, Wisdom and Beauty

Your friend is your needs answered.
Kahlil Gibran



If you cry because the sun has gone out of your life, your tears will prevent you from seeing the stars.
Rabindranath Tagore



Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.
Kahlil Gibran



Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself.
Kahlil Gibran



Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add colour to my sunset sky.
Rabindranath Tagore

Sky Watch Friday!

Time once again to share your beautiful skies! Sky Watch is generously hosted each week by Klaus, Sandy, Ivar, Wren, Fishing Guy and Louise! Click here to sign up and join us for the fun and the beauty!



We've been seeing some Fall like clouds in Seattle this past week. We've had some rain and moody skies -- their mood seems to match ours on the ground. While Fall is incredibly beautiful here in the northwest, it was a very LONG winter last year and the summer has seemed rather short. But at least we're never lacking for lovely, colorful skies. These were taken, as many of mine are from our deck at different hours during the past few days.

This is what I meant by moody!



A little happier.





And glorious once again!



Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Evening, Wisdom and Beauty

God can heal a broken heart, but He has to have all the pieces. ~Author Unknown



"By all these lovely tokens
September days are here,
With summer’s best of weather
And autumn’s best of cheer."
- Helen Hunt Jackson



Nature does nothing uselessly.
- Aristotle



Are we not like two volumes of one book? ~Marceline Desbordes-Valmore



Giving up doesn't always mean you are weak; sometimes it means that you are strong enough to let go. ~Author Unknown



Sometimes I wish I were a little kid again, skinned knees are easier to fix than broken hearts. ~Author Unknown

What Are People Thinking? Or is That the Problem – They’re Not!

After writing my post on the war in Afghanistan, I was determined to put my grumblings to rest --- again! But when you have a big mouth that isn’t always easy and, as many of you know, I do have one of those. Well, I can always blame Bob Herbert, Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times, for lighting my fire – again, but I do feel that our country is SICK and he says it all so clearly.

In his column today he says that maybe the economic stress has been too much. And considering the last few months, I tend to agree that it would seem to be suffering from a nervous breakdown.

The political debate has been poisoned by birthers, deathers and wackos who smile proudly while carrying signs comparing the president to the Nazis. People who don’t even know that Medicare is a government program have been trying to instruct us on the best ways to reform health care.

There doesn’t seem to be any end to the craziness. The entire Republican Party has decided that is is in favor of absolutely nothing! Stimulus package, health care reform? No way! Forget about both of them! So far there has been absolutely nothing that the Republican party is in favor of and, incredibly, the party’s poll numbers are going up!

Yes, we obviously need therapy. President Obama addressed the public school students today, urging them to work harder and stay in school. According to Herbert, the folks who bray at the moon are outraged. The President has been likened to Chairman Mao and even Hitler. And a fair number of these nut cases have bought into the imbecilic notion that this is an effort at socialist or Communist indoctrination. And, as could be expected, one father from Texas was quoted as saying that he didn’t want our schools turned over to some socialist movement. Are these people nuts? Do they have any idea what they are talking about?

The wackiness is increasing, not diminishing, and it has a great potential for destruction. There is a real need for people who know better to speak out in a concerted effort to curb the appeal of the apostles of the absurd!

In reality the biggest issue confronting ordinary Americans right now – the biggest by far – is the devastatingly weak employment environment. Politicians talk about it, but any aggressive job-creation efforts are not part of the policy mix. But nearly 15 million Americans are unemployed, according to official statistics. The real numbers are far worse. And the unemployment rate for black Americans is a back-breaking 15.1 percent. Five million people have been unemployed for more than six months, and the consensus is that even when the recession ends, the employment landscape will remain dismal. A full recovery in employment will take years.

Joblessness is becoming the norm and there is a real question as to whether the U.S. economy is capable of providing sufficient employment for all who want and need work.
We’re also having serious trouble facing the hard truths about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the terrible toll they are taking on our young fighting men and women. Most of us don’t want to know. It’s head in the sand time all over again. In addition, we’ve put the costs of these wars on a credit card, without so much as a second thought about what that does to our long-term budget deficits.

The serious wackos, the obsessive-compulsive absurdists, may be beyond therapy. But the rest of us could use some serious adult counseling. We’ve forgotten many of the fundamentals, such as: how to live within our means, the benefits of shared sacrifice, the responsibilities that go with citizenship, the importance of a well-rounded education and tolerance.

But, as Herbert writes, the first step is to recognize that we have a problem.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Evening, Wisdom and Beauty

What I need to live has been given to me by the earth. Why I need to live has been given to me by you. ~Author Unknown

 
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True love stories never have endings. ~Richard Bach (Thanks, Bonnie)

 


Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place. ~Zora Neale Hurston

 


Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same. ~Emily Brontë

 


I do not want the peace that passeth understanding. I want the understanding which bringeth peace. ~ Helen Keller

ABC Wednesday -- H!

ABC Wednesday is hosted each week by Mrs. Denise Nesbitt and it gives us a chance to update our knowledge of the alphabet -- besides it's fun! Click on her name and sign up today!




H is for Harbor!
Five minutes from our house and one of my favorite places!
Day!



Evening!



H is for Hummingbird!



And, last but not least, H is for Hatha yoga -- and this is the doggie version!

Monday, September 7, 2009

Evening, Wisdom and Beauty



A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson



It is love that makes the impossible possible.
-- Indian Proverb

Where there is love there is no darkness.
- Burundi Proverb



Age doesn't always bring wisdom. Sometimes age comes alone.
--Unknown



The man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on.
-- Robert Bloch



But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads?
--Albert Camus

That's My World - Autumn in Seattle

That's My World is hosted each week by Klaus, Sandy, Ivar, Wren, Fishing Guy and Louise. It's a wonderful opportunity for you to share the beauty, the fun -- the whatever! of your world with others from all over "our world". Click here to sign up and join the fun!



The clouds and the rain rolled back into Seattle this weekend -- yes! just in time for the long Labor Day weekend! Ah, well, Autumn in Seattle and in the northwest is a time of extraordinary beauty and color and that's what I'm going to share with you today. Some were taken last year -- I just got over eager because I know what's coming.

All the color you could ever hope for!



Just a hint of fall above the harbor.



And a bit down near the beach! Another favorite place minutes from where we live.



And on a drive just outside the city.



And the last is this gorgeous Japanese Maple just around the corner from our house. A huge, leafy umbrella of a tree! (From last year)

What Can I Say?

What Can I Say?
I'm interested in almost everything. Use to like to travel, but it's too expensive now. I take Tai Chi classes, swim, volunteer in a Jump-start program for pre-schoolers. I'm an avid reader and like nearly everyone these days I follow politics avidly. I'm a former teacher and Special Projects Coordinator for a Telecommunications company, Assistant to the President of a Japanese silicon wafer manufacturing company. Am now enjoying retirement -- most of the time. I have two daughters, one son-in-law and two sons scattered all over the country. No grandchildren.

Portland Time