The Quote Garden Blog

My kind of fashion

2011-05-28T14:56:00.004-07:00

Check out this fantastic purse made from the book cover to Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. Now that is just my style of accessory! For years I've been saying that quotes are always in fashion, but this is the first time I've meant it literally. It is the creation of Linda Sienkiewicz of Rokki Fashion Handbags. Visit her website at rokkihandbags.com for more book and album cover purses.

"Far more seemly were it for thee to have thy study full of books, than thy purse full of money." ~John Lyly

Short history of grammar: quotemarks

2011-05-13T10:17:00.004-07:00

A few months ago I found this cute cartoon drawn by Eric (a.k.a. Odysseus) titled "Short history of grammar: quotemarks" and being the quote addict that I am, I of course loved it! Graciously, his works are under the Free Art License which grants the right to freely copy, distribute, and transform creative works without infringing the author's rights. Click the image below to view in full size. You can visit Eric at his new website lerelibre.net, an introduction to free software for beginners (in French, but Google Translate is helpful)!

"Collecting quotations is an insidious, even embarrassing habit, like ragpicking or hoarding rocks or trying on other people's laundry. I got into it originally while trying to break an addiction to candy. I kicked candy and now seem to be stuck with quotations, which are attacking my brain instead of my teeth." ~Robert Byrne

An addendum to games with quotes

2011-04-13T06:43:00.001-07:00

An addendum to my games with quotes posting from last year: I found this book on Amazon.com called Quote-doku by Henry Hook. The description is "Now, puzzle fans can get their sudoku fun and their word fix, too! A quote-doku begins with a sudoku grid where solvers enter numbers into cells, some with small letters in them. When all the cells are filled correctly, the anagramming begins - and the sweet payoff is an amusing quotation." I've never played sudoku but I have friends who do; looks like an interesting and creative book for puzzle and quote lovers!

"Our whole life is solving puzzles." ~Erno Rubik

Calmness

2011-01-13T20:15:00.002-07:00

I tried tai chi this morning for the first time, and it helped me start the day much calmer than usual. Still feeling grounded and peaceful just an hour or two later, coincidentally someone shared this quote with me. It's too long to tweet so thought I would post it here.

"Calmness is a huge gift. And once you master it, you will be able to respond in a useful way to every difficult situation that decides to walk into your heart." ~Geri Larkin

Some thoughts are life-altering

2011-01-02T22:18:00.002-07:00

"Why be saddled with this thing called life expectancy? Of what relevance to an individual is such a statistic? Am I to concern myself with an allotment of days I never had and was never promised? Must I check off each day of my life as if I am subtracting from this imaginary hoard? No, on the contrary, I will add each day of my life to my treasure of days lived. And with each day, my treasure will grow, not diminish." ~Robert Brault

Happy new year, one and all!

A snapdragon in December

2010-12-04T23:41:00.011-07:00

I am a
Snapdragon

What Flower
Are You?

"Flowers are the sweetest things God ever made, and forgot to put a soul into." ~Henry Beecher

"Earth laughs in flowers." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Flowers seem intended for the solace of ordinary humanity." ~John Ruskin

"Where flowers bloom so does hope." ~Lady Bird Johnson

"Each flower is a soul opening out to nature." ~Gerald De Nerval

"There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." ~Anais Nin

"It is at the edge of a petal that love waits." ~William Carlos Williams

"Flowers are not made by singing 'Oh, how beautiful,' and sitting in the shade." ~Rudyard Kipling

"If seeds in the black earth can turn into such beautiful roses, what might not the heart of man become in its long journey toward the stars?" ~G.K. Chesterton

May the chance often befall you

2010-09-14T21:47:00.000-07:00

"Be the master of your fate, be the captain of your soul, but do not hesitate, should the chance befall you, to be the slave of your heart." ~Robert Brault

Your heart knows

2010-08-08T18:24:00.002-07:00

I love doing these Twitter quote contests. I really enjoy reading all the entries. This past week I did one for "Your heart knows..." Read the winning entry and lots of other terrific submissions here: http://www.quotegarden.com/contest-20100805.html.

Sages and Time

2010-06-26T22:28:00.002-07:00

"Sometimes, perhaps, we are allowed to get lost that we may find the right person to ask directions of." ~Robert Brault

"You are the sky. Everything else - it's just the weather." ~Pema Chödrön

"Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each." ~Henry David Thoreau

"The basic paradox: everything is a mess yet all is well." ~Ezra Bayda

"A life without change is not a life; it is a stagnant pool. To change your mind frivolously is a cop-out. To change your mind under the direction of the wisdom of the heart is a brush stroke on the masterpiece you are delivering to the world." ~Alan Cohen

"Don't pray for rain if you are going to complain about the mud." ~Proverb

"What is to give light must endure burning." ~Viktor Frankl

"To decide is to walk facing forward with nary a crick in your neck from looking back at the crossroads." ~Betsy Cañas Garmon

"Flowers don't worry about how they're going to bloom. They just open up and turn toward the light and that makes them beautiful." ~Jim Carrey

Tiny things like context

2010-05-26T08:39:00.001-07:00

Does it bother me when people use quotes out of context? Depends. If it's blatantly or harmfully, then yes. Otherwise it depends on the situation. I realize I probably have at least a few quotes on my site that are removed from their original context in a way that changes the meaning. And if I knew exactly which those were I'd correct them right away (which is one reason I'm so grateful to visitors who bring errors to my attention).

I started collecting quotes at age thirteen and in my teens I wasn't always very careful about attributions and context, especially if I was in a hurry to record the quote. And back then I had no idea that later I would be sharing my collection with the world. If I had extra hours in the day I would go back and research all the quotes for accuracy but after collecting obsessively and non-stop for 23 years it might take a lifetime to complete a project like that. For now I'll have to be content with fixing them as I find them, or more likely, as my wonderful visitors find them for me.

Here's an interesting tidbit regarding context:

"It was the tiniest thing I ever decided to put my whole life into." It's probably my most famous quote... but it's not about a baby. I wrote it in my journal when I was 14 years old, and it's about a tiny sick bird I was trying to nurse back to health at the time.

It seems the quote is always used in reference to babies but it doesn't bother me, as it certainly applies quite well to the subject. I think for a while I even moved it onto my baby congrats page because that's how everyone was using it.

Context is always important, but sometimes it's everything and sometimes it can be more flexible. If I intentionally use a quote out of its original context, I make a note in the attribution. For example, on the Arizona page, I have a couple of quotes about the hot weather "here." The authors were not referring to Arizona, but the sentiment applied to our weather as well so after the author's name I noted that.

As always, remember to practice safe and responsible quoting!

"The art of quotation requires more delicacy in the practice than those conceive who can see nothing more in a quotation than an extract." ~Benjamin Disraeli

Silence

2010-04-30T16:50:00.010-07:00

"True silence is the rest of the mind; it is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment." ~William Penn

"An inability to stay quiet is one of the most conspicuous failings of mankind." ~Walter Bagehot

"Silence is a source of great strength." ~Lao Tzu

"You can hear the footsteps of God when silence reigns in the mind." ~Sri Sathya Sai Baba

"Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life..." ~Jean Arp

"Let us be silent, that we may hear the whispers of the gods." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

plaque from Ross Dress for Less that hangs on my bedroom wall; author is unknown

Retiring with Rumi

2010-03-20T20:39:00.002-07:00

You sit here for days saying,
This is strange business.
You're the strange business. You have the energy of the sun in you, but you keep knotting it up at the base of your spine.
You're some weird kind of gold that wants to stay melted in the furnace, so you won't have to become coins.

So don't be timid.
Load the ship and set out.
No one knows for certain whether the vessel will sink or reach the harbor.
Just don't be one of those merchants who won't risk the ocean!

Work in the invisible world at least as hard as you do in the visible.

Keep walking, though there's no place to get to. Don't try to see through the distances. That's not for human beings. Move within, but don't move the way fear makes you move.

This talk is like stamping new coins. They pile up, while the real work is being done outside by someone digging in the ground.

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī

Games with quotes

2010-03-13T12:37:00.006-07:00

I more than anyone know that quotes are everywhere. But in recent years it seems they're really everywhere. Now I've learned that quotes are even in crossword puzzles and other games. That doesn't surprise me, I've just not known about it until now because I'm not much into that type of thing.

Victor Fleming, a judge and author from Arkansas, and Bonnie Gentry, a crossword puzzle creator from Arizona, recently published a crossword puzzle with one of my quotes in it. It's cool, the entire quotation is actually written into the puzzle answers. Looking through the book, Simon & Schuster Mega Crossword Puzzle Book #7, I see a couple other puzzles with quotes as themes.

So I did an internet search and found some books that sound interesting:

The Everything Crosswords & Puzzles for Quote Lovers Book: Over 400 Encrypted, Scrambled, and Hidden Quotes for Word Game Fans by Charles Timmerman
Not Your Typical Large-Print Crosswords #3: Quotes, Quips, & Proverbs by Crossword Corner
And this one looks fascinating but it would drive me crazy: Quotable Cryptograms: 500 Famous Quotes to Decipher by Terry Stickels
There's also a Don't Quote Me board game

Let the wordplay begin!

"Egotism, n: Doing the New York Times crossword puzzle with a pen." ~Author Unknown

"Do I rue a life wasted doing crosswords? Yes, but I do know the three-letter-word for regret." ~Robert Brault

"It is one of man's curious idiosyncrasies to create difficulties for the pleasure of resolving them." ~Joseph de Maistre

Waking up with Rumi

2010-03-10T08:53:00.003-07:00

Who gets up early to discover the moment the light begins?

What was whispered to the rose to break it open last night was whispered to my heart.

You've gotten drunk on so many kinds of wine. Taste this. It won't make you wild. It's fire. Give up, if you don't understand by this time that your living is firewood.

Set your life on fire.
Seek those who fan your flames.

The lamps are different,
But the Light is the same.

To change, a person must face the dragon of his appetites with another dragon, the life-energy of the soul.

What is the body? That shadow of a shadow
of your love, that somehow contains
the entire universe.

This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and attend them all! Even if they're a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in.

Sorrows are the rags of old clothes and jackets that serve to cover, and then are taken off. That undressing, and the beautiful naked body underneath, is the sweetness that comes after grief.

You haven't dared yet lose faith - so how can faith grow in you?

Gamble everything for love, if you're a true human being.

If these poems repeat themselves, then so does Spring.

Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī

Fear cannot

2010-02-28T15:16:00.003-07:00

I am already too familiar with what fear can do. For me personally, fear can trick me into overeating. It can lead me to stress out, lose my balance, neglect my body's needs, and spend my energy worrying instead of doing something positive. Sometimes fears come true; lots of times they don't. What I am more interested in knowing is what fear can't do. That's why the prompt for the most recent create your own quote contest on Twitter was Fear cannot... Thanks everyone for lots of great entries, here are some of the highlights:

"Fear cannot take what you do not give it." ~Christopher Coan, @Wisetree63 (winner!)

"Fear cannot destroy your dreams, only you can." ~Michelle Kurka, @mnkurka

"Fear cannot solve problems, but it can make it difficult to find solutions." ~Ruby, @TheRuubster

"Fear cannot give us the adrenaline to push forward until we realize it is the fear in us that holds us back." ~J Beard, @promoterofpeace

"Fear cannot stifle true faith." ~Sara Farnum Alviz, @runningveganmom

"Fear cannot be unless you let it be!" ~Anu Ewebiyi, @anuewe

www.quotegarden.com/contest-20100224.html

Randomness, or appreciation

2010-01-31T20:19:00.005-07:00

"No one escapes the wilderness on the way to the promised land." ~Annie Dillard

"Love will surely bust you wide open into an unfettered, blooming new galaxy." ~Hafez

"Take sips of this pure wine being poured. Don't mind that you've been given a dirty cup." ~Rumi

"People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered. Love them anyway." ~Mother Teresa

In Africa, the Healer may ask a sick person, "When was the last time you sang? The last time you danced? The last time you shared a story?"

"He that lives in hope danceth without musick." ~George Herbert

Via Elsa Joy Bailey @iamwun, Dr SunWolf @WabiSabiWhisper, and MidnightAngel

It's what we call faith

2010-01-24T11:23:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the light

2009-12-31T05:54:00.005-07:00

I ran another create your own quote contest on Twitter a few days ago, the prompt was "The light..." I am grateful to everyone who submitted, there were lots of great entries. The morning I posted the contest I was actually feeling a bit down which is quite rare for me, but when the entries began rolling in I was immediately uplifted by people's inspiring thoughts. You all definitely brought some light into my heart, thank you! Here are some of my favorites:

"The light is what guides you home, the warmth is what keeps you there." ~Ellie Rodriguez, @sapphiremoon13 (winner)

"The light of starry dreams can only be seen once we escape the blinding cities of disbelief." ~Shawn Purvis, @shawnpurvis (ShawnPurvis.com)

"The light keeps us on the right path, shows us the present and gives us faith that the future is ahead - shining bright." ~Shara Day, @sharaday

"The light goes out on purpose sometimes so we can get lost and then realize we weren't even on the right path to begin with." ~Michelle Christine, @Shellzs333

"The light might seem unreachable - but there is still a little hope if there's a tiny little light inside your heart." ~Nina Cremer, @NinaCremer

"The light is always shining, to see it we must stop focusing on the shadows it casts." ~Kim Clarkin, @Kimberleyhaa

The contest page is at www.quotegarden.com/contest-20091228.html.

No excuses

2009-12-26T08:34:00.003-07:00

"How strange to use 'You only live once' as an excuse to throw it away." ~Bill Copeland

"I would not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into momentum." ~Frances Willard

"For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way. Something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life." ~Fr. Alfred D'Souza

"Life is a mixed blessing, which we vainly try to unmix." ~Mignon McLaughlin

"The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature." ~Joseph Campbell

A nod,
a bow,
and a tip of the lid
to the person
who coulda
and shoulda
and did.
~Robert Brault, "A Poem Missing the Word Woulda"

"Maybe you don't like your job, maybe you didn't get enough sleep, well nobody likes their job, nobody got enough sleep. Maybe you just had the worst day of your life, but you know, there's no escape, there's no excuse, so just suck up and be nice." ~Ani DiFranco

"There is always some specific moment when we become aware that our youth is gone; but, years after, we know it was much later." ~Mignon McLaughlin

"I still get wildly enthusiastic about little things.... I play with leaves. I skip down the street and run against the wind." ~Leo Buscaglia

Give thanks... keep fighting

2009-11-08T19:17:00.000-07:00

Finished another Twitter create your own quote contest today. The prompt was "Give thanks" and the winner is Fernanda (@bfersapiens) with her inspiring words "Give thanks for what you are now, and keep fighting for what you want to be tomorrow." Thanks, Fernanda, and to everyone who participated in the contest! The results page is at www.quotegarden.com/contest-20091105.html.

The words

2009-11-04T20:43:00.004-07:00

One of the cool things about being obsessed with quotes, and I know of no one more obsessed, is that after a long hard day, when I have little energy for much else, I think over all that I've ever read and know that I don't have to find the words to express how I feel because with few exceptions someone else has already found them before. And then I feel relief at having one less thing to do before retiring for the night, I don't have to search my heart and soul for the words, some other writer - and we are all writers - has done it for me....

"In many areas of understanding, none so much as in our understanding of God, we bump up against a simplicity so profound that we must assign complexities to it to comprehend it at all. It is mindful of how we paste decals to a sliding glass door to keep from bumping our nose against it." ~Robert Brault

A perfect day

2009-10-25T15:12:00.005-07:00

"My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate. That's my philosophy." ~Thornton Wilder

Goodbye, GeoCities!

2009-10-25T07:49:00.002-07:00

As of October 26, 2009, GeoCities will be no more. And to you I say goodbye GeoCities, and thanks for helping me get my start. In early 1998 you let me sign up for a free webspace with you so I could learn HTML, and you gave me my first address of www.geocities.com/ Athens/Aegean/1994. I created Quotations That Make a Statement and started typing my collection of quotes into your pages. It was nice to get my collection out of WordStar for CP/M and into the world wide web for all to enjoy. You served me well until September 2001 when I was routinely exceeding my allotment of bandwidth and moved to my own domain, www.quotegarden.com. I appreciate the nice system and community you had going back then, and I thank you and bid thee farewell!

"Looking at the proliferation of personal web pages on the Net, it looks like very soon everyone on Earth will have 15 megabytes of fame." ~M.G. Sriram

Liz

2009-09-30T19:05:00.003-07:00

R.I.P.
Liz Armbruster

"In what you say of another, apply the
test of kindness, necessity and truth, and let
nothing pass your lips without a 2/3 majority."
~ Liz Armbruster & Robert Brault ~

We'll miss you.

My heart, my heart

2009-09-05T10:54:00.010-07:00

Ran another create your own quote contest on Twitter a few days ago and posted the winner and honorable mentions today. The prompt was "My heart..." and I was pleased with all the nice entries. The winner: "My heart filled with love, flowing over with joy, my own little drum that I like to march by!" composed by Gunda Fijnje-Nolan, @godutch. It made me think of Henry David Thoreau, "If a man loses pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured, or far away." Her heart is her drum, how beautiful. See some of the other great entries here: www.quotegarden.com/contest-20090902.html.

Celebration of love

2009-08-29T11:35:00.003-07:00

A few quotes in honor of my parents' 40th wedding anniversary...

"Newlyweds become oldyweds, and oldyweds are the reasons that families work." ~Author Unknown

"Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads which sew people together through the years." ~Simone Signoret

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

"A long marriage is two people trying to dance a duet and two solos at the same time." ~Anne Taylor Fleming

"A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person." ~Mignon McLaughlin

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

"The sum which two married people owe to one another defies calculation. It is an infinite debt, which can only be discharged through eternity." ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Anyone can catch your eye, but it takes someone special to catch your heart." ~Author Unknown

"A happy marriage is a long conversation which always seems too short." ~Andre Mauroi

"True love stories never have endings." ~Richard Bach

Too much coffee

2009-08-26T06:58:00.003-07:00

Under every full moon

2009-07-11T13:35:00.006-07:00

That was great fun! Decided to have a create your own quote contest on Twitter. For 2 or 3 years now I've had this phrase in my head, "under every full moon" and wanted to write a sentence out of it but for some reason no words would ever come. That's the first time I thought about having some type of contest. But, I decided I didn't have the time or desire to set it up.

Then after I joined Twitter a few months ago I thought maybe now's a good time to do it. But still decided against it.

Then in May, Robert Brault posted a make your own quote entry on his blog. It was like a choose your own adventure multiple choice type quote (see the post here), and it was so fun I finally decided to go ahead with my own.

And so a few days ago on Twitter I issued the challenge to complete the thought "Under every full moon..." in less than 100 characters. I received a few dozen replies, and I had a great time reading through them and choosing a winner. I love people's creativity!

The winner was Lorraine Skylark (@Larked), "Under every full moon, a woolgathering world idles," which was posted on my Daydreaming page. I also published a page of honorable mentions here.

It was fun and definitely worth it, so I plan to do it again every once in a while using some new prompts. Yeah for writing!

"The world is but a canvas to the imagination." ~Henry David Thoreau

Desires and discipline

2009-07-04T09:16:00.002-07:00

Note to self...
greet the morning
nourish yourself with healthy food and happy thoughts
move your body
do the day's work
enjoy the outdoors
love the family
finish chores around the house
cleanse body and mind
heal thyself
breathe
enjoy some tea
then get on the computer

"Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty." ~Frank Herbert

Elimination

2009-07-03T13:01:00.004-07:00

Okay, this might be a little gross for some people but it's been on my mind lately. I remember my 7th grade science class did a unit on the major systems of the body. My classmate Lisa and I had to report on the excretory system. We did lots of reading, drew diagrams, and wrote a nice report, and I remember learning how important that system of the body is. Until then I didn't know that people couldn't live without the various forms of elimination.

According to Wikipedia, elimination "may be considered to encompass all of the various mechanisms and processes by which life forms dispose of or throw off waste products, toxic substances, and dead portions of the organism."

I've been thinking about how important elimination is in the emotional and mental realms as well. In modern society we daily come into contact with toxic situations and people, that get under our skin - figuratively and also through stress chemicals, literally as well. We also hold onto certain assumptions, prejudices, old patterns of thought, grudges, guilt, bad memories, etc, that eat away at our physical and mental health.

When our bodies need to sweat, we sweat, and when we need to go to the toilet we do so. If only we could eliminate our waste products, toxic substances, and dead portions of our minds, with as much regularity.

"Every one should keep a mental wastepaper basket and the older he grows the more things he will consign to it - torn up to irrecoverable tatters." ~Samuel Butler

"In minds crammed with thoughts, organs clogged with toxins, and bodies stiffened with neglect, there is just no space for anything else." ~Alison Rose Levy

"Stress is the trash of modern life - we all generate it but if you don't dispose of it properly, it will pile up and overtake your life." ~Terri Guillemets

I love you, Papa

2009-06-21T06:07:00.006-07:00

Take 1

"Tell me the first time you knew he was going to be a good father," I asked my mom last week about my dad. When we were kids we had a garden in our back yard and also a small sandbox he built himself. Most of the stories she told me I had heard before, but what I didn't know was that he had planned those two things before we were even conceived....

Take 2

I am a good person. I have integrity. I am a hard worker. I am loving and caring. Family is important to me. I worry too much. I eat too much ice cream. I love learning. I love doing things myself. I love the outdoors, and I respect nature. I am patient.

Why am I all these things? Because I am my father's daughter....

Take 3

I remember always asking you if you would teach me to use the radial arm saw and you telling me I couldn't until I was as tall as it was. I remember when I walked into my bedroom, closed the door, and started dancing like crazy to "Venus" by Bananarama that was playing on my radio, then turning around to see you sitting on my bed and me being so embarrassed but you just started laughing in pure joy which made me laugh and then I didn't feel so bad. I remember when you drove me home from my first semester of college, through the raging thunderstorms and I was a little scared. I remember driving to my first semester of college, with you in the passenger seat, and pulling into the big rig parking at the rest stop in that tiny little pickup truck, and you not saying anything until we got out and all the truckers were looking at us as we walked to the restroom and I finally figured out for myself what silly thing I had done. I remember you taking us to Pic 'N' Save every December so we could go secret Christmas shopping for our mommy and each pick out something for her. I remember all of us squirting water through the gaps in our front teeth at each other, and at the dinner table no less and you were the ringleader. I remember sometimes listening to old-time radio shows with you, like The Shadow.

And I always remember every single day what a great dad you've always been and what a great dad you still are to all of us....

Take 4

Love and appreciation are such personal things they're so difficult to put into words. What I'm really trying to say is you're a great dad and a great person, and you've had such a positive influence on so many people it's amazing. You truly are like one of those skipping stones with a ripple effect. Thanks for rippling me!

"He didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it." ~Clarence Budington Kelland

"Any man can be a father. It takes someone special to be a dad." ~Author Unknown

"I love my father as the stars - he's a bright shining example and a happy twinkling in my heart." ~Terri Guillemets

"A daughter may outgrow your lap, but she will never outgrow your heart." ~Author Unknown

Memorial Christmas

2009-05-25T16:21:00.004-07:00

A bit odd to post a Christmas poem in May? Maybe, maybe not. My quote of the day on the site and quote of the moment on Twitter today were both Memorial Day related so thought perhaps I could get away with another holiday on my blog.

I was thinking about my grandpa this morning, who served in World War II. He didn't die in the war, lived happily until 57 years later, but I was thinking about him nonetheless, as I do many days. There's a poem he wrote when I was a little girl, and I posted an excerpt from it on my site a few years ago with my grandma's blessings. Those four lines have since been copied all over the internet. Today I thought I would post the poem in its entirety, for everyone to enjoy.

Let Every Day Be Christmas
by Norman Wesley Brooks

Christmas is forever, not for just one day,
for loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away
like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.
The good you do for others is good you do yourself.

Peace on Earth, good will to men,
kind thoughts and words of cheer,
are things we should use often
and not just once a year.

Remember too the Christ-child, grew up to be a man;
to hide him in a cradle, is not our dear Lord's plan.
So keep the Christmas spirit, share it with others far and near,
from week to week and month to month, throughout the entire year!

December 17, 1976

Sorry, body

2009-05-24T17:43:00.005-07:00

My sweet tooth seems out of control today. Polished off a pint of fudge swirl frozen yogurt before I realized what happened. Now I remember why I like to dish up a serving then put it back. Because eating right out of the carton makes four servings feel like one - makes 92 grams of sugars feel normal.

Okay, stop! Have some protein. A cup of green tea. Hug. Go outside. Soak in some sunlight. Listen to the birds. Watch the bees. Feel the breeze. See how it loves the trees. Breathe in nature, and breathe nature in. Thankful for nature. Reverence and respect to nature. Thankful to my body. Reverence and respect for my body.

Ahhh, starting to feel better now. Being in a natural setting helps me remember that my body is part of nature, that I am nature. Maybe I'll listen to some favorite music and meditate on these quotes until I get out of this self-induced sugar stupor.

"Take care of your body. It's the only place you have to live." ~Jim Rohn

"Our bodies are our gardens - our wills are our gardeners." ~William Shakespeare

"The body too has its rights; and it will have them: they cannot be trampled on without peril. The body ought to be the soul's best friend. Many good men however have neglected to make it such: so it has become a fiend and has plagued them." ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare

"Fresh air impoverishes the doctor." ~Danish Proverb

"I think you might dispense with half your doctors if you would only consult Dr Sun more." ~Henry Ward Beecher

"When it comes to eating right and exercising, there is no 'I'll start tomorrow.' Tomorrow is disease." ~Terri Guillemets

Just living is not enough

2009-05-15T22:22:00.004-07:00

Okay, not literally “a little flower,” the photo just happened to work out that way. Took this pic in my parents' front yard. Technically, these are weeds but when they bloom they sure are pretty.

Please quote responsibly

2009-05-13T10:03:00.008-07:00

I hate to throw the first proverbial stone as surely I'm guilty myself, but I've got to take a stand. The Web has made it commonplace for ideas and words to multiply like cyber-bunnies. Yes, that is wonderful but also has its downsides. With those countless ideas and words passing through our e-world - like a global version of the sentence relay game - it can become quite difficult to accurately trace origins (difficult albeit sometimes a fun challenge with lots of serendipitous learning along the way).

I've noticed that quotations have soared in popularity the past few years, for many reasons but mostly because online quote collections are a virtual convenience store of wisdom - run in, grab a few quotes you need, and you're on your way! Having been on Twitter a couple months now, I've seen so many quotes tweeted without an attribution or even quotation marks, as if the tweeter had just thought up that aphoristic gem.

Please don't commit a 140ism ("miscommunication in 140 characters or fewer," thanks @brianglanz) by rephrasing a quote, leaving off an attribution, or using it in a misleading way. If it doesn't fit, either don't use it or else link to the proper remainder of it, and if you don't know its origin, then indicate the author is unknown.

This goes for all quoting, not just Twitter and email and websites but every time you use a quotation. It shows gratitude to the author, it shows you have integrity, and it helps the author by making readers want to find out more so they can read more, and that kind of curiosity is a good thing - quoter's curiosity, as I call it, is a disease whose only cure is more reading.

There are many reasons to attribute and to quote with respect, the main being it's just the right thing to do even if it's not always convenient. Please keep this in mind next time you use a quote for anything, even if it's just a baby shower invitation, because with the speedy spread of all things these days you never know the journey that quote will take.

"I am fully conscious of the fact, that aphorisms are like wandering Gypsies. They must always be published without guarantee of the authenticity." ~Erkki Melartin

"What is right is often forgotten by what is convenient." ~Bodie Thoene

I love you, Mama

2009-05-10T06:27:00.010-07:00

“My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother.” ~George Washington

My mom, too, is the most beautiful woman I know, in every way.

She has a contagious smile and an optimism and joyful attitude that draws everyone to her like a happy magnet. She is young at heart and has a heart of gold.

She makes the best toast on earth, and even when I try to make it her way it never turns out as good. I know it's because the secret ingredient is love.

She's so strong, never calls in to work, and never gets sick because she wills herself to be healthy, after all who has time to be sick?!

She never puts herself first, wanting to help everyone else, but in my heart she is always first. I hope it doesn't sound conceited to say that I am one of the things I love best about my mom, because I am part of her and she did a wonderful job raising my brothers and me. I really like the people we've become, and there is nothing more responsible for that than her and my dad bringing us up to be the best we can be.

She's a friend and a role model and a trusted source of advice. Her laughter seems to embrace everyone in the room, and there's nothing more cute or giddy than when a little snort laughs out with it. She's silly and loving, and open-minded but holds her ground.

I can find many exceptional quotes on oodles of subjects but when I look for quotes on moms there just aren't a lot of great ones. I find that odd because everyone from the dawn of time has had a mother, including so many millions of authors. Maybe because it's so difficult to put the essence of mother into words - yet another tribute to moms everywhere, that it's nearly impossible to condense your love for her into a sentence or two, maybe not even into an entire book.

But, what I have found I can do, is compress my love for her into a hug. I will be hugging my mom today - and you hug yours too, or if you can't hug her physically then hug her in spirit and find someone else's mom and give her a big hug!

"There's nothing like a mama-hug." ~Terri Guillemets

"My mother is a poem I'll never be able to write,
though everything I write is a poem to my mother." ~S. Doubiago

Hee that is in a towne in May

2009-05-08T16:15:00.010-07:00

crayons!

2009-05-02T06:11:00.007-07:00

I was on Skipper Kim's twitter page @iSkip and an icon caught my eye of someone she's following. I clicked and ended up at @crayonsman, a guy who tweets only about crayons, it's awesome! He inspired me to pull together all my quotes on crayons and coloring, some of which were still waiting to find a home on the site, and create a page all their own. I still color to this very day and I'm 35 years old! The new page is quotegarden.com/crayons.html. Check it out and rediscover your inner child. “If you want an interesting party sometime, combine cocktails and a fresh box of crayons for everyone.” ~Robert Fulghum

Laugh out loud

2009-05-01T16:45:00.004-07:00

And this is why Robert Brault is one of my favorite authors... “Stored away in some brain cell is the image of a long-departed aunt you haven’t thought of in 30 years. Stored away in another cell is the image of a pink pony stitched on your first set of baby pajamas. All it takes to get that aunt mounted on the back of that pony is to eat a hunk of meatloaf immediately before going to bed.” Came home from work today, found that posted on his blog, and had a much needed laugh-out-loud moment! You can find more of Mr Brault’s wit and wisdom at www.robertbrault.com.

Some things just can't be quoted

2009-04-19T12:15:00.002-07:00

One of my favorite songs is “Everything About it is a Love Song” by Paul Simon, but you will not find any quotes from it on my site. Some things just can't be quoted. An entire lifetime encapsulated into one short sweet song, a range of emotions melodized into less than four minutes. None of it can be extracted, and it can't be concentrated into anything smaller - it is perfection of completeness, every drop of juice squeezed and every satisfaction exhausted. You've got to experience it in its entirety - listen to all the words, and the music and voice and spirit, and soak in everything all together for the full effect. Brimming with life, in the present moment, appreciative of all, fearless of death. “If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music.” ~Gustav Mahler

A second for gratitude

2009-04-13T21:54:00.008-07:00

My site has been up for more than 11 years now, and I've recently come to realize how fortunate I am to have come in contact with so many wonderful people from all parts of the world. People who are like me, different than me, people who allow me to post their quotes, who make suggestions, whose nice compliments make my day, those who are helpful and those who give me something to think about and those whose joy for life is contagious, whose kindness and generosity inspire me. Thank you all, I know many of you have been regular visitors since the early years. I appreciate everyone's support, long-time and new friends as well! “God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say thank you?” ~William Ward