A Beautiful Thing

“Tragedy, sadness, loneliness and despair
taught me that life is really a beautiful thing;
if it wasn’t I wouldn’t be able to recognize
that anything was wrong.”

Greg Evans
Suspense Novelist

 

Make the Best

Turk’s Cap Lily

“Things turn out best
for those who make the best
of the way things turn out.”

Jack Buck, 1924-2002
American sportscaster

 

The Soul’s Knees

“Certain thoughts are prayers.
There are moments when,
whatever be the attitude of the body,
the soul is on its knees.”

Victor Hugo, 1802-1855
French poet, playwright, novelist

 

 

Craftsman

Tipton Haynes State Historical Site, Johnson City

“Where you find quality,
you will find a craftsman,
not a quality-control expert.”

Robert Brault

 

Must Haves

“Just living is not enough.
One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.”

Hans Christian Anderson, 1805-1875
Danish author and poet

 

Wisdom

“Wisest is he who knows he does not know.”

Old Eastern Saying

 

Knowing

“We are torn between the craving to know
and the despair of having known.”

F. Sagan, 1935-2004
French playwright, novelist

 

Examples

Rare Gray’s Lily on Roan Mountain

“As I grow older, I pay less attention
to what [people] say.
I just watch what they do.”

Andrew Carnegie

 

Independence Day!

Columbines at Dallas Botanical Garden

“You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.”

Erma Bombeck, 1927-1996
American humorist

 

Home

“Peace — that was the other name for home.”

Kathleen Norris, b. 1947
Best-selling author of The Cloister Walk,
Dakota, and Amazing Grace

 

Teamwork

“It is amazing how much you can accomplish
when it doesn’t matter who gets the credit.”

Author Unknown

 

My Refuge

Sill Branch Falls

“Crying is the refuge of plain women,
but the ruin of pretty ones.”

Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900
Irish playwright, novelist, poet

 

Aging is Growth

“As you grow old, you learn more. If you stayed at twenty-two,
you’d always be as ignorant as you were at twenty-two.
Aging is not just decay, you know. It’s growth.”

Morrie Schwartz, 1916-1995
“Tuesdays with Morrie” (1997) by Mitch Albom

(Highly recommend this book. Read it a few months ago and watched the movie tonight.)

Simplicity

“There is no greatness
where there is not
simplicity, goodness and truth.”

Leo Tolstoy
War and Peace

 

Not in Vain

“Somewhere you already know that what you are living now
will not leave the other members of the community untouched.
Your choices also call your friends to make new choices.”

Henri Nouwen, 1932-1996

 

Moments

“Life isn’t a matter of milestones, but of moments.”

Rose Kennedy, 1890-1995

 

Being Me

“It takes courage to grow up
and become who you really are.”

e.e. cummings

 

Here I Go Again

Roan Mountain Rhododendron Festival – today!

“A birthday is just the first day
of another 365-day journey around the sun.
Enjoy the trip.”

Author Unknown

 

Age

Dragonfly at Warrior’s Path State Park, Kingsport

“You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt;
as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear;
as young as your hope, as old as your despair.”

Douglas MacArthur, 1880-1964
U.S. General

 

Beauty on Roan

Azalea ready to bloom on Round Bald, looking toward Jane Bald, Roan Mountain

“Flowers… are a proud assertion
that a ray of beauty outvalues
all the utilities of the world.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1844

 

Will or Won’t

“The difference between perseverance and obstinacy
is that one comes from a strong will,
and the other from a strong won’t.”

Henry Ward Beecher, 1813-1887
Prominent clergyman, social reformer, abolitionist

 

Waiting

Dragonflies at Warrior’s Path State Park, Kingsport

“Jumping at several small opportunities
may get us there more quickly
than waiting for one big one to come along.”

Hugh Allen, 1846-1946
English musician, academic

Beauty

“Beauty is not in the face;
beauty is a light in the heart.”

Kahlil Gibran

 

Awe

Sunset from Beauty Spot, Unaka Mountain

“Mountains inspire awe in any human person who has a soul.
They remind us of our frailty, our unimportance,
of the briefness of our span upon this earth.
They touch the heavens, and sail serenely at an altitude
beyond even the imaginings of a mere mortal.”

Elizabeth Aston
The Exploits & Adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy

 

A Rambling Fancy

“One cannot fix one’s eyes on the commonest natural production
without finding food for a rambling fancy.”

Jane Austen, 1775 – 1817
Mansfield Park

 

More Than Books

Blueberry Blossoms

“Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers,
the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters,
and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.”

John Lubbock, 1834-1913
English banker, politician, naturalist and archaeologist

 

Freedom

“The truth is found when men are free to pursue it.”

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

 

Choices

Flame Azalea

“When you have to make a choice and don’t make it,
that is in itself a choice.”

William James, 1842-1910

 

True or False

The real Solomon’s Seal, Biltmore Estate

“Now here’s the deal with Solomon’s seal:
Two kinds of plants exist.
One is real, Some people feel,
And the other they dismiss.
‘False,’ they say, Is the way
To label this pretty flower.
But how’d they know
To name it so?
Where did they get the power?
False isn’t true, It’s a name to eschew
And give to some legislature
That can declare A name more fair,
For veritable nomenclature.”

Jack Sanders
“The Secrets of Wildflowers”

 

All is Well

“To know that all is well,
even if late will come to know it,
is at least some gain.”

Sophocles

 

Conform?

Foxglove

“Conform and be dull.”

J. Frank Dobie, 1888-1964
American folklorist and writer from Texas

 

Suffering

“By suffering comes wisdom.”

Aeschylus, 525-456 B.C.
Ancient Greek playwright

 

On the Spine of Time

Holston River below the Weir Dam

“Sooner or later you’ve got to let loose of certainty’s hand and leap.
Jump. Believe in something, like mountains and mountain streams,
trout and mountain people.”

Harry Middleton, 1949-2003
Southern nature writer

 

Where Mountain and Atom Meet

View from the Blue Ridge Parkway near Grandfather Mountain

“Ancient haze lies on the mountain
smoke-blue, strange and still
a presence that eludes the mind and
moves through a deeper kind of knowing.
It is nature’s breath and more –
an aura from the great I Am
that gathers to its own
spirits that have gone before.

Deep below the valley waters
eerie and hid from view
the atom splits without a sound
its own trace a fine blue glow
rising from the fissioned whole
and at its core
power that commands the will
quiet that strikes the soul,
‘Be still and know . . . I Am.’”

Marilou Awiakta, b. 1936
Cherokee/Appalachian writer and storyteller

 

Where I Need to Be

Red Trillium

“I’m not running, and I’m not walking fast.
I’m going where I need to be.”

Johnny McEntyre

 

Learn From Them

Farmhouse Gallery, Unicoi

“Many men have been just as troubled
morally and spiritually as you are right now.
Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles.
You’ll learn from them–if you want to.
Just as someday, if you have something to offer,
someone will learn something from you.
It’s a beautiful reciprocal arrangement.
And it isn’t education. It’s history. It’s poetry.”

J.D. Salinger
The Catcher In The Rye

 

Sounds like James

“Knowing is not enough; We must Apply.
Willing is not enough; We must Do.”

Goethe

 

Desire & Regret

“We alternate between desire and regret.”

Seneca

 

Universal Language

“Everybody laughs in the same language.”

Unknown

 

Earth’s Music

Trillium blooming along Appalachian Trail on Unaka Mountain

“The earth has music for those who listen.”

William Shakespeare

 

Easy?

Rhododendron blossom opening

“Whenever the going seems easy
you are on the wrong road.”

Unknown

 

Happy Birthday, Mom

Collecting shells at OBX with my mom (right) and aunt (left)

“I remember my mother’s prayers
and they have always followed me.
They have clung to me all my life.”

Abraham Lincoln

 

A Working Mood

“That book is good which puts me in a working mood.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Hurry

“A wise man does not try to hurry history.”

Adlai Stevenson, 1900-1965
American politician

 

Thinking and Yearning

“What is a thousand years?
Time is short for one who thinks,
endless for one who yearns.”

Alain, 1868-1951
French philosopher

 

Taking Time

“Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time.”

Abraham Lincoln

 

Slipping Away

Columbine

“Time is slippery.”

Kim Linder

 

Vacation

Foxglove

“The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.”

Unknown

 

Growing Up

“There’s no point in being grown up
if you can’t be childish sometimes.”

Dr. Who

 

Hush

Columbine

“The best way to become boring is to say everything.”

Voltaire