“Backward, turn backward,
O Time, in your flight
make me a child again
just for to-night!”
Elizabeth Akers Allen, 1832-1911
American journalist and poet
Monthly Archives: October 2007
Used Things
Shady Valley, TN
“Fewer and fewer Americans possess objects that have a patina, old furniture,
grandparents’ pots and pans, the used things, warm with generations of
human touch, essential to a human landscape. Instead, we have our paper phantoms,
transistorized landscapes. A featherweight portable museum.”
Susan Sontag, 1933-2004
American essayist, novelist, photographer
Go On
Elk River Falls, Elk Park, NC
“Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop.”
Lewis Carroll, 1832-1898
Alice in Wonderland
Persevere
Bittersweet October
Boone Fork Bridge, Blue Ridge Parkway m. 296
“Bittersweet October. The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause
between the opposing miseries of summer and winter.”
Carol Bishop Hipps
“October,” In a Southern Garden, 1995
Perspective
“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.”
Richard Bach, 1936-
American writer,
author of “Jonathan Livingston Seagull”
Unloved Flowers
Ministry
“Ministry is the spiritual act of seeing and helping others see the
face of a loving God even where nothing but darkness seems to be present.”
Henri Nouwen, 1932-1996
Dutch Catholic priest and writer
Letting Go
Cloudy evening on Round Bald, Roan Mountain
“Nothing has taught me dependence on God like letting go of people.”
Connally Gilliam
“Revelations of a Single Woman”
Glad It’s Raining
“Gee, I’m glad it’s raining
There’s always something to be thankful for.
I’m awfully glad it’s raining
Cause no one sees your tear drops when it pours.”
Jim Varney, 1949-2000
a.k.a. Ernest P. Worrell in “Ernest Goes to Camp”
The Mountains Are Calling
Mount Le Conte, Great Smoky Mountains National Park
“The mountains are calling and I must go.”
John Muir, 1838-1914
One of first modern preservationists
& founder of the Sierra Club
Missing Her
Roberta Lynn Swiney (May 16, 1942 – Oct 21, 1993)
~August 1991~
Dear Aunt Toby,
You know, you’ve meant a lot of things to me over the years and
I can’t imagine my life without you. Being with you is like reliving childhood,
but in a way that nothing is taken for granted, only cherished and enjoyed.
You let me be a kid, in fact, you often lead me in the enjoyment of childhood thrills,
yet you know the burdens of life and you seem to understand it all.
The weather-stained things in life, you’ve taught me to take in stride
and even when there’s tears and sorrow — “life goes on.”
And this all sounds so sentimental, yet every bit is true. And did I learn it all
by lectures, or by “Aunt Toby’s Book of How to Survive Life and Enjoy It”?
No, I’ve first-hand witnessed every bit of it in your actions, smiles, and tears,
Just being with you…and I’ve enjoyed every minute.
Love, Lee
Next to my parents there is no one who has had more of
an impact on my life or whom I always wanted to be like.
She was the very essence of “beauty and wisdom from Appalachia.”
Be Calm
“Be calm in arguing; for fierceness makes error a fault,
and truth discourtesy; calmness is a great advantage.”
George Herbert, 1593-1633
Welsh poet and priest
Changing Beauty
“We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit
the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.”
Maya Angelou, 1928-
Poet, educator, actress, Civil Rights activist
Science of Discovery
“The way a child discovers the world constantly replicates the way science began.
You start to notice what’s around you, and you get very curious about how things work.
How things interrelate. It’s as simple as seeing a bug that intrigues you.
You want to know where it goes at night; who its friends are; what it eats.”
David Cronenberg, 1943-
Canadian filmmaker
Perfect Autumnal Day
Unicoi County, TN
“It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which
occur more frequently in memory than in life.”
P. D. James, 1920-
English writer of crime fiction
Return to Your Roots
Seasons Change
Bass Lake, Blowing Rock, NC
“The foliage has been losing its freshness through the month of August,
and here and there a yellow leaf shows itself like the first gray hair
amidst the locks of a beauty who has seen one season too many.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., 1809-1894
One of best regarded American poets of 19th cty.
Health and Wholeness
“Pay mind to your own life, your own health, and wholeness.
A bleeding heart is of no help to anyone if it bleeds to death.”
Frederick Buechner, 1926-
Presbyterian minister and American author
Harvest Time
Shady Valley, TN
“In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy.”
William Blake, 1757-1827
English poet, visionary, painter, and printmaker
Carry It With You
Boone Fork Trail, Blue Ridge Parkway m. 296
“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful,
we must carry it with us or we find it not.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882
American essayist, poet, and
leader of the Transcendentalist movement
Heartbeat
Sadie
“My little dog — a heartbeat at my feet.”
Edith Wharton, 1862-1937
American novelist and designer
Joyful Watchdog
Duke
“Labradors are lousy watchdogs. They usually bark when there
is a stranger about, but it is an expression of unmitigated joy
at the chance to meet somebody new, not a warning.”
Norman Strung, 1941-1991
Freelance outdoor writer
Knock Knock
Winged Ant (different from termite)
“Some primal termite knocked on wood;
and tasted it, and found it good.
That is why your Cousin May
fell through the parlor floor today.”
Ogden Nash, 1902-1971
American poet
Changing Colors
Price Lake, Blue Ridge Parkway m. 297
“The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.”
Flannery O’Connor, 1925-1964
U.S. author
