Sill Branch Falls
“Crying is the refuge of plain women,
but the ruin of pretty ones.”
Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900
Irish playwright, novelist, poet
Monthly Archives: June 2009
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
