Unaka Mountain
“If something anticipated arrives too late it finds us numb,
wrung out from waiting, and we feel — nothing at all.
The best things arrive on time.”
Dorothy Gilman, 1978
Monthly Archives: October 2009
Beauty
Price Lake, Grandfather Mountain
“The kind of beauty I want most
is the hard-to-get kind
that comes from within –
strength, courage, dignity.”
Ruby Dee
The Meaning of Life
Today I received a book in the mail, with this letter from a wonderful family at church, where I was the children’s and youth minister for three years until 2007. What a blessing. My only regret is that I wasn’t there Sunday evening to witness Morgan’s baptism.
October 26, 2009
Lee,
Enclosed is a book and CD that we purchased seven or eight years ago. We purchased this book with the intention of some day presenting it to the person whom we felt had the most influence on Morgan on her path to Jesus thus far in her life. We planned to give this book to that person on the day she was baptized. Morgan was baptized yesterday and we would like to present the book to you. With sincere appreciation and gratitude we want to thank you for all of the work you have done with Morgan and the other youth at the church. You have been a great influence.
This book and song express what we often fail to say to those who have served the Lord in our lives. We only think to do so when it is too late…we again say thanks.
Danny & Margaret
What a wonderful reminder Danny and Margaret have given me about our purpose in life. I encourage you to love and serve the Lord and to thank those in your life who have helped you on that journey. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Luke 10:27).
Lee
He answered: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Too Much To Do
“First things first, but not necessarily in that order.”
Doctor Who
Old Friends
This weekend is Homecoming at Milligan and my 15 year reunion
“It is one of the blessings of old friends
that you can afford to be stupid with them.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Regret
“Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time;
it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable.”
Sidney J. Harris
She Was a Delight
Thinking today of my Aunt Toby. Read about her here.
“When you are sorrowful look again in your heart,
and you shall see that in truth
you are weeping for that which has been your delight.”
Kahlil Gibran
Be Vulnerable
Hoar frost on Unaka Mountain
“When we were children,
we used to think that when we were grown-up
we would no longer be vulnerable.
But to grow up is to accept vulnerability…
To be alive is to be vulnerable.”
Madeleine L’Engle, b. 1918
“Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art”, 1980
Act
“An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory.”
Friedrich Engels, 1820-1895
Can’t Win
“Stoop and you’ll be stepped on;
stand tall and you’ll be shot at.”
Carlos A. Urbizo
Spoke Too Soon
Unaka Mountain
“Speech is conveniently located midway
between thought and action,
where it often substitutes for both.”
John Andrew Holmes
“Wisdom in Small Doses”
Agape
“Find a need and move to meet it,
not counting the cost,
nor the worth of the other person.”
Knofel Staton
Christian author and professor
Shadowy Future
Bass Lake, Blowing Rock, NC
“Look not mournfully into the past. It comes not back again.
Wisely improve the present. It is thine.
Go forth to meet the shadowy future, without fear.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807-1882
Learn How
“I am always doing that which I can not do,
in order that I may learn how to do it.”
Pablo Picasso, 1881-1973
Mute Appeal
Unaka Mountain Road
“Autumn wins you best
by this its mute appeal
to sympathy for its decay.”
Robert Browning, 1812-1889
English poet
Well Tried
Sassafras leaf
“Be courteous to all, but intimate with few,
and let those few be well tried
before you give them your confidence.”
George Washington, 1732-1799
First President of the U.S.
Gain or Loss
Blue Ridge Parkway, Virginia
“What makes something special
is not just what you have to gain,
but what you feel there is to lose.”
Andre Agassi, b. 1970
Ah, Memory
Elk River near Elk Park, NC
“I write down everything I want to remember.
That way, instead of spending a lot of time
trying to remember what it is I wrote down,
I spend the time looking for the paper I wrote it down on.”
Beryl Pfizer
Multiple Directions
“To love deeply in one direction
makes us more loving in all others.”
Anne-Sophie Swetchine, 1782-1857
Let Go
“If my hands are fully occupied in holding on to something,
I can neither give nor receive.”
Dorothee Solle, 1929-2003
German theologian
Character
The Apple Barn at Moses Cone Estate, Blowing Rock, NC
“In attempts to improve your character,
know what is in your power and what is beyond it.”
Francis Thompson, 1859-1907
English poet
Wishing instead of counting
Riding the Virginia Creeper Trail – last fall
“Not everything that can be counted counts,
and not everything that counts can be counted.”
Albert Einstein, 1879-1955
Unsaid
Grandfather Mountain
“One of the best rules in conversation is,
never to say a thing which any of the company
can reasonably wish had been left unsaid.”
Jonathan Swift, 1667-1745
Author
Reawakening
Unicoi
“If we fall, we don’t need self-recrimination or blame or anger –
we need a reawakening of our intention and a willingness to recommit,
to be whole-hearted once again.”
Sharon Salzberg
Intimacy
“The easiest kind of relationship is with ten thousand people,
the hardest is with one.”
Joan Baez, b. 1941
Mexican-American folk singer
