“Year’s end is neither an end
nor a beginning but a going on,
with all the wisdom
that experience can instill in us.”
Hal Borland
Monthly Archives: December 2010
Cooling Influences
Hibernating rhododendrons
“Do it now.
It is not safe to leave a generous feeling
to the cooling influences of the world.”
Thomas Guthrie
A Road to Both
Trail near Noah “Bud” Ogle farm, Gatlinburg, TN
“One road leads home
and a thousand roads
lead into the wilderness.”
C.S. Lewis
Merry Christmas
“When Christ entered our world,
he didn’t come to brighten our Decembers,
but to transform our lives.”
Rich Miller
Give Books
Roan Mountain
“Do give books — religious or otherwise — for Christmas.
They’re never fattening, seldom sinful,
and permanently personal.”
Lenore Hershey
Softer
“Christmas waves a magic wand over this world,
and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.”
Norman Vincent Peale
Soul Alive
“To know what you prefer instead of humbly saying Amen
to what the world tells you you ought to prefer,
is to have kept your soul alive.”
Robert Louis Stevenson, 1850-1894
Above All
“Above all nature
And all created things”
Michael W. Smith
You
“Make the most of yourself,
for that is all there is of you.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882
Self-Evident
“All truth passes through three stages.
First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed.
Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”
Arthur Schopenhauer, 1788-1860
Faithfulness
“Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.”
Thomas O. Chisholm, 1923
Integrity
“When you lose your integrity
you lose your right to lead.”
D. Gyertson
Silence
Rime ice on Roan Highlands
“Spiteful words can hurt your feelings
but silence breaks your heart.”
C.S Lewis
Rule of Faith
Rocky Fork, Unicoi County
Lex orandi, lex credendi
(the rule of prayer is the rule of faith)
In the end, what we pray is what we believe.
Idling
“It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly
unless one has plenty of work to do.”
Jerome K. Jerome, 1859-1927
Hush
“Speak when you are angry–
and you will make the best speech you’ll ever regret.”
Laurence J. Peter, 1919-1988
Little Faults
“We confess our little faults
to persuade people that we have no large ones.”
Francois de La Rochefoucauld, 1613-1680
Seeds of Kindness
“I would rather be the humblest among those who have given hope to the hopeless and happiness to the distressed of my race than to live in history as a conqueror with my hands stained with innocent blood; I would rather have my name written among those who have loved their fellow man than to wear the laurels that encircle the brow of the iron prince; I would rather sleep in some quiet churchyard unknown and un-remembered, save by those in whose hearts I have scattered seeds of kindness and upon whose lips I have conjured smiles of joy, than to be confined in a sarcophagus of cold, with desolate homes as my monument and widows and orphans as living witnesses of my glory.”
Engraved on tombstone of Robert and Alf Taylor
Tennessee War of the Roses
Laughter
Appalachian Trail looking toward Grassy Ridge and Hump Mountain near Roan
“Among those whom I like or admire,
I can find no common denominator,
but among those whom I love, I can:
all of them make me laugh.”
W. H. Auden, 1907-1973
Imagination
Bays Mountain Lake, Kingsport, TN
“The color of springtime is in the flowers,
the color of winter is in the imagination.”
Terri Guillemets
Why I Procrastinate
“Never let the demands of tomorrow
interfere with the pleasures and excitement of today.”
Meredith Willson, The Music Man
Hello, Winter
Rock Creek Park, Erwin, TN
“In seed time learn,
in harvest teach,
in winter enjoy.”
William Blake
