Favorite Quotes







"I'm gonna love it and pet it and put it on a shelf." -by  DawnDuttonalloneword 

"By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos,
throw mud on a reputation, send the whole
world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it,
smoke right from the pit of hell."
Eugene Peterson


The world would change if, like Jesus; we chose
a donkey over a steed, 
a cross over a crown,
a palm branch over bitterness
and grace over guilt.
-Ann Voscamp






Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed
by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bowlines -
Sail away from the safe harbor -
Catch the trade winds in your sails -
Explore! Dream! Discover!
Mark Twain


"The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live only as you can- hplyrikz

"Every gardener knows that under the cloak of winter lies a miracle ... a seed waiting to sprout, a bulb opening to the light, a bud straining to unfurl.  And the anticipation nurtures our dream."
-  Barbara Winkler

The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.
Pablo Picasso

"Let us, then, plant with diligence and care
the garden of the soil, but let us, with far deeper
earnestness, tend the garden of our hearts."
~ from The Cottage Gardener, 1849 ~
Solitude does not mean living apart from others; it means never living apart from presence to one’s own self. -- David Benner

Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.  Pablo Picasso

Every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures.- Henry Ward Beecher

Nothing is art if it does not come from nature.  Antonio Gaudi

"We'll never regret being a little more generous, never. With stuff, money, forgiveness, tears, patience, time..."  Scotty Smith

"It does not take long for all your yesterdays to line up quickly behind you."- Deela Richards 



John O'Donohue
 "...May you allow the wild beauty of the invisible world to gather you, mind you, and embrace you in belonging."

“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”
  A. W. Tozer


I'm learning as I get older, that we never stop learning and I love that.- Sue Neitzel
 Don't spend all your pennies in one shoppe-  Jeanie's Angel Mum
The bubble doesn't lie.- Bigdaddy (in reference to the "level" )
 Life is a great big canvas
Throw all the paint on it you can-- Danny Kaye
 "You silly girl Grama Lea" - Alyssa
Great gifts require more than ordinary sacrifice- Halfway to Heaven Ruth Adams Knight
"The second winter came on not as frightening as the first to Joseph because it's terrors were familiar and prepared for.  He had learned not to regard the gloom of the storm filled valley but to search for the sunlight in his own thoughts."  Halfway to Heaven Ruth Adams Knight
Thinking of my Angel Mother today on her birthday.
Here are a few memorable things she used to say often- and I quote:
 "It's a flag not a rag!"
"I love you more...."
It's cappachino time!"  (that's how she spelled it too)
"I'll call you back... Raymond's on!"  (Everybody loves Raymond)
-- calling the donkeys:  "ViOoooOooOOooOOooOOooleeeeet! Cmon VIOLET!"
(happy birthday Momma... I love you more)
"Our wildest imagination cannot fathom the dreams and plans that God has for us. I am more than they think I am; I am more than I think I am; I am more than I think God thinks I am; I am who God thinks I am, who God says I am!" Gregg Taylor of Mercy Street

It's a good deal.-- (our son's girlfriend Michelle says this all the time!)  So now every time we hear someone say it...we exclaim, "Michelle!!"  and then throughout the day we find ourselves saying, "It's a good deal!" - about everything.  :)

 "What's your name?!!" asked a beautiful aged woman in a nursing home.
"Lea," I answered."
"Lea? ........Plain..... Olde........ Lea?"- she questioned.
"Yes Maam, what's yours?" - 
"Jean, she replied.  ............Plain.. Olde.. Jean."
(I still chuckle everytime there's an introduction with someone now.  Beautiful Jean summed me up very well.  :) lol


Oh my FROGHAIRS!  -- PJ Keeler   :)

Love is the beauty of the soul. St. Augustine

Anger dwells only in the bosom of fools. Albert Einstein

A friend is one who has the same enemies as you have. Abraham Lincoln

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
~Joyce Kilmer, "Trees," 1914

There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, "All right, then, have it your way." C.S. Lewis

Once I read a story about a butterfly in the subway, and today, I saw one. It got on at 42nd, and off at 59th, where, I assume it was going to Bloomingdales to buy a hat that will turn out to be a mistake - as almost all hats are.~ You've Got Mail
"Two men looked through prison bars, one saw mud and the other saw stars." Frederick Langbridge

"Girl, this is a place for YOUR heart and what the Lord places on YOUR soul to write here."-- by my friend and mentor Cora Eelman.

"Honey, just never leave a paper trail."  -- by one brilliant woman. 

"Girl, you need to grow you a backbone."  my Angel Mother.
"Patience,"..... learn patience."  -- my Angel Mother.

"That's God's Business-  not yours,"  -- my sisterchick, and mentor Kay; aka Gardener woman.

"It doesn't matter what kind of day you're having... you can choose to be happy."  -- my wonderful Mil.

"Well bless your little heart!" ... Sisterchick Maxine Melson