Love is the Answer

A great song with a great message.

Farwell to Fall 2008

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

I made this last year...

On the mend

On the mend, originally uploaded by TammyTalking.

I was outside this afternoon with my daughter, granddaughter and my golden Sadie. I snapped this one of her.

She has been ill with gastritis and we have been worried about her. She is slowly acting more like herself.

My "most interesting" at Flickr

Make A Change Blog: “[Cinderella] heard the clock strike eleven and three-quarters … and hurried away…” “Cinderella” by Charles Perrault

There are certain specific events when we are most conscious of time passing: New Year’s Eve, our birthdays, our children’s first day of school, the deaths of our parents. In the background, we hear the clock chiming, and the sound fills us with awareness. Like Cinderella, we know we must hurry.

While it is important to recognize these major life events, we should not focus on them as what we’ve lost never to regain. This turns time into our enemy, stealing into our lives and taking away what is most precious.

Instead, we must view them as part of life’s continuum, a band of hours, days and years that stretches both ways—forward as well as back.

And while we need to make the most of what time we have been granted, sometimes the way to do that is to stop and enjoy the moment. Otherwise, we will lose our “glass slipper”—the joy of what is—because we are too afraid of losing what might be.

Make A Change Blog

Laundry Basket

Laundry Basket 3, originally uploaded by TammyTalking.

One day while doing laundry I put my granddaughter Grace in a basket on top of some clothes. She started out upright but somehow slid down to a laying down position.

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.


Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.


Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.


Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.


You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.


Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.


With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.


Max Ehrmann, Desiderata, Copyright 1952.

A friend gave me a copy of this poem years ago when I was going through a divorce and it still brings me solace during tough times today.