Evening Words, Wisdom and Beauty

There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.
Kahlil Gibran

We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.
Kahlil Gibran

How wrong it is for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself.
Anais Nin

I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naive or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman.
Anais Nin

Shadow Shot Sunday!

It's Saturday and time to play with the shadows! Check out Hey Harriet here and join us for the fun!

We've had lots of sun the past few days and have I had fun! And the LILACS are finally showing some color -- as well as shadows!


The back of this chair in the kitchen just got taller and taller.



My mug of tea while I enjoyed the sun on our front porch!



And me -- caught in the strawberry patch! Too early for the berries, but I'm keeping an eye on them!

Men's Classes for the Summer

ADULT LEARNING CENTER

REGISTRATION MUST BE COMPLETED
by Saturday, April 26 , 2009

Classes Starts May 4 4 , Ending June 13, 2009

NOTE: DUE TO THE COMPLEXITY AND DIFFICULTY LEVEL
OF THEIR CONTENTS, CLASS SIZES WILL BE LIMITED TO 8 PARTICIPANTS
MAXIMUM


Class 1
How To Fill Up The Ice Cube Trays--Step by Step, with Slide
Presentation..
Meets 4 weeks, Monday and Wednesday for 2 hours beginning at 7:00 PM.

Class 2
The Toilet Paper Roll--Does It Change Itself?
Round Table Discussion.
Meets 2 weeks, Saturday 12:00 for 2 hours.

Class 3
Is It Possible To Urinate Using The Technique Of Lifting The Seat and
Avoiding The Floor, Walls and Nearby Bathtub?--Group Practice.
Meets 4 weeks, Saturday 10:00 PM for 2 hours.

Class 4
Fundamental Differences Between The Laundry Hamper and The
Floor--Pictures and Explanatory Graphics.
Meets Saturdays at 2:00 PM for 3 weeks.

Class 5
Dinner Dishes--Can They Levitate and Fly Into The Kitchen Sink?
Examples on Video.
Meets 4 weeks, Tuesday and Thursday for 2 hours beginning
at 7:00 PM

Class 6
Loss Of Identity--Losing The Remote To Your Significant Other.
Help Line Support and Support Groups.
Meets 4 Weeks, Friday and Sunday 7:00 PM

Class 7
Learning How To Find Things--Starting With Looking In The Right Places
And Not Turning The House Upside Down While Screaming.
Open Forum

Monday at 8:00 PM, 2 hours.

Class 8
Health Watch--Bringing Her Flowers Is Not Harmful To Your Health.
Graphics and Audio Tapes.
Three nights; Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 7:00 PM for 2 hours.

Class 9
Real Men Ask For Directions When Lost--Real Life Testimonials.
Tuesdays at 6:00 PM. Location to be determined

Class 10
Is It Genetically Impossible To Sit Quietly While She Parallel Parks?
Driving Simulations.
4 weeks, Saturday's noon, 2 hours.

Class 11
Learning to Live--Basic Differences Between Mother and Wife.
Online Classes and role-playing
Tuesdays at 7:00 PM, location to be determined

Class 12
How to be the Ideal Shopping Companion
Relaxation Exercises, Meditation and Breathing Techniques.
Meets 4 weeks, Tuesday and Thursday for 2 hours beginning at 7:00 PM.

Class 13
How to Fight Cerebral Atrophy--Remembering Anniversaries and Other
Important Dates and Calling When You're Going To Be Late.
Cerebral Shock Therapy Sessions and Full Lobotomies Offered.
Three nights; Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 7:00 PM for 2 hours.

Class 14
The Stove/Oven--What It Is and How It Is Used.
Live Demonstration.
Tuesdays at 6:00 PM, location to be determined.

Upon completion of any of the above courses, diplomas will be issued to
the survivors.

Evening Words, Wisdom and Beauty

Spring - an experience in immortality.
Henry D. Thoreau

A little Madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King."
Emily Dickinson



Sweet May hath come to love us,
Flowers, trees, their blossoms don;
And through the blue heavens above us
The very clouds move on.
Heinrich Heine, Book of Songs

Love... It surrounds every being and extends slowly to embrace all that shall be.
Kahlil Gibran

I'm Not That Old!

Have you ever said that, or been guilty of looking at others your own age
and thinking, surely I can't look that old.
well....
you'll love this woman's story.

I was sitting in the waiting room for my first appointment with a new dentist.
I noticed his DDS diploma, which bore his full name and suddenly, I remembered a tall, handsome, dark-haired boy with the same name had been in my high school class some 30-odd years ago.

Could he be the same guy that I had a secret crush on, way back then?

Upon seeing him, however, I quickly discarded any such thought. This balding, gray-haired man with the deeply lined face was way too old to have been my classmate.

After he examined my teeth, I asked him if he had attended Morgan Park High School.

'Yes. yes, I did. I"m a mustang,' he gleamed with pride.

'When did you graduate?' I asked.

'In 1975. why do you ask?'

'You were in my class!', I exclaimed.

He looked at me closely.

Then, that ugly, old, bald, wrinkled, fat ass, gray-haired, decrepit
son-of-a-bitch asked,

'What did you teach ???'

Evening Words, Wisdom and Beauty

Say not, 'I have found the truth,' but rather, 'I have found a truth.'
Kahlil Gibran

The eye of a human being is a microscope, which makes the world seem bigger than it really is.
Kahlil Gibran

Do not seek the because - in love there is no because, no reason, no explanation, no solutions.
Anais Nin

Dreams are necessary to life.
Anais Nin

Sky Watch Friday!

Time for Sky Watch Friday! Time to share beautiful skies from all over the world! Sky Watch is hosted each week by Klaus, Sandy, Ivar, Wren, Fishing Guy and Louise! Click here to sign up and share your skies with us!

This has been a good week for skies here in Seattle and I've enjoyed being able to get out and catch some of them. There's always a variety of rather dramatic skies and now we have lovely trees blooming that use the skies as a lovely backdrop. Hope you enjoy these.

Nature, Spring, Wisdom and Joy!!

Be sure to click on the photos to really see the details.


Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
Kahlil Gibran


"'Tis like the birthday of the world,
When earth was born in bloom;
The light is made of many dyes,
The air is all perfume:
There's crimson buds, and white and blue,
The very rainbow showers
Have turned to blossoms where they fell,
And sown the earth with flowers."
- Thomas Hood



"The young May moon is beaming, love.
The glow-worm's lamp is gleaming, love.
How sweet to rove,
Through Morna's grove,
When the drowsy world is dreaming, love!
Then awake! -- the heavens look bright, my dear,
'Tis never too late for delight, my dear,
And the best of all ways
To lengthen our days
Is to steal a few hours from the night, my dear!"
- Thomas Moore, The Young May Moon



Your daily life is your temple and your religion. When you enter into it take with you your all.
Kahlil Gibran

Wisdom and Humor

We have sun and gorgeous marshmallow clouds, and it's warm! I've been taking pictures all morning even in the Jump Start class where help out. So, I'll have some great photos a little later, but I couldn't resist passing this on from a friend -- we women are a wise lot -- you do know that don't you?

Wise Woman
I was married 25 years. Recently I took a look at my wife one day
And said, "Honey, 25 years ago we had a cheap apartment, a cheap car,
Slept on a sofa bed and watched a 10-inch black and white TV, but I got
to sleep every night with a hot 25-year-old babe. Now we have a
$500,000 home, a $45,000 car, nice big bed and big-screen plasma TV,
But I'm sleeping with a 50-year-old woman. It seems to me that you are
Not holding up your side of things."

My wife is a very reasonable woman. She told me to go out & find a
Hot 25-year-old babe, and she would make sure that I would once again
Be living in a cheap apartment, driving a cheap car, sleeping on a sofa
Bed and watching a 10-inch black and white TV.

Aren't older women great? We really know how to solve your
Mid-life crisis..

How About a Little Humor!

The Center for Disease Control has issued a medical alert about a highly contagious, potentially dangerous virus that is transmitted orally, by hand, and even electronically. This virus is called Weekly Overload Recreational Killer (WORK). If you receive WORK from your boss, any of your colleagues or anyone else via any means whatsoever - DO NOT TOUCH IT!!! This virus will wipe out your private life entirely. If you should come into contact with WORK you should immediately leave the premises.

Take two good friends to the nearest liquor store and purchase one or both of the antidotes - Work Isolating Neutralizer Extract (WINE) and Bothersome Employer Elimination Rebooter (BEER). Take the antidote repeatedly until WORK has been eliminated from your system.

You should immediately forward this medical alert to five friends. If you do not have five friends, you have already been infected and WORK is controlling your life.

ABC Wednesday

It's time for ABC Wednesday! Click and sign up here to play! ABC Wednesday is hosted by Mrs. Nesbitt.

And today we play with "O" -- OH! So how about O for Oregon and for Ocean!



Oh! and Oleanders!



And Opera House

Attitude Adjustment Required!

Just the attitude we need to bring about change and heal differences????? I don't think so!

Mary Ann Glendon, a conservative Harvard law professor who was U.S. ambassador to the Vatican under George W. Bush, has announced that she will not be accepting the Laetare Medal at the University of Notre Dame's commencement ceremony on May 17, NBC's Christopher Wilson reports. In her letter to Notre Dame President Rev. John Jenkins, Glendon stated that she would no longer be accepting, citing the conflict with President Barack Obama's presence as both a commencement speaker and a recipient of an honorary degree.

Evening Words, Wisdom and Beauty

Had to come home from Whidbey Island early as my son had to leave town -- again and I needed to come back to take care of the dogs, but it was a great three days and I enjoyed walking on the beach and just enjoying the quiet and the beauty. AND I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone's blog so it'll be a late night!!
Hope you all have a lovely and beautiful evening!

The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.
Kahlil Gibran

There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.
Kahlil Gibran

It is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and, as if by magic, we see a new meaning in it.
Anais Nin

It's all right for a woman to be, above all, human. I am a woman first of all.
Anais Nin

That's My World -- Mount Hood, Oregon

Time once again to share your world with us! My World is generously hosted by Klaus, Sandy, Ivar, Wren, Fishing Guy and Louise. Click here to sign up, join the fun and Show Your World!

Mount Hood is another one of the incredibly beautiful mountains in the northwest and it will take your breath away the moment you see it, whether up close or from a distance. It was always a good day in Portland when I could see Mt. Hood! It is one awesome, beautiful and sometimes frightening mountain.

The history and photos are courtesy of Wikipedia. I wasn't into photography when I lived in Portland, darn it!! But I wanted to share this incredibly beautiful part of My World.


Mount Hood is located about 50 miles (80 km) east-southeast of Portland, on the border between Clackamas and Hood River counties.


Mount Hood's snow-covered peak rises 11,249 feet (3,429 m)[1] and is home to twelve glaciers. (Older surveys said 11,239 feet (3,426 m), which is still often cited as its height). It is the highest mountain in Oregon and the fourth-highest in the Cascade Range. Mount Hood is considered the Oregon volcano most likely to erupt, though based on its history, an explosive eruption is unlikely. Still, the odds of an eruption in the next 30 years are estimated at between 3 and 7 percent, so the USGS characterizes it as "potentially active", but the mountain is informally considered dormant.

Timberline Lodge is a National Historic Landmark located on the southern flank of Mount Hood just below Palmer Glacier.


The mountain has six ski areas: Timberline, Mount Hood Meadows, Ski Bowl, Cooper Spur, Snow Bunny and Summit. They total over 4,600 acres (7.2 sq mi; 18.6 km2) of skiable terrain; Timberline offers the only year-round lift-served skiing in North America.


The Multnomah name for Mount Hood is Wy'east. In one version of the legend the two sons of the Great Spirit Sahale fell in love with the beautiful maiden Loowit who could not decide which to choose. The two braves, Wy'east and Klickitat, burned forests and villages in their battle over her. Sahale became enraged and smote the three lovers. Seeing what he had done he erected three mountain peaks to mark where each fell. He made beautiful Mount St. Helens for Loowit, proud and erect Mount Hood for Wy'east, and the somber Mount Adams for the morning Klickitat.


The mountain was given its present name on October 29, 1792 by Lt. William Broughton, a member of Captain George Vancouver's discovery expedition. Lt. Broughton observed its peak while at Belle Vue Point of what is now called Sauvie Island during his travels up the Columbia River, writing "A very high, snowy mountain now appeared rising beautifully conspicuous in the midst of an extensive tract of low or moderately elevated land (location of today's Vancouver, Washington) lying S 67 E., and seemed to announce a termination to the river." Lt. Broughton named the mountain after a British admiral, Samuel Hood.

Lewis and Clark were the first Americans to see the mountain on October 18, 1805. A few days later at what would become The Dalles, Clark wrote "The pinnacle of the round topped mountain, which we saw a short distance below the banks of the river, is South 43-degrees West of us and about 37 miles (60 km). It is at this time topped with snow. We called this the Falls Mountain, or Timm Mountain." Timm was the native name for Celilo Falls. Clark later noted that it was also Vancouver's Mount Hood.

More than 130 people have died in climbing-related accidents since records have been kept on Mount Hood, the first in 1896. Incidents in April 1986 and December 2006 attracted intense national and international media interest. Though avalanches are popularly considered a hazard, most climbing deaths are the result of falls and hypothermia. Despite a quadrupling of forest visitors since 1990, fewer than 50 people require rescue per year. Only 3.4 percent of search and rescue missions in 2006 were for mountain climbers.

I was living in Portland at the time the following happened and it was heartbreaking to watch the day to day search and the sad outcome.

On Thursday, December 7, 2006, three experienced climbers—Kelly James, Brian Hall, and Jerry "Nikko" Cooke—began what they expected to be a two-day expedition on the more-treacherous north slope of the mountain. On Saturday, December 9, 2006, the climbers failed to meet a friend who was scheduled to pick them up at Timberline Lodge. On Sunday, December 10, 2006 James made a cell phone call to his wife, and two older sons telling them that he was trapped in a snow cave and Brian and Nikko had gone for help. Rescue attempts were forestalled by freezing rain, heavy snowfall, low visibility and winds of 100 to 140 mph (230 km/h), caused by a widespread winter storm. Clear weather on the weekend of December 16 allowed almost 100 search and rescue personnel to scour the mountain. On Sunday, December 17, searchers found what they first believed to be a snow cave and climbing equipment, approximately 300 feet (91 m) from the summit. At that location, the rescuers found a rope, two ice axes and an insulating sleeping pad. At approximately 3:29 PM PST, the body of Kelly James was found in another snow cave near the first one. On Wednesday, December 20, 2006, as good weather ended, the Hood River County sheriff announced that the mission was now being treated as a recovery rather than a rescue. Brian Hall and Jerry Cooke remain missing and have been declared dead

Evening Words, Wisdom and Beauty

I sometime repeat these quotes because we sometimes need to be reminded again and again of their wisdom -- at least I do. May you all have a lovely, peaceful evening.

Where is the justice of political power if it executes the murderer and jails the plunderer, and then itself marches upon neighboring lands, killing thousands and pillaging the very hills?
Kahlil Gibran

Wisdom ceases to be wisdom when it becomes too proud to weep, too grave to laugh, and too selfish to seek other than itself.
Kahlil Gibran

Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.
Kahlil Gibran

The Betrayal of Our Moral Standards

The rant lady is back again! But how can we not look at what's happening in our country lately?

The past week we have been forced to take one more long look at what has happened to our moral ideas and standards as the issue of torture has made its’ way into the spotlight again. I realize and understand that President Obama wants to move ahead and deal with the serious challenges that we have facing us right now – an economic crisis, a health care crisis, an environmental crisis. So, isn’t revisiting the abuses of the last eight years, no matter how bad they were, a luxury we can’t afford? This was NYT Op-Ed columnist, Paul Krugman’s question in his column on Friday.

I have to admit that I don’t want to look at or for any more problems in this country today, but we are more than a collection of policies. And as Krugman said, we are, or at least we used to be, a nation of moral ideals. We haven’t always done a perfect job upholding those ideals, but never before have our leaders so utterly betrayed everything our nation stands for. Former President George Bush declared that, “This government does not torture people.” But it did and the entire world knows it. And it was done not to prevent another terrorist attack, it was done to justify a war the Bush Government was determined to wage on Iraq.

I have read articles not only by Krugman, but by former FBI supervisory special agent, Ali Soufan and Nicholas Kristof and Frank Rich also NYT Op-Ed columnists. The general consensus is that we need to investigate the Bush Administration’s abuses. The only way we can regain our moral compass, not just for the sake of our position in the world, but for the sake of our own national conscience, is to investigate how that happened, and, if necessary, to prosecute those responsible.

No one would be calling Tim Geithner away from his efforts to rescue the economy. Or Orszag, the budget director, wouldn’t be called away from his efforts to reform health care, or Chu, the energy secretary, wouldn’t be called away from his efforts to limit climate change. Even the president needn’t, and according to Krugman, shouldn’t be involved. All that the president needs do is let the Justice Department do its job.

Like Krugman, I think America is capable of uncovering the truth and enforcing the law even while it goes about its other business. Still, there are many people who believe that revisiting the abuses of the Bush years would undermine the political consensus the president needs to pursue his agenda. Unfortunately, the answer to that is – what political consensus? There are still a significant number of people in our political life who stand on the side of the torturers, but these are the same people who have been relentless in their efforts to block the President’s attempt to deal with our economic crisis and will be equally relentless in their opposition when he endeavors to deal with health care and climate change. President Obama cannot lose their good will, because they never offered any in the first place.

I know there are lots of people in this country who just don’t want an ugly scene and I, too, feel that perhaps President Obama, who prefers visions of uplift to confrontation, is one of those, but the ugliness is already there – none of us can make it go away by pretending. And I suspect there are a lot of others that would prefer not to revisit those years because they don’t want to be reminded of their own sins of omission.

But the fact is that officials in the Bush administration instituted torture as a policy, misled the nation into a war they wanted to fight and, probably, tortured people in the attempt to extract “confessions” that would justify that war. And during the march to war, most of the political and media establishment looked the other way.

It’s hard not to be cynical when some of the people who should have spoken out against what was happening, but didn’t, now declare that we should forget the whole era – for the sake of the country, of course.

I’m afraid that I totally agree with Krugman that what we really should do for the sake of the country is have investigations both of torture and of the march to war. These investigations should, where appropriate, be followed by prosecutions, not out of vindictiveness, but because this is – I ‘d like to think – a nation of laws.

Krugman finishes by saying, that we need to do this for the sake of our future. For this isn’t about looking backward, indeed it is about looking forward – because it’s about reclaiming America’s soul.