Evening, Words, Wisdom, Beauty

 

Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.
~Malcolm S. Forbes

 

God is good, but never dance in a small boat.
~Irish Saying

 

To know the road ahead, ask those coming back. ~Chinese Proverb

 

Shadow Shot Sunday!

Sign up and join Hey Harriet for Shadow Shot Sunday. Start looking for shadows! You'll be surprised how many interesting ones you can find once you start looking. We all play every Sunday! Join us!

From a lovely bouquet that I received, to colored shadows of candle holders and plastic bowls and lids as I was cleaning out a cabinet, to the basement stairway, and lovely summer tree shadows, with so much sun this past week I found shadows everywhere! And it was fun as always!



 

 

 

 

Evening Wisdom, Thoughts and Beauty

Life: It is about the gift not the package it comes in.
~Dennis P. Costea, Jr.



Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.
~Mark Twain



In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life. It goes on. ~Robert Frost



Life is easier than you'd think; all that is necessary is to accept the impossible, do without the indispensable, and bear the intolerable.
~Kathleen Norris

Different Ways of Looking at Things

Two guys were discussing popular family trends on sex, marriage, and family values.
Bill said, 'I didn't sleep with my wife before we got married, did you?'
Larry replied, 'I'm not sure, what was her maiden name?'

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A little boy went up to his father and asked: 'Dad, where did my intelligence come from?'
The father replied. 'Well, son, you must have got it from your mother, cause I still have mine.'
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'Mr. Clark, I have reviewed this case very carefully,' the divorce Court
Judge said, 'And I've decided to give your wife $775 a week,'
'That's very fair, your honor,' the husband said. 'And every now and
then I'll try to send her a few bucks myself.'
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A doctor examining a woman who had been rushed to the Emergency Room, took
the husband aside, and said, 'I don't like the looks of your wife at all.'
'Me neither doc,' said the husband.
'But she's a great cook and really good with the kids.'
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An old man goes to the Wizard to ask him if he can remove a curse he has
been living with for the last 40 years..
The Wizard says, 'Maybe, but you will have to tell me the exact words that
were used to put the curse on you.'
The old man says without hesitation, 'I now pronounce you man and wife.'
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Two Reasons Why It's So Hard To Solve A Redneck Murder:
1. The DNA all matches.
2. There are no dental records.
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A blonde calls Delta Airlines and asks, 'Can you tell me how long it'll take
to fly from San Francisco to New York City ?'
The agent replies, 'Just a minute.'
'Thank you,' the blonde says, and hangs up.
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Two Mexican detectives were investigating the murder of Juan Gonzalez.
'How was he killed?' asked one detective.
'With a golf gun,' the other detective replied.
'A golf gun! What is a golf gun?'
'I don't know. But it sure made a hole in Juan.'
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Moe: 'My wife got me to believe in religion.'
Joe: 'Really?'
Moe: 'Yeah. Until I married her I didn't believe in Hell.'
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A man is recovering from surgery when the Surgical Nurse appears and asks
him how he is feeling.
'I'm O. K. but I didn't like the four letter-words the doctor used in surgery,' he answered.
'What did he say,' asked the nurse.
'Oops!'
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While shopping for vacation clothes, my husband and I passed a display of
bathing suits. It had been at least ten years and twenty pounds since I had
even considered buying a bathing suit, so sought my husband's advice.
'What do you think?' I asked. 'Should I get a bikini or an all-in-one?'
'Better get a bikini,' he replied. 'You'd never get it all in one.'
He's still in intensive care.
.............................................................
The graveside service just barely finished, when there was massive
clap of thunder, followed by a tremendous bolt of lightning, accompanied by even more thunder rumbling in the distance.
The little old man looked at the pastor and calmly said, 'Well, she's there.'

Evening Words, Wisdom and Beauty

Nothing is so strong as gentleness. Nothing is so gentle as real strength.
Frances de Sales



Wisdom is divided into two parts: (a) having a great deal to say and (b) not saying it.



Fear is that little darkroom where negatives are developed.
Michael Pritchard



When nobody around you seems to measure up, it's time to check your yardstick.
Bill Lemley

Sky Watch Friday!

Join us on Sky Watch and share your lovely skies! Click and sign up and join the fun! Sky Watch is hosted by Klaus, Sandy, Ivar, Wren, Fishing Guy and Louise!

It was series of pastel clouds at sunset that caught my eye this week. The colors so delicate made a perfect backdrop for the darkened trees as the day wound down.








The next day while driving down near Puget Sound I saw these lovely, puffy clouds -- perfect summer day!

Evening Wisdom, Thoughts and Beauty

A generous man forgets what he gives and remembers what he receives.
Old Proverb



Ninety percent of the friction of daily life is caused by the wrong tone of voice.



If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.
Chinese Proverb



Enlightenment is the "quiet acceptance of what is" I believe
the truly enlightened beings are those who refuse to allow
themselves to be distressed over things that simply are the
way they are.
Wayne Dyer

Looking Back - Part 3 A Personal Look at Color

In spite of the fact that I grew up in Texas, I never saw the color of a persons skin as being important, not as a child or a teenager in the 50s. I was aware that blacks lived in their own section of town, they couldn’t eat in restaurants around town and they certainly didn’t go to school with me and my friends. But my family owned a restaurant and while blacks couldn’t eat there, they could work there and serve other blacks on a porch off the kitchen -- that was the law. However, when we had parties at Christmas for the employees, it was for all of the employees , we locked the front door of the restaurant and the cooks and dishwashers (they were people, not machines in those days), came out front and we all sat together and ate goodies, exchanged gifts and laughed together.

I graduated from high school when I was sixteen and three months later I turned seventeen and went off to college for two years. I couldn’t decide at that time just what I wanted to do with my life, so I left college and went to work. One of those jobs was for a photographer. His assistant was a black man who had a Master’s Degree in Literature, but his job as a white business owner’s assistant was still a step up in those days. We became very good friends and caused a lot of head turning when we walked down the street together, laughing and talking on our way to the bus stop – it probably was a good thing we took different buses because we couldn’t sit together. I never understood prejudice – not then and certainly not now.

In the early 60s I had decided that I wanted to teach school and returned to college. I worked part time for the first six months and shared a house with a good friend of mine. She was from Germany and was a fencer and one weekend she invited me to a fencing tournament that was being held in Dallas. It was there that I met my future husband. He was a member of the Modern Pentathlon Team. It was an Olympic sport primarily designed for those in the military and he was stationed in San Antonio, the team had come to Dallas for the competition. And he was black.

At the time he was dating my housemate from Germany who was white, so when I say they dated that meant that he came to our house for an evening. They couldn’t go anywhere together, so they’d either have dinner at home or they would go to a drive-in and hope no one called the police. After the competition was over and he returned to San Antonio, they would talk on the phone and he would occasionally drive up to Dallas for a weekend. It didn’t take long for this to get really old for both of them and they finally stopped seeing each other.

But he and I continued to talk and to correspond after I returned to college full time and eventually we began to travel back and forth between my university town of Denton and San Antonio. We could go places on the base at Fort Sam Houston.

I graduated from the university two years later and accepted a teaching job in San Antonio at a Catholic girl’s school. We were still limited to dining or going to movies on the base or eating at my apartment or to parties given by local friends and that kept us busy. We occasionally thumbed our noses at society in general by eating at drive-in or going to a drive-in movie. We still turned lots of heads although it was mainly because people weren’t totally sure just what he was – he had almost as mixed a heritage as I did and wasn’t your “ordinary black man”, whatever that means.

He went to the Olympics the next year and when he returned a Silver Medalist, I had a celebration at my apartment and invited all my students. Oh, my, what a fan club they were! I nearly choked with laughter when I overheard two of them talking and giggling talking about how handsome he was and “didn’t he have the greatest tan”! It just never occurred to them that he could be black.

We married soon after that. My parents loved him in spite of a few relatives that refused to have me in their homes anymore. They came to California for our wedding – we couldn’t get married in Texas because it was still against the law at the time. But I walked down the aisle on my father’s arm in a beautiful wedding gown with my head held high and one big smile on my face.

Over the next five years we had four children who got progressively lighter skinned – to the point that to this day no one knows what their heritage is although they’ve never made any attempt to hide their background and they are, and always have been, outrageously proud of their father, as they should be.

We were married for over twenty years, we eventually did get a divorce, but it had nothing to do with race or color – that was easy to deal with, the old hurts and pain from earlier times, with parents and situations neither of us had any control over had left both of us damaged emotionally. But we have remained good friends and have stayed in touch over the years. The children feel very comfortable with both of us and we do all get together now and then.

I have no regrets nor do I think he has. He was a wonderful father and friend. It’s not about color, it’s about being a human being – we don’t all have the same color of eyes or hair so what’s the big thing about the color of ones skin? I didn’t understand it when I was a child and I don’t understand it today.

I didn't vote for Obama because he’s black, but because he has a vision for this country at a time when we desperately need a new vision. Isn’t it time that we finally put the color of a person’s skin in the same category as having different color eyes or hair? Isn’t it time we look beyond such small, petty and ridiculous reasons and look at the person within? I want desperately to believe that time has come for most of us and I desperately hope that I am right.

Evening Wisdom, Thoughts and Beauty

Life is a gift of nature; but beautiful living is the gift of wisdom.
- Greek Adage


The most valuable thing I have learned from life is to regret nothing.
- Somerset Maugham



We can stay young by focusing on a dream instead of on a regret.


You are a living magnet. What you attract into your life is in
in harmony with your dominant thoughts.
- Brian Tracy


The whole process of mental, spiritual, and material riches
may be summed up in one word - gratitude.

2009 Humor for the Morning

I raised my hands up and………………….



I asked the lord ....



Will we get a salary hike in 2009?



And suddenly………………….



The lord responded with a sign...




Sky was beautiful, clear, blue…………….

That's My World -- Deschutes River

Time once again to share your world! That's My World is hosted each week by Klaus, Sandy, Ivar, Wren, Fishing Guy and Louise. Click on the title, read the rules, sign up and enjoy the fun!

As many of you know I lived in Oregon before moving to Seattle two years ago, so I still consider both Oregon and Washington as my world. Three years ago I saw a very interesting trip listed at the local senior center -- a water rafting excursion down the Deschutes River. I signed up immediately and it was one of the most exciting, fun, adventurous trips I've ever been fortunate enough to take. Now, because we were all "seniors" we didn't have to do anything but hold on, the oars were handled by two marvelous young men who got us safely down the river. Midway down we stopped, got out of the rafts and had a fabulous lunch, then piled back into the rafts and continued down the river. Including the bus ride to get to Maupin, where we got onto the river, the rafting down the river and back home to Portland took eleven hours. Eleven of the most beautiful, exciting hours of my life! Be sure to click on the photos to embiggen!



It's incredibly beautiful country to begin with, the weather was warm, sunny and fabulous. The river was breathtaking, cold, swift and we were going through Level 2, 3 and 4 rapids. We had wonderful guides and the guys who handled our rafts were incredible! So, today I'm going to share a little of the history of the area and some shots of the Deschutes, the rafts like we used -- all the photos I found through Google as I didn't even own a camera at the time -- my, my how my life has changed! We entered the river from Maupin, a small town located near the river.



The Deschutes River near Maupin where we climbed in the rafts.



This is what our rafts looked like.



Human History
For thousands of years Indian people of the Central Oregon
area have had a tie to the land that has kept their spirituality
intact. The early inhabitants were mobile foragers, hunting
herds of large mammals that grazed the vast tundra
grasslands. Eventually, as the Indian people began to set
up permanent villages, their economy diversified. They
seasonally harvested salmon, waterfowl, culturally
important plants, and constructed more permanent
dwellings. By 1855, increasing pressure from white
settlers resulted in a treaty in which the Indian people of
the Deschutes and John Day Basins ceded much of their
homelands. The lands now known as the Warm Springs
Reservation of Oregon were reserved for their exclusive
use. Members of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs
retain the right to fish seasonally along the Deschutes River
as part of their cultural heritage. Today, tribal members can
be seen dip-net fishing below Sherars Falls for large fall
Chinook and steelhead.



White explorers saw the Deschutes River for the first time
on October 22, 1805. Lewis and Clark stopped at the
mouth of the river while exploring the Columbia. They
referred to this tributary of the Columbia River by its
Indian name Towornehiooks. The first white men to
actually explore the Deschutes River were trappers from
the Hudson Bay Company twenty years later. In 1825, a
group of trappers lead by Peter Skene Ogden ascended the
Deschutes from the Columbia River and gave the river the
name that is used today. They referred to the river as the
Rivie‘re Des Chutes, which is French for river of the
falls. Although the area was not settled until years later,
hundreds of settlers crossed the river on the Oregon Trail
as they traveled west to the Willamette Valley to
homestead or headed east to supply miners or graze.

Evening Words, Wisdom and Beauty

Four things you can't recover:

The stone........after the throw. The word........after it's said.

The occasion........after it's missed. The time.........after it's gone.

Live in the moment -- each moment, each day.

Reasons to Appreciate Where You Are

A good friend sent this to me this morning and considering my "Looking Back" posts, it really resonated with me -- perhaps it will with many of you as well.

I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly. As I've aged, I've become kinder to myself, and less critical of myself. I've become my own friend. I don't chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed, or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn't need, but looks so avante garde on my patio. I am entitled to a treat, to be messy, to be extravagant.?

I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.

Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 AM and sleep until noon? I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 60 &70's, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love ... I will.

I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set.

They, too, will get old.
I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. And I eventually remember the important things.

Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody's beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.

I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face.
So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver.?

As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don't question myself anymore...I've even earned the right to be wrong.

So, to answer the question, I like being old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become.. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be.. And I shall eat dessert every single day(if I feel like it).