I miss you Sam!!

I miss you Sam!!
I miss you Sam!!

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Evening, Wisdom and Beauty

Love is the joy of the good, the wonder of the wise, the amazement of the gods.



Love means to love that which is unlovable,
or it is no virtue at all;
forgiving means to pardon the unpardonable,
or it is no virtue at all;
faith means believing the unbelievable,
or it is no virtue at all;
And to hope means hoping when things are hopeless,
or it is no virtue at all.
G.K. Chesterton.




Kindness in words creates confidence,
Kindness in thinking creates profoundness,
Kindness in giving creates love.
Lao-Tze.



The way to love anything is to realize that it might be lost.
G. K. Chesterton



Love unexpressed is a crime against the heart.

Shadow Shot Sunday!

Hey, have you become a shadow hunter yet? If not you're missing a whole bunch of fun! Shadow Shot Sunday is hosted each week by Hey Harriet! Click on her name to sign up and start looking for shadows to share!



My shadow passion has become colored shadows and I love this ruby red vase, but another fun thing was discovering the reflections in the window as well!



The next two were taken on our deck -- where I spend so much time during the spring and summer. One of my favorite places!





And the last one is shadows in the sand at my favorite beach!

Friday, August 28, 2009

Evening, Wisdom and Beauty



A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.



Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength while loving someone deeply gives you courage.
Lao Tzu



Give her two red roses, each with a note. The first note says 'For the woman I love' and the second, 'For my best friend.'



A very small degree of hope is sufficient to cause the birth of love.

There is no remedy for love but to love more.
Thoreau

A Chuckle or Two for the Morning

Questions and Answers from AARP Forum

Q: Where can men over the age of 60 find younger, sexy women who are interested in them?

A: Try a bookstore, under fiction.

Q: What can a man do while his wife is going through menopause?

A: Keep busy. If you're handy with tools, you can finish the basement. When you're done you'll have a place to live.

Q: Someone has told me that menopause is mentioned in the bible. Is that true? Where can it be found?

A: Yes. Matthew 14:92: "And Mary rode Joseph's ass all the way to Egypt .."

Q: How can you increase the heart rate of your 60-plus year old husband?

A: Tell him you're pregnant.

Q: How can you avoid that terrible curse of the elderly wrinkles?

A: Take off your glasses.

Q: Seriously! What can I do for these Crow's feet and all those wrinkles on my face?

A: Go braless. It will usually pull them out.

Q: Why should 60-plus year old people use valet parking?

A: Valets don't forget where they park your car.

Q: Is it common for 60-plus year olds to have problems with short term memory storage?

A: Storing memory is not a problem, Retrieving it is the problem.

Q: As people age, do they sleep More soundly?

A: Yes, but usually in the afternoon.

Q: Where should 60-plus year olds look for eye glasses?

A: On their foreheads.

Q: What is the most common remark made by 60-plus year olds when they enter antique stores?

A: "Gosh, I remember these!"

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Evening, Wisdom and Beauty



The foliage has been losing its freshness through the month of August, and here and there a yellow leaf shows itself like the first gray hair amidst the locks of a beauty who has seen one season too many. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes



It is wrong to think that love comes from long companionship
and persevering courtship. Love is the offspring of spiritual
affinity and unless that affinity is created in a moment, it
will not be created for years or even generations.
~ Khalil Gibran ~



We come to love not by finding a perfect person, but by learning to see an imperfect person perfectly.



Never say goodbye when you still want to try.
Never give up when you still feel you can take it.
Never say you don't love a person when you can't let go.
~ Dons ~



Love me for a reason, let the reason be love.

Sky Watch Friday!

Time once again to share your lovely skies! Marvelously hosted each week by Klaus, Sandy, Ivar, Wren, Fishing Guy and Louise, Sky Watch is the place to see beautiful skies from all over the world. Click here to sign up and share yours!



I'm sure that some of you must think that I run around with my head in the clouds all the time because most of my shots are of the magnificent ones we have here in Seattle and I have such a perfect view from our deck! BUT! just to prove that I do sometimes look around me instead of up I'm posting these first two taken at two of the parks near the harbor. This first one was on a clear, gorgeous August morning with not a cloud in the sky!



This one was taken at a small park just above the harbor, there were clouds, but they were lovely as always!



And then I was looking up again and, as always, wasn't disappointed!





Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Evening, Wisdom and Beauty



Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless.
Jamie Paolinetti



I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times, in life after life, in age after age forever.
Rabindranath Tagore



Being happy doesn't mean that everything is perfect. It means that you've decided to look beyond the imperfections.



Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.
Kahlil Gibran



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

A Smile for Your Day!

I hope you will enjoy. Have a great day!
These classified ads actually ran in a Minneapolis newspaper - a smile for your day...

FREE YORKSHIRE TERRIER .
8-years old.. Hateful little bastard. Bites!

FREE PUPPIES:
1/2 Cocker Spaniel, 1/2 sneaky neighbor's dog.

FREE PUPPIES..
Mother, AKC German Shepherd.
Father, Super Dog..able to leap tall fences in a single bound.

FOUND DIRTY WHITE DOG.
Looks like a rat. Been out a while.
Better be a big reward.

COWS, CALVES: NEVER BRED.
Also 1 gay bull for sale.

NORDIC TRACK
$300 Hardly used, call Chubby.

GEORGIA PEACHES
California grown - 89 cents/lb.

JOINING NUDIST COLONY!
Must sell washer and dryer $300.

WEDDING DRESS FOR SALE .
Worn once by mistake. Call Stephanie.

And the best one?:

FOR SALE BY OWNER:
Complete set of Encyclopedia Britannica, 45 volumes. Excellent condition. $1,000 or best offer. No longer needed, Got married last month. Wife knows everything.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Evening, Wisdom and Beauty



What is Art? It is the response of man's creative soul to the call of the Real.
Rabindranath Tagore



You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might also pray in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance.
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



The touch of an infinite mystery passes over the trivial and the familiar, making it break out into ineffable music... The trees, the stars, and the blue hills ache with a meaning which can never be uttered in words.
Rabindranath Tagore

ABC Wednesday --F!


Time for a look at the alphabet! It's ABC Wednesday and today is the F word -- nothing naughty implied, you understand! Hosted by Mrs. Denise Nesbitt, ABC Wednesday is fun way to explore the alphabet! So, click on her name, sign up and play with us and words!

F is for Fall! And it is getting closer by the day!



F is for Flowers and all the beauty they bring into our lives!



And F is for Falls -- water falls!



And last but by no means least, F is for Flight!

Monday, August 24, 2009

Evening, Wisdom and Beauty



Everything comes to us that belongs to us if we create the capacity to receive it.”
Rabindranath Tagore quote



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



Every child comes with the message that God is not yet discouraged of man. ~
Rabindranath Tagore



Your friend is your needs answered.
Kahlil Gibran

That's My World - An Inspiring Community

That's My World is sponsored each week by Klaus, Sandy, Ivar, Wren, Fishing Guy and Louise and it is a wonderful opportunity to show the lovely places in "your world"! Click here to sign up and share your world with us!

I spent two days in Texas this past week, celebrating a reunion with the remaining members of my family and it was a truly lovely two days! While getting a tour of the local area, my cousin, Jane and her husband, Wes, took me and another cousin to a most remarkable place. I actually posted this earlier, but it is so inspiring I wanted to share it with as many people as possible. It isn't exactly "my world", but it has had such an impact on so many people, I guess I want to think of it as a part of "our world", one that we can all take much pride in. I was unable to get any photos other than the brochure, but the information is worth the read.

This place is called the Brookwood Community. It offers adults with functional disabilities a home in an educational and therapeutic environment. The self-contained campus provides programs with structure, security, and opportunities for true growth and fulfillment ... all promoting a well-deserved sense of self worth.



Mission-minded teachers and caregivers at Brookwood work alongside the Community's special citizens, providing a careful balance between independence and assistance. Their programs open new horizons and foster opportunities so their citizens can:

. Continue to learn and grow
. Develop meaningful, productive job skills and hold real jobs in the community's own business enterprises.
. Experience the pride of contributing to their own support as the grow socially, emotionally and spiritually for a richer, more fulfilling life.

Begun in the early 1980s with 475 acres near Houston, Texas , and a strong determination to improve life for adults who would not be able to live productively in an independent setting. Today, the community serves more that 125 people through residential and day/work programs.

In addition, organizations from across the nation and around the world come to Brookwood to collaborate and learn from their revolutionary programs.

Therapeutic, highly structure and supervised weekend and evening, activities include:
. aqua-therapy . inter-faith worship . sports and fitness . special events
. shopping . filed trips . life skills . hobbies

The sources of revenue come from tuition which is based on a sliding scale. If an applicant is unable to pay the full rate, third-party financial advisors perform an analysis to determine a fair fee based upon the family's income and assits. Eventy percent of the citizens of Brookwood receive financial aid to supplement their payments, which start at $1,800 a month.

Brookwood accepts no government funding of any kind. Therefore, the Community is largely self-supporting, relying on the generosity of the private sector to help build the facilities and maintain it's enterprises.

The Community's self-contained enterprises generate one third of Brookwood's operating budget.

Horticulture - The enterprises of Brookwood consist of, horticulture where Brookwood's functionally disabled adult citizens work alongside professional horticulturists to plant and cultivate many types of top-quality plants, filling 38 commercial greenhouses.

Crafts - In a studio environment, citizens produce, ceramic gift items, stone cast gift ware, cement garden pieces, candles, screen printed greeting cards.

The Cafe at Brookwood - Brookwood's chef, a graduate of The Culinary Institute of America prepares true gourmet meals, which Brookwood Citizens serve with all the dignity of a five-star restaurant. Private meeting rooms are available.

The entire site is spread over many acres providing lovely living spaces along with the restaurant, a gym, swimming pools etc. I was so impressed with the entire project, it's goals, it's opportunities for the disabled.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Evening, Wisdom and Beauty


I often regret that I have spoken; never that I am silent.
Publilius Syrus



The best cure for anger is delay.
Seneca, A.D. 63



Learn the richness of solitude and quiet. That "still small voice" is yearning to be heard.
Susan Jeffers



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

What Can I Say?

What Can I Say?
I'm interested in almost everything. Use to like to travel, but it's too expensive now. I take Tai Chi classes, swim, volunteer in a Jump-start program for pre-schoolers. I'm an avid reader and like nearly everyone these days I follow politics avidly. I'm a former teacher and Special Projects Coordinator for a Telecommunications company, Assistant to the President of a Japanese silicon wafer manufacturing company. Am now enjoying retirement -- most of the time. I have two daughters, one son-in-law and two sons scattered all over the country. No grandchildren.

Portland Time