Monday ~ June 13, 2016

I walked a mile with pleasure;
She chattered all the way,
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say.
I walked a mile with sorrow
and ne'er a word said she;
But oh, the things I learned from her
When sorrow walked with me!

(Robert Browning Hamilton, 1890 - 1943?)

Saturday ~ June 11, 2016

But when at last woman stands on an even platform with man, his acknowledged equal everywhere, with the same freedom to express herself in the religion and government of the country, then, and not until then, will he be able to legislate as wisely and generously for her as for himself.

(Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1815 - 1902)

Friday ~ June 10, 2016

Then I came to an edge of very calm
But couldn't stay there. It was the washed greenblue mapmakers use to indicate Inlets and coves, softspoken contours where the land leaves off
And water lies plainly, as if lamped by its own justice.
I hardly know how to say how it was
Though it spoke to me most kindly,
Unlike a hard afterwards or the motions of forestalling.
Now in evening light the far-off ridge carries marks of burning.
The hills turn thundercolored, and my thoughts move toward them, rough skins
Without their bodies. What is the part of us that feels it isn't named, that doesn't know
How to respond to any name? That scarcely or not at all can lift its head
Into the blue and so unfold there?

(Laurie Sheck, b. 1953)

Thursday ~ June 9, 2016

To give so much time to the improvement of yourself
that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear,
and too happy tp permit the presence of trouble.
To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud words but great deeds. To live in faith that the whole world is on your side
so long as you are true to the best that is in you.

(Christian Larson, 1874 - 1962)

Thursday ~ June 2, 2016

The Dreams of the dreamer
   Are life-drops that pass
The break in the heart
   To the soul's hiur-glass.
The songs of the singer
   Are the tones that repeat
The cry of the heart
   "Till it ceases to beat.

(Georgia Douglas Johnson, 1880 - 1996)

Monday ~ May 30, 2016

I think continually of those who were truly great.
Who, from the womb, remembered the soul's history
Through corridors of light where the hours are suns,
Endless and singing. Whose lovely ambition
Was that their lips, still touched with fire,
Should tell of the spirit clothed from head to foot in song.
And who hoarded from the spring branches
The desires falling across their bodies like blossoms.

(Stephen Spender, 1909 - 1995)

Tuesday ~ May 17, 2016

In the ordinary course of nature, the great beneficent changes come slowly and silently. The noisy changes, for the most part, mean violence and disruption. The roar of storms and tornadoes, the explosions of volcanoes, the crash of the thunder are the result of a sudden break in the equipoise of the elements; from a condition of comparative repose and silence they become fearfully swift and audible. The still small voice is the voice of life and growth and perpetuity. In the stillness of a bright summer day what work is being accomplished, what processes are being consummated!

(John Buroughs, 1837 - 1921)