Daily Archive

Some time it has been since I walked
Upon these paths of peace and delight,
Still remember I well the day I first saw
Those city walls of splendour, so bright.
The city itself sat on a hill
Surrounded it seemed by walls of gold,
And any who saw it in the sun
Were dazzled by beauty, as is often told.

The City of Light lay resplendent in glory
Magnificent spirals and churches abound;
A peal of bells rang out a new story
It seemed as if angels alone were around.
Its beauty seemed both untouched and unreal,
And I merely human with feet made of clay,
That little there was but for me just to feel
Such a City of Angels was not mine on that day.

[This poem was written as an attempt to create using traditional rhyming stanzas. It is based on a piece of prose written about a vision seen while wandering in the environs of the City of Ladies.)

(Enthusiastic Exploration. Photo by Robin)

No one keeps up his enthusiasm automatically. Enthusiasm must be nourished with new actions, new aspirations, new efforts, new vision. Compete with yourself; set your teeth and dive into the job of breaking your own record. It is one’s own fault if his enthusiasm is gone; he has failed to feed it. ~ Papyrus

I have such a large quote collection and any one of them could be or happened to be my favorite at one time or another. This one about enthusiasm is my current favorite.

I’ve been in the midst of a lot of changes over the past several months. Some of those changes involve my health. Rather than jump right into surgery and medications, I made the decision to be proactive by taking charge of my health and my life, making lifestyle changes that will hopefully bring the desired results (so far, so good!). If you’ve ever made lifestyle changes, you know that some days are easy but most days you’re plodding along and something trips you up and next thing you know, you’re back to old ways and bad habits, wondering why you started this self-improvement project in the first place.

When I quit smoking (what seems like a lifetime ago, but it was only 6 years), I learned that the only way I could succeed was by remaining positive about the change no matter what. No matter what happened in life, no matter how bad the cravings got, no matter how much easier it might have been to give up. Bad cravings were fended off with positive thoughts, laughter, or general overall craziness if that’s what it took (I once took a killer craving, mentally shot it out into space, and wondered if there was some creature on another planet suddenly hit by nicotine cravings crying out “I want a cigarette!” and then wondering what the heck a cigarette is and why he was craving it). I kept myself from smoking by making a long and ongoing list called “The Joys of Quitting.” That list was a lifeline of enthusiasm for me. It reminded me of why I was quitting and why it was worth it to get through the moment and the craving. I nurtured and nourished my quit every single day (still do), continually feeding my enthusiasm.

For health reasons I’ve recently changed my diet and have taken on an ambitious exercise program. I had to start with very small steps, working my way up to where I am now. There were days when I didn’t want to leave my bed. I use this quote to get me up and get me moving.

On the days I couldn’t do much physically, I started learning how to do new things. I’m learning how to draw and paint. My drawings and paintings are very childlike, but so is my enthusiasm for them. I get excited watching something appear on a blank sheet of paper, even if that something isn’t what I originally visualized, even if that something will never be considered a Great Work.

Every day I feed my enthusiasm for life, for love, for my health, for my healing, and for my Self. It keeps me going, even on those days when all I want to do is quit.

~ Robin

There are lots of quotes that inspire me. Most of them are ones that get me out of my head and into my heart.

When the workload is big and the spirit is thinking that ironing may be the only solution, as I’ve done all the laundry, I like this one:

“You do not have to complete the task, but neither can you put it down.” That usually helps me work for a set period of time, like an hour. After that, I want to keep working. That quote was from the Talmud, as is this one: “We do not see things the way they are, we see things the way we are.” Always good to get perspective. Sometimes I have to realize that I’m just walking through someone else’s reality and that doesn’t make it my reality, too.

I saw this written on a wall when I was in China, and at first didn’t understand it, then learned to love it: “We must separate truth from fact.”

And Thomas Edison’s advice: “We frequently miss opportunity because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

And after trying to do tackle something that was beyond my skill set, I finally said, “Half of being smart is knowing what you are dumb at and not doing it.” This is not the same as not pushing yourself, but it is very different from wasting time trying to get something that you can’t do. Just to be clear: I will never be a ballerina, for reasons of age, weight, arthritis and talent. If I suddenly enrolled in ballet school with dreams of dancing the Nutcracker, it would be a waste of time. If I enrolled to increase balance, that would just be pushing the comfort zone. But I’ve spent an enormous amount of time tackling things I should have left alone.

This was a great exercise!

Two quotes by Joy Williams, author of “The Quick and the Dead,” that I found odd enough to copy into my quote journal. Now why did I do that?

‘The hours between two and dawn are like a gift that only a few unwrap — a puzzling, luminous gift.’

‘Society, as a rule, doesn’t bother anyone pushing a shopping cart. The further a cart is taken from the store where it belongs, the more deference is paid to the possibly unstable individual who has taken charge of it.’

Food for thought, eh?

Barbara F.

Biederbeck: What kind of fiend are you?
Phibes: The kind that wins, my friend. 

This quote  is from one of my favorite movies: Dr Phibes Rises Again- it stars my favorite actor of all time Vincent Price.

When I was a kid ( I was about 8 when I saw this movie ) this line became my personal mantra- not because I was a fiend ( though I was an outcast and bit of a rebel ) but it showed me that at your very lowest you could fight back.

And win or lose you can do it with style.

It’s a thought worth keeping

amm

Dear Foodies:  What is your favorite quote?  And why?  Create a post and archive it to “Favorite Quotes”.

Here’s one of mine:   

“There is one thing I’ve learned, folks, and this is absolutely key–it’s not the thing you fling, it’s the fling itself.”  Chris-in-the-Morning, KBHR, Cicely, Alaska

When Chris, the artist/disk jockey, in the 1990 television show Northern Exposure, decided to build a giant catapault to fling a cow, he had no idea until his friend, Ed Chigliak, told him that Monty Python had already flung a cow in The Holy Grail.   At first despondent that his “transitory cow-fling thing” already had been accomplished, he immediately became inspired when he saw the rubble of Maggie’s burned down house.  He took her damaged piano, filled it with all sorts of discarded flotsam and jetsam from the Cicely townsfolk, and then utters the words above just before he launches the piano to its ulitmate destruction.

The point?  For me I constantly struggle between the product and the process.  I know this is not for everyone, but for me, the process IS as important as the finished process.  There is healing in the act of creating something, every bit as much as in the satisfaction of enjoying the finished piece. 

Now, I need to find something to fling. 

Lori Gloyd (c) 2007

I have a theory that inspiration floats around like winged seeds, the air is full of ideas and they alight on anyone, regardless of whether you are a painter, a writer or an inventor. They just float about and pop into peoples’ heads, and sometimes they take root and produce a flower, other times they can’t grow beyond that first flash of inspiration and move on. Have you ever noticed that if you don’t use a flash of inspiration, someone else will? A story or picture you vaguely had in mind turns up as someone else’s work. I don’t mind when that happens, it just shows the seed found more fertile ground.
Jo Rowling said that Harry Potter just `popped into her head” fully clothed and ready to go - of course he did. The seed that was destined to flower into the seven Harry Potter novels knew this was the mind that would nurture it best.
I know sometimes and idea pops into my head fully formed and all I have to do is write it up or gather my art materials - if the idea lies fallow and doesn’t come to anything, no matter how often I look at it, I know it’s not really meant for me. I just caught one that was floating about, and I’ll happily let it go to find another mind. There are plenty more floating about up there, and while some are not for me, I’ll catch one that is.