My daughter Rose and I visited Mount Holyoke College this weekend. She’ll be studying there in the Fall. The campus felt in full bloom with Magnolias and Spring plantings. We had a wonderful time, though I did have the occasional flashback to the first day of daycare; the first day of kindergarten… and how I had cried all the way home each time after dropping her off. Where does the time go?
On another note, I am happily compiling two new collections of inspirational quotations. The first is for a new box I am calling Bliss Boxes, and the second is a re-design of my 100 Fortunes. I’ve decided that I would like them to contain wisdom from throughout time- short passages and proverbs- memorable words. If you have any favorite wisdom passages, or quotations that invoke bliss, I would love to have them. If I use a suggestion, I will send you a finished box as a gift.
Ingrid,
Here are a couple of my quotes that might appeal to you -
Life, like a garden, is a matter of arrangement.
The passage of time is simply pockets of now.
The mind singles out moments to ordain in ceremonies all its own.
These are from poems of mine that I have used in a variety of ways.
Also, I collect quotes from a variety of sources and will look through those for you sometime.
Frances
I know artists whose medium is life itself, and who express the inexpressible without brush, pencil, chisel or guitar.
They neither paint, nor dance. Their medium is Being. Whatever their hand touches has increased Life.
They see and don’t have to draw. They are the artists of being alive. Frederick Franck
Frederick Franck–
“Everyone needs beauty…places to play in & pray in, where nature may heal & cheer & give strength to the body & soul alike.” ~John Muir
As Raymond Carver wrote when he was dying:
“And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth.”
Wishing you a carpet of your favorite springs flowers to surround you
in lush love and vibrant brilliance as you sprawl upon the earth, the
ear of your heart tuned to the most private and sacred of murmurings:
life itself! Jennifer Louden
Frances, thank you so much! I’ve so enjoyed your poems over the years. I really like “pockets of now”. I think that would be a lovely fortune. if I use it, I’ll attribute it to you and send you a box, ok?
Cindy, these are all beautiful! They may be too long for the projects I have in mind, but I love them. So uplifting. Oh to feel beloved, to know the world as beloved, that’s what I long for! And I love the Frederick Franck. I’m convinced that one could be a poet without ever writing a poem- that there’s a way of seeing and being in the world that matters more than anything. Thank you for these.
Please, please, please, please leave plenty of room in the boxes for quotes from that life-changing poet and spiritual touchstone, Ingrid Goff-Maidoff!
my favorite.