From The Observation Tower

 

"There are reasons no one could love you -- until they become the reasons someone does."

"Sorrow is different from happiness in that it is recognizable while in progress,"

"Life is a vale of tears in which at times you just can't stop giggling."

"Nobody wants your opinion unless you maintain a suite of offices in order to give it."

"The problem with having just one body is that people keep mistaking you for the previous occupant."

"Another day like all days -- trivial things claiming importance by going wrong, important things seeming trivial by going right."

Memorial Day Thoughts

 You don't have to believe in an after life to believe that there are people gone from this earth you can still make proud of you.

There are memories that will always make me lonesome but will never make me sad.

The thing about people who understand you is that when they are gone, you can still visit them, and they still understand you.

The Process at Work

Overheard at a town meeting: "All I want is what I rightfully deserve and my fair share of the rest."

Sunday Sermonette

 It can be argued that civilized society is founded not on the principle of loving thy neighbor but on the "pretense" of loving thy neighbor, a less demanding practice we call "civility."

  Today, as we witness the decline of civility, and the erosive impact of that decline on society, we come to a realization -- that pretense is difficult to sustain, that truly loving thy neighbor, as the gospels preach, might always have been the easier path.

Getting Serious

 "In a society that so celebrates winners, evil need not appear to be good -- it need only appear to be winning."

"Evil will have won not when we see it all around us but when it is all around us, and we don't see it."

"It there's one thing evil has done more effectively than good, it to demonstrate what one small person can do."

This and That

Woman, about late husband:  "He was a man of few words, and by the time we got married, he had already said them."

Nothing reduces your need for someone's approval like getting to know them better. 

I don't suggest we give up the idea that there's a little good in everyone, but, by gosh, it would certainly explain a lot of things.

I'll just say this -- that nothing makes a good first impression on me like an obvious attempt to do so.

Not only do I believe in dressing for an occasion, I believe it's the way to make it an occasion.

I've come to realize this -- that "smart casual" is not some particular style of dress; it is anything a smart casual person shows up wearing. 

Sometimes it's got to be fate, as when two people meet and discover they not only share the same likes and dislikes but the same don't give a damns.

More Speaking For Myself

 "The thing I like best about keeping my own company is that I can usually sense when it's time to leave."

"I have never pleaded temporary insanity, doubting I could prove it was temporary."

"Actually, I long ago discovered the real me -- and realized it was not someone my parents would have wanted me playing with." 

 

"As reported in Genesis, the Creator surveyed His handiwork and saw that everything was good, not great, which confirms my own observations."

Perhaps I can't handle the truth, but it is a short list of people I would trust to make that decision for me."

"If God had wanted a better me, He would have created a better me, which leads to the daunting possibility that He did."

"I don't know a thing about heaven and hell, except that it's probably a mistake to judge them by the people who expect to go there."

Notes From The Grammar Police

"Home In" vs "Hone In"

If you're one who's given to, "Honing in"

 Then you might pause and think for a smidgen

To ask yourself why a messenger bird

  Is not called a "honing" pigeon. 

~~~

Between You and ?

How often is said, "Between you and I"

When meaning, "Between you and me."

One would almost think the objective case

Has lost its relevancy.

But whatever the case, the posh-sounding "I" 

Is the choice as most people view it,

Unless, of course, you note how it sounds

when you add the "fencepost" to it.

I Wonder If Life They Imitate

I wonder if life they imitate, 

Those games sitting on my shelf ,

 Each sacrificed pawn accepting its fate, 

 Each domino blaming itself.

Speaking for Myself

"I'm accused of favoring dogs over people when in fact I favor whoever comes running when I whistle."

"I never hear of anything being part of a larger plan without wishing there were a smaller plan."

"If I distrust people different from me, it is because they are not different enough."

"You can reach an age, I've discovered, when even your sub-conscious has no desires."

It never fails.  Ask me to name the Seven Wharfs, I always forget, "Dock."

Companions

There are mem'ries I choose to live with no more,

 Though often we walk the same lonely shore,

Or pause in the night 'neath the same pale moon, 

Or stop for a late one at the same saloon.

"Seaburn" Ken Devine at kendevineart.com

Some are sad for many reasons.

 Some are sad for none.

But saddest is the lonely heart

Who's sad for only one.

Something On The Lighter Side

 Deep in the desert I came to a stall

Surrounded by sand and cactus.

My steaming car needed water, that's all,

So I said to myself, "I'll practice."

I got my golf clubs out of the trunk,

Took aim for the open spaces,

I let  'er rip and heard, "Kerplunk!"

I'd found the nearest oasis. 

Just Outside Our Door

How oft nostalgia conjures up

Some happiness of yore,

Or fancy paints some wistful dream 

Of happiness in store,

Whilst all the while the happiness

Our heart so hungers for

Sits scarcely to our left or right

Or just outside our door.

This Morning In The Glade

 

"What says the secret whispering 

Aloft among the pines? 

What stirs the anxious twittering

Down deep amidst the vines?

What lures the mournful wail 

From some creature in the shade?

What cosmic message circulates

 This morning in the glade?"