Looking Ahead to Looking Back

"A toast to Twenty Twenty-Five,

The year we kept the spark alive

And proved that even old romance

Can teach itself a brand-new dance."

Ah, Romance!

 "We crave romance, but if life were truly romantic, we would all be ships passing in the night.  Fortunately, life is real, so we meet in an elevator, hit it off, marry and the species goes on." 

 

"They never met, for she waited each day at the corner of Destiny and Romance, and he hung out at the corner of Main and Elm." 

"They met at the top of the Empire State building, she a small-town girl from Nebraska and he a guy from Brooklyn who got a job as an elevator operator at the Empire State Building in order to meet girls."

You Don't Say

 "I believe in cause-and-effect, although I think in most cases the effect is the last thing the cause had in mind."

"Life is a frantic race to get things done before they don't matter any more."

"Trust me when I tell you that you've overestimated the number of things indelibly stamped on your memory."

"Doesn't seem fair that a greedy few should have all the wealth when the rest of us have put just as much greed into the effort."

"I don't claim to know everything, but the older I get, the less I have to hear to know the rest." 

Meetings

"She was a stroller on the sand, a walker in the rain, a frequenter of places where nobody goes -- and they kept meeting."

"Seeking her destiny, she wandered into his last chance."

"He was a sad and lonesome clown,
And she was the circus that came to town."

 ~~ from Reflections 

Opportunity

 "It is a sad lament -- the happiness you might have found if you had taken the road that still lies right there in front of you."

"Seize every moment along the way, for what a shame it would be if the road you chose became the road not taken." 

"If you never look up, it is possible to live a dull, gray life under a clear, blue sky."

"What can be sadder than to realize that you had the key but never tried the lock."

~~ from Short Thoughts For The Long Haul

The Art of Listening

The way to get my attention is to give me yours.  I am never more aware of you than when I know you are listening to me. 

 

The first thing to learn about the art of conversation is that you are not the other person's favorite subject.

You don't have to have an opinion about everything, and if you do, not everyone has to know what it is.

I have learned to just quietly listen, finding that it is usually what people want when they ask for my opinion.

~~ from Reflections 

Questions For The Home Commute

"Did I make some complicated thing simple today, or did I make some simple thing complicated?"

"Was it wise to spend another day trying to accomplish Thing B as a means of accomplishing Thing A?"

"What are the things in my life I most cherish, and what did I do today to cherish them?"

~~ from  A Few For The Road

 

Getting On

"Another day of being old enough.  Still waiting for the knowing better to kick in." 

 

"The hardest part of thinking young is recapturing the notion that you're indestructible." 

"One thing you notice about getting older and wiser is that you get older first."

~~ from A Few For The Road

Ah, Wanderlust!

  "It is said that not all who wander are lost, which has always struck me as not getting the most out of wandering."

 "The shortest distance between two points is a straight line, but what you invarably find is that the long and winding road has the better soundtrack."

"There is no force on earth more relentless than a river seeking the sea, and yet you will notice that it always takes the scenic route."

"It is sad to reach the end of your journey and find that you never left the interstate." 

~~ from A Few For The Road

A Holiday Cocktail Party Is Where...

...every year you have the same conversation with the same couple about who you both still are. 

...some stranger learns more about you in an hour than your spouse has learned in a lifetime.

...the host and hostess attempt to bring compatible people together by separating married couples.

...there is a rotation that brings married couples back together again every twenty minutes.

...you are always sorry you wrote anything on a napkin.

~~ from The Second Collection

Life Thoughts

"Will you spend your life pushing a boulder uphill so that, once uphill, you will have a boulder to sit on while regretting your life?" 

"Do things while you can and while they matter to you, because neither is a permanent state of affairs."

"Life is like sailing -- you can use any wind to go in any direction."

"Life is a collection of moments you might have appreciated more if you had only known they were moments."

~~ from Short Thoughts For The Long Haul