Rerunning a favorite blog from January —

Pretty day today, a little cool, but when the sun hit the porch swing, I sat on the porch and enjoyed watching a college of cardinals, a charm of finches, a chime of wrens, a booby of nuthatches, a banditry of chickadees, and a cote of doves. I stumbled upon the plural names of these bird groups when I was looking up the plural of titmouse. I think a gathering of crows, called a murder, is the best bird group name. When a gathering of crows are cawing and carrying on they sound like they are committing a murder.

Well, today got off to a goofy start. Was making hamburger patties and putting hamburger meat in freezer bags this morning and got my hands all greasy. Washed my hands really well and when I dried them off I thought I heard something drop on the floor but looking down I didn’t see anything. Just forgot about it and got the broom to sweep the kitchen. Glanced at the dust pan before emptying it in the trash can and I see Chief’s wedding ring in the dust pan! The ring dropping off my thumb and landing on the floor was the noise I heard. I’ve worn his wedding ring on my thumb since the day he died. I’ve swum in the Atlantic ocean and not worried about the wedding band coming off. I would have been devastated and comfortless if I had lost it. Divine intervention for sure.

I’m thinking about inspiration and sitting here trying to read what I’ve scribbled on the back of a junk mail envelope. I’m notorious about writing down quotes and sentences while I’m reading books and magazines. I just grab a scrap of paper nearby and scribble it down. Course most of the time I can’t read my own handwriting and have to search for the quote on the internet.

I read a biography once about Ernest Hemingway’s first wife, Hadley. There was a quote by Ernest Hemingway on the cover of the book — “ I wish I had died before I ever loved anyone but her.” She and Ernest loved to read novels and discuss them with each other. Chief and I did this a lot before we married. Anyway, every time I came across a book title they shared in her biography, I’d write it down. Finished the book and went to the city library to check out the books the Hemingways had shared. Course they didn’t have any of them. So off I traipse to the junior college library to check them out there. Years before, when I first moved to Alex City, I used their library all the time. Anyway, I’m informed at the desk I can’t use the library unless I’m enrolled in the college. So home I go. This was years before Amazon. I’d order the books now. I might read the biography again and do that!

I think I have now deciphered my little list of illegible quotes. “When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hold on,” — Franklin D. Roosevelt. That is the greatest! Think how many life situations that can pertain to. We’ve all been there and done that. Raising our children and clinging to that knot during their adolescence. Clinging to the rope in life’s darkest moments. I think of the rope as faith in God. My mother always said, “The Lord never gives you more than you can carry.” I think this is her version of the Roosevelt quote.

Being a widow this quote moves me. “It is in our darkest moments that we must focus to see some light,” — Aristotle. When I’m writing sympathy notes I always say there will be light at the end of the path of grief. Sometimes I write the sunshine will warm your face again one day with a different kind of happiness. Guess that’s Lane’s version of Aristotle’s quote.

Read this quote on Facebook today. Didn’t write it down but I do remember the last part — “The true beauty of life is not how happy you are now, but how happy others are because of you,”— Unknown. We are all ultimately responsible for own happiness yet we search for our happiness from others.

Ending with Bob Marley —“Love the life you live! Live the life you love!” That is good advice for us all!

“Be grateful for every second of every day that you get to spend with the people you love. Life is so very precious,” — Mandy Hale