affection, hans eder

"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful."

Norman Vincent Peale

"My idea is that there is music in the air, music all around us; the world is full of it, and you simply take as much as you require."

Edward Elgar

Some keep the Sabbath going to Church --
I keep it, staying at Home --
With a Bobolink for a Chorister --
And an Orchard, for a Dome --

Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice --
I just wear my Wings --
And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church,
Our little Sexton -- sings.

God preaches, a noted Clergyman --
And the sermon is never long,
So instead of getting to Heaven, at least --
I'm going, all along.

Emily Dickinson

Victor Gabriel, An Elegant Soiree

"Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy didn’t change the world by asking people to join their Facebook crusades or to download their platforms. Activism can only be uploaded, the old-fashioned way — by young voters speaking truth to power, face to face, in big numbers, on campuses or the Washington Mall. Virtual politics is just that — virtual."

Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times

So excuse me for forgetting
But these things I do
You see I've forgotten
If they're green or they're blue
Anyway the thing is well I really mean
Yours are the sweetest eyes I've ever seen

Elton John - Your Song

Ebb & Flow

Amber skies stretch out across
mountains rich like indigo
Blackness bleeds to grey and light breaks
As dawn slowly lifts the shadows

A path once forgotten as I strayed
looking to follow those from before
Kicking up dust with their swollen shoes
Signs linger cross the earth strung cross the shore

Not as easy to look within and see with eyes
unblinded by life's rose colored lenses
To see the truth as bare as a rigid desert
Beyond the walls of brick , beyond chain linked fences

I will not view the world in black and white
as only coal dust in mouth or sweetness of new snow
I will see the reds, the golds, and the silver lining
Adjusting the tip of my soul to capture both ebb and flow

Delias Thompson

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
"Relax," said Mbulawa,
We are programmed to receive.
You can checkout any time you like,
but you can never leave.

I Taught Myself To Live Simply

I taught myself to live simply and wisely,
to look at the sky and pray to God,
and to wander long before evening
to tire my superfluous worries.
When the burdocks rustle in the ravine
and the yellow-red rowanberry cluster droops
I compose happy verses
about life's decay, decay and beauty.
I come back. The fluffy cat
licks my palm, purrs so sweetly
and the fire flares bright
on the saw-mill turret by the lake.
Only the cry of a stork landing on the roof
occasionally breaks the silence.
If you knock on my door
I may not even hear.

Anna Akhmatova

one perfect morning I was all alone
listening to the blaze of summer
drifting
I was falling
I was floating in a golden haze
breathing in the sky blue sounds
of memories of other days

The Cure - To The Sky

"Next time a sunrise steals your breath or a meadow of flowers leaves you speechless, remain that way. Say nothing and listen as heaven whispers, 'Do you like it? I did it just for you.'"

Max Lucado

"Once you start to see through the myth of status, possessions, and unlimited consumption as a path to happiness, you'll find that you have all kinds of freedom and time. It's like a deal you can make with the universe: I'll give up greed for freedom. Then you can start putting your time to good use."

David Edwards, Nothing to Lose But Our Illusions

"The small things of life were often so much bigger than the great things...the trivial pleasures like cooking, one's home, little poems especially sad ones, solitary walks, funny things seen and overheard."

Barbara Pym