“The cactus thrives in the desert while the fern thrives in the wetland.

The fool will try to plant them in the same flowerbox.

The florist will sigh and add a wall divider and proper soil to both sides.

The grandparent will move the flowerbox halfway out of the sun.

The child will turn it around properly so that the fern is in the shade, and not the cactus.

The moral of the story?

Kids are smart.”
― Vera Nazarian, The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

When the fern begins to look red, 

then milk is good with brown bread : 

when the fern is as high as a ladle, 

you may sleep as long as you're able : 

when the fern is as high as a spoon, 

you may sleep an hour at noon. 

“I don’t need a cloak to become invisible.” ― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

no veil of false excuses, or artful cloaking and colouring of our faults, will disguise from us our true state, if only we never neglect to consult this mirror in sincerity and with earnest prayer.

Look before you leap, For snakes among sweet flowers do creep.

“You read any Greek myths, puppy? The one about the gorgon Medusa, particularly? I used to wonder what could be so terrible that you couldn’t survive even looking at it. Until I got a little older and I figured out the obvious answer. Everything.”

― Mike Carey & Peter Gross, The Unwritten, Vol. 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity

A sleeping lobster is carried away by the current. ILOCANO.

Well, whiles I am a beggar, I will rail, 
And say, There is no sin, but to be rich ; 
And, being rich, my virtue then shall be, 
To say, There is no vice, but beggary.

Hey, bullies, ho, bullies, what have ye seen, Flying with the seagulls where the sea was green?

Cicely Fox Smith

FOTO – seagulls at bellwood nambucca heads

It was there that I found them:
the seagulls – the secret
of where they go at night.
Like snowfall on the road,
a tight-hooked rug of white fleece nubs:
no road, no verge, only birds.

Belinda Rule
Gestalt with Seagulls

Their noses sniff the shadows, at dusk The leaves crumble beneath them Leaving maps of the past Forgotten until morning. I can hear them. They are only a single nightmare away.

Sarah Oppenheimer Feb 8, 2012 Bloodhound

“The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.”

― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

Let every one sweep before his own door.

BILAMBIL COTTAGE 2008

DEBORAH DIGGES.

I have loved the broom I took into my hands
and crossed the threshold to begin again,
whose straw I wore to nothing,
whose shaft I could use to straighten a tree, or break
across my knee to kindle the first winter fire,
or use to stir the fire

http://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/authors/digges/poem.html

We humans fear the beast within the wolf because we do not understand the beast within ourselves. Gerald Hausman

Wolfs Gaze

the sight i see is of my own mind ,
not feeling as if it is in a bind.
i feel as though i’m free to be,
just free flying over  the trees.
my feet touch the floor as i look at whats around
this was all in my mind, even the grass on the ground.
i hear the birds chirping and making their own songs,
hearing their beautiful voices all along.
i freeze in my sport and stare at a wonder,
a beautiful white wolf just walking , no hunger.
we make eye contact and stare for a moment,
time is frozen, there is no movement.
i stare at this majestic beauty,
with no fear at all.
just amazement of the wisdom that i feel, like there is no wall.
as i fly back to myself i feel much more wiser,
the gaze of the wolf still all i wonder.

© littleinnocents. All rights reserve

The first river you paddle runs through the rest of your life. It bubbles up in pools and eddies to remind you who you are. Lynn Noel

http://www.oklahomaroadtrips.com/Paddler-Quotes.htm

Be strong, O paddle! be brave, canoe!

The reckless waves you must plunge into.

Reel, reel.

On your trembling keel,

But never a fear my craft will feel.

E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake), Flint and Feather: The Complete Poems

Do not make elephant out of fly.

They say the heat and the flies here can drive a man insane. But you don’t have to believe that, and nor does that bright mauve elephant that just cycled past.

PRATCHETT

Garbage in garbage out ~ George Fuechsel

It looked like something knitted as a present by a colourblind aunt, the sort of thing you wouldn’t dare throw away in case the garbage collectors laughed at you and kicked your trash cans over. PRATCHETT.

What a gloomy thing, not to know the address of one’s soul. Victor Hugo

We want to uncover the truth about ourselves.

We want to discover the attitudes, thoughts, beliefs, fears, actions, behaviours, and the behaviour patterns – that have been blocking us and causing us problems and causing our failure.

At high tide fish eat ants; at low tide ants eat fish. Thailand.

http://bijlmakers.com/entomology/proverbs_insects_2.htm

E kore te patiki e hoki ki tona puehu

The flounder (fish) does not return to his dust

Do not make the same mistake twice.

http://www.maori.cl/Proverbs.htm

A boy’s will is the wind’s will. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Kagwaci ka mwana wene nook kahoragia mwaki
            It is always the potato of another family’s boy that extinguishes the fire
The proverb alludes to the custom of roasting potatoes in the embers of a dying fire.
            Nobody calls himself rogue.

http://www.misterseed.com/link%20pages/PROVERBS2.htm

Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo.” – H. G. Wells (1866-1946)

“Inventory:

“Four be the things I am wiser to know:
Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe.
Four be the things I’d been better without:
Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt.
Three be the things I shall never attain:
Envy, content, and sufficient champagne.
Three be the things I shall have till I die:
Laughter and hope and a sock in the eye.”

― Dorothy Parker, The Complete Poems of Dorothy Parker

all that is required is that you take an honest moral inventory.

and when wrong promptly admit it.

It’s easy to tell the truth when it won’t cost you anything. It’s harder when the truth brings about difficult circumstances. But whether the result is good or bad, let your truthfulness be known to all so that you can live with a clear conscience and be a trustworthy friend.

Sweep before your own door first before you sweep before the doorsteps of your neighbours.

(Norwegian Proverb)

“Should even one’s enemy arrive at the doorstep, he should be attended upon with respect. A tree does not withdraw its cooling shade even from the one who has come to cut it.”

― Mahabharata 12.146.5

When grasping for the last breath in the stranglehold of life, a close inspection will show that the hands around your throat are your own.

– Bill Deslippe

http://www.hilliard.ws/wise.htm

Many people are afraid to forgive because they feel they must remember the wrong or they will not learn from it. The opposite is true. Through forgiveness, the wrong is released from its emotional stranglehold on us so that we can learn from it. Through the power and intelligence of the heart, the release of forgiveness brings expanded intelligence to work with the situation more effectively.

– David McArthur & Bruce McArthur

I consider in my own mind whether thou art a spirit, sometimes, or sometimes an evil imp,” said the lama, smiling slowly.

― Rudyard Kipling, Kim

I drank at every vine, the last was like the first. I came upon no wine so wonderful as thirst.

~Edna St. Vincent Millay

That song has the full extent of my mandolin abilities; I’m not a good mandolin player at all. –

John Fogerty

Bind me-I still can sing-
Banish-my mandolin
Strikes true within-

Slay-and my Soul shall rise
Chanting to Paradise-
Still thine.”

― Emily Dickinson, Final Harvest: Poems

“Trust your ability!”

Itzhak Perlman

You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.

– Pooh’s Little Instruction Book, inspired by A. A. Milne

Don’t try to tell me what I am because I know what I am not”

― Amit Abraham, Personality Development Through Positive Thinking

To pursue yourself is an interesting and absorbing thing to do. Once you have caught the scent of a hidden being, your own hidden being, you won’t readily be deflected from the tracking down of it.

– Cynthia Propper Seton

A second component in our inventory is discovering the roots of our addictions and codependencies.

http://www.12step.org/the-12-steps/step-4.html

“Ultimately, ‘how’s it going?’ is the most futile and the most profound of questions. To answer it precisely, one would have to make a scrupulous inventory of one’s psyche, considering each aspect in detail. No matter: we have to say ‘fine’ out of politeness and civility and change the subject, or else ruminate the question during our whole lives and reserve our reply for afterward.”

― Pascal Bruckner

I had choosen the path of the black sheep rather than that of the unicorns and puppies.”

― Magenta Periwinkle, Cutting Class

“Toward noon we spotted an animal gazing down at us from a sterile mountain peak of red and black rocks… Our guide stated that the animal must certainly be a unicorn, and he pointed out to us the single horn which jutted from its forehead. With great caution we gazed back at this most noble creature, regretting it was no closer for us to examine still more minutely.” –Friar Faber; 1438

Whenever I dwell for any length of time on my own shortcomings, they gradually begin to seem mild, harmless, rather engaging little things, not at all like the staring defects in other people’s characters.”

― Margaret Halsey

There’s nothing like rejection to make you do an inventory of yourself.

James Lee Burke

A man should avoid these six evils: lust, anger, avarice pleasure, pride, and rashness, for free of these he may be happy. (Sanskrit).

I Came to buy a smile—today—But just a single smile—The smallest one upon your faceWill suit me just as well—The one that no one else would missIt shone so very small—I’m pleading at the “counter”—…

Source: A man should avoid these six evils: lust, anger, avarice pleasure, pride, and rashness, for free of these he may be happy. (Sanskrit). | THE OLD PROVERBIAL RECOVERY

Bunny’s Excuse. There was once a wicked old sinner Who fancied a rabbit for dinner, But the bunny he met Said: “Don’t kill me yet, For I really am still a beginner.”

My living problems also cease to be struggles.

Heaven designs to suit our trials to our strength.

Though the sun shines, leave not your cloak at home.

” The queen’s mocking laughter cut in. “This is your treasure, Lord Sheftu?”

“Aye. The greatest treasure in Egypt—a maid whose loyalty cannot be bought. Whatever bargain we make, Daughter of the Sun, must include her freedom.”
― Eloise Jarvis McGraw, Mara, Daughter of the Nile

RISE TOGETHER

ADAM T NA SPEAKER

IF DRINKING DON’T KILL ME

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM

SMALL TRIBUTE FOR IZZY FOREAL BY PETER CARRUTHERS

RISE TOGETHER

ADAM T NA SPEAKER

IF DRINKING DON’T KILL ME

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM

SMALL TRIBUTE FOR IZZY FOREAL BY PETER CARRUTHERS