We had a day of near-70-degree weather this past week and now another couple inches of snow is on the ground. I am more than ready for spring. Especially because I had to leave my sweet little garden behind when I moved last fall, I am eager to see vivid colors outside again. Today is blindingly bright here, which is a wonderful change of pace, with the sunshine making all the snow sparkle, and I'll bundle up this afternoon in the many winter layers I am so tired of wearing and go for a long walk, but I am longing to see my beloved Daffodils sprouting up in yards all over town, to notice Forsythias and countless trees when they first start to turn their spring yellow-green, to smell heavenly Lilac bushes again, to watch Roses' blooms uncoil, and to feel cool grass under my bare feet again. I had a crying jag Thursday afternoon after spotting bulbs' shoots sprouting up in a neighbor's backyard on my walk home from work. I wanted so badly to be living in her tiny little house--one of the only tiny houses in the neighborhood, as all the rest are 3-or-more-floor Victorians converted into apartments--and making plans for that little yard. I wanted her soon-blooming flowers and her trees and her small back porch and her lawn chair and her bird houses. . . . I am happy here and Life is good in so many ways, but I miss my garden and I ache for the dream home I have wanted for so long.
My mom sent me a little "fun money" tucked into a letter yesterday and I will use a bit of it today to treat myself to a flower and a gardening magazine. And between chores today, I will daydream about my little pink and white cottage garden that I miss so much, and I will work on my visions for my next one--even if "bloom[ing] where [I'm] planted" in this case finds me beautifying my fire escape.
My breaks on this weekend of working and resume-revamping have been spent on long walks and quick peeks at my garden. (And late at night before fatigue overtook me, finally reading Nick Hornby's About a Boy. There's a line in it that's so funny to me, I giggle every single time I think of it.) On my walk home yesterday, I stopped at an antique shop to ask about a couple of old metal chairs I've oohed and ahhed over the past couple of weeks. Amazingly--especially for this shop, and most especially for the small "treat budget" I allow myself--the price was right. The many decorating and gardening scrapbooks I've kept since age thirteen are filled with pictures of chairs and gliders like these, so yesterday marked the rare instance in which I practically jigged as I parted with money. One chair is rusted on its seat and needs to be sanded, and someday both these babies will be Val-ed up in glossy pink paint, but they were certainly worth the seventeen-year wait.
And ohhh, how the Bleeding Hearts continue to enchant me!♥
"I think that one must always be in love. To be in love with a person is, of course, ideal, but you can be in love with a flower, a tree, an idea. . . ."
~ Gloria Vanderbilt
"At any given moment, no matter where you are, there are hundreds of things around you that are interesting and worth documenting."
"Love is, above all, the gift of oneself." ~ Jean Anouilh
"Celebrate people who are in your life-- past and present, close by as well as far away. Thank everyone who contributes to your sense of well-being and joy, whether you know them personally or not. Every day, think of all the people who help make your life so rich and rewarding."
~ Alexandra Stoddard
"I'm not expecting to grow flowers in the desert,
But I can live and breathe and see the sun in wintertime."
~ "In a Big Country" by Big Country
"If you are any good at all, you know you can be better."
~ Lindsey Buckingham
"What thou lovest well remains,
the rest is dross ~
What thou lov’st well shall not be reft from thee ~
What thou lov’st well is thy true heritage."
~ Ezra Pound
"Let us make memories carefully of all good things, rejoicing in the wonderful truth that while we are laying up for ourselves the very sweetest and best of happy memories, we are at the same time giving them to others." ~ Laura Ingalls Wilder
"There are things you do because they feel right & they may make no sense & they may make no money & it may be the real reason we are here: to love each other & to eat each other's cooking & say it was good."
~ Brian Andreas
"There is always something left to love. And if you ain't learned that, you ain't learned nothing." ~ Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun
"Years ago, my mother used to say to me --she'd say, 'In this world, Elwood, you must be --' She always called me Elwood. 'In this world, Elwood, you must be oh, so smart or oh, so pleasant.' Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. And you may quote me."
~ Elwood P. Dowd in Mary Chase's play Harvey
"One of the things I learned the hard way was that it doesn't pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore faith in yourself." ~ Lucille Ball
"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened." ~ Anatole France
"A house with Daffodils in it is a house lit up, whether or not the sun be shining outside." ~ A. A. Milne
"When something is too beautiful or too terrible or even too funny for words, then it is time for poetry."
"Keep away from people who belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great, make you feel that you too can become great." ~ Mark Twain ************
"Be not afraid of going slowly. Be afraid of standing still." ~ Chinese proverb
After My First 5K :)
During My First Half Marathon :)
~*~*~*~*~*~*~ * "Is life worth so much trouble?"
* "It depends what one wants in return."
~ Daughter to Student in The Ghost Sonata by August Strindberg ~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Anyone who ever gave you confidence, you owe them a lot."
~ Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany's, spoken by Holly Golightly
"When we have sampled much and have wandered far and have seen how fleeting and sometimes superficial a lot of the world is, our gratitude grows for the privilege of being part of something we can count on—home and family and the loyalty of loved ones. We come to know what it means to be bound together by duty, by respect, by belonging."
~ Thomas S. Monson
“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of those depths.
These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern.
Beautiful people do not just happen.”
~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Death: The Final Stage of Growth
“How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.”
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