Favorite Anne Quotations

"The nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens, but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string.” -Anne of Avonlea

"Perhaps, after all, romance did not come into one's life with pomp and blare, like a knight riding down; perhaps it crept to one's side like an old friend through quiet ways; perhaps it revealed itself in seeming prose, until some sudden shaft of illumination flung athwart its pages betrayed the rhythm and the music, perhaps. . . perhaps love unfolded naturally out of a beautiful friendship, as a golden-hearted rose slipping from the green earth. ” -Anne of the Island

The Undercurrent

I found this on a blog (http://laurenmhughes.com/) and liked it:

"Sometimes life – the situations you find yourself in, the people you find yourself around – makes it easy to forget that love is real. I think sometimes the things we forget the most easily are the things we’ve always known – the things we take for granted. Love is definitely one of those things.

Love is in the details. It’s the undercurrent to everything, sometimes it feels like it’s not there – but it is. It’s always there. Love is in forgiveness and fidelity. It’s in patience and perseverance. It’s in (constructive) criticism and compassion. It’s in honesty. It’s in the here and now. It’s certainly in the hereafter.

Love is that swelling in your chest when you walk outside and the sky is blue and the temperature is a perfect seventy-two and the wind blows across your face and your favorite song comes on your iPod and you think, YES. THIS IS IT. Love is when you wake up at seven in the morning when you don’t have to be up until ten to drive someone wherever they need to go. Love is answering a late night phone call long after you’ve gotten under the covers. Love is in the letters – the three page letters that you write because you just can’t seem to say the right things out loud. Love is in the listening – really listening - to all the stupid jokes, outrageous opinions, senseless rants, and random facts. Love is in the reading  – really reading - all the texts, emails, academic papers, and amateur book manuscripts. Love is in the talking – really talking - about ideas, opinions, wants, needs, and insecurities. Love, once it takes hold, is in the everything – the eyes, the lips, the touch – and it’s hard to disguise. It’s not easily suppressed. It doesn’t go away.

Because it is the undercurrent, love is everywhere. Even in the dark. A lot of people say that it isn’t – that love can only exist in the light – but they’re wrong. Love can be found in the darkest of places, too. You just have to look for it and, more often than not, it’s right there in front of you. Sometimes you realize it just in time, sometimes you don’t. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t there all along – waiting to be acknowledged, waiting to be appreciated, waiting to be embraced. It doesn’t mean that love doesn’t exist.

Love is real. The realest thing in the entire world. In the light, in the dark. It always exists. But only when you let it – and, the thing is, you have to let it. It’s the only way to really live."

Haiku Poems

Shelby and I played a game today where we texted back and forth Haiku poems. We would take the last line of the other's poem and make it the first line of our next one. Here is what we came up with.

The first blue Iris
sprouts up on the mountain side.
rain drops fall harder.
. . .
Rain drops fall harder
on the crusted wood railing
Porch swing is empty

. . .
Porch swing is empty
as the pale clouds disband
Morning will soon break
. . .
Morning will soon break
The orange trees are in full bloom,
Blossoms fall in the dew
. . .
Blossoms fall in the dew
aglow in fractured light.
The lark sweetly sings.
. . .
The lark sweetly sings
in the dusty twilight hour.
Haze falls over hills.
. . .
Haze falls over hills
The tinge of night advances.
The screen door latches.
. . .
The screen door latches
And thunder rolls in heavy,
hot lightening splits the sky

A Good Reminder

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."

I want a simple life. I want to appreciate the sound of rain, and eat tart apples in the fall. I want to garden on Saturdays, getting dark dirt under my fingernails and watering the lawn in long summer twilights. I want to look at stars, and I want to bundle up and go to the snow on a whim. I want to play basketball in the front yard, and draw chalk on the driveway, and take long drives down windy roads. I want to cry without fear, I want to dance to shake off a funky mood. I want to pick shapes out of clouds, lying in ticklish grass and squinting against sunshine. I want to smile a lot, looking into the interesting faces of my students, kids who have their own stories to tell. I want to hear those stories. I want a kitty who purrs on my lap, a tea kettle that whistles and a fireplace that burns bright all winter. I want to read good books, and think strange new thoughts, and journal in a comfy chair. I want to find spots along the river where I can be alone. I want to give baths to my babies, with their dimpled fingers and crooked teeth and sweet-smelling hair. I want to make pies, and make a big deal out of birthdays and Christmas. I want to drink ice tea on the porch, I want to make pillows out of lavender. I want to talk over red wine with friends on a week night. I want to take the dog on walks after dinner and I want to sing along to music in the car. I want to eat Chinese food on the floor, and I want to be sarcastic and wear my pajamas on a rainy day. I want to lug books around in my purse, and ride into cities on trains. I want to get dressed up for dinners and have candles in all the corners of my house. I want to sit on beaches and I want to chew fruity gum. I want to write stories that bring the characters in my head to life. I want to love fiercely and long.

Promises.

“Praise the Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago.”
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth. The Lord has spoken. In that day they will say, “Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.” -Isaiah 25

5 things

Five things I'm jonesing to do, but can't until I settle down:

1. Start taking piano lessons again

2. Start taking dance classes again (and also, I want to learn how to line dance and ballroom dance).

3. Learn how to quilt, and take up crocheting again

4. Start learning Spanish again

5. Take a gourmet cooking class

Quiet Corral

"Feeling low, feeling low

Like lead in my bones

Feeling low, feeling low

But I'll follow hope

Underneath each stream is a traveled gravel road."

-Quiet Corral

I went into downtown Hollywood to hear this band this week. This quotation is part of a song that I really loved called "The River." It was about change, and about feeling swept along, unsure of where you're going. But it also talks about how there's something hopeful in the swift current of the stream, a constant aspect to its flow. Sometimes I feel so swept up and along, but if I follow hope, I'll realize that underneath my feet I'm really on solid ground that's been traveled many times before.

I really liked this band. Extremely talented, cute boys from Kansas who don't have any notion of fame, but just love their art. They were kind and humble and happy, with an innocence that did not mar maturity. They made me appreciate the simplicity of being alive -- that we get to experience beauty and express that beauty through music... painting... writing... to give to others, for no other reason than God is good.