"I WENT TO THE WOODS BECAUSE I WISHED TO LIVE DELIBERATEDLY, TO FRONT ONLY THE ESSENTIAL FACTS OF LIFE.

AND SEE IF I COULD NOT LEARN WHAT IT HAD TO TEACH AND NOT, WHEN I CAME TO DIE, DISCOVER THAT I HAD NOT LIVED."

~ Henry David Thoreau (1817 - 1862) Walden: Life in the Woods.

"Renew thyself completely each day; do it again, and again, and forever again."
~ H. D. Thoreau, a Chinese inscription, cited in Walden: Life in the Woods.

Photo: Mount Olivet, Haldimand County, LWalker

"I do the very best I know how ~ the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what is said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference."

~ Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865) American President

"These are the gifts I ask
Of Thee, Spirit serene:
Strength for the daily task,
Courage to face the road,
Good cheer to help me bear the traveler's load,
And, for the hours of rest that come between,
An inward joy of all things heard and seen."

~ Henry Van Dyke (1852 - 1933) American author

Source: MOMENTS BRIGHT AND SHINING, C.R. Gibson Company,

Thought for Today:

"The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that's the essence of inhumanity."

~ George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950) English playwright

"So long as we love, we serve; so long as we are loved by others, I would almost say that we are indispensable; and no man is useless while he has a friend."

~ Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 - 1894) Scottish novelist, poet.

Source: Moments Bright And Shining, The C.R.Gibson Company MCMLXXIX

One of our own has personal ties to a victim of a violent crime. It is unimaginable to most of us how unsettling life must become to family and friends. Our sincerest condolences go out to these folks.
This experience has made us aware of a volume of poetry on the subject of death. Friend and author, Laurie Miller said this, "Thinking about death, I keep coming back to Dylan Thomas, who wrote so many wonderful things about it. 'Though lovers be lost love shall not;/ And death shall have no dominion.' Maybe it doesn't get much better than that."

Following:  A portion of the mariner's poem, "Death Shall Have No Dominion"

And death shall have no dominion
Dead men naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone.
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.

http://www.dylanthomas.com/
~ Dylan Thomas (1914 - 1953) Welsh poet and writer
Photo: Wikipedia. Dylan Thomas' writing shed.

"She cocks her head to one side, fixes one with her luminous almond eyes, furrows her brow into puzzlement and seems to say, 'I would understand you thoroughly if you could speak more clearly. And incidentally, have you got a biscuit on you?' "
~ Alec Guinness (1914 - 2000) British actor, Shakespearean roles.

The Quotable Dog Lover, Edited by Patricia Sherwood, Sterling Publishing, 2004.

Zeus visits the Bookstore
"Think I'll just kick-back here. . .Interesting gibberish."

Tranquillity ~ calmness, serenity

"Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity."
~ Wm. Wordsworth (1770 - 1850) English poet.

"Sorrow is tranquillity remembered in emotion."
~ Dorothy Parker (1893 - 1967) American critic, humorist.

"There ought to be moments of tranquillity in great works, as in life after the experience of passions, but not moments of disgust."
~ Voltaire (1694 - 1778) French writer, philosopher.

Source: Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Oxford University Press, 2001.