"...while I was a child her great affection for me, and her intense care for my welfare, made me love her and gave me that feeling of safety that children need...Her fearlessness, her public spirit, her contempt for convention, and her indifference to the opinion of the majority have always seemed good to me and have impressed themselves upon me as worthy of imitation."

~ Bertrand Russell (May 18, 1872 - February 2, 1970)  British philosopher


"The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom."

~ Henry Ward Beecher

(Photo:  Cayuga Street, Sunday, May 12 lbw)

A Prayer for Mothers

Marjorie Flagg Holmes wrote ~

A Prayer For Cross Mothers

Oh God, I was so cross to the children today!  Forgive me.  I was discouraged and tired ~ and I took it out on them.  Forgive my bad temper, my impatience, and most of all, my yelling.  I am so ashamed as I think of it.

I want to kneel down by each of their beds, wake them up and ask them to forgive me.  But I can't.

They wouldn't understand.  I must go on living with the memory of this awful day; my unjust tirades.

Hours later, I can still see the fear in their eyes as they scurried around, trying to appease me ~ thinking my anger and maniacal raving was their fault.
Oh God, the pathetic helplessness of children!  Their innocence before the awful monster ~ the enraged adult.

And how forgiving they are, hugging me so fervently at bedtime, kissing me goodnight.

All I can do is straighten a cover, touch a small head burrowed in a pillow and hope with all my heart that they will forgive me.

Lord, in failing these little ones whom you have put in my keeping, I am failing you.  Please let your infinite patience and goodness replenish me for tomorrow.

MFH (1886 - 1976)  American English & Latin teacher, civic activist.

(A Dear Friend, Janice Wingrove, gave the above to me after we shared a soul-searching discussion on the difficulties of stay-at-home Moms.  My friend died of cancer and I have only recently been in touch with her beautiful adult children, Cheryl, Lorna and Justin.  Tomorrow is Mother's Day.  I hope that Marjorie Holmes' writing means as much to someone out there as it did to my friend and to myself. lbw)

The Neat Little Bookshop Cayuga St.

"What a neat, little, bookshop" ~

the title read in The Dunnville Chronicle article by Angus Scott ...dated Jan., 24, 1990.

"...inside [the bookshop] is one of the most interesting characters in Haldimand ~ owner Herb Martindale."

Herb opened his bookshop around the year 1976.  Herb's gone now but there are a lot of folks who still fondly remember "the most interesting character."

It will be eight years ago on Mother's Day that John and Lorna re-opened Herb's Neat Little Bookshop.

"In a way, every day is a separate adventure. In general, you only see the best people, because only the best people like to read."  ~ Herb Martindale quote.


(Photo:  11B Cayuga Street. lbw)

Author, Zane Grey Wrote:

To bear up under loss;
To fight the bitterness of defeat and
     the weakness of grief;
To be victor over anger;
To smile when tears are close;
To resist disease and evil men and base instincts;
To hate hate and to love love;
To go on when it would seem good to die;
To look up with unquenchable faith
     in something ever more about to be.

~ Zane Grey (1872 - 1939) American author, best known for his westerns.  Grey set up a dentistry office in New York under the name Dr. Zane Grey; however left the practice for his writing.  His house on the Upper Delaware River, Pennsylvania, is maintained as a museum.

(Photo:  Wikipedia)

Josie Penny

Thurs., May 16, 1:00 p.m.

Readings from  So Few on Earth

Autobiographical

Jose Penny grew up in Labrador

"Coffee Pot's always on..."

Everyone Welcome

Room in Stephen Leacock's Home Orillia

"There is more treasure in books than in all the pirates' loot on Treasure Island.  Best of all, you can enjoy these riches every day of your life!"

~ Walt Disney, (1901 - 1966) American film maker

"It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all."
~ Laura Ingalls Wilder, American author of Little House on the Prairie.



www.lauraingallswilderhome.com

(Photos: May 7 Niagara, lbw)