I buy a lot of carrots, the organic ones. I assume that since plants get much of their life out of the soil, roots absorb more of whatever the earth possesses. More than leaves and fruits, for instance, but I could very well be wrong. Anyway, organic grown should at least reduce the bad stuff—I […]
~ read more ~I haven’t written a post in more than six weeks and I feel guilty about it. I have a couple of excuses, though. One, the April A to Z challenge was like a marathon. My posts were relatively short, but thinking of something interesting to write about everyday became exhausting after a while. Particularly since […]
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“Sitting quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.” Zenrin Kushû (The Way of Zen 134, 222) “Entering the forest he moves not the grass; Entering the water he makes not a ripple.” Zenrin Kushû (The Way of Zen 152, 224) Zen, Zen, Zen. Saying it many times might actually stop people […]
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All I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt. Lucy van Pelt A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of. Jane Austen What do money and chocolate have in common? Yearning—that’s what. For some of us, a great one. That of Ms. […]
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Uncertainty and fear and ignorance about immigrants, about people who are different, has a history as old as our Nation. Luis Gutierrez This quote has no x words in it, but it carries the idea behind this post: xenophobia. Relatively few English words start with X—only 120 are in current use, according to Oxford Dictionaries; […]
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Words are loaded pistols. Jean-Paul Sartre Three haikus on words Words wash over us Like raindrops on fallow fields Soaking, sowing seeds. Words, like daggers, piercing Like wounds, pestering That vulnerable heart. Words imprisoned, imagined Imploding restless minds Take wings, like birds. Three more Haiku verses here.
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The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. Marcel Proust We all have to struggle if we want to be different from who we’re supposed to be. Conforming is easier. Who we’re supposed to be. What an enormous weight that idea carries! We can’t do much with […]
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Understanding does not cure evil, but it is a definite help, inasmuch as one can cope with a comprehensible darkness. Carl Jung See no evil, hear no evil would be no way to deal with it, if you agree with Carl Jung. In fact, he advocates facing it head on, learning as much as possible […]
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The time at our disposal each day is elastic; the passions we feel dilate it, those that inspire us shrink it, and habit fills it. Marcel Proust Time. One dimension, in addition to space, along which everything exists. It ticks, inexorably. We measure it, just like space, using units of our own invention (seconds, minutes, […]
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Nothing is more memorable than a smell. One scent can be unexpected, momentary and fleeting, yet conjure up a childhood summer beside a lake in the mountains. Diane Ackerman Our sense of smell is as essential to us as seeing and hearing, just as powerful in evoking memories, and has a role in healing (See […]
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Repetition is based on body rhythms, so we identify with the heartbeat, or with walking, or with breathing. Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen, a composer and musical theorist, was obviously talking about music. But repetition is a fact of every aspect of life, and every aspect has its own rhythm. Tomorrow follows today and another day […]
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To write a novel is to embark on a quest that is very romantic. People have visions, and the next step is to execute them. That’s a very romantic project. Joyce Carol Oates Why do you do the things you do? Particularly those in which the rewards are not immediate or always forthcoming. If you […]
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Through silhouettes in the Musée d’Orsay, looking out across La Seine to the right bank—we sense ambiguities, yearnings, drama. Paris fascinates. For its history, its architecture, its art, its natural beauty—all of which spared it from the bombs of a world at war. It is: A vibrant city where la joie de vivre is often […]
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And if you want to get really rooted in the indigenous cuisine you have to go to Oaxaca. Rick Bayless So, we went to Oaxaca and tasted their moles. They have seven kinds, often prepared according to traditions dating back to prehispanic times. Mole negro, the most complex because of its 30-some ingredients (including chocolate), […]
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New roads; new ruts. Gilbert K. Chesterton I’ve spent pleasant hours reading some of G.K.Chesterton’s Father Brown mysteries. As a tribute to his formidable mastery of language and superb economy of expression in this quote, I’m offering some Haiku. Rhyming is not essential in Haiku, but I like the cadence it gives to verse. From […]
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Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy. Ludwig van Beethoven Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart. Pablo Casals Music-where would we be without it? We all have our preferences in music to which we can connect as spiritually or as sublimely as these musical greats […]
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Great love affairs start with Champagne and end with tisane. Honoré de Balzac Maybe only the French would say this. After all, they invented champagne, an elixir concocted out of love, and by extension, for love. Elsewhere where champagne only belongs in dreams, attraction must find another expression. I spent my early years in a […]
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I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.Tennessee Williams I’m digressing from my initial intent of giving my take on famous quotes because this line, taken from a critically acclaimed Tennessee Williams drama, A Streetcar Named Desire, is just too juicy to pass up. It does contain a k word and is among the […]
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Joy’s smile is much closer to tears than laughter. Victor Hugo This quote has a deceiving simplicity. I find it ambiguous, at the least, and enigmatic, at most. The ambiguity of language in these words, or any other set of words, is a problem if it arises from carelessness, but if deliberate, it can lead […]
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Imagination was given to man compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is. Francis Bacon As I grew older and reality trounced my dreams one by one, I began to live a little more inside my head. Perhaps, my imaginings helped me cope with my […]
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