Come again another day

I'm fairly surprised I haven't written about this yet.  While I've done some posts about weather, I have not done one about the little droplets of water that fall from the sky.  Today started off nice and chilly, but within a few hours, the rain clouds came and have not let up for long.  While looking for quotes on this, I started to love the dual meanings.  So here are three quotes to ponder.  Try to link them to aspects or people in your life.

“The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain.” - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.” - G. K. Chesterton

“Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet.” - Roger Miller

Do you walk in the rain or get wet?

 

Tear down that wall

Language, cultural, political, geographical, technological...we come across barriers throughout our daily existence.  Within the past two days, 4 out of those 5 have created conflicts for me.  After reading the quote below and thinking about it, I do wonder if both sides need to create the barrier or if it is one sided at times.

“There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.” - Ronald Reagan

Have you put up any barriers lately?

Nighty night

My sleep patterns have been off a bit lately.  I get sleep, but at different intervals and with various results.  I'm still working on finding the right formula.

“Turn resolutely to work, to recreation, or in any case to physical exercise till you are so tired you can't help going to sleep, and when you wake up you won't want to worry.” - B. C. Forbes

How has your sleep been?

Gossip has it

True or false, I've been subject to my fair share of rumors throughout life.  We rarely are the cause of them and rarely have control of them.  And the speed at which they can be communicated is staggering.

“Trying to squash a rumor is like trying to unring a bell.” - Shana Alexander

Have you ever succesfully squashed a rumor?

 

Activity in the mind

I've seen two movies today where insanity is a theme in them.  In both, the heroes are not really insane or break beyond it.  So it seemed appropriate to find a quote for it.

“Insanity is often the logic of an accurate mind overtaxed.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes

 Is your mind overtaxed?

Every which way

No theme for today.  Just an amusing one going into the weekend.

“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.” - Friedrich Nietzsche 

Which is your way?

 

Kind to all

A neighbor was having work done on their building at 7am this morning.  In my area, that is not uncommon.  The workers try to start as early as they legally can so they can move on to the next job and get home early to repeat the next day.  The problem was that the tenant of the building was not told by the landlord that work was going to be done.  Instead waking to the sound of their alarm clock, it was the sounds of a ladder being banged around and excessive cursing, and I do mean excessive, that stirred them.  Some times a little courtesy can go a long way.

“Courtesies cannot be borrowed like snow shovels; you must have some of your own” - John Wanamaker 

What lack of courtesy have you seen lately?

Not the phoenix

“I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.” - Jack London

Do that thing you do

Numerous times throughout the year and in various locations on the globe, people do things that they did the year before.  Many times, they're not really sure why they're doing it.  They saw people doing it last year, thought it looked interesting, and wanted to join in this year.  Some by peer/family pressure.  Some by themselves.  But year after year, town after town, house after house, people are bringing life to something from the past.  So today, when a certain celebration is going on throughout the world, let's take a look at traditions.  And for good measure, a funny by Mark Twain at the end.

“Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around.” - G. K. Chesterton

“What an enormous magnifier is tradition! How a thing grows in the human memory and in the human imagination, when love, worship, and all that lies in the human heart, is there to encourage it.” - Thomas Carlyle

“Often, the less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it.” - Mark Twain

What traditions do you do that are hard to justify?

Fascination of life

 The dichotomy of life.

"Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating. " - Karl Von Clausewitz

 Which do you find more of in your life?
 

One missed

I forgot to post an entry yesterday.  I think I thought about it in the morning and then became so consumed with my day that I didn't do it.  This has happened a few times this past week where I become busy with things and forget an event or deadline.  I had the time yesterday.  At one point I was on my computer for a good twenty minutes, but did not remember to get a quote.  I could also cheat, backdate a post and be able to complete the 9 weeks intact, but that would not be true to myself.  So today's quote is on forgetfulness.

“Through memory we travel against time, through forgetfulness we follow its course." - Joseph Joubert

Have  you been following time recently and forgotten something important?

Gasping

Some friends have been feeling a bit anxious about aspects of their lives lately.  Whether we know it or not, I think anxiety hits all of us at some point in our life.  So today is a look at that.

“Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.” - Soren Kierkegaard

“Our Age of Anxiety is, in great part, the result of trying to do today's jobs with yesterday's tools.” - Marshall McLuhan

Which makes you more anxious, your social or work life?

To laugh

This day has unexpectedly been filled with humor at random turns.  And I appreciate that very much.  So today I won't quote jokes, but we'll talk about them.  OK, the second quote may be a joke, but I think it's a fact as well.

“The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.” - David Ogilvy

“A civil servant doesn't make jokes” - Eugene Ionesco

“A joke is not a thing but a process, a trick you play on the listener's mind. You start him off toward a plausible goal, and then by a sudden twist you land him nowhere at all or just where he didn't expect to go.” - Max Eastman

Had any unexpected laughter today?

Building on yesterday

The day after meetings tend to provide more entertainment.  People dissecting every move and word from other attendees.  This can go on for days.  It helped fuel today's quote.

“In some situations, if you say nothing, you are called dull; if you talk, you are thought impertinent or arrogant. It is hard to know what to do in this case. The question seems to be, whether your vanity or your prudence predominates.” - William Hazlitt

Vanity or prudence?

Tick Tock

Meetings are always an adventure.  People come into them with different ideas of what the agenda really is.  Throughout, people talk, give looks and act in all sorts of ways.  In the end, some people will think it was worth while, as others think it was a waste of time.

“When I give a lecture, I accept that people look at their watches, but what I do not tolerate is when they look at it and raise it to their ear to find out if it stopped.” - Marcel Achard

Had any watch looking meetings lately?

On cue

Just as movie editors know how to combine a scene with a music track to evoke emotion, life can match two elements that bring forth an emotional response.  Like how hearing the right song first thing in the morning can get the rest of your day going great.  Or the opposite.  So today we're looking at timing.  And try to look at this quote beyond it's military meaning.

“You win battles by knowing the enemy's timing, and using a timing which the enemy does not expect.” - Miyamoto Musashi

How is your timing with events in your life?

A rustle in the trees

 The wind yesterday was something we haven't seen in a long while here.  Something oddly comforting to hear the wind rustling through the trees.  Especially in the middle of winter with no leaves on them and a light snow blowing through.  So today's theme is wind, but with a motivation twist and from the 1st century.

“If a man does not know what port he is steering for, no wind is favorable to him” - Seneca

Do you know what port you're headed for?

Making up words

A quick, fun one for Saturday.

“If the English language made any sense, lackadaisical would have something to do with a shortage of flowers.” - Doug Larson

What are some words that can have fun meanings if taken literally?

Light bulb moments

In work and personal life, ideas have been created and thrown around at an increasing pace lately.  Some big, some small.  Some have already burned out while others have promise.  While looking for quotations about ideas though, it became clear that many people talk about the idea of something and not an idea as a thing itself.  Below I have put together a few quotes that discuss idea itself.

“An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.” - Oscar Wilde

“Everyone is in love with his own ideas." - Carl Gustav Jung

“If you want to kill any idea in the world, get a committee working on it.” - Charles F. Kettering

“Nearly every man who develops an idea works it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then he gets discouraged. That's not the place to become discouraged.” - Thomas Alva Edison

“If you have one good idea, people will lend you twenty.” - Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach

“An idea must not be condemned for being a little shy and incoherent; all new ideas are shy when introduced first among our old ones.” - Samuel Butler

Which quote do you like best?

Change of plans again

Today was supposed to be about ideas, but a couple friends independently stepped forward with some thoughtful gestures.  I know these people for different reasons and our interactions are with different frequencies.  Yet they took time to do something very nice.

“We do not belong to those who only get their thought from books, or at the prompting of books, -- it is our custom to think in the open air, walking, leaping, climbing, or dancing on lonesome mountains by preference, or close to the sea, where even the paths become thoughtful.” - Friedrich Nietzsche 

Have you thanked someone recently who did something thoughtful for you?

The last part is true

I was working on an idea for today's post and it started to grow larger than I had anticipated.  So today's post will now be tomorrow's post.  And today I leave you with an introspective comment.

“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.” - Oscar Wilde

Are you someone else?

Happy Birthday, Charles

It is Charles Dickens' birthday.  I've been looking through his quotes and surprised at how they have the same theme about justice.

“In the little world in which children have their existence, whosoever brings them up, there is nothing so finely perceived and so finely felt as injustice.” - Charles Dickens

Dust bunnies

I have some cleaning to do.  And no matter what, I'll need to clean.  It doesn't matter when or how, but it will need to be done.

“There is no Democratic or Republican way of cleaning the streets.” - Fiorello La Guardia

What do you have in your life that just needs to be cleaned?

A string on my finger

Yesterday I came up with a great idea for today's quote.  This morning, I promptly forgot what the idea was.

“A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness.” - Elbert Hubbard

Has forgetting something ever worked towards your advantage?

Again and again

I have this condition that allows me to listen to the same song, over and over, for large amounts of time.  As I write this, I've had this one song going for at least 40 minutes.  Since it's a 4 minute song, 10 times is not that bad.  But I've gone a couple hours before with other songs.  Although today's quotes don't match this situation, they are about repeating.  You've seen me get on the fact that history repeats itself, even though we try not to.  These quotes are a different look at that.

“It is not worthwhile to try to keep history from repeating itself, for man's character will always make the preventing of the repetitions impossible” - Mark Twain

“Isn't it queer: there are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before; like the larks in this country that have been singing the same five notes over for thousands of years” - Willa Sibert Cather

Are you like a lark that has been repeating the same five notes?

Misquoting a misquote

Just a fun one today.  I started singing a song and my mind purposely put different words into it.  Maybe I shouldn't be singing at all.

“Silence is not only golden; it is seldom misquoted.” - Bob Monkhouse

Have you heard of someone's silence being misquoted?

You're mumbling again

I've heard that line a lot in life.  "You're mumbling, I can't understand you."  "What was that?"  "Can you repeat yourself please?"  I am a mumbler.  It's not always and it is mostly around people I am comfortable with.  I've been on stage, I've given presentations, I've lead meetings, all without a problem.  But if I'm on the couch next to you, I might as well be 100 miles away.  As I said, it's not always.  So when I do mumble, it tends to irritate those closest to me.  And it can be irritating to have that told to you often.  But beware if you try to tell a non-mumbler that they are mumbling.  They will vehemently disagree and tell you to clean your ears.  I have been told that more than once in my life and by much more than one person.  I do appreciate them sticking with me though and I try to correct myself when I know I'm doing it.  And since my mumbles have kicked into high gear lately, I thought I would dedicate a post to the opposite.  So today, we will be speaking clearly.  I enjoy the second quote for how it can be transferred to a speaker.

“Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes

“Those who write clearly have readers, those who write obscurely have commentators.” - Albert Camus
  
Do you speak clearly or are you a mumbler? Or perhaps I should ask, do you have readers or commentators?

And then the woman's hair caught fire

I had quite a bizarre dream last night.  Lots of imagery.  And yes, at one point a woman's hair caught fire and I put it out.  Although the fire didn't seem to do any damage and the woman didn't seem to notice.  Makes sense to do some quotes on dreams.  I have to say that finding sleep-dream inspired quotes are slightly hard.  So many "dream" quotes are inspirational about a person's waking dreams.  I was fortunate enough to find two quotes with slightly different outlooks on dreams.

“What if you slept? And what if, in your sleep, you dreamed? And what if, in your dream, you went to heaven and plucked a strange and beautiful flower? And what if, when you awoke, you had the flower in your hand? Ah, what then?" - Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“Dreams are nothing but incoherent ideas, occasioned by partial or imperfect sleep.” - Benjamin Rush

What do you think about dreams.  Are they powerful thoughts or something that gets in the way of sleep?