Ram Dass Quote::Our Independence Day::July 5

I got this pic from Zen to Zany on facebook. What a great reminder!!

Truth can be found everywhere and from everyone - no one has a monopoly on it. Ram Dass worships Krishna and is a well known singer in the Hindu culture. My son, Jared, has quoted him in his Christian Sunday School class. :)

I hope that you can enjoy your day, full of love for all people who are as diverse as the trees in the forest. ♥

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On another note: as you know, yesterday was Independence Day for us here in the US. Steve, Matt, Michael, Emily and I went to Steve's (paternal side of the family) family reunion. It was great for me to visit with his cousin Tiffany, and Emily loved getting to know her cousin, Tiffany's daughter, Celeste. I loved being with cousins as a kid and love that we can pass that on to our children.

We had a bar-b-que and pot luck, visited, and then later watched the fireworks from the deck of the house. We were very spoiled! I think we had the best view of the fireworks in the area! Steve's cousin, Edith, purchased and built a house where the grandparents' old house used to be. The old house had many problems and was eventually condemned as hazardous. Edith's new home is beautiful and the view amazing! I'm so glad that the land got to stay in the family.

♥

Quote by Madeleine L'Engle::About Failure::July 2

_A Circle of Quiet_ is one of my favorite books. Madeleine L'Engle speaks in such a way that resonates with my whole being.

As I was just reading page 38, I came upon this:

I could, during the long years of failure, console myself with the fact that van Gogh sold precisely one picture while he lived, and that he was considered an impossible painter. I could try to reassure my agent when he was concerned about the damaging effect on me of so much failure; he was afraid it would kill my talent. Can this happen? I don't know, I just don't know.

I think that all artists, regardless of degree of talent, are a painful paradoxical combination of certainty and uncertainty, of arrogance and humility, constantly in need of reassurance, an yet with a stubborn streak of faith in their validity, no matter what. When I look back on that decade of total failure - it's been a mixture, both before, and since - there was even on the days of rejection slips, a tiny, stubborn refusal to be completely put down. And I think, too and possibly most important, that there is a faith simply in the validity of art; when we talk about ourselves as being part of the company of such people s Mozart or van Gogh or Dostoevsky, it has nothing to do with comparisons, or pitting talent against talent; it has everything to do with a way of looking at the universe. My husband said, "But people might think you're putting yourself alongside Dostoevsky." The idea is so impossible that I can only laugh in incredulity. Dostoevsky is a giant; I look up to him; I sit at his feet; perhaps I will be able to learn something from him. But we do face the same direction, no matter how giant his stride, how small mine.

During that dreadful decade I pinned on my workroom wall a cartoon in which a writer, bearing a rejected manuscript, is dejectedly leaving a publisher's office; the caption says, "We're very sorry, Mr. Tolstoy, but we aren't in the market for a war story right now." That cartoon got me through some bad hours. It didn't mean that I was setting myself beside Tolstoy.

♥

24/52::Michael and Baby Mercedes::July 1

I found a pic that I will retroactively call: 52 Photo Project, #24 :)

On the 21st, Josh, Hayley, and the kids came down to play with us, so we took a trip to the park. I have been so busy with everything else, I still need to finish editing those pics, but here is a cute one of Michael and Baby Mercedes:


"A portrait of my child, once a week, every week, in 2014."

He's come a long way from his days of saying that Aiden was a "stinky little baby" :) Nieces and nephews are good for Michael!

♥