Check Out the Cat's Caption

Great cat caption, eh? I love the look on this feline's face. 101 SECRETS! discusses how important animals are in our lives, especially "rescuing" them.

Columbus Day

"You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore." Author: Andy Mouse

When I Admire the Wonder of a Sunset...

“When I admire the wonder of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in worship of the Creator.”

~Mahatma Gandhi

Wise Words

WISE WORDS TO LIVE BY
============================================


People say that what we're all seeking in life is a meaning for life.


I don't think that's what we're really seeking.


I think that what we're seeking is an experience of being alive...
~ Joseph Campbell

Poets Talking About Poetry

Robert Frost (1875-1963) American Poet.

Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.

Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC) Greek philosopher.

Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those we have personality and emotion know what it means to want to escape from these things.

T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) American-English poet and playwright.

If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) American poet.

When power leads man towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the area of man's concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.

John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) Thirty-fifth President of the USA

Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It's that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that's what the poet does.

Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) U.S. poet.

Poetry comes nearer to vital truth than history.

Plato (BC 427-BC 347) Greek philosopher.

Poetry is either something that lives like fire inside you --like music to the musician or Marxism to the Communist --or else it is nothing, an empty formalized bore around which pedants can endlessly drone their notes and explanations.

Author Unknown

You will not find poetry anywhere unless you bring some of it with you.

Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) French moralist.

In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite.

Kahlil Gibran (1883 –1931)Lebanese poet, artist, and writer

Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.

We Are Stained Glass Windows

People are like stained-glass windows. 

They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, 

but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty 

is revealed only if there is a light from within.

Author Unknown

The Best Bunch of Writing Quotes

"Writing comes more quickly if you have something to say." ~Sholem Asch

"Men may move mountains, but ideas move men." ~Lois McMaster Bujold

"Ink on paper is as beautiful to me flowers on mountains; God composes, why shouldn’t we?" ~Audra Foveo-Alba

"There is more pleasure in building castles in the air then on the ground."~Edward Gibbon

"There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly." ~Buckminister Fuller

                           

“You need chaos in your soul to give birth to a dancing star.”~Nietzsche

“Author sho never give you something to disagree with never give you anything to think about.”~Michael LaRocca

“If my doctor told me that I had six months to live, I wouldn’t brood, I’d type faster.”~Isaac Asimov

“I find that when we really love and accept, and approve of ourselves exactly as we are, then everything in life works.”~Louise Hay

“If there’s a book you really want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”~Toni Morrison

“Write down on the page what’s in your heart.”~William Wadsworth

“Live from your heart. Share from your heart. And your story will touch and heal people's souls.~Melody Beattie                            

“Life—like writing—it's about the journey; fill it with dreams, direction, and dedication.~Joe Sottile

           

Zig Ziglar's Top Ten Quotes

 1.   Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.~Martin Luther King

  2. Each of us will one day be judged by our standard of life, not by our standard of goodness, not by our seeming greatness.~William Arthur Ward

  3.   The message is clear:  plan with attitude, prepare with aptitude, participate...with servitude, receive with gratitude, and this should be enough to separate you from the multitudes.~Krish Dhanam

  4.   A winner is big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.~John Maxwell

  5.   You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.           ~Joe Sabah

  6.   Regardless of your lot in life, you can build something beautiful on it.

  ~Zig Ziglar

  7.   Decision is the spark that ignites action. Until a decision is made nothing happens.~Wilfred A. Peterson                                                                  

  8.You might not be what you say you are, but what you say, you are.  Ziglar                                   

  9.   When I was young, I observed that nine out of every ten things I did were failures, so I did ten times more work.~George Bernard Shaw

10. If you don't think every day is a good day, just try missing one. ~Cavett Robert

Best Internet: It's About Politics--Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road (LOL)?

SARAH PALIN:  The chicken crossed the road because gosh-darn it, he's a maverick!      BARACK OBAMA:  The chicken crossed the road because it was time for change!  The chicken wanted change!      JOHN MC CAIN:  My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road.      HILLARY CLINTON:  When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure right from Day One that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road. But then, this really isn't about me.      GEORGE W. BUSH:  We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.      DICK CHENEY:  Where's my gun? COLIN POWELL:  Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road.      BILL CLINTON:  I did not cross the road with that chicken.      AL GORE:  I invented the chicken.      JOHN KERRY:  Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken's intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.      AL SHARPTON:  Why are all the chickens white? We need some black chickens.      DR. PHIL:  The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on this side of the road before it goes after the problem on the other side of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he's acting by not taking on his current problems before adding new problems.      OPRAH:  Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a NEW CAR so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.        ANDERSON COOPER, CNN:  We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.      NANCY GRACE:  That chicken crossed the road because he's guilty! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.      PAT BUCHANAN:  To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.         MARTHA STEWART:  No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer's Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information.      DR SEUSS:  Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.      ERNEST HEMINGWAY:  To die in the rain, alone.         JERRY FALWELL:  Because the chicken was gay! Can't you people see the plain truth? That's why they call it the 'other side.' Yes, my friends, That chicken is gay. And if you eat that chicken, you will become gay too. I say we boycott all chickens until we sort out this abomination that the Liberal media whitewashes with seemingly harmless phrases like 'the other side.' That chicken should not be crossing the road. It's as plain and as simple as that .          GRANDPA:  In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.      BARBARA WALTERS:  Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart- warming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish it's lifelong dream of crossing the road.      ARISTOTLE:  It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.         JOHN LENNON:  Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together, in peace.      BILL GATES:  I have just released eChicken2010, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and  balance your checkbook. Internet Explorer is an integral part of eChicken2010.  This new platform is much more stable and will never reboot.

    
ALBERT EINSTEIN:  Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

        
COLONEL SANDERS:  Did I miss one?

Best Quotes: Step Up to the Plate!

Learning something new and applying it each and every day

gives meaning and purpose to our lives. Growth is the ability to

learn how to take any situation either good or bad and get the

most out of it, and then share what you’ve learned from the 

experience.Making progress in life is about taking responsibility

for ourselves and being responsible to others. It is about using

past pains as a motivator to embrace future pleasures. In summary

it is about our stepping up to the plate of being all we can be                                                                                         

and then striving for more!”

~ L. Bronstein ~

Best Teacher Quotes & More

"Teachers are expected to reach unattainable goals with inadequate tools. The miracle is that at times they accomplish this impossible task." — Haim G. Ginot


"Teacher: Two kinds: the kind that fill you with so much quail shot that you can't move, and the kind that just give you a little prod behind and you jump to the skies." — Robert Frost


"A good teacher, like a good entertainer first must hold his audience's attention. Then he can teach his lesson." — John Hendrik Clarke


"What's ahead of me and what's behind me are nothing compared to what's inside me."

-Jean Shapiro

"Everyone who remembers his own educational experience remembers teachers, not methods and techniques." — Sidney Hook

"There's nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly." — Buckminster Fuller

"Nine-tenths of education is encouragement." — Anatole French

"All kids are gifted. Some just open their packages earlier than others." — Michael Carr

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." — Nelson Mandela

“Great thoughts come from the heart.”
--Luc de Clapiers

"There is a brilliant child locked inside every student."
~ Marva Collins

"A teacher's compassion is like a pebble thrown into a pool of water. The ripples spread far beyond the point of impact."
~ Dear Abby

An optimist is someone who goes after Moby Dick in a rowboat and takes the tartar sauce with him.
- Zig Ziglar

“Life is like a ten-speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use.”
- Charles Schulz

“It's easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference.”
Tom Brokaw 

Best Internet: Jay Leno & More

No matter what our kids and the new generation think about us,

 WE ARE AWESOME !!!

OUR Lives are LIVING PROOF !!!

To Those of   Us  Born 1925 - 1970   

At the end of this email is a quote of the month by Jay Leno.. If you don't read anything else, please read what he said. 

Very well stated, Mr. Leno.

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE

1930s, '40s, '50s, '60s & '70s!!  

First, we survived being born to mothers who may have smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant. 

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes. 

Then, after that trauma, we were

put to sleep on our tummies

in baby cribs covered

with bright colored lead-based paints. 

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets,

and, when we rode our bikes,

we had baseball caps,

not helmets, on our heads. 

As infants and children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts, air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes. 

Riding in the back of a pick- up truck on a warm day was always a special treat. 

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. 

We shared a soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this. 

We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter, and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar. And we weren't overweight. 

WHY? 

Because we were always outside playing...that's why! 

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day.

--And, we were OKAY. 

We would spend hours building

our go-carts out of scraps

and then ride them down the hill,

only to find out we forgot the brakes.. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem. 

We did not have Play Stations, Nintendos and X-boxes. There were

no video games, no 150 channels on cable,

no video movies or DVDs,

no surround-sound or CDs,

no cell phones,

no personal computers,

no Internet and no chat rooms.
 

WE HAD FRIENDS

 and we went outside and found  them! 

We fell out of trees, got cut,

broke bones and teeth,

and there were no lawsuits

from those accidents.
We would get spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping-pong paddles, or just a bare hand, and no one would call child services to report abuse. 
   We ate worms, and mud pies

made from dirt, and

the worms did not live in us forever. 

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls, and  

-although we were told it would happen- we did not put out very many eyes. 

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them.

 Little League had tryouts

 and not everyone made the team.

Those who didn't had to learn

to deal with disappointment.

Imagine that!!

 The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law! 

These generations have produced some of the best   risk-takers,

 problem solvers, and inventors ever.

The past 50 to 85 years have seen an explosion of innovation and new ideas..
 

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.
 

If YOU are one of those born between 1925-1970, CONGRATULATIONS! 
 

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good. 

 While you are at it, forward it to your kids, so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were.
 

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?

The quote of the month 

byJay Leno:

   "With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?"