Open Your Eyes

One way to open your eyes is to ask yourself, 'What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again? ~Rachel Carson

Dirty Sex

I thank God I was raised Catholic, so sex will always be dirty. ~John Waters

Fall to Pieces

You want me to act like we've never kissed, you want to forget; pretend we've never met, and I've tried and I've tried, but I haven't yet... You walk by, and I fall to pieces. ~Patsy Cline

No Boundary Line

Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art. ~Charlie "Bird" Parker

Universal Feelings

Feelings or emotions are the universal language and are to be honored. They are the authentic expression of who you are at your deepest place. ~Judith Wright

Showing Up

Eighty percent of success is showing up. ~Woody Allen

How Things Are

There are times to cultivate and create, when you nurture your world and give birth to new ideas and ventures. There are times of flourishing and abundance, when life feels in full bloom, energized and expanding. And there are times of fruition, when things come to an end. They have reached their climax and must be harvested before they begin to fade. And finally of course, there are times that are cold, and cutting and empty, times when the spring of new beginnings seems like a distant dream. Those rhythms in life are natural events. They weave into one another as day follows night, bringing, not messages of hope and fear, but messages of how things are. ~Chögyam Trungpa

Don't Cry

Don't cry when the sun is gone, because the tears won't let you see the stars. ~Violeta Parra

Songs of Hope

Blues are the songs of despair, but gospel songs are the songs of hope. ~Mahalia Jackson

Democracy

Democracy! Bah! When I hear that word I reach for my feather Boa! ~Allen Ginsberg

Happy New Year!

Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. ~Buddha

Tending to Love

Love doesn't just sit there like a stone; it has to be made, like bread, remade all the time, made new. ~Ursula K. Le Guin

A Happy and Safe New Year's Eve to All! ~GZ

Character

The best index to a person's character is (a) how he treats people who can't do him any good, and (b) how he treats people who can't fight back. ~Abigail Van Buren

Gerald R. Ford

The three-martini lunch is the epitome of American efficiency. Where else can you get an earful, a bellyful and a snootful at the same time? ~Gerald R. Ford

Godfather of Soul

I hope you live 200 years, and that I live 200 years minus one day, so I never know beautiful people like you passed away.
~James Brown

Winter Hope

Sometimes our fate resembles a fruit tree in winter. Who would think that those branches would turn green again and blossom, but we hope it, we know it. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Happy Holidays to All! ~GZ

Dance is for Everybody

Dance is for everybody. I believe that the dance came from the people and that it should always be delivered back to the people. ~Alvin Ailey

Hunger

A hungry man is not a free man. ~Adlai Stevenson

Windstorm

I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do. ~Willa Cather

Footnote: This is a tree that fell outside my office during the PNW Storm that hit late Dec. 14th. I was one of the lucky ones who had power. Many people I know are still without it.

Be Understanding

Be understanding of one another. Be willing to compromise. ~Yoko Ono

Fragile

The beast in me is caged by frail and fragile bars. ~Johnny Cash

Improvisation

The genius of our country is improvisation, and jazz reflects that. It's our great contribution to the arts. ~Ken Burns

Poor Sex Life?

I blame my mother for my poor sex life. All she told me was 'the man goes on top and the woman underneath.' For three years my husband and I slept in bunk beds. ~Joan Rivers

War - a Winner?

One is left with the horrible feeling now that war settles nothing; that to win a war is as disastrous as to lose one. ~Agatha Christie

Marriage Brimming

To keep your marriage brimming,
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you're wrong, admit it;
Whenever you're right, shut up.
~Ogden Nash

His name is 'Today'

We are guilty of many errors and many faults but our worst crime is abandoning the children, neglecting the fountain of life. Many of the things we need can wait. The child cannot. Right now is the time his bones are being formed, his blood is being made, and his senses are being developed. To him we cannot answer 'Tomorrow.' His name is 'Today’. ~Gabriela Mistral

Hammering

If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. ~Abraham Maslow

Speak Your Mind

Well, a lot of people within government and big business are nervous of Hip Hop and Hip Hop artists, because they speak their minds. They talk about what they see and what they feel and what they know. They reflect what's around them. ~Afrika Bambaataa

Loving

When I was in the military they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one. ~Leonard P. Matlovich

Asunder

The beauty of the world has two edges, one of laughter, one of anguish, cutting the heart asunder. ~Virginia Woolf

Put into Practice

Like a beautiful flower that is colorful but has no fragrance, even well spoken words bear no fruit in one who does not put them into practice. ~Buddha

Freedom

Who ever walked behind anyone to freedom? If we can't go hand in hand, I don't want to go. ~Hazel Scott

Writing

When you use words, you're able to keep your mind alive. Writing is my way of reaffirming my own existence. ~Gao Xingjian

Have We Made It?

When Harvard men say they have graduated from Radcliffe, then we've made it. ~Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Find Your Place

Find your place on the planet. Dig in, and take responsibility from there. ~Gary Snyder

Wise One

Cats always seem so very wise, when staring with their half-closed eyes. Can they be thinking, "I'll be nice, and maybe she will feed me twice? ~Bette Midler

Thanksgiving

An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day. ~Irv Kupcinet

A Gift

When you learn something from people, or from a culture, you accept it as a gift, and it is your lifelong commitment to preserve it and build on it. ~Yo-Yo Ma

Friendship

I always felt that the great high privilege, relief and comfort of friendship was that one had to explain nothing.
~Katherine Mansfield

If it happens....

If it happens, it happens... We can't stop living ~Walter Reed

Roots and Wings

There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One is roots; the other, wings. ~Hodding Carter

Waste

You can tell how high a society is by how much of its garbage is recycled. ~Dhyani Ywahoo

Sincerity

You can play a shoestring if you're sincere. ~John Coltrane

Overcome

Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it. ~Helen Keller

Brood

Don't brood. Get on with living and loving. You don't have forever. ~Leo Buscaglia

Real Facts

I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crises. The great point is to bring them the real facts. ~Abraham Lincoln

Agreeing

One of my favorite philosophical tenets is that people will agree with you only if they already agree with you. You do not change people's minds. ~Frank Zappa

Vote

Voting is the most precious right of every citizen, and we have a moral obligation to ensure the integrity of our voting process. ~Hillary Clinton

Forgiveness

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. ~Mahatma Gandhi

Cleaning House

Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing.
~Phyllis Diller