Cool Quote

I found this lovely quote one day I as I was going about my daily routine and thought it was really cool.

"What is called my character, or nature, is made up of infinite particles of inherited tendencies from my ancestors--those whose blood runs in my veins. A little seed of laziness comes from this grandfather, and of prodigality from that other one. One of them may have been a moody person and a pessimist, while another was of a jovial nature who always saw the sunny side of every event. One may have had a most satisfactory life as a philosopher, while another ambitious one never was contented with actual conditions whatever they were. Some remote grandmother, perhaps, has stamped me with a fear of dogs and love of horses. There may be in me a bit of outlawry from some pirate forefather and a dash of piety from one who was a saint. My so-called particularities, my gestures, my ways and my mannerisms, I borrowed from all, without any exception. So everything in me passes on through my children.

I am sewn between ancestry and posterity. I am a drip of water in the flowing river of time, a molecule in a mountain, a cell in a great family tree. As we enter life we find all these fears and fancies, likes and dislikes, dispositions and temperament already made in the human beehive and crawl into them, so that they become a part of our true fiber, part of our personal texture, part of our frame of mind and body. This is our birthmark; this is our heritage."

Oliver Wendell Holmes 1841-1935
United States Supreme Court 1902-1932

Hope Floats

Here's what the poet Emily Dickinson (one of my favorites) has to say on the subject...

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

But what if I don't have spare change to put in the Salvation Army guy's bucket???

Christmas time is one of those seasons where you are always trying to decide what you want other to give you for Christmas...how many of us consider the fact we can give to others without even spending a single penny? (not that buying other people presents isn't fun -- because it is!)

I love this quote from Marvin J. Ashton, it helps me better understand what I can to have the true Christmas spirit...

"Charity is, perhaps, in many ways a misunderstood word. We often equate charity with visiting the sick, taking in casseroles to those in need, or sharing our excess with those who are less fortunate. But really, true charity is much, much more.

Real charity is not something you give away; it is something that you acquire and make a part of yourself. And when the virtue of charity becomes implanted in your heart, you are never the same again...

Perhaps the greatest charity comes when we are kind to each other, when we don’t judge or categorize someone else, when we simply give each other the benefit of the doubt or remain quiet. Charity is accepting someone’s differences, weaknesses, and shortcomings; having patience with someone who has let us down; or resisting the impulse to become offended when someone doesn’t handle something the way we might have hoped. Charity is refusing to take advantage of another’s weakness and being willing to forgive someone who has hurt us. Charity is expecting the best of each other."

(Marvin J. Ashton, “The Tongue Can Be a Sharp Sword,” Ensign, May 1992, 18)