Wednesday, September 9, 2009

THAT'S where I get it from!

Awhile back, I began to wonder where I get this odd streak of thinking. How many other people save pre-paid reply envelopes, fill them with other offers received and send them back? Am I the only one? Some of the things I wonder about include - Is it possible to be totally partial? When sign makers go on strike, is anything written on their signs? Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?

Strange, I know. But I wonder, am I the only one to think of stuff like this?

Then it hit me...Perhaps these thoughts came during the 15 years we had our cat, Zero, in our lives. She certainly was a treasure. I would often have a post-nap thought - Someone has been doodling on my “Tabula rasa!"

I give her credit for inspiring many of my thoughts on life and the Importance of Words. Those times when Zero would curl up with me for a nap were often the times when my mind would wander through fruitful fields. I wondered why so many people seemed indifferent to words, books, thoughts and the like. It seemed I was watching someone being thrown a life preserver and they kept reaching for but never grasping it even though it was floating right in front of them. You've known people like that, haven't you? So, I thought I would share some favorite quotes in memory of the most wonderful kitty ever. It has been five years...


If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.
-- Katharine Hepburn

The secret of seeing is to sail on solar wind. Hone and spread your spirit, till you yourself are a sail, whetted, translucent, broadside to the merest puff.
-- Annie Dillard

People love pretty much the same things best. A writer looking for subject inquires not after what he loves best, but after what he alone loves at all.
-- Annie Dillard

People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost.
-- Dalai Lama

You never find yourself until you face the truth.
-- Pearl Bailey

It could be that God has not absconded but spread, as our vision and understanding of the universe have spread, to a fabric of spirit and sense so grand and subtle, so powerful in a new way, that we can only feel blindly of its hem. In making the thick darkness a swaddling band for the sea, God "set bars and doors" and said, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further." But have we even come that far? Have we rowed out to the thick darkness, or are we all playing pinochle in the bottom of the boat?
-- Annie Dillard

If you don't get lost, there's a chance you may never be found.
-- our old friend Anon

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.
-- e.e. cummings

Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
-- Albert Einstein

You can't hold a man down without staying down with him.
-- Booker T. Washington


Quotes from "A River Runs Through It" by Norman MacLean -

Long ago, when I was a young man, my father said to me, "Norman, you like to write stories." And I said "Yes, I do." Then he said, "Someday, when you're ready you might tell our family story. Only then will you understand what happened and why."



I remember distinctly after one of our afternoon naps, Zero looking my in the eyes as I took a thought from "A River Runs Through It" and carried it on a bit further -

Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of those rocks are timeless raindrops. Under those rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs and some are mine for the asking. I am haunted by these Living Waters. And I have no doubt that the river would lose its song if God removed the rocks. The Living Waters spring from God and He asks not only that you drink of them but that you step in and splash in them, soothe in them and follow them.



Ahh Zero! I still get carried by those many thoughts and I still visit new places. It is just lonelier there without you.

1 comment:

  1. If you could like dogs for one book, you might like "Merle's Door".

    ReplyDelete