Naomi Shihab Nye
Love love love. (Isn't your day incrementally better for having read this poem?)
Showing posts with label quotes. Show all posts
paris dans le printemps
/ / / /
rain glancing off slate rooftops. the smell of the flower market. chalk dust palimpsests. sunlight dancing through a canopy of horse-chestnut trees. the muscle memory of the boulanger. crumbling stone. spent petals littering the ground—the loveliest confetti to celebrate spring. french doors & french windows & french everything, actually. shrink-wrapped books gathering dust and dew. herbs spilling out of a windowsill greenhouse. the hum of the crowd and the hum of the orchestra and the hum of the painting above them. the peeling green paint of a park bench. church bells (layers of them). magnolias in bloom and lilacs on the cusp. a twinkling at dusk.
/ / / /
/ / / /
"America is my country and Paris is my home town." –Gertrude Stein
/ / / /
/ / / /
"Comment s'appelle ça?"
"La rhododendron."
"Alors, c'est la même."
/ / / /
I already thought Paris was perfect—then I visited during the spring. Ça c'était vraiment parfaît.
Miss Honeychurch
"I'm not cynical. I'm only thinking of my pet theory about Miss Honeychurch. Does it seem reasonable that she should play so wonderfully, and live so quietly? I suspect that one day she will be wonderful in both. The water-tight compartments in her will break down, and music and life will mingle. Then we shall have her heroically good, heroically bad—too heroic, perhaps, to be good or bad." | E.M. Forster, A Room With a View
{Poppies remind me always of Italy, and Italy reminds me always of A Room With a View and Miss Honeychurch's muddles.}
autumn past
"Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes."
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning
{a long lost post of unpublished photos from last fall}
look around, look around
Walking around a hip neighborhood in Vancouver, I noticed this quote painted on the rear wall of a restaurant. It's another iteration of an oft-repeated line in the musical Hamilton and quite a good motto, I think.
Bath House Book Club
The Bath House Book Club was founded in January 2014 and has been going steady(ish) ever since. Originally the book club was made up of several of my roommates in the Bath House: Age, Jess, Hil, me, and our friend Vanessa. With the ever shifting composition of the book club, we keep things up these days on a Facebook group and meet up with everyone who lives locally. The format, however, remains unchanged—we rotate choosing the book and hosting the accompanying discussion, so over the two years we've read a wide breadth of things!
Below is a chronological list of the selections of the BHBC, with a couple quotes thrown in for good measure:
Cheryl Strayed | Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
"It struck me that distant cities are designed precisely so you can know where you came from. We bring home with us when we leave." Colum McCann | Let the Great World Spin also quoted here
Brian Doyle | The Wet Engine quoted here
Jeannette Walls | The Glass Castle
Kim Edwards | The Memory Keeper's Daughter (full disclosure: I read about the first 30 pages and wasn't a huge fan so I didn't actually finish this book)
Katie Heaney | Never Have I Ever
"There are so many people. It is easy to forget how full the world is of people, full to bursting, and each of them imaginable and consistently misimagined. I feel like this is an important idea, one of those ideas that your brain must wrap itself around slowly, the way pythons eat." John Green | Paper Towns
Sue Monk Kidd | The Secret Life of Bees
C.S. Lewis | Till We Have Faces quoted here
David James Brown | The Boys in the Boat
"In the end, people don't view their life as merely the average of all its moments—which, after all, is mostly nothing much plus some sleep. For human beings, life is meaningful because it has a story. A story has a sense of a whole, and its arc is determined by the significant moments, the ones where something happens. . . . Unlike your experiencing self—which is absorbed in the moment—your remembering self is attempting to recognize not only the peaks of joy and valley of misery but also how the story works out as a whole." Atul Gawande | Being Mortal
Susannah Cahalan | Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness
currently reading: Malcolm Gladwell | David and Goliath
. . . .
Have you ever been in a book club or are you in one? What have been your favorite things to read with a group? I think there is definitely an art to choosing a good book club book, and I always love to hear more ideas!
even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these
"Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
"Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
"And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
"And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
"Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?" | Matthew 6:26-30
. . . .
"But one thing was certain: I had never thought at all how it might be with her when I turned first to the Fox and then to Psyche. For it had been somehow settled in my mind from the very beginning that I was the pitiable and ill-used one. She had her gold curls, hadn't she?" | C.S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces, p. 256
. . . .
"Why do people keep asking to see
God's identity papers
when the darkness opening into morning
is more than enough?
Certainly any god might turn away in disgust.
Think of Sheba approaching
the kingdom of Solomon.
Do you think she had to ask,
'Is this the place?'" | Mary Oliver, "I Wake Close to Morning," Felicity, p. 19
Recent readings that have been on my mind in one form or another. And photos from Glacier NP just because—because being in the grandiosity of the natural world reminds me how small my anxieties and worries are in the great scheme of things. And in the throes of the daily grind, this is something to be remembered. piano piano.
les étoiles et les feuilles
"Progo!" Meg asked. "You memorized the names of all the stars—how many are there?"
"How many? Great heavens, earthling, I haven't the faintest idea."
"But you said your last assignment was to memorize the names of all of them."
"I did. All the stars in all the galaxies. And that's a great many."
"But how many?"
"What difference does it make? I know their names. I don't know how many there are. It's their names that matter." -Madeleine L'Engle, A Wind in the Door, p. 206
Big S, little s, what begins with S? (the titles of the books quoted herein)
"Mama, the more I know of the world, the more I am convinced that I shall never see a man whom I can really love. I require so much!" –Marianne Dashwood, age 16 (ha!); Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, p. 21
"The first thing that struck me was how the single women of my acquaintance were exceptionally alert to the people around them, generous in their attention, ready to engage in conversation or share a joke. Having nobody to go home to at night had always seemed a sad and lonesome fate; now I saw that being forced to leave the house for human contact encourages a person to live more fully in the world. In the best instances, the result was an intricate lacework of friendships varying in intensity and closeness that could be, it seemed, just as sustaining as a nuclear family, and possibly more appealing." –Kate Bolick, Spinster, p. 60
. . . .
Just some quotes from some things I am reading at the moment. I think the first is funny, ironic, and sometimes (often) feels true. The second I found interesting and I agree with in part. I find great fulfillment in the family relationships that I have (sister and daughter), and I am sure those of wife and mother bring an entirely different type of fulfillment and sustenance. I do think it is true, though, that my life is vibrant in many ways that are the direct result of this unique stage of my life, and I am grateful for that. (And peonies and a Dr. Suess reference (the title of this post) just because.)
neature
"This is the truth of the pervading intricacy of the world's detail: the creation is not a study, a roughed-in sketch; it is supremely, meticulously created, created abundantly, extravagantly, and in fine." –Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, p. 136
I'm grateful for this time of my life where I live near, practically in, the mountains. They are a daily reminder of the beautiful world created just for us, and their soaring heights remind me that I am part of something much larger and grander than my own little life. I love my backyard, the parks down the street, the winding roads into nearby canyons. I take my lunch break most often outside, with a picnic blanket and a book, and summer evenings are filled with walks around my neighborhood. When I'm feeling anxious, I can go on a run or bicycle ride to breathe fresh air and calm my thoughts. I usually end up at the same nearby park and stretch out on my back in the grass to feel the wind on my face and watch the shifting colors as night falls. The little valley where I live is a theater-in-the-round for mother nature, with her puffy white clouds, clear blue skies, blazing sunsets.
Last week I started reading Annie Dillard's 1974 Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, on the recommendation from several friends. It has immediately become a favorite, with Dillard's striking prose and eye for the intricate details of nature. She is exultant in her account of a year at Tinker Creek, VA, reminding me in many ways of Thoreau's transcendentalist Walden (which I also love) and capturing in words many of my own feelings about nature, the natural world, and our Creator. Chapter 2 on "Seeing" was used by my freshman Biology 100 teacher, along with these verses in the Doctrine and Covenants, to form the basis of our study of "biology for life" as he termed it. I had hoped to track down that essay and imagine my delight when it came back to me as part of a larger work, this wonderful book.
I wish to see every corner of this wide, wonderful world. But even if I don't, my own little corner of the world is pretty great.
on my mind as of late
"In striving for some peace and understanding in these difficult matters, it is crucial to remember that we are living—and chose to live—in a fallen world where for divine purposes our pursuit of godliness will be tested and tried again and again. Of greatest assurance in God’s plan is that a Savior was promised, a Redeemer, who through our faith in Him would lift us triumphantly over those tests and trials, even though the cost to do so would be unfathomable for both the Father who sent Him and the Son who came. It is only an appreciation of this divine love that will make our own lesser suffering first bearable, then understandable, and finally redemptive." –Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, "Like a Broken Vessel"
. . . .
. . . .
selected quotes from recently read books on my shelves
"And it never failed that during the dry years the people forgot about the rich years, and during the wet years they lost all memory of the dry years. It was always that way." | John Steinbeck, East of Eden, p. 6
"So much held in heart in a life. So much held in heart in a day, an hour, a moment. We are utterly open with no one, in the end. . . . We open windows to each but we live alone in the house of the heart. Perhaps we must. Perhaps we could not bear to be so naked, for fear of a constantly harrowed heart." | Brian Doyle, The Wet Engine, p. 66
"A good night's sleep, or a ten-minute bawl, or a pint of chocolate ice cream, or all three together, is good medicine, Doug. You listen to Tom Spaulding, M.D." | Ray Bradbury, Dandelion Wine, p. 156
"But in a book I read and cherish,
Going to Walden is not so easy a thing
As a green visit. It is the slow and difficult
Trick of living, and finding it where you are." | Mary Oliver, Going to Walden, New and Selected Poems Vol. 1, p. 239
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hello
My name is Elizabeth. Jersey girl in the Rocky Mountains and lover of many things: reading, writing, the outdoors, travel, cooking, all of the plants, light, language, poetry, the moon, the stars—to name a few.
sogni d'oro: translation, please.
bookish
