"Everything you've ever wanted is on the other side of fear."
— George Addair
"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light."
— Plato
"When I was 5 years, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down 'happy'. They told me I didn't understand the assignment, and I told them they didn't understand life."
— John Lennon
The nine scariest words in the English language: I'm from the government and I'm here to help
— Ronald Reagan
"Everything has beauty, but not everyone can see."
— Confucius
"Never tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon."
— Unknown
"Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful."
— Joshua J Marine
"If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else."
— Booker T. Washington
"I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do."
—Leonardo da Vinci
"I didn't fail the test. I just found 100 ways to do it wrong."
— Benjamin Franklin
"There are no traffic jams along the extra mile."
— Roger Staubach
"A truly rich man, is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty."
—Ziad K. Abdelnour
"If you want your children to turn out well, spend twice as much time with them, and half as much money."
— Abigail Van Buren
"Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs."
— Farrah Gray
"Education costs money. But then so does ignorance."
— Sir Claus Moser
“When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”
— John Maynard
"I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear."
—Rosa Parks
"It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop."
— Confucius
"If you look at what you have in life, you'll always have more. If you look at what you don't have in life, you'll never have enough."
— Oprah Winfrey
"Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck."
—Dalai Lama
“One of the secrets of life is all that is really worth doing is what we do for others.”
— Lewis Carroll
"Do what you can, where you are, with what you have."
—Teddy Roosevelt
"If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten."
— Tony Robbins
"Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be."
— Grandma Moses
"The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me."
—Ayn Rand
"When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it."
— Henry Ford
"Change your thoughts and you change your world."
—Norman Vincent Peale
"Nothing is impossible, the word itself says, 'I'm possible' "
—Audrey Hepburn
"It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan"
—Eleanor Roosevelt
"It takes 20 years to make a reputation and only 5 minutes to destroy it"
— Warren Buffet
"“Success can be as simple as the warm feeling you get when you smile at a stranger, someone you know must be lonely, and having that stranger return your smile,”"
— Maryanne Trump Barry
"The Pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty."
— Winston Churchill
"An investment in knowledge pays the best dividends."
— Benjamin Franklin
"Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." — Ralph Waldo Emerson
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."
— T.S. Eliot
"Do what you love, or lean to love what you do"
— unknown
"The law sometimes sleeps, but it always wakes up"
— Unknown
"I Want to sing like the birds sing, not worrying about who hears or what they think."
— Rumi
"life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself."
— George Bernard Shaw
"Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence."
— Aristotle
"In our lives, change is unavoidable, loss is unavoidable. In the adaptability and ease with which we experience change, lies our happiness and freedom."
— Buddha
"Reflect upon you present blessings, of which every man has many - not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some."
— Charles Dickens
"Jellyfish have survived 650 million years despite not having a brain...this gives so many people hope"
— Unknown
"We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give."
—Winston Churchill
"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong."
— Anonymous
"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men"
—Frederick Douglass
"Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."
— Nathaniel Hawthorne
"Better a lie that heals than a truth that wounds"
—Czech Proverb
"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have."
—Thomas Jefferson
"I've crunched the numbers in my retirement account. It's time to figure out who's wearing the mask and who's driving the getaway car
— Unknown
"The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary."
—Vince Lombardi
"It is not what you look at that matters, it's what you see."
—Anonymous
“Failure at some point in your life is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable.”
— Joe Biden
"Stop living this life like it’s a dress rehearsal. This is the show! There is only one performance. You don’t have time for fear and hesitation."
— Charles M. Blow
"Time is like a river. You cannot touch the same water twice, because the flow that has passed, will never pass again"
— Unknown
"There is no telling how many miles you will have to run while chasing a dream."
— Unknown
"Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends."
— Virginia Woolf
"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."
— Winston Churchill
"Ah, how good it feels! The hand of an old friend."
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
"Courage is being afraid but going on anyhow."
— Dan Rather
05Jun
Blank Page… by JoAnn
As I sit here staring at my blank computer screen....
I ran across this quote by Mark Twain the other day: "The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why." Read more
Share this...FacebookPinterestTwitterLinkedin The other day my wife asked me to repair the birdhouse down by the creek. So, after finishing the project I was on (clean the yard of pine cones & gumballs), I removed. . . Read more
Share this... Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin I haven’t written one of these in a couple of years so I thought I would set down and see how dim-witted I have become since then. I have. . . Read more
Share this... Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Well, the heat pumps are finally installed and our home is warm and cozy again. The new thermostats are programmable and have a lot of features and, as most. . . Read more
Share this... Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin On March 27th Jerilyn’s brother, Wayne, passed away. He was 72 years old, suffered from juvenile diabetes and for the past 5 years and was on dialysis. Wayne was. . . Read more
Share this... Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Well, it has been quite a while since my last missive (August 4th) and a lot has happened during that time. With so much to tell, it’s. . . Read more
Share this... Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin The rain has been persistent for the last two days and appears to be determined to hang around for at least one more day. We certainly needed the rain. . . Read more
Share this... Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin I haven’t been feeling too well the last few days. Seems, I have a cold, or the flu, I dunno which. All I know is that it has sure. . . Read more
Share this... Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin As I watched Katie Couric interview John Edwards and his wife Elizabeth on 60 Minutes the other night, I was astonished by the questions she asked. As you probably. . . Read more
A merchant in Baghdad sends his servant to the marketplace for provisions. Soon afterwards, the servant came home white and trembling and told him that in the marketplace he was jostled by a woman whom. . . Read more
We Americans, according to research studies, are more likely to watch television than engage in any activity other than sleeping and working. Studies show that what we watch can shape our thinking, political preferences, and. . . Read more
I read recently that forty of the fifty tallest mountains on earth are in Pakistan. I had absolutely no idea of that fact, showing just how little, I know about our planet’s geography. But, thinking. . . Read more
Share this... Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin On March 31st, one of my very best friends passed over to the other side, twenty-six days before she turned 80. I first met Mary Ann when she was. . . Read more
Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot." - D. H. Lawrence Read more
“The Gardener’s Morning”
🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡
The robin’s song at daybreak Is a clarion call to me. Get up and get out in the garden, For the morning hours flee. I cannot resist the summons, What earnest gardener could? For the golden hours of morning Get into the gardener’s blood. The magic spell is upon me, I’m glad that I did not wait; For life’s at its best in the morning, As you pass through the garden gate.
~ Howard Dolf
Books I’m Reading
The Shell Seekers by Roseamunde Pilcher
War Beneath The Sea: Submarine Conflict During WW II by Peter Padfield
Three Stores & 10 Poems by Ernest Hemingway
Washington’s End: The Final Years And Forgotten Struggle by Jonathan Horn
Law of Innocence by Michael Connelly
American Revolution by Robert McDonald
The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis
The Scientists Who Changed History by DK
Three Days In January by Bret Baier & Courtney Whitney
Home
I write so I’ll know what I’m thinking
A Love Song
I'm a country music fan...
More...Retirement
My wife and I recently celebrated being in our new retirement community for two years...
More...God is my Boss
Why have I prospered when others have not? I believe it's because I have chosen to work like God is my boss...
More...Talking to Strangers
Sometimes, life seems to be chocked full of changes....
More...Satchell of Memories
The past is the country that has no visas...
More...A Tribute to My Friend Jerry
Recently, my good friend, Jerry, passed away...
More...Slow To Anger
I have always been slow to anger, and that is a trait we should all aspire to have...
More...Will You Remember Me?
Have I done anything...
More...What’s Behind The Curtain?
I realized one day that what I know about someone is only what they want me to know...
More..."Everything you've ever wanted is on the other side of fear."
— George Addair
"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light."
— Plato
"When I was 5 years, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down 'happy'. They told me I didn't understand the assignment, and I told them they didn't understand life."
— John Lennon
The nine scariest words in the English language: I'm from the government and I'm here to help
— Ronald Reagan
"Everything has beauty, but not everyone can see."
— Confucius
"Never tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon."
— Unknown
"Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful."
— Joshua J Marine
"If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else."
— Booker T. Washington
"I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do."
—Leonardo da Vinci
"I didn't fail the test. I just found 100 ways to do it wrong."
— Benjamin Franklin
"There are no traffic jams along the extra mile."
— Roger Staubach
"A truly rich man, is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty."
—Ziad K. Abdelnour
"If you want your children to turn out well, spend twice as much time with them, and half as much money."
— Abigail Van Buren
"Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs."
— Farrah Gray
"Education costs money. But then so does ignorance."
— Sir Claus Moser
“When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”
— John Maynard
"I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear."
—Rosa Parks
"It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop."
— Confucius
"If you look at what you have in life, you'll always have more. If you look at what you don't have in life, you'll never have enough."
— Oprah Winfrey
"Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck."
—Dalai Lama
“One of the secrets of life is all that is really worth doing is what we do for others.”
— Lewis Carroll
"Do what you can, where you are, with what you have."
—Teddy Roosevelt
"If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten."
— Tony Robbins
"Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be."
— Grandma Moses
"The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me."
—Ayn Rand
"When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it."
— Henry Ford
"Change your thoughts and you change your world."
—Norman Vincent Peale
"Nothing is impossible, the word itself says, 'I'm possible' "
—Audrey Hepburn
"It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan"
—Eleanor Roosevelt
"It takes 20 years to make a reputation and only 5 minutes to destroy it"
— Warren Buffet
"“Success can be as simple as the warm feeling you get when you smile at a stranger, someone you know must be lonely, and having that stranger return your smile,”"
— Maryanne Trump Barry
"The Pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty."
— Winston Churchill
"An investment in knowledge pays the best dividends."
— Benjamin Franklin
"Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." — Ralph Waldo Emerson
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go."
— T.S. Eliot
"Do what you love, or lean to love what you do"
— unknown
"The law sometimes sleeps, but it always wakes up"
— Unknown
"I Want to sing like the birds sing, not worrying about who hears or what they think."
— Rumi
"life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself."
— George Bernard Shaw
"Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence."
— Aristotle
"In our lives, change is unavoidable, loss is unavoidable. In the adaptability and ease with which we experience change, lies our happiness and freedom."
— Buddha
"Reflect upon you present blessings, of which every man has many - not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some."
— Charles Dickens
"Jellyfish have survived 650 million years despite not having a brain...this gives so many people hope"
— Unknown
"We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give."
—Winston Churchill
"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong."
— Anonymous
"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men"
—Frederick Douglass
"Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."
— Nathaniel Hawthorne
"Better a lie that heals than a truth that wounds"
—Czech Proverb
"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have."
—Thomas Jefferson
"I've crunched the numbers in my retirement account. It's time to figure out who's wearing the mask and who's driving the getaway car
— Unknown
"The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary."
—Vince Lombardi
"It is not what you look at that matters, it's what you see."
—Anonymous
“Failure at some point in your life is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable.”
— Joe Biden
"Stop living this life like it’s a dress rehearsal. This is the show! There is only one performance. You don’t have time for fear and hesitation."
— Charles M. Blow
"Time is like a river. You cannot touch the same water twice, because the flow that has passed, will never pass again"
— Unknown
"There is no telling how many miles you will have to run while chasing a dream."
— Unknown
"Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends."
— Virginia Woolf
"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."
— Winston Churchill
"Ah, how good it feels! The hand of an old friend."
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
"Courage is being afraid but going on anyhow."
— Dan Rather
Blank Page… by JoAnn
As I sit here staring at my blank computer screen....
More...Smells Familiar… by JoAnn
Today I went through the drive-thru at our local McDonald's...
More...Look Up… by JoAnn
When I was a little girl I loved to play outside...
More...Small Talk… by JoAnn
Many people say they don't actually care for small talk...
More...Dreaming In Watercolors… by JoAnn
I enjoy watching videos on Youtube...
More...Life Moments… by Larry Fields
June 7, 1960, was the date of our Grundy Highschool Graduation...
More...3 A.M. Alarm… by JoAnn
On the darkest of nights, when all is silent and sleeping...
More...Twenty Years… by JoAnn
I heard someone complain the other day they were turning 40...
More...Being Spared… by JoAnn
I spent all of yesterday glued to the television, waiting for weather reports...
More...The Joys of Sunday… by JoAnn
Growing up, my parents taught me that Sunday should be a day full of rest...
More...I Am Still Me …by Jane
It was finally here, the day when we would be leaving our home...
More...Celebrating Family… by Chelsea
I'm updating you today from my office...
More...This Is Who I Am…by Taylor
If I had to describe myself...
More...Every Child is an Artist
I read that quote and wasn't sure I agreed...
MoreA Tribute to My Friend Jerry
Recently, my good friend, Jerry, passed away...
MoreThe Candle or The Mirror
I think many of us have difficulty "living on life's terms."....
MoreMy Sermon For Christ
I ran across this question the other day: What would your sermon be if you had the opportunity to preach to Christ?....
MoreI Hate Being Wrong!
I hate to be wrong...
MoreTen Years Kaput!
A few days ago...
MoreSlow To Anger
I have always been slow to anger, and that is a trait we should all aspire to have...
MoreWill You Remember Me?
Have I done anything...
MoreSeeing My Younger Self
Every morning...
MoreAdding Insult to Injury
A few days ago...
MoreWhat’s Behind The Curtain?
I realized one day that what I know about someone is only what they want me to know...
MoreThe Two Most Important Days in My Life
I ran across this quote by Mark Twain the other day: "The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why."
Read more
If I were a Carpenter
Share this...FacebookPinterestTwitterLinkedin The other day my wife asked me to repair the birdhouse down by the creek. So, after finishing the project I was on (clean the yard of pine cones & gumballs), I removed. . .
Read more
It’s been a while
Share this... Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin I haven’t written one of these in a couple of years so I thought I would set down and see how dim-witted I have become since then. I have. . .
Read more
What do you dread the most?
Share this... Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Well, the heat pumps are finally installed and our home is warm and cozy again. The new thermostats are programmable and have a lot of features and, as most. . .
Read more
How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?
Share this... Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin On March 27th Jerilyn’s brother, Wayne, passed away. He was 72 years old, suffered from juvenile diabetes and for the past 5 years and was on dialysis. Wayne was. . .
Read more
Man’s loneliness is but his fear of life
Share this... Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin Well, it has been quite a while since my last missive (August 4th) and a lot has happened during that time. With so much to tell, it’s. . .
Read more
The baseball season is upon us
Share this... Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin The rain has been persistent for the last two days and appears to be determined to hang around for at least one more day. We certainly needed the rain. . .
Read more
Myrtle Beach
Share this... Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin I haven’t been feeling too well the last few days. Seems, I have a cold, or the flu, I dunno which. All I know is that it has sure. . .
Read more
Music in my everyday life
Share this... Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin As I watched Katie Couric interview John Edwards and his wife Elizabeth on 60 Minutes the other night, I was astonished by the questions she asked. As you probably. . .
Read more
Appointment in Samarra
A merchant in Baghdad sends his servant to the marketplace for provisions. Soon afterwards, the servant came home white and trembling and told him that in the marketplace he was jostled by a woman whom. . .
Read more
Watching TV
We Americans, according to research studies, are more likely to watch television than engage in any activity other than sleeping and working. Studies show that what we watch can shape our thinking, political preferences, and. . .
Read more
Teachers Make Excellent Friends
I read recently that forty of the fifty tallest mountains on earth are in Pakistan. I had absolutely no idea of that fact, showing just how little, I know about our planet’s geography. But, thinking. . .
Read more
Goodbye Old Friend!
Share this... Facebook Pinterest Twitter Linkedin On March 31st, one of my very best friends passed over to the other side, twenty-six days before she turned 80. I first met Mary Ann when she was. . .
Read more
Be Still When You Have Nothing To Say….
Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you've got to say, and say it hot." - D. H. Lawrence
Read more
“The Gardener’s Morning”
🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡
Is a clarion call to me.
Get up and get out in the garden,
For the morning hours flee.
I cannot resist the summons,
What earnest gardener could?
For the golden hours of morning
Get into the gardener’s blood.
The magic spell is upon me,
I’m glad that I did not wait;
For life’s at its best in the morning,
As you pass through the garden gate.
~ Howard Dolf
Books I’m Reading
The Shell Seekers by Roseamunde Pilcher
War Beneath The Sea: Submarine Conflict During WW II by Peter Padfield
Three Stores & 10 Poems by Ernest Hemingway
Washington’s End: The Final Years And Forgotten Struggle by Jonathan Horn
Law of Innocence by Michael Connelly
American Revolution by Robert McDonald
The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis
The Scientists Who Changed History by DK
Three Days In January by Bret Baier & Courtney Whitney
Web Things to Read
The Forgotten Town, The Forgotten Backwater by Cheryl Isaac
Terms You Will Only
Know If You Live In The South
Your Health A to Z
How Cancer Changes Hope
A Definition of Blockchain
Are car headlights getting brighter
Find out how stuff works
Search For Clinical Trials
IRS Tax Brackets for 2020
Find Any Info On 50 States USA
It’s Time to Talk About Death
Time and Date World Clock
COVID Dashboard
COVID-19 In Virginia
List of My 5 Star Movies
Dolittle (for kids ****)
In A Valley Of Violence (western) ***
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood ****
Yesterday ****