One Change

"One change leaves the way open
for the introduction of others."
~ Niccolo Machiavelli

Sometimes when I am homesick, I imagine there's ocean beneath the fog...

What We Make It

"Life is what we make it,
always has been, always will be."
~ Grandma Moses

They say that sunlight disinfects. But more. Sunlight clarifies, sustains, and empowers. Sunlight is life, a celebration of life.

Passions, Great Passions

Butler Mountain, West Virginia

"Only passions, great passions
can elevate the soul to great things"
~ Denis Diderot

View from the cabin porch. Solitude and silence. With the pretty landscape comes quiet reflection...

Carry Your Heart

Butler Mountain, West Virginia

"i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it (anywhere..."
~ e.e. cummings

Dee Cator who composes and plays keyboards by ear, created beautiful original music for her stepson's recent wedding. A lifelong artist, she has a great cd and continues to create heart-felt songs. For more info, please contact her at deecator@yahoo.com

To listen to a sample of her music, click: Baker Wedding

Mountains Run Up

Butler Mountain, Greenbrier County, West Virginia

"Mountains run up like walls,
with little flat land between,
and the people who live there
(in West Virginia)
like it that way.
They have mortal fear, some of them,
of country where there are no hills
to protect them from the wind."
~ Virgil Carrington Jones

West Virginia is rugged terrain, great beauty. Before becoming a state in 1863, "western Virginia" and "West Virginia" were used interchangeably to describe the Western half of Virginia.

Red Has Guts

"Red has guts…
deep, strong, dramatic.
A geranium red.
A Goya red… to be used like gold
for furnishing a house…"
~ Valentino Garavani Valentino

Prudent Question

"A prudent question is one half of wisdom."
~ Francis Bacon

Heart Is Important

"The heart is important at any age, I’m afraid."
~ John Kennedy Toole

Talk To The Clouds

"You must not blame me
if I do talk to the clouds."
~ Henry David Thoreau

Mountain Is Waiting

"Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting.
So... get on your way."
~ Dr. Seuss

Your Imagination

"Live out of your imagination, not your history."
~ Stephen Covey

To Be Cured

"It is part of the cure to wish to be cured."
~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Something Behind You

"Don't stumble over something
behind you."
~ Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Shine So Brightly

"In order for the light to shine so brightly,
the darkness must be present."
~ Francis Bacon

Better Things

"No matter how small and unimportant
what we are doing may seem,
if we do it well,
it may soon become the step
that will lead us to better things."
~ Channing Pollock

Where Thou Art

"Where Thou art--that--is Home."
~ Emily Dickinson

Spirit is Freedom

"The substance, the essence,
the Spirit is freedom."
~ Georg W.F. Hegel

Everything Nourishes

"Everything nourishes what is strong already."
~ Jane Austen

Rainbow Leap

"And as he spoke of understanding,
I looked up and saw the rainbow leap
with flames of many colors over me."
~ Black Elk

Those Clouds

"Those clouds are angels' robes.--
That fiery west
Is paved with smiling faces."
~ Charles Kingsley

Waken the World

"Every blessed day I waken the world."~ Philip Levine

New Life

Easter Sunday

"Easter spells out beauty,
the rare beauty of new life."
~S.D. Gordon

What You Can Do

"Now is no time to think of what you do not have.
Think of what you can do with what there is."
~ Ernest Hemingway

Concentration

"Concentration is my motto.
First honesty, then industry,
then concentration."
~ Andrew Carnegie

I Know

"It is not that I think or believe,
but that I know."
~ Arthur Conan Doyle

Enternity's Sunrise

"He who kisses the the joy as it flies.
Lives in Eternity’s sunrise."
~ William Blake

Say "I Love You"

"Say 'I love you' to those you love.
The eternal silence is long enough
to be silent in, and that awaits us all."
~ George Eliot

Give Birth

"Our main task is to give
birth to ourselves."
~ Erich Fromm

Verb

"Love is a verb."
~ Clare Boothe Luce

Truly Great People

Greenville, South Carolina

"Truly great people emit a light
that warms the hearts of those
around them."
~ Yoshimoto Banana

Gift of Quiet

"He has the gift of quiet."
~ John Le Carré

Position of the Artist

"The position of the artist is humble.
He is essentially a channel."
~ Piet Mondrian

Gentle Progression

"Life was never meant to be a struggle
just a gentle progression
from one point to another,
much like walking through a valley
on a sunny day."
~ Stuart Wilde

Compact of Fire

"Love is a spirit all compact of fire. "
~ William Shakespeare

Bleach the Snow

"Sunshine cannot bleach the snow,
Nor time unmake what poets know.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

falling white confetti
sticking to trees
branches glistening
bright sun
fresh air earth
covered with
clean magic

I woke up to a beautiful winter Wonderland as Asheville received about 3 inches of snow. For a Hawaiian born and raised like me, snow is a BIG thrill. And a reason to email family and stay indoors.

Can't Depend on Your Eyes

"You can't depend on your eyes
when your imagination is out of focus."
~ Mark Twain

Time to Relax

"The time to relax is when
you don’t have time for it."
~ Sydney J. Harris

A Good Heart

"A good heart is better than all the heads in the world."
~ Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Home

The Moana Hotel, Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii

"There's no other place that I'd rather be
than home in these islands
in the middle of the sea."
~ Henry Kapono Ka'aihue

Yes or Yes?

"True or true? Yes or yes?"
~ Mark Victor Hansen

Fill the Hour

"To fill the hour--that is happiness."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

New-Born Year

"Each age has deemed the new-born year
The fittest time for festal cheer."
~Walter Scott

Magnitude of Our Courage

"It's not the magnitude of the task that matters,
it's the magnitude of our courage."
~ Matthieu Ricard

Best Day of the Year

"Write on your heart that every day
is the best day of the year."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

High Trees

"You know what they say,
the high trees get the wind."
~ Lance Armstrong

All Events Are Blessings

"There are no mistakes,
no coincidences.
All events are blessings given to us
to learn from."
~ Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

Travel Hopefully

"To travel hopefully is a better thing
than to arrive."
~ Robert Louis Stevenson

Dog Wags

"A dog wags its tail with its heart."
~ Martin Buxbaum

Freely Accepted

"There is dignity in work only when
it is work freely accepted."
~ Albert Camus