On ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur

Le petit prince by shortpinay on deviantART

"On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux."

("One sees clearly only with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye.")

~Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

She stood in the storm

I can't change the direction of the wind... by Carmi Garcia

"She stood in the storm, and when the wind did not go her way...she adjusted her sails."

~Elizabeth Edwards

And above all watch with glittering eyes

bokeh+butterfly+grass {SOOC barring butterfly) by E v i e J a y e

“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.”

~Raold Dahl

Weekend DIY - Le Petit Prince inspiration jar

How utterly wonderful is this idea by Christy of Sweet Tidings? A favourite quote stamped on a glass bottle and decorated inside with pretty, sparkly things. Christy's used inspiration from Le Petit Prince (♥♥♥), but the possibilities are limitless! Stamp on any quote you like and fill your bottle with whatever inspires you. See the steps to hand-making your very own inspiration jar.

via Sweet Tidings

...like stained glass windows

Window at night by Dr Linda Campbell on Ecogirl & Cosmoboy, with permission

"People are like stained glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within."


~Dr Elisabeth Kűbler-Ross

New Year's Eve

[365] by Michelle Huynh

Happy 2012 everyone! Did you do anything special to bring in the new year?

I went to visit a friend who I hadn't seen in a while. She'd invited me to what she had intended to be a small, quiet New Year's eve with a few friends. The evening was going quickly for our small group; we chatted over food and drink, sang songs and played silly games. It was getting a little late by the time we decided we should probably head out if we wanted to see the fireworks. We even made hot chocolate to go so we could celebrate in style when Big Ben chimed midnight.

Of course, we were stuck in traffic for much of the way with others who'd presumably decided on the same thing. We eventually managed to park the car somewhere with 15 minutes to go and had to race against the clock to be on one of the bridges for the fireworks over the Thames. It's not easy to power walk whilst holding a flask of hot chocolate. We made it in time though and promptly joined in with the excited throng. There was much jumping, and shouting, and hugging. The hot chocolate had gone cold, but we didn't care anymore.

After the countdown and the light show, we decided to delay getting back into the car as we didn't want to have spent more time in it than out of it. So we wandered around the streets of central London, sang some more songs and bought smoothies from a smoothie shop that had employed bouncers for the night. Soon after, it was decided that we would all crash at my friend's place so that we could have a fry up breakfast together in the morning.

It was around 2am when we got back. Still buzzing, we continued to eat the leftover food and proceeded to wax lyrical about life and other things right into the small hours.

RW Emerson said, "It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.”

How true.

~*~ 

If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree

Goldfish by Dominique87 on deviantART

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

― Albert Einstein

A spoon of salt in the lake

"Let yourself be open and life will be easier. A spoon of salt in a glass of water makes it undrinkable. A spoon of salt in a lake is almost unnoticed."

~Buddha

Burrator reservoir in Dartmoor, by me

Tracks in the Snow

A poem for anyone who's ever lost their way. By Sherry Sharp of Dream A Little Designs. Read the original blog entry for the story behind this uplifting poem. Thank you Sherry for letting me share your beautiful writing.

Tracks in the Snow

You followed the tracks in the snow

under branches bowing your head

out to the clearing laid low

ankle-deep and faithfully so

you followed the tracks in the snow.

Without warning

they died down ahead,

your heart, in your chest, sinking like lead.

A tumbling, inescapable game~ of domino.

Where are the tracks, you said!

Where are my tracks in the snow?

Disappearing tracks in the snow?

Wondering now where to go?

Stand still for a minute and see…

The day leads to only where it can be.

This is where destiny has led

To an empty, unspoiled snow bed

Close your eyes now…

Feel the falling fresh snow lick clean at your face.

Summon your innermost grace.

Stand resolute of the steps to be tread.

Newborn is the promise that lies up ahead.

For it is not the tracks you’ve misread,

but the footprints behind to retread,

not in what went right or wrong,

but to recall your sweet soul and integrity song.

Winter lasts only so long.

To me you’ll always be golden, a boy all aglow

a gifted one ~ still so much to show.

Trust who you are.

Know.

Because what brought you here will surely bestow

Brand new trails! Splendid trails!

I have faith, you will sow.

~Sherry Sharp copyright 7/2010

Go instead where there is no path

"Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."

~Muriel Strode, from My Little Book of Prayer, Open Court Publishing, (1906)

Image from The Adventures of Peanut Butter and Jelly

Hope is the thing with feathers

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 chilliest land
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

Emily Dickinson, 1861

Willow Tree figurine by Susan Lordi - Hope

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishment the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley, 1875

Photograph: Man climbing rock at sunset by Greg Epperson

Not the critic who counts

Le ventre legislatif (The legislative belly) by Honoré Daumier, 1834

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt
"Citizenship in a Republic,"
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910

True friendship

"True friendship comes when silence between two people is comfortable."

~David Tyson Gentry

Forever Friend

Sometimes in life, you find a special friend;
Someone who changes your life by being a part of it.
Someone who makes you laugh until you can't stop;
Someone who makes you believe that there is really good in this world.
Someone who convinces you that there is
an unlocked door just waiting for you to open it.
This is forever friendship.

When you're down, and the world seems dark and empty,
your forever friend lifts you up in spirit
and makes that dark and empty world suddenly seem bright and full.

Your forever friend gets you through the hard times,
and the sad times, and the confused times.

If you turn and walk away, your forever friend follows.
If you lose your way, your forever friend guides you and cheers you on.

Your forever friend holds your hand
and tells you that everything is going to be okay.
And when you find such a friend, you'll feel happy and complete,
because you need not worry.

You have a forever friend for life
and forever has no end.

~Laurieann Kelly

The best moments

"The best moments in reading are when you come across something - a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things - that you'd thought special, particular to you. And here it is, set down by someone else, a person you've never met, maybe even someone long dead. And it's as if a hand has come out, and taken yours."

Hector, History Boys by Alan Bennett

A Fool's Courage

El vagabundo. by ~faboarts on deviantART

"Failure is unimportant. It takes courage to make a fool of yourself."

~Charlie Chaplin

Courage

Lion, by Spontaneous Portraits

"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, I will try again tomorrow."

~Mary Anne Radmache, writer

Inexpressible comfort

Postcard art, Leendert Jan Vis (♥)

"...the blessing it is to have a friend to whom one can speak fearlessly on any subject; with whom one's deepest as well as one's most foolish thoughts come out simply and safely. Oh, the comfort — the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person — having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away."

A Life for a Life, 1859, Dinah Craik, English novelist & poet

...little mulch of letters

"A friendship can weather most things and thrive in thin soil but it needs a little mulch of letters and phone calls and small silly presents every so often - just to save it from drying out completely."

~Pam Brown, Australian poet