Today's Joy: Lines Worthy of A Movie.

Worked the early shift, Reader. Now I'm home and watching the sun go down over golden Illinois cornfields. Feels a bit like a scene from a movie, actually. Puts me in a thoughtful mood--wondering what it must have been like to star in an old Hollywood film, with some profound thought on life antzing around the tip of your tongue. Just waiting for the timing to be right so it could leap off and dazzle the audience sitting just out of frame. Drama, eyes welling with emotion, golden age wardrobe and campy romance scene kiss all included.

Alas, I can't think of any silver screen gems to amuse you. And my attempt to strike a Marlene Dietrich pose is failing miserably. So instead, here are some great lines about life that I found at The Quote Garden. Wonder how Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant or Katharine Hepburn would have delivered these...

Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can. ~Danny Kaye

Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: "I am with you kid. Let's go." ~Maya Angelou

There is a lesson we learn early and harmlessly, or late and traumatically - that there are things we can break that our parents can't fix. ~Robert Brault

Give us Lord, a bit o' sun,

A bit o' work and a bit o' fun;

Give us all in the struggle and sputter

Our daily bread and a bit o' butter. ~ From an inn in Lancaster, England

I have measured out my life with coffee spoons. ~T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

God asks no man whether he will accept life. That is not the choice. You must take it. The only question is how. ~Henry Ward Beecher

The true harvest of my daily life is somewhat as intangible and indescribable as the tints of morning or evening. It is a little star dust caught, a segment of the rainbow which I have clutched. ~Henry David Thoreau, Walden

The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware. ~Henry Miller

Living involves tearing up one rough draft after another. ~Author Unknown

Few of us write great novels; all of us live them. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960

My life has a superb cast but I can't figure out the plot. ~Ashleigh Brilliant

Life is a long lesson in humility. ~James M. Barrie

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, "I used everything you gave me." ~Erma Bombeck

Today's Joy: Contemplation.

Here are a few quotes and thoughts I've been ruminating on the last few days. May they get your neurons firing too, Reader (or perhaps lead to other ideas that get you thinking).

"It's gotta be more like

falling in love

than something to believe in.

More like

losing my heart

than giving my allegiance." ~ Jason Gray

"Between you and every goal that you wish to achieve, there is a series of obstacles, and the bigger the goal, the bigger the obstacles. Your decision to be, have and do something out of the ordinary entails facing difficulties and challenges that are out of the ordinary as well. Sometimes your greatest asset is simply your ability to stay with it longer than anyone else."

~ Brian Tracy

Good Things: easy, elegant ideas that make life a little lovelier. ~ Martha Stewart

"Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail."

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

How can a society that exists on instant mashed potatoes, packaged cake mixes, frozen dinners, and instant cameras teach patience to its young? ~ Paul Sweeney

Photo: Shoe Shiner Taking A Nap, Franklin Grove, IL, 2008.

It's all in the attitude - housework is exercise. Slim your way to a clean home! ~Linda Solegato

Please don't feed the dust bunnies. ~Author Unknown

Today's Joy: Spring Cleaning.
Whew! I've been at it since early this afternoon but--at last--the upstairs of our lovely abode is clean! Reader, I am pooped! I scrubbed the bathroom top to bottom, wiped down the vents, polished all of Great Aunt's antique bedroom furniture (even the headboard!), vacuumed, dusted, reorganized, fluffed the featherbed, washed the linens and packed up the last of the winter clothing.

Have to admit, it feels really good to have everything ready for summer. Now, I'm off to bed. Gonna sleep like a log!

My idea of superwoman is someone who scrubs her own floors. ~Bette Midler

There may be dust in my house but there isn't any on me. ~Author Unknown

Quotes courtesy of The Quote Garden.

"Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;

And give us not to think so far away

As the uncertain harvest; keep us here

All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,

Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;

And make us happy in the happy bees,

The swarm dilating round the perfect trees."

- Robert Frost, A Prayer in Spring

Today's Joy: Gratitude & Spring Sunshine.

It's one of those quiet days, Reader, when nothing extraordinary happens. A little peace on a warm afternoon--the perfect time to take stock and count blessings. I'm grateful for windows that roll down, yellow shirts paired with pink-n-orange scarves, homemade potato salad, dinner with loved ones, listening to Aunt read from the latest issue of Victoria Magazine and fat, orange tom cats crabbing because they're ready for bed. It's after seven at night, I'm drinking Limeade and the sun hasn't gone down yet. Yep, a darn good spring day!

"What delights us in the spring is more a sensation than an appearance, more a hope than any visible reality. There is something in the softness of the air, in the lengthening of the days, in the very sounds and odors of the sweet time, that caresses us and consoles us after the rigorous weeks of winter."- Philip Gilbert Hamerton

"I stuck my head out the window this morning and spring kissed me bang in the face. "

- Langston Hughes

Quotes courtesy of the Green Way Blog, by Mike Garofalo.

Photo: Earring Detail, Chaplin Creek Re-enactment, Franklin Grove, IL, June, 2008.

It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so! ~Mark Twain

Today's Joy: Wiggling My Toes in Green Grass for the First Time This Season.
What a glorious feeling! Here, Reader, are a few of my favorite quotes regarding this wonderful season:

April hath put a spirit of youth in everything. ~William Shakespeare

The day the Lord created hope was probably the same day he created Spring. ~Bern Williams

If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. ~Nadine Stair

In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four and twenty hours. ~Mark Twain

In springtime, love is carried on the breeze. Watch out for flying passion or kisses whizzing by your head. ~Terri Guillemets

Quotes courtesy of The Quote Garden.
Photo: Gardenia, Chicago Botanic Garden, March, 2010.