A quote from one of my Christmas gifts.

"...Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves...Do not...seek the answers, 3which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will...graduall, without noticing it, live along soome distant day into the answer."
~Rainer Maria Rilke
Letters to a Young Poet. Letter No. 4. Translated by M.D. Herter

Peace
~Mad
www.xanga.com/madewyn

"You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you." - Frederick Buechner

from http://www.bedlamfarm.com/

"....I believe in plodding. Productivity is more a matter of diligent, long-distance hiking than it is one-hundred-yard dashing. Doing a little bit now is far better than hoping to do a lot on the morrow. So redeem the fifteen minute spaces. Chip away at it. For example, I have a stack of six books that I am working through most weekday mornings -- a page or two of each every time I sit down to read. I do the same thing with writing -- if you have time for a little bit, then do a little bit."
~Doug Wilson by way of Jawan

Peace,
~Madewyn

"One man, one vote." ~Civil rights slogan

"There is but one unconditional commandment, which is that we should seek incessantly, with fear and trembling, so to vote and to act as to bring about the very largest total universe of good which we can see." ~William James (1842 - 1910)

Peace,
~Mad

(...and remember, my own words are over at www.xanga.com/madewyn)

"...who are you to judge the life i live? i know i'm not perfect – and i don't live to be. but before you start pointing fingers, make sure your hands are clean."

~bob marley

Borrowed from Spring of Joy:

“…my future seemed to stretch out before me like a straight road. I thought I could see along it for many a milestone. Now there is a bend in it. I don’t know what lies around the bend, but I’m going to believe that the best does. It has a fascination of its own, that bend, Marilla. I wonder how the road beyond it goes–what there is of green glory and soft, checkered light and shadows–what new landscapes–what new beauties–what curves and hills and valleys further on.”

– Anne of Green Gables, Chapter XXXVIII

I was going to copy this quote:

"We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same." ~Anne Frank

(http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/anne_frank.html)

Then I found this one, too:

"Life is rather like a tin of sardines - we're all of us looking for the key."
~Alan Bennett

(http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_diversity.html)

"The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them."

-Thomas Merton

As always, remember I am over at www.xanga.com/madewyn more often than not!

Peace

borrowed from candyrant.blogspot.com:


I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow,
than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time.

Jack London

from http://antiquemommy.com:

“Faith wears everyday clothes and proves herself in life’s ordinary situations.”

Check my own words out at www.xanga.com/madewyn

Found on a RevGalPal blog -

“Be thou comforted, little dog, Thou too in Resurrection shall have a little golden tail.”–Martin Luther

Peace,
~Mad(elyn) in Alabama

Remember I am usually found over at www.xanga.com/madewyn -

...in an email from Iowa this morning -

"If Christianity was something we were making up, of course we could make it easier. But it is not. We cannot compete, in simplicity with people who are inventing religions. How could we? We are dealing with Fact. Of course anyone can be simple if he has no facts to bother about."
~Mere Christianity

Amen.

~Mad(elyn)

Remember I blog myself over at www.xanga.com/madewyn

From http://www.wheresmydamnanswer.com/WP02/?p=805 Carol Woodliff

"For my book, I was researching the Franklin Delano Roosevelt quote, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” and I ran across the full text of the 1933 inaugural address from which that quote is taken.
As I read this today with all the news about the financial markets, I realized that it is good to have a sense of history and where we’ve been and where we are now. Seems much of what FDR wrote about is in play today.
In the speech, FDR said:
Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.

Seems we are still working on that one, eh?"

Something to think about, huh?

Remember I blog my own stuff over at www.xanga.com/madewyn.

Pastor Chuck Swindoll wrote “humor is not a sin. It is a God-given escape hatch … a safety valve … to lack a good sense of humor is a serious deficiency (The Finishing Touch).

Remember - I usually blog (in my own words) over at www.xanga.com/madewyn

Random - just random...

" Sired by a hurricane, dam'd by an earthquake."

~Mark Twain (Barlett's Quotations)

from http:/falwyn.wordpress.com:

All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened to you, and afterwards it all belongs to you: the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was.

-Ernest Hemingway

Remember i'm usually over at www.xanga.com/madewyn where I use my own words much more than here - which is not so much.

Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden, mother of Senator Joe Biden:
"You know, she taught her children-all the children who flocked to our house-that you are defined by your sense of honor, and you are redeemed by your loyalty. She believes bravery lives in every heart and her expectation is that it will be summoned.

"Failure at some point in everyone’s life is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable. "

from www.dooce.com:

"My friend Leona gave me some really profound advice last night as we were talking about how much better our thirties are compared to our twenties. She said, 'No matter what horrible thing you're going through, when it's all over it only takes three seconds to sum it up. Remember that.' "

I like that - alot!

Remember i'm usually over at www.xanga.com/madewyn where I use my own words much more than here - which is NONE.

An endless supply of great quotes by great leaders: http://www.greatquotesmovie.com/

Thanks to www.rocksinmydryer.com for the lead...

Remember, I am more often over at www.xanga.com/madewyn with words of my own.

Though I have to admit, other folks' words so often just say it so much better!

~Mad(elyn) in Alabama

Remember I am usually over at www.xanga.com/madewyn where I write more than just other folks' words - I try some of my own.

"Memory is more than a looking back to a time that is no longer; it is a looking out into another kind of time altogether where everything that ever was continues not just to be, but to grow and change with the life that is in it still. The people we loved. The people who loved us. The people, who, for good or ill, taught us things."

~ Buechner, The Sacred Journey

Remember I am usually over at www.xanga.com/madewyn where I write more than just other folks' words - I try some of my own.

"True love never forces." She squeezed his hand and sat back.

"But, if I understand what you're saying, the consequences of our selfishness are part of the process that brings us to the end of our delusions, and helps us find you. I that why you don't stop evil?"

"If only it were that simple. Mackenzie. Nobody knows what horrors I have saved the world from 'cuz people can't see what never happend. All evil flows from independence, and indendence is your choice."

"Evil is the chaos of this age that you brought to me, but it will not have the final say. Now it touches everyone that I love, those who follow me and those who don't. If I take away the consequences of people's choices, I destroy the possibility of love. Love that is forced is no love at all."

THE SHACK by William P. Young

Currently reading HANNAH COULTER a novel by Wendell Berry. Part of his story about the citizens of Port William, Kentucky.

I come from Iowan folks, but this so reminds me of my Grammy and her life and farmland in Iowa.

"Oftentimes after it no longer matters whether things are clear or not, they become clear."

"The chance you had is the life you've got. You can make complaints about what people, including you, make of their lives after they have got them, and about what people make of other people's lives, even about your children being gone, but you mustn't wish for another life. You mustn't want to be somebody else. What you must do it this: 'Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks.' I am not all the way capable of so much, but those are the right instructions."

Amen!
~Mad

Remember I am usually over at www.xanga.com/madewyn where I write more than just other folks' words - I try some of my own.

One of the secrets of a happy life is continuous small treats. -- Iris Murdoch

~from http://thementalpausechronicles.blogspot.com/

...And - remember - I'm usually over at www.xanga.com/madewyn

Remember, most of the time I am over at www.xanga.com/madewyn.

"Prayer is no fitfull, short-lived thing. It is no voice crying unheard and unheeded into the silence. It is a voice which goes into God’s ear and it lives as long as God’s ear is open to holy pleas, as long as God’s heart is alive to holy things. God shapes the world by prayer. Prayers are deathless. The lips that utter them may be closed in death, the heart that felt them may have ceased to beat, but the prayers live before God, and God’s heart is set on them. Prayers outlive the lives of those who uttered them; outlive a generation, outlive an age, outlive a world." (E.M. Bounds)

and

"The one concern of the devil is to keep the saints from prayer. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.? (Samuel Chadwick)

~found at http://www.springofjoy.org/

Without You

Without you, there's no change
My nights and days are grey
If I reached out and touched the rain
It just wouldn't feel the same

Without you, I'd be lost
I'd slip down from the top
I'd slide down so low
Girl you'd never, never know...

Without you, without you
A sailor lost at sea
Without you, woman The world comes down on me

Without you in my life
I'd slowly wilt and die
But with you by my side
You're the reason I'm alive
But with you in my life
You're the reason I'm alive
But without you, without you...

Without you, my hope is small
Let me be me all along
You let the fires rage inside
Knowing someday I'd grow strong Without you, without you
A sailor lost at sea
Without you, woman
The world comes down on me

Without you in my life
I'd slowly wilt and die
But with you by my side
You're the reason I'm alive
But with you in my life
You're the reason I'm alive
But without you, without you...

I could face a mountain
But I could never climb alone
I could start another day
But how many, just don't know
You're the reason the sun shines down
And the nights, they don't grow cold
Only you that I'll hold when I'm young
Only you...as we grow old

Without you in my life
I'd slowly wilt and die
But with you by my side
You're the reason I'm alive
But with you in my life
You're the reason I'm alive
But without you, without you...
~Motley Crue
:winky:

Grosgrain: Do you like my clothes? Do you want them for....free?!

I love your creations - animate and inanimate. Great pictures too.
~Madelyn in Alabama
www.xanga.com/madewyn

Listening to Bob Edwards Weekend interview Bonnie Raitt on ((XM)) Radio (podcast through my iPod).

She repeated this - not original to her, author unknown: "...coincidence is God's way of staying anonymous."

I like that!

Over and out :wink:

The Shack by William P. Young. "...an exceptional piece of writing that ushers you directly into the heart and nature of God in the midst of agonizing human suffering."~David Gregory, author of Dinner with a Perfect Stranger~

A quote:

"Well said, Mackenzie!" Her appreciation was tangible, but then she leaned forward slightly, her tone still soft, but serious. "But what about when they (his children) do not behave, or they make choices other than those you would want them to make, or they are just belligerent and rude? What about when they embarrass you in front of others? How does that affect your love for them?"

Mack responded slowly and deliberately. It doesn't really." He knew that what he was saying was true, even if Katie (his daughter) didn't believe it sometimes. "I admit that it does affect me and sometimes I get embarrassed or angry, but even when they act badly, they are still my son or my daughter, they are still Josh or Kate, and they will be forever. What they do might affect my pride, but not my love for them."

She sat back, beaming. "You are wise in the way of real love, Mackenzie. So many believe that it is love that grows, but it is the knowing that grows and love simply expands to contain it. Love is just the skin of knowing. You love your children, whom you know so well, with a wonderful and real love."

Remember, most of the time I am over at www.xanga.com/madewyn.

Peace,

~Mad

I am not usually here - you can find me at www.xanga.com/madewyn.

I'll write about my "words, words, words" over there.

Thanks, ~Mad (elyn) in Alabama

OH MY GOSH! I just discovered - rediscovered - this blog. It has all of three entries on it.

Let's see - WORDS WORDS WORDS.....

"Patience is not waiting passively until someone else does something. patience asks us to live the moment to the fullest, to be completely present to the moment, to taste the here and now, to be where we are. When we are impatient, we try to get away from where we are. We behave as if the real thing will happen tomorow, later, and somewhere else. Be patient and trust that the treasure you are looking for is hidden in the ground on which you stand." ~Henri J. M. Nouwen

I just found my way back to this blog - too much to remember.

So - it's January 3rd, 2008 - and this is Words, Words, Words, so.....let me find some.

From JOURNAL KEEPING: Writing for Spiritual Growth: "My life is a gift to be shared.. In the center of myself, I am not something I can conquer. I am what has been given to me. I am worth more than the result of all my efforts. Being is more important than having and doing."

Ta da,
~MeMad