Morning Folks 07 31 05

God’s in his heaven: All’s right with the world.

Robert Browning



Simple, enough, but how often Browning's words have comforted me. Go to the website and watch the short movie. http://www.theinterviewwithgod.com/windowmovie2.html It is a good way to start your morning.

I added a link to my blog to a site called Pathways to Peace, which Kathy has on her blogspot, also. I don't remember who originally sent this to me, but it is a really beautiful slideshow. The link above is from this website as well. I go back to both of them from time to time and just reflect on the pictures, the music, the words and the mood they create.


And enjoy your Sunday.

Love,
Suz

Morning Folks 07 30 05

All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them.
Galileo Galilei (1564 - 1642)



The discovery of the 10th planet this week reminded me of a favorite hymn and that indeed there is so much more to be revealed to us in life. The trick, is to be open to these discoveries remembering the lesson of the once flat world.


George Rawson (1807-1889) wrote this hymn in the 1850s
based on the final words Pastor John Robinson gave to the Pilgrims
before they journeyed to the New World.

It may be sung to the following familiar hymn tunes:

St. Anne by William Croft (1678-1727)
Forest Green by Ralph Vaughn Williams (1872-1958)
Ellacombe adapted by William Henry Monk (1823-1889)

We Limit Not the Truth of God

We limit not the truth of God to our poor reach of mind --
By notions of our day and sect -- crude partial and confined
No, let a new and better hope within our hearts be stirred
For God hath yet more light and truth to break forth from the Word.

Who dares to bind to one's own sense the oracles of heaven
For all the nations, tongues, and climes and all the ages given?
That universe, how much unknown! that ocean unexplored
For God hath yet more light and truth to break forth from the Word.

Eternal God, Incarnate Word, Spirit of flame and dove,
enlarge expand all living souls to comprehend your love;
and help us all to seek your will with wiser powers conferred
O God, grant yet more light and truth to break forth from the Word.

Love,
Suz

Morning Folks 07 29 05

Take the time to come home to yourself every day. ~Robin Casarjean


Have a wonderful Friday.

Love,
Suz


PS Indigo was born Thursday June 28 at 4:06PM. 7 pounds 14 ounces. Welcome and Happy Birthday Indigo Grace Eaton! :0)

Morning Folks 07 28 05

When I was born I was so surprised I didn't talk for a year and a half.
Gracie Allen (1906 - 1964)

<<<<<>>>>>>>

Ed will become a grandfather for the third time tomorrow or Friday. His daughter in-law, Robin, is going into the hospital early tomorrow morning to be induced. Robin and Ed's son John and their children Zeppelin and Arabella will
be welcoming a new baby girl into the family and her name is Indigo Grace Eaton. I like that name. I love the color and I have always wanted to see an Indigo Bunting. I always thought it was the prettiest bird in my mother's bird book when I was a little girl.

We will be posting pictures of the new arrival when we have them. Sure to be another blondie, I can't wait to see her.

Have a wonderful Thursday and Happy Birthday Indigo.

Love,
Suz

Morning Folks 07 27 05

Like water, be gentle and strong. Be gentle enough to follow the natural paths of the earth, and strong enough to rise up and reshape the world. --Brenda Peterson


The Lord My Pasture Shall Prepare


The Lord my pasture shall prepare
And feed me with a shepherd’s care;
His presence shall my wants supply
And guard me with a watchful eye;
My noonday walks He shall attend
And all my midnight hours defend.

When in the sultry glebe I faint
Or on the thirsty mountain pant,
To fertile vales and dewy meads
My weary, wandering steps He leads,
Where peaceful rivers, soft and slow,
Amid the verdant landscape flow.

Though in the paths of death I tread,
With gloomy horrors overspread,
My steadfast heart shall fear no ill,
For Thou, O Lord, art with me still;
Thy friendly crook shall give me aid
And guide me through the dreadful shade.

Though in a bare and rugged way,
Through devious lonely wilds, I stray,
Thy bounty shall my pains beguile;
The barren wilderness shall smile,
With sudden greens and herbage crowned,
And streams shall murmur all around.

Joseph Addison




Love,
Suz

Morning Folks 07 26 05

"If criticism is mistaken or mean-spirited, rise above it.
Maintain the high ground when you're under fire. No victory is
worth winning at the expense of picking up the mud that has
been slung at you and throwing it back."

-- Rubel Shelly, Educator and Author



The picture above is of a rock formation on Lookout Mountain Chattanooga, TN. It is a really pretty place. Ed and I have taken a few motorcycle rides up there. It is very pretty and worth the trip. It is near East Ridge, the part of Chattanooga that Ed lives in. Below are pictures of the view from the mountain and the motorcycle Mama and her dude.


It was really pretty that spring day on the mountain when Ed and I went for a motorcycle ride. See the view in the background? You can see about 5 states from this vantage point. I know that isn't the right number of states, but maybe Ed can correct me.



This picture was taken at a Civil War battlefield just over the Georgia line, I think in Chicamauga? I need to learn the geography around there. Of course Ed knows I can't even find my way home from the Food Lion. This was the motorcycle Ed used to have. He has a new one now. There are battlefields all over this area. It is quite beautiful and very interesting.





Have a great Tuesday everyone.
Love,
Suz

Morning Folks 07 25 05

A lake is the landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature. ~Henry David Thoreau



Hope you have a great Monday.

Love,
Suz

Morning Folks 07 24 05

Earth laughs in flowers.
Ralph Waldo Emerson




Join in the laughter today and have a wonderful Sunday!

Love,
Suz

Morning Folks 07 23 05

A BRAND NEW DAY by TIKA

And so do not forget. Every Dawn as it comes is a holy event and every day is holy, for the light comes from "WAKAN-TANKA".And Also you Must remember that the Two-leggeds and All other peoples who Stand upon this Earth are Sacred and Should be Treated as Such.
"White Buffalo Woman" Sioux Sacred Woman, quoted by Black Elk , (Oglala Sioux)1947.



This is a simple thought, really, but one I need to be reminded of from time to time. I should remember that every day is holy and from whom the light of day comes. There is a song we sing in church and the refrain is "When I fall on my knees with my face to the rising sun, O Lord have mercy on me." I love that line. For some reason, though the words seem simple enough, when they are put to the tune, it moves me every time I sing it. There is something so beautiful in visualizing that action of falling on ones knees in prayer, as a sudden, emotional act of surrender and reverence. And turning one's face to the rising sun, eyes tightly shut, feeling the warmth on my face, I send a silent plea to the Creator, to Wakan-Tanka. That rising sun is the holy light the Sioux Woman was talking about. And tomorrow when it rises, I'll remember to be grateful for it and will try to see all people in a sacred light.

Love,
Suz

BONUS BLOG 07 23 05

Thought you'd like a little laugh this morning as a bonus. Andrea, friend and co-worker, sent this to me. We are going to see March of the Penguins today and she has as twisted a sense of humor as I have. We'll let you know how the movie was!
Love,
Suz.

Morning Folks 07 22 05

What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable. Joseph Addison



Meet Arabella, Ed's (and soon my) granddaughter. She is just as sweet as her smile. I sure wish I could see her more often. When she sees me after a long absence and flashes that smile at me, you can't imagine the good it does me. I will post a picture of her brother Zeppelin some time soon. And within a week, there will be a 3rd grandchild, another granddaughter. Her name is going to be Indigo. I am sure I will be getting some pictures when she arrives. You can bet I will share them!

Have a fabulous Friday.

Love,

Suz.

Morning Folks 07 21 05

The longer I live the more beautiful life becomes.
Frank Lloyd Wright (1869 - 1959)








The Guggenheim Museum





Have a wonderful Thursday.
Love,
Suz.

Morning Folks 07 20 05

Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit. For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of it's own mystery is not love but a net cast forth, and only the unprofitable is caught...
And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things, the heart finds it's morning and is refreshed. Kahlil Gibran



I am having lunch with Sue MacKinnon on Thursday. We've been friends over 50 years now. My oldest friend and in many ways my dearest. I only see her once a year or so, but the reunion is always sweet. We grew up living somewhat parallel lives, a house apart in a small town; our fathers local merchants in multi-generational businesses. From the time I was 3 she was in my life, and though not always in the forefront, she was nonetheless always there. Marrying within 3 weeks of each other; having babies and divorces on similar time lines, we never lost track, though she moved from state to state, country to country. Now, she visits her mother and siblings in whirlwind visits of just a few days at a time. But she always makes time for me.

We sometimes relive shared experiences and laugh until we cry. And sometimes we share times spent apart and cry until we laugh. When a friend knows from whence you have come and still she loves you, it is an extraordinary gift. Although now in the afternoon of our lives, together again just for a little while, our hearts find their morning and we are refreshed.

Love,
Suz
Today's posting was dedicated to my dear friend Sue

Morning Folks 07 19 05

I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won't have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren't even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they're doing it.
--Anne Lamott




Have a great Tuesday. Go ahead, miss a couple of stepping stones and have some fun.
Love,
Suz

Morning Folks 07 18 05

THE WINDS OF FATE

One ship drives east and another drives west
With the self-same winds that blow.
'Tis the set of the sails
And not the gales
Which tells us the way to go.

Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate,
As we voyage along through life:
'Tis the set of a soul
That decides its goal,
And not the calm or the strife.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

I really like this poem. I hope you do, too. Have a great Monday.

Love,Suz

Morning Folks 07 17 05

Red Geraniums

Life did not bring me silken gowns,
Nor jewels for my hair,
Not signs of gabled foreign towns
In distant countries fair,
But I glimpse, beyond my pane, a green and friendly hill,
And red geraniums aflame upon my window sill.

The brambled cares of everyday,
The tiny humdrum things,
May bind my feet when they would stay,
But still my heart has wings
While red geraniums are bloomed against by window glass,
And low above my green-sweet hill the gypsy wind-clouds pass.

And if my dreamings ne'er come true,
The brightest and the best,
But leave me lone my journey through,
I'll set my heart at rest,
And thank God for home-sweet things, a green and friendly hill,
And red geraniums aflame upon my window sill.

Martha Haskell Clark


Enjoy your Sunday and look for some red geraniums today.
Love-Suz

Morning Folks 07 16 05

Summer afternoon - Summer afternoon... the two most beautiful words in the English language.

Henry James (1843 - 1916)


I just love the summer, don't you? I like that everyone seems more relaxed, at least here in New England when the cold of winter is a distant memory. And when you can go to work in capris and polo shirts and people smile more. When a breeze blows warm on your face when you leave the office at the end of the day and the sun is still shining and on the drive home you notice the grass is still green and there are flowers in bloom and everything is just prettier and, oh boy, thank God it's Friday.

There are lots of things you can do on a summer afternoon: Go for a walk, watch a baseball game, visit some friends, go to the beach. But sometimes just the quiet of my backyard is my choice on a perfect summer afternoon. There is a warm gentle breeze and the birds are singing their summer songs and the air smells sweet. Stretched out on a comfortable chaise, a tall glass of iced tea next to me, a paperback resting on my chest; I would be reading except a butterfly has landed on the grass beside me and the slow opening and closing of his wings is just too distracting. I close my eyes and doze for a few moments because it is just the thing to do on a perfect summer afternoon.

Hope you have a perfect summer afternoon today.

Love,
Suz

Morning Folks 07 15 05

Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.
Roger Caras

I was just thinking about Tildy today. She was such a good friend and I miss her and her cat sisters every day when I come home to an empty house. Sometimes we think having pets is too tough because it hurts so much when they go. I say that we just have to remember the joy that they gave us outweighs that grief. And, they are good for us. They aren't fattening and don't contribute to your cholesterol count. They lower your blood pressure, research shows and they are good psychological therapy.

If anyone is waffling about getting a pet (Dad and Inez) go ahead and just do it. As soon as I get to TN, I am going to do the same thing. It will be a smaller one than I have had before, and probably with a little less hair. But I seriously doubt I will find a pet smarter than our Tildy. She was amazing and I am so glad we had her for the years we did.

Quite a few people on this list have pets. Why not post a picture of yours and share with the google group? I look forward to seeing your "friends".

Have a great Friday and enjoy your weekend.
L-Suz

Morning Folks 07 14 05

The time must come when this coast will be a place of resort for those New-Englanders who really wish to visit the seaside. At present it is wholly unknown to the fashionable world, and probably it will never be agreeable to them. If it is merely a ten-pin alley, or a circular railway, or an ocean of mint-julep, that the visitor is in search of,—if he thinks more of the wine than the brine, as I suspect some do at Newport,—I trust that for a long time he will be disappointed here. But this shore will never more be more attractive than it is now. Such beaches as are fashionable are here made and unmade in a day, I may almost say, by the sea shifting its sands. Lynn and Nantasket! this bare and bended arm it is that makes the bay in which they lie so snugly. What are springs and waterfalls? Here is the spring of springs, the waterfall of waterfalls. A storm in the fall or winter is the time to visit it; a lighthouse or fisherman's hut, the true hotel. A man may stand there and put all America behind him.

(Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. Cape Cod (1855-1865), in The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, vol. 4, pp. 272-273, Houghton Mifflin (1906).)
More quotations from: Henry David Thoreau

Cindy and Steve and family are off to their vacation paradise this weekend. Safe trip, you guys. Have a wonderful time. Talk to you when you get back.

Have a great Thursday everyone.
Love, Suz.

Morning Folks 07 13 05

"You simply will not be the same person two months from now after consciously giving thanks each day for the abundance that exists in your life. And you will have set in motion an ancient spiritual law: the more you have and are grateful for, the more will be given you."

~ Sarah Ban Breathnach ~
Simple Abundance


If you reply to the e-mail you receive from me via googlegroups each day, your e-mail goes to everyone on the list. So, if you are sending me something private, better just send it to me at subito@aol.com. If you want everyone to read what you write, go ahead and click on reply. Better yet, go to www.suziesmusings.blogspot.com to read each day's Morning Folks on the website instead of in the e-mail. Angie joined as a member and she is listed on the website as a contributor. I think you can all post a blog there if you want to share, and I hope you do. Have a wonderful Wednesday.

Thanks for reading. Love, Suz.

Morning Folks 07 12 05

There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colors are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again.
Elizabeth Lawrence



I am so drawn to bright and beautiful colors these days. I wonder if getting older does that. I love sparkling jewelry when once I was more drawn to the simple, plain gold bracelet. I have noticed other changes, too. I don't need to be on time everywhere I go anymore. I don't always agree with people just to make them feel good if I feel strongly about something. I find it a little easier to speak in public now and even enjoy it a little. I drove to Boston a month ago and didn't panic or get lost. I am discovering things like riding on motorcycles and want to take ballroom dancing lessons. I have no trouble traveling on planes when once I was terrified. I am looking forward to moving somewhere a respectible distance from the town in which I was born and don't really think 8 miles away in Hudson counts anymore. I am ready for the next adventure in my life.

I might think I was going through a second childhood, but I don't really remember being here before. For today, I am going to embrace being in the place where the flowers are brighter and the air is softer and the mornings more fragrant. I don't think that childhood has exclusive rights to this place because I feel like I sort of belong here myself. Have a bright and colorful Tuesday.
Love,
Suz.

And I hope you are all able to get into my Blog. Remember, go to www.Suziesmusings.blogspot.com and add a comment. Let me know if you are having any trouble getting into the site. (Angie joined the team, but I am not sure how she did it. Maybe you can share how in a comment, Ange.)

Morning Folks 07 11 05

Have a Marvelous Monday. Love-Suz







The grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never dried all at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.
John Muir

Morning Folks

It really doesn’t matter if the person who hurt you deserves to be forgiven. Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself. You have things to do and you want to move on.

Real Live Preacher, RealLivePreacher.com Weblog, July 7, 2003