Quotes

By Belinda

Today at work some of us took time out from the regular routine. About 50 of us laughed, worshipped, drank coffee, enjoyed great food and listened to an inspirational guest speaker.

There were many great quotes, both profound and funny, floating around, but one really made me stop and think:

Strangely enough, this is the past that somebody in the future is longing to go back to.

I'm a live-in-the-moment kind of person already, but that quote has the capacity to ramp that up a notch. Doesn't it make you want to savour "now?" Doesn't it make you want to listen; inhale; look around; slow down; sniff the air; go hug the people you love? That's the effect it has on me. I'm thankful to be living now, where I live and with whom I live.

The speaker handed out individual quotes on slips of paper and we had to choose from the many, one that we could make our own, fold the paper in half and put our name on it. Well, the little group that I was sitting with were last to get the quotes and by the time they got to us they were pretty well picked over, so that's my excuse for the one I chose:

Bored while shopping at the mall?? Make a trail of orange juice on the floor leading to the restrooms.
I laugh every time I imagine doing it.  Of course there is no danger of me actually doing it because I cannot imagine ever being bored shopping at the mall!

When I was tidying up the papers left behind by the departing crowd, I found a handwritten quote that I loved:

We make mistakes because we live. To not make a mistake means we have not lived. Live for the mistakes.
And I end with a great piece of advice:
How to keep the workplace active: Put decaf in the coffeemaker for 3 weeks. Once every one has gotten over their caffeine addiction, switch to espresso! 

Do you have a favourite quote?

Comments

Marilyn Yocum said…
“In the best of times, our days are numbered anyway. So it would be a crime against nature for any generation to take the world crisis so solemnly, that it put off enjoying those things for which we were designed in the first place: the opportunity to do good work, to enjoy friends, to fall in love, to hit a ball, and to bounce a baby.”

 - Alistair Cooke
7:57 AM
Belinda said…
Oh, I LOVE that Marilyn, thank you!
8:19 AM
Theresa said…
LOL at your quote about leaving a trail of juice ....have to tell you about my friend who was a manager years ago at a Timothys in the Georgian Mall. It was her job to take the garbage to the garbage room every night. The garbage was heavy, so she sort of let it drag on the floor as she walked down through the corrider. As she was about to round the corner, she glanced back to see the bag had a hole in it, and there was a trail of garbage all the way back to Timothys. LOL!! Sad thing is, not one person behind her spoke up and let her know.
Sounds like it was fun yesterday. I worked relief so that someone else could go. I'm nice like that :)
9:15 AM
Belinda said…
Theresa, what a dedicated manager your friend was, hauling garbage! :)

Thank you for being a dedicated team mate too! I would have loved to have seen you--but next time it is your turn. :)
2:25 PM
Susan said…
"When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand."

Henri Nouwen
6:09 PM
Belinda said…
Ah, Susan; Henri Nouwen--one of my favourite authors. I love the quote.
10:11 PM
Susan said…
Ron's: "Further dim chambers lighted by sullen sulphurous fires are reputed to contain a dragon called the differential calculus." Winston Churchill
10:05 PM
Olson Family said…
Belinda,

I love quotes, too! Thank you for sharing your world. You're a tremendous blessing!
3:30 AM
mercygraceword said…
"In all your temptations be not discouraged Those scourges may be not to break you, but to heave you off yourself and onto the Rock, Christ."
Thomas Wilcox
3:13 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Voyage

Image
Note from Belinda: I read this prayer yesterday and again today--and then I read it to Susan after cell group, when we were having our "second cup" of decaff coffee together. I knew that she'd love it. She has a framed picture on her office wall of a little blond haired girl in a sail boat on a stormy sea. A fatherly sailor,with a weather beaten face; in a gray sou'wester, holds her close, as he capably mans the tiller. This prayer reminds me of that picture and influenced what I wrote earlier today, when I used the metaphor of ebbing waves to describe a lack of consistency and my desire to crash over the sandbar into the peaceful pool on the other side.  ( Susan sent me a link to the painting, which was done by American impressionist Robert Reid in 1888.  It hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in NYC.) Be bless ed by the beauty of this prayer. OH LORD OF THE OCEANS, My little bark sails on a restless sea, Grant that Jesus may sit at the
Read more

Ere Zij God--Glory to God in the Highest! A Dutch Carol

Image
By Belinda This beautiful Dutch carol was shared today by a friend of Dutch ancestry, on Facebook. I had never heard it before but absolutely loved it. It moved me deeply, especially at the end after the crowd leaves the church and then breaks into spontaneous singing again around a brazier, with the sound of chiming church bells in the background. Listen to it with headphones or a good speaker to get the full effect of the harmonies. And happy first Sunday in Advent!
Read more

Samson Beaver and his Family

Image
I first posted this in 2009, a little show and tell about one of my favourite photographs. Back then it hung on a wall, but now it's in my bathroom where I see it every morning! I'd forgotten the history behind the story, researched when I first posted this and thought that current readers might enjoy it--a story from a time when this land was still being discovered, not so very long ago. This photograph was taken by Mary Schaffer; artist, photographer, writer and naturalist, in 1907. It is of a Stoney Indian named Samson Beaver, with his wife Leah and daughter, Frances Louise. I bought the photo on a postcard, on a trip to British Columbia and it hangs framed, on the wall I face when sitting at my laptop. I love it. Don't you just feel as if you could gather Frances Louise up in your arms and cuddle her? I get a deep sense of peace and happiness when I look at this family, sitting in the grass of a long ago fall. They are dressed in their best, beautiful c
Read more