This thread is for collectible, insightful, pithy, especially well-turned, humorous or enlightening bon mots by other Mudcatters.

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Anyway, I want to add a quote from sometimes Mudcatter Barky, my 21-year old daughter, writing in her Blog:

So what exactly do I dream of? What is beautiful right now?

Skies as big as the whole world, streaked rose and orange and blue and mottled with clouds. Skies that take you hard by the eyeballs and fill you to your toes.

Eyes that peer into your own, comforting, loving, speaking volumes without saying a word.

The earthy, pungent smell of spices -- peppercorns and nuts and cloves and fine threads of yellow-ochre saffron lying in rubbled piles, setting nostrils and sauces and stomachs afire.

The smooth, even honeyed-brown of hardwood floors, stretching out towards a window and gleaming with the promise of sliding in sockfeet and smelling warm pine or oak every time the sun heats the room.

The staccato clip of piano keys played roughly, building to crescendo and tumbling to a finish -- a song as lively as the play of shadows across the gleaming top of a baby grand.

Old cloth yellowed with light and dark and age and air, but still vibrant with unmatchable, singular colours from herbs and flowers steeped in pots and kettles.

Fog thick with salt air and mist and mystery and history and soft white light, breaking only for the brightest neon flashes and the persistent glow of buttery houselights.

The celadon sheen of the old mugs on my shelf, lit from within under their milky, crackled glaze.

The breathless laughter of a loved voice.

The eyeshocking brilliance of lightning, spiderwebbing across a midnight-sooty sky.

The soft look of patience and grace in a clear, knowing expression.

Really, I could list the things that have snagged my heart until my fingers went numb from tapping the keys. There is so much to see and know and love in this world that I hardly know where to begin.

But the same could be said for the hate and the hurt and the horrible, horrible emptiness that so many people feel from their bellies clean through to their spirits. It infests this earth with just as much vigor.

I witness those things. And I've felt some of it, too.

Still, I will cling to the love and the peace and promise of the good, and give that out to people as best as I can. Because at the end of the day, that is our only hope of even the slightest bit of balance.

I think you should do the same.

It's so damned easy to give into despair. The real challenge is giving into beauty.

So as soon as you see it, make sure you take it in.

Because that is your best service to this crazy world.

And what more beautiful goal could there be?


Proud Paw :D

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