Purple Passages, Time and Tiny Tim, December 2014

Christmas: Time to Feel the Spirit

Christmas Spirit Dale Evans

Christmas is not [just] a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.  – President Calvin Coolidge

I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.  – Dickens

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Time to be Aware

Time back tracking: Hezekiah prays for a longer life, and the sun moves backward 10 degrees, for a sign of that promise fulfilled.

Isaiah 38:8b So the sun returned ten degrees, by which degrees [on the dial thereon] it was gone down.  KJV

Time standing still: Joshua asks God for the sun to stand still to ensure victory for Israel.

Joshua 10:13b  So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down a whole day.   KJV

Fretting over time: “But at my back I always hear / Time’s winged chariot hurrying near. . . “     — Andrew Marvell   “To His Coy Mistress”

According to a recent study cited by Jennie L. Phipps (top 20 weekday activities), many retirees spend most of their time sleeping and watching TV or movies.

Apparently, not everyone hears “Time’s winged chariot hurrying near!”

Mother's wristwatch
Mother’s wristwatch

Time, in Balance:

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.    Ecclesiastes 3:1    KJV

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Holy Curiosity: Time to Stay Alive

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.   – Albert Einstein, German-born physicist

Life must be lived and curiosity kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.     – Eleanor Roosevelt

Time for Blessing

Tiny Time and Scrooge_Final_Shading_300

GOD BLESS US, EVERYONE!     Tiny Tim


Your turn:  How does the passage of time affect you? What are you most curious about? How do you keep the spirit of Christmas (or Hanukkah) alive after the season passes?

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Purple Passages with a June Bride

Creativity

You can’t use up creativity. The more you use the more you have.       ―  Maya Angelou

MayaAngelou2

[Hear her read her valiant poem “Still I Rise” here.]

Creativity is intelligence having fun.     ― Albert Einstein

Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that. Don’t be impressed with yourself. Don’t compare yourself with others. Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life.

           Galatians 6: 4-5  The Message

 

Giving and Health

Dr. Stephen Post conducted a survey at forty-four major universities that revealed that giving protects your overall health twice as much as an aspirin protects your heart against disease. Why Good Things Happen to Good People (7)

Original art: C. Joel Beaman
Relief print: C. Joel Beaman

 

Being Young in Heart

Another belief of mine is that everyone else my age is an adult whereas I am merely in disguise.”  ― Margaret Atwood, Cat’s Eye

 

June Brides & Marriage

Wedding of Ruth Longenecker and John Weaver, 1950s
Wedding of Ruth Arlene Longenecker and John Weaver, Bossler’s Mennonite Church, 1950s Bride carries white Bible with lacy handkerchief Groom wears plain (frock) coat

 

Marriage is more like an airplane than a rock.

You have to commit the thing to flight, and then it creaks and groans, and keeping it airborne depends entirely on altitude attitude. Working at it, though, we can fly forever.             ― Michael Grant in the San Diego Union

 

The Educated Mind & an Opposing Viewpoint

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

― Aristotle, Metaphysics

 

Life’s Irritations

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.      ―  Psychiatrist Carl Jung

 

Memory and Time

Remembering is so basic and vital a part of staying alive that it takes on the strength of an instinct of survival, and acquires the power of art. Remembering is done through the blood, it is a bequeathment, it takes account of what happened before a man is born . . . . It is a physical absorption through the living body, it is a spiritual heritage. It is also a life’s work.      ― Eudora Welty in                her book On Writing in which she quotes Faulkner (103).

In fiction, time can throb like a pulse, tick like a bomb, beat like the waves of a rising tide again the shore; it can be made as the whisper of attrition, or come to an end with the explosion of a gun  (98).

Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today’s events. ― Albert Einstein

Memory. . . is the diary that we all carry about with us.  ― Oscar Wilde
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Add more color to June’s Purple Passages!
Reply with your own quote. Or respond to one above. 

grapes

I promised an answer to the puzzling question from the last post.

BrokenPianoBenLeg

How did this happen? Here is our best guess:

Our children, now in their forties, were in their late teens when Cliff and I decided to leave them at home alone while we took a short weekend trip. One of the children was very mature and responsible (or so we thought), so we felt safe to leave. When we returned home, pictures on the walls were askew, there was evidence of under-age drinking, and one leg on the piano bench had obviously been broken off but bandaged up with rough, brown U-Haul tape. Our kids’ explanation then was that they had a small party but more came, uninvited, when word spread that there were no parents at home. Yes, the cliché fits here exactly: “When the cat’s away . . . !”

At the time of the first break, Cliff repaired the leg with a wooden dowel, which has lasted until a few weeks ago. Then Mr. Repairman had to reinforce the leg with a sturdier steel dowel. The END. (We hope!)

Coming next:  Hats Off to Dad

HatsOffGift