Henry David Thoreau – Plain and Fancy

Red, Yellow, Green Apples, Fall’s Traffic Lights: Purple Passages September 2015

September 30, 2015October 1, 2015 marianbeaman50 Comments

Humorous Slices

A green apple, a yellow apple, and a red apple, it’s like a fruity traffic light you can eat . . . . Did you know that my love has the consistency of applesauce? It’s true—and juicy. ~ Jarod Kintz

I ate a slice of humble pie, and it tasted like apples. ~ Jarod Kintz

Thoughtful Slices

It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man. ~ Henry David Thoreau, “Wild Fruits”

Anyone can count the seeds in an apple, but only God can count the number of apples in a seed. ~ Robert H. Schuller

Every thought is a seed. If you plant crab apples, don’t plan on harvesting Golden Delicious. ~ Bill Meyer

Healthy Slices

Eating apples is good on so many levels. There’s fiber in the skin that’s really good for you. It helps with digestion and helps you absorb all the nutrients of everything you’ve eaten that day. Apples are a really good thing. ~ Rebecca Romijn

A Story Poem

Grandma Longenecker’s Apple Schnitz

Grandma Longenecker dried apple slices locked in nutrients and flavor on a vintage food dehydrator similar to this updated one.

The flavor was concentrated, tart, and oh so chewy. Uh-um-good! These look just like Grandma’s! Later Aunt Ruthie Longenecker took over the tradition.

Red, Amber on Green Background – Van Gogh’s Apples

Do you associate apples with this season of the year? Any favorite recipes with apples? Thank you for adding quotes, recipes, or anything else that comes to mind here!

Purple Passages: Rich Word$

January 17, 2015April 23, 2015 marianbeaman47 Comments

On December 29, author/blogger Joan Rough published a post declaring her optimistic intentions for 2015 and pondering a single word to characterize this new year while contemplating words of wisdom used other years. Some choices she suggested: Believe, Dare, Trust, Patience, Forward. Even the word Intention would be a good star to steer by, she mused.

Other commenters suggested words like Flow and Connection. Thus, Purple Passages for January is constructed from 3 of these words: Dare, Intention, Flow

DARE

“Daring ideas are like chessmen moved forward. They may be beaten, but they may start a winning game.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“Somewhere over the rainbow, skies are blue, and the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true.”
― E.Y. Harburg

INTENTION

Any time women come together with a collective intention, it’s a powerful thing. Whether it’s sitting down making a quilt, in a kitchen preparing a meal, in a club reading the same book, or around the table playing cards, or planning a birthday party, when women come together with a collective intention, magic happens.

― Phylicia Rashad, the valiant wife in The Cosby Show

Artist Cliff's intention turning to action, recycling old technology — Artist Cliff’s intention turning to action, recycling old technology

FLOW

“Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.”
― Louis L’Amour

“I am rooted, but I flow.”
― Virginia Woolf

ADVANCE: My word for 2015

I learned this, at least, by my experiment; that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. Henry David Thoreau, Walden

What do you think?

“Just go with the flow” is an expression offered sometimes as advice for tough times. How do you experience “flow” in your life now? How about daring, ― or intending?

Have you picked a guide word for 2015?

* * *

A final word: Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not unto your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5

Coming next: Signs and a Wonder: St. Simons Island

Purple Passages and Feet in the Creek

August 27, 2014August 26, 2014 marianbeaman26 Comments

Dreams

Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.

– Langston Hughes in Dreams

Dreams always come in a size too big so we can grow into them. – Josie Bisset

. . . if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

– Henry David Thoreau in Walden Pond

Grandparents

“But grandparents, imbued with a different sense of time, create a narrative arc across generations. If parents are the forward momentum of a child’s llife, we become the curators of traditions.” – Ellen Goodman/Washington Post Writers Group quoted in the Florida Times Union.

“Our echoes roll from soul to soul and grow forever and forever.” – Alfred, Lord Tennyson in The Splendour Falls on Castle Walls from The Princess

Psalm 78: 2-4

2 I will open my mouth with a parable;

I will utter hidden things, things from of old—

3 things we have heard and known,

things our ancestors have told us.

4 We will not hide them from their descendants;

we will tell the next generation

the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,

his power, and the wonders he has done.

New International Version

Being Special, Unique

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. – C. S. Lewis

While we have the gift of life, it seems to me the only tragedy is to allow part of us to die – whether it is our spirit, our creativity or our glorious uniqueness. – Gilda Radner

Conventional is not for me. I like things that are uniquely Flo. I like being different. – Florence Griffith Joyner, Olympic track and field star

Deep Summer

Heat Wave: “Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability.” – Sam Keen

Summer afternoon, summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language. – Henry James

My dad at the Grandpa Martin farm — My dad Ray Longenecker at the Grandpa Martin farm, circa 1920

People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they’re happy.

– Anton Chekhov

Your turn!

Did any of these quotes feel like an “Aha” moment for you? Will you add one?

Coming next: “I’m All Ears” with a Cliff & Marian tiff

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