LILACS
April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots and spring rain.
T. S. Eliot The Waste-Land
When Lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d
And the great star early droop’d in the western sky in the night,
I mourn’d, and yet shall mourn with every-returning spring.
Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring,
Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the west,
And thought of him I love.
Walt Whitman, elegy commemorating the death of Lincoln, 1865
EASTER
Easter is very important to me, it’s a second chance. ― Reba McEntire
Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song. ― Pope John Paul II
LAUGHTER
Laughter is the shock absorber that eases the blows of life. (Unknown)
Laughter is a tranquilizer with no side effects. ― Arnold H. Glasgow
WORK
Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else. ― J. M. Barrie
When you can’t figure out what to do, it’s time for a nap. ― Mason Cooley
CHALLENGE
Challenge is a dragon with a gift in its mouth. 
Tame the dragon and the gift is yours.
Noela Evans, on persevering through problems, endurance
Shakespeare says it another way, but with a toad: Sweet are the uses of adversity which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head.
READING
Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are. ― Mason Cooley
One rainy Sunday when I was in the third grade, I picked up a book to look at the pictures and discovered that even though I did not want to, I was reading. I have been a reader ever since. ― Beverly Cleary
THE FUTURE
The best thing about the future is it comes one day at a time. ― Abraham Lincoln
Do you believe a challenge is a dragon with a gift in its mouth? A story about this that comes to mind . . . ?
What category can you add a quote to?
What other topics would you like to see in this monthly feature, Purple Passages?
Coming next: Mennonite Flashback III: Rabbits and Rings
Plain and Fancy 