“The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.”
― Abraham Lincoln
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“Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” -Desmond Tutu
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“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.”
― Confucius
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“I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.” ― Edward Everett Hale
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“Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.” -Winston S. Churchill
under1000skies.org Video 1.12
Photos by Pixabay.com Photography Volunteers. Music “Sunny” by BenSound.com.
If you think of this world as a place intended simply for your happiness, you will find it quite intolerable. If you think of it as a place of training and correction, then it’s not so bad. -C.S. Lewis
I know now
Just quite how My life and love might still go on In your heart
In your mind
I’ll stay with you for all of time
-Aaron Kamin, Alex Bond, “Wherever You Will Go”
“Fiction was invented the day Jonas arrived home and told his wife that he was three days late because he had been swallowed by a whale.” -Gabriel García Márquez
“Goodness is about character – integrity, honesty, kindness, generosity, moral courage, and the like. More than anything else, it is about how we treat other people.” — Dennis Prager
Photos generously donated by MindyJourney. Used with permission. This week, we featured Mindy’s photos which she generously donated and some of her favorite quotes. Thank you, Mindy!
“…I can o’ersway him; for he loves to hear
That unicorns may be betray’d with trees,
And bears with glasses, elephants with holes,
Lions with toils and men with flatterers;
– William Shakespeare; Julius Caesar
“Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.”
-W.B. Yeats
It’s been just a bit over a year since I shared Yeats’ The Stolen Child, (Gems 4.70) but this mythical creatures week wouldn’t be the same without it. It was that same day that I created the page, Missing Benjamin. Continue reading →
“Often when an emergency or crisis happens, we forget to take care of ourselves. We are not functioning well, unable to sleep and overwhelmed by what life has dealt us. It is at such times the care of others comes through for us.”
“Ecstatic Love is an ocean, and the Milky Way is a flake of foam floating on it.” -Rumi
Includes the origin of the name Milky Way – it’s called so many other things by other cultures. Plus two beautiful photos from Steph Law, and two poems from Elanthian Love Songs.
“If only you could sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.” –Fred Rogers
“When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy, care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life.” –Jean Shinoda Bolen
Moon Songs 50!
In celebration of the 50-year anniversary of the lunar landing, I hope you enjoy this short fictional story about the first Moon Colony Celebration and a family of musicians on the moon. I wrote this a month after my first granddaughter was born and set it 150 years in the future where Evie, and her granddaughter and namesake, and her great-grandsons are very much a part of the world, and the moon, and having a grand time.
Evie needs to prepare for the big show on the brand new Moon Colony in three days. She and her jazz-band family have been preparing for this moment for months. But now, her sax reeds are missing. It’s unlikely anyone else in the colony has a baritone sax reed since theirs is the only jazz band in the lineup. All the years of practice, the months and months of auditions just to get here, and it could all be lost, because of a single sax reed.
In the past two months, I have met two new friends who are sight-impaired. It has really helped me understand a little about the difficulties and frustrations of living in a world without vision. One of my friends is a young, talented writer. I’ve been recording their stories as I have time. I also have been recording and posting some of my old stories and publishing these on Wattpad. This is a writer’s interactive (free) website my new friend introduced me to recently. It has a really great way of connecting writers to readers and to each other. Currently, I’m reading three stories by other writers and leaving comments as time allows. You can comment on individual paragraphs, on the chapter, or you can leave private messages. The feedback is so welcome. It’s helping me to be a better writer. I hope you enjoy this story poem and recording.
This story poem came about after two conversations with two of my wise friends (who don’t know each other), and because of Joseph Campbell. One friend was diagnosed recently with an illness that totally changed her life. We were talking about the grief that goes along with that, and how she was trying to let it all go, all the things she could have been and would never be. My heart went out to her so much, and I really understood. I have some things going on too. Then another very wise friend showed me a funny poem about wrinkles. Then I started thinking about the Joseph Campbell quote, “You must be willing to let go of the life you have planned in order to be ready for the life that is waiting.” Something like that. I started thinking about a snake, shedding skins, and …pop. My old snake was born.
1.6 under1000skies
The music is by me (Niki Flow) and is performed by Carter Parker. The lyrics are found in the poetry collection “Elanthian Love Songs: A Bard’s Tale” by Sara Michele O’Sullivan (former pen name) available on Amazon.com, and 100 percent of all profits go to buying artist packs and supplies for homeless creatives. See our “About” page for more information.
Coming soon (later today),
a Gems 1.82 video with the audio of every writer’s quote listed.
I hope you’re having a beautiful weekend. ♡
This week on ¤ under1000skies.org ¤
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“Greatness is your potential. Action is your opportunity.” Anonymous
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“When I pronounce the word Future,
the first syllable already belongs to the past.
“When I pronounce the word Silence,
I destroy it.”
― Wisława Szymborska, Poems New and Collected
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“And I’m on my way, and I still remember those country lanes / When we did not know the answers, And I miss the way you make me feel, it’s real / When we watched the sunset over the castle on the hill…” -Ed Sheeran, “Castle on the Hill”
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“Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.” -C.S. Lewis
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“This is a wonderful day. I’ve never seen this one before.” -Maya Angelou
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