Sunday, May 27, 2012

The keen mind, full of thought, rejoiceth in a quiet hour. 
While dullards hold it irksome, to be killed as best they can. 
M. Tupper

silence


I ran across the following quotes on silence; now after 41 years of rearing children silence may mean more to me than some. 


Silently as a dream.
Silent as a standing pool. 
Silent as a thought. 
Silent as a night. 
Silent as falling dews. 
Silent as the foot of time. 
Silent as the growth of flowers. 
Silent as your shadow.
Silent as snow falls on the earth. 
Silent as the day gives away to night. 
Silent as the grave. 


I like that. 


Photo from the internet

Monday, May 14, 2012

Trifles


  Charles Dickens, in "All the Year Round," says, "Some one was asked, 'What is genius?' He replied, 'A being who pays attention to trifles.' Columbus was about the best possible illustration of this. We know what an eye for incidents upon which to found conjectures he had. In the last days of his tour of discovery, when even he himself was a quarter disposed to turn back, and side with his men in their discontent at the barrenness of the voyage, he could bring forward that strong muster of trifling observations which together meant America.

   'You know that we have for several days been able to fathom; and the nature of the material  brought up by the lead seems to me auspicious. The clouds about the sun toward evening are of a different form and color from what they were a few days ago. The atmosphere, as you can feel, is warmer and softer than it was. The wind no longer blows with the same force, nor in so straightforward and unwavering a manner; it is inclined to hesitate and change, as though broken by some impediment. To these signs add that of the piece of sugar cane we discovered in the sea, which bore marks of having been recently severed, and the little branch of a tree with fresh red berries upon it; besides the swarms of birds thats pass over us, though they have deceived us before, are now so frequent and vast that I think there must be some special reason for their appearance. In short, all these omens together make me very hopeful and expectant."This was from the diary of Columbus.
Orison Swett Marden, The Secret of Achievement.




  "Christ brings about all that is good in the soul through judgment, and that so sweetly that many, by a dangerous error, think that that good which is in them and issues from them is from themselves, and not from the powerful work of grace." Richard Sibbes 1635

  This 'dangerous error' is apt to be committed by the young Christian more often; feeling the intensely meaningful connections that God establishes in and through us can naturally lead one to suppose there is a great good within us, but a short 'dark night of the soul' can soon clear that up. God is doing much and chooses to use humans as his customary vehicle, but the work is His and the more we step aside and let Him work the better the results.

  I like this picture I got from the Internet, to me it illustrates the connections that God establishes, and with the least complication in children.