A Day of Quotes

Once again I find my inbox cluttered with daily quote emails that I've marked as wanting to remember, to write about. I'm finally getting around to putting them in here. Just little bits to think about, that I enjoyed when I got the initial email.

"Our real blessings often appear to us in the shape of pains, losses and disappointments, but let us have patience and we soon shall see them in their proper figures."
– Joseph Addison

This quote definitely makes you think. It's kind of a round-about way of saying "learn from your mistakes", or some message similar to that. Sometimes the best things are disguised as the not so best things, and sometimes it takes a while to see them. Everything happens for a reason, right? So if we wait it out and are patient, eventually we'll see why, see things in "their proper figures". Interesting thought, took me a couple times reading it to really agree, but once the true meaning hit me, I really liked the quote.

"It's not what you are, but what you don't become that hurts."
– Oscar Levant

It's absolutely true. It's the "what ifs" we never pursue that hurt us most, leave us with regrets. We should live life without regrets, but so often get scared of the what ifs and chicken out. It's the things we never do that we long for most. Even if you try something and it doesn't work out, it's much better to have tried and learned (as Joseph Addison so brilliantly pointed out) than it is to never have tried at all.

"Reading is important — read between the lines. Don't swallow everything."
– Gwendolyn Brooks

Now this one is quite a bit different from the other two quotes. I liked it because it has different meanings, depending on the level on which you interpret it. You have the basic level of actual, literal reading. Slightly more interpretive actual reading, but reading for content (kind of like don't believe everything you see on tv). But on a deeper level, you can apply it to situations and people. Don't accept (swallow) everything at face value. There are levels and layers, and what you see isn't always what you get. So question, be alert, read between the lines. If you swallow everything you're going to miss out on so much.

Maybe some women aren't meant to be tamed. Maybe they're supposed to run wild until they find someone just as wild to run with.

This final quote I actually saw on a Facebook "bumper sticker" yesterday, and really fell in love with it. It just seems to fit my personality. I mean, there have been guys before, but things never worked. They gave up too easily, they couldn't handle me. Not that I'm a handful or anything (not all the time anyways...) but I'm headstrong and independent, and take a certain amount of patience and "taming". But reading this, makes perfect sense. To "tame" someone like me, would be to change who I am, and that's something I simply won't do. I don't need taming, I need someone who appreciates me for me, who loves who and what I am, and doesn't want to change it. Rather, they want to encourage it and run alongside to keep up. And I think I've found that with the bf. It's wonderful. (haha, and you thought I'd get in a whole post without talking about the bf!.....really I tried though)

Today's photo is from the luncheon I went to with the bf's mom on Saturday. The tables were decorated with different themes, ours was 4th of July, the photo is of one of the table decorations. It was really a wonderful day, I really enjoy spending time with his mom, she's such a wonderful woman. She raised herself a fine man. :)

Photo stats:
~taken May 10, 2008
~settings: full auto, flash did not fire