WHEN I LOOK AT SPROUTING DAISIES, I see weeds that are taking over my garden.
My kids see flowers for Mum and a novelty necklace.
When I look at a grinning old drunk, I see a guy who smells and probably wants money, and I turn away.
My kids see someone smiling at them, and they smile back.
When I hear music I love, I know I can’t carry much of a tune, so I sit self-consciously and just listen.
My kids feel the beat, move their bodies, and sing out the words – and if they don’t know the words, they make them up!
When I feel wind on my face, I brace myself against it because it slows me down and mucks up my hair.
My kids close their eyes, spread their arms and fly with it, until they fall to the ground laughing.
When I pray, I say thee and thou, bless this and give me that.
My kids say, “Hi God! Thanks for my toys and my friends. Please keep the bad dreams away tonight. And sorry, I don’t want to go to heaven yet – Mum and Dad would miss me!”
When I see a puddle I step around it, seeing only muddy shoes, dirty carpets and wet washing.
My kids sit in it, seeing dams to build, rivers to cross and worms to play with.
Makes you wonder which is more important – what we teach our kids, or what they teach us?
AUTHOR UNKNOWN
MOTHERS LOVE YOUR SONS
LOVE your big, dumb sons,
Your idiot sons,
Your swaggering sons,
Your awkward sons,
Your irresponsible sons and their indestructible limbs.
LOVE their red and bleeding knees,
Love their clear, uncluttered eyes,
Love their stumbling foal-like hands.
Love their necks just asking to be wrung.
Love their badly ironed clothes,
Love their empty tanks of petrol.
Love the hair on their chins like
A small lawn of badly cut grass
Love their broken-hearted girlfriends
Calling in the middle of the night …
MOTHERS, love your sons,
Love your big, dumb sons,
Because they die so fast.
So awkwardly, lankily, idiotically, swaggeringly fast …
GLEN COLQUHOUN – ‘PLAYING GOD’
MARRIAGE RULEZ
I’ve learned this much about marriage: YOU GET TESTED!
You find out who you are, who the other person is, and how you accommodate or don’t.
There are a few rules I know to be true:
If you don’t respect the other person, you’re gonna have a lot of trouble.
If you don’t know how to compromise, you’re gonna have a lot of trouble.
If you can’t talk openly about what goes on between you, you’re gonna have a lot of trouble.
And if you don’t have a common set of values in life, you’re gonna have a lot of trouble.
Your values must be alike. And the biggest one of those values? Your belief in the importance of marriage. Personally, I think marriage is a very important thing to do, and you’re missing a hell of a lot if you don’t try it …
MORRIE SCHWARTZ – ‘TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE’
OVERWHELMED?
Sometimes everything hits you all at once.
You lose a relationship … change jobs … old friends go, and new friends come.
It’s up one day and down the next.
You have it all together on Monday – but by Thursday, you don’t have a clue.
Life is one big wave,
and all we can do is
flow, grow and adapt.
THE NUTTERS CLUB NZ
THE PRICE OF LOVE
Grief never ends,
but
it
changes.
It’s a passage,
not
a
place
to
stay.
Grief is not a sign of weakness,
nor
lack
of
faith.
It is the
price
of
love.
DANCING WITH A LIMP
If you haven’t already, you will lose someone you can’t live without, and your heart will be badly broken. And the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. That person lives forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. But you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly – that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with a limp.
ANNE LAMOTT – ‘FURTHER THOUGHTS ON FAITH’ A PLACE CALLED HOME
MYSTERIES, YES
Truly, we live with mysteries too marvellous to be understood.
How grass can be nourishing in the mouths of the lambs.
How rivers and stones are forever in allegiance with gravity
while we ourselves dream of rising.
How two hands touch and the bonds will never be broken.
How people come, from delight or the
scars of damage, to the comfort of a poem.
Let me keep my distance, always, from those
who think they have the answers.
Let me keep company always with those who say
“Look!” and laugh in astonishment,
and bow their heads.
MARY OLIVER – ‘EVIDENCE’
I LOVE YOU …
I love you for
what you
are making of me.
I love you for
the part of me that you
bring out.
I love you for
passing over all
the foolish, weak things that
you can’t help seeing there,
and for drawing out into
the light all the
beautiful things
that no one else had
looked
quite far enough
to find.
ROY CROFT
MORNINGS …
Some mornings, I’m a ray of
sunshine and productivity. Other
mornings, I forget things like my
glasses, my car keys, and my
desire not to end up in jail.
Hence, coffee.
NANEA HOFFMAN – ‘SWEATPANTS & COFFEE’
HUG ME, PLEASE?
Hugging is an effective cure for the blues. Our skin-pores are places for messages of love. Four hugs a day are needed for survival … eight hugs a day are needed for maintenance … 12 hugs a day are needed for growth. So go on: hug somebody today, and watch them grow!
YOU NEVER KNOW …
TODAY you could be
STANDING next to someone
WHO is trying their best
NOT to fall apart.
SO whatever you do
TODAY, do it with
KINDNESS in your
HEART.
