GK Chesterton

“The aesthete aims at harmony rather than beauty. If his hair does not match the mauve sunset against which he is standing, he hurriedly dyes his hair another shade of mauve. If his wife does not go with the wall-paper, he gets a divorce.”

NYC Trip Quotes

Comedy club ticket guy on Times Square: "Hey, you ladies like comedy? Interested in the show tonight?"
Nicole: "No!"
Guy: "Wow, okay!"

Melissa Field on Running

A runner is someone fulfilled by the challenge and peace found within his or her own miles.  Relish the miles within your own distance.

Harvard Business Review

"Create meaningful relationships at work so that you look forward to joining your colleagues every day. Small talk may be annoying, but it lays the foundation for connection. Reach out to coworkers: ask them questions about their lives. Be appreciative of everyone from the maintenance worker to the receptionist. Most importantly, be genuine in these interactions. If you're fully present, these relationships will pay off."

"The person who makes a success of living is the one who sees his goal steadily and aims for it unswervingly. That is dedication."   -Cecil B. De Mille

You were deliberately planned, specifically gifted, and lovingly positioned on this earth by the master-craftsman. ... So promise me you'll never forget you're a gift to the world.        -Max Lucado, from a kids book

"No noble things can be done without risks." -French renaissance philosopher Montaigne

Nanalan = Educational Wonder

"Canadian TV continues to impress. ... No, this is not taken out of context. The dog really does just lick the creature's foot for a solid 45 seconds."  -Kristin Mueller

Fall of the Berlin Wall, 1989

"The whole world is proud of you (the people of Berlin). You tore down the wall and you changed the world. You tore down the wall that for a third of a century had imprisoned half a city, half a country, half a continent and half the world. And because of your courage two Berlins are one, two Germanies are one and now two Europes are one."
-UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, 1989

"Hallelujah" Lyrics

She sings hallelujah when all has become nothing
and her hope in the Saviour has coloured all she does and taints the way she loves.

She sings hallelujah and falls to the ground again
with hands stretched up to the sky waiting for the day she'll hear the father say:

"Well done, good and faithful one; enter in, come on, share with me.
Welcome home good and faithful one, on an on through eternity…"

(Song: Hallelujah by the Newsboys)

Jack LaLanne

“How do you build up your bank account? By putting something in it everyday.Your health account is no different. What I do today, I am wearing tomorrow. If I put inferior foods in my body today, I’m going to be inferior tomorrow -- it’s that simple.”

Kurt Vonnegut

Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand.
★ ★ ★
If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC.

We're All Human, I Guess

I had an over-the-phone interview a few days ago, which, in my opinion, was going pretty well until I managed to say: "Mexican migrant workers from China...er, I mean, Mexico." Haha.

Also, this is the perfect opportunity to mention a few texting mistakes I've made, partly due to insufficient proofing before hitting send, but mostly due to Verizon's crazy word-recognition program. "I love you, too" has been sent as "I love you, tom" (perhaps that's when our trust issues began) and "pranking our professor" was sent "spanking our professor".

We are all human indeed.

Dating Advice

Ask forgiveness often. Forgive even more. Because you're a jerk too.
- Relevant magazine

‎"...and I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."- Eph. 3:17-19

Ray Lamontagne

Don't let your soul get lonely child
It's only time, it will go by
Don't look for love in faces, places
It's in you, that's where you'll find kindness

Be here now, here now
Be here now, here now

Don't lose your faith in me
And I will try not to lose faith in you
Don't put your trust in walls
'Cause walls will only crush you when they fall

Be here now, here now
Be here now, here now.

G.K. Chesterton as Gregory, an Anarchist undercover as a Priest

"Down, down, presumptuous human reason!!"
-from the novel The Man Who Was Thursday

C: Don't come in for a sec, I [fell asleep] naked.
L: Oh, good! I mean...uh... Wow, that came out wrong.

Hahahahaha... Good times at our house.

Random Quotes of the Week

"Two-thirds of the things that are taught in college, even when they are well taught, are not worth knowing. The main thing is to learn the differences between appearances and reality." -H.L. Mencken, journalist

"Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself." -Benjamin Franklin

"The best way to predict your future is to create it." -Peter Drucker, management expert

"I always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." -Lily Tomlin, comedienne

Devotion - Dr. Charles Swindoll

"If you seek Me, you will truly find Me when you seek me with all your heart and soul." - Deuteronomy 4:29

"Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you." - 1 Peter 5:7

He desires that you go to him, not run to the solutions the world gives. Tell him exactly how you feel.

It's going to take one breath at a time, one minute, one hour, one day, one week, one month to begin to heal, to have joy again. When nothing in this life looks good—God has not left you. There have been times in my life that I have had a choice to make, will I still have faith in this storm? Will I still have faith, when my heart is bleeding from the pain? Will I still have faith, when all looks dark, lonely, miserable, and hopeless. Will I still have faith? Will I believe the truths form God's Word or not? It's a daily choice.

God's Word truly is the healing for your heart and soul. It's all you can trust in, in this world of often make believe. When nothing in this life looks good, God reminds us, this life is not our home.

Jose Miguel, student in Spain

"You can either stay at home and moan that it's raining or you can grab an umbrella, get out there and jump across the puddles." (In the context of many students in Europe not being able to find a job.)

Beams of Heaven, Hymn 577

Verse: Beams of heaven, as I go
Through this wilderness below,
Guide my feet in peaceful ways,
Turn my midnights into days.

When in the darkness I would grope,
Faith always sees a star of hope,
And soon from all life's grief and danger
I shall be free someday.

Chorus: I do not know how long 'twill be,
Nor what the future holds for me,
But this I know: if Jesus leads me,
I shall get home someday.

Taken from the Christian Reformed Psalter Hymnal

One Week -- a Canadian Movie

"When you get those rare moments of clarity, those flashes when the universe makes sense, you try desperately to hold on to them. They are the life boats for the darker times, when the vastness of it all, the incomprehensible nature of life is completely illusive."

Harold Kushner

"The illusion that we can control events if we do everything right, that we can make people love us if we do things right, and that we can guarantee happy endings by deserving them, is an illusion, and a very destructive one."

Home Alone 2 - Lost in New York

Kevin (the kid): "I'm down here, you big horse's ass!" ... "Nice night for a neck injury!"
Robbers: "Suck brick, kid!!" (start throwing down bricks)

Home Alone 2

You was here, last night too, wasn't ya?
     Yes...sir, I was.
You was here, and you was smoochin' wit my brother!
     I'm terribly sorry, sir. I'm afraid you're mistaken...
Don't gimme that! You've been smoochin' wit everybody! Snuffy. Al. Leo. Little Moe, with the gimpy leg. Cheeks. Boney Bob. Cliff. (pause). I could go on forever, baby!

John Donne

"No man is an island, entire of itself. Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main" (as quoted in Thomas Merton's "No Man is an Island").

Kaitlynn's Secret to End-of-Semester Success

"I catch up on all my TV shows when I have an essay due."

Kivi Bernhard, Leopardology

You are your market differentiator and the key to your success!

Quotes from Costa Rica 2009

Let’s play spot the Amish. ...Wait, I didn’t know the Amish can fly. –Matt Crowson at the airport

Can we listen to something we can keep our clothes on to? –Dr. Harwood while we were riding in Victor's pimped out van

The next time someone yells "Snake!" doesn't mean step in to the relationship! –Dr. Harwood after Jacob got way too close to a deadly snake in the rainforest

Dr. Charles Swindoll

“People who soar are those who refuse to sit back, sigh and wish things would change. They neither complain of their lot nor passively dream of some distant ship coming in. Rather, they visualize in their minds that they are not quitters; they will not allow life's circumstances to push them down and hold them under."

Slaughterhouse Five

"So it goes."
-Kurt Vonnegut

Do Parents Matter?

Parents who are well educated, successful, and healthy tend to have children who test well in school; but it doesn’t seem to much matter whether a child is trotted off to museums or spanked or sent to Head Start or frequently read to or plopped in front of the television.

For parents – and parenting experts – who are obsessed with child-rearing technique, this may be sobering news. The reality is that technique looks to be highly overrated.

But this is not to say that parents don’t matter. Plainly they matter a great deal. Here is the conundrum: by the time most people pick up a parenting book, it is far too late. Most of the things that matter were decided long ago – who you are, whom you married, what kind of life you lead. If you are smart, hardworking, well educated, well paid, and married to someone equally fortunate, then your children are more likely to succeed. (Nor does it hurt, in all likelihood, to be honest, thoughtful, loving, and curious about the world.) But it isn’t so much a matter of what you do as a parent; it’s who you are. In this regard, an overbearing parent is a lot like a political candidate who believes that money wins elections, whereas in truth, all the money in the world can’t get a candidate elected if the voters don’t like him to start with.

-Freakonomics, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, 2005.

Steven Harper - Remembrance Day Statement

"Today, we pay tribute to the many Canadians who have made the ultimate sacrifice so that we may live in a country free from tyranny and governed by freedom, democracy and justice.

“We stand in silent reflection for those brave men and women throughout Canada’s history who, when called upon to defend the values we hold dear, did not waver. Instead, they left family and loved ones for far away battlefields from which many would never return.

“From the battle of Vimy Ridge, to the beaches of Normandy, to the dusty roads of Afghanistan, these brave men and women put our country’s welfare before their own and we owe them and their families a debt of gratitude that can never be repaid.

“As our families, communities and Canadian Forces know all too well the tolls of war have been felt from generation to generation. Our country’s long and proud tradition of standing up for those who couldn’t is forever imbedded in our fabric.

“Lest we forget.”

The Beauty of Autumn

No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace

As I have seen in one autumnal face.

-John Donne

Sam from "I am Sam"

I love you like a song, I love you like in a song.

Thomas Merton's "No Man is an Island"

Others have no right to demand that I be anything else than what I ought to be in the sight of God. No greater thing could possibly be asked of a man than this!

M. Scott Peck

The feeling of being valuable is a cornerstone of self-discipline because when one considers oneself valuable, one will care for oneself in all ways that are necessary. Self-discipline is self-caring.

Rick Mercer

This is an oldie... but one of my favourites.