Literary BIts: March 1

March 1 is the first day of Spring, meteorologically speaking, and it can’t get here soon enough! Here are a few of my favorite quotes about Spring:

What a strange thing!

to be alive

beneath cherry blossoms.—Kobayashi Issa

 

Spring has returned. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.—Rainer Maria Rilke

Every spring is the only spring, a perpetual astonishment.—Ellis Peters

That is one good thing about this world...there are always sure to be more springs.—L.M. Montgomery

With the coming of spring, I am calm again.—Gustav Mahler

I enjoy the spring more than the autumn now. One does, I think, as one gets older.—Virginia Woolf

It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.—Charles Dickens

“Is the spring coming?" he said. "What is it like?"...

"It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine...”—Frances Hodgson Burnett

It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want—oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!—Mark Twain

In the spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside of 24 hours.—Mark Twain

Spring work is going on with joyful enthusiasm.—John Muir

It was such a spring day as breathes into a man an ineffable yearning, a painful sweetness, a longing that makes him stand motionless, looking at the leaves or grass, and fling out his arms to embrace he knows not what.—John Galsworthy

Spring adds new life and new beauty to all that is.—Jessica Harrelson

 

sweet spring is your

time is my time is our

time for springtime is lovetime

and viva sweet love—e. e. cummings

 

The first blooms of spring always make my heart sing.—S. Brown

I love the smell of rain and growing things.—Serina Hernandez

Spring won’t let me stay in this house any longer! I must get out and breathe the air deeply again.—Gustav Mahler

 

A little madness in the Spring

Is wholesome even for the King...—Emily Dickinson

 

Dead my old fine hopes

And dry my dreaming but still...

Iris, blue each spring.—Ome Shushiki

 

When the groundhog casts his shadow

And the small birds sing

And the pussywillows happen

And the sun shines warm

And when the peepers peep

Then it is Spring.—Margaret Wise Brown

LITERARY BITS: February 15

 

Happy Birthday to writers born on this date!

1810 American poet, writer, and editor Mary S. B. Shindler (The Southern Harp, The Northern Harp, The Voice of Truth) (d. 1883)

1829 American physician and novelist Silas Weir Mitchell (The Treatment of Certain Forms of Neurasthenia and Hysteria, Hugh Wynne, The Adventures of François) (d. 1914)

1834 Moldavian author V. A. Urechia (Albumul macedo-român, Istoria românilor, Voci latine, Istoria şcoalelor, Beţia de cuvinte) (d. 1901)

1880 American novelist Joseph Hergesheimer (Three Black Pennys, Java Head, Linda Condon, Balisand) (d. 1954)

1883 English-American novelist Sax Rohmer (Fu Manchu series) (d. 1959)

1906 Soviet Tatar poet and resistance fighter Musa Cälil (Moabit Däftäre, Xat taşuçı) (d. 1944)

1912 Hungarian-born British journalist, humorist, and writer George Mikes (How to be an Alien) (d. 1987)

1928 Estonian children's writer Eno Raud (Tuli pimendatud linnas, Lugu lendavate taldrikutega, Naksitrallid) (d. 1996) and American author-illustrator Norman Bridwell (Clifford the Big Red Dog series) (d. 2014)

1935 American journalist and author Susan Brownmiller (Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape)

1937 American novelist Gregory McDonald (Fletch series, Flynn series) (d. 2008)

1941 British journalist and author Jonathan Steele (The Guardian, Socialism with a German Face, Ghosts of Afghanistan)

1945 American science fiction writer and editor Jack Dann (The Man Who Melted, The Memory Cathedral)

1954 American animator Matt Groening (Life in Hell, The Simpsons, Futurama)

1958 Canadian novelist Chrystine Brouillet (Les aventures de la courte échelle, Chère Voisine, Le collectionneur)

1980 British best-selling food and lifestyle expert Jasmine Hemsley (The Art of Eating Well: Hemsley and Hemsley)

1985 Brazilian blogger Mariah Bernardes (Blog da Maria)

1988 American best-selling novelist Elizabeth Acevedo (The Poet X, With the Fire on High, Clap When You Land)

1989 Austrian blogger Vicky Heiler (Bikinis and Passports)

LITERARY BITS: February 8

Here are some words of wisdom from German-Israeli Jewish existentialist philosopher Martin Buber (Ich und Du), born on this day in 1878:

Every person born in this world represents something new, something that never existed before, something original and unique.

Everything depends on inner change; when this has taken place, then, and only then does the world change.

All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.

The true meaning of love one's neighbor is not that it is a command from God which we are to fulfill, but that through it and in it we meet God.

God made so many different kinds of people; why would God allow only one way to worship?

All real living is meeting.

Play is the exultation of the possible.

To be old can be glorious if one has not unlearned how to begin.

The law is not thrust upon man; it rests deep within him, to waken when the call comes.

Through the Thou a person becomes I.

February 8 Holidays

February 8 is Propose Day in India, when lovers give roses to their significant others and ask, "Would you like to spend the rest of our lives together?"

In the U.S. it’s Boy Scout Anniversary Day, commemorating the day in 1910 William Boyce founded Boy Scouts of America in Washington, D.C.

It is Prešeren Day in Slovenia, a public holiday marking the anniversary of the death of Slovene national poet France Prešeren, a nineteenth century Romantic poet. His works include A Wreath of Sonnets, "The Baptism on the Savica," and the collection The Poetry of Dr. France Prešeren.

As the second Monday in February, it's Oatmeal Monday and Clean Out Your Computer Day.

February 8 is also International Epilepsy Day, Laugh and Get Rich Day, Molasses Bar Day, Opera Day, and National Kite Flying Day.

This week is also Love Makes the World Go Round But Laughter Keeps Us from Getting Dizzy Week, National Marriage Week, Random Acts of Kindness Week—and Valentine's Week!

Sounds like a time to keep warm with your baby! 😊

Celebrate National Freedom Day!

February 1 is National Freedom Day in the U.S., a time to celebrate the freedoms we enjoy in America. On this day in 1865, President Abraham Lincoln signed the resolution proposing the 13th Amendment to the Constitution to outlaw slavery, and the states ratified it by the end of the year.

Here are some of Lincoln's thoughts on freedom:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.

Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable—a most sacred right—a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world.

I have always thought that all men should be free; but if any should be slaves, it should be first those who desire for themselves, and secondly those who desire it for others. Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.

Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought.

And then, the negro being doomed, and damned, and forgotten, to everlasting bondage, is the white man quite certain that the tyrant demon will not turn upon him too?

In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free— honorable alike in that we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.

This nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Inspiration from people born January 25

 

from Anglo-Irish chemist Robert Boyle (1627-1691):

God would not have made the universe as it is unless He intended us to understand it.

Even when we find not what we seek, we find something as well worth seeking as what we missed.

 

from Scottish poet Robert Burns (1759-1796):

Oh would some power the gift give us, to see ourselves as others see us!

The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men, Gang aft a-gley, And leave us nought but grief and pain, For promised joy.

Life is but a day at most.

There is no such uncertainty as a sure thing.

 

from English artist Benjamin Haydon (1786-1846):

The greatest geniuses have always attributed everything to God, as if conscious of being possessed of a spark of His divinity.

 

from English author W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965):

Only a mediocre person is always at his best.

Death is a very dull, dreary affair, and my advice to you is to have nothing whatsoever to do with it.

We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.

I can imagine no more comfortable frame of mind for the conduct of life than a humorous resignation.

 

from English author Virginia Woolf (1882-1941):

If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.

You cannot find peace by avoiding life.

Arrange whatever pieces come your way.

 

from Finnish Functionalist architect Viljo Revell (1910-1964):

It was teamwork, you see.

 

from Filipino politician Corazon Aquino (1933-2009):

I would rather die a meaningful death than to live a meaningless life.

Faith is not simply a patience that passively suffers until the storm is past. Rather, it is a spirit that bears things—with resignations, yes, but above all, with blazing, serene hope.

I know there isn't anything I can do that will please everybody. But if I have done according to my beliefs, I sleep very very well.

I've reached a point in life where it's no longer necessary to try to impress. If they like me the way I am, that's good. If they don't, that's too bad.

Keep inviolate an area of light and peace within you.

I am not embarrassed to tell you that I believe in miracles.

 

from American runner Steve Prefontaine (1951-1975):

Some people create with words or with music or with a brush and paints. I like to make something beautiful when I run. I like to make people stop and say, 'I've never seen anyone run like that before.' It's more than just a race, it's a style. It's doing something better than anyone else. It's being creative.

To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift.

 

from American actor Leigh Taylor Young (1945- ):

It's about loving one's self, first and absolutely foremost. The more one comes to know the self, forgive the self, and love the self, the better lover one is of anything and everybody in this life.

I would just say love God with all your heart, body, mind and soul. And whatever comes forward for you to follow, as that love progressively awakens in you, do it. And it will awaken in each person as long as they have the willingness to open to the journey, because it is a journey. Don't try and form it, just have the love and the willingness to listen, and it will guide you with impeccable perfection.

 

from American actor Jenifer Lewis (1957- ):

The elevator to success is broken, take the stairs.

 

from American singer-songwriter Alicia Keys (1981- ):

Everything you want to be, you already are. You're simply on the path to discovering it.

We are all one. We're not as separate as we oftentimes think.

 

from Japanese singer-songwriter and newscaster Sho Sakurai (1982- ):

Write it as a dream, read it as a goal.

 

from American singer-actor Ariana DeBose (1991- ):

When you feel your best, everybody else can feel it, too.

 

from Australian rocker Calum Hood (1996- ):

Just live right now, and be yourself, it doesn't matter if it's good enough for someone else.

Literary Bits

 

Here are some quotes from philosopher Robert Anton Wilson, author of The Illuminatus! Trilogy, who was born on January 18 in 1932:

I don't believe anything, but I have many suspicions.

Groups are grammatical fictions; only individuals exist, and each individual is different.

Nothing of any importance can be taught. It can only be learned, and with blood and sweat.

We live in our fantasies and endure our realities.

Horror is the natural reaction to the last 5,000 years of history.

It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea.

...when dogma enters the brain, all intellectual activity ceases.

The future is up for grabs. It belongs to any and all who will take the risk and accept the responsibility of consciously creating the future they want.

Reality is what you can get away with.

On a planet that increasingly resembles one huge Maximum Security prison, the only intelligent choice is to plan a jail break.

In conclusion, there is no conclusion. Things will go on as they always have, getting weirder all the time.