Friday, December 11, 2009

Winter Inspiration

Although I may not have an abundance of things to blog about right now while my thoughts lie dormant beneath the layers of Nevada snow, I can always find "food for thought" from what others have written.

This soul craves inspiration, especially in the dead of winter when winter weather wants to close in on all the normal patterns of life. I love anything hot in winter - fires and drinks. And of course I love the time with family and friends watching movies and playing games while it's cold outside. The cold and bitter days will soon pass and Spring will be here, a time of the year I love best. Here are some thoughts to chew on in the winter weather. I'd love to hear which quote you like and why, perhaps what it means to you today.

--------------------

“There are only two seasons -- winter and Baseball.”
- Bill Veeck (American Baseball Player, 1914-1986)

“People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.”
- Rogers Hornsby (American professional Baseball Player 1896-1963)

“Sometimes our fate resembles a fruit tree in winter. Who would think that those branches would turn green again and blossom, but we hope it, we know it.”
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German Playwright, Poet, Novelist)

“I like these cold, gray winter days. Days like these let you savor a bad mood.”
- Bill Watterson (American Author of the Comic strip, Calvin & Hobbes)

“Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.”
- Victor Hugo (French romantic Poet, Novelist and Dramatist, 1802-1885)

“Too bad Lassie didn't know how to ice skate, because then if she was in Holland on vacation in winter and someone said "Lassie, go skate for help," she could do it.”
- Jack Handy (American Writer & Saturday Night Live cast member from 1991-2003)

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”
- Anne Bradstreet (British poet, 1612-1672)

“Winter must be cold for those with no warm memories”
- (From the movie, "An Affair To Remember")

“In the depths of winter I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer”
- Albert Camus (French Novelist, Essayist, Playwright, '57 Nobel Prize for Literature)

“Lovers, forget your love and list to the love of these She a window flower And he a winter breeze ...”
- Robert Frost (American poet, 1874-1963)

“No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.”
- Hal Borland

“Adversity draws men together and produces beauty and harmony in life's relationships, just as the cold of winter produces ice-flowers on the window-panes, which vanish with the warmth.”
- Soren Kierkegaard (Danish Philosopher and Theologian, generally recognized as the first existentialist philosopher. 1813-1855)

"There are three reasons for becoming a writer: the first is that you need the money; the second that you have something to say that you think the world should know; the third is that you can't think what to do with the long winter evenings.”
- Quentin Crisp (English Author, 1908-1999)

“One kind word can warm three winter months.”
- Japanese Proverb

“We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter's evening. Some of us let these great dreams die, but others nourish and protect them; nurse them through bad days till they bring them to the sunshine and light which comes always to those who sincerely hope that their dreams will come true.”
- Woodrow T. Wilson quotes (American 28th President of the United States 1856-1924)

“Every mile is two in winter”
- George Hurbert

"The last day of the old year was one of those bright, cold, dazzling winter days, which bombard us with their brilliancy, and command our admiration but never our love."
- Lucy Maud Montgomery (a Canadian author, best known for a series of novels beginning with Anne of Green Gables, published in 1908.)


"O Winter! ruler of the inverted year, . . . I crown thee king of intimate delights, Fireside enjoyments, home-born happiness, And all the comforts that the lowly roof Of undisturb'd Retirement, and the hours Of long uninterrupted evening, know."
- William Cowper (English poet and hymnodist)

"Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart."
- Victor Hugo (French dramatist, novelist, & poet 1802 - 1885)

"Winter is nature's way of saying, "Up yours."
- Robert Byrne (American Author and billiards champion player, Writer of 'Standard Book of Pool and Billiards')

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

many words

Normally, I'm a woman of many words. I've always got something to blog about. I guess this winter weather is affecting my capacity to blog as well. I love looking at the snow, especially on the mountains. I enjoy warm fires and hot cocoa with a book when those can be arranged while the weather outside is frightful. I enjoy snowboarding and snowshoing and hope to do more of that in years to come. Mostly though, when winter comes, I feel closed in. I don't like the way it impedes the things I love to do, like get around, both on foot and in a car. Oh well. This too shall pass.