Quotation of the Week (52/2010)

“I am not alone at all, I thought. I was never alone at all. And that, of course, is the message of Christmas. We are never alone. Not when the night is darkest, the wind coldest, the world seemingly most indifferent. For this is still the time God chooses.”

Taylor Caldwell

Quotation of the Week (51/2010)

Advent Calendar / 20 December

‘The White Witch? Who is she?’
’Why, it is she that makes it always winter. Always winter and never Christmas; think of that!"’
’How awful!’ said Lucy.

---

‘Come on!’ cried Mr Beaver, who was almost dancing with delight. ‘Come and see! This is a nasty knock for the Witch! It looks as if her power as already crumbling.’

---

And on the sledge sat a person whom everyone knew the moment they set eyes on him. --- Everyone knew him because, though you see people of his sort only in Narnia, you see pictures of them and hear them talked about even in our world – the world on this side of the wardrobe door. But when you really see them in Narnia it is rather different. Some of the pictures of Father Christmas in our world make his look only funny and jolly. But now that the children actually stood looking at him they didn’t find it quite like that. He was so big, and so glad, and so real, that they all became quite still. They felt very glad, but also solemn.

‘I’ve come at last,’ said he. ‘She has kept me out for a long time, but I have got in at last. Aslan is on the move. The Witch’s magic is weakening.’

C.S. Lewis: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
(Illustration by Pauline Baynes)

…

I’m not sure how it works for readers who live in a warm climate, but I think Lewis catches perfectly how closely connected Christmas has come to be with Winter for us who live in the North. Christmas is celebrated at Midwinter; it is the turning point, when we can begin to say things like “at least from now on the days will be getting longer again…”

Quotation of the Week (50/2010) + Lucia (2)

Advent Calendar / 13 December - LUCIA

“A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.”
~ James Keller ~

I did not get to see our town’s Lucia this weekend; but below is another St Lucia video for you, which was made for Swedish television in Mora in 2007, at the home/museum of famous Swedish painter Anders Zorn (1860-1920). This video includes Lucia and her maidens arriving by sleigh ride. You will also get glimpses from the kitchen, and get to see the Lucia carrying a coffee tray with the traditional buns and gingerbread cookies (see yesterday’s post).

Quotation of the Week (45/2010)

Advent Calendar / 6 December

"It’s sharing your gifts, not purchasing gifts;
It’s not wrapping presents, its being present
and wrapping your arms around the ones you love;
It’s not getting Christmas cards out on time,
It’s sending any card, anytime, at the right time;
It’s not having the biggest and best Christmas light display,
It’s displaying the Christ light that comes from your heart;
It’s not Santa coming down the chimney,
It’s Jesus coming down from heaven,
and giving us the gift of eternal life."

~ Source: Anonymous ~

The maker of the wreath is also unknown to me.
The photo is mine, but feel free to copy it if you like. 

Quotation of the Week (48/2010)

If the world is cold, make it your business to build fires.
~ Horace Traubel ~

Quotation of the Week (47/2010)

“Something that has always puzzled me all my life is why, when I am in special need of help, the good deed is usually done by somebody on whom I have no claim.”

~ William Feather ~

Quotation of the Week (46/2010)

I love borders. August is the border between summer and autumn; it is the most beautiful month I know. Twilight is the border between day and night, and the shore is the border between sea and land. The border is longing: when both have fallen in love but still haven't said anything. The border is to be on the way. It is the way that is the most important thing.

- Tove Jansson -

Quotation of the Week 45/2010

"Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don't we consider it his duty to escape?. . .If we value the freedom of mind and soul, if we're partisans of liberty, then it's our plain duty to escape, and to take as many people with us as we can!"

~ J.R.R. Tolkien ~

(PS. As for the picture… Use your imagination!)

Quotation of the Week (44/2010)

“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.”

~ Robert Frost ~

Quotation of the Week (43/2010)

“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth,
so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind.
To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again.
To make a deep mental path,
we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.”

Henry David Thoreau
(1817-1862)

Quotation of the Week (42/2010)

“Time flies over us,
but leaves its shadow behind.”

~ Nathaniel Hawthorne ~

Quotation of the Week (41/2010)

“You know you’re getting old when you stoop to tie your shoelaces and wonder what else you could do while you’re down there.”

~ George Burns (1896 – 1996) ~

Another quote I came across while trying to find out who the man behind last week’s quotation was... American actor, writer and comedian who lived to be no less than 100 years old. I have no idea how old he was when he first uttered these words, though! ;)

Quotation of the Week (40/2010)

 
“How beautifully leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days.”
~ George Burns ~

Quotation of the Week (39/2010)

"Life is like a bag - it's empty and meaningless unless you fill it with something."

~Hans Alfredson~
(Swedish comedian, actor, writer and film director, born 1931.)

This quote is well-known in Sweden, but perhaps no where else (?) – until now! ;) The original context is a sketch performed by Alfredson in 1962, in which a church bell ringer comments on the new vicar of the parish, and quotes from his sermons about Life.

It popped up in my memory earlier today as I visited GB’s Eagleton Notes... And still lingered with me when I sat down again later to find a Quotation of the Week…

The picture is from one of my (I think maybe total of three or four?) park bench lunches this summer. The last time was actually Sunday a week ago. One of those rare warm and sunny days that sometimes come along just as you thought there would be no more days like that. (… or not until spring, anyway!)

Quotation of the Week (38/2010)

“My favourite poem is the one that starts 'Thirty days hath September' because it actually tells you something.”
~ Groucho Marx ~

Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November;
All the rest have thirty-one,
Excepting February alone,
And that has twenty-eight days clear
And twenty-nine in each leap-year.

Quotation of the Week (37/2010)

“For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together. For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad.”

~ Edwin Way Teale (1899-1980) ~

Quotation of the Week (36/2010)

“I think there will always be a surplus of longing in man. That nothing will ever be quite enough.“

~Johannes Anyuru ~
(Swedish poet, born 1979)

 

“Feeling and longing are the motive forces behind all human endeavor and human creations.”

~Albert Einstein (1879-1955)~

Photo: Small Tortoiseshell butterfly © DawnTreader 2010

Quotation of the Week (35/2010)

The Sun shines and warms and lights us, and we have no curiosity to know why this is so; but we ask the reason of all evil, of pain, and hunger, and mosquitoes, and silly people.

R.W. Emerson (1803-1882)

Quotation of the Week 34/2010

“May the wings of the butterfly kiss the sun
And find your shoulder to light on,
To bring you luck, happiness and riches
Today, tomorrow and beyond.”
~Irish Blessing~

Quotation of the Week (33/2010)

Every individual has a place to fill in the world and is important in some respect whether he chooses to be so or not.

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)