Tuesday's Inspiration

"We cannot put off living until we are ready. The most salient characteristic of life is it's urgency, 'here and now' without any possible postponement. Life is fired at us point-blank."
_____ Jose Ortega Y Gasset

Monday's Message

"The mature person pays attention to what
is happening in the innermost self."
_____ Tzu Ssu

Weekend Inspiration

Honeysuckle in bloom surrounding the tool shed.

"Listen to your life.
All moments are key moments."
_____ Frederick Buechner

Friday's Inspiration

"It is for us to make the effort.
The result is always in God's hands.
_____ Gandhi

Thursday's Inspiration

"The best preparation for a better life next year is a full,
complete, harmonious, joyous life this year."
_____ Thomas Dreier

Wednesday's Inspiration

"Zen is not some kind of excitement.
But concentration on our usual everyday routine."
_____ Shunryu Suzuki

Tuesday's Inspiration

"Spring passes, and one remember one's innocence, summer passes, and one remembers one's exuberance, autumn passes and one remembers one's reverence, winter passes, and one remembers one's perseverance."
_____ Yoko Ono

Monday's Message

Now this is whaat Ruth Perry's 2008 Celtic snowflake is supposed to look like. This snowflake was tatted using DMC Cordonnet size 30 Ecru thread.
"There's harmony and inner peace to be found in following a moral compass
that points in the same direction regardless of fashion or trend."
_____ Ted Koppel

Weekend Inspiration

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.
The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop like autumn leaves."
_____ John Muir

Friday's Inspiration

"Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted.
Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world."
_____ Hans Margolius

Thursday's Inspiration

Here is a picture of the two trees I have pruned out at the front of our house to make them more interesting. One is a boxwood bush that I turned into what the nearby kids call the slide. The other was a tall juniper that I pruned into a large cloud tree.

"Here it is-----right now.
Start thinking about it and you miss it."
_____ Huang Po

Wednesday's Inspiration

"There can never be peace between nations until there is first known that true peace which......is within the souls of men."
_____ Black Elk

Lesson Learned

This Celtic Snowflake was designed by Ruth Perry for the year 2008. I don't know about other experienced tatters but I can now tat without looking at my tatting very much or so I thought. I was watching a very interesting show on television and as you can see I made A mistake in my tatting. Oh well, they say each snowflake is original and this one sure is.

The Quote for the day is;
"Whenever conscience speaks with a divided, uncertain, and disputed voice, it is not the voice of God.
Descend still deeper into yourself, until you hear nothing but a clear, undivided voice,
a voice that does away with doubt and brings with it persuasion, light and serenity."
_____ Henri F. Amiel

Monday's Message

"In the ultimate stillness light penetrates the whole realm; in the still illumination there pervades pure emptiness.
When I look back on the phenomenal world, everything is just like a dream."
_____ Han-shan Te-ch'ing

Weekend Inspiration

"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old;
seek what they sought."
_____ Basho

Friday's Inspiration

"Cultivate and nourish yourself to enact maturity and achieve stability. If you accord everywhere with thorough clarity and cut off sharp corners without dependence on doctrines, you can be called a complete person."
_____ Hongzhi Zhengjue

Thursday's Inspiration

"Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them; that only creates sorrow.
Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like."
_____ Lao-Tzu

Wednesday's Inspiration

"With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony,
and the deep power of joy,
we see into the life of things."
_____ William Wordsworth

Tuesday's Inspiration

"The world is not to be put in order. The world is order.
It is for us to put ourselves in unison with this order."
_____ Henry Miller

Monday's Message

"... the sacred is in the ordinary.... it is to be found in ones daily life, in ones neighbours, friends, and family, in ones own backyard... travel may be a flight from confronting the sacred-- this lesson can be easily lost. To be looking elsewhere for miracles is to me a sure sign of ignorance that everything is miraculous."
_____ Abraham Maslow

Weekend Inspiration

This is a picture of some of the mosses growing in a garden.

"The morning glory which blooms for an hour differs not at heart from the great pine,
which lives for a thousand years."
_____ Alan Watts

Friday's Inspiration

"The soul establishes itself. But how far can it swim out through the eyes and still return safely to its nest.
_____ John Ashbery

Thursday's Inspiration

To celebrate Remembrance day in Canada where we recognize veterans who fought in the war and are fighting in wars here is the poem In Flanders Fields.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.

- John McCrae

Inspiration for today-
"Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles."
_____ Confucius

Wednesday's Inspiration

"Be broad-minded, whole, without relying on others.
_____ Hongzhi Zhebgjue

Tuesday's Inspiration

A nice spot to tat.

"With gentleness, overcome anger.
With generosity, overcome meanness.
With truth, overcome delusion."
_____ The Dhammapada

Monday's Message

"To return to the root is to find the meaning,
but to pursue appearences is to miss the source.
_____ Seng Ts'an

Weekend Inspiration

"Through meditation and by giving full attention to one thing at a time, we can learn to direct attention where we chose."
_____ Eknath Easwarran

Friday's Inspiration

"Nothing matters very much and few things matter at all."
_____ Earl Balfour

Thursday's Inspiration

"Sorrow is tranquility remembered in emotion."
_____ Dorothy Parker

Wednesday's Inspiration

"This is the real secret of life: to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now.
And instead of calling it work, realize it is play."
_____ Alan Watts

Tuesday's Inspiration

"Beware of the anger of the mind.
Master your thoughts. Let them serve the truth."
_____ The Dhammapada

Monday's Message

"People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong.
Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom."
_____ Thich Nhat Hanh

Weekend Inspiration

"In this world hate never dispelled hate. Only love dispels hate. This is the law, ancient and inexhaustible. You to shall pass away. Knowing this, how can you quarrel?"
_____ Buddha
“Not to have the flexibility to change is a tragedy in itself, and have too much flexibility not to stand for anything is a tragedy in itself.”
_____ Yogi Bhajan

Wednesday's Inspiration

"We cling to our own point of view, as though everything depended upon it. Yet our opinions have no permanence; like Autumn and Winter they gradually pass away."
_____ Chuang Tzu

"Practice not-doing, and everything will fall in place."
_____ Lao-Tzu

Monday's Message

"The world is a great mirror. It reflects back to it what you are. If you are loving, if you are friendly, if you are helpful the world will prove loving and friendly to you."
_____ Thomas Dreier

Taking a Break

Hi Everyone, I just wanted to let you know that I am taking a break from blogging this week so I can devote my time to test tatting. See you Monday.

Tuesday's Inspiration

"Knowing that I am of the same nature as all other natural things, I know that there is no separate self, no separate personality, no absolute death and no absolute life."
_____ T'ien Tung-Hsu

Monday's Message

"The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potters oven?"
_____ Kahlil Gibran

Weekend Inspiration

"A happy life consists of tranquility of mind.
_____ Cicero

Friday's Inspiration

"You shouldn't allow yourself to be confused by others. Act when you need to, without further hesitation or doubt. People today can't do this. What is there affliction? Their affliction is in their lack of self-confidence."
_____ Linji

Thursday's Inspiration

"A contented mind is a hidden treasure, and trouble findeth not."
_____ Akhenaton

Wednesday's Inspiration

"Life just is.You have to flow with it. Give yourself to the moment. Let it happen."
_____ Jerry Brown

Happy Thanksgiving Day Canada

Today we celebrate Thanksgiving Day in Canada. For me it is an opportunity to give thanks for the good and bad in my life that make it what it is. It may sound a bit crazy for being thankful for the bad, but I survived it, I have made peace with it as best as I can at this time and because I lived through it I have been blessed with a super caring and understanding personality. I have the gift of being able to help others through horrible things because I have been there. I have moved past the role of victim and now help those who are victimized.

So today I am thank full for the person I have become. A father with 2 great children. A listener for those who need one, a helper for those I can help. A person to turn to when life gets you down. A smile to help change that frown.

I would like to thank all my tatter friends who inspire me to be a better tatter. Thank you for your patterns, techniques, ideas and compliments. I count you among my best friends.

Weekend Inspiration

"Silence accompanies the most significant expressions of happiness and unhappiness...."
_____ Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

Thursday's Inspiration

"I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These are your greatest treasures.
_____ Lao-Tzu

Wednesday's Inspiration

"The perfect way is only difficult for those who pick and choose; do not like, do not dislike: all will then be clear."
_____ Seng-Ts'an

Tuesday's Inspiration

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."
_____ Krishnamurti

Tatting and Inspiration

I know it has been awhile since there has been pictures of tatting but here is a doily that I just finished. The pattern is called Mom's Pink Doily and was designed by Nancy Tracy. The pattern can be found here. This doily is made with Oren Bayan size perle 12 colour #865. The doily still needs to be blocked.



And here is today's inspiration.
"It is not length of life, but depth of life."
_____ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Weekend Inspiration

"The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself."
_____ Henry Miller