From My Window

They know enough, who know how to learn.  -Henry Brooks

I suppose there is a basic collection of facts or skills that also has to be included in “knowing enough,” but I would certainly agree that the most useful thing over the course of a lifetime is knowing how to learn.  Ironically, however, teaching students how to learn is super, super hard!!  Thinking of my own children at school, or my music students, I realize that helping them grasp the “how” is infinitely more difficult than helping them hang on to the “what.”  I also have to remind myself, though, that lots and lots of different kinds of “what” are necessary because there is now “how to learn” if there isn’t a “what to learn” as a tool.  (And now you might be incredibly confused with all my whats and hows, but it made sense in my head anyway!)

When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand.  -Henri Nouwen

Who comes to mind when you think of people that matter deeply to you?  The people in my head are certainly people who have given me good advice and solutions, but only people who have offered that counsel within the security and warmth of a deep relationship.  Thanks for sharing life with me in ways that are big and visible, and in tiny ways that you might not even realize.

As the traveler who has once been from home is wiser than he who has never left his own doorstep, so a knowledge of one other culture should sharpen our ability to scrutinize more steadily, to appreciate more lovingly, our own.  -Margaret Mead

This quote reminds me to be thankful for the small ways I have learned about other cultures.  I am grateful for friends who have lived and still live in other countries, and for their willingness to answer questions and share their experiences.  I am grateful for life in a large urban area where I have access to different kinds of food, can hear different languages, and can see different people all around me.  I am grateful for my Get HOPE Global work, which gives me a tiny glimpse into the lives of women who are very different from me but who also have so many things in common.  I am even thankful for YouTube, giving glimpses of things I could never otherwise see.  I look forward to upcoming chances to do some more international travel and experience firsthand what God is doing in the world.

 

Nature is too thin a screen; the glory of the omnipresent God bursts through everywhere.  -Ralph Waldo Emerson

This quote seems to fit well with pictures from the glass exhibit at the botanic gardens.  Not that it is natural to have multicolored spirals of glass swirling out of a pond, but because in the combination of God-created art and man-created art, I could see even more clearly the glory of God’s creativity bursting through.  God made the plants, but He also made the minds that conceive of and execute the artwork that enhances them.  In both kinds of beauty I can look in awe at a little glimpse of His glory.

To the outside world we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each other’s hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. We live outside the touch of time.  -Clara Ortega

I may not be super old just yet, but I treasure my brother and sister.  In the infrequent times we are all together I love the sharing of family jokes and memories, and the irreplaceable feeling of being with people who knew me as I used to be.  I pray that a rich lifelong relationship is also being nurtured between the brother and sister that live under my roof.

Joy is prayer…  Joy is strength…  Joy is love…  Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. God loves a cheerful giver. She gives most who gives with joy. The best way to show our gratitude to God and the people is to accept everything with joy. A joyful heart is the inevitable result of a heart burning with love. Never let anything so fill you with sorrow as to make you forget the joy of the Christ risen.  -Mother Theresa

What makes me forget the joy of Christ risen?  For me, it is hardly ever sorrow.  I think I forget joy in Christ much more because of things that are so minor in comparison-distraction, a busy schedule, concern about what people are thinking are saying about me.  I’m not sure what I think about “catching souls” with joy, but I do know that for me the link between gratitude and joy referred to in this quote is so very, very true.  I guess I’ll keep writing on this blog, then, since it helps me to stop and reflect on the joy of little moments in my life.

Today’s quote seems to go with this picture of our Father’s Day poster.

A father carries pictures where his money used to be.  -Author Unknown

I’m not sure how much money my husband has ever carried, but I certainly love the way he “carries” the pictures of our kids–maybe not as photos in a wallet, but as images on his phone and even on his credit card, and even more than that thoughts of them in his head.  I love his creativity and dedication as a parent, and can’t imagine trying to do this monumental task on my own.  It is something I respect about my own father, and something I am grateful to have in my husband as well.

It’s time for some more random quotes (mostly because I have some cool pictures to share that don’t fit into any other posts).

Today’s random quote seems particularly fitting for today’s picture, as well as pictures to come.

That which, perhaps, hears more nonsense than anything in the world, is a picture in a museum.  –Edmond De Goncourt

It is a fun exercise to imagine all the things that people say when looking at something in a museum.  It is also intriguing to think about how much of people’s conversation in and around a beautiful piece of artwork has nothing to do with the art at all–how many people have I seen absorbed in their cell phones instead of soaking in the beautiful glasswork at the Gardens.  Maybe the next time I am with the kids in a museum, we’ll stop and imagine for a moment what the walls have heard and seen.

Random Quote #1201

You can’t get to joy by making everything perfect. You can only get there by seeing in every imperfection all that’s joy.  The joy is in having the Beloved, not in loving what we have.  –Ann Voskamp

I can certainly attest to the fact that striving for perfection doesn’t necessarily bring joy–just listen to my attitude when I’m cleaning house!  Refocusing on the Beloved, rather than on the perfection or lack of it in my surroundings, is such a critical shift in vision.

Random Quote #739

Having a child is the great divide between one’s own childhood and adulthood. All at once someone is totally dependent upon you. You are no longer the child of your mother but the mother of your child. Instead of being taken care of, you are responsible for taking care of someone else.  –Elaine Heffner

Sometimes I still shake my head at the thought of myself as a mom!  I can still remember so well the feeling of being a child.  Maybe that’s one of the many reasons I love being with my mom–I can still feel taken care of, even though much of my life is now spent taken care of my own kids.