QUOTATIONS, AND SO ON

[Tomorrow I celebrate 85 years on this planet Earth. Born at 2 PM, Charleston, Illinois, in my own home. Weighed 9 lbs. according to the doctor. Now, here I am, 85 years later, living in Northeastern Indiana, in a small town about the size of Charleston, and still living in my own home. My weight has fluctuated over the years, up and down, but is now stabilized at a good number to please both me and my medical folks. To celebrate here with you who read Thursday's Child's ramblings, I'm repeating other people's wisdom and sayings that have encouraged me over the years and often made me smile.]

Here are some thoughts to entertain you - possibly give you a nudge - even make you smile in agreement.

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Courage is being scared to death - but saddling up anyway.

            -- John Wayne

We are all here for a spell; get all the good laughs you can.

            -- Will Rogers

Nobody can be exactly like me. Sometimes even I have trouble doing it.

            -- Tallulah Bankhead

Never miss a chance to keep your mouth shut.

            -- Robert Newton Peck

Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.

            -- Mark Twain

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It is a mistake to regard age as a downhill grade toward dissolution. The reverse is true. As one grows older, one climbs with surprising strides.

            -- George Sand

The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.

            -- William James

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This thing that we call 'failure' is not the falling down, but the staying down.

            -- Mary Pickford

I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much.

            -- Mother Teresa

We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world.

            -- Helen Keller

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Have a blessed week! Keep on keepin' on.

Thursday's Child

Yep, it's that season!

 IT'S STILL THE NEW YEAR ...

We're fifteen days into 2026! Fifteen days!! 

Several years ago I wrote about New Year's Resolutions--I called mine Intentions for the new year.

Some people do their bah-humbug routine when resolutions are mentioned.

Then--I saw something new (to me)--New Year's Dissolutions.

That's right, dissolutions. All about--giving up.

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Okay, doesn't sound like much of anything, does it? After all, sometimes our resolutions or intentions were about giving up--coffee, alcohol, tobacco, sweets, games . . . .

But I think there's something in there for us. I came up with three levels of giving up:

• EASY
• MIDDLIN'
• CHALLENGING

Let's explore:

The easiest, seems to me, is about things. Stuff. Excess physical possessions.

Examples:

• clothing that no longer fits
• clothing that is out of style (though this bothers me not much a-tall)
• books I won't read again
• music books (not needed now that I've given up the organ)
• movie DVDs and music CDs that I haven't watched/listened to for years

You get the idea. You can make your own list.

The middlin' category gets a little closer to home--our activities and behaviors:

• too many appointments
• too many commitments (even good things, like fitness classes or courses in one of our hobbies
• too many "haftas"--as in, I hafta visit my friend every Saturday, or I hafta go to the nursing home and help out, or I hafta take my turn reading to little kids at the library (sometimes these are "shoulds")

Finally, the challenging category:

• ourselves--beyond possessions, beyond activities, beyond behaviors
• what is there about this self each of us inhabits that can be improved by giving up an attitude or a belief? Or a relationship? Or a job?
• how do we go about that? How would I know what to give up?

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As you have already figured out, there are no right-or-wrong answers here. And this is very definitely NOT a one-size-fits-all. There is no one size.

My excess physical baggage may be just what you want or need. Great! I'll take that stuff to the thrift store or the library and donate it. If I can't quite gift it, I'll put it on ebay or one of the other vending sites.

My excess behaviors and activities won't be yours. Maybe your tolerance for a busy life is higher than mine. My low-activity tolerance allows me time to think, meditate, work out stories to write or pictures to paint. But then, I'm not you.

My challenging category is something I've been working on for decades. The only lesson I've learned is this: I learn as I go along. I give up something; how do I feel about that? I explore new ways of thinking, new beliefs; I read biographies and memoirs (all kinds); I research the lives of writers, painters, poets, members of religious communities, and I struggle to understand what each person thinks, feels, understands, and then communicates. If there's something for me in that exploration, then I keep it, and go forward. If not, I walk on and look some more.

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Here's a happy thought: A new year can begin any time! In our culture, and in this present day, January 1st is the signal for a new year to begin. In reality, any day is the beginning of a new year. (Remember this saying? "This is the first day of the rest of my life." Cliche now, but once had some significance. Maybe it still does.) 

Bottom line: You can choose when to start your new year.

An artist I follow online has a mini-course in setting a creative brief. One of her first comments was this: You don't have to start this now. Your "new year" can start any time. You will be reviewing your own work, and that can start again and again.

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I wish you good fortune in your search for a new year. If you choose "dissolutions," I hope that works out for you.

Blessings,

Thursday's Child

PLANS!

It's that time of year again--

I got that far and stopped. WHY is it that time of year? Can't we make plans any old time? How about September 10th? Or July 18th? Or--okay, how about your birthday? Or my birthday? 

If we really stop and take a look at our lives, aren't we "making plans" all the time? 

For example:

• my daughter and I spent over an hour on the phone this morning with varying success:
• trying to move an appointment from one day to another
• trying to figure out why one medical provider isn't doing certain things any longer
• trying to find out why two medical providers need the same test--and can it be done once for both
• time "on hold" better spent on other projects (never mind being #2 in the queue)

That's just one morning's "planning" in our lives. I don't have an outside job, so we'd naturally think, wouldn't we, that I'm available any old time? But my availability often requires a driver who isn't me.

Okay, another example. Today, Wednesday, my daughter has the day off from work. We made tentative plans for things around the house and yard. Now that we spent most of the morning engaged in the appointment book blues, we had to make different plans. (shuffle, shuffle)

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I know none of this is unique to us, nor to you. In current parlance, "it is what it is." But, dang, I sure wish it wasn't!

To prepare for this post, I did some online research for appropriate/pithy quotations about planning--making plans--anything in that neck of the woods. Here are some samples of what I found:

E. B. White improved my world every time I read some of his essays. And because of that connection, I enjoyed my world a whole lot more. I didn't have to do a lot of planning, either.

I like this one a lot--and I've found I can do both, wish and plan.

Sound practical advice. 

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So what about plans that don't bear fruit? Or that seem to fizzle out? Or leave us feeling--I don't know, cheated maybe. Or dangling . . . .

Some suggestions--maybe it wasn't time for that plan to work out. Or maybe we hadn't thought it through. Or, if my Grandma Jenkins had it nailed--"I didn't hold my mouth right!"

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I'll end on a humorous note:

Have a wonderful wonderful week--with or without a plan!

Blessings to all for 2026!

Thursday's Child

 

AFTERMATH
[This essay appeared many years ago, and yet it remains true for me as we settle into a new year, 2026.]

Whether you started Christmas the day after Thanksgiving and took down all the decorations on December 26th or started Christmas on December 25th and celebrated the full 12 days (through January 6th), there's more to come.

Not more Christmas celebrating, exactly. But whatever transformations you felt, whatever new feelings you experienced, these you carry into the new year.

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In 1959, 20th Century Fox made a film called Say One For Me, starring Bing Crosby as Father Conroy, with Debbie Reynolds and Robert Wagner as major players in the story. One of the songs in that production was called "The Secret of Christmas."

Here are the words of the refrain, written by Sammy Cahn:

It's not the glow you feel when snow appears,
It's not the Christmas card you've sent for years,
Not the joyful sound when sleigh-bells ring,
Or the merry songs children sing.

The little gift you send on Christmas day,
Will not bring back the friend you've turned away;
So may I suggest The Secret of Christmas
is not the things you do at Christmastime,
But the Christmas things you do all year through!

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What are the "Christmas things" we do?

Well, there's merry-making! Parties (the ones you give, the ones you go to), gift-giving . . . .

There's the uber-busy business of shopping, decorating, baking cookies, making candy, writing cards, planning dinners, knitting scarves, buying new clothes . . . .

For some folks there's a Christmas pageant or play, a cantata, rehearsals and getting one's self and/or the kids to the rehearsal hall . . . .

Or how about visiting shut-ins who don't have family to celebrate with? Taking small gifts to nursing homes and hospitals for patients and caregivers? Buying poinsettias to brighten the patient's room?

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Those are some of the Christmas things people do. And as soon as Christmas is "over," whenever that is, we go back to regular activities. To be fair, I don't think we actually forget to do these things--they just drop to a lower place in the list of priorities.

As the song's messages suggests, Christmas isn't only one time a year. The things we do at that mid-winter celebration can be carried on throughout the next twelve months. 


So how would a list of Christmas Things To Do All Year Through look?

How about this:

~Give a no-reason party for a few people you love to see. Buy each one a little gift if you want to.

~Write notes to folks throughout the year--tell them how much you appreciate them; encourage them during difficult times; congratulate them when they have good news.

~Knit/crochet scarves for people who come to the shelters in your area. Or hats. Don't knit or crochet? Buy some pretty items and donate them to the shelter. If you're really ambitious, make lapghans (small afghans suitable to keep laps warm) for folks in nursing homes who sit a lot.

~Volunteer to help with school or church programs--backstage work, making costumes, helping actors learn their lines; or take part yourself--try out for a role, sing in the chorus, play the piano at rehearsal.

~Get a list of shut-ins from your church or neighborhood community center. Send notes. Order small bouquets and deliver them. If you have the time, go for a short visit (five or ten minutes means a lot to someone who has no visitors).

~Read to someone who has trouble seeing.

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Best of all, make your own list. You know what you can do and like to do. See what you can come up with to help someone else get a little better quality of life. If you're already into the All-Year-Through feeling, you are a blessing, and you are blessed. You don't get a badge to sew on your jacket or a pin to wear or a certificate . . . but the Christmas things you do all year through will make your life, and someone else's, merry and bright.

Blessings,

Thursday's Child

 THIS IS WHAT CHRISTMAS IS ALL ABOUT, CHARLIE BROWN

Luke 2:8-14King James Version (KJV)

⁸ And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

⁹ And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

¹⁰ And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

¹¹ For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

¹² And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

¹⁴ Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

 

A Blessed Christmas to you!

 

Thursday's Child 

  WINTER SOLSTICE

The Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere is coming Sunday, December 21st. On the calendar it's the day when the earth is at such an angle that we up north have the least amount of sunlight and the most amount of darkness. Actually--scientifically--it's only a moment, not a full day. Then the earth begins to start its tilt the other way and we get to add a minute or so each day, and that continues until the Summer Solstice (June 20/21, approximately--longest day, shortest night).

For those of us who have been moaning/whining/ranting about the Dark Mornings and Dark Evenings--well, the solstice is Good News! Change isn't instantaneous, nor is it even immediate. Think of it as letting us get used to the change.

If you can't accept that--you might consider moving to another hemisphere for the next six months. Just saying.

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Since the Winter Solstice signals change, here are some thoughts to entertain you:

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right. Oprah Winfrey

Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us. Hal Borland

Wishing you blessings heaped up and overflowing for the coming year! See you next time!

Thursday's Child

 THE TIDY-UP PRINCIPLE

My father was a carpenter most of his life. He designed, built, and then sold our houses. When each one sold, he went through the process again. And again.

After each project was finished, I don't recall any excess lumber or scraps of roofing or siding hanging around. I've no clue what happened to them, but I know they went some place; they were never left to clutter up the area around our house.

My mother was a homemaker. Even though she sometimes worked out in the marketplace, she was first and foremost a housewife. She cooked, cleaned, did laundry and ironed; her house was always uncluttered. (Let me say right here, I did not inherit this gene for a clean slate.)

Tidying up was natural to my parents, and to many of their generation. Even if they stored the remaining scraps of wood or leftover food from a meal, the goal was for the place to look good. (Plus, who knows when we might need a board just two feet long, or a little dish of peas to put in the chicken-vegetable soup.)

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We've just come through one big holiday, with food looming large in the picture.

Soon we'll be facing another (or several other) holiday meal(s) to celebrate with family and friends during the Christmas season.

This post isn't about food. Or, at least, not much. Leftovers are . . . well, what remains after a meal. Some folks love 'em, some won't touch 'em. Freezers are ideal if you just can't face one more meal of chicken/turkey/ham/roast beef/tofu. And if you have no idea what to do about leftovers, go to your grocery store and scan the magazine section--at last count, I found 17 different periodicals devoted to food, all on the newsstand at the same time.

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Okay, that's all about food.

I hear you asking, What other kinds of leftovers are there? 

Just about anything you can name. Leavings when all the gifts have been opened (paper, string, ribbon, gift bags, cards, instructions, small parts of a Lego set . . .). A few minutes and a big trash bag will take care of the problem. (Just don't bag up the instructions or the Lego.)

Old items of clothing that are replaced by new shirts, sweaters, socks, jackets . . . . Your favorite charity will love you for bringing in your former beloved items.

Books, games, CDs, DVDs whose entertainment value has sunk upon Christmas morn when the newest, and latest, and the next big-big-big thing is in your stocking. Not to mention anything technological. Check around your community--some places ask for donations of specific items like these.

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The saddest kind of leftovers are lost relationships--broken families--friendships that didn't weather a particularly bad storm.

The leftover part is the memory of what the relationship once was--that memory may never go away. And if the memories are good ones, they shouldn't go away. But the regrets we often have--ah, there's the rub. Sometimes we just can't face these losses.

This year, I move that we all make an effort to adopt the Tidy-Up Principle: forgive ourselves, and others; examine our regrets and let them go, if we can; and turn our eyes and minds and hearts outward. Toward peace. Toward love for others, whoever they are. Toward being the best person each of us can be.

All in favor, say "aye."

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May your days be merry and bright.

Blessings,

Thursday's Child