Wisdom, by Dollie Radford, English poet

Wisdom

by Dollie Radford

HOW can I measure your sorrow,
How do I know
The weight of to-day and to-morrow,
Of days long ago,
The grief, and the burden to follow,
That speech may not show?
Deep in my heart is the measure,
Laid by the years,
To fathom, beneath all your pleasure,
The flood of your tears,
To mark all the desolate leisure
Your lonely heart fears.

https://www.best-poems.net/dollie-radford/wisdom.html

Sonnet 116: 'Let me not to the marriage of true minds...', by William Shakespeare

Sonnet 116: 'Let me not to the marriage of true minds...'

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

~ William Shakespeare (1564-1616) 

Poet and playwright, considered the greatest dramatist of all time

Bluebird Symbolism and Spiritual Meaning, by SonomaBirding.com

The Bluebird is a uniquely attractive bird. Its feathers and coloration are gorgeous, while its song is melodious and pleasant to the ear. In the avian world, these birds might not be well recognized, but they have a strong and positive symbolism in the spiritual world. It has featured some important symbolism among many religious groups. . . .

The bluebird is a symbol of hope, love, and renewal and is also a part of many Native American legends. It symbolizes the essence of life and beauty. Dreaming of bluebirds often represents happiness, joy, fulfillment, hope, prosperity, and good luck. . . .

The bluebirds’ most significant symbolism is associated with their wings’ color; blue is symbolic of peace and contentment, and so are these birds. According to the Mystics, blue was the color of innocence, honesty, and purity.

Bluebirds are also symbolic of joy and happiness; their spirits firmly believe in spreading joy everywhere they go. Because the bluebirds have a melodious voice, they’re symbolic of music and passion. They have a positive spirit and keep the negative energies at bay.

Even in the harshest climates, when they have a scarcity of food, these birds still manage to sing cheerfully. It is a sign that you should never lose faith, even in your darkest hours. You must hold on to the belief that in the end, it will all be alright.

Bluebirds also stand for the inner child in all of us. They remind us that while the world might be a cruel place, you should never lose your kindness and innocence because these are the traits that make you a better person. . . .

https://www.sonomabirding.com/bluebird-symbolism/  as of 11/14/2025

Bluebird, by Charles Bukowski

Bluebird

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I'm not going
to let anybody see
you.
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pour whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he's
in there.

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?
there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody's asleep.
I say, I know that you're there,
so don't be
sad.
then I put him back,
but he's singing a little
in there, I haven't quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it's nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don't
weep, do
you?

https://allpoetry.com/poem/8509539-Bluebird-by-Charles-Bukowski 

This was published in Bukowski's book "The Last Night of the Earth Poems" circa 1992

Everything is waiting for you, by David Whyte

Everything is waiting for you
Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice. You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.

Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.

Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the
conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.

https://allpoetry.com/poem/15379873-Everything-is-waiting-for-you-by-David-Whyte

"Never underestimate the ability of an enthusiast to screw things up."

"Never underestimate the ability of an enthusiast to screw things up."

~ GunnyMike, AP article comment

Girlfriends at the Ocean View Restaurant

GIRLFRIENDS

A group of 15-year-old girlfriends discussed where they should meet for dinner. Finally, it was agreed upon that they should meet at the Dairy Queen next to the Ocean View restaurant because they only had $6.00 between them and Jimmy Johnson, that cute boy in Social Studies, lives on that street and they might see him, and they can ride their bikes there.

10 years later, the group of 25-year-old girlfriends discussed where they should meet for dinner. Finally, it was agreed upon that they should meet at the Ocean View restaurant because the beer was cheap, they had free snacks, the band was good, there was no cover and there were lots of cute guys.

10 years later, at 35 years of age, the group once again discussed where they should meet for dinner. Finally, it was agreed upon that they should meet at the Ocean View restaurant because the cosmos were good, it was right near the gym and if they go late enough, there wouldn't be too many whiny little kids.

10 years later, at 45 years of age, the group once again discussed where they should meet for dinner. Finally, it was agreed upon that they should meet at the Ocean View restaurant because the martinis were big, and the waiters there had tight pants and nice buns.

10 years later, at 55 years of age, the group once again discussed where they should meet for dinner. Finally it was agreed they should meet at the Ocean View restaurant because the food there was reasonable, the wine list was good, they had windows that open in case of a hot flash, and fish is good for your cholesterol.

10 years later, at 65 years of age, the group once again discussed where they should meet for dinner. Finally it was agreed that they should meet at the Ocean View restaurant because the lighting was good and they have an early bird special.

10 years later, at 75 years of age, the group once again discussed where they should meet for dinner. Finally it was agreed that they should meet at the Ocean View restaurant because the food was not too spicy, the restaurant was handicapped accessible, and they even had an elevator!

10 years later, at 85 years of age, the group once again discussed where they should meet for dinner. Finally it was agreed that they should meet at the Ocean View restaurant because they had never been there before.

~ Author Unknown

Humor

"Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance." C.S. Lewis

"Christianity, if false, is of no importance,
and if true, of infinite importance.
The only thing it cannot be is moderately important."

~ C. S. Lewis

The Race We Are In

quote from William A. Ritter, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com:

Several years ago, I told you a story about one of my all-time favorite people. Not that I know her, or have even met her. But I admire her. Because one day, at age 42, in beautiful downtown Cleveland, she ran a marathon by accident (all 26 miles, 385 yards of it). 

Her name was Georgene Johnson. Still is. As you will recall, she lined up with the wrong group at the starting line. Not the 10K group, where she belonged. But the 26-mile group, where she didn't. 

It wasn't until the four-mile mark that she realized her mistake. So she just kept going, finishing the race in four hours and four minutes. 

But it's what she said later (by way of explanation) that has stayed with me since. Said Georgene: "This isn't the race I trained for. This isn't the race I entered. But, for better or worse, this is the race I'm in."

Which is true more often than you might think. Relatively few of us are exactly where we figured we'd be....doing exactly what we figured we'd be doing. But we are where we are, and (for better or worse) we're keeping our feet moving.

"​​In Essentials Unity, In Non-Essentials Liberty, In All Things Charity" ~ Rupertus Meldenius

 "​​In Essentials Unity, In Non-Essentials Liberty, In All Things Charity"

~ Rupertus Meldenius, German Lutheran theologian of the early seventeenth century

https://learn.ligonier.org/articles/essentials-unity-non-essentials-liberty-all-things

quote:

​In Essentials Unity, In Non-Essentials Liberty, In All Things Charity

Mark Ross

Philip Schaff, the distinguished nineteenth-century church historian, calls the saying in our title “the watchword of Christian peacemakers.” Often attributed to great theologians such as Augustine, it comes from an otherwise undistinguished ​German Lutheran theologian of the early seventeenth century, ​​Rupertus Meldenius. The phrase occurs in a tract on Christian unity written (circa 1627) during the Thirty Years War (1618–1648), a bloody time in European history in which religious tensions played a significant role. The saying has found great favor among subsequent writers such as Richard Baxter, and has since been adopted as a motto by the Moravian Church of North America and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Might it serve us well as a motto for every church and for every denomination today?

etc.

“Black care rarely sits behind a rider whose pace is fast enough.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt

“Black care,” Roosevelt later wrote of his deliverance from depression, “rarely sits behind a rider whose pace is fast enough.”