A family holiday

Maddy’s flowers*

You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you.

~ Frederick Buechner

*Dandelions are blooming like crazy across the lawn, on the pathways, in the meadows, and around the pond.

Emma in the meadow

Our grandchildren accept us for ourselves, without rebuke or effort to change us, as no one in our entire lives has ever done, not our parents, siblings, spouses, friends — and hardly ever our own grown children.

~ Ruth Goode

Concentration

What can you do to promote world peace?  Go home and love your family.

~ Mother Teresa

Peeling potatoes

When your mother asks, “Do you want a piece of advice?” it’s a mere formality.  It doesn’t matter if you answer yes or no.  You’re going to get it anyway.

~ Erma Bombeck

Father and daughter

I sustain myself with the love of family.

~ Maya Angelou

Mother and daughter

This is how you hold onto your family.  You hold them with open hands so they are free to find futures of their own.  It’s just that simple.

~ Richard Peck

Building a snowman without snow

It is not until much later, as the skin sags and the heart weakens, that children understand; their stories, and all their accomplishments, sit atop the stories of their mothers and fathers, stones upon stones, beneath the waters of their lives.

~ Mitch Albom

Because even a snowman built without snow should melt

Beauty is everywhere, love is endless, and joy bleeds from our everyday existence.  Embrace it.  I love all of you, all my friends, family, and community.  I am ceaselessly grateful from the bottom of my heart for everyone.  The only thing I can ask of you is to stay free of materialism.  Remember that every day contains a universe of potential; exhaust it.  Live and love so immensely that when death comes there is nothing left for him to take.  Wealth is love, music, sports, learning, family and freedom.  Above all, stay gold.

~ Dominic Owen Mallary

She wears her heart on her sleeve

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