On One Leg

"A person does not grow from the ground like a vine or a tree,
one is not part of a plot of land.
Mankind has legs so it can wander."

-Roman Payne, The Wanderess 

Skull

"Holding onto anger

is like drinking poison

and expecting the other person

to die."

-Buddha

Walking Shoes

"Thirty was so strange for me.
I've really had to come to terms
with the fact that I am now
a walking and talking adult."

-C.S. Lewis 

Turning Point

“Autumn seemed to arrive suddenly that year.
The morning of the first September was
crisp and golden as an apple.” 

-J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Simplified Complexity

“We cannot fathom the marvelous complexity
of an organic being;
but on the hypothesis here advanced
this complexity is much increased.
Each living creature must be looked at
as a microcosm--a little universe,
formed of a host of self-propagating organisms,
inconceivably minute and as numerous
as the stars in heaven.”

-Charles Darwin

Proboscidea

"Never do anything by halves

if you want to get away with it.

Be outrageous.

Go the whole hog.

Make sure everything you do is

so completely crazy it's unbelievable..."

-Matilda, Roald Dahl

A Portrait of My Grandmother & 4 Paper Collages

Know the true value of time; 

snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. 

No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination: 

never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.

-Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Elephant Pattern

"When you have got an elephant by the hind legs
and he's trying to run away,
it's best to let him run."

-Abraham Lincoln 

Custom Vans

"I named my dog 'Five Miles'

so I can tell everyone I walk Five Miles

every day."

-Anonymous

Heart Is Where The Home Is

Mama cut out pictures of houses for years
From 'Better Homes And Gardens' magazines.
Plans were drawn, concrete poured,
And nail by nail and board by board
Daddy gave life to Mama's dream.

-Miranda Lambert
"The House That Built Me"

An Idea

"A man may die,
nations may rise and fall,
but an idea lives on."

-John F. Kennedy

Broccoli

"I do not like broccoli.
…And I'm President of the United States,
and I'm not going to eat any more broccoli."
-George H. W. Bush

Imperfection

“We look for medicine to be an orderly field
of knowledge and procedure. But it is not.
It is an imperfect science,
an enterprise of constantly changing knowledge,
uncertain information, fallible individuals,
and at the same time lives on the line.
There is science in what we do,
yes, but also habit, intuition,
and sometimes plain old guessing.
The gap between what we know and what we aim for persists.
And this gap complicates everything we do.” 
― Atul Gawande,
Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on An Imperfect Science

Sailing

"Flying might not be all plain sailing,
but the fun of it is worth the price."
-Amelia Earhart

I Spy

"What we do see depends mainly on what we look for.
… In the same field the farmer will notice the crop,
the geologists the fossils,
botanists the flowers, artists the coloring,
sportsmen cover for the game.
Though we may all look at the same things,
it does not all follow that we should see them."

-John Lubbock,
The Beauties of Nature and the Wonders of the World We Live in 

Feather

"All those who see me
and all who believe in me,
share in the freedom
I feel when I fly."

-John Denver 

Surf

Salt air
Cool breeze
Adventure in my soul

-Anonymous 

Protozoans

"Somewhere,
something incredible
is waiting to be
known."

-Carl Sagan 

Peer Through

trust,
is a luxury.

r.m. drake

Eclipse

Three things cannot be long hidden:
the sun, the moon, and the truth.

Buddha 

On A Perch

"I'd rather be the weird kid that everybody
remembers ten years from now than
that popular chick that nobody
remembers ten years from now."

-Avalon Kirkland Jones 

Marbles

"My greatest achievement?
I was the neighborhood marbles
champion in the third grade."

-Frank X. Sutton 

Tree Frog

 "It it's your job to eat a frog,
it's best to do it first thing in the morning.
And if it's your job to eat two frogs,
it's best to eat the biggest one first."

-Mark Twain

Cramps

"Women on their period
always ovary act."

-Anonymous

Toucan

The Toucan by Shel Silverstein

Tell me who can
Catch a toucan?
Lou can.

Just how few
Can ride the toucan?
Two can.

What kind of goo can
Stick you to the toucan?
Glue can.

Who can write some
More about the toucan?
You can!

Skull

"To succeed in life you need three things-
a wishbone,
a backbone
and a funny bone."

-Reba McEntire

Bubble Fish

"If you judge a fish on its ability to climb,
that fish is going to live its whole life
thinking it is stupid."

-Albert Einstein 

Circus Circus

"Damn everything but the circus?…
 The average 'painter' 'sculptor' 'poet' 'composer' 'playwright'
is a person who cannot leap through a hoop
from the back of a galloping horse,
make people laugh with a clown's mouth,
orchestrate twenty lions."
-E.E. Cummings

The Monster Mash

"Man as an individual is genius.
But men in the mass form the headless monster,
a great, brutish idiot that goes where prodded."

-Charlie Chaplin

Balloons

Who knows if the moon's
A balloon coming out of a keen city
In the sky - filled with pretty people?

-E.E. Cummings 

Bird Village

Keep a green tree in your heart,
and perhaps a singing bird will come.

Chinese proverb

Whorl

"The truth is you don't know
what's going to happen tomorrow.
Life is a crazy ride,
and nothing is guaranteed."

-Eminem 

Anatomical Heart

"Her heart was a secret garden
and the walls were very high."

-William Goldman, The Princess Bride 

Electrolytes

"I've miss more than 9000 shots in my career.
I've lost almost 300 games.
Twenty-six times,
I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed.
I've failed over
and over
and over again in my life,
and that is why I succeed."

-Michael Jordan

Hello Mr. Owl

To live content with small means;
To seek elegance rather than luxury,
and refinement rather than fashion;
To be worthy, not respectable;
And wealthy, not rich;
To study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly...
To listen to stars and buds,
To babes and sages, with open heart;
Await occasions, hurry never...
This is my symphony.

William Henry Channing

Octopus

Sometimes I wish I were an octopus
so I could slap eight people at once. 

Growing Flowers

 "The fact that I can plant a seed and it becomes a flower,
share a bit of knowledge and it becomes another's,
smile at someone and receive a smile in return,
are to me continual spiritual exercises."

-Leo Buscaglia

Dreamers

"Ode" by Arthur O'Shaughnessy

We are the music makers,

And we are the dreamers of dreams,

Wandering by lone sea-breakers,

And sitting by desolate streams;—

World-losers and world-forsakers,

On whom the pale moon gleams:

Yet we are the movers and shakers

Of the world for ever, it seems.

Sail Away

"Twenty years from now you will be
more disappointed by the things you didn't do
than by the ones you did do.
But there is some satisfaction that is mighty sweet to take,
when you reach a destination
that you thought you'd never make."

-Mark Twain 

Feet Off The Ground

"Anxiety uses imagination to picture something you don't want.
Vision uses imagination to picture something you do want.
Either way, you tend to get what you focus on.
Imagine a future where you shine, others thrive,
and the light of hope shines brighter in the world.
If you can see it, you can be it."

-Ian Lawton 

Chicken

"The key to everything is patience.
You get the chicken by hatching the egg,
not by smashing it."

-Arnold H. Glaskow 

Vino ~ The Process

"The discovery of wine

is of greater moment than

the discovery of a constellation.

The universe is too full of stars."

-Benjamin Franklin, c. 1700