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I talked about my quote books with a friend recently and feel like I’ve rediscovered them. Leafing through the very first one (first entry: May 23 1985) I was struck by how young and cliched I was. These are notable to me in large part because they were words that moved me when I was so young (11 to 15) though they have current echoes as well.

Do I dare disturb the universe? – TS Eliot (reminds me of stopping the motor of the world, denting the universe, and was my high school yearbook quote)

my friends, let us sing now each and fortissimo, America, I love you – ee cummings (reminds me of a friend who reminds me of all the things to love about this country)

Take me, I’m yours, because dreams are made of this – Squeeze (reminds me of my running mix and running friends)

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds – and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hovering there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up, the long, delirious, burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, nor even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
– John Magee
(reminds me of my uncle Jonathan and also of Atlas Shrugged)

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
– TS Eliot (reminds me of life’s surprising twists, cyclical developments, and the way the past and the present sometimes feel interwoven)

We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us with nothing to show for our progress but a memory of the smell of smoke and a presumption that once our eyes watered. – Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz & Gildenstern

… the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder. – Fitzgerald, Gatsby (reminds me of rereading Gatsby last year, and of the things that still inspire wonder in me)

But I’ll see you in the sky above, in the tall grass, in the ones I love. You’re going to make me lonesome when you go. – Dylan (reminds me of the people I love best and think of all the time)

She walked up to me so gracefully and she took my crown of thorns. “Come in,” she said, “I’ll give you shelter from the storm.” – Dylan (reminds me of those I want to give shelter to)

The world breaks everyone and afterwards many are strong at the broken places – Hemingway

you are the light by which my spirit’s born, you are the darkness of my soul’s return, you are my sun, my moon, and all my stars – ee cummings (one of the most romantic passages ever, I think, and reminds me of special people)

Come, my friend, ’tis not too late to seek a newer world. For my purpose holds to sail beyond the sunset. We are not now that strength which in old days moved earth and heaven. That which we are, we are. One equal temper of heroic hearts. Made weak by time and fate but strong in will. To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. – Tennyson (reminds me of reading out of Norton’s with Dad on the back porch in Cambridge by candlelight; random trivia – I almost wrote my thesis on Tennyson’s epic poetry)

Anastasia took off after dropoff today so it was a big Grace/Whit/Mummy day. I went to Whit’s assembly and then brought him home for lunch. We went to speech therapy with Krista and came home for a few minutes before heading to pick Grace up. After school I took the children to a local park with bikes and scooters and sat and read while they played. My phone died so I went across the street and sat in the car while it charged, keeping the vaguest of eyes on them across the street. They were fine, until Whit announced that he Had To Poop.

No three words motivate a mother more. We went home and they played in the backyard while I puttered in the kitchen. Grace then came inside and made them both kites (“kites”) out of construction paper and a random length of red ribbon she found. They ran around “flying their kites” while I made pink risotto (with beets) and homemade chocolate pudding, sipping my Oyster Bay on the rocks.

The children ate dinner (four pieces of leftover pizza for Grace, a pork chop for Whit) and then they devoured my chocolate pudding. A very rowdy tub was followed by television. They are currently totally spellbound by Pokemon (a Cartoon Network on demand find). Grace just whined at me that she wants to buy some pokemon cards. I responded, “No, Grace. They cost money and we are not going to spend money on that.” She sighed, all drama, “Not until Obama is elected?” Ummm. Okay.
Am going to put these two down shortly and then retreat into bed myself with my book.

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.

– GK Chesterton

Grace did not have school today (Yom Kippur) and other than a breakfast meeting and two conference calls I mostly played hooky to hang out with her. This morning we baked carrot cake (more on that in a minute) and then she did some projects. She drew a picture that will be turned into a plate. There was one piece of paper left and she chose to make a plate for Whit, which she described as a “robot party.”

I am charmed by the picture and also by her choice to make something for her brother. I think this will be her Christmas present for Whit. Then she strung some letter beads onto a string to make a necklace that said “Gracie Eldredge Russell.”

She then added beads to say “Gracie Eldredge Russell Nana Eldredge” – really adorable.

Grace and I biked down to Stone Hearth Pizza on Mass Ave for lunch. And yes, to the inevitable chagrin of the airplane-poo-pooing mothers, I took Grace biking in traffic on main streets. We did it yesterday en route to the farmer’s market and we did it today. She is confident and capable on the bike, and I am certain that she can follow me closely and carefully. At the farmer’s market we stocked up on squash, lettuce, apples, carrots, and beets, and a small pumpkin for the front stoop.

The carrot cake joins the squash soup and salad I made last night in becoming a meal for On the Rise. On the Rise is a day shelter for women living in crisis or homeless. Grace and I will deliver the meal this evening and they will serve it tomorrow. As we baked our carrot cake this morning, we talked about who we were cooking for. Gracie wanted to understand who these women were and why they were “not safe” (which is the language I used to describe their situation). Finally she pestered me enough that I said that some of them might be in situations where they are being hit or hurt by people they love. Her brown eyes opened incredibly wide and she started at me. I was swamped with a sense of her naivete and a deep desire to protect her from ever, ever being hurt. We talked more about what it means to keep people safe and to be good to each other. I am grateful for the lesson that this provides for her and look forward to cooking for these women on a monthly basis. I continue to search for volunteer opportunities that will give Grace (and, eventually, Whit) direct experience with the groups she is helping. We will continue with Cradles to Crayons and I will keep looking!

To become aware of the possibility of the search is to be on to something.

– Walker Percy

Today is your day of all days … Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.

– Dr. Seuss