Five Quotes

Confucius, the great Chinese sage, lived from 55 BC until 479 BC. At some point he said, “Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.” I have lived my life believing this is true and have never been disappointed. The photo on this engagement calendar page documents Anchorage Fireworks and records the 1st 3 days of this troubled year.

The entry for the 2nd week in February from the 8th to the 14th is preceded by a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson. He once said, “What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.” This, to me, is a wise statement. It’s kind of a summary of the book I am currently reading, Lincoln Highway. This book that has a great number of characters is so loud that I am reading it again to see what I missed the first time. The photograph on the opposite page is of Trumpeter swans in Anchorage.

The photograph of lupines across from the 2nd week of June is accompanied by a quote by the talented English novelist Iris Murdoch. Thinking of flowers, she said, “People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us.” People walking by our house often comment about Ruth’s flowers with similar sentiments. She recently gave a dahlia to a woman who clearly treasured this exceptional blossom.

Leonardo da Vinci once said, “Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.” Our grandson is studying to be a pilot like his father. Ruth likes this da Vinci quote and wants to share it with him. I agree that he will like it. Appropriately, this quote is accompanied by a photo of a Rufous hummingbird. Alaska, we discovered in Nome, is a great place for bird watching.

Jumping to October, the last week of this late-autumn month is accompanied by a quote that really speaks to me. It’s accompanied by a photo of the Northern Lights over Lake Hood and features a seaplane. These flying machines are very common in Alaska. Aldo Leopold, who is considered the father of wildlife ecology, once said, “To those devoid of imagination a blank place on the map is a useless waste; to others, the most valuable part.” Leopold was a scientist, a teacher, and a writer of note.

Hank