Meaning

Over the weekend, I was cleaning out a few drawers and came across this clipping. I wanted to save it.

Meaning is not something you stumble across, like the answer to a riddle or the prize in a treasure hunt. Meaning is something you build into your life. You build it out of your own past, out of your affections and loyalties, out of the expericens of humankind as it is passed on to you, out of your own talent and understanding, out of the things you belive in, out of the things and people you love, out of the values for which you are willing to sacrifice something. The ingredients are there. You are the only one who can put them together into that pattern that will be your life. Let it be a life that has dignity and meaning for you. If it does, then the particular blanace of success of faiure is of less account. // John Gardner

When I wonder what I'm doing and where I am going (which is almost constantly), I need to remember that I have the power to choose my direction and put meaning into my life and what I am doing. No one is going to do that for me.

Summer versus Autumn

Though summer is my favorite season, I find that I am increasingly enjoying autumn as each year passes. I don't think autumn will ever be my absolute favorite since it leads into winter (and winter I'm not sure I will ever love), but it's growing on me.

I came across this poem today and thought it was worthy of remembering in the future.

“I am rich today with autumn's gold,
All that my covetous hands can hold;
Frost-painted leaves and goldenrod,
A goldfinch on a milkweed pod,
Huge golden pumpkins in the field
With heaps of corn from a bounteous yield,
Golden apples heavy on the trees
Rivaling those of Hesperides,
Golden rays of balmy sunshine spread
Over all like butter on warm bread;
And the harvest moon will this night unfold
The streams running full of molten gold.
Oh, who could find a dearth of bliss
With autumn glory such as this!”
     -Gladys Harp