quotes to self

Mamie reminded me that I have all these quotes and chinese fortune cookie fortunes and poems taped to the inside of my laptop.

It's a good time to read them and remind myself of what I've put there.


But I don't want to go among mad people! said Alice. Oh, you can't help it, said the Cat. We're all mad here. (Lewis Carroll)

Your hard efforts will bring you fame. (chinese fortune cookie from 3/25/2000)

Beauty will save the world. (F. Dostoyevsky)

You are on the verge of something big. (chinese fortune cookie from 2/23/2004)


It is time for all the heroes to go home
if they have any, time for all of us common ones
to locate ourselves by the real things
we live by.

Far to the north, or indeed in any direction,
strange mountains and creatures have always lurked-
elves, goblins, trolls, and spiders: -we
encounter them in dread and wonder,

But once we have tasted far streams, touched the gold,
found some limit beyond the waterfall,
a season changes, and we come back, changed
but safe, quiet, grateful.

Suppose an insane wind holds all the hills
while strange beliefs whine at the traveler's ears,
we ordinary beings can cling to the earth and love
where we are, sturdy for common things.

-William Stafford


The object of your desire comes closer. (chinese fortune cookie from 11/8/2003)

A chance meeting opens new doors to success and friendship. (chinese fortune cookie not dated)

you are going to change your present line of work. (chinese fortune cookie from 5/2004)

Good things are coing to you in due course of time. (chinese fortune cookie from 5/2004)


All rivers run full to the sea; those who are apart are brought together, the lost ones are redeemed; the dead come back to life; the perfectly blue days that have begun and ended in golden dimness continue, immobile and accessible.

-Mark Helprin


Assurance

You will never be alone, you hear so deep
a sound when autumn comes. Yellow
pulls across the hills and thrums,
or the silence after lightning before it says
its names - and then the clouds' wide-mouthed
apologies. You were aimed from birth:
you will never be alone. Rain
will come, a gutter filled, an Amazon,
long aisles - you never heard so deep a sound,
moss on rocks, and years. You turn your head
that's what the silence meant: you're not alone
The whole wide world pours down.

-William Stafford