Golden

Ah, Hope! what would life be, stripped of thy encouraging smiles, that teach us to look behind the dark clouds of today, for the golden beams that are to gild the morrow.

Susanna Moodie

Be thou comforted, little dog, Thou too in Resurrection shall have a little golden tail.

Martin Luther

“Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom”

George Washington Carver

(photos courtesy of: weheartit) 

Dog Day

Today my sister sent me a picture (a very cute picture) of her black lab, just looking off into the distance (maybe thinking of chasing squirrels or swimming). 

Then as I was driving home from work, I saw black lab, 

who was shaking a man's hand.

-A Lab is able to carry an egg in its mouth without breaking it

-A Labrador's paws have webbed toes, to help in swimming

LABRADORS IN HISTORY

Jake was a Law Enforcement dog that became famous after the Twin Towers collapsed on 9/11/01. He burrowed in scorching hot debris in search of people who were trapped. Jake also assisted in rescuing many, people that were undetectable to human senses following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

SADIE

In Afghanistan, Sadie was able to save the lives of dozens of soldiers when she detected a bomb that was nearly detonated. 

(photos courtesy of:weheartit 

Info courtesy of:www.clublabrador.com)

Washington D.C. (District of Columbia)

I went to Washington D.C. when I was in my early teens. I remember going to the Holocaust Museum, (which made me cry, in a good way), being afraid of the metro's escalators...I would like to go back one day to experience:

the history, architecture, the memorials, the performing arts and the 

variety of international foods. 

Washington, D.C. formally the District of Columbia is the capital of the United States, founded on July 16, 1790. The U.S. Constitution allowed for the creation of a special district to serve as the permanent national capital. The District is therefore not a part of any U.S. state and is instead directly overseen by the federal government.

~The White House was originally called the “President’s Palace” or the “President’s House.” A Baltimore reporter once called it the “white house” in a newspaper article and the name caught on. 

~The Library of Congress, the biggest library in the U.S., contains 535 miles of bookshelves. In the Reading Room alone there are 45,000 reference books.

~There are no skyscrapers in DC

~The word “lobbyist” became popular with President Ulysses S. Grant’s disdain for the interest groups who bothered him while he relaxed in the Willard Hotel’s lobby.

"We on this continent should never forget that men first crossed the Atlantic not to find soil for their ploughs but to secure liberty for their souls." 

 ~Robert J. McCracken

Hope

My brother-in-law asked me the other night what I knew about

Emily Dickinson, and I said the only

thing I knew about her was her poem 

"Hope is a thing with feathers..."

I have loved this poem since I first heard it. 

"Hope" is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul

And sings the tune without the words

And never stops at all

And sweetest in the Gale is heard

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little Bird

That kept so many warm

I've heard it in the chillest land

And on the strangest Sea

Yet, never, in Extremity,

It asked a crumb of Me." 

Emily Dickinson 

(photos courtesy of: weheartit)

Dreaming of the Ballet...continued

At 2:00 p.m. the red velvet curtain rose 

and the ballet The Sleeping Beauty began.

From the music by Tchaikovsky, to the 

dancers, and costumes...it was beautiful. 

When I was leaving, I heard a little 

girl saying "I loved it"; me too. 

http://www.balletidaho.org/home.php

(photos courtesy of: google, weheartit)

Dreaming of the Ballet

Tomorrow evening I will come home, open the back of my journal

and cross off one of the entries on my Dream List: 

One day go to the ballet~

To be continued...

(photos courtesy of:weheartit)

A love for kung-fu

"Everybody was kung-fu fighting

Those cats were fast as lightning
In fact it was a little bit frightning
But they fought with expert timing"

I like action/martial arts films...a lot. 

I don't know when it fist started. It seems 

I've always had a weakness for a blow'em 

up, guns a blazin', good guy wins movie, 

but especially a kung-fu martial arts (Jet Li) 

type of movie. 

"Martial arts films have been produced all over the world, 

but the genre has been dominated by Hong Kong action 

cinema, peaking from 1971 with the rise of Bruce Lee. 

Other notable figures in the genre include Jackie Chan, 

and Jet Li."

(photos courtesy of: google, lyrics carl douglas

info:wikipedia)

Fishy

I was at the park the other day and saw two little boys fishing; I asked them if they had caught anything and they said "Not yet". I knew though they would stay as long as they were allowed to and continue to bait their worms, cast their lines, and wait in anticipation until they felt that certain tug telling them they had spent the perfect afternoon by that little pond while the sun shone down. 

Seeing them reminded me of one of the things that is on my dream list;

One day go Salmon fishing in Alaska 

Things I learned about fishing in Alaska:

~Alaska salmon fishing starts about mid May and runs to about the middle of October. 

~With over 3000 rivers and streams, Alaska salmon fishing offers the most diverse and 

extensive salmon fishing in the United States

~Atlantic salmon are said to be the game fish of kings. The scientific name for them is Salmo salar which means "leaping salmon". Atlantic salmon, after spawning in fresh water, don’t die like the Pacific salmon. They return to the ocean for 1 -2 years and are able to find their way 

back to the exact location to spawn again. 

(photos courtesy of:weheartit, info courtesy of: salmonfishingexperience.com)

Sunday

Cursing every step of the way, he bore a heavy load 
To the market ten miles away, the journey took its toll 

And every day he passed a Monastery's high cathedral walls 

And it made his life seem Meaningless and small 

And he wondered how it would be to live in such a place 

To be warm, well fed and at peace; to shut the world away 

So when he saw a priest who walked, for once, beyond the iron gate 

He said, "Tell me of your life Inside the place"... 

And the priest replied... 

"We fall down, we get up 

We fall down, we get up 

We fall down, we get up 

And the saints are just the Sinners 

Who fall down and get up" 

Disappointment followed him home; he'd hoped for so much more 

But he saw himself in a light he had never seen before 

Cause if the priest who fell could find the Grace of God to be enough 

Then there must be some hope for the rest of us 

There must be some hope left for us

We fall down, we get up 

We fall down, we get up 

We fall down, we get up 

And the saints are just the Sinners 

Who fall down and get up

(Lyrics courtesy of: Bob Carlisle

Photos courtesy of: weheartit)

A New World (Ellis Island)

"Ellis Island:The American Dream"

~Charlie Brown

"Freedom and the power to choose should not be the privilege of wealth. 

They are the birthright of every American." - George Herbert Walker Bush

From 1892 to 1954, over twelve million immigrants entered the United States through the portal of

 Ellis Island, a small island in New York Harbor. 

It has been estimated that nearly half of all Americans today can trace their family history 

to at least one person who passed through the Port of New York at Ellis Island.

"If our country is worth dying for in time of war let us resolve that it is truly worth 

living for in time of peace."
- Hamilton Fish

(photos courtesy of: google)