Good Thoughts to Live By #7 & 2011 Venice Festival

. . . hearken unto me, and open your ears that ye may hear, and your hearts that ye may understand, and your minds that the mysteries of God may be unfolded to your view.  
  Mosiah 2:9

A dear friend we met in England travels the world and takes wonderful photographs.  She shared the 2011 Venice Festival with us via email, so I'm sharing a few of the gorgeous photos she took while there.  Thanks, Eva!

I’ve never seen before . . . but as the days and years passed by, I came to comprehend that joy is in the journeying, not at the journey’s end.   -D. Colgan

You don’t have to act as if you care; you just have to care enough to act.
  -R. Dreyfuss

Turn your losses into a plus.  I think if you approach it right, you can turn every setback you have into an advantage.
  -George Allen


Each time you look up in the sky
Or watch the fluffy clouds drift by,
Or feel the sunshine warm and bright
Or watch the dark turn into light,
Or hear a bluebird gaily sing
Or see the winter turn to spring,
Or stop to pick a daffodil
Or gather violets on some hill,
Or touch a leaf or see a tree–
It’s all God whispering, “This is Me.”
  -Helen Steiner Rice

A person’t worth to a community or a nation is no longer measured by one’s physical assets, but rather by one’s ability to render service to humanity.
  -James Cash Penney


You don’t get to choose how you’re going to die.  Or when.  You can only decide how you’re going to live.  Now.
  -Joan Baez


The only gift is a portion of thyself.
  -Ralph Waldo Emerson

What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?
  -George Eliot


If I Had My Child To Raise Over Again


If I had my child to raise all over again,
I’d finger paint more, and point the finger less.
I’d do less correcting, and more connecting.
I’d take my eyes off of my watch, and watch with my eyes.
Would care to know less, and know to care more.
I’d take more hikes, and fly more kites.
I’d stop playing serious, and seriously play.
I’d run through more fields, and gaze at more stars.
I’d do more hugging, and less tugging.
I would be firm less often, and affirm much more.
I’d build self-esteem first, and the house later.
I’d teach less about the love of power,
and more about the power of love.
  -Diane Loomans