The Unicorn

The gentle and pensive maiden has the power to tame the unicorn. Fresco probably by Domenico Zampieri, c. 1602 (Palazzo Farnese, Rome)

In support of this claim, it has been noted that the 13th century traveller Marco Polo claimed to have seen a unicorn in Java, but his description makes it clear to the modern reader that he actually saw a Javan Rhinoceros.

Where to Go From Here

-- Zelda Fitzgerald

Look Out for Yourselves

Here's a little health hint for you and your loved ones. I hope you never need to put this information to use but at least you can keep this in the corner of your mind just in case...and p.s. pass the info on.

A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke...totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough.

RECOGNIZING A STROKE : Remember the '3' steps, STR .
Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:

S *Ask the individual to SMILE.

T *Ask the person to TALK and SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently) (i.e. It is sunny out today.)

R *Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.

If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call emergency number immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

New Sign of a Stroke -------- Stick out Your Tongue

NOTE: Another 'sign' of a stroke is this: Ask the person to 'stick' out his tongue.. If the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other, that is also an indication of a stroke.

A Hard Lesson

"The key to everything is patience.

You get the chicken by hatching the egg,

not by smashing it."

-Arnold H. Glasgow

Laughter is the Best Medicine

"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." ~e.e. cummings

Shoo Shoo Your Troubles Away

image via flickr

"Drag your thoughts away from your troubles...
by the ears, by the heels, or any other way
you can manage it." -Mark Twain

Altering Your Attitude

"The greatest discovery of this generation
is that a human being can alter their life
by altering their attitudes." -William James

The Bees Knees

Bees Knees
Some will say that the expression means something small and insignifigant. You'll have to agree, the knee of a bee is pretty itty-bitty.
However another school of thought is an expression from the 1920's which stated, "The be all and end all of everything." in reference to a disaster. This was too long, so it was shortened to the "B's and E's" which was mispronounced as the "Bee's Knees".
There are other ideas out there that the knee on a bee, being so tiny yet so powerful is a work of art.

What is Priceless

"Let the credit card companies market as they will,
the only thing that's priceless is Now. "
--Caleb Baylor Hive

Waiting to Fly Towards Adventure

image fffound via designcrush

"Inside us all

patiently waiting

sits

a tiny little

adventurous bird."

Moving Forward In The Right Direction

"Go confidently into your dreams.
Live the life
you've imagined!"

Henry David Thoreau

The Trick

"The trick is to have lots of ideas

and to

throw away

the bad ones."

-Linus Pauling

Getting All Your Ducks In a Row

Okay, the rest is up to YOU!

Relax

"Nothing is more difficult

than not being oneself,

or than being oneself

only so far and

no farther." - Paul Valery

When You Least Expect It

"I think miracles exist in part as gifts

and in part as clues that there is something

beyond the flat world we see." -Peggy Noonan

Remember to Use Those Lemons to Make Lemonade

"I believe that if life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade..."

What Makes A Good Dancer

"First, to be a good dancer, one must know the music as well as the dance.

And what else?

to be a better dancer, one must understand the stories and be able to interpret the characters being portrayed.

Is there more?

The best dancer is the one who has all those things I have told you about and is a farmer."

-Javanese Proverb

I'm Innocent

"Guilt is regret for what we've done.

Regret is guilt for what we didn't do."

Silent Sounds

image via flickr

All was silent as before -

All silent save the dripping rain.~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

No Regrets

"In life we do things.

Some we wish we had never done,

some we wish we could replay a million times in our heads,

but they all make us who we are.

And in the end,

those experiences shape every detail about us.

If we were to reverse any of them,

we wouldn't be at the exact place that we are today.

So just live.

Make mistakes,

and have wonderful times

but never ever second guess who you are,

where you have been,

and most importantly,

where it is that you are going." Carrie Bradshaw "Sex in the City"

Openings In The Sky

Perhaps they are not stars in the sky, but rather openings where our loved ones shine down to let us know they are happy.
- Eskimo saying

A Fresh Start

I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day,

a fresh try,

one more start,

with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning."

~ J.B. Priestly (1894-1984) English author

Crossing the New Frontier

"What do we leave behind when we cross each frontier?
Each moment seems split in two;
melancholy for what was left behind
and the excitement of entering a new
land."

Always In My Heart-Italy

"For us to go to Italy and to penetrate into Italy is like a most fascinating act of self-discovery, back , back down the old ways of time. Strange and wonderful chords awake in us, and vibrate again after many hundreds of years of complete forgetfulness."

-D. H. Lawrence

I LOVE Ruffles

Some variations on a theme...

Sevillanas Flamenco dresses

Weee-eeee, gotta love em

In sewing and dress-making , a ruffle, frill, or furbelow is a strip of fabric, lace or ribbon, tightly gathered or pleated on one edge and applied to a garment or bedding or other textile as a form of trimming. A ruffle without gathers or pleats may also be made by cutting a curved strip of fabric and applying the inner or shorter edge to the garment.
A deep (wide) ruffle is usually called a flounce.Ruffles appeared at the drawstring necklines of full chemises in the 15th century, evolved into the separately-constructed ruff of the 16th century, and remained a fashionable form of trim off-and-on into modern times. -Wikepedia

Pentimento

"Old paint on canvas, as it ages, sometimes become transparent. When that happens

it is possible, in some pictures, to see the original lines:

a tree will show through a woman's dress, a child makes way for a dog, a large boat is no longer on an open sea. That is called pentimento because the painter "repented", changed his mind.

Perhaps it would be as well to say that the old conception,

replaced by a later choice, is a way of seeing and then seeing again.

That is all I mean about the people in this book. The paint has aged now and

I wanted to see what was there for me once,

what is there for me now."

-"Pentimento" by Lillian Hellman

Happy Easter

"Twas Easter Sunday

The full-blossomed trees

filled all the air

with fragrance and with joy." ~ Henry Wadsworth

"It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is soporific!" -Beatrix Potter

Purrrty Good Just the Way You Are

"Be Yourself,
Everyone else is already taken."
-Oscar Wilde

And What Else

"April

the blue titmouse in the poplar.

and what else?

the poplar against the blue sky.

and what else?

water in the small blue leaf.

and what else?

the new petal in the rose.

and what else?

The new rose within my heart.

and what else?

and my heart within your own."

-Juan Ramon Jimenez

*Juan Ramón Jiménez Mantecón (24 December 1881–29 May 1958) was a Andalusian poet, a prolific writer who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1956.

April Fool's Day

April Fools!