Peace in Haiku

 The 9th poem of the year is due today. The assignment was to write a haiku or a limerick. I wrote several haiku(s) (some based on quotes on the subject of peace.) I don't know which one I will post on the Deadlines for Writers site, but here are the possibilities.

Ask God not for peace;

It does not exist alone.

Ask, instead, for God.

(inspired by a C.S. Lewis quote)

Peace is a journey.

The destination is reached

One step at a time.

The power of love

Must slay the love of power.

Then we will know peace!

Try not to escape;

Face your challenge with courage.

Victory brings peace.

(inspired by a J. Donald Walters quote)

In the breath of Now

Fear and dread have no power.

 Live in this moment.

My scars prove my pain.

Happiness, leaving no scar,

Teaches no lesson.

(inspired by a Chuck Palahniuk quote)

I am made for God.

My heart roams the world, seeking.

And rests just in Him.

(inspired by an Augustine of Hippo quote)

Though fear comes to all,

When faith is stronger than fear,

Gentle peace surrounds.

(from a Siir Poesia quote)

True peace is accord.

More than want of war or pain,

Peace is harmony.

Sleep in peace, My Love!

Though Evil seeks to do harm;

Rough men stand ready!

(Inspired by a George Orwell quote)

Thursday Thirteen - Edition 33 - Inspiring Quotes

Thirteen Inspirational or Motivational Quotations, Adages, and/or Proverbs That Have Helped Me This Week 1…. Nobody is good enough or smart enough to raise children .-- Ruth Shaw. I have found this observation helpful many times in the past. Yesterday both of my adult children called me at different times and expressed frustration with one of their children. In both instances the child is exhibiting a behavior that the parents have worked hard to change. The challenges of parenthood sometimes seem insurmountable, and the problems encountered raising children seem to be no respecter of persons. 2.... A child's life is like a blank piece of paper on which every person leaves a mark. -- Chinese Proverb. I have tried to make a positive mark on each of my grandchildren this week. I sewed with two of them one day, helped another with a school writing assignment another day, watched one do cartwheels, listened to another sing, and watched two play ball. 3.....Affection is responsible for 9/10 of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our Lives. -- C. S. Lewis. In his book The Four Loves, C.S. Lewis has given me much to think about recently. 4...."Books, the children of the brain." Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) A Tale of a Tub (1704). This inveterate word-nerd loved reading this Irish quote in the week before St. Patrick's Day. 5....Life is too short to long for money. -- source unknown. The lottery drawing this week attracted much media attention. In interviews we all saw people who had focused their attention on their hopes for sudden wealth this week while who knows how many opportunities for greater fulfillment went unnoticed in their everyday lives. 6....The real measure of your wealth is how much you'd be worth if you lost all your money. -- Bernard Meltzer. This quote has been at the bottom of my blog for about a year now. I continues to mean a lot to me as my DH and I adjust to life on a fixed income. 7....There is no such thing as a self-made person. We are all made up of thousands of others. Everyone who has ever done a kind deed for us, or spoken one word of encouragement to us, has entered into the makeup of our character and of our thoughts, as well as our success. -- George Matthew Adams. Don't we all wish everybody really understood this? 8....The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home. -- Confucius. At this point of weakness in our nation (has our union ever been weaker?), I have given a lot of thought to what precipitated the national weakness. Perhaps Confucius knew. Perhaps the solution begins in homes, not in The House in Washington. 9....Work like you don't need the money. Love like your heart's never been broken, and dance like no one is watching. -- Satchel Paige. Of course, this sentiment has become more well-known from a country song of fairly recent popularity, but it is advice that is well worth heeding. 10....You are what you think about all day long. -- Dr. Robert Schuller. As I have had more time to "just think" I have realized that "thinking" is more important than I had ever realized. I have determined to spend my time reading more quality literature, including the Bible and the written thoughts of great statesmen and philosophers. I have decided that the thinking required to learn a new language or write about my life and thoughts is more productive than thinking about celebrities, imaginary lives of invented characters, or petty differences of opinion. 11....Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy they are who already possess it. -- Francois de La Rochefoucauld. A few observations here: Anna Nicole Smith had wealth and fame. Britney Spears has wealth and fame. Paris Hilton has a fancy car and all the electronic gadgets anyone could want. Does happiness come to mind when you think of any of these people? 12....For disappearing acts, it's hard to beat what happens to the eight hours supposedly left after eight of sleep and eight of work. -Doug Larson,Olympic Gold Medalist (1902-1981) Ain't it the truth?! 13....The tasks you DON’T do tire you out more than those you DO. Ruth Shaw. As I keep postponing the unpacking of the last of the boxes -- things that I haven't decided where to put -- I realize that the only way to do it is to just start taking them out of the boxes. I am more tired on the nights I go to bed without accomplishing anything than I am on the nights when I have worked hard all day. I began and ended this post with quotes from a very wise woman - my mother. Get the Thursday Thirteen code here! The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted! View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Sunday Seven - 4th Edition

1. We have an offer on our house. That is the good news. The bad news is that the offer is $30,000 under the asking price. So we have some thinking and talking to do.

2. We have finally got back into our routine of walking daily. I don't know why this has been so hard to do, but maybe we are on our way again.

3. We put up new blinds put in the family room.

4. I had two classes this week and earned two PLUs toward my recertification. I enjoyed the classes, too. The Advanced Microsoft Word class refreshed in my mind some of the seldom-used features and some I had forgotten about. The other class I took was Using Microsoft Publisher. It was good to have some time to experiment with those applications without seeming like I was wasting time. I designed a new web page; but I am not sure I have the courage to replace the one I am using and risk problems I don't know how to solve.

5. The weather has been great this week! It has been mostly sunny with very mild temperatures for February.

6. I have done some interesting reading this week. I finished reading a good thriller, Night Fall, by Nelson DeMille. I also read another section of C.S. Lewis's book The Four Loves. I will write about it soon. There have been some interesting op-ed articles in the AJC this week that I have thought about a lot. I have several half-written posts about some of them. I spent quite a bit of time helping my son on writing assignments for a doctoral class on Multicultural Education. that has been very enlightening. We read and wrote a report on Esperanza Rising, a semiautobiograhical children's book by Pam Munoz Ryan about a young Mexican girl who comes to the US during the Great Depression. We also reread a couple of books written by my brother-in-law and sister: The Big Picture and the children's version of the book in the Today's Heroes series, Ben Carson. The authors of these books are Gregg Lewis and Deborah Shaw Lewis. If you have not read these two outstanding books about an outstanding man, you should read them post haste.

7. My granddaugher, Aggie, and I survived a duck attack while we were walking around the community lake yesterday. They didn't even break the skin when they pecked my legs. Aggie panicked and used me for a barrier, but she thought it was funny later.

Happy Sunday Seven, Friends!

C. S. Lewis and The Four Loves - "friendship"

Here are some quotes from the Friendship section of the C. S. Lewis book The Four Loves:

"To the ancients, friendship seemed the happiest and most fully human of all loves, the crown of life and the school of virtue. The modern world, in comparison, ignores it."

"It has actually become necessary in our time to rebut the theory that every firm and serious friendship is really homosexual.
.... Those who cannot conceive friendship as a substantive love but only as a disguise or elaboration of eros betray the fact that they have never had a friend. ... Lovers are always talking to one another about their love; friends hardly ever about their
friendship. Lovers are normally face to face, absorbed in each other; friends, side by side, absorbed in some common interest."

"Friendship arises out of mere companionship when two or
more of the companions discover that they have in common some insight or interest or even taste which the others do not share and which, till that moment, each believed to be his own unique treasure."

"Lovers seek for privacy. Friends find this solitude about them, this barrier between them and the herd, whether they want it or not."

"In this kind of love, as Emerson said, 'Do you love me?' means 'Do you see the same truth?' or at least, 'Do you care about the same truth?'"

Lewis also goes at length into the necessarily exclusive, but possibly negative, aspects of friendship.

"The snob wishes to attach himself to some group because it is
already regarded as an elite; friends are in danger of coming to regard themselves as an elite because they are already attached. We seek men after our own heart for their own sake and are then alarmingly or delightfully surprised by the feeling that we have become an aristocracy."

"We who are 'they' to them -- do not exist as persons at all.
We are specimens; specimens of vaious Age Groups, Types, Climates of Opinions, or Interests..."

"Indeed, the friendship may be 'about' almost nothing except the fact that it excludes. .... From the innocent and necessary act of excluding to the spirit of exclusiveness is an easy step; and thence to the degrading pleasure of exclusiveness."

See other interesting comments on friendship here.