"Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day."

--Henri Nouwen

Headline from today's Gazette:

I have a list for my husband and kids because I've given up on changing myself:)

E-

"Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every year find you a better man."

--Benjamin Franklin (womanizer, statesman, Founding Father)

"Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, 'It will be happier.'"

Alfred Lord Tennyson, English poet

"We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives...not looking for flaws, but for potential."

--Ellen Goodman

"Although no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending."

--Carl Bard

"Today you are you,

that is truer than true. 

There is no one alive 

who is youer than you."

--Dr. Seuss

"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less."

--Marie Curie

"It's the period between Christmas and New Years. What day it is doesn't matter. Existence is confusion. Time is a flat circle."

--Dani Deahl 

"Balance, peace, and joy are the fruit of a successful life. It starts with recognizing your talents and finding ways to serve others by using them."

--Thomas Kinkade, American painter