The Shades of Evening

". . . Thus was his fair dawn of life, whilst his cloudless sun was nearing its meridian, in a moment veiled in the shades of death. . . . As the stars of heaven shine brighter at the close of day when the shades of evening gather over the earth, even so do his virtues beam with brighter lustre from the darkness of the silent tomb: and long shall it be ere there shall cease to be found in memory's waste, a green spot watered by the tears of affection for him who is gone."

Centennial History of Harrison, Maine: Containing the Centennial Celebration of 1905, and Historical and Biographical Matter :: By Alphonso Moulton, Howard L. Sampson, Granville Fernald :: Published by the authority of the town, 1909 :: Original from Harvard University :: Digitized Aug 21, 2006 :: 727 pages

A Gaelic Blessing

May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
The rains fall soft upon your fields
And, until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

A Gaelic Blessing --
from Taylor's Memorial Service

I will reach back . . .

I will call to the past, 

to the beginning of time, 

and beg them to come 

and help me at the judgment. 

I will reach back 

and draw them into me, 

and they must come, 

for at this moment, 

I am the whole reason 

they have existed at all.

  

Memorable quotes for the movie, Amistad (1997)

A hundred year old photograph

A hundred year old photograph
Stares out from a frame
And if you look real close you'll see
Our eyes are just the same

I never met them face to face
But I still know them well
From the stories
My dear grandma would tell . . .

They're my guardian angels
And I know they can see
Ev'ry step I take
They are watching over me

I might not know where I'm goin'
But I'm sure where I come from
They're my guardian angels
And I'm their special one

Words & Music by
Don Schlitz, John Jarvis & Naomi Judd
Copyright 1989
Song Name: Guardian Angels
Artist Name: The Judds
Album: The Essential Judds
Release Date: October 10, 1995 (my Dad's last birthday on this earth)
Label: RCA Records

Here timelessness lived

. . . there should be,

in every life,
a place . . .
where you could come
and visit your past,
and the past of your people,
and know that
whatever happened outside,
here timelessness lived.

Anne Rivers Siddons, Novelist

People of a distant past . . .

The pleasantest

of all diversions

is to sit alone

under the lamp,

 
a book spread out before you,
and to make friends
with people
of a distant past
you have never known.


Kenko
14th Century Japanese Writer
Essays in Idleness

Life is no brief candle to me

Life is no brief candle to me.
It is a sort of splendid torch
which I have got a hold of

for the moment,
and I want to make it burn

as brightly as possible
before handing it on

to future generations.

 

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
Irish literary Critic, Playwright and Essayist
1925 Nobel Prize for Literature

Hydriotaphia

Who knows whether 
the best of men be known,
or whether there be not
more remarkable persons forgot
than any that stand remembered
in the known account of time?

Chapter V, Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial (1658)
by Sir Thomas Browne

Stars that can laugh

In one of the stars I shall be living. In one of them I shall be laughing. And so it will be as if all the stars were laughing, when you look at the sky at night . . . you -- only you -- will have stars that can laugh! . . . And when your sorrow is comforted (time soothes all sorrows) you will be content that you have known me. You will always be my friend. You will want to laugh with me. And you will sometimes open your window, so, for that pleasure . . . and your friends will be properly astonished to see you laughing as you look up at the sky! Then you will say to them, "Yes, the stars always make me laugh!" And they will think you are crazy. It will be a very shabby trick that I shall have played on you . . . It will be as if, in place of the stars, I had given you a great number of little bells that knew how to laugh. . . .

From "The Little Prince" written & drawn by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. I watched the new Lee Ann Rimes movie last night, and she made reference to this quotation. I had quoted "The Little Prince" eight years ago in a tribute to Dale Earnhardt (1951-2001) -- yes, we are NASCAR fans! And my husband races every weekend on Texas dirt tracks.

I have a hope beyond the grave

It is now night

and all is silent.
I am here alone
and in silence 
all my past friends
with all my relations
fall heavy on my mind.

They all are gone,
and I too must soon follow.

To be laid in the dust 
in the silent grave
and there to be 
forever forgotten
makes the cold chills 
run over my whole body.

I have a hope beyond the grave.

That hope is that 
when I am consigned 
to my grave,
someone on the earth 
might remember me.


From the Diary of Joseph Kemp

April 1, 1853

From The Tri-County Genealogical Society in Missouri. Found today while researching Cole Younger (a distant cousin), who died on this date in 1916. A fellow blogger once had this quote featured on their family history blog, stating that they first heard it on the BYU channel while watching the series, "Ancestors." I have not yet (as of 2009) found other references to a diary of a Joseph Kemp.