I'm thankful for...

I know the Pilgrims started Thanksgiving long before our lives got too busy. But since the Mayflower landed, Americans (myself included) have become far too busy and self-absorbed to really sit down and be thankful for all of our blessings. So, in the spirit of my favorite holiday, I'm taking a minute to reflect on my wonderful, blessed life and be truly thankful.

I am thankful for:

My wonderfully dysfunctional family. After everything we've been through, I have 4 people who will let me scream, rant, cry, screw up, and laugh. I also look genuinely forward to being there to reciprocate. That doesn't mean we're perfect, but I'm very thankful we aren't.
Tay and Reed, I'm really proud of y'all.
Mom, thanks for showing me how to be a strong woman who can stand up for herself and bring so much joy to others just by her presence, even if it's in passing.

Friends that:
Make me laugh
Understand how I think and how to cheer me up
Call me or e-mail me to see how I am, even if we don't really stay in touch
I can carry on a conversation with for hours
Try and try again to get together when we know our schedules are too busy to allow it
Let me call them at wildly inappropriate hours for any reason, whether I'm happy, upset or drunk (or all at once)
Will drink with me when I need a drinking buddy
Do something I want to do even though I know they don't want to
Listen to political war stories although I know they don't care
Know the political war stories so we can laugh about them together
Vote because I ask them to
Appreciate my sense of humor, which ranges from illogical to downright vulgar
Take me to their bar
I've known for a while and we've just recently become close again
Let me sing in the car, crash at their house, date their friends (even if they foresee the train wreck), tell me it's a bad idea but don't hold it against me when I do it anyway
I wouldn't hang out with normally but, because I have, they broaden my horizons
Drive aimlessly around or sit on the couch because we want to spend time together but there's nothing else to do
Have ever used the excuse "Whitney's mom has cancer" to get out of something
Let me talk about anything, from complaining about boys or work, to telling them what happened last night even though it's WAY too much information
Buy me flowers because I cried
Still send me thank you cards
Make me sit in the emergency room with them
Talk baseball with me
Watch Mel Brooks movies
Have the same "What are we doing next?" conversation 30 times over
Will tell me I'm immature, unnecessarily confrontational, and short
Cuddle with me and watch movies
Change my flat tire in Buckhead
Like my crazy music
Tell me I'm making bad decisionsT
ell me when they're proud of me
Know the stories from high school or middle school
Share my crappy choices in TV
Don't mind me being an elitist

*I really want to put some of the things that were funny over the last election cycle here. Inevitably, they would hurt someone's feelings, but we all know that's what made them funny. I'll refrain, in a show of self-control that we all know I don't really possess. *

Friends like: Molly, Taylor, Ricky, my big brother Chris, Marty (sorry about Mexico and the Civil War), Michael, Adam, Justin, Heather (and her beautiful baby girl who I can't wait to meet), Byron, Derrick, Patrick, Tom Dodd, Goodies, Amelia, Wylly.. all my angels.

That I had the opportunity to work for someone I believed in and with people I loved for a year. Not everyone gets that opportunity. I'll be the first to admit we got our asses' kicked. But, the cards were stacked against us, and Gary's proud of us. That's all I need.
That I get the new opportunity to work for someone who is going to do amazing things for Georgia.
Georgia small towns because they're all crazy in a unique way. (By the way, a good rule of thumb when traveling: A Georgia city is rarely pronounced the way you think.)
Georgia and US politics, and the grace and wisdom of our leaders.
The American political system, because (let's face it) not all of our leaders have grace or wisdom, and they all have the potential to screw up drastically. Even Republicans.
The men and women in uniform who put their lives on hold to keep us safe. Especially my soldiers, Tommy, Mike, Cory, and Josh.
Breast cancer research that helped my mom and so many other wonderful, strong women survive and that other women won't have to fight. Also, The Susan G. Komen foundation and others who work to make sure the research is fully funded.
Warm weather in November.
Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's and Richard Bach's Illusions.
The artists that satiate my need for music that no one else listens to.
Baseball season and Brian McCann.
Men that play guitar, drink, are protective, wear cowboy hats, look great in suits, are respectful, take out my earrings when I'm drunk, have a sense of direction (literally and figuratively), are successful, make me laugh, let me act silly and reciprocate, cuddle, know how to be proud of a woman for more than her looks but show her off just the same, and don't subscribe to the Elementary School Teacher Theory. No, they don't need to possess all of these traits; a few will do just fine.
That my heart was good and shattered once and I still survived.
Chocolate cake, red wine, the trip I'm planning to Italy, Georgia back roads, sushi, Harry Potter movies, random drunk boys in bars that give me something to talk about for weeks, strong and fruity drinks, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, insightful quotes, Sunday morning news shows, the Varsity (my hang-over cure), AIM (so I have other people to talk to when I'm bored), Shakespeare Tavern, the Georgia Aquarium, the Kangaroo farm (I still haven't been yet), awkward conversations and situations that are funny later, the humor that comes from people watching and being easily amused, and the million other small things that get me through the day.
The health, well-being, and sense of humor possessed by all of my friends.
Considering I've edited this several times, I'm thankful for all the people and things I've forgotten still.
Finally, and most importantly, a Savior who has given me so much to be thankful for.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Quotes for October

"Mere longevity is a good thing for those who watch life from the side lines. For those who play the game, an hour may be a year, a single day's work an achievement for eternity." Gabriel Heatter

"God will not look you over for medals, degrees or diplomas, but for scars.Elbert Hubbard
The greatest and most important problems in life are all in a certain sense insoluble. They can never be solved, but only outgrown." Carl Jung

"Step by step. I can't think of any other way of accomplishing anything." Michael Jordan

"Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Almost any event will put on a new face when received with cheerful acceptance." Henry S. Haskins

"After love, the most sacred gift you can give is your labor." Don Alan Pennebaker

"A man must live in the world and make the best of it, such as it is." Michel Eyquem De Montaigne

"Every person is responsible for all the good within the scope of his abilities, and for no more, and none can tell whose sphere is the largest." Gail Hamilton

"Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also." Marcus Aurelius

"Never let your zeal outrun your charity. The former is but human, the latter is divine." Hosea Ballou

"A great many worries can be diminished by realizing the unimportance of the matter which is causing anxiety." Bertrand Russell

"When I think of work, it's mostly about having control over your destiny, as opposed to being at the mercy of what's out there." Gary Sinise

"Nature gave us two ends: one to sit on and one to think with.Ever since then, man's success or failure has been dependent on the one he used most." Robert Albert Bloch

"Beware what you set your heart upon. For it shall surely be yours." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"A thousand words will not leave so deep an impression as one deed." Henrik Ibsen

"Good work habits help develop an internal toughness and a self-confident attitude that will sustain you through every adversity and temporary discouragement." Paul J. Fleyer

"It is great wealth to a soul to live frugally with a contented mind." Lucretius

"Winners make a habit of manufacturing their own positive expectations in advance of the event." Brian Tracy

"Great souls have wills; feeble ones have only wishes." Chinese Proverb

"A man's true wealth is the good he does in the world." Mohammed

"Few things are needed to make a wise man happy; nothing can make a fool content; that is why most men are miserable." Francois De La Rochefoucauld

"The greatest thing a man can do in this world is to make the most possible out of the stuff that has been given him. This is success, and there is no other." Orison Swett Marden

"Darkness can not drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." Martin Luther King Jr.

"Hard work without talent is a shame, but talent without hard work is a tragedy." Robert Half

"There is nothing sweeter than to be sympathized with." George Santayana

"Even if the sky falls on you, there is a hole that you can escape from." Korean Proverb

"A song is not a song until you sing it. Love in your heart is not put there to stay. Love is not love until you give it away." Oscar Hammerstein

"To abandon oneself to principles is really to die -- and to die for an impossible love which is the contrary of love." Albert Camus

"A job is what we do for money; work is what we do for love." Marysarah Quinn

"Few of us ever live in the present, we are forever anticipating what is to come or remembering what has gone." Louis L'Amour

"There are three ways to get something done; do it yourself, hire someone, or forbid your kids to do it. " Mona Crane

"You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother. " Albert Einstein

Quotes for September

"Believe that each day that shines on you is your last." Horace

"Don't do anything in practice that you wouldn't do in the game." George Halas

"He who gains a victory over other men is strong; but he who gains a victory over himself is all powerful." Lao-Tzu

"If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich." John F. Kennedy

"Appreciative words are the most powerful force for good on earth!" George W. Crane

"Your past is not your potential. In any hour you can choose to liberate the future." Marilyn Ferguson

"Tomorrow's battle is won during today's practice." Japanese Proverb

"Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability." John Wooden

"In order to attain the impossible, one must attempt the impossible." Miguel De Cervantes

"The secret of creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. " Albert Einstein

"You can't think about things you want to change. Just be yourself." Ethan Embry

"People say they love truth, but in reality they want to believe that which they love is true." Robert J. Ringer

"I can't believe that God put us on this earth to be ordinary." Lou Holtz

"The more anger towards the past you carry in your heart, the less capable you are of loving in the present." Barbara De Angelis

"I find my greatest pleasure, and so my reward, in the work that precedes what the world calls success." Thomas A. Edison

"It is good to act as if. It is even better to grow to the point where it is no longer an act." Charles Caleb Colton

"Compared to what we ought to be, we are only half awake. We are making use of only a small part of our physical and mental resources. Stating the thing broadly, the human individual thus lives far within his limits. He possesses power of various sorts which he habitually fails to use." William James

"History is a set of lies agreed upon." Napoleon

"A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do." Walter Bagehot

"Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success." Napoleon Hill

"A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow." George S. Patton

"Never allow your own sorrow to absorb you, but seek out another to console, and you will find consolation." J. C. Macaulay

"Before you can score you must first have a goal." Proverb

"Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world." Harriet Tubman

"If you keep on saying things are going to be bad, you have a good chance of being a prophet." Isaac Bashevis Singer

"You will never change your life until you change something you do daily." Mike Murdock

"Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty." John Ruskin

"Some people make things happen, some watch things happen, while others wonder what has happened." Proverb

"A man who cannot tolerate small misfortunes can never accomplish great things." Chinese Proverb

"God grant me the courage not to give up what I think is right even though I think it is hopeless." Chester W. Nimitz

"Nothing would be done at all if one waited until one could do it so well that no one could find fault with it." John Henry Newman

Quotes for August

"If you're looking for perfection, look in the mirror. If you find it there, expect it elsewhere." Malcolm S. Forbes

"It matters not what a person is born, but who they choose to be." Joanne Kathleen Rowling

"Love is a serious mental disease." Plato

"The man with a toothache thinks everyone happy whose teeth are sound. The poverty-stricken man makes the same mistake about the rich man." George Bernard Shaw

"When we are unable to find tranquility within ourselves, it is useless to seek it elsewhere." Francois De La Rochefoucauld

"It is difficult to catch a black cat in a dark room -- especially if the cat isn't there." Chinese Proverb

"Those who do not read are no better off than those who cannot." Proverb

"Comparisons of one's lot with others' teaches us nothing and enfeebles the will." Thornton Wilder

"Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul." Marcus Aurelius

"Nothing external to you has any power over you." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Perhaps love is the process of my leading you gently back to yourself." Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"Peace is not God's gift to his creatures. It is our gift to each other." Elie Wiesel

"Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough; money can be got; but they need your hearts to love them." Mother Teresa

"I can live for two months on a good compliment." Mark Twain

"First keep peace with yourself, then you can also bring peace to others." Thomas Kempis

"He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words." Elbert Hubbard

"The richest gifts we can bestow are the least marketable." Henry David Thoreau

"You will not be punished for your anger, you will be punished by your anger." Buddha

"Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just won't adhere to any rules. The most any of us can do is sign on as its accomplice." Tom Watson

"Is there anything better than to be longing for something, when you know it is within reach?" Greta Garbo

"If the human race wishes to have a prolonged and indefinite period of material prosperity, they have only got to behave in a peaceful and helpful way toward one another."Winston Churchill

"If you could get up the courage to begin, you have the courage to succeed." David Viscott

"When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It's to enjoy each step along the way." Wayne Dyer

"Leadership is a privilege to better the lives of others. It is not an opportunity to satisfy personal greed." Mwai Kibaki

"Just remember - when you think all is lost, the future remains." Dr. Robert H. Goddard

"If you do not feel yourself growing in your work and your life broadening and deepening, if your task is not a perpetual tonic to you, you have not found your place." Orison Swett Marden

"A good friend who points out mistakes and imperfections and rebukes evil is to be respected as if he reveals a secret of hidden treasure." Buddha

"Only those who have learned the power of sincere and selfless contribution experience life's deepest joy: true fulfillment." Anthony Robbins

"Love is not love until love's vulnerable." Theodore Roethke

"When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free." Charles Evans Hughes

"There are many truths of which the full meaning cannot be realized until personal experience has brought it home." John Stuart Mill

"There is more wisdom in your body than in your deepest philosophy." Friedrich Nietzsche

"I like men who have a future and women who have a past." Oscar Wilde

"When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago." Friedrich Nietzsche

"Human beings hardly ever learn from the experience of others. They learn; when they do, which isn't often, on their own, the hard way." Robert Heinlein

"The most valuable thing you can make is a mistake - you can't learn anything from being perfect." Adam Osborne

"Let us be about setting high standards for life, love, creativity, and wisdom. If our expectations in these areas are low, we are not likely to experience wellness. Setting high standards makes every day and every decade worth looking forward to." Greg Anderson

"I would rather regret the things that I have done than the things that I have not." Lucille Ball

"Experience is determined by yourself -- not the circumstances of your life." Gita Bellin

"Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised." Denis Waitley

"The things most people want to know about are usually none of their business." George Bernard Shaw

Quotes for July

"A careful inventory of all your past experiences may disclose the startling fact that everything has happened for the best." Author Unknown

"The truth is rarely pure and never simple." Oscar Wilde

"An excuse is worse than a lie, for an excuse is a lie, guarded." Alexander Pope

"Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later." Og Mandino

"I don't know any other way to lead but by example." Don Shula

"People come out to see you perform and you've got to give them the best you have within you. The lives of most men are patchwork quilts. Or at best one matching outfit with a closet and laundry bag full of incongruous accumulations. A lifetime of training for just ten seconds." Jesse Owens

"Whatever course you have chosen for yourself, it will not be a chore but an adventure if you bring to it a sense of the glory of striving, if your sights are set far above the merely secure and mediocre." David Sarnoff

"Most great men and women are not perfectly rounded in their personalties, but are instead people whose one driving enthusiasm is so great it makes their faults seem insignificant." Charles A. Cerami

"If you always do what interests you, at least one person is pleased." Katharine Hepburn

"If you can give your son or daughter only one gift, let it be enthusiasm." Bruce Barton

"All we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about." Charles Kingsley

"Be all you can be and live a good life -- have fun with it." Tina Yothers

"Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear." Marcus Aurelius

"Most of us are just about as happy as we make up our minds to be." William Adams

"Happy he who learns to bear what he cannot change." Johann Friedrich Von Schiller

"For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone." Audrey Hepburn

"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." George Bernard Shaw

"If there was nothing wrong in the world there wouldn't be anything for us to do." George Bernard Shaw

"The only people who never fail are those who never try." Ilka Chase

"It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere." Agnes Repplier

"If we wish to free ourselves from enslavement, we must choose freedom and the responsibility this entails." Leo Buscaglia

"Find out who you are and do it on purpose." Dolly Parton

"Life does not require us to make good; it asks only that we give our best at each level of experience." Harold Ruopp

"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear." Mark Twain

"I work every day -- or at least I force myself into my office or room. I may get nothing done, but you don't earn bonuses without putting in time. Nothing may come for three months, but you don't earn the fourth without it." Mordecai Richler

"To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to do." Kahlil Gibran

"We all have our time machines. Some take us back, they're called memories. Some take us forward, they're called dreams." Jeremy Irons

"Nobody holds a good opinion of a man who holds a low opinion of himself." Anthony Trollope

"Always make a total effort, even when the odds are against you." Arnold Palmer

"New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common." John Locke

"Focus more on your desire than on your doubt, and the dream will take care of itself. You may be surprised at how easily this happens. Your doubts are not as powerful as your desires, unless you make them so." Marcia Wieder

Quotes for June

"Doubt whom you will, but never yourself." John Christian Bovee

"Enthusiasm is excitement with inspiration, motivation, and a pinch of creativity." Bo Bennett

"The sentiment of justice is so natural, and so universally acquired by all mankind, that it seems to be independent of all law, all party, all religion." Voltaire

"One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time." Andre Gide

"To sin is a human business, to justify sins is a devilish business." Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy

"Discontent is the first necessity of progress." Thomas A. Edison

"One of the most important lessons that experience teaches is that, on the whole, success depends more upon character than upon either intellect or fortune." William Edward Hartpole Lecky

"If we're growing, we're always going to be out of our comfort zone." John Maxwell

"If we do not discipline ourselves, the world will do it for us." William Feather

"Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life." Sandra Carey

"Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we might win, by fearing to attempt." William Shakespeare

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." Seneca

"A dream is your creative vision for your life in the future. You must break out of your current comfort zone and become comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown." Denis Waitley

"The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted." Mother Teresa

"One measure of friendship consists not in the number of things friends can discuss, but in the number of things they need no longer mention." Clifton Fadiman

"Man, alone, has the power to transform his thoughts into physical reality; man, alone, can dream and make his dreams come true." Napoleon Hill

"What is uttered from the heart alone, Will win the hearts of others to your own." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"The greatest reverses of fortune are the most easily borne from a sort of dignity belonging to them." William Hazlitt

"Magnetism is one of the Six Fundamental Forces of the Universe, with the other five being Gravity, Duct Tape, Whining, Remote Control, and The Force That Pulls Dogs Toward The Groins Of Strangers." Dave Barry

"You never will be the person you can be if pressure, tension and discipline are taken out of your life." James G. Bilkey

"Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinions of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth." Katherine Mansfield

"In every difficult situation is potential value. Believe this, then begin looking for it." Norman Vincent Peale

"A great leader's courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position." John Maxwell

"Difficulties increase the nearer we approach the goal." Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

"People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within." Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

"You can do what you have to do, and sometimes you can do it even better than you think you can." Jimmy Carter

"Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending." Maria Robinson

"The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a person's determination." Tommy Lasorda

"Virtue is not left to stand alone. He who practices it will have neighbors." Confucius

"If you must begin, then go all the way, because if you begin and quit, the unfinished business you have left behind begins to haunt you all the time." Chogyam Trungpa

"An archaeologist is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets the more interested he is in her." Agatha Christie

"Be determined to handle any challenge in a way that will make you grow." Les Brown

"Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can - there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did." Sarah Caldwell

"More than anything else, I believe it's our decisions, not the conditions of our lives, that determine our destiny." Anthony Robbins

"The best portion of a good man's life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love." William Wordsworth

"Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time." Thomas Merton

"Live as you will wish to have lived when you are dying." Christian Furchtegott Gellert

"A consistent soul believes in destiny, a capricious one in chance." Benjamin Disraeli

"Storms make the oak grow deeper roots." George Herbert

"I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw something back." Maya Angelou

"It is not the greatness of a man's means that makes him independent, so much as the smallness of his wants." William Cobbett

"If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude." Colin Powell

"If you desire many things, many things will seem few." Benjamin Franklin

"He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future." George Orwell

"Dreams do come true, if we only wish hard enough, You can have anything in life if you will sacrifice everything else for it." James M. Barrie

"Confidence is contagious; so is lack of confidence." Vince Lombardi

"A strong passion for any object will ensure success, for the desire of the end will point out the means." William Hazlitt

"The mark of a great player is in his ability to come back. The great champions have all come back from defeat." Sam Snead

I <3 Georgia

There are some things that all Georgians should know.

Coca Cola is ours, and unless you've had one in a green six-and-a-half ounce bottle, with a slight crust of ice on top, you don't know what the real thing is.

And you might want to try pouring about half a pack of salted peanuts into one sometime.

If it weren't for a Georgian-Crawford Long of Jefferson---open-heart surgery would hurt like hell.

True Georgians say "ma'am and sir" and call their mothers "mama" and their fathers 'daddy".

They know that y'all is perfectly good English and never means just one person.

"Fixin to" is perfectly acceptable, too.

And if y'all don't like the way we talk, Delta (which is also ours) is ready when you are.

Long before the Olympics brought the world's greatest athletes to Atlanta,

We gave the world Ty Cobb, Jackie Robinson, Walt Frazier, Luke Appling, Johnny Mize, Fran Tarkenton, Bobby Jones, Wyomia Tyus, and Herschel Walker.

If you don't know who these people are, you ought to find out before you go to bed tonight.

Long after the Atlanta Olympics have faded from memory, the greatest tourna-ment in golf will still be played in Augusta every April, with or without Jessie Jackson's and Martha Burke's approval, and on autumn Saturdays, 90,000 or so Red-and-Black faithful will gather in Athens for a prayer meeting between the hedges.

No matter how many times the Braves play in the World Series, nothing will match the excitement of that first one.

The Stone Mountain carving is lots bigger than the one on Mt. Rushmore and the people etched into the side of Stone Mountain deserve the honor.

It wasn't just about slavery.

Atlanta was called "the city too busy to hate," back in the sixties, because it really was, and we should be proud of that fact.

In 1864 Sherman burned Atlanta and much of Georgia in his March to the sea.

Crack cocaine is bringing more harm to Atlanta than Sherman ever dreamed of.

We don't grow the most peaches, but we still deserve to be called the "Peach State" because ours are the sweetest.

That includes the Georgia peaches that don't grow on trees.

We do produce the most peanuts, pecans, and poultry.

Elvis wasn't ours, but Otis Redding, James Brown, the Allman Brothers, Johnny Mercer, Joe South , Ray Charles, Bill Anderson, Brenda Lee, Trisha Yearwood and Alan Jackson are.
So are Sidney Lanier, Joel Chandler Harris, Margaret Mitchell and Alice Walker.

And I still miss Lewis Grizzard every day.

Julia Roberts may be Georgia's prettiest movie star, but Holly Hunter is the most talented.

Dakota Fanning may one day surpass them both.

FDR adopted us. His "Little White House" in Warm Springs is exactly as it was the day he died there, near the end of World War II.

Every Georgian needs to visit Warm Springs.

Roosevelt's New Deal put Georgians to work and turned an entire generation of her people into "yellow Dog" Democrats.

Georgia once had three governors at the same time.

Lester Maddox wasn't one of them, but was elected by the General Assembly without getting a majority of the popular vote.

He did a good job too, God rest his soul.

Zell Miller was the best governor I never voted for.

Gone With the Wind belongs to us. We own it. Not only is it by one of our own and is about us, but it's also one of the great novels of all time and an absolute film classic-and we shouldn't apologize for liking it.

WSB means "Welcome South Brother." She ain't what she used to be, but she's not as bad as the AJC has become.

The Brown Thrasher, the Cherokee Rose, and the Live Oak are our symbols.

Proud, decent, honest people are our heritage. None are as plentiful as they once were, but none are on the endangered list, either.

The best barbecue in the world is served at Old Hickory House in Tucker, but Open Air in Jackson ain't far behind. The best seafood is at Williams in Savannah and the best catfish is at Henderson's in Covington. The best sausage is at Stripling's in Crisp County.

The best fried chicken in the world is served at my mama's house, Grits is groceries and sugar doesn't belong in cornbread.

God intended for iced tea to be served sweet.

And lastly, Georgia ain't exactly heaven-but it will do until I get there.

Quotes for May

"There is a time when we must firmly choose the course we will follow, or the relentless drift of events will make the decision for us." Herbert Prochnow

"Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks." Herodotus

"When I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened." Winston Churchill

"The history of free men is never really written by chance but by choice; their choice!" Dwight D. Eisenhower

"The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself." Anna Quindlen

"It is in your moments of decision that your destiny is shaped." Anthony Robbins

"The most dangerous thing in the world is to try to leap a chasm in two jumps." David Lloyd George

"Life's disappointments are harder to take when you don't know any swear words." Calvin & Hobbes

"Be willing to make decisions. That's the most important quality in a good leader. Don't fall victim to what I call the Ready-Aim-Aim-Aim Syndrome. You must be willing to fire." Boone T. Pickens

"In this world there is always danger for those who are afraid of it." George Bernard Shaw

"The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure." Sven Goran Eriksson

"The love that lasts the longest is the love that is never returned." William Somerset Maugham

"If you don't make mistakes, you aren't really trying." Coleman Hawkings

"To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom." Bertrand Russell

"Every crisis offers you extra desired power." William Moulton Marston

"When we're incomplete, we're always searching for somebody to complete us. When, after a few years or a few months of a relationship, we find that we're still unfulfilled, we blame our partners and take up with somebody more promising. This can go on and on--series polygamy--until we admit that while a partner can add sweet dimensions to our lives, we, each of us, are responsible for our own fulfillment. Nobody else can provide it for us, and to believe otherwise is to delude ourselves dangerously and to program for eventual failure every relationship we enter." Tom Robbins

"The human mind cannot create anything. It produces nothing until after having been fertilized by experience and meditation; its acquisitions are the gems of its production." Georges-Louis Leclerc Buffon

"Progress is man's ability to complicate simplicity." Thor-Heyerdahl

"It takes courage to lead a life. Any life." Erica Jong

"Love must be learned, and learned again; there is no end to it." Katherine Anne Porter

"Anybody with a little guts and the desire to apply himself can make it, he can make anything he wants to make of himself." Willie Shoemaker

"All of the significant battles are waged within the self." Sheldon Kopp

"Confidence is preparation. Everything else is beyond your control." Richard Kline

"If your imagination leads you to understand how quickly people grant your requests when those requests appeal to their self-interest, you can have practically anything you go after." Napoleon Hill

"All problems become smaller if you don't dodge them, but confront them." William F. Halsey

"Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of being." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Don't be afraid to let her into your heart and when your down, don't try to carry the whole world on your shoulders." Elton John

"Act boldly and unseen forces will come to your aid." Dorothea Brande

"Experience tells you what to do; confidence allows you to do it." Stan Smith

"I find we are growing serious, and then we are in great danger of being dull." William Congreve

"You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind." Mahatma Gandhi

"Love is what makes two people sit in the middle of a bench when there is plenty of room at both ends." Anonymous

"If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough." Mario Andretti

"We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations." Charles R. Swindoll

"The heart that truly loves never forgets." Proverb

"We have contributed, each in the time allotted us, our endeavors to render... a permanent blessing to our country." Thomas Jefferson

"Don't let the negativity given to you by the world disempower you. Instead give to yourself that which empowers you." Les Brown

"When you go in search of honey you must expect to be stung by bees." Joseph Joubert

"Blessed is the person who sees the need, recognizes the responsibility, and actively becomes the answer." William A. Ward

"Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation ... even so does inaction sap the vigour of the mind." Leonardo da Vinci

"The first and the best victory is to conquer self." Plato

"I looked always outside of myself to see what I could make the world give me instead of looking within myself to see what was there." Belle Livingstone

"If we begin with certainties, we shall end in doubts; but if we begin with doubts, and are patient in them, we shall end in certainties." Francis Bacon

"A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world." Joseph Addison

"It is not what you are called, but what you answer to." African Proverb

"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are." Dale Carnegie

"One is not idle because one is absorbed. There is both visible and invisible labor. To contemplate is to toil, to think is to do. The crossed arms work, the clasped hands act. The eyes upturned to Heaven are an act of creation." Victor Hugo

"You grow up the day you have your first real laugh -- at yourself." Ethel Barrymore

Do Nothing

I had to steal this from Courtney's blog. It's so apropos.
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Do Nothing

This is a really hard one. It is hard because it is about cultivating a deep passivity in your emotional life - a tender calm that would probably be very detrimental to other aspects of your existence. So don't start thinking that doing nothing is about whiling away the hours sitting on your settee and eating bonbons. Doing nothing is not the same as being a lazy, useless bum. Doing nothing is about making a conscious decision to not accelerate the drama. It means not booking a flight to Morocco - because good sources have reported that there is no such thing as pain in Marrakesh - when you know you have neither the money nor the time to make this excursion. It means not calling various people in your life to threaten suicide when you know perfectly well that's not what's going to happen.

Doing nothing means calmly asking for help when you need it. Doing nothing is opting for the sweetness of stillness. It is about just sitting with your loneliness, making some effort to accept how bad you feel. It is about taking long, contemplative walks through the park, meeting girlfriends for tea and reading silly self-help books. It means checking out the horoscopes in Elle and Vogue and Marie Claire, and comparing them for common and inconsistent predictions. It is about not pursuing histrionics and hysteria, it is about knowing that only time and peace of mind will make things better.

And doing nothing is not just something you must try in the case of a broken heart. It is the operative rule with office altercations, screaming fights with your mother and unpleasant tiffs with friends and lovers. If you try to force a resolution to some situation that needs only to be left alone to diffuse, you are only going to worry a wound. In a perfect example of stuffy, sensible and unmistakably British wisdom, Dame Rose Macaulay once noted that, "It is a common delusion that you can make things better by talking about them."

So don't pick up the phone so that you can add one last word. Don't go running through the streets late at night, and ring your boyfriend's doorbell with a floral peace offering because you cannot bear the thought that he might never speak to you again. All this activity is simply unnecessary, tiresome and cloyingly manipulative.

I feel it is only right for me to confess here that learning to do nothing has pretty much saved my life. I feel a bit hypocritical telling anyone not to get drunk and drugged and disorderly, or not to go too far, because, God knows, at times that has been the story of my life. But it was exhausting and taxing and eventually enough became enough.

In the time I have wasted making matters worse, I could have easily raised six children. Without a father. Without even a nanny. So just believe me: don't do something about whatever crazy feelings are boxing in your head until you have first tried to just do nothing. You will be amazed to discover that feelings are not facts, and feelings can be trusted to go away. They always do.

taken from one of my favorite "feel better" books by Elizabeth Wurtzel...called "the secret of life" also previously published as "the bitches' rules" I found this chapter especially fitting for today ;)

Quotes for April

"We fail to see that we can control our own destiny; make ourselves do whatever is possible; make ourselves become whatever we long to be." Orison Swett Marden

"The secret of contentment is knowing how to enjoy what you have, and to be able to lose all desire for things beyond your reach." Yutang Lin

"You can do anything in this world if you are prepared to take the consequences." W. Somerset Maugham

"Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence."
Aristotle

"Nothing makes people so worthy of compliments as receiving them. One is more delightful for being told one is delightful -- just as one is angrier for being told one is angry."Katherine F. Gerould

"If you will call your troubles experiences, and remember that every experience develops some latent force within you, you will grow vigorous and happy, however adverse your circumstances may seem to be." John Heywood

"He only earns his freedom and his life Who takes them every day by storm. " Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"When a person finds themselves predisposed to complaining about how little they are regarded by others, let them reflect how little they have contributed to the happiness of others."Author Unknown

"A man's errors are his portals of discovery." James Joyce

"Service is nothing but love in work clothes."Author Unknown

"Never let a day pass that you will have cause to say, I will do better tomorrow."Brigham Young

"Being part of an agenda beyond ourselves liberates us to complement each other rather than compete with each other."Joseph Stowell

"You must stick to your conviction, but be ready to abandon your assumptions."Denis Waitley

"Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty."Anne Herbert

"The circumstances of your life have uniquely qualified you to make a contribution. And if you don't make that contribution, nobody else can make it."Rabbi Harold S. Kushner

"How we think shows through in how we act. Attitudes are mirrors of the mind. They reflect thinking."David J. Schwartz

"Circumstances are beyond human control, but our conduct is in our own power."Benjamin Disraeli

"He who chooses the beginning of a road chooses the place it leads to. It is the means that determine the end."Harry Emerson Fosdick

"Through humor, you can soften some of the worst blows that life delivers. And once you find laughter, no matter how painful your situation might be, you can survive it." Bill Cosby

"Prejudices are what fools use for reason." Voltaire