Pirate Games

One of my favorite quotes by the very intelligent and perceptive Aldous Huxley is this:

"A child-like man is not a man whose development has been arrested; on the contrary, he is a man who has given himself a chance of continuing to develop long after most adults have muffled themselves in the cocoon of middle-aged habit and convention."

Dig it? Here are some pictures from the 4th!

Justin




Kirby





Howdy Pardner

Justin & Ben

Julie & Lola

Ben & Joe

Markitos

Imaginary Friends

The other day, I stumbled across this quote on Dawn's blog and I really appreciated it:

"Have fun, that's what your twenties are for.

Your thirties are for learning the lessons and your forties?

Are for paying for the drinks."

~ Carrie Bradshaw (Sex and the City)

Silly as it may sound, I am eternally grateful to Carrie and friends for helping me find the courage to get out of a bad marriage in my late twenties, allowing me a clear mind with which to learn the lessons of my thirties.

Maybe it's just a phase, but I've determined the smartest guy who ever lived was Lao-Tzu. I normally avoid questions like, "If you could have dinner with one person, living or dead, who would you choose?" But I suppose if I had to choose today, he's my man. Whenever I can't make sense out of people (which seems to be quite often in my thirties), I've learned to pick up the Tao Te Ching and read some of his wisdom. (Ahhh, the kind of wisdom that isn't shoved down my throat. Real, honest-to-goodness wisdom!) One of my favorite quotes of his is this one:

"When you are content to be simply yourself

and don't compare or compete,

everybody will respect you."

I'm sure my *self* is rather fluid. Like anyone, I believe I am influenced by people, places, circumstances, etc. But I believe that is how things should be. And that is precisely how we learn and grow... Not by remaining stagnant and rigid and stuck in our ways, but by evolving every day. I have come a long way from my twenties, when I thought I was supposed to do certain things or act a certain way just because society told me to. Life is so much simpler and I feel more content when I live the way I want to live.

Explore, Dream, Discover

Between us, Ben and I have fourteen (14!) nieces and nephews. This blog is dedicated to them. Here are some words of wisdom I wish someone had shared with me as a child:

Humble Pie

This is an old picture, but one of my favorites. I believe it perfectly captures the essence of the Earth. It was taken at Sunset Cliffs at low tide. I love being humbled by nature. Whether standing on the cliffs, gazing out across the Pacific. Or standing in the desert, admiring the majestic mountains towering above me. Nothing has a more powerful effect on the human psyche than the grandeur of nature.


". . . these are the times of dreamy quietude, when beholding the tranquil beauty and brilliancy of the ocean's skin, one forgets the tiger heart that pants beneath it; and would not willingly remember, that this velvet paw but conceals a remorseless fang." ~Herman Melville

Words from the Wise

These are some of my favorite quotes by some very smart individuals:

"So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man's living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun. If you want to get more out of life...you must lose your inclination for monotonous security and adopt a helter-skelter style of life that will at first appear to you to be crazy. But once you become accustomed to such a life you will see its full meaning and incredible beauty."
~Alex Supertramp aka Chris McCandless

"In fifty years our grandchildren (if any survive) will look back at the billions of us who knowingly and wantonly laid the entire world to waste and wonder what kind of monsters we were…"
~Daniel Quinn

"I have seen that community and a close relationship with the land can enrich human life beyond all comparison with material wealth or technological sophistication."
~Helena Norberg-Hodge

"There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his living."
~Henry David Thoreau