Just some good thoughts

 ༻The Wisdom of John Lennon༺

"The thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn’t the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility.

Love is like a precious plant. You can’t just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it’s going to get on by itself. You’ve got to keep on watering it. You’ve got to really look after it and nurture it.

We live in a world where we have to hide to make love, while violence is practiced in broad daylight.

Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That’s what’s insane about it.

You don’t need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are! There’s nothing new under the sun. All the roads lead to Rome. And people cannot provide it for you. I can’t wake you up. Only you can wake you up. I can’t cure you, only you can cure you.

You’re all geniuses, and you’re all beautiful. You don’t need anyone to tell you who you are. You are what you are. Get out there and get peace, think peace, and live peace and breathe peace, and you’ll get it as soon as you like.

That’s what the great masters and mistresses have been saying ever since time began. They can point the way, leave signposts and little instructions in various books that are now called holy and worshipped for the cover of the book and not for what it says, but the instructions are all there for all to see, have always been and always will be.

I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky. I believe that what people call God is something in all of us. I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right. It’s just that the translations have gone wrong.

Peace is not something you wish for; it’s something you make, something you do, something you are, and something you give away. Declare it. Just the same way we declare war. That is how we will have peace… we just need to declare it.

Produce your own dream. If you want to save Peru, go save Peru. It’s quite possible to do anything, but not if you put it on the leaders and the parking meters. Don’t expect Carter or Reagan or John Lennon or Yoko Ono or Bob Dylan or Jesus Christ to come and do it for you. You have to do it yourself.

My role in society, or any artist’s or poet’s role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.

When you do something noble and beautiful and nobody noticed, do not be sad. For the sun every morning is a beautiful spectacle and yet most of the audience still sleeps.

Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end."

~John Lennon

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“Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed” Abraham Lincoln 

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Today's goddess:

Marble female figure

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Each day is a different one, each day brings a miracle of its own. It’s just a matter of paying attention to this miracle.

PAULO COELHO

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Sharing with Thankful Thursday 

and Sepia Saturday

Join the fun of sharing old photos, or whatever, with Sepia Saturday!

Happy New Year to all lovers of old photographs and all friends and followers of Sepia Saturday. Since 2009, Sepia Saturday has been providing a platform for enthusiasts to share their old photographs with others throughout the world by means of our weekly theme-based blog. Although there always tends to be a theme, we have always emphasised that going off-theme was perfectly acceptable - the theme isn't really important - the old photographs are. Sepia Saturday is now in its 807th week and we start 2026 with a theme image that is not only an old photograph - it is a recognised work of art as well: Dorothea Lange's famous 1936 photograph of a Californian agricultural worker.

The photograph comes from the Library of Congress collection of images on the Flickr Commons platform. Flickr Commons has been running a year longer than Sepia Saturday and has managed to bring together over 100 museums and archives from over 25 countries to share their photographic archives on-line. It is a wonderful resource and it has done so much to spread the understanding of the importance of our shared photographic history. The theme images for the next couple of years on Sepia Saturday will be drawn from the various collections available on Flickr Commons, and our first image is therefore from one of the founder institutions - the Library of Congress.

We're waves, not particles!

 What about quantum mechanics?

Not sure Einstein really said that, but it's a good thought. We're certainly all connected, moved by the same energies as the Universe.

The rest of the day trip to Asheville NC.

 From a few weeks ago...

Street sculpture in downtown Asheville...from the backside. One of these days I'll go around and read the plaque at the base of it, but there were these 2 plaques on my side.

Even with rain, these Bradford Pear blossoms were beautiful...including some little red hearts hanging with them still.

We all did a double take at seeing the fun coloring on this dog, who was eating outside on the covered patio. Black & tan met Blue Tick.

A silly selfie of our threesome at the Laughing Seed restaurant. We proceeded to be a bit silly, drink warm beverages, and eat lovely vegetarian fare. Big thanks for gift certificate!

While my decaf coffee was brewing a fresh pot, my friends enjoyed these pretty little teapots for their hot teas.

One thing Asheville is known for is lots of different restaurants, many catering to specialties.

But here are some more critters that I met on my travels, just so you all get to see more than the one.

Some visitors to my courtyard.

Sharing with Saturday Critters

Today's quote:

"The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted to remain children all our lives."

-Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955)

Day Trip: Sylva NC

 Trip shared by 3 friends last Monday...one of our "day trips" which wasn't too long, and included our main interest...namely used books stores.

We left home around 9:30 am, hoping to have time to shop and drive both ways, as well as have lunch in Sylva, NC.

The hospital in Sylva.  For Skywatch Friday.

It's about an hour drive from Black Mountain where we all live, and my friend asked me to drive her hybrid Toyota, which I was glad to do. She doesn't mind driving on highways, but prefers to not have to park in towns. And often we would change drivers just so I could park her sweet little car.

Anyway, I was driving. And when we got to Sylva, we drove down the main street with shops...and parked near a used books store. We spent a little while there, and I came out with a couple of books. We walked along and would just choose places that looked interesting to shop in...and there were several interesting stores! But also there were a couple closed on Mon. I never like that kind of place.

As everyone knows, last Mon. was the first of our 99 degree days, so we were glad to be walking in the shade most of the time...and also were glad we got there a bit early!

That may be the car I drove, the white Toyota down in the lower right corner. But I mainly wanted a photo of the office of a newspaper!

We were astonished that their Friends of the Library have a whole bookstore of used books! They had just one rack of new books.

I was looking for some favorite authors...but hadn't figured out the correct name for a woman who writes novels as if she was Sherlock Holmes' wife...and then I saw one shelf labeled "Sherlock Holmes wanta-bes" and there was Laurie R. King...so I did purchase it for $2.50. I also found another book in mint condition to give to a relative!

My friend (in blue here) usually works Tues-Sat. so we had chosen this Mon. when she could come with us.

More of our Sylva adventures on another post (I know I sometime jam 10 photos into one post, and I know you all just zoom quickly through them.

Today's quote (Yes another Einstein one...eventually I'll have used up my collection)

“Everything is energy and that is all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you can not help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics.”

Einstein

Beauty is all around

Wordless Wednesday

Sharing with Garden Bloggers Bloom Day and Wordless Wednesday

 Quote for today:

“Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another.”

Albert Einstein

New work on old buildings

Last week, I posted some photos of the work on these two buildings...Here

Can't tell very much, but nice colors, and there's the mountains!

This mural is going across the store which used to have the pretty colorful stacks of pottery balls on each side of the door.

This is going to be a fun mural...and I hope the turquoise background turns another color.

Here's how the little gas station's improvements looked last Friday.

And all that new construction behind it is an extension of the store behind the mural...remember I said it didn't have a back wall the last time I could look inside?

As I drove away I had to capture Black Mountain Yarn Shop..a very popular place with classes as well as top notch yarns.

Today's quote:

"Everything is determined, every beginning and ending, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect, as well as for the star. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper."

Albert Einstein

June flowers

 

I wonder if this is a field of buttercups...since I've never actually seen them...something about holding one under your chin and if it reflects there, you will know your true love. I have no room under my many chins any more so no true love at this point. If you know a different story, please leave it in comments. (I must laugh here, because leaving comments is a gamble these days...they may come through, or they may not!)

I do enjoy spring here in the mountains of western North Carolina. It's somewhat fleeting, from the earliest daffodils to the last Rhodo's...about 2-3 months. But then there are the summer flowers also!

Now I'm mad that 2 plants which I bought at a reputable nursery have many aphids on them. And my sprayer can't spray out the garlic mix I made...so Tea Tree Oil is my next solution, meaning a few drops mixed in a solution.

As an addition to today's post, I offer a link to 13 Words with bizarre meanings...from Miriam Webster!

Today's quote:

"The common idea that I am an atheist is based on a big mistake. Anyone who interprets my scientific theories this way, did not understand them."

Albert Einstein

Ladies fashions plus...

 1920 styles
 

Sepia Saturday shows a department store with some ladieswear, as well as hats.

Riding an electric scooter around 1910

Madame Decourcelle was the first licensed taxi driver...Perhaps in France because the description is in French. No date given.

On the Bois de Boulogne, a stylish woman walking her pooch.

Woodstock NY, 1969! OK, I notice this isn't a lady. But the fashion is so ...whatever!

Today's quote:

“I’m not an atheist. The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books.”

Albert Einstein