Cleaning Out the Attic

Cleaning out my mental attic today, I found a few residual thoughts. Not sure when I'll post next, but I still do have to clean out my closets.



"You know you're spending too much time alone when your solitude starts begging for a little privacy."


"There is a limit to how much you can change in order to be liked for who you are."


"Marriage is a multiplication of whatever you bring to it."


"One thing about parenting is the flexible hours, which can be any arrangement totaling 24/7."


"Meanwhile, Wall Street criminality is growing by leaps. There are no bounds."


"We've heard that ignorance of math in the U.S. is growing geometrically, whatever that means."


"Sometimes it's easier to forgive when you remember that you are not God and your forgiveness does not confer absolution."


"No matter how much we self-improve, our best friends like us for who we were."


Today's miscellaneous observation: "No couple likes to eat at another couple's favorite restaurant."


"Failure would be a bad thing if it didn't reopen so many opportunities."


"Every republic must periodically put down rebels determined to restore its constitution."


The last time I failed, it made me double my effort, and the results were so good, I'm thinking of failing again."


"The boss has asked all of us to re-double our efforts, although none of us can recall doubling our efforts."


It is believed that God briefly experimented with human immortality -- until He witnessed a child being spoiled by four great-grandmothers."


"Although we try to shield our kids from the ugly side of life, inevitably we must watch as they turn over every rock -- including the one we made certain we're sitting on."


"A modern-day measure of success is that by age 30 you have at least one character reference who is not someone who knows your parents."


"Ah, the America of old -- a place talked of by a stranger, who heard of it from a traveler on the road, who had it from a woman who spoke with great certainty of having heard tell of it."


Draw your own moral: "No snowstorm ever ends without a rumor that a second is on the way."


"Pretend you're kind and generous long enough and eventually you forget it's all an act."


"I heard someone on TV say that when you mix apples and oranges, you don't get facts, you get appearances. I thought you got that when you mixed apples and pears."


~~ Robert Brault

Twelve Personal Favorites

Here are twelve personal favorites that I have seldom, if ever, seen quoted elsewhere. I thought I'd give them a second chance.



"Be careful of selfish motives. You can mistake them for principles and end up dying for them."



"Overnight it rained, and the wind switched into the west, and this morning my garden is fresh in the sun,and its scent wafts through my window. But if I sit in my garden, who will keep my appointment in town? But if I go into town, who will sit in my garden?"



"Most pessimists would be optimists if it weren't for the rise-and-shine requirement."



"Born to loving parents and grandparents, we imagine that the world is full of people who will place our happiness above their own. We discover, if we are lucky in our lives, that there is exactly one more."



"I nod to a passing stranger, and the stranger nods back, and two human beings go off, feeling a little less anonymous."



All parties are masquerade parties. Even "Come as you are" is an invitation to come in casual disguise.



"One's conscience should never be apprised of one's property holdings."



"As among God, country and apple pie, the least harm has been done in the name of apple pie."



"The first job of motherhood is to get a child safely to the stage where its father is ready for fatherhood."



"Your child is wary of accepting you as a playmate, knowing that you will become a parent again the first time things don't go your way."



"Many a north country boy of my generation knows of a snapshot of himself as a tyke, seated with his father on a sled atop some snowy hill. He looks at this photo and realizes -- it is the only proof he has of ever being held in his father's arms."



"The verdict is still out on my life, the judge having not yet instructed the jury, both of whom are me."


~~ Robert Brault

Some Old, Some New, Some Borrowed, One Blue

Some Old

“We all have our limitations, but when we give in to our critics, we also have theirs.”


“Count no day lost in which you waited your turn, took only your share and sought advantage over no one.”


“If you don't feel a bond with all creatures who share with us this moment in eternity, you don't comprehend eternity."




Some New

“Before in any way discouraging a child, think back to your own childhood and consider what damage to your self-confidence you now believe was temporary.”



“Sometimes there's a person who just doesn't like who you are, no matter how often you apologize for it.”



“Every good person has won some internal struggle where some David slew some Goliath”



“An umbrella is a device invented to keep umbrella handles totally dry.”



“In planning for your child's future, it seems never too early to do something too late."



“It is a bit of skeptical sleight-of-hand to insist that the Creator of the natural order prove His existence by subverting His own natural laws. We should not expect miracles from God but perfectly logical explanations."



"Few on the road to success get past the exit to social acceptance."



"You wonder, if man were immortal, would he worship God strictly for morality purposes?"



"Often, walking alone with my shadow, I find my answer, the result of gathering together all agreeable parties."



I've learned this about apologizing: "I'm sorry that..." is a better start than "I'm sorry if... ."



"The thing about kids is that they grow up whether we raise them or not -- the reason we’d better raise them."



I remember most fondly the Mother’s Day when we gave mom an Oscar for "Best Performance by a Mom," and she said, “You mean I beat out Meryl Streep?”



I guess I have never really doubted that we are all born to our guardian angel.



Stair Stepping To God

A mind to rule the brain,
A spirit to fire the mind,
A heart to temper the spirit,
A soul to guide the heart,
A Grace to light the soul.




Some Borrowed

The following are, word-for-word, original items I wrote for National Enquirer in 1984. They are today attributed to other writers, but I should like, if I may, to "borrow" them back.


"A child on a farm sees a plane fly overhead and dreams of a faraway place. A traveler on the plane sees the farmhouse below and dreams of home."



"Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy."




One Blue

This coming Monday marks the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. This is a verse I wrote at the time.



A Mother's Thoughts at a Gravesite in Oklahoma City


Child lost, do you suppose
That we could ever be apart,
That though you’ve left my yearning
bosom,
You could ever leave my heart?


Do you suppose that as the years
Bring what they will of joy and strife,
I’ll e'er forget that once there stirred
Within me your sweet precious life?


Do you suppose that there will come
A morning when I’ll not arise
To live again that day when last
You turned to me your trusting eyes?


Child dear, I know you dwell
Within the Lord’s protective might,
But do you know how brave you were
And how I long to hold you tight?


~~ Robert Brault

That's All, Folks

(This post was originally titled "That's All, Folks," was briefly changed to "Guess I'll Stick Around," and is now restored to the original.)

"I've been looking over the list of spring chores I made up last fall, and darned if they aren't fall chores, after all."


... which leaves me time to take a long nap, and with that objective, I bid a second farewell and God Bless to you all.

smiles,
rb