Refusing to be “poor in spirit” – “Lucy Gayheart” by Willa Cather (Aug. 2014)

Susan's Thursday Morning Note August 21, 2014
Lucy Gayheart by Willa Cather - Refusing to be "poor in spirit" regardless of personal circumstances.
Misc. Quotes on Excellence in life.

Good morning! Quiet rain. Coffee. Stillness. How I love this gift from the angel of dawn who came again to my door. This week I was able to read Lucy Gayheart by Willa Cather. The story is on a young girl from Nebraska who moves to Chicago to continue her music career. Much of the story is on her reflections. Of her thoughts and meaning of life being changed because of her exposure with culture and art in the city. I especially loved one line that describes her character over all other moments in the book. She has had her mentor die in a drowning and is back in her small town in Nebraska, trying to mesh who she became in the city with who she is expected to be back in the small town. On an especially difficult day she is described with the following attribute, She refused to be poor in spirit. I loved that sentence. The mental choice again on how to look at life, on how to love life. On how to keep who we are in our souls regardless of personal experiences. The beauty of having a choice in life of who we will be. Who we will be today. Making us who we will be in five years. Ten years. Twenty-five years. All decided by choices we make today. Refusing to be poor in spirit. Determined to continually see the beauty of life.

We received another shipment from Quotables this week. One of my favorite lines in the store. I first found these at the art museum in Chicago and purchased a magnet with this quote by Helen Keller, The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart. Below are other quotes that are on the magnets and cards that arrived. I hope you find the same encouragement from these to keep our perspective on what gives us meaning. On keeping our perspective.

“You are the books you read, the films you watch, the music you listen to, the people you meet, the dreams you have, the conversations you engage in. You are what you take from these. You are the sound of the ocean, the breath of fresh air, the brightest light and the darkest corner. You are a collective of every experience you have had in your life. So drown yourself in a sea of knowledge and existence. Let the words run through your veins and let the colours fill your mind.” (Jac Vanck)

“You are the finest, loveliest, tenderest, and most beautiful person I have ever known, but even that is an understatement.” (F. Scott Fitzgerald)

“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” (Marcel Proust)

“To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch…to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.” (Emerson)

“Watch the sunrise at least once a year, put a lot of marshmallows in your hot chocolate, lie on your back and look at the stars, never buy a coffee table you can’t put your feet on, never pass up a chance to jump on a trampoline, don’t overlook life’s small joys while searching for the big ones.” (H. Jackson Brown, Jr.)

“Find life experiences and swallow them whole. Travel. Meet many people. Go down some dead ends and explore dark alleys. Try everything. Exhaust yourself in the glorious pursuit of life.” (Lawrence K. Fish)

“You are perfect to me.” (Solomon)

“Remember to look up at the stars, and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious!” (Stephen Hawking)

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.” (Gandhi)

“Life is beautiful.” (Leon Trotsky)

“If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.” (Roald Dahl)

“Beginning today, treat everyone you meet as if they were going to be dead by midnight. Extend to them all the care, kindness, and understanding you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again.” (Og Mandino)

“Put aside all anxious thoughts and be at peace.” (Francis De Sales)

Thank you for letting me enter your Thursday again. Tonight we have the chance to write in stone on our epitaph for the day behind us. Will we have words worthy of inscribing? Will we notice the wet soil from the rain? Will we hear the bird singing their song specifically for us? Will we notice the freckle on the nose of someone we love? Will we smile at someone we don’t know that may have their day changed because of the time we took to look them in the eyes and smile? Will we open a book in a quiet room for five minutes. A book of poetry. A book of wisdom. A book of encouragement. A book of verses. Will we take the time to put words in our minds that will keep our eternal perspective? Don’t forget the promise. A look to the heavens. A mental drop to the knees. The peace that passes the understanding of anyone we see will be given to us. A promise. The rain. The quiet. Life. So beautiful. Thank you for coming over to our store for your books and gifts. Thank you for bringing us your books. How fun this is! Have a beautiful end of the week!!! Susan 

Latin for this week:
 Quae legis es - You are what you read
 Minima maxima sunt – The smallest things are most important. 

Works Cited: 
 Cather, Willa. Lucy Gayheart. New York. Random House. 1995