Friday, March 31, 2017

Thursday, March 30, 2017

I Love Everything That's Old


I love everything that's old; old friends,
old times, old manners, old books, old wines.

~ Oliver Goldsmith

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

To My Mother


How fair you are, my mother!
Ah, though 'tis many a year
Since you were here,
Still do I see your beauteous face,
And with the glow
Of your dark eyes cometh a grace
Of long ago.
So gentle, too, my mother!
Just as of old, upon my brow,
Like benedictions now,
Falleth your dear hand's touch;
And still, as then,
A voice that glads me overmuch
Cometh again,
My fair and gentle mother!
How you have loved me, Mother,
I have not power to tell,
Knowing full well
That even in the rest above
It is your will
To watch and guard me with your love,
Loving me still.
And, as of old, my mother,
I am content to be a child,
By mother's love beguiled
From all these other charms;
So to the last
Within thy dear, protecting arms
Hold thou me fast,
My guardian angel, Mother!

~ Eugene Field

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

My Mother


My mother was an angel on earth. She was a minister of
blessing to all human beings within her sphere of action.
Her heart was the abode of heavenly purity. She had no
feelings but of kindness and beneficence, yet her mind
was as firm as her temper was mild and gentle.

~ John Quincy Adams

Monday, March 27, 2017

Remember Mother


All our lives, let us remember Mother.
When we are sad or hurt,
may we remember her loving arms and be comforted.
When we are happy,
let us share joy with her in recollection.
When we are ill,
may we remember her tender care for our childhood ills and
be strengthened.
When we are tempted to do wrong,
let us recall her wise guidance and her prayers in our behalf.
When we fail,
may her memory give us courage to try again.
When we succeed,
may we see again the pride in her eyes.

Remember Mother with devotion while she lives and with loving
memory when she is gone. But always - remember Mother!

~ Esther York Burkholder

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Remembered Years


Who does not long to go back home again
Where greening hills flow down to meet a stream
And rippling music stirs to life a dream
Half-hidden in the moment's tangled skein?
Forgetting all of fickle youth's disdain,
To lie submerged in magic from the gleam
Of some remembered moon and trace the scheme
Of rapture is a power that will sustain.

May I forever hold the ripened years
Against my breast, and ever-shining shield,
Recalling how each treasured hour unlocks
A door that leads beyond the moment's fears.
Who does not long and dare, at least to yield
To his desire for home and hollyhocks!

~ May Smith White

Saturday, March 25, 2017

To a Mother



There is a road that leads to you,
No matter where you are,
A little path to love ad home
Beneath the evening star -
That wistful little winding way
That's beautiful and wise,
That leads me to your waiting heart,
Your smile, your shining eyes.

~ Marion Doyle

Friday, March 24, 2017

And As In Childhood


And as in childhood, so throughout our lives -
the mother is the very core, cornerstone, and
foundation upon which the true Christian home is
built and the center about which it revolves.
Through all the years of our lives, we will carry
with us those lessons of patience and fortitude; of
long-suffering and forgiveness; of love and affec-
tion that the typical Christian mother by her
word and act, by her precept and example, teaches
her children. Just consider for a moment the dig-
nity and tenderness and grandeur of this wonder-
ful thing called mother-love. This is why the
philosophers have said that the future of society
and of the human race itself rests in large measure
on the strength and character, virtue and nobility
of the mothers of the world.

~ Joseph T. Karcher

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Mater Amabilis



Crowned or crucified - the same
Glows the flame
Of her deathless love divine.
Still the blessed mother stands,
In all lands,
As she watched beside thy cradle and by mine.

Whatso gifts the years bestow,
Still men know,
While she breathes, lives on who sees
(Stand they pure or sin-defiled)
But the child
Whom she crooned to sleep and rocked upon her knees.

~ Emma Lazarus

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Dear Lord


Dear Lord, let me not dwell in the
memories of my past, but help me to face
the future with expectation and courage, 
eager to find the blessings You have
planned for me there.  Amen.

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Forgetting What is Behind



Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward
the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

~ Philippians 3:13b-14

Monday, March 20, 2017

The Portrait in my Heart


The portrait that I hold most dear of all,
I hide away where other cannot see.
I cherish it down deep within my heart,
Engraved upon my page of memory.
The portrait is my mother, years ago:
The patient, gentle face, the low-bent head,
Humming a tune, the while her fingers flew
That we, her children, might be clothed and fed.
All other memories around her revolve;
The countless mass of lesser things -
The smooth white drifts of winter's snows,
The summer sun, the green of springs,
The birds the flowers, the dusty lanes,
The autumn woods we love to roam -
Are but the setting, but the frame
For her. She made our house a home.

~ Ida Driskell Baird

Sunday, March 19, 2017

A Mother's Picture


She seemed an angel to our infant eye!
Once, when the glorifying moon revealed
Her who at evening by our pillow kneeled -
Soft-voiced and golden-haired, from holy skies
Flown to her loves on wings of Paradise -
We looked to see the pinions half-concealed.
The Tuscan vines and olives will not yield
Her back to me, who loved her in this wise,
And since have little known her, but have grown
To see another mother, tenderly,
Watch over sleeping darlings of her pwn.
Perchance the years have changed her; yet alone
This picture lingers: still she seems to me
The fair, young Angel of my infancy.

~ Edmund Clarence Stedman

Saturday, March 18, 2017

Mother's Measuring Cup


A crystal cup for measuring,
As baking day rolled by,
And all the sweet ingredients
For spicy cake or pie
Were kept on Mother's cupboard shelf.
The cup held generosity
Accepted with delight
On lovely little luncheon trays
And grand desserts at night.
A measure of her brimming cup
Of eagerness to please,
Her cup of heartfelt kindness
Made our sweetest memories.

~ Vivian Marie Chatman

Friday, March 17, 2017

Ageless Motherhood


Our tongue holds many vital words,
But among them is no other
As meaningful and beautiful
As the precious name of Mother.

A name brimful of selfless love,
So fraught with gracious living,
So swift with its outpouring wealth
Of sacrificial giving.

And yet beyond these splendid gifts
Are the memories she is making
In loved ones' hearts: a kitchen's scent
Of wholesome, home-sweet baking;

Of a table simply, neatly spread
With food of her preparing;
Her healing touch, her gentle voice
That tells of constant caring.

Oh, all of life's essential things
She always shares with others,
The simple joys of every day,
The wealth of all true mothers.

~ Grace Noll Crowell

Thursday, March 16, 2017

The Best and Most Beautiful Things


The best and most beautiful things in the
world cannot be seen or even touched.
They must be felt with the heart.

~ Helen Keller

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Faith


In every seed to breathe a flower,
In every drop of dew
To reverence a cloistered star
Within the distant blue;
To wait the promise of the bow,
Despite the cloud between,
Is faith --- the fervid evidence
Of loveliness unseen.

~ John Banister Tabb

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

More Than Anything


More than anything, I must
have flowers, always, always.

~ Claude Monet

Monday, March 13, 2017

I Think of My Mother


I think of my mother in a garden.
She was a farmer's daughter. She knew
The touch of the earth and the way
Each planet grew.
Emerald peppers, ruby tomatoes,
Amethyst grapes on the vine...
These were her jewels, these were her treasures,
Lovely, fine.
I think of my mother in a garden:
Easter lilies, lilacs, phlox,
Blue violets, and portulaca
By our walks.
I think of my mother in a garden,
Loving it always, turning the sod -
My mother, farmer's daughter,
Eve, woman of God.

~ Jessie Cannon Eldridge

Sunday, March 12, 2017

Beneath These Fruit-tree Boughs


Beneath these fruit-tree boughs that shed
Their snow-white blossoms on my head,
With brightest sunshine round me spread
Of spring's unclouded weather,
In this sequestered nook, how sweet
To sit upon my orchard-seat!
And birds and flowers once more to greet,
My last year's friends together.

~ William Wordsworth

Saturday, March 11, 2017

Mother's Heart


Her white spireas carried bridal sprays,
And Japanese quince flaunted flaming hue;
Pink flowering almonds, with their gracious ways,
Greeted the mellowing sunshine anew.
Old-fashioned lilacs, adorned with mauve plumes,
Lured butterfly and small bee to full banquets there;
June roses mingled scent with rare perfumes
Of flowers vivid and shyly fair.
Petunias and bright-skirted hollyhocks,
The vari-colored moss, and golden glow
Were as welcomes as the gayly petaled phlox,
The zinnias, and the moon-pale mountain snow.
Our home was circled by a rich paradise
Because my mother's hart was garden-wise.

~ Thelma Allinder

Friday, March 10, 2017

Mother Love


Of all the love that has been known
Since time and earth began,
Of all the faith that has been shown
Since God created man,
Of all the noble, stirring deeds
That grace the written page,
A mother's love and faith and hope
Stand out through every age.

Her deeds have moved a careless world
To pity and to tears;
Her love has kindled faith and trust
Through all the changing years;
Her selflessness and sacrifice,
Her faith through praise or blame
Have enshrined her in the hearts of all
And glorified her name.

For though a world may frown or sneer
And failure mark the hours,
Her reaching love encircles us,
A rosary of flowers;
A shining chain so sweet with blooms
Of prayer and love and trust,
It touched with a heavenly light
Our weak and mortal dust.

~ Katherine Edelman

Thursday, March 9, 2017

A Profusion of Pink Roses


A profusion of pink roses bending
ragged in the rain speaks to me of
all gentleness and its enduring.

~ William Carlos Williams

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

My Mother's Garden


My mother hastened in the spring
To sow petunia beds;
She planted coxcomb, quick to bring
A host of feath'ry heads,
She sought to cherish every thing
That brightened old homesteads.
My mother liked to fuss a bit
About her favorite flowers.
Ofttimes she chose to sit and knit
Through summer twilight hours;
She marked each moth that chanced to flit
Around these fragrant bowers.
Her hollyhocks had giant stalks;
The cannas grew so tall;
Primroses thrived along the walks;
Shrubs hid the garden wall.
Her garden was the kind that talks
From early spring till fall.

~ George Nicholas Rees

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

The Doctors Told Me


The doctors told me that I would never
walk; but my mother told me I would, so
I believed my mother.

~ Wilma Rudolph

Monday, March 6, 2017

Say to Mothers


Say to mothers, what a holy charge is
theirs, with what a kingly power their
love might rule the fountains of the
newborn mind.

~ Lydia H. Sigourney

Sunday, March 5, 2017

Mothers Have as Powerful an Influence


Mothers have as powerful an influence over
the welfare of future generations as all other 
causes combined.

~ John Abbot

Saturday, March 4, 2017

And So, My Love, My Mother,


And so, my love, my mother,
I shall always be true to you...

~ D.H. Lawrence

Friday, March 3, 2017

Sometimes the Laughter in Mothering


Sometimes the laughter in mothering is the recognition of
the ironies and absurdities. Sometimes, though, it's just 
pure, unthinking delight.

~ Barbara Schapiro


Thursday, March 2, 2017

The Dignity, the Grandeur the Tenderness


The dignity, the grandeur, the tenderness,
the everlasting and divine significance of
motherhood...

~ De Witt Talmage

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

If There Aught Surpassing


If there aught surpassing human deed
or word or thought, it is a mothers love!

~ Marchioness de Spadara