My Books are Friends

My books are friends that never fail me.

~ Thomas Carlyle

I Love Everything That's Old

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

~ Oliver Goldsmith

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

More Than Anything

More than anything, I must

have flowers, always, always.

~ Claude Monet

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And So, My Love, My Mother,

And so, my love, my mother,

I shall always be true to you...

~ D.H. Lawrence

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

The Dignity, the Grandeur the Tenderness

The dignity, the grandeur, the tenderness,

the everlasting and divine significance of

motherhood...

~ De Witt Talmage

If There Aught Surpassing

If there aught surpassing human deed

or word or thought, it is a mothers love!

~ Marchioness de Spadara