Let's Play the Glad Game!

Dear Friends,

A Merry Monday to you! We passed a quiet weekend here at Merry Hearts Cottage, doing the little everything things that make a house a cottage :) . We were even able to take a quick trip to Wolverine Canyon, where we enjoyed a brisk breeze and harvested lots of herbs to bring home for teas.

Blue and White and Green~~ such harmony!

This sunflower doesn't let being different hold it back!

As this new week and school year officially begins, we feel ready to dust off some of the stresses and strifes in life which sometimes do beset us, and check them at the door. We've even started a little place to post your blessings, in the Pollyanna Club blog! Feel free to stop by and share something that made you glad, when you were feeling sad.

We just finished reading the delightful book "Daddy Long Legs" by Jean Webster, which was published in 1912.

Mr. Grasshopper begs us to notice that he has rather long legs, himself!
(Blogger thinks this photo is MUCH better sideways)

It's a rather one-sided novel, written in the form of letters which the fictitious Jerusha Abbott writes to her anonymous beneficiary, who is paying her way through college. Jerusha is an orphan girl who was raised in an asylum, so life in the wide-wide world is seen through her fresh eyes. There are many delicious domestic details of gowns and rooms, and a lot of whimsical illustrations (drawn by Jerusha) throughout.

Here are some of the quotations we enjoyed:

"You know, Daddy, I think that the most necessary quality for any person to have is imagination. It makes people able to put themselves in other people's places. It makes them kind and sympathetic and understanding. It ought to be cultivated in children. But the John Grier Home instantly stamped out the slightest flicker that appeared. I don't think children ought to know the meaning of the word; it's odious, detestable. They ought to do everything from love."

"I think that every one, no matter how many troubles he may have when he grows up, ought to have a happy childhood to look back upon."

"It's true, you know. The world is full of happiness, and plenty to go round, if you are only willing to take the kind that comes your way. The whole secret is in being pliable."

"It isn't the big pleasures that count the most; it's making a great deal out of the little ones~~I've discovered the true secret of happiness, Daddy, and that is to live in the now. Not to be forever regretting the past, or anticipating the future.; but to get the most that you can out of this very instant."

"Most people don't live; they just race. They are trying to reach some goal far away on the horizon, and in the heat of the going they get so breathless and panting that they lose sight of the beautiful, tranquil country they are passing through; and then the first thing they know, they are old and worn out, and it doesn't make any difference whether they've reached the goal or not."

Aren't those worth remembering? We shall have to purchase this issue from our friends at Storybook Home Journal, and delve a little more into Jerusha's world!

Thank you, my friends, for being part of our family's life. We enjoy so much your comments and friendship. Blessings to you all today,

Love,

Marqueta