Motivational, Attitude & Reality Check!

Disappointment is one story and giving up is the end of that story.
Shada AlDahash

In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins-not through strength, but through persistence.
Buddha

It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.
Henry David Thoreau

If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thru’ chinks of his cavern.
William Blake

The only limits to the possibilities in your life tomorrow are the buts you use today.
Les Brown

I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it.
Harry Emerson Fosdick

Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.
Carl Bard

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.
Abraham Lincoln

And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.
Abraham Lincoln

A smile is a curve that sets everything straight.
Phyllis Diller

One of the most adventurous things left us is to go to bed. For no one can lay a hand on our dreams.
E.V. Lucas

A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner.
English proverb

Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.
George Bernard Shaw

Updated Nov. 1, 2008

Whether you think you can or whether you think you can’t you’re right.
Henry Ford

Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadows.
Helen Keller

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.
M. Kathleen Casey

The block of granite, which was an obstacle in the path of the weak, becomes a stepping-stone in the path of the strong.
Thomas Carlyle

Have the determination of a mirror. It never loses its ability to reflect, even if it is broken into thousand pieces.
Author Unknown

I would rather fail in a cause that will ultimately triumph than to triumph in a cause that will ultimately fail.
Woodrow Wilson

A man is not old until regrets start taking place of dreams.
John Barrymore

Speak when you are angry, you will make the best speech you will ever regret.
Ambrose Bierce

I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do.
Helen Keller

Just for today I will be happy. Just for today I will try to live through this day only, not to tackle my whole life problem at once. I can do things for twelve hours that would appall me if I had to keep them up for a lifetime. Just for today…
Sybyl F. Partridge

Updated June 27, 2009

Many of the things you can count, don’t count. Many of the things you can’t count, count
Einstein

There is no future, there is no past, I live this moment as my last
Jonathan Larsonabout

You have to know you can win. You have to think you can win. You have to feel you can win.
Sugar Ray Leonard

Our greatest battles are that with our own minds.
Jameson Frank

It’s not if glass is half full or half empty that matters. It’s whether your goal is to ration what’s left or to fill it up again.
Unknown

We are not held back by the Love we didn’t receive in the past, but by the love we’re not extending in the present.
M. Williamson

We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.
Anais Nin

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.
Confucius

Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.
Kahlil Gibran

If you have a favorite Quote you would like to share, email it to me at: whatsleftofmyhead@yahoo.com

For the past few years I have been obsessed with the ‘NestCams’ at Cornell Lab of Ornithology website. It is an amazing site (especially if you are a bird lover!) with live cams of various bird families. I have especially been fond of the Barn Owls, watching from the day the first egg is laid until the last Owlet has fledged. Well, this past month or so I have watched…in amazement a Chimney Swift couple build their nest, which is on a completely vertical surface. Mama then laid 4 eggs which were carefully nurtured and rotated for a few weeks and then over this past week…poof!!! 4 little, naked, babies. Mom and dad take shifts but it is not unusual to see both of them, side by side on the nest. This is one of the most amazing families I have watched and thought I would share with you!

Just over a week old, the babies seem to already have out grown the nest. One nestling bobbles his head over the edge between mama’s feathers. How cute is this…

Oh dear God! What have I done now I thought as the silver inked pen I was using exploded all over my oak dining room table. Of course, although the table was partially covered to help prevent damage in case of an accident….the ink ended up all over the wood. It could not have poured on there so strategically. Help! (I scream) My boyfriend runs in, his first instinct is to take a picture. Of what, my new silver lined Oak table? (wtf? really!) I wipe up what I can, flick the damn camera out of his hand and run for the cleaner….somethings gotta work! I spray the table down and we both start scrubbing. I am freaking out, he is mumbling about the camera. That’s when it happened, the ink, like magic started vanishing. The more I spray, the more we scrub, the perttier it gets!! My table had never looked so good, so shiny. It was beautiful. As we stood back admiring our work of art, my boys walked in. I started with the whole story and was immediately interrupted by both of them. It is very rude to interrupt I remind them and continue with my story. They aren’t listening and it becomes obvious they are distracted by something. I finally slow down long enough to listen to what they were saying. Apparently there was a strong odor within the house……well now that they mention it….I have a headache….it smells like poison. Have they saved our lives? We look around and can’t find anything, I quickly grab the can of “Pledge” I had been cleaning with and show it to them….
“This is all I can think of….the silver pen exploded….I was so worried my table was ruined…..”
The look they gave me was priceless, priceless and humiliating.
“RAID, you cleaned it up with RAID???!!!”
Well, that explained the smell.
I guess I inadvertently grabbed the wrong bottle, they look alike, kinda. But hey, guess what??? It worked like a charm. My table never looked so good.
Then the fumes took over….don’t remember much after that.

My mom’s dog gets a bad case of the giggles….

….well, she’s really yawning but she’s adorable just the same!

To all (3) of my faithful readers….Happy 4th of July!

Crow. It’s a family name so I really had no reason to fear them. My grandparents were “The Crows” and I adored them. After they passed away, every time I saw a Crow, I would tell my boys, “that’s Great Grandma and Grandpa and they are always around to watch you.” I would continue, “they even tell you when cars are coming, listen….caw-caw!” Corny? Perhaps. Par-for-the-course? Absolutely! My mom never fell for it, she once told me my grandpa had been reincarnated not as a bird, but as a jack-ass. (her words, not mine) She said she once saw one that was the spitting image of him. He is probably rolling around with laughter in his grave, both of them are…hard belly laughs!
It was a hot summer day. I don’t remember what year it was, but I do remember what I was wearing. Based on that…. I am hoping it was a long time ago. I was sporting a coral “BUM” t-shirt, white shorts, white socks and white high top Reeboks. This is an image I have carried around with me for a long time, it has haunted me. Where were my grandparents, “The Crows” on this day?
I had spent the morning/afternoon mowing, weed whacking and hosing. In other words, I was doing the yards. Yep, single handedly….front and back…alone.
Mow, whack, hose.
Mow, whack, hose
It was hot and miserable and my coral “BUM” t-shirt, white shorts, white socks and white high top Reeboks are now dirty and itchy but I had one last job to do. Manicure the bushes. If I didn’t do it, nobody else would. So now… I must
Mow, whack, hose and trim.
I get my great big scissors, er pruners out. Put my long permed hair in a side ponytail and get busy.
I prune to the left,
I prune to the right.
I prune high,
I prune low.
How the broom fits in I am not quite sure but my next memory was an adult crow clung to my neck.
Mow, whack, hose and trim..not a problem. At least not until I hear sounds coming from a freshly pruned bush. But even in my hot and miserable coral “BUM” t-shirt, white shorts, white socks and white high top Reeboks that are now dirty and itchy and my long permed hair in a side ponytail, I must investigate. With all it’s beak and might, it’s got me running around my yard waving a broom a screaming I’m being attacked by a bird. The sucker (no pun intended) would not let go. I was beyond hysterics, flapping my arms and legs in directions I didn’t believe them to be capable of. I was Gumby, Gumby with a broom, and my neighbors were in complete hysterics. Laughing at either my clothes or the fact I was being eaten alive by a bird in my own front yard. I guess the laughter, the roaring laughter was enough for the vulture to call a truce, because he finally let go.
I make it back to the house, though barely. My kids are laughing hysterically. My “BUM” shirt is ripped and I am sporting quite the Crow hickey.That sucker broke my skin.
Once I gathered my witts, I realized this was a terrified mommy crow and the sounds that I chose to investigate were her babies.
I will never live this down especially since I have always told my kids Great Grandpa and Grandma are always around to watch us. But on the brighter side, I didn’t get hit by a car. Somewhere around, they were warning me….Caw-Caw