Quotes and What I Intend

My last two journal entires have been other people’s words.

The two before that were terrible, whiny things. It had been too long since I’d taken stock of what I want and what I have and how close they are together. The first quote I wrote down is from the movie Fame. I don’t have anything at all to say about that movie, but I did enjoy that quote. “Success is love.” That’s only one small part of the whole delicious quote, which I don’t know how to get permission to reprint here, so you’ll just have to come read it in my journal sometime (or watch the movie I suppose).

The second is from a blog by Jenny Bent on doing what we love. Knowing what we’d love to do puts us far ahead of people who don’t know that thing about themselves. And getting to do that thing at all even a little bit is a beautiful thing whether anyone pays you or not.

I’m saying these things over to myself, along with other helpful things and beautiful thoughts that remind me of who I intend to be. And I look at things that remind me of that intention as well. The corner in this picture is one of the places I look. I adore this children’s table we have. Every home with children – even the really clean ones that don’t allow toys upstairs – should have a children’s table in the formal living space. It’s such a poetic symbol of how important they are, those small versions of what we are as a family.

So I love that part and I love the big window, the way the light pours in, washing even my old furniture to an almost charming state. And I love this bouquet, which started with a handful Jake and I picked together. And then was added to later that night by John, and then by Drew today. Both the older boys whipped them from behind their backs with all the confidence of a boy who knows he’s found a way to make his mother’s day.

And those flower do. Because those boys do. Three of my very best intentions.