This evening I was looking for the book of prayers and poems that my mother self-published many years ago; I didn’t find it, though it’s got to be here somewhere. I’ll keep looking tomorrow.
However, in the process I happened to see a book that I’ve had since high school (maybe even junior high): “Apples of Gold” by Jo Petty.
It’s a book of quotes and aphorisms sorted into categories such as love, joy, faith, peace, etc. I remember loving it in my teens and twenties, marking quotes and passages that especially resonated with me. I even dipped into it in my thirties (I can tell because I marked a particular quote with the date!), but I don’t believe I’ve opened it even once in the past thirty years.
And yet, I always took it with me everywhere I moved, which has been a lot of places in the past thirty years! Here are a few of the quotes that I loved then and still appreciate now…
Let us realize that what happens round us
is largely outside our control, but that the way
we choose to react to it is inside our control.
Do you spend more than you make on things you
don’t need to impress people you don’t like?
Some folks just don’t seem to realize when
they’re moaning about not getting prayers
answered, that NO is the answer
Do you pray, and then believing,
Grab your boots and parasol;
Scrub the barrel and get ready
For the rain you asked to fall?