Rae's Craft

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Dream a Little Dream "Dreaming is an act of pure imagination, attesting in all men a creative power, which if it were available in waking, would make every man a Dante or Shakespeare." - H. F. Hedge We've all experienced the fun of waking up out of a goofy, complicated, out-of-this-world dream. We quickly jot it down or describe it to a loved one before we forget it. Such dreams can provide the fodder for great novels, plays

Taking a second look.

Power Among Us "If there is a faith that can move mountains, it is faith in your own power." - Marie Ebner von Eschenbach The first step toward making something happen is believing that it can, in fact, happen. Take the famous example of the mother who was able to lift a car to free her trapped child. An unbelievable feat, right? So what explains it? Sheer will on behalf of the mother ( and a little adrenaline thrown in for good measure ). This is an extreme example, but

Make Peace with the Process "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work - Thomas Alva Edison Edison sure was an optimist, wasn't he? He never focused on failure- just on researching possibilities. That's a good attitude for any of us. When you think about the universe, the possibilities are endless. Endless possibilities entail endless possibilities for failure as well as success. The only way we can make progress is by experimentation., and failure

Living Life to the Max "You cannot learn to skate without being ridiculous. The ice of life is slippery." - George Bernard Shaw Life is not easy, and if we make a habit of trying new things, life gets even harder and more complicated. But what is the alternative? To stay completely safe, we would have to remain home all the time. If we take this route, we never go anywhere or do anything. What kind of life is that? Make peace with being ridiculous at times- it is part of

Playing It Safe "Don't think there are no crocodiles because the water is calm." - Anonymous I find alligators fascinating. I will bike five miles each way to a park in my area to observe the gators that live there. Once, soon after I moved to Florida, I was riding my bike on the narrow path around the perimeter of that park. I glimpsed a six-foot-long gator sunning itself along the lake. I jumped off my bike, grabbed my camera, and quietly moved closer to get a good shot

Time in a Bottle "You will never find time for anything. If you want time you must it." - Charles Buxton How many times have you said to yourself, "I wish I had time for that"? If it is something you sincerely long to do, make plans to do it. Otherwise, it is easy to let your daily routine get in the way. Do you long to get into a good exercise routine but find it difficult to "find the time"? Perhaps get up a little earlier each day and take a morning walk or fit in a w

School Daze "In youth we learn; in age we understand." -Marie Ebner-Eschenbach As a child, I wasn't always crazy about waiting for the school bus on those cold winter mornings. I would stand there, freezing in the northern Illinois wind and snow. And often it was a frustrating experience to sit in those classrooms, especially when there were 50 kids in the class and one-on-one attention was unheard of. but thank goodness I stuck with it. I went to school, sat still, studi

Ask Away "Judge people by their questions rather than by their answers." - Voltaire Our questions reveal our interests; they are topics we initiate, while our answers are about topics initiated by others. What kinds of questions do you tend to ask? Think of questions you've recently asked yourself, the ones you've posed to associates or loved ones, and those you've typed into a search engine. They reveal what you care about, what you hold dear. Obviously a mix of question

Eyes Wide Open "Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought." - Albert Szent-Gyorgyi Think about important historical discoveries. Most of them were not inventions- they were the result of patiently studying something for a significant amount of time and coming to a conclusion that we now take for granted. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, for example (the source of the above quote) studied vitamin C for years. He played a large role in co

Learning the Hard Way "Mistakes are their own instructors." - Horace An art curator in New York commissioned 400 artists, including my daughter Jeanne, to each make a painting that measured exactly two feet by two feet. He wanted to hang the paintings in a perfect grid formation in a large gallery. The show would be titled Size Matters. After Jeanne completed her watercolor, she went to a special archival artists store and purchased a scalpel to her painting. Gingerly plac

Learn, Baby, Learn "You cannot teach a man anything. You can only help him discover it himself." - Galileo I teach writing, and I always tell my students good writing cannot be taught- it can only be learned. Two things are necessary in the teacher-student relationship: The teacher has to know the topic, and the student has to be open to learning. If either of these elements is off, the exercise is futile. People are not actually blank slates; they have innate propensities

Getting There Is Half the Fun "We may run, walk, stumble, drive, or fly, but let us never lose sight of the reason for the journey or miss a chance to see a rainbow on the way." - Anonymous Did you ever travel with someone who was determined to get from point A to point B the fastest way possible? They don't want to veer off the road even five miles to see Mount Rushmore, Lake Tahoe, or the Grand Canyon. I do understand the need sometime for trying to somewhere in the short

Now and Ever After "The average man, who does not know what to do with his life, wants another one which will last forever." - Anatole France Many of us live our days in fear and hesitation. We talk ourselves out of taking chances because we are afraid of all the things that might happen. But we are also afraid of death and what may come after, so we want our lives to last forever, even though we spend our live

Lighting Each Other's Way "We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own." -Ben Sweetland Sometimes we spend so much time and effort helping other people that we worry we are nearly ignoring our own needs. Certainly this can become a problem, but in general, we need not to spend too much time worrying about this. In helping others, we often find that we ourselves have learned something or benefited as well. Perhaps we go out of our way to help

A Beautiful Life "Beauty is but a flower, which wrinkles will devour." - Thomas Nash I was recently standing in line at the grocery checkout, feeling glum about my crow's-feet, gray hair, and my gone-with-the-wind figure, which had gone from Scarlett to Mammy in the space of a decade. I picked up a magazine with alluring headlines: "Get Gorgeous!" "Look 10 Ibs Thinner!" "Fabulous at 50! I opened the magazine and flipped through the pages: " Amazing diet turns ugly fat into h

Little Things, Big Results "The smallest fact is a window through which the infinite may be seen." - Aldous Huxley Have you ever noticed how pondering one thing leads to pondering numerous others? Take the time to really examine a beautiful flower, and your mind will come up with one question after another. What components came together to create this beautiful plant? Why does it look the way it does? It is amazing. Small things enlarge and excite our world. TODAY I WILL

The Power of You "Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do." - Benjamin Spock How is it that a mother can look at her child and know if he or she is really sick? How is it that a person can sense when a loved one is happy, sad, or angry without a word being spoken? Instinct- the power we all have within ourselves. Trust yourself. You know what to do. TODAY I WILL HEED MY INSTINCTS. #RaesCraft #RaesBlog #blogreaders #PositiveQuotesforEveryDay #Blog #encourage #

How to Get Stuff "The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this:Decide what you want." - Ben Stein Many of us run around in circles all day, and then complain that we never have time to address our needs or our wants. What is it you want or need? More time with your kids or time to take classes to pursue a dream? Do you desire more time for travel, or to work out, or to get a mas