Springtime
“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.”
– Rainer Maria Rilke
“It was such a spring day as breathes into a man an ineffable yearning, a painful sweetness, a longing that makes him stand motionless, looking at the leaves or grass, and fling out his arms to embrace he knows not what.”
– John Galsworthy
“Easter is…
Joining in a birdsong,
Eying an early sunrise,
Smelling yellow daffodils,
Unbolting windows and doors,
Skipping through meadows,
Cuddling newborns,
Hoping, believing,
Reviving spent life,
Inhaling fresh air,
Sprinkling seeds along furrows,
Tracking in the mud.
Easter is the soul’s first taste of spring.”
– Richelle E. Goodrich
“Spring makes its own statement, so loud and clear that the gardener seems to be only one of the instruments, not the composer.”
– Geoffrey B. Charlesworth
“Easter is the demonstration of God that life is essentially spiritual and timeless.”
– Charles M. Crowe
“Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world.”
– Virgil A. Kraft
“Today, Passover is used as an opportunity to reflect on the things that plague our world, to seek justice for the still-oppressed and even to bring together multi-faiths family and friends under the common banner of universal freedom.”
– Passover 2011: The Unleavened Basics
“Gardening is cheaper than therapy and you get tomatoes.”
– Author Unknown
“Weather means more when you have a garden. There’s nothing like listening to a shower and thinking how it is soaking in around your green beans.”
– Marcelene Cox
“God made rainy days so gardeners could get the housework done.”
– Author Unknown
Baseball
“Okay you guys, pair up in threes!”
– Yogi Berra
“Baseball is like a poker game. Nobody wants to quit when he’s losing; nobody wants you to quit when you’re ahead.”
– Jackie Robinson
“There are three things in my life which I really love: God, my family, and baseball. The only problem — once baseball season starts, I change the order around a bit.”
– Al Gallagher
“A baseball game is simply a nervous breakdown divided into nine innings.”
– Earl Wilson
“When we played softball, I’d steal second base, feel guilty and go back.”
– Woody Allen
“Nolan Ryan is pitching much better now that he has his curve ball straightened out.”
– Joe Garagiola
“During my 18 years I came to bat almost 10,000 times. I struck out about 1,700 times and walked maybe 1,800 times. You figure a ballplayer will average about 500 at bats a season. That means I played seven years without ever hitting the ball.”
– Mickey Mantle
“A critic once characterized baseball as six minutes of action crammed into two-and-one-half hours.”
– Ray Fitzgerald
Income Taxes
“I just filled out my income tax forms. Who says you can’t get killed by a blank?”
– Milton Berle
“On my income tax 1040 it says ‘Check this box if you are blind.’ I wanted to put a check mark about three inches away.”
– Tom Lehrer
“Next to being shot at and missed, nothing is really quite as satisfying as an income tax refund.”
– F.J. Raymond
“Taxes are how we pool our money for public health and safety, infrastructure, research, and services–from the development of vaccines and the Internet to public schools and universities, transportation, courts, police, parks, and safe drinking water.”
– Holly Sklar