![\"\"](\"http:\/\/monicagraham.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/bear-1024x768.jpg\")
3. two steaming piles of bear poo, about 200 m apart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. A guy in hiking gear, backpacking up Highway104 in the rain, sheltered by a lovely green umbrella.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I blamed the sightings on spring. Could be \u2013 but what is more startling to me is that I have no recollection of those events at all. None. Zip. Nada. If Facebook hadn\u2019t kept track of it or, more to the point, if I hadn\u2019t written it down at the time, those memories would be lost forever. They are not important memories, but they are interesting events. I mean \u2013 really \u2013 how do you paint over a skunk? Why didn\u2019t the groundhog take to the ditch? Was it one bear or two making all that poo? And how did the hiker store a huge umbrella between showers? Not earth-shaking puzzles, but inquiring minds want to know. At least \u2013 mine does!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last night, a video-chat with family members prompted me to dig out a sort-of-diary that I\u2019ve kept since 2008, when a dear friend presented me with the leatherbound journal \u2013 gilt-edged pages – upon my completion of the first draft of The Great Maritime Detective<\/em>. I have used the journal to record interesting snippets of ordinary conversation, quotes from great philosophers, old proverbs, jokes, thought-provoking comments found everywhere from road signs to T-shirts, and even verses from greeting cards that struck my fancy or my funny-bone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I was sure I\u2019d recorded in that diary some observations made by my eldest son twenty years ago, and I wanted to refresh our stubborn memories. \u00a0Apparently, I hadn\u2019t written them down \u2013 not in that particular place, for sure. During the hunt, though, I found a few more gems:<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are big ships and small ships, but the best are friendships.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Write your hurts in sand and your blessings in stone.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In every fat book there is a thin one waiting to get out.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n A closed mouth gathers no foot.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Experience is something you don\u2019t get until just after you need it<\/em>. This one is an extension of it: Good judgment comes from experience and a lot of that comes from bad judgment<\/em>. In other words, live – and learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plan for the future, since that\u2019s where you will spend the rest of your life<\/em> \u2013 and what may be its converse, in the right light: Don\u2019t count the days. Make the days count<\/em>. Both are true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I wish I knew who said this: You are never too old to learn something stupid<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I have no idea where I found those little nuggets, because I didn\u2019t record their origin, if I ever knew them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I do know who said Science is a way of thinking, much more than it is a body of knowledge<\/em>; and Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known <\/em>and also Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.<\/em> Carl Sagan said \u2013 or wrote \u2013 all three. They are some of my all-time favorite quotes and I put ol\u2019 Carl\u2019s name with them when I saved them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ralph Waldo Emerson said Do what we can, summer will have its flies<\/em>. True, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Martin Luther King jr said I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear<\/em>. Words to live by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you don\u2019t find God in the next person you meet, it is a waste of time looking for him further<\/em> \u2013 Mahatma Gandhi. A practical man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Patience is the companion of wisdom<\/em> \u2013 St. Augustine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I know the origins of those quotes only because I immediately recorded the names of the people to whom they are attributed. Famous people get quoted a lot: one reason they are famous is because of what they say and how they say it. Their words rumble our senses. But ordinary people are wise and wise-cracking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Life is full of choices \u2013 so take off your shoes- or scrub the floor<\/em>. A friend, a mother of four, said that often. She also told me I started out with nothing. I still have most of it.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Another dear friend, who met a lot of trials and tribulations with cheer and wisdom, told me this with a sly grin: Women are angels. When one of us breaks a wing, we continue to fly on our brooms. We\u2019re flexible like that.<\/em> It made me laugh, which was her intention. Not long after, I bought a straw broom and wrote on the handle: Do not touch. Monica\u2019s ride<\/em>. I have never since had to hunt for a broom (not that the floor is any cleaner).<\/p>\n\n\n\n A writer friend: Fear is the dark room where negatives are developed.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ll give the almost-last word to the Greek philosopher Seneca, the last item recorded in the journal, about a week ago: We suffer more often in imagination that in reality.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I am now about halfway through the journal, which is \u00be inch thick. Yes, I measured. You can imagine how much I could go on. And on. You can imagine how wise I would be if I took all these words to heart. Two more things: When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. If you listen, you may learn something<\/em>. \u2013 the Dalai Lama. But – will I remember what I learn? or if I don’t remember, does it mean that I learned nothing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n The final last word – a First Nations teaching: Tell me, and I\u2019ll forget. Show me and I may not remember. Involve me, and I\u2019ll understand.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On this date five years ago, I told Facebook that in the previous week I had seen: 1. a dead skunk under the yellow line on the highway; that is, the painting crew painted right across it. 2. A groundhog galloping down the middle of my lane. I clocked him at 10k. 3. two steaming… Continue reading Writing it down<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[28,25,26,27],"class_list":["post-340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-memory","tag-popular-quotations","tag-spring","tag-write-it-down-to-remember","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/monicagraham.ca\/\/a-world-of-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/monicagraham.ca\/\/a-world-of-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/monicagraham.ca\/\/a-world-of-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/monicagraham.ca\/\/a-world-of-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/monicagraham.ca\/\/a-world-of-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/monicagraham.ca\/\/a-world-of-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":344,"href":"http:\/\/monicagraham.ca\/\/a-world-of-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340\/revisions\/344"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/monicagraham.ca\/\/a-world-of-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/monicagraham.ca\/\/a-world-of-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/monicagraham.ca\/\/a-world-of-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/monicagraham.ca\/\/a-world-of-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}