"Language is the only homeland." Czeslaw Milosz.

I found these at Better Photo as I was looking for links to post to Bewitching Vagabond tonight. I started looking for tips for beginners using scanners.

"We look at a painting to know the painter; it's his company we are after, not his skill." - James McNeill Whistler

"A photograph is a most important document, and there is nothing more damning to go down to posterity than a silly, foolish smile caught and fixed forever." - Mark Twain

"You don't take a photograph. You ask, quietly, to borrow it." - Pentax advertisement

"Life is like a good black and white photograph, there's black, there's white, and lots of shades in between." - Karl Heiner

"A good photograph is knowing where to stand." - Ansel Adams

Practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty. - Anonymous

Senseless photographers practice random acts of beauty; intelligent photographers practice consistent acts of selflessness.

"A photograph is always invisible, it is not it that we see." - Roland Barthes

Being a woman means never having your own name - never really claiming an identity and always being a transient among people with IDs.

At the divorce hearing (is that what they call it?) the judge asked a couple of times about my last name, if I'm changing back to my maiden name. I didn't put a lot of thought into the whole name thing this time. I thought more about it before the marriage.

There was a time when I had decided I would keep my family name when I married. When I told Todd this, before we were married he was surprised that I would even suggest such a thing. He wouldn't even consider that I wouldn't take his name. I don't know why I took his name when we got married. Maybe the simple answer is that I just caved. I remembered all the times my sisters and I talked about having a better name than Brown. Better sounding, more interesting, etc. But, by the time I wasn't a kid any more I appreciated Brown, it's easy to spell all those times I have to give my name for something or other. It's plain but natural too. So, if it wasn't dramatic, it was at least dependable.

Here I am, at another name crossroads. I chose to keep Tripp. I don't feel I can go back to being Brown again. I'm not that same person, the girl I was. Neither name feels like it belongs to me, neither feels a part of me. When I think about the name thing I feel like I have no identity, no name, no home. That's why I wrote that quote above a few weeks ago.

At least I still have my first name, they can't take that away from me.

Trying to Get Through More Paper Stuff

Maybe I will be leaving this week still. I hope so. I have mostly everything packed, some I'm waiting to pack until I know I will be leaving. Some I'm trying to sort through and get rid of more of it. So much is just clutter. Maybe I will make use of it in my writing and maybe I never will. How can you tell and how can you through something good away. I'm trying. I wish I could live more nomadically, just a box of a few things and a pack on my back to move with me. How idea that sounds. Instead I have all kinds of stuff and each time I think about how its too much I realize all the reasons I can't just give it up too easily.

"To make your ideas work for you, you first have to work for them." Thomas Alva Edison.

"It is a terrible thing, this kindness that human beings do not lose. Terrible because when we are finally naked in the dark and cold, it is all we have. We who are so rich, so full of strength, wind up with that small change. We have nothing else to give." Urula K. Le Guin.

"Success is a journey, not a destination." Ben Sweetland.

"Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but rather a manner of traveling." Samuel Johnson.

"Make voyages. Attempt them. There's nothing else." Tennessee Williams.

"Any road is bound to arrive somewhere if you follow it far enough."Patricia Wentworth.

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Chinese proverb.

"Adventure is worthwhile in itself." Amelia Earhart.

"The cream of enjoyment in this life is always impromptu. The chance walk; the unexpected visit; the unpremeditated journey; the unsought conversation or acquaintance." Fanny Fern.

"Give curiousity freedom." Eudora Welty.

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained." Geoffrey Chaucer.

"In the long run the pessimist may be proved to be right, but the optimist has a better time on the trip." Daniel L. Reardon.

"The end is nothing; the road is all." Willa Cather.

"Whatever wrinkles I got, I enjoyed getting them." Ava Gardner.

"Nature gives you the face you have when you are twenty. Life shapes the face you have at thirty. But it is up to you to earn the face you have at fifty." Coco Chanel.

"Do not deprive me of my age. I have earned it." May Sarton.

"Age is all imagination. Ignore years and they'll ignore you." Ella Wheeler-Wilcox.

"we are always the same age inside." Gertrude Stein

"The great thing about getting older is that you don't lose all the other ages you've been." Madeleine L'Engle.

"Change does not change tradition. It strengthens it. Change is a challenge and an opportunity, not a threat." Prince Philip of England.

"Change is the only evidence of life." Evelyn Waugh.

"If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we are not really living." Gail Sheehy.

"Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator." Robert R. Kennedy.

"Other things may change us, but we start and end with family." Anthony Brandt.

"Life is a paradise for those who love many things with a passion." Leo Buscaglia.

Spa Secret: Lime and Ginger Salt Glow

Pulverize 1/4 cup fresh ginger root in a blender; add 1/2 cup table salt. Mix in juice from two limes and 1/2 cup warmed vegetable oil to make a soft but gritty paste. Use to exfoliate hands, feet and rough spots such as elbows, massaging into skin with gentle circular motions. Rinse with warm water spiked with squirts of lime.

Sounds nice to me. Made me look for ginger and lime recipes online.

Here is one to try this Fall.

Ginger-Lime Sweet Potatoes

From Cooking Light magazine. 1/8 cup all-purpose flour 5 cups thinly sliced peeled sweet potato 1/8 cup butter 1/8 cup packed light brown sugar 1/2 tablespoon lime rind 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice 1/2 tablespoon grated orange rind 1/2 tablespoon grated peeled fresh ginger 1/2 teaspoon low-sodium soy sauce 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon black pepper Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour and potato in a large bowl; toss well. Melt butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Add sugar and next seven ingredients (sugar through pepper); cook 4 minutes; combine potato mixture; toss well. Spoon mixture into a shallow 2-quart casserole dish coated with cooking spray. Cover and bake at 425 degrees for 55 minutes or until tender. Let stand 10 minutes. Yield: 6 servings.

"Nothing's beautiful from every point of view." Horace.

"The main purpose of a garden is to give the owner the best and highest kind of earthy pleasure." Gertrude Jekyll.

"Just living is not enough... one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower."

"Hurt not the Earth, Neither the Sea, nor the Trees."

"You don't have a garden just for yourself. You have it to share." Augusta Carter.

"If you pray for rain be prepared to deal with some mud."

"Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads." Henry David Thoreau.

"Happiness must grow in one's own garden."

"Arranging a bowl of flowers in the morning can give a sense of quiet in a crowded day - like writing a poem or saying a prayer." Anne Morrow Lindbergh.