Cleaning House

I am cleaning like a fury today. Throwing away. Putting up. Rearranging.

I have this little pile of quotes by good women from one of those calendars where you tear the page off every day. These are the ones I could not bear to throw away. I have been keeping them and pushing them around on my desk for . . . 3 years now, I think.

The fury tells me I must throw them away. I'm going to record the quotes here so they're not really gone. Random order. No explanation why it struck me.

June 18, "Live your life while you have it. Life is a splendid gift. There is nothing small in it. For the greatest things grow by God's Law out of the smallest". -- Florence Nightingale.

May 29, "My theory on housework is, if the item doesn't multiply, smell, catch on fire or block the refrigerator door, let it be. No one cares. Why should you?" -- Erma Bombeck

April 20, "The thought that you could die tomorrow frees you to appreciate your life now."  Angelina Jolie, academy Award-winning actor and humanitarian (interesting in light of Jolie's announcement this week. . )

July 16, "Forgiveness is the economy of the heart. . . Forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits." -- Hannah Moore, author

March 9, "When you have nothing to be ashamed of, when you know who you are and what you stand for, you stand in wisdom. Insight. Strength and protection. You stand in peace." -- Oprah Winfrey, TV personality, actor, and founder of O Magazine

February 22, "Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up." -- Indira Gandhi, political leader

February 9, "If we were to judge nature by common sense of likelihood, we wouldn't believe the world existed." -- Annie Dillard, writer and poet

September 13, "If your baby is beautiful and perfect, never cries or fusses, sleeps on schedule and burps on demand, an angel all the time, you're the grandma." -- Theresa Bloomingdale, writer

September 7, "Women usually love what they buy, yet hate two-thirds of what is in their closets. -- Mignon McLaughlin, writer

July 19, "Anybody can observe the Sabbath, but making it holy surely takes the rest of the week. -- Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize-winnning writer and poet

March 16 (Canberra Day in Australia, by the way), "It goes without saying that you should never have more children than you have car windows." -- Erma Bombeck, columnist

June 9, "Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand -- and melting like a snowflake." -- Marie Beynon Ray, writer

September 22, "Let us go forth with fear and courage and rage to save the world." -- Grace Paley, writing and social activist

June 22, "Tread softly! All the earth is holy ground." -- Christina Rossetti, poet

July 31, "When you love someone, say it, right then. Out loud. Otherwise, the moment just passes you by." -- Julia Roberts, Academy Award-winning actor

July 9, "All of us want to do well. But if we do not do good, too, then doing well will never be enough." -- Anna Quindlen, author & Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist

June 8, "The life you have led doesn't need to be the only life you have." -- Anna Quindlen, author & Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist

June 1, "One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory." -- Rita Mae Brown, writer & educator

There you go. Now I can throw away one more thing that's been cluttering up my life. I hope you saw at least one little bit of wisdom that you liked.