Planting seeds
inevitably
changes my feelings
about rain.
~ Luci Shaw (from her poem "Forecast")
Do not have your concert first, and then
tune your instrument afterwards.
Begin the day with the Word of God and prayer,
and get first of all into harmony with Him.
~ Hudson Taylor

My best friend is a person who
will give me a book
I have not read.

~ Abraham Lincoln
Creativity
is a way
of living
Life
~ Madeleine L'Engle
Two classes of human beings defy
psychological categorizing
and are full of surprises:
Poets and Saints.
~ Sigmund Freud
The first demand any work of art
makes upon us is surrender.
Look.  Listen.  Receive.
Get yourself out of the way.
~ C.S. Lewis
If you're going through Hell,
don't stop!
~ a great song I can't remember (anyone know?)
It is the nature of grace
always
to fill spaces
that have been empty.
~ Goethe

When God wants to show you what human nature is like separated from Himself, He shows it to you in yourself.

~ Oswald Chambers

Experience is something you don't get
until just after you need it.

~ unknown

Even if you're on the right track
you'll get run over if you just sit there.

~ Will Rogers

Start by doing what's necessary,
then what's possible,
and suddenly you are doing
the impossible.

~ St. Francis of Assisi
a children's book is
any book
a child will read.
~ Madeleine L'Engle
I would like to
paint the way a bird sings.
~ Claude Monet
When you have exhausted all the possibilities,
remember this -
you haven't.
~ Thomas Edison
All shall be well
and all shall be well
and all manner of things shall be well.
~ Julian of Norwich

Spiritual warfare
isn't just casting out demons;
it's Spirit-controlled thinking
and attitudes.

~ Dean Sherman/YWAM

Remember that
the darkest hour
only lasts 60 minutes

~ on the girls' bathroom wall/Gordon College

Use what talents you possess:
the woods would be very silent
if no birds sang there
except those that sang best.

~ Henry Van Dyke

One good thing about being wrong
is the joy it brings to others.

~ unknown

You will ask me where I get my ideas...I cannot tell you with certainty; they come unsummoned...in the silence of the nights, early in the morning... tones that sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes.

~ Ludwig Von Beethoven

Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves,
for they shall never cease to be amused.

~ unknown
I loved Christmas
until I grew up and realized
I had to make it happen!
~ an exasperated customer at the Living Cornerstone bookstore
The best translation of the word "love"
is the name Jesus;
That will tell us everything about love
we need to know.
~ Canon Tallis
Poetry takes something
that we know already
and turns it into something new.
~ T.S. Eliot

Is prayer your steering wheel
or your spare tire?

~ Corrie Ten Boom

When writing,
be more or less
specific

~ unknown

Don`t cry yet;
there`s still God!

~ Carissa Cooper
Doubt comes from a struggling mind.
Unbelief comes from a struggling will.
~ Chuck Missler

Hope means hoping
when things are hopeless,
or it is no virtue at all.
Faith means believing the incredible,
or it has no virtue at all.

~ G.K. Chesterton

"Maybe you've not yet tasted
your favorite food"
(regarding the feast prepared for us in heaven) 

~ Randy Alcorn in Tell Me About Heaven
Beware of paying attention
or going back to what you once were,
when God wants you to be something
that you have never been.
~ Oswald Chambers

Tito’s First Christmas Celebration: A Story of Two Mangers

by Lisa LaLonde

They showed me the manger
And the tiny baby boy
I leaned down to touch Him,
Whiskers quivering with joy

Him I remember!
Even though He’s so small
He was there when my Momma
Gave birth to me last Fall

I remember the dark woods
And my warm Momma’s fur
I felt Him embrace us
So He heard my first purr

My thin Momma fed me
She did everything for me
So I knew that kind of love
When I saw Jesus by the tree

They tell me He came
In a manger like mine
Tucked away in a corner
To redeem all mankind

Noisy animals around Him
(I like the sheep best)
But I know, ‘cause I’ve seen and felt
His sweet peaceful rest

When my Momma first brought me
To the house with the food
She knew, like the angels,
That salvation was good

She brought us to people
Who took us inside
We’re no longer hungry
And in love we abide

Jesus is still here
Though my manger is gone
He protected and saved me
And now I belong

There are pictures of Jesus
In the rooms where I play
But the Jesus I know
Lies smiling in the hay


Tito was brought inside the Bowes household on December 31, 2006.
She has never been outside in a snowstorm.

By Lisa LaLonde
© 2007 Cincogatos Productions