"There's nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child." ~Erma Bombeck

In truth
a family is what you make it.
It is made strong,
not by number of heads counted at the dinner table,
but by the rituals you help family members create,
by the memories you share,
by the commitment of time,
caring,
and love you show to one another,
and by the hopes for the future
you have as individuals
and as a unit.

~Marge Kennedy

Christmas 2010.
Cape Cod

"I have scarcely touched the sky and I am made of it." ~Antonio Porchia

“Please know this ….
You live in the world created by your mind.
Your rapture and joy,
your sorrow and pain,
are all your own creations.
They are dependent upon your perceptions
and core beliefs
for their very existence.
Most people live in a world of darkness.
But there is another world,
bathed in the light of love.
You can live in this world if you choose,
by the virtue of grace.
The rent to live there is forgiveness,
self-discipline
and accepting your worth.
Forget everything you think you are,
and stand in the light
of who you really are.

So say we all …”

~Randy Gage

Images taken in Dennis, MA.
Cape Cod. December 2010

"Snowmen fall from heaven... unassembled." ~Author Unknown

There is a privacy about it
which no other season gives you....
In spring,
summer
and fall
people sort of have
an open season on each other;
only in the winter,
in the country,
can you have longer,
quiet stretches
when you can savor
belonging to yourself.

~Ruth Stout

first snow storm of the season.
Brewster, Cape Cod 2010

"When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe." ~John Muir

"There is nothing 
like returning to a place 
that remains 
unchanged
to find the ways 
in which you 
yourself 
 have altered."

~Nelson Mandela

Boston, MA
December 2010

"In these times you have to be an optimist to open your eyes when you awake in the morning." ~Carl Sandburg

Life
is the fire
that burns
and the sun
that gives light.
Life
is the wind
and the rain
and the thunder
in the sky.
Life
is matter
and is earth,
what is and
what is not,
and what beyond
is in
Eternity.

~Seneca

Taking a break from the Cape.
images taken on a road trip
to Boston.
December 2010