I got my happy back.
Wise tow truck driver (last weekend)
Once quotable sayings from my peeps jump into my verbal repertoire, they hunker down to stay for good. At 4:30 a.m. this morning when I couldn’t sleep, I thought it would be fun to round up a few of them, and give some attribution. I use them here in the blog sometimes – some are profound, some are practical, some are playful, but they’re all memorable (at least to me). The one above was in a haiku a couple of days ago. I love it: I got my happy back. Doesn’t that just have a great ring to it?
Attributions (Who Said It)
The attributions for these adages are to the folks who introduced me to them. They might’ve gotten their golden verbal nuggets from someone else. That’s ok. It doesn’t matter to me if they weren’t the original coiners of the phrases; I’ll always associate the folksy wisdom with the wonderful person who shared it with me.
The Sayings
There’s decorating advice:
You don’t have to display all your pretties at once.
Nancy, quoting her mom
A push for optimism over pessimism:
Don’t borrow trouble.
My mom
A fabulous way to describe a certain cooking competence:
I’m the Duchess of Leftovers
Laura Speer, Dave and Laura’s Dream, commenting on this post about making an omelet out of seafood boil leftovers
A truism about manipulation:
You can’t play a player.
My Sister-in-Love
A truism about photography:
The best camera is the one you have with you.
Ray Laskowitz, The Storyteller
Wisdom about life, similar to “go big or go home”:
This ain’t no dress rehearsal.
My ex-husband-now-friend
Advice about what to do when there’s craziness all around:
Hide and wait.
Mema (my paternal grandmother)
Encouragement to let things go and forgive yourself:
Take that rock out of your backpack.
Theresa, who left us too soon (story here about Theresa, hurricanes, moms and children)
Another suggestion about about letting things go and not pursuing an un-winnable argument:
I’m not sure that’s a hill you want to die on.
The Good Eater (my bonus son)
Describing the beauty of nature:
My eyes are happy!
The Girl Who is Alway Hungry (my daughter-in-law), in this post about fall colors
What to say when the meal has been a little too enjoyable and there was one bite too many:
I ate wrong.
The Grill-Meister of Glover Gardens
That’s All for Now
Don’t fret if I use one of your sayings regularly and it didn’t make it to the list; these are just the one that were floating around in my head when I was lying in bed awake at 4:30 a.m. Yep, on a Saturday. When I could’ve slept in.
What are your quotables?
Thank you. I wish that I’d thought of it first.
The best quote ever comes from the late queen of New Orleans, Leah Chase. When she was asked how to repair New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina broke the Federal levees, she replied, “Put on your pants and get to work.”
Simple, direct, and an absolute truth.
Everything I speak is the truth… for that moment in time.
I just love this post, thank you. And I’ll make an effort to collect such sayings from friends from now on.
I do love quotes a lot and therefore one of my favourite ones is at the moment:
“A good aphorism contains the wisdom of an entire book in one sentence.” Theodor Fontane
I love that! I hadn’t hear it before and now will always associate it with you.