The Pencil

A modest and unassuming tool, the pencil has witnessed global events, mapped grand expeditions, documented scientific discoveries; it has chronicled famous lifetimes and private journeys; it is an artist’s companion, and is ever patient in the hands of a child learning to write or a poet listening for illumination.

The pencil quietly observes, renders, and calculates, and from the slightest stroke to the boldest pressure, its touch can bring the magnificent and fantastical to life, leaping from a blank white page in great passionate detail.

With pencil in hand, stories are written, stars dreamed upon, ideas and equations scribbled ~ and its only vulnerability ~ revealing the pencil’s tender heart, and reminding us that it comes from Mother Earth ~ are the charcoal smudges made by the smear of a hand, or how cleverly it can disappear with a simple eraser.

A more loyal, trusting tool I’ve never known. Even if you break it in two, it still works! And, ah, what imaginative beginnings can be stirred by the humble pencil… a marvelous instrument indeed. :  )

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From Patricia Saxton’s “Pencil Point Series”, a long-runnng self-promotional campaign based on her logo and favorite tool, the #2 pencil.

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Lotta Rain

There’s been a lot of east coast rain lately. We’re yearning for warmth and sunshine; we’re ready for barefooted, sun-kissed, blueberry-pickin’, toss-a-frisbee weather.

Of course, some of you are beyond the “oh, gee, I sure wish it would stop raining” phase, and more in the “get the damn water out of my basement” category. But the way I see it, since there’s nothing we can do about the weather, why get our shorts in a twist?

Good things about rain: It makes things greener. (And hey, you can pretend you’re living in Scotland, surrounded by hills of heather.) It lets you get more work done without the temptation to go outside and play. It’s soothing for sleep. You can dance in it. You can sing too, and splash things, and watch water droplets make shapes on windows.

But if you’re still not convinced, here are a few quotes that (since you can’t change the rain) might change your mood.

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Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.  ~ Langston Hughes

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Don’t threaten me with love, baby. Let’s just go walking in the rain.  ~ Billie Holiday

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It always rains on tents. Rainstorms will travel thousands of miles, against prevailing winds for the opportunity to rain on a tent.  ~ Dave Barry

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Don’t knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn’t start a conversation if it didn’t change once in a while.  ~ Kin Hubbard

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Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet.  ~ Roger Miller

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And of course:

And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.  ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton


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It’s not so bad, the rain.

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