“Far away in the sunshine are my highest inspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see the beauty, believe in them and try to follow where they lead.”
– Louisa May Alcott

About Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott, the beloved American author, is best known for her semiautobiographical novel, Little Women, which was made into a movie five different times. Born on November 29, 1832 near Philadelphia, she grew up in Massachusetts. Her family lived in the genteel poverty depicted in her fiction. She wrote lurid stories anonymously to bring in money but gained fame under her own name with young adult novels, which held readers with their warm characterizations and simple, engaging style. She died on March 6, 1888.

“Once the ‘what’ is decided, the ‘how’ always follows. We must not make the ‘how’ an excuse for not facing and accepting the ‘what.'”
– Pearl S. Buck

About Pearl S. Buck

Prolific American author Pearl S. Buck is best known for her 1931 novel, The Good Earth, which depicted peasant life in China; the book, published by the John Day Company, won the Pulitzer Prize. She was born in West Virginia on June 26, 1892, but her missionary parents raised her in China. She and her first husband lived in China until 1934, when they had to flee the political strife. She later divorced and married John Day’s publisher, Richard Walsh, in 1935. In 1938, she became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in literature. By the time of her death in 1973, she had published over 70 books, including collections of stories, poetry, and children’s literature.

“Choices are the hinges of destiny.”
– Pythagoras

About Pythagoras

Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras, called the Father of Numbers, is best known for developing the Pythagorean Theorem. He was born on the Greek island of Samos in 570 BC and moved to Italy, where he founded a religious school preaching vegetarianism and reincarnation. He believed that everything could be explained by mathematics and measured in rhythmic cycles. He wrote nothing down; some theories ascribed to Pythagoras may have been discovered by his followers. He died around 495 BC.

“A good scare is worth more to a man than good advice.”
– Edgar Watson Howe

About Edgar Watson Howe

Pithy American newspaperman Edgar Watson Howe was known as the “Sage of Potato Hill.” He was born in Indiana in 1853. He learned the printing trade at his father’s shop. He left home at age 14 and by age 18, he was editing a local paper in Colorado. In 1877, he established the Atchison, Kansas, Daily Globe. He also wrote fiction; his most successful novel, The Story of a Country Town, was a bleak portrayal of life on the prairie. He died in October 1937.

“Returning home is the most difficult part of long-distance hiking; You have grown outside the puzzle and your piece no longer fits.” Cindy Ross

Photo by Cynthia Freese Mount Rainier,Washington

I enjoy sharing some of my photos and favorite quotes as much as I enjoy my wanderings in the woods. Today I am sharing two quotes as I could not decide between them.

“We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal and then leap in the dark to our success.”
– Henry David Thoreau

I am happy to share some of my favorite trails with you. All you have to do is ask.

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.” 
― Henry David Thoreau

About Henry David Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau, the transcendentalist philosopher and author, is best known for Walden, a spiritual memoir about his two-year sojourn in the woods. He was born in Concord, Massachusetts, in 1817 and lived nearly all his life in that small town. He explored the area as a land surveyor, and became the first American environmentalist. His writing presaged the field of ecology. He died of tuberculosis in 1862.

All the art of living lies in the fine mingling of letting go and holding on.

When we are dreaming alone it is only a dream. When we’re dreaming with others it’s the beginning of reality.