BEACH/POOL DAYS

Until I saw the sea
I did not know
that wind
could wrinkle water so.

I never knew
that sun
could splinter a whole sea of blue.

Nor
did I know before,
a sea breathes in and out
upon a shore.
- Lilian Moore

Sand in my swimsuit,
Sand in my hair,
When I go to the beach
Sand gets everywhere!
I wonder, I wonder,
Oh, how can there be
Sand left at the beach
When there's so much on me?
-Helen Moore

It struck me while I was sitting here; everything changes but the sea.
- William B. Davis

Give us the sun and the sea, the waves on the sand,
The wind in our faces, we walk hand in hand.
Though summer must end, we dance on the shore
To the song of the sea in our hearts evermore.
-Nancy Walker

The voice of the sea speaks to the soul.
- Kate Chopin

I dug in the sand and I carefully made
A big sand castle with my pail and spade.
I felt like a queen in a golden crown
Until the blue sea washed my sand castle down.
So I dug again in that sandy shore
Until I had a bigger castle
and was queen once more!
-Author Unknown

In every outthrust headland, in every curving beach,
in every grain of sand there is a story of the earth.
- Rachel Carson

Ocean breeze blowing, feet kick and splash,
Ocean waves breaking, on rocks with a crash.
Boys finding seashells, girls sifting sand,
Friends building castles, as high as they can.
I stretch my arms out, far as they'll reach
Oh, my what fun, on this day at the beach.
-Author Unknown

I dropped a tear in the ocean. The day you find it is
the day I will stop missing you.
- Author Unknown

Either you decide to stay in the shallow end of the
pool or you go out in the ocean.
- Christopher Reeve

One night a man had a dream.
He dreamed he was walking along the beach
with the Lord.
Across the sky flashed scenes from his life.
He noticed two sets of footprints in the sand:
One belonging to him, the other to the Lord.
When the last scene of his life flashed before him,
he looked back at the footprints in the sand.
He noticed that many times along the path
there was only one set of footprints.
He recalled that it happened at the very
lowest and saddest times in his life.
He questioned, "Lord, you said that once I decided
to follow you, you'd walk with me all the way.
Then, why during the most troublesome times in my life,
the times when I needed you most, would you leave me?"
The Lord replied, "My precious, precious child,
I love you and would never, never leave you.
During your times of trials and suffering,
when you see only one set of footprints,
it was then that I carried you."
-Footprints in the Sand, Author Unknown

SUMMER FUN/KEEPING COOL

In winter I get up at night,
And dress by yellow candle light.
In summer quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day,
I have to go to bed and see
The birds still hopping on the tree,
Or hear the grown up people's feet
Still going past me in the street,
And does it not seem hard to you,
When all the sky is clear and blue,
And I should like so much to play,
To have to go to bed by day?
- Robert Louis Stevenson

If a summer night could talk, it would probably boast that it invented romance.
-B. Williams

'Tis moonlight, summer moonlight,
All soft and still and fair;
The solemn hour of midnight
Breathes sweet thoughts everywhere.
-From 'Tis moonlight, summer moonlight, by Emily Jane Brontë

Summer afternoon - summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.
- Henry James

The summer sun shone round me,
The folded valley lay
In a stream of sun and odour,
That sultry summer day.

The tall trees stood in the sunlight
As still as still could be,
But the deep grass sighed and rustled
And bowed and beckoned me.

The deep grass moved and whispered
And bowed and brushed my face.
It whispered in the sunshine:
"The winter comes apace."
-The Summer Sun Shone Round Me, by Robert Louis Stevenson

PROUD TO BE AMERICAN

It is easy to take liberty for granted,
when you have never had it taken from you.
-Dick Cheney

To serve my country day by day
At any humble post I may;
To honor and respect her flag,
To live the traits of which I brag;
To be American in deed
As well as in my printed creed.
To stand for truth and honest toil,
To till my little patch of soil,
And keep in mind the debt I owe
To them who died that I might know
My country, prosperous and free,
And passed this heritage to me.
I always must in trouble's hour
Be guided by the men in power;
For God and country I must live,
My best for God and country give;
No act of mine that men may scan
Must shame the name American.
To do my best and play my part,
American in mind and heart;
To serve the flag and bravely stand
To guard the glory of my land;
To be American in deed:
God grant me strength to keep this creed!
-Edgar Guest

America is another name for opportunity.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassion'd stress
A thorough fare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness.
America! America!
God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law.
O beautiful for heroes prov'd
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life.
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And ev'ry gain divine.
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears.
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea.
- Music - Samuel A. Ward, 1888
- Words - Katherine Lee Bates 1893

As red as a fire,
As blue as the sky,
As white as the snow--
See our flag fly!
Three pretty colors
Wave at the sky,
Red, white and blue
On the Fourth of July!
Red, white and blue
Those colors are,
And every state has its very own star.
Hold up the flag
Hold it up high,
And then say, "Hurrah,
For the Fourth of July!"
- Author Unknown

Each of us has been given the precious freedom to dance to the music of our dreams.
- Flavia

We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms: The first is freedom of speech and expression, the second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way, the third is freedom from want, and the fourth is freedom from fear.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt

If tomorrow all the things were gone
I'd worked for all my life,
And I had to start again
with just my children and my wife,
I'd thank my lucky stars
to be living here today,
'Cause the flag still stands for freedom
and they can't take that away.
And I'm proud to be an American
where at least I know I'm free,
And I won't forget the men who died
who gave that right to me,
And I gladly stand up, next to you
and defend her still today,
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land
God Bless the U.S.A.
From the lakes of Minnesota
to the hills of Tennessee,
Across the plains of Texas
from sea to shining sea.
From Detroit down to Houston
and New York to L.A.,
Well there's pride in every American heart
and it's time we stand and say:
That I'm proud to be an American
where at least I know I'm free,
And I won't forget the men who died
who gave that right to me,
And I gladly stand up, next to you
and defend her still today,
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land
God Bless the USA
And I'm proud to be an American
where at least I know I'm free,
And I won't forget the men who died
who gave that right to me,
And I gladly stand up, next to you
and defend her still today,
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land
God Bless the USA
-Lee Greenwood

I thank God I am an American,
Let me live and die that way.
While there is strife in other nations,
We have peace, for which I pray.
Keep aloft the torch of freedom,
Burn it bright to lead the way.
Hold me steadfast to my country,
From the path don't let me stray.
I thank God I am an American,
Let me live and die that way.
-Author Unknown

And so, my fellow Americans; ask not what your country can do for you-- ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world; ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
-John F. Kennedy

Patriotism means to stand by the country.
It does NOT mean to stand by the President
or any other public official save exactly
to the degree in which he himself stands
by the country. It is patriotic to support
him insofar as he efficiently serves the
country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose
him to the exact extent that by inefficiency
or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand
by the country.
-Theodore Roosevelt

Twas red with the blood of freemen and white with the fear of the foe;
And the stars that fight in their courses 'gainst tyrants its symbols know.
-The Flag, by Julia Ward Howe

You see that flag. . . . That's the flag of the United States of America. That flag will fly there long after this is all forgotten. That flag still stands for freedom. You know it always will.
-U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young

You're a grand old flag,
You're a high flying flag
And forever in peace may you wave.
You're the emblem of
The land I love.
The home of the free and the brave.
Every heart beats true
'neath the Red, White and Blue,
Where there's never a boast or brag.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
Keep your eye on the grand old flag.
- George M. Cohan