When you make a Choice, you change the Future.

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The future rewards those who press on. I don't have time to feel sorry for myself. I don't have time to complain. I'm going to press on. 

Barack Obama

Merry Christmas from New York

                         https://joan-reese.pixels.com/featured/-patriotic-santa-joan-reese.html

"The color of Springtime is Green; the color of Winter is in our Imagination."

https://joan-reese.pixels.com/featured/snowy-nyc-steps-joan-reese.html

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome."
― Anne Bradstreet

“Forgiveness means it Finally Becomes Unimportant that you Hit Back.”

                            https://joan-reese.pixels.com/featured/blue-mountains-joan-reese.html

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. 

Martin Luther King, Jr.

We cannot direct the Wind, but we can adjust the Sails.

                 https://joan-reese.pixels.com/featured/rainbow-rain-joan-reese.html

Skyscraper National Park

https://joan-reese.pixels.com/featured/empire-state-building-joan-reese.html

“I was lucky to live in New York when it was dangerous and edgy and cheap enough to play host to young, penniless artists. That was the era of "coffee shops" as they were defined in New York—cheap restaurants open round the clock where you could eat for less than it would cost to cook at home. That was the era of ripped jeans and dirty T-shirts, when the kind of people who are impressed by material signs of success were not the people you wanted to know.” 

― Edmund White 

Your Decisions Shape your Destiny.

                             https://joan-reese.pixels.com/featured/destiny-road-joan-reese.html

In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.       Theodore Roosevelt

Turn your Face to the Sun and the Shadows Fall behind you.

                      https://joan-reese.pixels.com/featured/shadows-and-light-joan-reese.html

Light and shadow are opposite sides of the same coin. We can illuminate our paths or darken our way. It is a matter of choice.

Maya Angelou

Wild Horses roam the Beaches of Corolla

https://joan-reese.pixels.com/featured/corollas-wild-horses-joan-reese.html?newartwork=true

 The origins of the Wild Colonial Spanish Mustangs date back nearly 500 years, making them the earliest settlers of the Outer Banks, and some of the earliest residents, second only to the local Native American tribes.   https://www.outerbanks.com/corolla-wild-horses.html

All God's Angels come to us Disguised.

                         https://joan-reese.pixels.com/featured/loving-angel-joan-reese.html

“A Drunk Man’s Words are a Sober Man’s Thoughts.”

https://joan-reese.pixels.com/featured/southern-dude-joan-reese.html?newartwork=true

 “

“I’m on a whisky diet. I’ve lost three days already.”

                            ~ Tommy Cooper

“Life is like an Autumn; short but colourful.”

                https://joan-reese.pixels.com/featured/autumn-leaves-joan-reese.html?newartwork=true

“The leaves fall, the wind blows, and the farm country slowly changes from the summer cottons into its winter wools.” 

― Henry Beston

There is only one place to eat a great Cheesesteak!

                                              https://fineartamerica.com/featured/william-penn-on-top-joan-reese.html

I see far stronger and more charismatic personalities strolling around Philadelphia's neighborhoods than are being featured in most of today's bland daytime soaps. 
Camille Paglia

Keep Calm and Love Flamingos

                        https://joan-reese.pixels.com/featured/pretty-pink-flamingos-joan-reese.html

A flock of flirting flamingos is pure, passionate, pink pandemonium-a frenetic flamingle-mangle-a discordant discotheque of delirious dancing, flamboyant feathers, and flamingo lingo.

Charley Harper

“What a lovely thing a rose is!”

       https://joan-reese.pixels.com/products/little-love-roses-joan-reese-throw-pillow.html

  

Firefighters don't go on Strike!

https://joan-reese.pixels.com/featured/firefighters-uniforms-joan-reese.html?newartwork=true

Firemen never die, they just burn forever in the hearts of the people whose lives they saved.

Susan Diane Murphree

Lady Liberty on Broadway

https://joan-reese.pixels.com/featured/lady-liberty-on-42nd-street-joan-reese.html?newartwork=true

Nearly all Americans have ancestors who braved the oceans-liberty-loving risk takers in search of an ideal-the largest voluntary migrations in recorded history. Across the Pacific, across the Atlantic, they came from every point on the compass-many passing beneath the Statue of Liberty-with fear and vision, with sorrow and adventure, fleeing tyranny or terror, seeking haven, and all seeking hope...Immigration is not just a link to America's past; it's also a bridge to America's future.                                George H. W. Bush

Holy Cow!

            https://joan-reese.pixels.com/featured/cow-face-close-up-joan-reese.html?newartwork=true

I don't like looking back. I'm always constantly looking forward. I'm not the one to sort of sit and cry over spilt milk. I'm too busy looking for the next cow. 

Gordon Ramsay

Life takes us to unexpected places... love brings us home.

https://joan-reese.pixels.com/featured/old-log-cabin-joan-reese.html?newartwork=true

 “Man wanted a home, a place for warmth, or comfort, first of physical warmth, then the warmth of the affections.” 

― Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Nothing makes a person happier than having a happy heart.

               https://fineartamerica.com/featured/sunshine-bench-joan-reese.html?newartwork=true

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” 

― J.R.R. Tolkien

Life is a Great Sunrise

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There was never a night or a problem that could defeat sunrise or hope.       Bernard Williams

It’s the Unknown that Draws People

https://joan-reese.pixels.com/featured/invisable-lady-joan-reese.html?newartwork=true

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.” 

― Albert Einstein

If I can Bicycle, I Bicycle

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Life is like a ten speed bicycle. Most of us have gears we never use.                      Charles M. Schulz

Seas the Day

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Come walk with me, take off your shoes, let's walk the beach with only the moon to light the path and waves to hear you tell me you love me. Why does the ocean rock the moon to sleep every night? So the sun will wake and kiss the beach

J. Henson

Where There is no Struggle, There is no Strength.

                             https://fineartamerica.com/featured/bang-graffiti-nyc-2014-joan-reese.html

The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.               Ernest Hemingway

"Keep your Heels, Head and Standards High"

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I want to go and go, and then drop dead in the middle of something I'm loving to do. 

And if that doesn't happen, if I wind up sitting in a wheelchair, at least I'll have my high heels on.               Dolly Parton

"May we Never Forget Freedom isn't Free."

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On Memorial Day, I don't want to only remember the combatants. There were also those who came out of the trenches as writers and poets, who started preaching peace, men and women who have made this world a kinder place to live.                    Eric Burdon

Truth is Powerful and it Prevails

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/face-on-joan-reese.html

A great man does not seek applause or place; he seeks for truth; he seeks the road to happiness, and what he ascertains, he gives to others. 
Robert Green Ingersoll

Motherhood: All Love Begins and Ends There

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This is the reason why mothers are more devoted to their children than fathers: it is that they suffer more in giving them birth and are more certain that they are their own.

                   Aristotle

A Peony is a Friend Forever

                https://fineartamerica.com/featured/pink-peony-joan-reese.html?newartwork=true

"A rose is a rose, but a peony is a friend forever" The peony is known as the queen of flowers in China, symbolizing wealth and elegance. An omen of good fortune, peonies may also be used to symbolize love and affection.

Fields are more Sacred than Sanctuaries

                                                                  Lancaster Amish,Pennsylvania
                                                                    https://lancasterpa.com

      As a spiritual person, nature for me has always been a healing place. Going back all the way to my childhood on the farm, the fields and forests were places of adventure and self-discovery. Animals were companions and friends, and the world moved at a slower, more rational pace than the bustling cities where I'd resided my adult life.                        David Mixner

Every Day is Earth Day

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I think the environment should be put in the category of our national security. Defense of our resources is just as important as defense abroad. Otherwise what is there to defend? 

Robert Redford 

The Groves were God's First Temples

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We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls.    Mother Teresa

Guns, Bombs, Warships are All Symbols of Human Failure.

                                          http://joan-reese.pixels.com/collections/fireworks

When I was growing up, it was 'Communists'. Now it's 'Terrorists'. So you always have to have somebody to fight and be afraid of, so the war machine can build more bombs, guns, and bullets and everything.       Cindy Sheehan

Art is the Daughter of Freedom

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Art, freedom and creativity will change society

faster than politics.              Victor Pinchuk

Rock and Roll is Here to Stay

                   https://fineartamerica.com/featured/rock-and-roll-on-st-marks-nyc-joan-reese.html

If you tried to give rock and roll another name, 

you might call it 'Chuck Berry'.     John Lennon 

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

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I never expected anyone to take care of me, but in my wildest dreams and juvenile yearnings, I wanted the house with the picket fence from June Allyson movies. I knew that was yearning like one yearns to fly.           Maya Angelou

Why Politicians Profess they are Religious!

       http://joan-reese.pixels.com/featured/bible-quote-mark-6-50-joan-reese.html

A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has god on his side.          -Aristotle 

Home is Where One Starts From

http://joan-reese.pixels.com/featured/manhattan-town-house-joan-reese.html?newartwork=true

Love begins by taking care of the closest ones - 

the ones at home.     - Mother Teresa

Love is Power

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“No religion is absolutely perfect. Yet not only do we fight for religion, but also are we often willing to sacrifice our lives for it. And what we hopelessly fail to do is to live it. A true religion is that which has no caste, no creed, no colour. It is but an all-uniting and all-pervading embrace.” 
― Sri Chimney                 https://www.srichinmoy.org

Do you remember "The Little Rascals" dog, Petey?

Remember Petey the dog from The Little Rascals? The little boy on the right was my father.
        http://joan-reese.pixels.com/featured/philly-kids-with-petey-the-dog-joan-reese.html

Fishtown kids weren't hungry                                

We played, then dined on soup.             

We sailed the Soupy Island Boat for free.                    

Dad worked the fishery; earning a small salary            

Dads drank in the brewery  Moms convened on marble stoops.

Fishtown kids weren't hungry.                              

Summer days, sailing the Delaware, carefree

Can't call a Fishtown kid a dupe           

We sailed the Soupy Island Boat for free.   

We landed at Red Bank, New Jersey; climbed trees,              

Rode the carousel, swam; fifty kids in our group.                 

Fishtown kids weren't hungry.                               

We thought the soup savory  One might disagree   

America was feeding us on her trusty sloop.                      

We sailed the Soupy Island Boat for free.         

In 1945, rent overdue: Not to worry!    

We had each other  we shared our bread and soup.                 

Fishtown kids weren't hungry                    

We sailed the Soupy Island Boat for free.

            by Joan Reese        

Flying A Service Stations Part of Earlier Years.

                       http://joan-reese.pixels.com/featured/flying-a-service-sign-joan-reese.html

Death of a Gas Station

They now lie vacant and still.

In the past, drivers came for a fill.

With clean restrooms and soda machines,

these stops were once places with lively scenes.

“Let me check your oil and clean your windshield.”

That is what attendants said at Esso and Richfield.

There was also Sinclair, Atlantic, and Flying-A.

These names are all part of an earlier day.

They were there to help motorists on their way.

Whether they drove a Hudson, Studebaker, or Thunderbird,

service was always the key word.

The pumps are rusty and the windows are boarded.

The old signs are now damaged and distorted.

Walls of the buildings are overgrown with ivy.

Business was brisk at the height of their activity.

However, all that was there is only a memory.

by Robert Pettit 

Men Offer Her a Dead President

http://joan-reese.pixels.com/featured/blond-stripper-joan-reese.html?newartwork=true

SCISSOR DANCE

Jukebox rocks, two dozen hardworking dusty men,

Bent elbows lean, Gold liquid flows

Glass rises, lit cigarettes talk.

She poses on a white piano bar,

scantily clad; slow moving, bending,

grinding, shaking, gyrating.

She blows kisses

to admiring eyes

with lustful wishes. 

Cleo's little girl dream

of being rescued

fades with each midnight hour.

She spins around, steelscissors held high.

Scissors reflect mirrored walls;

penetrates smoky beer air.

The scissor flashes down

cutting a hole above her heart.

Cleo offers the red satin circle,

Keepsake for the trucker who watches.

He believes, "She dances for me."

He offers up a dead President.

She cuts a hole here

cuts a hole there.

Soon she can start her own government.

It's hard to know where

first hole began or

last hole ends.

By Joan Reese

America is Freedom of Mind and Spirit in Man.

http://joan-reese.pixels.com/featured/new-york-windows-joan-reese.html?newartwork=true

Within the soul of America is freedom of mind and spirit in man. Here alone are the open windows through which pours the sunlight of the human spirit. Here alone is human dignity not a dream but an accomplishment. Perhaps it is not perfect, but it is more full in realization here than any other place in the world.          Herbert Hoover

Americans let us Embrace Abraham Lincoln’s Path of Wisdom.

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We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution. 

A house divided against itself cannot stand.

America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. 

Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this. 

Read more: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/abraham_lincoln.html