Shaker Meeting House
Today as I was exploring my new website and trying to learn how to do this or that on it, I clicked on that little spyglass at the end of the menu line and discovered a way to search through everything on my site, including all my blog posts. So I put in Shaker and came up with this blog post from the summer of 2008 in celebration of my first Shaker book, The Outsider. So since my seventh Shaker book was just released last month, I’m sharing these sayings attributed to the Shakers again. They were a very practical people in many of their ways and they believed in “putting their hands to work and giving their hearts to God.” Their work was part of their worship. So here goes.
Shaker Sayings
- “Do your work as if you had a thousand years to live, and as if you were to die tomorrow.”
- “He did not think when sowing those wild oats in his youth how uncomfortable the gritty oatmeal would prove to be for his aged teeth.”
- “Never wish a thing done; do it!”
- “It is just as much a duty to commend a person for doing well as it is to reprove him for doing ill.”
- “A place for everything and everything in its place.”
- “Our thoughts are character molds. They shape language and actions.”
I’ve used some of these in my Shaker books and many others as well. Some of my favorites that have appeared often in my stories are:
- “None preaches better than the ant, and it says nothing.”
- “Engaged in thy duty, fear no danger.”
- “Happiness does not so much depend on circumstances as we think. Within our souls the foundations must abide.”
Chance to Win a Book
Which saying do you like best or do you remember from one of my stories? Leave a comment here about one of the Shaker sayings and I’ll
My new Shaker book
put your name in my giveaway hat to perhaps win your choice of one of my books. I’ll pick three winners on August 1st. If you’ve already entered by hunting down clues on my website, I thank you. But you can get a second entry and improve the odds of your name being one of those picked by commenting again on this post. You must be 18 to enter. Please remember to leave a way to contact you. Your e-mail address is not visible with your comments and should you be one of the winners, I need to have a way to get in touch.
You might remember that I said I was only going to post once a week here on One Writer’s Journal, but it just didn’t feel right. So maybe I’m changing my mind about that. Should I? Is two times a week too much?
Thanks for reading.
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