This week, the week ending one year and in preparation for a new year, I find myself cleaning and purging my home of unnecessary items that I’ve hung onto over the years. Items that I haven’t touched or even paid attention to in many years.  Some things I’m throwing away, some things I’m donating to worthy causes, some things I’m re-discovering again.

I’ve always been a big book collector and reader. This week I’m donating many books to charity, but among all the books I have I found, there is one I haven’t seen in a long time and its presence now seems only like providence considering I’ve started a Freedom Quote of the Day.  The book belonged to my late father, it is “The New Dictionary of Thoughts”.  Republished in 1961 by Standard Book Co., originally Tyron Edwards published his first book of quotations in 1852 under the title, Jewels for the Household, a substantial work of 448 pages.

I remember my Dad, an educator and vice-principal,  referring to this book all the time when he had to write a speech or write a letter of inspiration to someone.  I was there when he was busy trying to decide the right quote during times of sorrow when he was trying to figure out just the right thing to say.

Today when I found this book, the first page that opened up to me was about America. It must have been a favorite subject for my father or I was guided to the phrase that immediately drew my attention because someone knew my state of mind recently.

“AMERICA -America is another name for opportunity. Our whole history appears like a last effort of divine Providence in behalf of the human race. ” -Emerson