WISE WORDS       (Page 4)

After a while you learn the subtle difference

Between holding a hand and chaining a soul.

And you learn that love doesn't mean leaning

And that company doesn't mean security.

And you begin to learn that kisses aren't contracts

And presents aren't promises.

And you begin to accept your defeats

With your head held up and your eyes open,

And with the grace of an adult

Not the grief of a child.

And you learn to build all your roads on today

Because tomorrows ground is too uncertain

For your plans.

After a while you learn that even sunshine

Burns if you get too much.

So plant your own garden and decorate your own soul

Instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.

And you will learn that you can endure

That you are really special

And that you really do have worth.

So live to learn and love yourself

In doing so, you will learn to live.

Anon

*************

Close your eyes and you will see clearly.

Cease to listen and you will hear truth.

Be silent and your heart will sing.

Seek no contacts and you will find union.

Be still and you will move forward on the tide of spirit.

Be gentle and you will need no strength.

Be patient and you will achieve all things.

Be humble and you will remain entire.

Taoist meditation.

I N S T R U C T I O N S   F O R    L I F E

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don't lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three Rs:
Respect for self
Respect for others and
Responsibility for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don't let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
7. When you realise you've made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don't let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don't bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you've never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

*********

I AM DIVINE GUIDANCE

Everything I do is orchestrated for my higher growth, my higher consciousness and my higher evolution.

***

   MONEY

   It can buy a House
   But not a Home
 
   It can buy a Bed
   But not Sleep
 
   It can buy a Clock
   But not Time
 
   It can buy you a Book
   But not Knowledge
 
   It can buy you a Position
   But not Respect
 
   It can buy you Medicine
   But not Health
 
   It can buy you Blood
   But not Life
 
   It can buy you Sex
   But not Love
 
   So you see money isn't everything.

      
     ~>*<~      ~><~       ~>*<~

IN THE FLOW                       A NEED TO REVIEW LIFE
happy                                        unhappy
joyful                                         surviving
fun                                             serious
tolerant                                      irritated
patient                                       impatient
allowing                                     making judgements
relaxed                                      up tight
flowing                                      rigid
laid back                                   jumping in
humorous                                 severe
in the heart                                in the mind
uncond. love                             conditional love
following excitement                  following survival
trusting                                     making sure
faith                                          hope
in the now                                planning ahead
balanced                                  up and down
calm                                         anxious
peaceful                                   argumentative

*********

A SPECIAL CHILD

A meeting was held quite far from Earth. “Its time again for another birth,”
Said the angels to the Lord above. “This special child will need much love,
His progress may seem very slow, accomplishments may be hard to show,
And he’ll require extra care from the folks he will meet down there.

He may not run, but he’ll laugh and play,
His thoughts may seem quite far away.
In many ways he will adapt, but he’ll be known as ‘handicapped’.

So let us be careful where he’s sent, we want his life to be content.
Please Lord find the parents who will do this special job for You.
They will not realise right away, the leading roll they’re asked to play,

But with this child sent from above, comes stronger faith, and richer love.
And soon we all will know the privilege given, in caring for this gift from
heaven,
Our precious child so meek and mild, is heaven’s very ‘special’ child.
Author unknown

****

"The smallest deed always exceeds the grandest of intentions."

 WHY BOTHER?

Occasionally, we all must wonder to ourselves why it is that we "fight the good fight." Why do we refuse to accept mere mediocrity? What makes us swim upstream against the current, to fight time and tide?

We do not take the easy way out, choosing instead to stand up to the ignorant multitudes. Not for love or money, nor for ego nor material gain, but simply because we know it is the right thing to do. Every now and again, one comes across a pearl of wisdom that reminds one of exactly "Why bother?"

John Jay Chapman addressed the Hobart College Graduating Class of 1900, one hundred years ago. Here is his reminder of why we bother:

--Barry Ritholtz

------------
"When I was asked to make this address I wondered what I had to say to you boys who are graduating. And I think I have one thing to say. If you wish to be useful, never take a course that will silence you. Refuse to learn anything that implies collusion, whether it be a clerkship or a curacy, a legal fee or a post in a university. Retain the power of speech no matter what other power you may lose.

If you can take this course, and in so far as you take it, you will bless this country. In so far as you depart from this course you become dampers, mutes and hooded executioners.

As a practical matter a mere failure to speak out upon occasions where no opinion is asked or expected of you, and when the utterance of an uncalled for suspicion is odious, will often hold you to a concurrence in palpable iniquity. Try to raise a voice that will be heard from here to Albany and watch what comes forward to shut off the sound.

It is not a German sergeant, nor a Russian officer of the precinct. It is a note from a friend of your father's offering you a place in his office. This is your warning from the secret police. Why, if any of you young gentleman have a mind to make himself heard a mile off, you must make a bonfire of your reputations and a close enemy of most men who would wish you well.

I have seen ten years of young men who rush out into the world with their messages, and when they find how deaf the world is, they think they must save their strength and wait. They believe that after a while they will be able to get up on some little eminence from which they can make themselves heard. "In a few years," reasons one of them, "I shall have gained a standing, and then I will use my powers for good."

Next year comes and with it a strange discovery. The man has lost his horizon of thought. His ambition has evaporated; he has nothing to say.

I give you this one rule of conduct. Do what you will, but speak out always. Be shunned, be hated, be ridiculed, be scared, be in doubt, but don't be gagged. The time of trial is always. Now is the appointed time."

- John Jay Chapman, commencement address to the Graduating Class, Hobart College, 1900

*****

o what makes your heart sing and not sink!    S. Stevenson

*****

If you try to find out more about God than about yourself, you may end up becoming some kind of fanatic.  abbi Blue

****

Quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Man is man because he is free to operate within the framework of his destiny.
He is free to deliberate, to make decisions, and to choose between alternatives.
He is distinguished from animals by his freedom to do evil or to do good
and to walk the high road of beauty or tread the low road of ugly degeneracy."
--"If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live."
--

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness;
only light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate;
only love can do that.
Hate multiplies hate,
violence multiplies violence,
and toughness multiplies toughness
in a descending spiral of destruction....
The chain reaction of evil --
hate begetting hate,
wars producing more wars --
must be broken,
or we shall be plunged
into the dark abyss of annihilation."

--"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
--
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

"I still have a dream.
It is deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up
and live out the true meaning of its creed.
'We hold these truths to be self-evident
that all men are created equal.'"--

"The quality, not the longevity, of one's life is what is important." --

"Life's most urgent question is: what are you doing for others." --

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by their character."

--Closing the tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with the following excerpt from his "I Have A Dream" speech, delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963.

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring." And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and
every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

-- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

***** "Driven by the force of love, the fragments of the world seek each other that the world may come into being.

-- Teilhard de Chardin

*****

Enlightenment is understanding  that there is nowhere to go,
nothing to do, and nobody you have to be except exactly who you're being right now.
 - Neale Donald Walsch

*****

One must EVER hold the vision of your JOURNEY'S END and demand the manifestation of that which they have already achieved.

*****

My personal connection to infinite intelligence and infinite being is adequate to yield me a huge personal fortune.

*****

"Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire,
 you will what you imagine, and at last you create what you will."
 -- George Bernard Shaw      Irish-born British playwright, Nobel Prize winner

******
"Calamities can bring growth and Enlightenment," said the Master.

And he explained it thus:

"Each day a bird would shelter in the
withered branches of a tree that stood
in the middle of a vast deserted plain.
One day a whirlwind uprooted the tree,
forcing the poor bird to fly a hundred
miles in search of shelter -- till it finally
came to a forest of fruit-laden trees."

And he concluded: "If the withered tree had survived, nothing would have
induced the bird to give up its security and fly."

Anthony de Mello, SJ

MORSEL:   Life can only be understood backwards   It must be lived
forwards. --Soren Kierkegaard

******

"In order to change something, don't struggle to change the existing model.
 Create a new model, and make the old one obsolete."
 -- Buckminster Fuller

********

"Each time a man stands up for an ideal,
    or acts to improve the life of others,
    or strikes out against injustice,
    he sends a tiny ripple of hope,
    and those ripples,
    crossing each other
    from a million different centers of energy,
    build a current which can sweep down
    the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

    -- Robert F. Kennedy

       *******

   "The time is always right to do what is right."
    -- Martin Luther King, Jr.

       *****

"By logic and reason we die hourly. By imagination we live."
 -- William Butler Yeats

******

" To do evil, a human being must first of all believe
   that what he's doing is good...
   Ideology -- that is what gives devildoing its long-sought
   justification and gives the evildoer the necessary
   steadfastness and determination.
   That is the social theory which helps to make his acts
   seem good instead of bad in his own and others' eyes,
   so that he won't hear reproaches and curses
   but will receive praise and honors."

   -- Alexander Solzhenitsyn

                >>~o~<<

  "In a time of universal deceit,
   telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
   -- George Orwell


                >>~o~<<

  "A time comes
   when silence is betrayal."
   -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

A writer arrived at the monastery to write a book about the Master.
"People say you are a genius. Are you?" he asked.
"You might say so," said the Master, none too modestly.
"And what makes one a genius?"
"The ability to recognize."
"Recognize what?"
"The butterfly in a caterpillar; the eagle in an egg; the saint in a
selfish human being."

Anthony de Mello, SJ


MORSEL:  Sincerity is a transparent diamond through which the light of God
shines in our lives.

*******
"If there is anything we wish to change in the child,
 we should first examine it and see whether it is not
 something that could better be changed in ourselves."
 -- Carl Gustav Jung

 ****

"Happiness is permanent.
 It is always there.
 What comes and goes is unhappiness.
 If you identify with what comes and goes,
 you will be unhappy.
 If you identify with what is permanent and always there,
 you are happiness itself."
 -- Poonjaji

*********
To a disciple who was always at his prayers the Master said, "When will you
stop leaning on God and stand on your own two feet?"
The disciple was astonished.  "But you are the one who taught us to look on
God as Father!"
"When will you learn that a father isn't someone you can lean on but
someone who rids you of your tendency to lean?"

Anthony de Mello, SJ


MORSEL:  All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not
seen. --Ralph Waldo Emerson  (1803 - 1882)

*********
"For one human being to love another:
 that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks,
 the ultimate, the last test and proof,
 the work for which all other work is but preparation."

 -- Rainer Marie Rilke, 1875-1926
    German Poet

******
"Don't ask yourself what the world needs.
 Ask yourself what makes you come alive,
 and then go do that.
 Because what the world needs
 is people who have come alive."

 -- Harold Thurman Whitman

******
"There can be no Security without Peace
 There can be no Peace without Freedom
 There can be no Freedom without Justice
 There can be no Justice without Love.

 -- Graffiti from a wall in Thailand

********
Out Beyond Ideas Of Rightdoing And Wrongdoing
 There is A Field - I Will Meet You There."    -- Rumi

 *******
"Start by doing what's necessary;
 then do what's possible;
 and suddenly you are doing the impossible."
 -- St. Francis of Assisi

*******

"It matters not
   Who you love
   Where you love
   Why you love
   When you love
   Or how you love
   It matters only that you love."

   -- John Lennon


Our lives begin to end
   the day we become silent
   about things that matter."

   -- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.


You will either step forward into growth
   or you will step back into safety."

   -- Abraham Maslow

"I believe in God,
   only I spell it Nature."

   -- Frank Lloyd Wright, 1867-1959
      architect

"The liberty of a democracy is not safe
  if the people tolerate the growth of private power
  to a point where it becomes stronger than
  their democratic State itself.
  That, in its essence, is Fascism --
  ownership of government by an individual,
  by a group or by any controlling private power."

  -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt
      US President


"A multitude of laws in a country
   is like a great number of physicians,
   a sign of weakness and malady."

   -- Voltaire, 1694-1778
       French philosopher


"The more clearly we can focus our attention
   on the wonders and realities of the universe about us,
   the less taste we shall have for destruction."

   -- Rachel Carson, 1954

"The cost of a thing
   is the amount of what I will call life
   which is required to be exchanged for it,
   immediately or in the long run."

   -- Henry David Thoreau

"Flowers always make people better,
   happier, and more helpful;
   they are sunshine, food,
   and medicine to the soul."

   -- Luther Burbank
      American naturalist and plant breeder

"If you want to know about your past lives
   look at your present condition.
   If you want to know about your future lives
   look at your present actions."

   -- H.H. the XIVth Dalai Lama

  Don't ask yourself what the world needs.
   Ask yourself what makes you come alive,
   and then go do that.
   Because what the world needs
   is people who have come alive."

   -- Harold Thurman Whitman


   Everything is dependent on everything else,
   everything is connected, nothing is separate.
   Therefore everything is going
   in the only way it can go.
   If people were different
   everything would be different.
   They are what they are,
   so everything is as it is."

   -- G.I. Gurdjieff

"I count him braver who overcomes his desires
   than him who conquers his enemies,
   for the hardest victory is over self."

   -- Aristotle, 384-322 BCE
       Greek philosopher


"A happy life consists of tranquillity of mind.

   -- Cicero

"Your vision will become clear
   only when you can look
   into your own heart."

   -- Carl Jung

"Every experience empowers you twice:
   First when you enter into it with a whole heart,
   and again when you leave it with a whole heart."

   -- Alan Cohen

"Only Love can make us happy,
   and only we ourselves can determine it's presence
   or absence inside our hearts."

   -- Marianne Williamson


"Who can tell what miracles
   Love has in store for us
   If only we have the courage
   To become one with it?
   Everything we think we know now
   Is only the beginning
   Of another knowing that itself has no end.
   And everything we now can accomplish
   Will seem derisory to us
   When the powers of our divine nature
   Flower in glory and act through us."

   -- Iqbal   Sufi mystic

"A small body of determined spirits
   fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission
   can alter the course of history."

   -- Mahatma Gandhi

"I slept, and dreamed that life was all joy.
   I woke, and saw that life was but service.
   I served, and discovered that service is joy."

   -- Rabindranath Tagore, 1861-1941
       poet, philosopher, author, songwriter,
       painter, educator, composer,
       Former Poet Laureate of India
       Nobel Prize 1928

"Faith handles the ultimate incongruities of life,
   humor handles the more immediate ones."

   --  William Sloan Coffin, Jr

"In the final analisis,
   our most common link
   is that we inhabit this small planet.
   We all breathe the same air.
   We all cherish our children's future.
   And we are all mortal."

   -- John F. Kennedy


"The best argument against democracy
   is a five-minute conversation
   with the average voter."

   -- Winston Churchill


"Suddenly one day
   everything is empty like space,
   and you are aware of one principle
   pervading all the 10,000 things.
   You know then that your heart is so vast
   that it can never be measured."

   -- Daikaku

"I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God
   who is sending a love letter to the world."

   -- Mother Teresa

"Every person's life
   is a fairy tale written by God's fingers."

   --  Hans Christian Andersen

"If we are not happy, if we are not peaceful,
   we cannot share peace and happiness with others,
   even those we love, those who live under the same roof.
   If we are peaceful, if we are happy,
   we can smile and blossom like a flower,
   and everyone in our family, our entire society,
   will benefit from our peace."

   -- Thich Nhat Hanh

"Be not intimidated... nor suffer yourselves
  to be wheedled out of your liberties
  by any pretense of politeness, delicacy, or decency.
  These, as they are often used,
  are but three different names
  for hypocrisy, chicanery and cowardice."

  -- John Adams
      second US President

"Each time a man stands up for an ideal,
  or acts to improve the life of others,
  or strikes out against injustice,
  he sends a tiny ripple of hope,
  and those ripples,
  crossing each other
  from a million different centers of energy,
  build a current
  which can sweep down the mightiest walls
  of oppression and resistance."

  -- Robert F. Kennedy


  "We've got this gift of love,
  but love is like a precious plant.
  You can't just accept it and leave it
  in the cupboard or just think
  it's going to get on by itself.
  You've got to keep watering it.
  You've got to really look after it and nurture it."

  -- John Lennon

"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.

  In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell
  the truth -- whether about the President
  or anyone else -- save in the rare cases
  where this would make known to the enemy
  information of military value which would
  otherwise be unknown to him."

  -- Theodore Roosevelt, 1858-1919
      26th US President

"To be hopeful in bad times
  is not just foolishly romantic.
  It is based on the fact that human history
  is a history not only of cruelty
  but also of compassion, sacrifice,
  courage, kindness.
  What we choose to emphasize
  in this complex history
  will determine our lives.
  If we see only the worst,
  it destroys our capacity to do something.
  If we remember those times and places --
  and there are so many --
  where people have behaved magnificently,
  this gives us the energy to act,
  and at least the possibility
  of sending this spinning top of a world
  in a different direction.
  And if we do act, in however small a way,
  we don't have to wait
  for some grand utopian future.
  The future is an infinite succession of presents,
  and to live now
  as we think human beings should live,
  in defiance of all that is bad around us,
  is itself a marvelous victory."

  -- Howard Zinn


"Terror is in the human heart.
  We must remove this from the heart.
  Destroying the human heart,
  both physically and psychologically,
  is what we should avoid.
  The root of terrorism is misunderstanding,
  hatred and violence.
  This root cannot be located by the military.
  Bombs and missiles cannot reach it,
  let alone destroy it.
  Only with the practice of calming
  and looking deeply
  can our insight reveal and identify this root.
  Only with the practice of deep listening
  and compassion
  can it be transformed and removed.
  Darkness cannot be dissipated with more darkness.
  More darkness will only make darkness thicker.
  Only light can dissipate darkness.
  Those of us who have the light
  should display the light
  and offer it so that the world will not sink
  into total darkness."

  -- Thich Nhat Hanh
      in Shanghai, October 19, 2002

"We understand why children are afraid of darkness,
  but why are men afraid of light?"

  -- Plato


"I have come to the frightening conclusion
  that I am the decisive element.
  It is my personal approach
  that creates the climate.
  It is my daily mood
  that makes the weather.
  I possess tremendous power
  to make life miserable or joyous.
  I can be a tool of torture
  or an instrument of inspiration,
  I can humiliate or humor,
  hurt or heal.
  In all situations,
  it is my response that decides
  whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated,
  and a person is humanized or de-humanized.
  If we treat people as they are,
  we make them worse.
  If we treat people as they ought to be,
  we help them become
  what they are capable of becoming."

  -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749-1832


"Once you make a decision,
  the universe conspires to make it happen."

  -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Never mistake motion for action."

  -- Ernest Hemingway

"To be seventy years young
  is sometimes far more cheerful and hopeful
  than to be 40 years old."

  -- Oliver Wendell Holmes


"In the depths of winter,
  I finally learned
  there was in me
  an invincible
  summer."

  -- Albert Camus, 1913-1960
     Algerian born, French playwright/novelist

"Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement.
  Properly understood and applied,
  it is the most potent instrument of action."

  -- Mahatma Gandhi

"There are two means of refuge
  from the misery of life --
  music and cats."

  -- Albert Schweitzer

"Friendship improves happiness,
  and abates misery,
  by doubling our joys,
  and dividing our grief."

  -- Joseph Addison
      English essayist, poet, and statesman

"Love does not consist in gazing at each other,
  but in looking together in the same direction."

  -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery


"Until the great mass of the people
  shall be filled with the sense of responsibility
  for each other's welfare,
  social justice can never be attained."

  -- Helen Keller

"Cause and effect, means and ends,
  seed and fruit cannot be severed;
  for the effect already blooms in the cause,
  the end preexists in the means,
  the fruit in the seed."

  -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Satisfaction lies in the effort,
  not in the attainment.
  Full effort is full victory."

  -- Mahatma Gandhi


“Love is something,
  if you give it away,
  you end up having more.”

  -- Malvina Reynolds, 1900-1978
      songwriter from her song: “Magic Penny"

"The art of progress
  is to preserve order amid change,
  and to preserve change amid order."

  -- Alfred North Whitehead, 1861-1947
      mathematician and philosopher

"The highest office in a democracy is "citizen."
  -- Louis Brandeis
     former US Supreme Court Justice



"Wars are poor chisels
  for carving out peaceful tomorrows."

  -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Cowardice asks the question - is it safe?
  Expediency asks the question - is it politic?
  Vanity asks the question - is it popular?
  But conscience asks the question - is it right?
  And there comes a time when one must take
  a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular;
  but one must take it BECAUSE it is right."

  -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.


"A nation that continues year after year
  to spend more money on military defense
  than on programs of social uplift
  is approaching spiritual death."

  -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.


"We are all woven together
  in a single garment of destiny."

  -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.


"Nothing in the world is more dangerous
  than sincere ignorance
  and conscientious stupidity."

  -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 1963


"I have decided to stick with love.
  Hate is too great a burden to bear."

  -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.


"We have flown the air like birds
  and swum the sea like fishes
  but we have yet to learn the simple act
  of walking the earth like brothers."

  -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.


"Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice.
  Justice at its best is love correcting everything
  that stands against love."

  -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.



"In a real sense all life is inter-related.
  All persons are caught in
  an inescapable network of mutuality,
  tied in a single garment of destiny.
  Whatever affects one directly
  affects all indirectly.
  I can never be what I ought to be
  until you are what you ought to be,
  and you can never be
  what you ought to be
  until I am what I ought to be.
  This is the inter-related structure of reality."

  -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.


"You are not here merely to make a living.
  You are here in order to enable the world
  to live more amply,
  with greater vision,
  with a finer spirit of hope and achievement.
  You are here to enrich the world,
  and you impoverish yourself
  if you forget the errand."

-- Woodrow Wilson, 1856-1924
    28th President of the United States

"Each morning when I open my eyes
  I say to myself:
  'I, not events, have the power
  to make me happy or unhappy today.
  I can choose which it shall be.
  Yesterday is dead,
  tomorrow hasn't arrived yet.
  I have just one day, today,
  and I'm going to be happy in it."

  -- Julius "Groucho" Marx, 1890-1977


"It may be that when we no longer know what to do,
  we have come to our real work,
  and when we no longer know which way to go,
  we have begun our real journey."

  -- Wendell Berry
      contemporary American writer



Ordinary people believe only in the possible.
  Extraordinary people visualize
  not what is possible or probable,
  but rather what is impossible.
  And by visualizing the impossible,
  they begin to see it as possible."

  -- Cherie Carter-Scott

"Everything else can wait;
  but our search for God cannot wait."

  -- Paramahansa Yogananda

"My great concern is not
  whether you have failed,
  but whether you are content
  with your failure."

  -- Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1865
     16th president of the United States (1861-1865)



"It is only in the mysterious equation of love
  that any logic or reason can be found."

  -- John Forbes Nash, Jr.
     a man with schizophrenia who won the
     1994 Nobel Prize for Economics
     The movie "Beautiful Mind" is about his life.

  "It happens all the time in heaven,
                   And some day
              It will begin to happen
                   Again on earth-
    That men and women who are married,
           And men and men who are Lovers,
          And women and women
          Who give each other Light,
     Often will get down on their knees
             And while so tenderly
           Holding their lover's hand,
            With tears in their eyes,
        Will sincerely speak, saying,
       "My dear, How can I be more loving to you;
              How can I be more Kind?"

   -- Hafiz  Sufi Mystic and Poet

  Love the animals,
  love the plants,
  love everything.
  If you love everything,
  you will perceive the divine mystery in things.
  Once you perceive it,
  you will begin to comprehend it better every day.
  And you will come at last
  to love the whole world
  with an all-embracing love."

  -- Fyodor Dostoyevsky
      Russian writer

"When there is no more separation
  between 'this' and 'that,'
  it is called the still-point of the Tao.
  At the still point in the center of the circle
  one can see the infinite in all things."

  -- Chuang Tzu, 369-286 BCE

"If the only prayer you ever said was 'Thank You',
  that would be enough!"

  -- Meister Eckhart



Do not go where the path may lead,
go instead where there is no path and leave a trail....

"Not everything that is faced can be changed,
  but nothing can be changed until it is faced."

  -- James Baldwin, 1924 - 1987
      American writer

"We are each of us angels with only one wing,
  And we can only fly by embracing each other."

  -- Luciano de Crescenzo

 "Whatever you do, you need courage.
  Whatever course you decide upon,
  there is always someone to tell you
  that you are wrong.
  There are always difficulties arising
  that tempt you to believe
  your critics are right.
  To map out a course of action
  and follow it to an end
  requires some of the same courage
  that a soldier needs.
  Peace has its victories,
  but it takes brave men and women
  to win them."

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"I call meditation the true practice of peace,
  the true practice of nonaggression
  and non-violence,
  and the real and greatest disarmament."

  -- Sogyal Rinpoche
  author of the "Tibetan Book of Living and Dying"

 "Events, circumstances, etc.,
  have their origin in ourselves.
  They spring from seeds
  which we have sown."

  -- Henry David Thoreau

 "The law says that what I accept, I will experience.
  I have accepted with all my heart and mind,
  and I know that by Law,
  all that is good, true, and beautiful in life
  is rushing to me now.
  The Law is fulfilled,
  and so am I."

  -- John Price

 "We have probed the earth,
  excavated it, burned it,
  ripped things from it,
  buried things in it.  ...
  That does not fit my definition
  of a good tenant.
  If we were here on a month-to-month basis,
  we would have been evicted long ago."

-- Rose Elizabeth Bird
     former California Chief Justice

 To think is easy.
  To act is difficult.
  To act as one thinks
  is the most difficult of all.”

  -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749 -1832

 "Human Kindness has never weakened the stamina
  or softened the fiber of a free people.
  A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough."

  -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1882-1945
      32nd president of the United States

 "Life is no brief candle ...
  it is a sort of Splendid Torch ...
  make it burn as brightly as possible."

   George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950
      Irish born playwright and the only person
      ever to have won both a Nobel Prize
      (Literature in 1925; refused) and an
      Academy Award (Best Screenplay for Pygmalion in 1938)

"I have never met a man so ignorant
  that I couldn't learn something from him."

  -- Galileo Galilei
      Italian astronomer and physicist

"We must not allow the clock
  and the calendar
  to blind us to the fact
  that each moment of life
  is a miracle and mystery."
  -- H. G. Wells, 1866 - 1946

"Every time I see an adult on a bicycle
  I no longer despair for the human race."
  -- H. G. Wells, 1866 - 1946

"you never change things by fighting the existing reality. to change
something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."  
 R.Buckminster Fuller

"In the end, love is the only medicine that can heal
  the wounds of the world. In the universe, it is love
  that binds everything together. Love is the very
  foundation, beauty, and fulfillment of life.
  If we dive deep enough into ourselves, we will find
  that the one thread of universal love ties all beings
  together. As this awareness dawns within us,
  all disharmony will cease.
  Abiding peace alone will reign."

  -- Amritananda (Amma)

"Keep your thoughts positive
     because your thoughts become your words.
  Keep your words positive
     because your words become your behavior.
  Keep your behavior positive
     because your behavior become your habits.
  Keep your habits positive
     because your habits become your values.
  Keep your values positive
     because your values become your destiny."

  -- Mahatma Gandhi

"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift,
  and the rational mind is a faithful servant.
  We have created a society
  that honors the servant
  and has forgotten the gift."

  -- Albert Einstein

"Enjoy the little things,
  for one day you may look back
  and realize they were the big things."

  -- Robert Brault

"Whatever you do, you need courage.
  Whatever course you decide upon,
  there is always someone to tell you
  that you are wrong.
  There are always difficulties arising
  that tempt you to believe
  your critics are right.
  To map out a course of action
  and follow it to an end
  requires some of the same courage
  that a soldier needs.
  Peace has its victories,
  but it takes brave men and women
  to win them."

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The greatness of a nation
  and its moral progress
  can be judged by the way
  its animals are treated."

  -- Mahatma Gandhi

   Now is the Time
  Now is the time to know
  That all you do is sacred.

  Now, why not consider
  A lasting truce with yourself and God.

  Now is the time to understand
  That all your ideas of right and wrong
  Were just a child's training wheels
  To be laid aside
  When you can finally live
  With veracity
  And love.

  My dear, please tell me,
  Why do you still
  Throw sticks at your heart
  And Soul?

  What is it in that sweet voice inside
  that incited you to fear?

  Now is the time for the world to know
  That every thought and action is sacred.

  This is the time
  For you to deeply compute the impossibility
  That there is anything
  But Grace.

  Now is the season to know
  That everything you do
  is Sacred

  -- Hafiz
      Sufi mystic

"There are two ways of exerting one's strength:
  one is pushing down,
  the other is pulling up."

  -- Booker T. Washington  

This body is not me. I am not limited by this body. I am life without boundaries. I have never been born, and I have never died. Look at the ocean and the sky filled with stars, manifestations from my wondrous true mind. Since before time, I have been free. Birth and death are only doors through which we pass, sacred thresholds on our journey. Birth and death are a game of hide- and seek. So laugh with me, hold my hand, let us say good-bye, say good-bye, to meet again soon. We meet today. We will meet again tomorrow. We will meet at the source every moment. We meet each other in all forms of life.

by Thich Nhat Hanh,  

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the community—and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.

George Bernard Shaw

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.

- Buddha

"I think in the end it will be the animals of earth who will be our judges in heaven."

 "Side by side or miles apart, dear friends are always close to the heart."

  I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something.
And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.
What I can do, I should do. And what I should do, by the grace of God, I will do.
-Edward Everett Hale

Abundance is not something you aquire, its something you tune into.

Wayne Dwyer    

 "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain 

 So your wife has left you, your business has gone bust and you think your children no longer love you, why be unhappy as well?" (Lionel Fifield) 

"If you're going to pursue revenge you'd better dig two graves". 

"And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time".

 T S Elliot  

No one can do everything – but everyone can do something!

 "I will love the light for it shows me the way. Yet I will endure the darkness for it shows me the stars."   

The difference between a master and a student,

The student strives to become the master as

The master knows It is the eternal student! 

(denisanew)

The  winners in life think constantly in terms of I can, I will and I am.

Losers, on the other hand, concentrate their waking thoughts on what they should have or would have done, or what they can't do.

 Those who live passionately teach us how to love

Those who love passionately teach us how to live

  Yogananda

 
 "Everyone is responsible to everyone for everything."  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

 I never underestimate the Power of One

 There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered. - Nelson Mandela


What should you do if you see an endangered animal eating an endangered plant?

                           xxx

 Despite the cost of living have you noticed how popular it remains?

                           xxx

Can vegetarians eat animal crackers?

                            xxx

Isn't it scary that  doctors call what they do "practice"?

                             xxx

A 1000 cups of wine do not suffice when true friends meet, but half a sentence is too much when there is no meeting of minds.

See everything. Overlook a great deal. Improve a little.

Ignorance: When you don't know something and somebody finds out.

You can only find truth with logic  if you have already found truth without it.

Everybody laughs in the same language.

We are only young once. That is all society can stand.

Mountain climbers say they climb the mountains "because they're there."

That's the same reason the rest of us go around them.

***

If I only had a little humility, I would be perfect.

***

 I sought my soul,

my soul I could not see;

 I sought my God,

but God eluded me;

 I sought my neighbour  -

and I found all three.

**

Look at every path closely and deliberately,
then ask ourselves this crucial question:
Does this path have a heart?
 If it does, then the path is good.
If it doesn't, it is of no use. "      

 -- Carlos Castaneda

 Don't throw away the old bucket until you know whether the new one holds water.  

    Trying to unsay a bad remark is like trying to unscramble an egg.   

  ......just as a stable marriage, a loving family, and satisfying work are important, so are good friends with whom we can share the adventures and tensions of growing older.........

  People can be divided into two classes:

Those who still possess a fierce hunting instinct, and those who pay to park their car.

Easy Come - Easy Go

 Grandpa is notorious for not being able to say no to my daughters' requests.

He loves to spoil them with toys, trips to the movies or the zoo - the list is endless.

One day, after he had treated them to lunch in a restaurant , they asked if he had any spare coins for the video-game machines.  As he once again dug into his pockets, my seven year old asked, "Grampa are you rich?" Before he had a chance to answer, my ten year old retorted, "Not since he's known us!"

  I have the capacity to learn from my mistakes. I shall learn a lot  today.

 Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass...
it’s about learning how to dance in the rain.
Unknown

 Success and failure. We think of them as opposites, but they're really not.
They're companions - the hero and the sidekick.
Laurence Shames

 Chance favors those in motion.
James H. Austin

 Sometimes the best helping hand you can get is a good, firm push.
Joann Thomas

 When we have done our best, we should wait the result in peace.
J. Lubbock

 The strongest warriors are these two...time and patience.
Leo Tolstoy

 Success is not to be pursued; it is to be
attracted by the person you become.
Jim Rohn

 The nose of the bulldog is slanted backwards so he can
continue to breathe withou t letting go.
Winston Churchill

 Every thought is a seed. If you plant crab apples,
don’t count on harvesting golden delicious.
Bill Meyer
 
Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the staircase.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

 We learn to walk by stumbling.
Bulgarian Proverb

 It’s our attitude in life that determines life’s attitude toward us.
Earl Nightingale

 "Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."  (Melody Beattie)

Madness is to think of too many things in succession too fast, or of one thing too exclusively.

 A person protesting against error is on the way towards uniting with those people who believe in truth.          

 "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Isaac Newton

1. "Well done is better than well said."
Benjamin Franklin
(1706-1790)

2. "A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put its pants on."
Winston Churchill
(1874-1965)

3. "Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless."
Mother Teresa
(1910-1997)

4. " Liberty , when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth."
George Washington
(1732-1799)

5. "The time is always right to do what is right."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
(1929-1968)

6. "All the adversity I've had in my life, has strengthened me. You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you."
Walt Disney
(1901-1966)

7. "Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today."
Abraham Lincoln
(1809-1865)

8. "The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will."
Vince Lombardi
(1913-1970)

9. "It is better to light the candle than to curse the darkness."
Eleanor Roosevelt
(1884-1962)

10. "A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both."
Dwight Eisenhower
(1890-1969)

11. "The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."
Nelson Mandela
(1918 - )

12. "We must become the change we wish to see in the world."
Mahatma Gandhi
(1869-1948)

13. "The best and most beautiful things in life cannot be seen, not touched, but are felt in the heart."
Helen Keller
(1880-1968)

14. "Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently."
Henry Ford
(1863-1947)

15. "Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music."
Ronald Reagan
(1911-2004)

 " This is a test to see if your mission on Earth is over.
If you are still alive, it's not. "

 ~ Sir Francis Bacon

Dogs and Cats

A dog thinks: Hey, these people I live with feed me, love me, provide me with a nice warm, dry house, pet me, and take good care of me... They must be Gods!

A cat thinks: Hey, these people I live with feed me, love me, provide me with a nice warm, dry house, pet me, and take good care of me... I must be a God!

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.
- Buddha

"Our faith must be alive. It cannot be just a set
  of rigid beliefs and notions. Our faith must evolve
  every day and bring us joy, peace, freedom and love.
  Faith implies practice, living our daily life in mindfulness.
  Some people think that prayer or meditation involves
  only our minds or our hearts. But we also have to pray
  with our bodies, with our actions in the world.
  And our actions must be modeled after those
  of the living Buddha or the living Christ. If we live
  as they did, we will have deep understanding
  and pure actions, and we will do our share to help create
  a more peaceful world for our children
  and all of the children of God."

  -- Thich Nhat Hanh

~to be human~

have you ever met someone and
taken an instant liking to them?
Or shaken hands with a person and
had feelings of mistrust?
This is your intuition it comes from
deep within, we all have this amazing ability
some choose to ignore it, others call it a
gut feeling or a sixth sense

if only people from around the world would
use this ability to see each other,
instead of the colour of skin, religious beliefs
or monitary standing...
I believe things would change.
To see each and every human being for who they are, not
what you have been programmed to see.
After all, we all originated from the same source.

by deb graves
 may 2006

Sayings   

I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn't work
that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness.


Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to
his level and beat you with experience.


I want to die peacefully in my sleep, like my
grandfather. Not screaming and yelling like the passengers in his
car.


Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more
than standing in a garage makes you a car.


The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it's
still on the list.


Light travels faster than sound. This is why some
people appear bright until you hear them speak.


If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong.


We never really grow up; we only learn how to act in public.


War does not determine who is right -- only who is left.


Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is
not putting it in a fruit salad.


The early bird might get the worm, but the second
mouse gets the cheese.


Evening news is where they begin with 'Good evening,'
and then proceed to tell you why it isn't.


To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To
steal from many is research.


A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station
is where a train stops. My desk is a work station.


How is it one careless match can start a forest fire,
but it takes a whole box to start a campfire


I thought I wanted a career; turns out I just wanted
pay cheques. (never a truer word spoken)


Whenever I fill out an application, in the part that
says "If an emergency, notify:" I put "DOCTOR."


I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.


Why does someone believe you when you say there are
four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?


Women will never be equal to men until they can walk
down the street with a bald head and a beer gut and still think they
are sexy.


Why do Americans choose from just two people to run
for president and 50 for Miss America ?


Behind every successful man is his woman. Behind the
fall of a successful man is usually another woman.


A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.


You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only
need a parachute to skydive twice.


The voices in my head may not be real, but they have
some good ideas!


Always borrow money from a pessimist. He won't expect it back.


A diplomat is someone who can tell you to go to hell
in such a way that you will look forward to the trip


Hospitality: making your guests feel like they're at
home, even if you wish they were.


Money can't buy happiness, but it sure makes misery
easier to live with.


Some cause happiness wherever they go. Others
whenever they go.


There's a fine line between cuddling and holding
someone down so they can't get away.


I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not sure.


I always take life with a grain of salt... plus a
slice of lemon... and a shot of tequila.


When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that
the Fire Department usually uses water.


You're never too old to learn something stupid.


To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and
call whatever you hit the target.


Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.


A bus is a vehicle that runs twice as fast when you
are after it as when you are in it.


If you are supposed to learn from your mistakes, why
do some people have more than one child?


Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.

                                                                   ************  

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