From the Quote of the Week Files, December 28, 2009

Last quotes for 2009!!! If you are like me, you are probably wondering where the year has gone ~ Either time is moving faster or I am moving slower, I am not sure.

So here are some quotes to think about as 2009 comes to an end as well a some reflection questions for you to ponder from Colleen Snow's website, www.BeTheChangeWorld.com.

I hope it will help you (and me) to review the past year and ring in the New Year. Happy New Year!!
__________

"Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning, but a going on with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us."

Hal Borland
_____

"We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives ... not looking for flaws, but for potential."

Ellen Goodman
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful year, wherever this may find you!
__________

Some Old Year Reflection Questions to think about...

1. If you could give 2009 a name what would it be?
2. If there is a symbol that represents 2009 that would capture its essence, what would it be?
3. If you could give yourself a name that symbolizes you in 2009 what name would you give yourself?
4. Name the people who made a difference in your life. Whom do you appreciate and why?
5. What gifts have you received this year? (This could be tangible like your income, a favor or emotional support.)
6. What gifts have you given others this year? (tangible or not)
7. How did your relationships grow, change or end? What did you learn?
8. What journeys have you taken? (inner and outer experiences i.e. a new baby, a vacation, a new job)
9. Where did you derive your sense of well-being, health and knowledge? What helped you feel good about yourself?
10. What goals did you achieve and what do you need to celebrate?
11. For Review-What and who did you grieve this year and where are you in the process? Preview-What empowers your mission and enhances your dream?
12. Passages, changes and initiations: What has changed? What is new? What happened? How are you different because of it?
13. Where did you find joy?
14. What would be the sound track/song that represents your life in 2009?
15. In what context did you feel more authentically alive?
16. Free-To-Be the change you wish to see in the world: summarize from the inside out how are you “being” with yourself, and others in the relationship to the world

From the Quote of the Week Files; December 21, 2009

"Haid joule ja head uut aastat"; "God Jul and (Och) Ett Gott Nytt År" ; "Buone Feste Natalizie" ; "Feliz Navidad" ; "Nollaig Shona Dhuit" ; "Joyeux Noël"; "Kung His Hsin Nien bing Chu Shen Tan" ; "Saint Dan Fai Lok" ; "Froehliche Weihnachten" ; "Kala Christouyenna" ; "Een Plesierige Kerfees"; "I'd Miilad Said Oua Sana Saida" ; "Merry Christmas" ; "Happy Hanukkah" and / or Happy Holidays everybody!!!

Here are a couple of Christmas quotes to ponder. Enjoy!
__________

"Christmas--that magic blanket that wraps itself about us, that something so intangible that it is like a fragrance. It may weave a spell of nostalgia. Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance--a day in which we think of everything we have ever loved."

Augusta E. Rundell
__________

"What is Christmas? It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future. It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow with blessings rich and eternal, and that every path may lead to peace."

Agnes M. Pahro
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful Holiday, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files; December 14, 2009

Hello & Welcome to the Quote of the Week! The place to go to where you can get timeless wisdom at bargain basement prices!!
__________

Life is on your side

"Most people think life is against them, trying to piss them off, that they are unlucky, that things don't work out for them. Einstein said that "the most important decision we will ever make in our lives is whether we believe we live in a friendly or an unfriendly universe." If you want to get good at change, you must believe life is your partner, on your side, conspiring for greater good coming into your life -- despite the apparent immediate loss it might appear to be. Change isn't there to hurt, anger or annoy you. It's there to bring new things, people, jobs, opportunities. Always."

Ariane de Bonvoisin
__________

A Recycled Quote of the Week Classic from December 15, 2008... This week's quote is really a series of 10 questions to help us (me) to reflect on 2008 (2009) (now that it is nearly over), see what worked and get more of that in 2009 (2010). The questions are...

What went really well for you at work in 2008 (2009)?
What did you do that you're proud of?
Who have you helped out?
How have you grown and developed professionally?
How have you grown and developed personally at work?
Who has really appreciated your work?
Who has helped you out and been there for you?
Who have you admired at work in 2008 (2009)?
What have been some fun moments at work in 2008 (2009)?
Which 5 things from 2008 (2009) would you like
to have more of in 2009 (2010)?

__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files, December 7, 2009

Do you know the signs and symptoms of Inner Peace? Saskia Davis does and it is the featured Quote of the Week!! This quote also comes with a warning so be sure to read that as well.
__________

The Twelve Signs (symptoms) of Inner Peace

• Loss of interest in conflict Frequent attacks of smiling
• Frequent overwhelming attacks of appreciation
• Loss of desire to judge others
• Unmistakable ability to enjoy each moment
• Tendency to think and act spontaneously rather than from fear based on past experience
• Loss of interest in interpreting the actions of others
• Loss of the ability to worry (a serious symptom)
• Contented feelings of connectedness to others and nature
• Increasing susceptibility to love extended by others as well as an uncontrollable urge to extend it
• Increasing tendency to let things happen rather than make things happen

Saskia Davis
__________

WARNING

If you have some or all of the above symptoms, please be advised that your condition of inner peace may be so far advanced as to not be curable. If you are exposed to anyone exhibiting any of these symptoms, remain exposed only at your own risk.
__________

A Recycled Quote of the Week Classic...

"When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love."

Marcus Aurelius
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files, November 30, 2009

Welcome to the Quote of the Week! Your weekly spiritual snack for mind, body & soul.
__________

"The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny."

Albert Ellis
__________

As you think about the upcoming Holiday Christmas season, we have 2 Recycles Quote of the Week Classics....

"As the holidays approach, it's so essential to prepare yourself - body, mind and soul - for the faster pace of the coming weeks. This is the time to take extra special care. While you're giving to others, make this the time to give to yourself as well..."

"If you were going to make this the best holiday season ever, how would you do it? It won't happen for most people, because most people won't have that as their #1 intention. And it's unlikely that you'll have the life-changing holidays that you could have if you don't create a powerful intent."

Debbie Ford
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!!

From the Quote of the Week Files!

In the U.S., Thursday marks our Thanksgiving holiday and the center of this day is thankfulness and gratitude for all the good things in life (and there are many!). With that in mind, here are Thanksgiving quotes for you!

Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy the spirit of the occasion!
__________

"Who does not thank for little will not thank for much."

Estonian Proverb
__________

"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
__________

“We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures."

Thornton Wilder
__________

"If the only prayer you ever say in your whole life is "thank you," that would suffice."

Meister Eckhart
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day and Thanksgiving, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files, November 16, 2009

Welcome to the Quote of the Week! You weekly email dedicated to EMPOWERED choice, MIND EXPANDING perspective and FAITH in the future. Decision making is the subject of this week's quote. Enjoy!
__________

"Somewhere along the line of development we discover what we really are and then make our real decision for which we are responsible. Make that decision primarily for yourself because you can never really live anyone else's life, not even your child's. The influence you exert is through your own life and what you become yourself."

Eleanor Roosevelt
__________

Recycled Quote of the Week Classic...

"It is never too late to become what you might have been."

George Eliot
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files, November 9, 2009

Step out of the chaos as you refresh, reawaken and rediscover yourself with a motivational and inspirational thought with today's Quote of the Week!
__________

Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it. Once we truly know that life is difficult - once we truly understand and accept it - then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters.

M Scott Peck
__________

A Recycled Quote of the Week Classic...

"Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers, but to be fearless in facing them. Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain, but for the heart to conquer it."

Rabindranath Tagore
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files, November 2, 2009

Welcome to the Quote of the Week! A place where you can fight the daily grind with an eclectic mix of inspirational quotes from the world's great thinkers!
__________

"When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares."

Henri J.M. Nouwen (The Road to Daybreak: A Spiritual Journey)
__________

A Recycled Quote of the Week Classic...

"The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings."

Eric Hoffer
__________

Did you know that any month that starts on a Sunday will have a Friday the 13th?
___________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

Remembering my Father

My Dad has been gone a month and a day now and I am fluctuating daily between overwhelming grief and joy with all the happy memories that I have. One memory is when I went to visit him back in April and he was reading the poem, O Captain! My Captain by Walt Whitman. He asked me if I knew what it was about and while I had some idea of the poem’s meaning, I knew it wasn’t to the extent that he did. He went on to explain that it was about how Walt Whitman felt about the death of Abraham Lincoln because of his love and admiration for him. He then went on to read the poem. It was beautiful.

I just re-read the poem yesterday, and as I think about it, it reflects how I feel about my father’s passing. In God’s hands he will rest, in my heart he will live forever.
__________

O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

From the Quote of the Week Files; October 26, 2009

Welcome to the place to go to where you can get timeless wisdom at bargain basement prices ~ The Quote of the Week!
__________

“The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it.”

James M. Barrie
__________
A Recycled Quote of the Week Classic...

"Do not ask what the world needs. Instead, ask what makes you come alive. Because what the world needs is more people who have come alive.”

Thurmond Whitman
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files, October 19, 2009

Welcome to the Quote of the Week! This week's quote is a verse from an old inspirational song, Keep on the Sunny Side of Life. I've also included a short history of the song, the lyrics and for your listening pleasure, a link to the song! Enjoy!
________

Keep on the sunny side,
always on the sunny side.
Keep on the sunny side of life.
It will help us every day,
it will brighten all the way
If we keep on the sunny side of life.

Ada Blenkhorn
_________

"Early in Ada Blenkhorn's life, she was given the task of caring for an invalid nephew who always wanted his wheel chair to be pushed 'down the sunny side of the street.' His constant repetition of this phrase inspired her to write the gospel Keep On The Sunny Side Of Life. [1899]
__________

Keep on the Sunny Side

There's a dark and a troubled side of life
There's a bright and a sunny side, too
Tho' we meet with the darkness and strife
The sunny side we also may view

[chorus]
Keep on the sunny side, always on the sunny side,
Keep on the sunny side of life
It will help us every day, it will brighten all the way
If we'll keep on the sunny side of life

Tho' the storm in its fury broke today,
Crushing hopes that we cherished so dear;
Storm and cloud will in time pass away
The sun again will shine bright and clear.


Let us greet with a song of hope each day
Tho' the moments be cloudy or fair
Let us trust in our Saviour alway
Who keepeth everyone in His care
__________

A link to the song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIcb9xWnr8s&feature=related
_________

Here's to keeping on the Sunny Side!
________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files, October 12, 2009

Welcome to the Quote of the Week. Your presence, exactly as is at this very moment, is greatly appreciated.
__________

"Life is a constantly morphing thing. Just when you think you know where it's all headed you wake up the next morning to a completely different view. The landscape has changed along with the seasons, but the trees are the same trees, only your view has changed. So you try to cling to the old things that used to comfort you, clinging to the familiar, but they provide little or no solace. The fears do not subside. At this point we have no choice but to surrender to the unknown.

that is where the real beauty lies.

It is not in the knowing, the familiar, the expected. But in the embracing of the unknown. a willingness to walk down a new path and to trust that everything is as it should be. perfect. as it is.

Schopenhauer said,"When you look back on your life, it looks as though it were a plot, but when you are into it, it's a mess: just one surprise after another. Then, later, you see it was perfect."

Sometimes there are little glimpses of the perfection, amidst the mess. It is at those times we feel blessed beyond measure."

Keri Smith
_________

A Recycled Quote of the Week Classic...

"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."

T.S. Eliot
______________________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files, October 5, 2009

Welcome to the Quote of the Week. A place where you can fight the daily grind with an eclectic mix of inspirational quotes from the world's great thinkers!
__________

"Simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies, you accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself, you reconcile all beings in the world."

Laozi (Tao Te Ching)
_________

A Recyled Quote of the Week Classic...

"The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings."

Eric Hoffer
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

A Quote of the Week; With Sadness; September 28, 2009

Be strong!
We are not here to play, to dream, to drift;
We have hard work to do, and loads to lift;
Shun not the struggle—face it; 'tis God's gift.

Be strong!
Say not, "The days are evil. Who's to blame?"
And fold the hands and acquiesce—oh shame!
Stand up, speak out, and bravely, in God's name.

Be strong!
It matters not how deep intrenched the wrong,
How hard the battle goes, the day how long;
Faint not—fight on! To-morrow comes the song.

Maltbie Davenport Babcock
__________

A couple of months ago my father read me the above poem. It was a beautiful reading even though he struggled through it a bit because, as some of you know, has Alzheimer's Disease. This Sunday morning (27 September) my Father’s life quietly and peacefully came to an end as he was surounded by his children. We are happy that he is now in hands of god and that he is with my mother and all his loved ones who have passed before him. While sad, I am also comforted by the fact of how my sisters and I were able care for him in his final hours making his passing all the more beautiful.

I would like to dedicate this poem to my Dad. In God’s hands he will rest, in my heart he will live forever.
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files, September 21, 2009

It is now time to leave your world of tension, anxiety and doubt and tune into this week's Quote of the Week!
__________

"Each today, well-lived, makes yesterday a dream of happiness and each tomorrow a vision of hope. Look, therefore, to this one day, for it and it alone is life".

Sanskrit poem
__________

A Recycled Quote of the Week...

"When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love."

Marcus Aurelius
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files, September 14, 2009

Are you ready to enjoy a new inspiring or insightful Quote of the Week? It's great with a fresh cup of coffee or tea as you begin (or end) your day!
__________

"There is neither happiness nor unhappiness in this world; there is only the comparison of one state with another. Only a man who has felt ultimate despair is capable of feeling ultimate bliss. It is necessary to have wished for death in order to know how good it is to live.....the sum of all human wisdom will be contained in these two words: Wait and Hope."

Alesandre Dumas
__________

A Recycled Quote of the Week Classic...

"The way into this new world can be so simple - and so sweet. When you're willing to listen to your own voice and trust yourself enough to follow your heart, you encounter your true power - a power marked by courage and vulnerability. Any moment you offer a whole-hearted 'Yes!' to your own truth, you are infused with the power, self-worth, self-respect, self-esteem and confidence that will give wings to the best year of your life."

Debbie Ford
_________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

From the Blog Provocations; Responding to a Cut-Flower Society

Some thirty-five years ago I listened to a talk by evangelist Leighton Ford in which he mentioned we are living in a “cut-flower society.” What I took him to mean is that we are a culture cut off from our roots, still exhibiting the beauty of its blossoms, but beginning to fade, as happens when a flower is cut off from its source of nutrients. I believe now, some three and a half decades later, we are beginning to see the petals fall off. What are we to do? How does one individual respond—not only to the external petals dropping, GM in bankruptcy, ballooning national debt, increasing cultural coarseness, public and private corruption—but to the personal petals dropping, losing a house, a job, a marriage?

“We are formed by what we admire.”

One part of the answer is a kind of recalibration. In the introduction to his eclectic collection of 365 lives of men and women throughout history called All Saints, editor Robert Ellsberg says: “We are formed by what we admire.” Therein lies part of our problem. On a recent flight from Jacksonville to Baltimore, 150 passengers were asked to name one Medal of Honor winner. One man named one of our national heroes. When asked who was the most recent American Idol winner, forty-three passengers knew the name.

We need to recalibrate who and what we admire. One person worthy of our admiration is a man named Alphonsus Rodriguez, one of the people in Ellsberg’s All Saints. Alphonsus was born to a wealthy Spanish wool merchant in 1533. At the age of twelve his father died and his mother summoned him home from a nearby Jesuit college, where he had just begun his studies, to run the family business. Some years later, at age twenty-seven, he married and had two children. When he was nearly forty, all the petals in his life dropped off. His wife died in childbirth, followed shortly by the deaths of his mother and his other children, and the family business failed.

Rather than shaking his fist at God for such multiple misfortune, Alphonsus decided to dedicate the rest of his life in service to God. He attempted to enter the Society of Jesus but was turned down due to his age and, ironically, his lack of education. He persisted and was eventually offered the position of porter at a nearby Jesuit college—essentially greeting and carrying the luggage of incoming students. He stayed at this post for the next forty years.

That would mark the end of a seemingly unremarkable life except for one facet. As Ellsberg describes it, “He performed his tasks with such infinite love that the act of opening the door became a sacramental gesture. So deeply did the porter’s faith and love shine through his daily occupation that many of his students who passed through his doorway ended up applying for his spiritual direction.” Thus he became the spiritual mentor of generations of Jesuit priests who, in turn, influenced countless others. In a final tribute to his life, his funeral was attended not only by Spanish royalty but by many poor and sick of the area.

One response to our “cut-flower society” is to recalibrate what we admire. Another is to seek out our own unique calling and pursue it with passion and sacramental purpose. You and I can make a difference.

Malcolm Briggs is founder and principal of Andesa Strategies, Inc. in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and a Trustee of the Trinity Forum.

From the Quote of the Week Files, September 7, 2009

Welcome to the Quote of the Week, your first aid for pessimism!

We have 3 quotes this week and they are dedicated to all the teachers that are members of the QoftheW. Good luck in the upcoming school year!!
__________

"Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire."

W. B. Yeats
_____

"In a completely rational society, the best of us would aspire to be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for something less, because passing civilization along from one generation to the next ought to be the highest honor and the highest responsibility anyone could have."

Lee Iacocca
_____

"Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself."

Chinese Proverb
__________

A Recycled Quote of the Week Classic...

Take this quiz:

Name the five wealthiest people in the world.
Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.
Name the last five winners of the Miss America contest.
Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer prize.
Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor and actress.
Name the last decade's worth of World Series winners.

How did you do?

The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday. These are no second-rate achievers. They are the best in their fields. But the applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners.

Here's another quiz. See how you do on this one:

List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.
Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time.
Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.
Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special.
Think of five people you enjoy spending time with.
Name half a dozen heroes whose stories have inspired you.

Easier?

The lesson: The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They are the ones that care.

Charles Schultz
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files, August 31, 2009

Welcome to the Quote of the Week where every once in a while, someone has something that is truly meaningful, important, apropos, interesting, irreverent, or just plain funny. Hopefully, this week's quote will fall into one of those categories.
__________

"Our time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary. "

Steve Jobs
__________

A Recycled Quote of the Week Classic

Fear less, hope more;
Whine less, breathe more;
Talk less, say more;
Hate less, love more;
And all good things are yours.
Swedish Proverb
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files, August 24, 2009

Welcome to the Quote of the Week where you can find Quotations, Thoughts and Proverbs of Philosophers, Kings, Politicians, Wise, Famous and not so Famous People. This week's quote really rules for living by The Dalai Lama.
________

Dalai Lama's 18 Rules for Living

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; 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 realize 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.

I think I will work on #'s 3 & 4 this week!
_________

A Recycled Quote of the Week Classic...

"Where there is great doubt, there will be great awakening;
small doubt, small awakening,
no doubt, no awakening."

Zen Saying
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

Hmmmmm...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkQT8tWUfng

From the Quote of the Week Files, August 17, 2009

You are dazed, bewildered, trapped in a world with no time, where color collides with sound, and shadows explode. You see a sign up ahead. This is no ordinary email, this is the "Quote of the Week Zone."
_________

"It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of someone elses life with perfection."

Bhagavad Gita
__________

A Recycled Quote of the Week Classic...

"Once in a while you have to take a break and visit yourself."

Audrey Giorgi
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files, August 10, 2009

Welcome to the Quote of the Week (actually, it is a short story, longer than your average quote!) I know; I know ~ as you are scrolling down you are wondering if it is worth reading it. Well because of it's length, I will make this a "Money back Guarantee Quote of the Week. If you don't find big meaning with this short parable, I will refund your money!! Enjoy!
___________

Three Questions

One day it occurred to a certain emperor that if he only knew the answers to three questions, he would never stray in any matter.

What is the best time to do each thing?
Who are the most important people to work with?
What is the most important thing to do at all times?

The emperor issued a decree throughout his kingdom announcing that whoever could answer the questions would receive a great reward. Many who read the decree made their way to the palace at once, each person with a different answer.

In reply to the first question, one person advised that the emperor make up a thorough time schedule, consecrating every hour, day, month, and year for certain tasks and then follow the schedule to the letter. Only then could he hope to do every task at the right time.

Another person replied that it was impossible to plan in advance and that the emperor should put all vain amusements aside and remain attentive to everything in order to know what to do at what time.

Someone else insisted that, by himself, the emperor could never hope to have all the foresight and competence necessary to decide when to do each and every task and what he really needed was to set up a Council of the Wise and then to act according to their advice.

Someone else said that certain matters required immediate decision and could not wait for consultation, but if he wanted to know in advance what was going to happen he should consult magicians and soothsayers.

The responses to the second question also lacked accord.

One person said that the emperor needed to place all his trust in administrators, another urged reliance on priests and monks, while others recommended physicians. Still others put their faith in warriors.

The third question drew a similar variety of answers. Some said science was the most important pursuit. Others insisted on religion. Yet others claimed the most important thing was military skill.

-------------------------------

The emperor was not pleased with any of the answers, and no reward was given.

After several nights of reflection, the emperor resolved to visit a hermit who lived up on the mountain and was said to be an enlightened man. The emperor wished to find the hermit to ask him the three questions, though he knew the hermit never left the mountains and was known to receive only the poor, refusing to have anything to do with persons of wealth or power. So the emperor disguised himself as a simple peasant and ordered his attendants to wait for him at the foot of the mountain while he climbed the slope alone to seek the hermit.

Reaching the holy man's dwelling place, the emperor found the hermit digging a garden in front of his hut. When the hermit saw the stranger, he nodded his head in greeting and continued to dig. The labor was obviously hard on him. He was an old man, and each time he thrust his spade into the ground to turn the earth, he heaved heavily.

The emperor approached him and said, "I have come here to ask your help with three questions: When is the best time to do each thing? Who are the most important people to work with? What is the most important thing to do at all times?"

The hermit listened attentively but only patted the emperor on the shoulder and continued digging. The emperor said, "You must be tired. Here, let me give you a hand with that." The hermit thanked him, handed the emperor the spade, and then sat down on the ground to rest.

After he had dug two rows, the emperor stopped and turned to the hermit and repeated his three questions. The hermit still did not answer, but instead stood up and pointed to the spade and said, "Why don't you rest now? I can take over again." But the emperor continued to dig. One hour passed, then two. Finally the sun began to set behind the mountain. The emperor put down the spade and said to the hermit, "I came here to ask if you could answer my three questions. But if you can't give me any answer, please let me know so that I can get on may way home."

The hermit lifted his head and asked the emperor, "Do you hear someone running over there?" The emperor turned his head. They both saw a man with a long white beard emerge from the woods. He ran wildly, pressing his hands against a bloody wound in his stomach. The man ran toward the emperor before falling unconscious to the ground, where he lay groaning. Opening the man's clothing, the emperor and hermit saw that the man had received a deep gash. The emperor cleaned the wound thoroughly and then used his own shirt to bandage it, but the blood completely soaked it within minutes. He rinsed the shirt out and bandaged the wound a second time and continued to do so until the flow of blood had stopped.

At last the wounded man regained consciousness and asked for a drink of water. The emperor ran down to the stream and brought back a jug of fresh water. Meanwhile, the sun had disappeared and the night air had begun to turn cold. The hermit gave the emperor a hand in carrying the man into the hut where they laid him down on the hermit's bed. The man closed his eyes and lay quietly. The emperor was worn out from the long day of climbing the mountain and digging the garden. Leaning against the doorway, he fell asleep. When he rose, the sun had already risen over the mountain. For a moment he forgot where he was and what he had come here for. He looked over to the bed and saw the wounded man also looking around him in confusion. When he saw the emperor, he stared at him intently and then said in a faint whisper, "Please forgive me."

"But what have you done that I should forgive you?" the emperor asked.

"You do not know me, your majesty, but I know you. I was your sworn enemy, and I had vowed to take vengeance on you, for during the last war you killed my brother and seized my property. When I learned that you were coming alone to the mountain to meet the hermit, I resolved to surprise you on your way back to kill you. But after waiting a long time there was still no sign of you, and so I left my ambush in order to seek you out. But instead of finding you, I came across your attendants, who recognized me, giving me this wound. Luckily, I escaped and ran here. If I hadn't met you I would surely be dead by now. I had intended to kill you, but instead you saved my life! I am ashamed and grateful beyond words. If I live, I vow to be your servant for the rest of my life, and I will bid my children and grandchildren to do the same. Please grant me your forgiveness."

The emperor was overjoyed to see that he was so easily reconciled with a former enemy. He not only forgave the man but promised to return all the man's property and to send his own physician and servants to wait on the man until he was completely healed. After ordering his attendants to take the man home, the emperor returned to see the hermit. Before returning to the palace the emperor wanted to repeat his three questions one last time. He found the hermit sowing seeds in the earth they had dug the day before.

The hermit stood up and looked at the emperor. "But your questions have already been answered."

"How's that?" the emperor asked, puzzled.

"Yesterday, if you had not taken pity on my age and given me a hand with digging these beds, you would have been attacked by that man on your way home. Then you would have deeply regretted not staying with me. Therefore the most important time was the time you were digging in the beds, the most important person was myself, and the most important pursuit was to help me. Later, when the wounded man ran up here, the most important time was the time you spent dressing his wound, for if you had not cared for him he would have died and you would have lost the chance to be reconciled with him. Likewise, he was the most important person, and the most important pursuit was taking care of his wound. Remember that there is only one important time and is Now. The present moment is the only time over which we have dominion. The most important person is always the person with whom you are, who is right before you, for who knows if you will have dealings with any other person in the future. The most important pursuit is making that person, the one standing at you side, happy, for that alone is the pursuit of life."

Leo Tolstoy
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files, August 3, 2009

Good Morning, Good Afternoon or Good Evening and Welcome to the Quote of the Week!!! It is time to get away from the all important details of day-to-day life, take a deep breath, relax your shoulders, kick off your shoes and enjoy reading today's quotes!

Actually, the featured quote are questions by Nikita Mikhalkov, a Russian filmmaker who asked his daughter the same questions each year from the time she was six until she was 17 and documented her growing moral awareness and maturity. While for parents, this maybe a great way to capture the lives of your children over time, but for me, they are qreat questions to ask myself (I am still thinking about my answers. What are your answers? Here are the six questions:
__________

What do you love the most?

What do you hate the most?

What scares you the most?

What do you want more than anything right now?

What do you expect from life?

What does the homeland mean to you?

Nikita Mikhalkov
__________

A Recycled Quote of the Week...

"We tend to forget that happiness doesn't come as a result of getting something we don't have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have."

Frederick Keonig
__________

Happy Birthday to Quote of the Week member Darlene L., who had a big bash to celebrate!!
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files, July 27, 2009

Good Morning, Good Afternoon or Good Evening and Welcome to the Quote of the Week. It is time to get away from the all important details of day-to-day life, take a deep breath, relax your shoulders, kick off your shoes and enjoy reading today's quotes! .
__________

"You can complain about the same problem three times. Then you'd better be in the solution. If you have to talk to more than three people about the same problem, you don't want help, you want attention".

Anonymous
__________

To Breathe as One...

Congratulations to Quote of the Week Member, Karolina Ullman, who sang at Estonia's Song and Dance Celebration earlier this month. This festival dates back to 1869, when every five years, Estonians and guests (25,000 performers with an audience of up to a 200,000 ) come together to demonstrate their national spirit, to strengthen their sense of belonging and to Breathe as One, which was the theme of this years festival.

More about the festival...

http://www.laulupidu.ee/eng/welcome/

http://tobreatheasone.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/fan-video-from-song-and-dance-celebration/

More about the theme, Breathe as One...

http://www.laulupidu.ee/eng/celebration_in_2009/
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files for July 20, 2009

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, or good middle of the night. Are you ready to enjoy a new inspiring or insightful Quote of the Week? It's great with a fresh cup of coffee or tea as you begin or end your day!
__________

"Man need only divert his attention from searching for the solution to external questions and pose the one, true inner question of how he should lead his life, and all the external questions will be resolved in the best possible way."

Leo Tolstoy
__________

"There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried."

Ralph Waldo Emerson
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files, July 13, 2009

You are dazed, bewildered, trapped in a world with no time, where color collides with sound, and shadows explode. You see a sign up ahead. This is no ordinary email, this is the "Quote of the Week Zone"
__________

"A smile directed at a stranger, a compliment given to a friend, an attitude of laughter, or a thoughtful gesture can send ripples that spread among your loved ones and associates, out into your community, and finally throughout the world. You have the power to touch the lives of everyone you come into contact with and everyone those people come into contact with. The momentum of your influence will grow as your ripples moves onward and outward. One of those ripples could become a tidal wave of love and kindness".

Daily Om
__________

A Recycled Quote of the Week...

"An Eskimo custom offers an angry person release by walking the emotion out of his or her system in a straight line across the landscape, the point at which the anger is conquered is marked with a stick, bearing witness to the strength or length of the rage."

Lucy Lippard, Overlay
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you.

From the Quote of the Week Files, July 6, 2009

Good Morning, Good Afternoon or Good Evening and Welcome to the Quote of the Week. It is time to get away from the all important details of day-to-day life, take a deep breath, relax your shoulders, kick off your shoes and enjoy reading this week's quotes!
__________

"The best year of our lives is not made up of days or weeks or months. It is made up of moments. Moments when we allow our separateness to melt away so we can be truly intimate with another; moments when we take a risk and express our love in an unexpected way; moments when we choose forgiveness over resentment; moments when we appreciate the perfection of where we are and who we are with. These are the moments that bring meaning to our lives and joy to our hearts."

Debbie Ford
__________

"One of the deep secrets of life is that all that is really worth doing is what we do for others."

Lewis Carroll
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files, June 29, 2009

Welcome All Quote of the Week Members. It is now time to get away from the all important details of day-to-day life, take a deep breath, relax your shoulders, kick off your shoes and enjoy reading this week's quote.
__________

"We often react as if life is attacking us. “I’m not going to be able to stand this,” we fret as life pushes us beyond our snug little ego comfort zone. But we have no evidence of not being able to handle anything life brings us. How do we know that? We’ve handled everything so far."

Cheri Huber, from When You’re Falling, Dive (Keep It Simple Books)
__________

A Recycled Quote of the Week Classic...

"Through the gateway of feeling your weakness lies your strength;through the gateway of feeling your pain lies your pleasure and joy;through the gateway of feeling your fear lies your security and safety;
through the gateway of feeling your loneliness lies your capacity to have fulfillment, love and companionship;
through the gateway of feeling your hate lies your capacity to love;
through the gateway of feeling your hopelessness lies true and justified hope;
through the gateway of accepting the lacks of your childhood lies your fulfillment now.

In giving ourselves permission to feel all of our feelings, we free ourselves from the tyranny of our defenses and open ourselves to our heart's desires."

Eva Pierrakos
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files, June 22, 2009

Welcome All Quote of the Week Members. It is now time to get away from the all important details of day-to-day life, take a deep breath, relax your shoulders, kick off your shoes and enjoy reading today's quote on acceptance of the way things are (something that I have been struggling with lately).
__________

"Today, I am reminded that life must be accepted for the way it is, and not as I may want it to be. That I must not give up my trust in God at any time. To despair truly does bring forward a dark cloud making it difficult for the light from the almighty to enter. Remembering to stay strong, and accepting the love and kindness of others, rather than isolating myself, is necessary to cope with any pain that one may be feeling. It must also be remembered that one cannot resolve all problems, and that learning how to live with unresolved problems is a wonderful lesson to embrace. From this day foreward, life, as I know it, will be a true roller coaster ride."

Barbara from California, Women on the Verge of Thinking.
__________

A Recycled Quote of the Week Classic...

"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."

Goethe
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files, June 15, 2009

Ever wonder why people come into your life? That is the subject of today's Quote of the Week! Enjoy!
__________

"People come into your life for a REASON, a SEASON, or a LIFETIME. When you figure out which it is, you know exactly what to do.

When someone is in your life for a REASON, it is usually to meet a need you have expressed outwardly or inwardly. They have come to assist you through a difficulty, to provide you with guidance and support, to aid you physically, emotionally or spiritually. They may seem like a godsend, and they are. They are there for the reason you need them to be. Then, without any wrong doing on your part or an inconvenient time, this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end. Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away. Sometimes they act up or out and force you to take a stand. What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled; their work is done. The prayer you sent up has been answered and it is now time to move on.

When people come into your life for a SEASON, it is because your turn has come to share, grow, or learn. They may bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh. They may teach you something you have never done. They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy. Believe it! It is real! But...only for a season.

LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons; those things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation. Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person/people (anyway); and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life.

It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant."

Brian A. Chalker
__________

A Recycled Quote of the Week Classic...

"By the accident of fortune a man may rule the world for a time, but by virtue of love and kindness he may rule the world forever."

Lao-Tse
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files, June 8, 2009

Welcome to the Quote of the Week. Your presence, exactly as is at this very moment, is greatly appreciated. Come on in and enjoy today's quote on Gratitude.
___________

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity.... It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow".

Melody Beattie
__________

A Recycled Quote of the Week Classic...

"Everything is as it is. It has no name other than the name we give it. It is we who call it something; we give it a value. We say this thing is good or it's bad, but in itself, the thing is only as it is. It's not absolute; it's just as it is. People are just as they are."

Ajahn Sumedho, "The Mind and the Way"
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

Read to me by my father this morning

While he has been battling it for six years, Alzheimer's is now getting taking it's toll on my father. In spite of this disease, we are still blessed with some wonderful moments and memories. This morning after a difficult night, he had his favorite book of poems and decided to read this one for me. It was beautiful.


Be strong!

We are not here to play, to dream, to drift;
We have hard work to do, and loads to lift;
Shun not the struggle—face it; 'tis God's gift.

Be strong!

Say not, "The days are evil. Who's to blame?"
And fold the hands and acquiesce—oh shame!
Stand up, speak out, and bravely, in God's name.

Be strong!

It matters not how deep intrenched the wrong,
How hard the battle goes, the day how long;
Faint not—fight on! To-morrow comes the song.

Maltbie Davenport Babcock

From the Quote of the Week Files, June 1, 2009

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, or good middle of the night to all Quote of the Week Members. Are you ready to enjoy a new inspiring or insightful quote? It's great with a fresh cup of coffee or tea as you begin your day!
__________

"Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers, but to be fearless in facing them. Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain, but for the heart to conquer it."

Rabindranath Tagore
___________

A Recycled Quote of the Week Classic...

"You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments you truly live are the moments that you have done things in the spirit of love."

Henry Drummond
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files, May 25, 2009

Welcome to the Quote of the Week!!!

Learning to accept Uncertainty is this week's theme and a Letter to the Editor is the source of the Quote of the Week. The letter was a response to Daniel Gilbert's May 20th NY Times column, What You Don’t Know Makes You Nervous (See Link Below).
__________

To the Editor:

As Daniel Gilbert reminds us, uncertainty is unnerving. Unfortunately, however, uncertainty is a persistent reality of this world.

How then are we ever to relax and enjoy life?

Happily, some ancients answered that question. Establish ourselves, they say, in what does not change, what is always certain. Be centered on one’s essential, unchanging nature. In different words, live in the world, without being of the world.

And how can we ever learn do that? Engage in proper meditation, say the ancients. And as a longtime meditation teacher, I have lots of evidence they were right.

In short, it would be silly to try to eliminate uncertainty, either from economics or any other aspect of this world. That’s not in the cards. Our aim rather should be to find a healthy way to live with it. That we can do.

Merrill Harmin
__________

Link to the Daniel Gilbert Column...

http://happydays.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/what-you-dont-know-makes-you-nervous/?scp=4&sq=gilbert&st=Search
__________

A Recycled Quote of the Week Classic...

“Nothing will happen to me which is not conformable to the nature of the universe.”

Marcus Aurelius
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

Memorial Day; Something to think about

The following is a weekly 60 Minutes commentary by CBS News correspondent Andy Rooney.

Tomorrow is Memorial Day, the day we have set aside to honor by remembering all the Americans who have died fighting for the thing we like the most about our America: the freedom we have to live as we please.

No official day to remember is adequate for something like that. It's too formal. It gets to be just another day on the calendar. No one would know from Memorial Day that Richie M., who was shot through the forehead coming onto Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944, wore different color socks on each foot because he thought it brought him good luck.

No one would remember on Memorial Day that Eddie G. had promised to marry Julie W. the day after he got home from the war, but didn’t marry Julie because he never came home from the war. Eddie was shot dead on an un-American desert island, Iwo Jima.

For too many Americans, Memorial Day has become just another day off. There's only so much time any of us can spend remembering those we loved who have died, but the men, boys really, who died in our wars deserve at least a few moments of reflection during which we consider what they did for us.

They died.

We use the phrase "gave their lives," but they didn’t give their lives. Their lives were taken from them. There is more bravery at war than in peace, and it seems wrong that we have so often saved this virtue to use for our least noble activity - war. The goal of war is to cause death to other people.

Because I was in the Army during World War II, I have more to remember on Memorial Day than most of you. I had good friends who were killed.

Charley Wood wrote poetry in high school. He was killed when his Piper Cub was shot down while he was flying as a spotter for the artillery.

Bob O'Connor went down in flames in his B-17. Obie Slingerland and I were best friends and co-captains of our high school football team. Obie was killed on the deck of the Saratoga when a bomb that hadn’t dropped exploded as he landed.

I won’t think of them anymore tomorrow, Memorial Day, than I think of them any other day of my life.

Remembering doesn’t do the remembered any good, of course. It's for ourselves, the living. I wish we could dedicate Memorial Day, not to the memory of those who have died at war, but to the idea of saving the lives of the young people who are going to die in the future if we don’t find some new way - some new religion maybe - that takes war out of our lives.

That would be a Memorial Day worth celebrating.

Written By Andy Rooney

From the Quote of the Week Files, May 18, 2009

Welcome to the delayed Quote of the Week, your Weekly source for nurturing your mind, body & spirit.
__________

“Within you, there is a stillness and sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself" This sanctuary is a simple awareness of comfort, which can't be violated by the turmoil of events. This place feels no trauma and stores no hurt. It is the healing mental space that one seeks to find in meditation.“

Herman Hesse
__________

A Recycled Quote of the Week Classic...

Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime,
Therefore, we are saved by hope.
Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history;
Therefore, we are saved by faith.
Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone.
Therefore, we are saved by love.
No virtuous act is quite a virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as from our own;
Therefore, we are saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.

Reinhold Niebuhr
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files, May 11, 2009

Good Morning New and Old members of the Quote of the Week! It is now time to leave your world of tension, anxiety and doubt. What is your highest ambition? Thomas Merton knows. __________

"Finally I am coming to the conclusion that my highest ambition is to be what I already am. That I will never fulfill my obligation to surpass myself unless I first accept myself, and if I accept myself fully in the right way, I will already have surpassed myself.”

Thomas Merton
__________

A Recycled Quote of the Week Classic...

"The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself. It is not in your environment; it is not in luck or chance or the help of others; it is in yourself alone."

Orison Swett Marden
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files, May 4, 2009

Welcome to the Quote of the Week. Do you sometimes (in my case most of the time) have trouble letting go? Perhaps this Quote may help. Enjoy!
__________

“To let go isn’t to forget, not to think about, or ignore. It doesn’t leave feelings of anger, jealousy, or regret. Letting go isn’t about winning or losing. It’s not about pride and it’s not about how you appear, and it’s not obsessing or dwelling on the past. Letting go isn’t blocking memories or thinking sad thoughts, and doesn’t leave emptiness, hurt, or sadness. It’s not about giving in or giving up. Letting go isn’t about loss and it’s not about defeat.

To let go is to cherish the memories, but to overcome and move on. It is having an open mind confidence in the future. Letting go is learning and experiencing and growing. To let go is to be thankful for the experiences that made you laugh, made you cry, and made you grow. It’s about all that you have, all that you had, and all that you will soon gain. Letting go is having the courage to accept change, and the strength to keep moving.”

Author Unknown
__________

A Recycled Quote of the Week Classic...

"When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love."

Marcus Aurelius
__________

A poem revisited...

Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies,
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower -but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.

Lord Alfred Tennyson
_____

I had some great comments and intrepretations about Tennyson’s poem of 2 weeks ago. They ranged from...

“Too deep for me!” / “I must be dense or not too deep....I still don't understand it!”
That is about how I still feel.

To...

“I feel like the meaning is about the beauty of God's creation, combined with Mother Theresa's "grow where you're planted" idea. The poet should have simply admired the flower and its life, rather than plucking it out for selfish reasons, thereby killing it. He didn't understand that, or he wouldn't have plucked it out.”

“Very thought-provoking! For me, it's a study of PURPOSE. The secret to life is understanding PURPOSE. How odd to find this little flower growing here. What could possibly be its PURPOSE in growing in such an odd place. As for me I can ask "What is my PURPOSE? Why am I growing here?"

"The simplest of creation can be found in the most unlikely place and teach us all about the Creator if we embrace it completely."

“If we could understand any tiny portion of nature completely, we would gain a glimpse of the meaning of it all.”

Reminds me of Blake’s words in his poem, Auguries of Innocence...

To see the world in a grain of sand
and heaven in a wild flower
hold infinity in the palm of your hand
and eternity in an hour.

Thanks for your comments everybody!
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files, April 27, 2009

Welcome the to Quote of the Week. As we have mentioned, because April is National Poetry Month we have been featuring poems as the Quote of the Week. Below is a story of how this week's poem came to be.
_________

A couple of week's ago, my father and I were having a bite to eat and the TV was on to a rerun the 2005 Ford Ironman Contest in Hawaii. We weren't really paying much attention to it until they featured 3 contestants who were just starting the running part of the contest even though many had already finished the race. One contestant was 80 years old, the other was a women competing on one leg and the last was battling ALS. All were running well into the night. My father, watched intently and suddenly he was inspired to say,

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
__________

As some of you my know, my father is battling Alzheimer's Disease and it was a very moving and humbling experience for me as I listened to him recite this stanza of William Ernest Henley's poem, Invictus. And it was another reminder to me that while Alzheimer's may be stealing his brain cells, it isn't stealing his soul. So, this poem's for you Dad!
__________

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.
___________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files, April 20, 2009

Welcome to the Quote of the Week. As you know, because it is National Poetry Month, we have been featuring poems as the Quote of the Week.

This week's poem was one that I had to interpret and write a paper about in my High School English Class (Mr. Jarrod was the teacher). I was able to come up with something thanks to the help of a much smarter and wiser older sister but I was still pretty much clueless of the poem's meaning. I have an idea of it's meaning today but would be interested in what you think!
__________

Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies,
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower -but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.

Lord Alfred Tennyson
__________

A Recycled Quote of the Week Classic...

Two frogs fell into a deep cream bowl.
One was an optimistic soul.
But the other took the gloomy view.
"We'll drown," he lamented without much ado,
and with a last despairing cry,
he flung up his legs and said "Goodbye."
Quote the other frog with a steadfast grin,
"I can't get out but I won't give in,
I'll just swim around till my strength is spent,
then I'll die the more content."
Bravely he swam to work his scheme,
and his struggles began to churn the cream.
The more he swam, his legs a flutter,
the more the cream turned into butter.
On top of the butter at last he stopped,
and out of the bowl he gaily hopped.
What is the moral? It's easily found...
If you can't hop out, keep swimming around!

Anonymous
__________

Wishing you a most beautful day, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files, April 13, 2009

April is National Poetry Month and we are in the second week of featuring poems of note for the Quote of the Week. This week's poem is by former Poet Laureate of the United States, Billy Collins. It is a interesting poem (Link to the animated version) that had a way of staying in my mind. Tell me what you think!
__________

The Dead

The dead are always looking down on us,
they say,
while we are putting on our shoes or making a sandwich,
they are looking down through the glass-bottom boats,
of heaven as they row themselves slowly through eternity.
They watch the tops of our heads moving below on earth,
And when we lie down in a field or on a couch,
Drugged perhaps by the hum of a warm afternoon,
They think we are looking back at them,
which makes them lift their oars and fall silent and wait,
like parents,
for us to close our eyes

Billy Collins
__________

For an animated version ot the above poem, check out the following link...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuTNdHadwbk
__________

A Recycled Quote of the Week Classic...

Love After Love

The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was yourself.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

Derek Walcott
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files, April 6, 2009

Welcome to the Quote of the Week, your weekly spiritual snack for mind, body & soul. April is National Poetry Month and with that in mind, the QoftheW will feature inspirational and meaningful poems for the next 4 weeks.

Life is An ongoing journey that all people must undergo and Mary Oliver's poem, The Journey, expresses the struggle we all face in trying to find ourselves through the all the obstacles that are in our way. Enjoy!
__________

The Journey

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice --
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do --
determined to save
the only life you could save.

~ Mary Oliver ~
__________

A Recycle Quote (poem) of the Week Classic...

Little Things

Little drops of water
Little grains of sand
Make the mighty ocean
And the pleasant land.

Little deeds of kindness,
Little words of love,
Make our world an Eden
Like the Heaven above.

Thus the little minutes
Humble though they be
Make the mighty ages
Of eternity.

~ Julia Carney ~
__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files, March 30, 2009

Good Morning New and Old members of the Quote of the Week!

Need an attitude adjustment? Dr. Gerald Jampolsky outlined a core framework (Attitudinal Healing principles) to help people to let go of fear, discard negative and hurtful thoughts from the past, and remove inner obstacles to peace. Here they are...
__________

• The essence of being is love.
• Health is inner peace.
• Giving and receiving are the same.
• We can let go of the past and the future.
• Now is the only time there is.
• We learn to love ourselves and others by forgiving rather than judging.
• We can become love-finders rather than faultfinders.
• We can be peaceful inside regardless of what is happening outside.
• We are students and teachers to each other.
• We can focus on the whole of our lives rather than on the fragments.
• Because love is eternal, death need not be viewed as fearful.
• We can always see ourselves and others as extending love or giving a call for help.

Dr. Gerald Jampolsky
__________

A Recycled Quote of the Week Classic...

“Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude”

Zig Zigler
___________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you