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).
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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
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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
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A Recycled Quote of the Week Classic...
“Nothing will happen to me which is not conformable to the nature of the universe.”
Marcus Aurelius
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Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!
24 May 2009
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
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
19 May 2009
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.
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“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
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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
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Wishing you a most beautiful day wherever this may find you!
__________
“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!
12 May 2009
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
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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
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Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!
"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
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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
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Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!
04 May 2009
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!
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“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
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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
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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
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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!
__________
“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!
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