24 February 2014

From the Quote of the Week Files! February 24, 2014

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, or good middle of the night to all Quote of the Week Members.  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 quote that was sent in by QoftheW memberStephanie!
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It's a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you're ready. I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything. There is almost no such thing as ready. There is only now. And you may as well do it now. Generally speaking, now is as good a time as any.”

Hugh Laurie (English actor, comedian, writer, musician, and director.)
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And now
 are you ready
 for the QUOTE of the YEAR update!
 Here it is...


Ruth came up with 5 favorites with a nod to Thomas Bailey Aldrich as her overall number 1 quote!
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"There are certain things in life where you know it's a mistake but you don't really know it's a mistake because the only way to really know it's a mistake is to make the mistake and look back and say 'yep, that was a mistake.' So really, the bigger mistake would be to not make the mistake, because then you'd go your whole life not knowing if something is a mistake or not."

From 
How I Met your Mother
 TV show

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“Just because you’re grown up and then some doesn’t mean settling into the doldrums of predictability. Surprise people. Surprise yourself."

Victoria Mora
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Discovering a Magical Mantra

Many years ago, I’d heard about an Indian guru who had come up with a magical mantra that supposedly helped people develop an attitude of gratitude. I decided to visit him in India and see what this gratitude practice was. So after traveling 18 hours by plane, and then taking a taxi for another 2 hours, I finally reached his ashram. When at last I finally met the bearded guru, I told him I wanted to hear his amazing mantra for helping people practice daily gratitude. He said in his heavy Indian accent, “Ah yes, my technique is the most powerful mantra on earth.” He leaned in to whisper it into my ear. He said, “Whenever possible, repeat the following words in your head. The magical mantra I give you is the words, “Thank You.”
I was supremely disappointed. I said, “That’s IT!?”

He said, “No, ‘that’s it’ is the mantra you have been using, and that mantra makes you feel like you never have enough. My mantra is the words ‘Thank You’
 
not ‘That’s It.’ ‘That’s it’ will take you nowhere, but ‘Thank You’ will quiet your mind and open your heart. So when you eat good food, say thank you! When you see your child, or a sunset or your pet, repeat the mantra ‘thank you’ and soon you will have an attitude of gratitude for each blessing in your life.”
Jonathan Robinson
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And here is Ruth's
 # 1 quote...

"To keep the heart unwrinkled, to be hopeful, kindly, cheerful, reverent--that is to triumph over old age."

Thomas Bailey Aldrich
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Mike liked George Saunders commence speech about "how our view changes as we collect birthdays" as his favorite.  Here is a link to that speech

http://youtu.be/ruJWd_m-LgY
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Allison also like George Saunder's Speech as well as excerpts from David Foster Wallace's Commencement Speech.

"There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says "Morning, boys. How's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes "What the hell is water?"
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"The most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about."
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“The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day. That is real freedom. That is being educated, and understanding how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing.”
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... simple awareness; awareness of what is so real and essential, so hidden in plain sight all around us, all the time, that we have to keep reminding ourselves over and over:

"This is water." "This is water."

David Foster Wallace, Commencement Speech; Kenyon College; 2005
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She also liked Kid President's video and the 2 quotes that were used in that presentation...

“Two road diverged in the woods…” “… and I took the road less traveled.”

Robert Frost
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“Don’t stop believing.”

Journey

Here is Kid President's video...

http://youtu.be/l-gQLqv9f4o
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Rosie's favorite was the February 25th Debbie Ford quote...

“Your life will be transformed when you make peace with your shadow. The caterpillar will become a breathtakingly beautiful butterfly. You will no longer have to pretend to be someone you're not. You will no longer have to prove you're good enough. When you embrace your shadow you will no longer have to life in fear. Find the gifts of your shadow and you will finally revel in all the glory of your true self. Then you will have the freedom to create the life you have always desired.”
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Roger (just like Ruth) liked June 10th's Quote by Victoria Moran...

“Just because you’re grown up and then some doesn’t mean settling into the doldrums of predictability. Surprise people. Surprise yourself."
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Jeannette liked the Roald Dahl quote...

“If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.” 

She went onto say …. Isn't it true that as our life unfolds… different concepts speak to us depending where we are in our journey…. Makes me think of “Life is made of Moments not Days.”
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David Foster Wallace's commencement speech also resonated with Suzanne as it did Allison. 

She thought it was "so lovely and deep like a dark blue pool."

Here is a link to his speech....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CrOL-ydFMI
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"Discovering a Magical Mantra" by Jonathan Robinson (see above) was one of Stephanie's favorites. She also like the the March 25th quote by Maryam Zarei on NOT regretting anything and September 2nd quote on Gratitude by Innerspace.
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"Don't ever regret anything cause regretting means wanting to forget every moment. Every moment is what makes you who you are today, every moment spent in regret is a moment wasted. Don't waste your moments in life, you never know when you'll stop waking up."
Maryam Zarei
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"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."

Innerspace
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Ted's favorites were the September 30th Henry David Thoreau quote...

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.”

And August 26th quote
 by the Buddha
...

“In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you.”
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Christopher Aiff quote was Jen's favorite...


“The decision to be positive is not one that disregards or belittles the sadness that exists; it is, rather, a conscious choice to focus on the good and to cultivate genuine happiness. Happiness is not a limited resource… and when we devote our energy and time to trivial matters and choose to stress over things that ultimately are insignificant, from that point we perpetuate our own sadness and we lose sight of the things that really make us happy… and rationalize our way out of doing amazing things.”

Christopher Aiff

Here is a link to his story...
 
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And my 
favorites are...


"Nothing lasts forever; so live it up, drink it down, avoid the negativity, take chances and never regret because at one point it was what you wanted."
M. Scott Peck, The Road less Traveled
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Charlotte Eriksson
 's quote, In Search of the GREAT Perhaps

“It's about personal development. It's about creating your own character and pushing it to the limit. It's about pushing yourself so far out of your own and everybody else's idea of who you are and what you're capable of, that you no longer believe in limits. It's about reaching beyond your so-called potential, because your potential is never where you or anyone else expects it to be, not even close. It's about being able to say with the last breath of your life “I used all my potential and all my talents and pushed myself to the limit. I could not have fought any harder.”
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Johnny Walker Red Commercial with an interesting message...

"Your entire life ~ every routine, every risk, every moment, every step forward and every step back has led you tothe next step and it has the power to change everything. Your entire life, the routines, the risks, the moments steps forward and the steps back have led you to the next step where all the possibilities lie. Your entire life, all of it, leads to the next step. The chance to define yourself by where you're headed rather than by where you stand.Keep Walking."
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And of course, September 16th quote, Discovering a Magical Mantra
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If you haven't sent in your favorite quote for 2013 (see attached doc), please do so and we will update our list of favorites! So far, Discovering a Magical Mantra is leading the pact by a slim margin!
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Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!
F

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