U.S. Olympic Team Tribute To Muhammad Ali; Inspiring

A Zen Story that Nudges

Cliffhanger

One day while walking through the wilderness a man stumbled upon a vicious tiger. He ran but soon came to the edge of a high cliff. Desperate to save himself, he climbed down a vine and dangled over the fatal precipice.

As he hung there, two mice appeared from a hole in the cliff and began gnawing on the vine.

Suddenly, he noticed on the vine a plump wild strawberry. He plucked it and popped it in his mouth. It was incredibly delicious!

With A Piece Of Chalk; Inspiring

From the Quote of the Week Files; June 10, 2013

Hello Everybody and Welcome to the Quote of the Week!!  This week's quotes are about getting older!!!  Enjoy!!  ;-)
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“The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.” 

Jean-Paul Sartre
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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 Moran 
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A Recycled Quote of the Week Classic...

"How old would you be if you didn't know how old you was?" 

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

Just an Interesting Mash Up of Songs!

Just enjoyed this: A Young Stevie Nicks Singing Backstage

A Song that Nudges

Inspiring: The First Woman to run the Boston Marathon

Target Practice; Fort Hancock, NJ while on Reserve Duty

Taken by my Dad with his 16 mm camera.  Along the beaches of Sandy Hook in 1949.

Congratulations! You're not Perfect!

"Congratulations! You're not Perfect!

It's ridiculous to want to be perfect anyway.  But then, everybody's ridiculous sometimes, except perfect people.  You know what perfect is?  Perfect is not eating or drinking or talking or moving a muscle or making even the teensiest mistake.  Perfect is never doing anything wrong - which means never doing anything at all.  Perfect is boring!  So you're not perfect!  Wonderful!  Have fun!  Eat things that give you bad breath!  Trip over your own shoelaces!  Laugh!  Let somebody else laugh at you!  Perfect people never do any of those things.  All they do is sit around and sip weak tea and think about how perfect they are.  But they're really not one-hundred-percent perfect anyway.  You should see them when they get the hiccups!  Phooey!  Who needs 'em?  You can drink pickle juice and imitate gorillas and do silly dances and sing stupid songs and wear funny hats and be as imperfect as you please and still be a good person.  Good people are hard to find nowadays.  And they're a lot more fun than perfect people any day of the week."

Stephen Manes

From the Quote of the Week Files; June 3, 2103

Happy Belated Birthday Walt Whitman  (May 31, 1819 — March 26, 1892).   With that in mind, we have two quotes and a reading of one of his poems by James Earl Jones (something new) for this week's Quote of the Week!  Enjoy! 

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“This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.”

Walt Whitman

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A Recycled Quote of the Week Classic...

“Not I - not anyone else, can travel that road for you. You must travel it for yourself.”

Walt Whitman

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A Quote of the Week Bonus...

A link to James Earl Jones reading Walt Whitman's Song to Myself (verses 6, 7, 17, 18, and 19)

http://soundcloud.com/brainpicker/james-earl-jones-reads-walt-whitman

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

Is that so? A Zen Story that Inspires!

The Zen master Hakuin was praised by his neighbors as one living a pure life.

A beautiful Japanese girl whose parents owned a food store lived near him. Suddenly, without any warning, her parents discovered she was with child.

This made her parents very angry. She would not confess who the man was, but after much harassment at last named Hakuin.

In great anger the parents went to the master. “Is that so?” was all he would say.

When the child was born, the parents brought it to the Hakuin, who now was viewed as a pariah by the whole village. They demanded that he take care of the child since it was his responsibility. “Is that so?” Hakuin said calmly as he accepted the child.

A year later the girl-mother could stand it no longer. She told her parents the truth – that the real father of the child was a young man who worked in the fishmarket.

The mother and father of the girl at once went to Hakuin to ask his forgiveness, to apologize at length, and to get the child back again.

Hakuin was willing. In yielding the child, all he said was: “Is that so?”

A Nudge from a bowl of Cherries

“Life is a bowl of cherries. Some cherries are rotten while others are good; its your job to throw out the rotten ones and forget about them while you enjoy eating the ones that are good! There are two kinds of people: those who choose to throw out the good cherries and wallow in all the rotten ones, and those who choose to throw out all the rotten ones and savor all the good ones.” 

C. JoyBell C.