Welcome to the Quote of the Week – serving your psycho-spiritual needs since 1984. Are you navigating unavoidable change, adapting to an unfamiliar world (like AI), or questioning how you want to live the rest of your life? 

If you are ready to make choices that truly reflect who you are, the wisdom of the 2011 film, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel offers a roadmap: Memorable insights (nine of them) on resilience, hope, and the courage to begin again. 

“This is a new and different world. The challenge is to cope with it. Not just cope but thrive.”
“All we know about the future is that it will be different.”
“The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing.”
“The only real failure is the failure to try. And the measure of success is how well we cope.”
“Most things don’t work out as expected, but what happens instead often turns out to be the good stuff.”
“The light, the colours, the smiles. The way the people see life as a gift, a privilege — and not a right.”
”The only real measure of success is how we cope with disappointment. We get up in the morning and do our best.”

And my favorite...

“Everything will be alright in the end, so if it is not all right, then it is not the end.”

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Which is your favorite quote?

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Remember:

We can't always control what happens to us, 

we can choose how we respond.

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

 Are you driving your thoughts, or are they driving you? If you are like me, you might tend to let your mind drift on autopilot, reacting to every distraction that flows your way. This week's quote by Jack Lacey reminds us of the incredible heights we can reach when we stop drifting and start intentionally directing our thoughts.

In obedience to the laws of nature,
thoughts flow through our minds
in the same way
as the river flows to the sea
If we direct our thinking,
if we harness our thoughts,
they may be caused to flow through
the channels of our minds
that develop our powers
and lift us to the realm of the stars

Jack Lacey

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This week's Care Package

2 Questions to ask yourself...

Where are your thoughts naturally flowing right now? Toward fear, possibility, resentment, growth?

If you could redirect the current of your thinking, what "channels" would you create?

Some Practical Tools to consider...

Journaling - write your thoughts daily to observe patterns and redirect them
Visualization - practice seeing yourself in Lacey's "realm of the stars"
Affirmations - use Lacey's words as a daily mantra

A Quote of the Week Playlist...

"Believe" (Cher) - about directing your mind toward possibility

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZXRV4MezEw&list=RDnZXRV4MezEw&start_radio=1

Quote of the Week Playlist...

"Don't Stop Me Now" (Queen) - the feeling of harnessed, directed energy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgzGwKwLmgM&list=RDHgzGwKwLmgM&start_radio=1

"Eye of the Tiger" (Survivor) - focused mental power

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btPJPFnesV4&list=RDbtPJPFnesV4&start_radio=1

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

And remember the POWER OF INTENTION! 

(It's the Secret to Peace of Mind)

How many of your decisions are you making from your head instead of your heart? We have a thousand reasons for every choice—logic, practicality, what we think we should do. But underneath all that reasoning, there's a quieter voice that knows what we actually want and today's quote gives us a way to address it. Sometimes you need to get out of your own way long enough to hear it.  

"When faced with two choices, simply toss a coin. 

It works not because it settles the question for you, 

but because in that brief moment when the coin is in the air, 

you suddenly know what you're hoping for."  

Danish author and poet Piet Hein

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This week's Care Package

Questions:

• What decision are you overthinking right now? What does your gut actually want?
• If you removed all the "should" from your choices, what would you choose?

Video: Overthinking? When To Trust Intuition vs Logic for Better Decision Making
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuSAyyU50yM

This Week's Mantra: Toss a coin and find hope

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

 This July 4th, the United States celebrates its 250th Birthday. So with that in mind, we turn to the United States Declaration of Independence as this week's quote. It is a document born in a particular historical moment, yet built around an enduring human aspiration: that people possess inherent dignity, rights, and a voice in shaping their own future. Perhaps the quiet power of a declaration: not merely to describe what was, but to remind us of what is still worth striving for.  

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." 

Preamble to the Declaration of Independence

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This week's Care Package to Explore further...

More about the Declaration of Independence and America's Founding Documents

https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration

A 4th of July Playlist...

• "American Girl" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
• "Born in the U.S.A." by Bruce Springsteen
• "American Pie" by Don McLean

• "Party In The U.S.A." by Miley Cyrus
• "Firework" by Katy Perry
• "Mr. Brightside" by The Killers
• "Sweet Home Alabama" by Lynyrd Skynyrd [1]

• "Chicken Fried" by Zac Brown Band
• "Wagon Wheel" by Darius Rucker
• "American Nights" by Zach Bryan
• "Livin' in America" by James Brown

• "The Star-Spangled Banner" by Whitney Houston 
• "America the Beautiful" by Ray Charles 
• "God Bless the U.S.A." by Lee Greenwood 
• "God Bless America" by Kate Smith 

• "Yankee Doodle Dandy" by James Cagney 
• "You're a Grand Old Flag" by George M. Cohan

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

 Welcome to the Quote of the Week! Serving the Psycho-Spiritual Needs of People since 1984!!

Something different this week, One concept. Four voices.  From Aristotle's concept of Telos to modern philosophers, poets, and psychologists, thinkers across twenty-five centuries have been arriving at the same essential truth: We are called to become who we are meant to be. A question, I'll admit, I'm still sitting with myself.

Aristotle's Concept of Telos: Telos is the idea that every living thing has an inherent purpose—a direction it is naturally growing toward.  To live well is to live in that direction... deliberately

"Become such as you are, having learned what that is."

— Pindar, Greek lyric poet, 5th century B.C.

"What a man can be, he must be."
— Abraham Maslow

"Become who you are!"
— Friedrich Nietzsche

"The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are."
— Carl Jung

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CARE PACKAGE: Becoming Who You Need to Be

 Questions to Think More Deeply...

1. What challenge in your life right now is quietly asking you to grow into someone you haven't been yet?
2. Is there a quality — courage, patience, discipline, softness — that you know you need more of, but have been waiting for circumstances to hand you?
3. If the person you need to become is already possible, what is the one step — just one — that moves you toward them today?

Article: "You Are Not a Fixed Thing" — Maria Popova / The Marginalian
https://www.themarginalian.org/2014/01/29/carol-dweck-mindset/

TED Talk: "The Psychology of Self-Motivation" — Scott Geller
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sxpKhIbr0E

3 Songs That Echo the Theme of this week's quote(s)...

"The Climb" — Miley Cyrus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG2zyeVRcbs

"Hall of Fame" — The Script ft. will.i.am
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk48xbyNuu0

"I Am Light" — India.Arie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBEDL0kFpI0

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The Big Takeaway...

Life will always present us with challenges. And those challenges often ask something of us: More courage / More patience / More resilience / More wisdom.  The question is never simply: Who am I? The deeper question is: Who is this moment asking me to become?

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

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And remember... none of us becomes who we are meant to be alone...

We Are All In This Together.

 Welcome to the Quote of the Week — Serving the psycho‑spiritual needs of people since 1984. This week’s saying is an old phrase/saying that is often tossed out as a way to tell someone to stop worrying. But it’s actually a subtle reminder to stay present and not pre‑live disasters that may never come.

“Don’t cross that bridge until you come to it.”

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This week's Care Package:

 2 Questions to ponder:

• What future bridge are you trying to cross from here, draining yourself in the process?
• How might trusting your future self to handle future problems free up your present energy?

Article about the phrase:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_cross_the_bridge_until_you_come_to_it

A silly Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmlivgY_TZg

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

 What if the key to a calmer week is channeling our inner Goldilocks and choosing “just right” instead of “too much”? This week, we turn to Sweden—with a warm shout-out to our Swedish Quote of the Week Members—for a proverb that captures the beauty of balance. The philosophy of lagom reminds us that satisfaction lives precisely between scarcity and excess, in the quiet wisdom of "enough."

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“Lagom är bäst.”

Just enough is best.

(The right amount is best / Enough is as good as a feast.)

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This week's Care Package...

Questions to Ponder:

• Where in your life are you chasing "more" past the point of actual benefit?

• What does "enough" look like for you in your work, consumption, or daily busyness?

Article 1: The Swedish philosophy of lagom: how “just enough” is all you need

Article 2: The Goldilocks Rule: How to Stay Motivated in Life and Business
https://jamesclear.com/goldilocks-rule

Video: How To Balance Your Life - Philosophy of Lagom;

Wikipedia:  The Goldilocks Principle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldilocks_principle

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

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Be more like Goldilocks. ;-)

Ever find yourself quietly wishing for a little more peace and connection?  This week's quote (featured lyrics by George Harrison) offers an invitation to ground yourself—leaning into love, embracing hope, and finding light under a heavy load. 

"Give me love, give me love Give me peace on Earth

Give me light, give me life Keep me free from birth
Give me hope to help me cope With this heavy load 

Trying to touch and reach you With heart and soul"  

George Harrison

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This week's Care Package

A George Harrison Quote about how the song came to him and what it meant to him:

"Sometimes you open your mouth and you don’t know what you are going to say, and whatever comes out is the starting point... This song is a prayer and personal statement between me, the Lord, and whoever likes it."

A Song Insight:

George described this song as a "prayer and personal statement." When he sings "keep me free from birth," he’s drawing on Hindu philosophy—asking for ultimate peace and a release from the heavy, repetitive cycles of the material world.

Give Me Love Video

https://youtu.be/P0d_P11B6Tg

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BTW... Happy June 1st!  New month, new chapter, new opportunities.  

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

 It is Memorial Day in America. Today, we pause to honor the men and women who gave their lives in service to our nation. Memorial Day began as Decoration Day, a tradition of placing flowers on the graves of fallen soldiers — a simple act of remembrance that grew into a national day of reflection. This week’s quote/poem comes from In Flanders Fields, written during World War I by Canadian physician Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae after losing a close friend in battle. The poppies he describes soon became a symbol of remembrance across the world.

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In Flanders' fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
     That mark our place: and in the sky
     The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
     Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
          In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
     The torch; be yours to hold it high.
     If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
          In Flanders fields.

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Explore Further 

Flanders Field Reading

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTfkH4PFTP0

Video; Decoration Day in Brooklyn, NY (you may see my Uncle and Grandmother)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxfoFrSP9Pc

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

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 What do you do when you’re no longer the person you used to be? For some reason, that thought has crossed my mind lately ;-). Tennyson wrestled with it after losing his closest friend. He realized he wasn’t the hero who once “moved earth and heaven.” But what mattered wasn’t the fading of old strength. It was the stubborn, steady will to keep going, even changed by time and loss. That’s the spirit behind this week's quote...

"Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Ulysses"

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This week's Care Package...

A Question to ponder: 

Will I focus on what's gone, or on what abides?

Poem (full text): 

Tennyson's "Ulysses" at Poetry Foundation

Article: Search for Alfred Tennyson's "Ulysses"

https://victorianweb.org/authors/tennyson/ulysses.html

YouTube: "Ulysses Tennyson reading" on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqagmU4Fais

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A Couple of Mantras to Carry Forward...

Remember: The horizon still calls!

Still striving. Still seeking. Still me.  

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

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 What if the very thing you’re afraid to risk is the doorway to the version of yourself you’ve been trying to grow into?  This week’s quote reminds us that a meaningful part of being human requires stepping into uncertainty, not away from it:  

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"To laugh is to risk being a fool. To weep is to risk appearing sentimental. 

"To reach out to another is to risk involvement. To express feelings is to risk exposing your true self. 

To place your ideas, your dreams, before the crowd is to risk their loss. 

To love is to risk not being loved in return. 

To live is to risk dying. To hope is to risk despair. 

To try is to risk failure. 

The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing and is nothing. 

They may avoid suffering and sorrow, but they simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love or live. 

Only a person who risks is free." 

Leo Buscaglia  

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This week's Care Package

Two Questions to Explore

• Which of these risks are you currently avoiding, and what is it costing you?
• What would become possible if you accepted that risk is the price of aliveness?

TED Talk:  The Power of Vulnerability | Brené Brown

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCvmsMzlF7o

Who is Leo Buscaglia?

Felice Leonardo Buscaglia (1924–1998), widely known as "Dr. Love," was an American author, motivational speaker, and a professor at the University of Southern California (USC). 

He became a cultural phenomenon in the 1980s for his heartfelt teachings on the necessity of love, human connection, and physical affection.

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

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“To risk is to live, and to live is to be free.”  

Serving the Psycho-Spiritual Needs of People since 1984!! Welcome to the Quote of the Week. This week, an old phrase found me again — three simple words with deep philosophical roots that I first discovered years ago. They arrived at just the right moment, offering me the perspective I need for something I've been working through. 

 "Is that so?"

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This Week's Care Package

The Story Behind the Quote Three options:

• Kannon Do Zen Center — "Is That So?" (Deep, contemplative)
• Zen Kindle — "Is That So? Zen Story" (Clear, accessible)
• Inquiring Mind — Personal Reflection on the Story (More personal and reflective)

A Podcast: Finding Equanimity

"Finding Equanimity in Chaos" — Sam Harris on the 10% Happier Podcast 

A Song: "Let It Be"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDYfEBY9NM4

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Bonus Care Package:  The Story of Hakuin

The most famous philosophical use comes from the Zen master Hakuin (1686–1769). When a young woman became pregnant and her parents accused Hakuin of being the father, he responded simply: "Is that so?" He accepted the child and raised it without protest. A year later, the woman confessed the real father was someone else. When the parents came to retrieve the child with apologies, Hakuin again said only: "Is that so?"

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  Stay open, don't cling, don't resist, and let reality be what it is.  

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

 Welcome to the Quote of the Week!  Serving the Psycho-Spiritual Needs of People since 1984!!  Thinking about getting on a path to enlightenment??  This week's quote is a reminder that enlightenment is simply remembering that you already have what you need to begin!  

"The path to enlightenment isn’t really a path at all.
It’s a metaphor for the moment you finally allow yourself to be at peace with who you already are,
where you already are, and what you already have — no matter what."

Harry Soosaar

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CARE PACKAGE: Being at Peace With Who You Already Are

3 Questions to Think More Deeply

1. Where in my life am I still acting as if I need to “arrive” somewhere before I can feel at ease?

2. What parts of myself or my life are already enough — even if I rarely acknowledge them?

3. If enlightenment is permission rather than progress, what permission do I most need to give myself today?

Article: “The Disease of More” — Mark Manson

https://markmanson.net/do-we-ever-feel-we-have-enough?utm_source=ForTheInterestedNewsletter

TED Talk: “The Art of Being Yourself” — Caroline McHugh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veEQQ-N9xWU

3 Songs that echo the quote...

“Unwritten” — Natasha Bedingfield
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7k0a5hYnSI

“Let It Be” — The Beatles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDYfEBY9NM4 

“Brave” — Sara Bareilles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUQsqBqxoR4

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

Choose your next step with courage.”