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
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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!
08 June 2009
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.
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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 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
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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!
___________
"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!
05 June 2009
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
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
01 June 2009
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
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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
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Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!
__________
"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!
27 May 2009
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!
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!
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.
__________
“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
__________
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
__________
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
__________
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!
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!
__________
“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!
__________
“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!
27 April 2009
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!
_________
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!
20 April 2009
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!
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!
18 April 2009
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!
__________
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!
06 April 2009
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!
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!
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