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Memorial Day Quotes plus Video!

Today in the US we celebrate Memorial Day. The holiday began after the Civil War, and at that time was known as “Decoration Day.” While it was originally founded to honor the soldiers who died in the Civil War, today, Memorial Day is a day to honor all of the Americans who have died in military service. This week's quotes are dedicated to those men and women who gave their lives so that, we might be free.

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"A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself."

Joseph Campbell

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"I have never been able to think of the day as one of mourning; I have never quite been able to feel that half-masted flags were appropriate on Decoration Day.  I have rather felt that the flag should be at the peak, because those whose dying we commemorate rejoiced in seeing it where their valor placed it.  We honor them in a joyous, thankful, triumphant commemoration of what they did."

Benjamin Harrison

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Bonus Video...

Memorial (Decoration) Day Parade ~  how it used to be in Brooklyn, NY. 

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

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

Attachments area

Preview YouTube video 56th Street Memories; Decoration Day

56th Street Memories; Decoration Day

Some ​Bottom Line, In the End quotes for this week. ​Enjoy!​

“Because in the end, you won’t remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing your lawn. Climb that goddamn mountain.”

Jack Kerouac
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Recycled Quote of the Week Classics

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

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

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“And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make.”

The Beatles
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And in the end, I wish you a MOST beautiful day wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files; May 11, 2015; A couple of short "Life is" quotes!

"Life is like a taxi. The meter just keeps a-ticking whether you are getting somewhere or just standing still."

Lou Erickso
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"Life is a grindstone. Whether it grinds us down or polishes us up depends on us."

Thomas L. Holdcroft
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Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

Quote of the Week; May 4, 2015 ~ The Power Of Choice; And you get to choose your favorite quote on choice!

"You chose. You chose. You chose. You chose to give away your love. You chose to have a broken heart. You chose to give up. You chose to hang on. You chose to react. You chose to feel insecure. You chose to feel anger. You chose to fight back. You chose to have hope. You chose to be naïve. You chose to ignore your intuition. You chose to ignore advice. You chose to look the other way. You chose to not listen. You chose to be stuck in the past. You chose your perspective. You chose to blame. You chose to be right. You chose your pride. You chose your games. You chose your ego. You chose your paranoia. You chose to compete. You chose your enemies. You chose your consequences. Choose to let go. Choose dignity. Choose to forgive yourself.

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Choose to forgive others.

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Choose to see your value.

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Choose to show the world you’re not a victim.

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Choose to make us proud.

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 You chose. You chose. You chose. You chose.

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​Shannon Adler

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"We have these brief lives, and our only real choice is how we will fill them. Your attention is precious. Don’t squander it. Don’t throw it away. Don’t let companies and products steal it from you. Don’t let advertisers trick you into lusting after things you don’t need. Don’t let the media convince you to covet the lives of celebrities. Own your attention — it’s all you really have."

Jonathan Harris

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What Is Life? They say it’s from B to D. From Birth to Death, But what’s between B and D? It’s a “C” So what is a “C”? It is a Choice. Our Life is a matter of choices, Live well and it will never GO WRONG. 

Anonymous

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

From the Quote of the Week Files; April 20th

I am not sure if these quotes are more about being grateful or being appreciative. Either way, both are great attributes to have and even better to express!

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"Never let the things you want make you forget the things you have."

Author Unknown

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“The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.” 

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

From the Quote of the Week Files; April 13, 2015

This week quote is from a movie I saw many years ago which I thought was funny, but really did not get much out of it. However after watching it recently I realized this was a movie with a big lesson(s) and profound meaning(s). I then stumbled across a very rich, deep, meaningful, long quote that I thought explains the meaning of the first quote and the point of the movie.  

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“I've killed myself so many times, I don’t even exist anymore.” 

Bill Murray as Phil Connors in Groundhog Day (written by Harold Ramis and Danny Rubin)

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"DYING BEFORE YOU DIE. Dying before you die was referring to the death of one’s attachment to a narrow view of life centered on one’s own ego, that self-preoccupied, self-constructed story-lens of at best dubious accuracy through which we see everything within the inflated context of our own self-cherishing habit that features us, although we would be reluctant to admit it, as the undisputed center of the universe.

Dying before you die meant waking up to a larger reality beyond the small view through one’s own ego and self-preoccupation, a reality that is not knowable through one’s limited ideas and opinions and highly conditioned preferences and aversions, especially those that remain unexamined. It meant becoming conscious, not in the sense of intellectually knowledgeable but more in the sense of directly feeling and keeping in mind the fleeting nature of life and of all our relationships and its ultimately impersonal nature. Within such coordinate system, one could then choose purposefully, to whatever degree one could manage it, to live outside the routinized automaticity that frequently seduces us through small-minded ambitions and fears and thereby numbs us to the beauty and the mystery of life and prevents us from looking most creatively into the deep nature of things, including ourselves, behind all the surface appearances and the stories we tell ourselves." 

Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn

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​Also from the movie this verse from the poem, There Breathes the Man...​

The wretch, concentrated all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonoured, and unsung.

​Sir Walter Scott

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

There is a way back, a way through the imprisoning mystery of yourself, a way back into life.

From the Quote of the Week Files; April 6, 2115

Hello again and Welcome to the Quote of the Week!​ This weeks' theme is PORN ~ The Power Of Right Now!   :-)

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BE GOOD WITH NOW:

Right now, you have life and the time to live it. Fill that time, right now, with your very best attitude, your most sincere gratitude and your most effective actions.

Be good with now, and now will be very good with you. Be amazed and inspired at the value of what is, and that value will be yours to use for good and meaningful purposes.

You don’t have to waste your energy wishing for things to be different. You can do great and wonderful things with what actually, already is.

Be good with now, and see the possibilities. Be good with now, and transform life’s ever-present abundance into real fulfillment.

Replace worry with wonder, and with an eagerness to fully immerse yourself in the unmatched experience of being right where you are. Replace fear with love for the outstanding possibilities that are yours here and now.

Let go of the illusion that happiness is being withheld from you because you don’t have this thing or that. Open your eyes, open your whole being, and allow the immeasurable goodness that is yours to live, right now.

Ralph Marston

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​A Recycled Quote of the Week Classic...

"Remember that there is only one important time and that is now. The present moment is the only time over which we have dominion. The most important person is always the person you are with, who is right before you, for who knows if you will have dealings with any other person in the future? The most important pursuit is making the person standing at your side happy, for that alone is the pursuit of life."

Leo Tolstoy; The Story

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

From the Quote of the Week Files for March 30, 2015

This weeks quote was written 2,500 years ago, and yet, it feels like it could have been written yesterday. (What do you think? 

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"The Central Problem is not that you think too highly of yourself

Nor is it that you think too lowly of yourself

Instead, it is that you think constantly of yourself."

Wu Hsin; Aphorisms for Thirsty Fish

(I suppose that even after reading, writing and reflecting on this quote, I probably go on and think about myself  ;-) 

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A recycled Quote of the Week Classic...

"So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning."

Morrie Schwartz (Tuesday with Morrie)

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

From the Quote of the Week Files; March 23, 2015

“Tell everyone you know: “My happiness depends on me, so you’re off the hook.” And then demonstrate it. Be happy, no matter what they’re doing. Practice feeling good, no matter what. And before you know it, you will not give anyone else responsibility for the way you feel-and then, you’ll love them all. Because the only reason you don’t love them, is because you’re using them as your excuse to not feel good.”

Esther Hicks
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A Recycled Quote of the Week Classic...

I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element.

It is my personal approach that creates the climate.

It is my daily mood that makes the weather.

I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous.

I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration,

I can humiliate or horror, hurt or heal.

In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated and a person is humanized or de-humanized.

If we treat people as they are, we make them worse.

If we treat people as they could be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.

J.W. Goethe
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Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files; March 16, 2015

Hello! The miracle of just being here is the theme of this weeks quote!
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"It is a strange and wonderful fact to be here, walking around in a body, to have a whole world within you and a world at your fingertips outside you. It is an immense privilege, and it is incredible that humans manage to forget the miracle of being here. Rilke said, ‘Being here is so much,’ and it is uncanny how social reality can deaden and numb us so that the mystical wonder of our lives goes totally unnoticed. We are here. We are wildly and dangerously free."

John O'Donohue
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I Know Nothing But Miracles

As for me, I know nothing else but miracles,
Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,
Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,
Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the water,

Or stand under the trees in the woods,
Or talk by day with any one I love,
Or sleep in bed at night with any one I love,
Or watch honey bees busy around the hive of a summer forenoon...

Or the wonderfulness of the sundown,
Or of stars shining so quiet and bright,
Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring...
What stranger miracles are there?

Walt Whitman

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

From the Quote of the Week Files; March 9, 2015

I was thinking about having Enough and these 3 quotes magically appeared. Enjoy!

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“I want to regain my senses again. I want to be content with simple things. I want to be able to take in every detail of the world. I don’t want to wake up one day and realized I missed my life because I was distracted. I’m tired of upgrading material possessions to keep up with everyone else. I’m tired of being told that what I have isn't enough, that I need more in order to be happy. I unsubscribe from that notion, and I propose a new one. I propose contentment. I propose simplicity. I believe that if we learned to marvel again at simple things, we would be far more content than the wealthiest man in the world, for money is finite, but the earth has no shortage of offerings.”

 Josh Abe

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​Two Quote of the Week Classics...

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Stop comparing where you’re at with where everyone else is. It doesn't move you farther ahead, improve your situation, or help you find peace. It just feeds your shame, fuels your feelings of inadequacy, and ultimately, it keeps you stuck. The reality is that there is no one correct path in life. Everyone has their own unique journey. A path that’s right for someone else won’t necessarily be a path that’s right for you. And that’s okay. Your journey isn't right or wrong, or good or bad. It’s just different. Your life isn't meant to look like anyone else’s because you aren’t like anyone else. You’re a person all your own with a unique set of goals, obstacles, dreams, and needs. So stop comparing, and start living. You may not have ended up where you intended to go. But trust, for once, that you have ended up where you needed to be. Trust that you are in the right place at the right time. Trust that your life is enough. Trust that you are enough.”

Daniell Koepke

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When I look at friends and acquaintances, many with perfectly beautiful children and wonderful lives, and see how desperately unhappy or stressed they are about balancing work and family, I think to myself that the solution to many problems is deceptively obvious. We are chasing the wrong things, asking ourselves the wrong questions. It is not, "Can we have it all?" -- with "all" being some kind of undefined marker that shall forever be moved upwards out of reach just a little bit with each new blessing. We should ask instead, "Do we have enough?"

Marie Myung-Ok Lee; "What My Son's Disabilities Taught Me About 'Having It All"

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Here's to Gratitude, Contentment, Trust, Blessings, Simplicity, Better Self Questions, Understanding andKnowing that you have and are Enough! 

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

From the Quote of the Week Files; March 2, 2015

"Sometimes you find yourself in the middle of nowhere and sometimes in the middle of nowhere, you find yourself."

Author Unknown
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“I have come to accept the feeling of not knowing where I am going. And I have trained myself to love it. Because it is only when we are suspended in mid-air with no landing in sight, that we force our wings to unravel and alas begin our flight. And as we fly, we still may not know where we are going to. But the miracle is in the unfolding of the wings. You may not know where you're going, but you know that so long as you spread your wings, the winds will carry you.”

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